JOURNAL OF HORTICULTURE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. 



Vine Shoots Gangrened iQ. Q.). — If roots are outside cover the surface 

 over them 'A-ith fermenting Hum;, and keep the border mulched throughout 

 the summer. If the roots are inside the house water them thoroughly once 

 a-week. " Surface wateiinga " are worse than useless. 



Vines in Greenhouse Meldewed (R. H,).— Dust the affected pai-ts with 

 flowers of sulphur whenever it appears. Admit air freely, affording a gentle 

 fire heat so as to allow of free air-giving, and if the pipes be painted with 2 ozs. 

 of soft soap to half a gallon of water, and that brought to the consistency of 

 paint with flowers of sulphur, fumes not injurious to the Vines but unfavour- 

 able to the mildew will be produced. If the case Ls a bad one you may, in 

 addition, give the bordera good wateringwith loz.of guano andhalf an ounce 

 of salt dissolved in each gallon of water at a temperature of 70 . 



RoYAi. Ascot Grape ( ir.}.— We cannot tell you if yours is the right sort 

 unless we see some of the berries when ripe. 



Creeping Plant {H, L. D.).— It is a. native plant, evidently a favomite, for 

 it has many local names — Creeping Loosestrife, Herb- twopence, Twopenny- 

 grass, Creeping Jenny, Moneywort, Lysimachia. It is k-nown to botanists 

 as Lysimachia Nummularia, and the following notice of it is in our " Wild 

 Flowers of Great Britain." "Lyaim/ir/ios is a Greek word signifying a termina- 

 tion of contention, and one of the Enghsh names of the plant, Loosestrife, 

 translates it literally. Nummularia is a Latin word, meaning belonging to 

 money, and has reference to the somewhat tlat, orbicular shape of the leaves. 

 Its other English names, Moneywort, Twopenny- grass, and Herb-twopence, 

 have a similar reference. ' I have named it Herb-twopence,' says Dr. W. 

 Turner, writingin 1568; 'it runneth along by the ground with small branches, 

 whereon grew small rounde leaves, like pennies in couples, one against another, 

 whereupon it hath the name.' It is not often that we have such a clear trac- 

 ing of a pliuit's name and of its bestower ; but the same authority, our earliest 

 English herbalist, proceeds to give us another derivation, which our readers 

 will not consider irrelative. ' It is good,' adds Dr. Turner, ' for the cough that 

 younge childer have, called in right English The kindt-cough , for kindt is a 

 chylde in Duche : and in Frenche-English The Ching-cough.' It was con- 

 sidered such a universal medicine in some parts of Europe that it was named 

 Centimorbia, as if a remedy against a hundred diseases. It has no such re- 

 putation now ; and we will only add, from the herbalist already quoted, * an 

 apothecaiy of Germany tolde me that if an horse do halt, because he is stricken 

 in the quick, if the nayle be plucked out and the juyce of the herbe, or the 

 herbe chewed in a man's mouthe, be put into the hole, will soner then a man 

 beleve hele the horse hove, so that he shall not be hindered of his joumeye 

 thereby.' In the neighbourhood of London the plant is popularly called 

 Creeping Jenny." 



