382 THE GARDENER. [Aug. 



look— a perfect carpet of gay flowers. Yet it is a tenant of one's garden the 

 owner would like to get quit of as speedily as possible. Where plenty of time 

 cannot be afforded to dig out its roots, the Dutch hoe is the grand remedy ; as, 

 if the shoots are kept constantly cut, by the time they grow 3 or 4 inches above 

 the soil, the great milky-white roots will be forced to yield up their life in de- 

 spair, though if left alone, half an inch of their roots would ere long make the 

 progress of a garden. 



Of all weeds this is perhaps one of the worst : in some places it flourishes so 

 well as to overcome all efforts to get rid of it, especially when it is allowed to 

 grow fast and strong ere an attempt be made to dislodge it. The most economi- 

 cal mode of extirpating it is not to trouble greatly with the large white roots 

 when digging, but to have a man on purpose, and tell him whatever else he does 

 a shoot of the Bind-weed is never to be seen more than 3 inches in length. 

 Sometimes, after to all appearance it has been quite got rid off in a certain spot, 

 it will after a few years come back again as vigorous as ever. I remember two 

 cases which came under my own knowledge some years ago. There were two 

 small pieces of ground quite overrun by it. One piece was kept well hoed, and 

 was planted only with some Lettuces, &c, and a shoot of the Bind-weed was 

 never allowed to grow more than a few inches in length. When the ground was 

 dug, there was an abundance of roots iu the soil. The other piece was, if any- 

 thing, worse, and the weed was allowed to have its way until it had carpeted 

 the ground with its twisted wreaths. It was then cut with an old scythe, and 

 the crop burned, and a layer of short grass from the lawn a foot deep was placed 

 in it, and allowed to be there till the autumn. In both of these pieces, when 

 dug up in the autumn, not a root was to be seen. The hoeing, and the cutting 

 and grass-covering, had destroyed the fleshy roots, and for years not a shoot made 

 its appearance. Subsequently some shoots appeared, but they may have found 

 their way there in the dressings applied to the ground. When the Bind-weed 

 infests the garden, the Dutch hoe, used quickly and repeatedly, is the best remedy. 

 Hot short grass laid over the ground long enough will also destroy the roots. 

 Some years ago a lady sent a very fine variety of this climber. The flowers were 

 of the purest white, and very large. It was much admired, but the roots got 

 possession of the soil, and the position in which it was planted makes it very diffi- 

 cult indeed to get rid of it. 



The lesser Bind-weed has also bloomed most profusely, especially on the slopes 

 of railway cuttings, and similarly dry and exposed positions. R. S. A. 



The Drought. — The following extract from 'Land and Water' will give our 

 northern readers, who appear to have been blessed with an abundance of rain, 

 some idea of the effect of the drought " down south." Up to this time (July 18) 

 but little rain has fallen in London ; the clouds are now to all appearance " big 

 with the blessing of rain," but none falls : — 



"Midsummer, 1870. — 'The drought,' which nobody recollects the like of 

 but those who remember 1826, still continues at Hereford, and but for two 

 hours' rain last week, here we are in the second week of July still grumbling we 

 have had none, and envying those beyond the Black Mountain, who must have 

 had a soaking to send down the river Wye with a yard of fresh water in it, and 

 even with so short a rise to move up so many salmon that the market price falls 

 to 9d. Our fine grazing meadows still continue as bare as goose commons; our 

 milch-cows look as if they were only just turned out of the winter straw-yard. 

 Bullocks sold at Candlemas fair at £14 each to those who hoped to keep them 

 till October or Christmas, and then ' tumble them over ' in value, are again sold 



