J40 



THE GARDENERS' MONTHLY 



[August, 



leaves and young shoots, put them into a copper 

 with about 30 gallons of soft water, which is boiled 

 for about an hour. The liquor is then of a nice 

 sherry color, and, of course, very poisonous, but, 

 perhaps, not more so than many insecticides. The 

 above proportions of leaves and water I have used 

 in the diluted state, with soft soap in some cases to 

 give it adhesiveness, and have found no ill results 

 to occur even in the case of tender young growths 

 of either indoor or hardy plants. It has been used 

 .this season, after exhausting our bought in reme- 

 dies, on peaches out-of-doors and in the peach 

 houses after the fruit was picked, on cherries in- 

 fested with that troublesome black-fly, on melons 

 for red spider, and on all with equally good effect, 

 and it is so cheap that one need not be afraid of 

 using it too abundantly. We keep now a good 

 quantity of it always on hand, so that it can be got 

 at for dipping or syringing at ain time. For mealy 

 bug I use it now instead of methylated spirit, and 

 find it just as efficient as the latter. It is advisable 

 when using it on trees carrying fruits to wash it off 

 before it has had sufficient time to dry on the fruit. 

 I mean to try it on apple trees overrun with Ameri- 

 can blight, and also as a winter dressing in stronger 

 proportions than the above, and 1 anticipate good 

 results from its use. 



[We desire to call particular attention to this 

 from a correspondent of the London Garden, be- 

 cause it probably contains the germ of a very use- 

 ful hint to us. It is well known to entomologists 

 that the odor of prussic acid is deadly to many in- 

 sects, and the "common laurel leaves" here referred 

 to is the cherry laurel, cerasus lauro-cerasus, the 

 leaves of which abound in prussic acid. We can- 

 not get these leaves in America, but peach leaves 

 or the leaves of the wild cherry would probably 

 do quite as well. — Ed. G. M.] 



Disease in Peach Trees in California. — A 

 correspondent from Chico, California, sends sam- 

 ple of diseased peach branches, unlike anything 

 known in the East, and asks for information. It so 

 happens that the editor has himself recently visited 

 California, and saw the same disease in the So- 

 nora. Mocassin and Tuolumne Valleys, and gath- 

 ered what information he could in regard to the 

 trouble. At some future time he will publish what 

 he has been able to ascertain about it. It seems 

 to have more relation to the twig blight in apples 

 than any other disease ; but the peach growers in 

 California with whom the editor talked about it, 

 connected it in some way with the curl. 



Popular Strawberries. — The display of straw- 



berries at the June meeting of the Germantown 

 Horticultural Society was an unusually large one. 

 There were exhibited dishes of such sorts as Down- 

 er's Kentucky, Colfax, Kirkwood, Cumberland 

 Triumph, Sharpless, Captain Jack, President Lin- 

 coln, Dolly Varden, Glendale, Boyden, Crescent 

 Seedling and Primo. The schedule called for two 

 sorts. The successful exhibitors' kinds, for both 

 first and second premiums, were Sharpless and 

 Captain Jack; and the same sorts have led at the 

 meetings for several seasons past. There were 

 Sharpless berries exhibited measuring 7 to 8 inches 

 in circumference. The Captain Jack is an even 

 and beautiful berry, and both sorts are of excellent 

 flavor. 



The Currant of Commerce.— Most people 

 who have given the matter a thought know that 

 the currant of the grocer is a kind of grape, which 

 grows in Greece, and differs from the ordinary 

 grape in the fact that the berries are very small 

 and rarely, if ever, produce a seed. The many, 

 however, scarcely give the matter a thought, and 

 few school boyscould answer the question. What is 



a currant? So we give with this a sketch of the fruit 

 known to gardeners as the Black Corinth grape, 

 and which is taken from a very valuable work, 

 "Vines and Vine Culture," referring to the foreign 

 grape, by Mr. Archibald F. Barron, of the Royal 

 Horticultural Society's Gardens, at Chiswick, Lon- 

 don. 