Propagating House (florfi)-— We make all sorts of contrivances do for 

 propagating houses ; in fact, we have nothing of the sort just now, though 

 turning out many thousands of young plants every yeai-. Any house, pit, or 

 frame we make suit our purpose. If to-morrow we were to put up one that 

 would cost little and yet be convenient and serviceable, we would select a 

 spot for a span roof from 10 to 12 feet wide. We would have a wall all round 

 3 feet in height, except where the doorways would be. We would have a bed 

 on each side, and a pathway of 3 feet down the middle. The walls outside 

 being 3 feet, we would make the walls of the pathways from 30 to 33 inches 

 in height. In each of these beds at the sides we would place two 3-inch 

 pipes, or 4-inch pipes, 2 inches or so above a concreted bottom. Around and 

 among these pipes we would put as openly as possible cUnkera and brickbats, 

 and cover them with 6 inches of the same, with an inch or so of fine washed 

 gravel over them : there would be the bottom heat. Above that you could 

 have what you liked for plunging the pots in, and room for the cuttings to 

 grow. For tender plants, or to strike in the first stage as soon as possible, 

 we would use moveable sashes, resting and supporting them inside the outer 

 wall and on the plinth on the top of the wall in the passage; and by using 

 moveable wooden divisions you could give a distinct treatment to the cuttings 

 under any particular sash. Kef ping this in view is the reason why we wish 

 the inside walls of the beds next the passage to he 6 inches lower than the 

 outside walls. For top heat we would have two pipes all round the house, or 

 wherever you found it moft convenient. There would be no side glass. The 

 roof on each side would be fixed and go from the wall-plates to a double ridi^e- 

 board, leaving an opening of 9 inches for air- boards, covered with a cowl out- 

 side to keep wet out. These ridgeboai-ds may be 7 or 8 feet in height from 

 the floor level, finch a house, with beds at the sides, with earth instea^l of 

 plunging matenal, would do admii-ably for Cucumbers; but if you want a 

 tine- looking house for them you should have at least 2 feet of upriyht glass on 

 the side walls, and raise the height at the ridge to at least 10 feet. The side 

 lights could be made to m'>ve a httle, and but little front air is required. The 

 same elegance might be obtained in a propagating house, and the additional 

 room above might be used for shelves. In both propagating houses and 

 Cucumber houses the t >i> and bottom heat should be independent of each 

 other. We have merely mentioned what we know wUl succeed well in the 

 simplest way, and what will be the best paying. As to the outlay, we should 

 prsfer a more elegant house if we could got it. By a little scheming we do 

 next to wonders with Cucumbers in a small lean-to 6-feet-wide pit, but we 

 know we could do better still if, instead of our flat narrow lean-to roof, we had 

 a span roof, and from 4 to 6 feet higher at the apex. We made this common- 

 sized pit into a little house by digging out a passage at the back 2 feet wide, 

 and using a brick-on-bed wall to keep the bed in front from the passage. We 

 have a little door from which we drop ourselves into this small passage. 

 Altogether the affair is more fitted for men somewhat dwarf than those of 

 the giant order, but as a simple propagatini:,' pit we could desire nothing better. 

 The bed in front conld be at once — and in truth, when not fully occupied by 

 Cucumbers is — turned into a propagating place. When necessary we have 

 some little frames that just go across. This place is heated by two 3-inch 

 pipes among rubble beneath, and two at the front above the bed for top heat, 

 but there is scarcely enough of top beat ; three pipes would have been better 

 — two flows and a return. We once used a low-roofed lean-to house 11 feet 

 wide as a propagating house, and with good results. The pipes went round 

 the house — three 4-inch pipes. Wo allowed the ends and the back to remain 

 for top heat ; we shut tho front pipes into a chamber, and there in a bed 

 3 feet wide plants did strike remarkably woU covered \s'ith little sashes, 

 which saved all trouble in drying by merely reversing them every morning. 

 We had a pathway 2.J feet wide, and the back part of the house we made into 

 a stage reaching near the top of the wall, with narrow shelves for receiving 

 struck cuttings, and cuttings potted off, just as soon as they het^-an to root. 

 Such a plan was a very simple one, and we question if any other could be 

 more economical. Meanwhile wo repeat what we said at the commence- 

 ment, that were we to have a useful and at the same time economical h':u83, 

 we would have a low span roof with no side glass, a bed on each side, aLd a 

 path along the middle. We would use glass over half of the beds or pits, and 

 shade when necessary, leaving the main roof^open and exposed. The cheapest 



and yet most useful mode that you can devise for a Melon or a Cucumber house 

 will also answer well for a propagating house. All that is wanted Is something 

 to shade and cover the cuttings in the bed when necessaiy. 



Elevated Boiler {W. F.). — W^e do not know any boiler that you can 

 well place higher than the saddle-back, unless you raise the pipes in pro- 

 portion. Of course you could have the boiler altogether above tho ground 

 level, and thus avoid the water in the stokehole, but then you must take your 

 pipes on a level with the flow and return, or raise them proportionally. Such 

 stokeholes should be built with brick and cement. We have known cases 

 where lead had to be used, to form, as it were, a dry tank. 



Grubs Destroying Edging Plants (J5.).— The grabs that come from 

 under the turf, and destroy the Cerastium, &c„ are the lar\'8e of the Crane- 

 fly or Daddy-longlegs, Tipifla oleracea. Mr. Curtis ohser\-es, that it is said 

 that lime-water will not kill them, and suggests that if quicklime were 

 scattered on the gi-ound at night, it would destroy them when they come to 

 the surface to feed; and all the gnats that are found on the walls, palings, 

 ground, or elsewhere, should be killed, especially the female, which would 

 prevent any eggs being deposited in the ground. A mixture of lime and gas- 

 water, distributed by a wateiing-pot over grass, has completely exterminated 

 the larvae where they had been exceedingly destructive ; and by sweeping tho 

 grass with a bag-net, like an angler's landing-net, only covered with canvas, 

 immense numbers of the gnats might be taken and destroyed. 



