1869.] NOTICES TO CORRESPONDENTS. 193 



on in heat for a time, pricking it out in pans or boxes as it progresses till May 

 when it should be hardened in a cold frame, and planted in the border about the 

 20th of May. See that you get the true Lobelia speciosa, as Gracilis is sometimes 

 sold for it, and it is worthless. Cut back the Briar to the lateral ; the bud is on 

 as soon as you see that the latter has got hold ; and dust it well with powdered 

 hellebore when the wood is damp : this will prevent the attack of the caterpillar 

 you refer to. 



J. W. P. D. — Many amateurs, like yourself, have been disappointed most 

 grievously by the pecuniary results of their fruit-growing. To make money 

 by such a pursuit, requires great skill in the management of such houses as you 

 have, and at this moment there are far too many before you in the market ; and 

 when salesmen have a glut of such perishable produce, great sacrifices have to be 

 made, and we expect amateurs get their full share of them. In these circum- 

 stances, we advise you to expect little more than to cover the cost of your coal, 

 and you will not be disappointed. The prices in the periodicals that report the 

 markets are the retail ones — a very different figure, as a matter of course, com- 

 pared with your experience of Covent Garden prices. 



A. W., Castle N. — We have known wooden stakes, such as you refer to, spawn 

 the soil round them with fungi, which would be quite likely to attack the roots 

 of Pear or Apple trees. "We have also seen tallies made of white wood infest the 

 soil of the pots they were in, in the same way, and injure the plants ; and sawdust 

 is sure to give rise to it. We would never put sawdust on the ground to keep 

 Strawberries clean — spent hops, straw, or short grass, are better and safer every 

 way : we prefer wheat-straw to anything for the purpose. 



A Subscriber. — We regret that your letter fell aside, and a reply was omitted 

 last month. Furze will grow on your banks. We advise you to sow the seed 

 where you wish it to grow, and at once. The following grasses will suit your 

 light poor soil : Crested Dogstail, Round Cocksfoot, Hard Fescue, Meadow Fes- 

 cue, Evergreen Ryegrass, Evergreen Meadow-grass ; Yellow Trefoil, Perennial 

 White Clover, and Alsike Clover may be added. 



A Subscriber. — The best method of packing Grapes for exhibition is that 

 generally practised by those who show at the great London and provincial ex- 

 hibitions — i.e., they are fixed on a board on which a lining of clean, generally 

 white, paper has been pasted, by having a tape passed through the bunch over 

 its leading stem and through holes to the back of the board, where it is tied 

 sufi&ciently firm to keep the bunch from moving. Then this board, with the 

 bunch or bunches so fixed on it, is placed in a box, and fixed there at an angle 

 of 40", so that the bunch is in a natural position ; but you must be in a very 

 outlandish part of the country if you have not &een Grapes packed as we have 

 attempted to describe. Peaches may have fine tissue-paper put round them, and 

 be packed in wadding — each Peach fitting into a compartment made in a light 

 tin or wooden box to fit it with the wadding round it ; or they may be packed 

 in boxes without compartments for each fruit if they have wadding between 

 them. If you visit Covent Garden in the Peach season, you will see them very 

 neatly and safely packed in punnets, with pink paper round them. 



W. P. — Buy the Vine at once, and grow it till the wood gets sufl&ciently 

 mature to admit of its being inarched. We struck a Vine of the variety you 

 name this time twelve months, and in July inarched it on the old wood of a 

 Vine on which the fruit was ripe at the time, and at this date we have eleven 



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