20 OCTOBER 1944, Page 14

The Garden One of the worst jobs of the year

has now to be tackled, for I am a month late with it. But how unpleasant it is. One can buy sticky-bands already prepared like fly-papers, but I suspect them of allowing the vermin to creep up between the paper and the bark. So I tie paper round the trunks of the fruit trees and then smear the wicked stuff over that, sealing the edges. And how to do so without being hoist with one's own petard, I don't know! The last job of fruit picking has now to be done—the Cornice pears, which I have left as long as I dare, because this variety, unlike its predecessor Conference, loses a little of its full flavour if taken prematurely from the tree. But what a queen