THE FLORIST. V 



any trees or borders containing flowers subject to the ravages of 

 hares, they were a sure protection. The following winter I adopted 

 this very simple remedy, and after having sundry pieces of old cloth, 

 about eight or ten inches in diameter, placed in a cleft at the top 

 of sticks two feet long, I had half a dozen pounds of sulphur 

 melted in an iron pot, and every " flag" dipped till it was covered. 

 When cold, they were of a fine bright yellow. In December, just 

 before the approach of frost, they were placed (the sticks stuck 

 into the ground) round the quarters containing apple-trees, about 

 six feet apart. The effect was marvellous. The hares, I have no 

 doubt, thought the trees tabooed, and carefully avoided transgress- 

 ing. It was interesting to observe by their footsteps in the snow, 

 how carefully they had kept from a very near approach. A well- 

 beaten track, about a yard from the line of flags, testified as to the 

 delicacy of their olfactories. The triumph was complete ; but 

 alas ! gardeners should never triumph, for after two or three win- 

 ters only moderately sharp, came the long, severe one of ! 846-7. 

 The frost in December 1846 was very fierce ; thermometer at 15° ; 

 the hares were hungry, and rushed through, and in one night de- 

 stroyed more than 500 fine apple-trees : ever since that night my 

 confidence in flags has flagged. 



There is now a cheap kind of wire-netting sold by Richardson, 

 Tunbridge Place, New Road, I think at Id. per foot. This is the 

 best article of the kind I have s*een, as it requires no paint, and if 

 placed round clumps or beds of flowers, it is a sure and certain pro- 

 tection. I have recently bought 600 yards, with which I have 

 fenced round all my quarters of apple-trees. I may as well men- 

 tion, that it need not be more than two feet wide, placed upright, 

 or a little sloping outwards about three inches from the ground, for 

 they will not creep under ; and fastened with twine to light stakes, 

 it will not disfigure the flower-garden ; and of all the preventives 

 from the ravages of those very pretty animals, rabbits and hares, 

 there is nothing to be compared to it. Thomas Rivers. 



Nurseries, Sawbridgeworth. 



REMARKS UPON AN ARTICLE ON ERICAS, 



IN THE GARDENERS* CHRONICLE OF NOV. 2oTH. 



An article appeared in the Gardeners' Chronicle of the 25th Novem- 

 ber, headed, " Cultivation of Cape Heaths ;" and signed, " W. P. 

 Leach, S. Rucker's, Esq., Wandsworth, Surrey." 



This communication of Mr. Leach's contains doctrines so foreign 

 to those I advocated a few months ago in the pages of this periodi- 

 cal, and so opposite to the opinions of all those practical Heath 

 growers with whom I have occasionally associated, that, in justice 

 to myself and the readers of The Florist (particularly the amateur 



