1878.] 



AND HORTICULTURIST. 



145 



it may be used with confidence ;" and in another 

 place these words are used, " "Without being 

 •ignited;^'' also in another work it is recom- 

 mended to scatter sulphur upon the brick flues, 

 hut care must taken not to let it ignite. Now I 

 do not believe there is any harm intended in the 

 use of the word ignite, but I have met intelli- 

 gent people who have an idea that to ignite 

 means to blaze ; that sulphur or any other sub- 

 ■stance is not ignited when it comes in contact 

 with fire unless it blazes. I will cite a case to 

 the point : A wealthy lady of this town sent 

 her gardener to me last Fall to see if I knew of 

 ■a remedy that would destroy red spider in the 

 hot-grapery. I gave him one in which sulphur 

 was to be used, but cautioned him to use great 

 care and not let it come in contact with fire un- 

 der any circumstances whatever. I saw no 

 more of him for nearh^ two weeks, when he 

 came back with a very long face and said that 

 he had done as I had advised him, but it had 

 not destroyed the largest of the red spiders. 

 His employer had been reading in a work on 

 grape culture that sulphur could be used as I 

 have quoted above ; so in order to finish 

 up the business, she ordered him to burn a very 

 small quantity to try it, but he must be very care- 

 ful not to let it ignite. Now you see she had 

 been misled into this error by the use of that 

 baneful word ignite, and the consequence was 

 the gas or fumes from the burning sulphur de- 

 stroyed every leaf in both the hot and cold 

 graperies, for she ordered him to treat both 

 houses to this dose. A little while after this hap- 

 pened I went to see those graperies, and I must 

 say that it was about the sorriest sight I ever 

 beheld ; every leaf was as brown as a piece of 

 leather. The grapes in the hot grapery had 

 ripened ofi" in very good order (quite a large 

 number of bunches still hanging on the vines) 

 before the igniting process had been applied, 

 and were not much injured, but those in the cold 

 grapery had just begun to color, and, of course, 

 were completely ruined. It was a scene of des- 

 olation I do not wish to see very soon again. 



There is another case of a neighbor whom I 

 met on the street one day last Fall, and wished 

 I would go with him and tell him what was the 

 matter with his grapery. As soon as I entered 

 the house I thought it looked as if sulphur had 

 been burnt, and asked him if it was not so. He 

 said he had only burnt about as much as would 

 lay on a five-cent piece. He had heard some 

 one say that it was a good plan to burnit, and did 



not suppose it would do any harm. He wanted 

 to get rid of those white thrips that were tor- 

 menting him so much. I told him that a small 

 quantity of burning sulphur was enough to de- 

 stroy everything that was green in a house of 

 that size, and if he had used the remedy I gave 

 him in the early part of the season, he would 

 have been all right. 



I have written this article to show how easily 

 people may be led astray, and hope it may be 

 the means of saving some one the experience of 

 the two cases cited above ; and would say that 

 if sulphur must be used in a grapery or green- 

 house, never let it come in contact with fire, for 

 ruin will certainly follow such use of it. 



EDITORIAL NOTES. 



Mahaleb Stocks. — A correspondent of the 

 Rural New Yorker says : "The Mahaleb stock is 

 peculiarly liable to the attack of a worm at the 

 root, very similar to that infesting the peach 

 tree. Perhaps our entomologists can tail us 

 whether it is the same species." 



If there is any insect preying on the Mahaleb 

 stock, it would be worth knowing ; but we fancy 

 the insects seen had no connection with the 

 injury. The questions put to the entomologists 

 seem to have been unaccompanied by specimens 

 of the insects. 



Crescent Seedling Strawberry. — Many 

 years ago there was a variety with this name, 

 and some are afraid that the new one will be 

 mistaken for that; but we doubt whether there is 

 a plant of the old sort now in cultivation. 



The Phylloxera.- -This little insect is on 

 its travels. At the latest accounts it had reached 

 Australia, and is receiving the attentions of the 

 grape growers there. 



The Champagne Apple. — This has recently 

 been brought to notice by Col. Stichter, of Read- 

 ing, Pa. It was introduced by Mr. Fehr from 

 Switzerland, fifteen years ago, and grown in his 

 orchard as the " Champagne." Mr. Charles 

 Downing, judging from some specimens sent to 

 him, thinks it is an acquisition, and worthy of trial 

 in other localities ; and gives the following as 

 the description : 



Fruit of medium size, ©blate, slightly angular; 

 skin smooth, almost waxen, pale, whitish yellow, 

 shaded with light red where tuUy exposed to the 

 sun, and a few scattering brown dots, which are 

 areoled on the colored side; stalk short, small; 



