1870.] NOTES BY A COTTAGER. 171 



or injury from the knife, hammer, or nails at the pruning and training 

 seasons. There is no thorough cure for it, so far as I have been able 

 to ascertain, but I would recommend that all affected branches be at 

 once removed. As prevention is better than cure, the best method is 

 to avoid everything which would in the least tend to its production. 



The insects that are the greatest enemies to the Cherry cultivator 

 are the red-spider (Acarus telarius), from the want of moisture at the 

 roots ; the Aphis cerasi, or Morello Cherry-louse, which is said to be 

 the result of too much moisture, but which is easily destroyed, either 

 by fumigation, or by syringing the tree with tobacco- water. The 

 Tenthredo cerasi is sometimes injurious to the leaves of the tree, into 

 which they fold themselves in order to undergo transition from one 

 stage of existence to another. The Cossus ligniperda, or goat moth, 

 in its caterpillar state, is very destructive to the trees at times. The 

 only cure for the two foregoing is to gather them from the leaves 

 with the hand, and have them at once destroyed. 



James M'Millan. 

 {To be continued.) 



NOTES BY A COTTAGER ADDRESSED TO 

 COTTAGERS. 



Being a great enthusiast in the cultivation of flowers in my own small 

 way, I hope you will allow me to occupy a portion of the columns of 

 the ' Gardener,' as I feel it to be a duty due to my brother horticul- 

 turists, belonging to the same class as myself, that I should say a few 

 words to them on matters relating to the garden. 



In the first place, I wish at the commencement of my remarks to 

 state the pleasure that is to be derived from the cultivation of flowers. 

 I am a mechanic by profession, and I have no chance of seeing my 

 plants from six o'clock in the morning till six in the evening, except 

 on Saturday, when I get a half-holiday — a blessed institution for the 

 working-man ; and that is the day in which all great alterations are 

 done in my garden. As a matter of course, at this time of the year 

 little can be done ; but when daylight serves, I make all the use of it 

 I can. In the evening, on my return from my labour, I take a look 

 round to see what accidents have happened during my absence ; then 

 I take a hurried meal, and get out among my plants again, and then 

 it is that the pleasure of cultivating plants is experienced. I wish I 

 could command the language by which to describe the pleasure I feel 

 in watching and nursing the various things I cultivate in all their 