Insects (A. Z.). — Tour Apple buds have been attacked by the caterpillars 

 of a small moth, most probably Tortrix ocellana, or perhaps Laverua atra. 

 Hand-picking is the only remedy. The black colour of the shoots must bo 

 due to smoke and soot, which would bring the trees into a state of ill-Ltalth, 

 making them very attractive to insects. (C. A. J.). — As well as we can deter- 

 mine from the shrivelled-up condition of the very minute insects sent, they 

 are the just-hatched young of a species of Aphis, and would be easily killed by 

 fumigation. The shrivelied-up and brown condition of your Cherry and Ribes 

 leaves is doubtless due to atmospheric action upon the leaves of trees brought 

 by last year's drought into an ujuhealthy condition. — J. 0. W. 



Names of Plants (T. G.).— Ribes speciosum, Showy-flowered Gooseberry. 

 It is caUed in some botanical works Ribes fuchsioides. Fuchsia- flowered Goose- 

 berry. (AlderforfD.—lt is Bignonia jasminoides. It is a native of Moreton 

 Bay, and was introduced in 1830. (H. S.). — 1, Limnanthes Douglasii; 

 2, Iberis Pruiti; 3, Saxifraga hypnoides var. [W. B. S.).— Cordyline Esch- 

 scholtziana of Martius, often called in gardens Dracaena brasiliensis. (A. K.), 

 — 1, Campanula Rapunculus ; 4, Geranium pusillum; 5, Vicia tetraspenna; 

 6, Arenaria balearica. 



POULTET, BEE, AND PIGEON CHRONICLE. 



WHICH IS THE BEST BREED ?— No. 2. 



Veey few people at the first glance can form any conceptioo 

 of the many circumstances which have to be taken into accomit 

 before the question we are now considering can be answered. I 

 had begun last week a paper on some of these, but I have since 

 read a remarkable address given in February of this year to the 

 New York State Poultry Society, by the Hon. J. Stanton Gould, 

 which deals so ably with this very matter, that I have put some 

 of my own notes in the fire, and insert extracts fi-om his address 

 instead. I ought to say that the speaker is well known in 

 America as a stock-breeder, while, curiously enough, he professes 

 to know very little about poultry ; hence he considers the matter 

 solely from a stock-breeder's point of view, which, indeed, for our 

 present puri)Ose is the very best which can be adopted. 



Mr. Gould naturally takes up first the poiut of laying. " Some 

 men," he says, "who have kept a considerable number of 

 different breeds have, after careful trial for several years, con- 

 cluded that the Hamburghs were the best and most profitable 

 of all breeds. After reading through a vast mass of statements 

 from reliable men, the largest number of eggs laid in any one 

 year that I have found was 240 by Hamburgh hens. I have 

 been told again and again of hena that would lay an egg every 

 day in the year, but when I have attempted to verify such state- 

 ments I have always failed, and until you actually have reUable 

 proof that any hen has laid more than 210 eggs, you may take 

 that for the maximum number ; but I should mislead you if I 

 should fail to tell you that these Hamburgh eggs were very 

 small; many of them weighed no more than an ounce, not one 

 of them exceeded 2 ozs. 



" Another man," continues Mr. Gould, " had some Brahmaa- 

 that averaged 170 eggs in a year [I wish I had them.— L. W.], 

 none of which weighed less than 2 J ozs., and many weighed 1 J ozs. 

 Now if we take mere numbers as our guide, the Hamburghs 

 certainly beat the Brahmas 141 per cent. ; but if we take weight 

 as the basis of our calculation, the Brahmas have beaten the 

 Hamburghs 142 per cent. This last, however, is the true basis 

 of calculation. It is not the number of eggs a man eats, but the 

 amount of nutriment they contain, that forms their measure of 

 value for him. Still, we have not yet found out whether Ham- 

 burghs or Brahmas are the more profitable breed to keep. You 

 have still to find out how much it costs to produce the 240 Ham- 

 burgh cgs and the 170 Brahma eggs. Tho Brahmas gave 

 142 per cent, more nutriment than the Hamburghs, and there- 

 fore you say they are better for you to keep. Suppose now that 

 we discover that the food of the Brahmas costs 1.50 per cent, more 

 than the food of the Hamburghs, we should be compelled to 

 change our opinion again, and come back to the conclusion that 

 the latter were the most profitable. "We have some experiments 

 on record ''on this point], but unfortunately they are contra- 

 dictory—some of them are in favour of the Brahmas and some 



