70 



JOURNAL OF HORTICULTURE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. 



[ July 24, 1873. 



Banana Fruit Damping — Potting Poineettias {Suhncriber). — The canse 

 of the Eauana fruit damping is probably too close at.d moist an atmosphere. 

 When ripening the atmosphere should be rathei- dry, and only moderate sup- 

 plies of water must be allowed at the roots. Probab y the fruit is wetted by 

 syi-ioging or drip from the roof, or the damping may result from an injury in 

 undue handling. Poinsettias from cuttiu^s of this yeai- may be bloomed well 

 iu 7-iiich pots; it is now high time they had their blooming-pots, but it is 

 not too late. The cuttings now li foot high are too tall ; take off the tops 

 with three or four joints, and insert them singly in small pots in sandy soil. 

 Place them in a house or frame in gentle bottom heat, keep them close and 

 shaded, ar.tl they will soon root. When the pots are full of roots shift the 

 plants into 6-inch pots, and keep them near the glass. They will form dwarf 

 plants with fine heads. 



Fuchsias in Window not Flowering (X. Y.). — Probably the plantB 

 need repotting. We presume you cut them-in in February, kept them rather 

 dry until they had made shoots an inch or two long, then repotted them, re- 

 moving most of the old soil, and when these pots were full of roots shifted 

 the plants, watering as required to keep the soil moist. Either the soil is 

 sodden or the plants have too dry an atmosphere or soil. Guano, 1 oz. to a 

 gallon of wattr, i?; probably the best for window plants. It may be given at 

 this strength to all plants in active growth, but not when they are not grow- 

 ing. The only tiling we know of that you can do with your hard water for 

 drinking purposes is to have it filtered. 



Peas Dying (W. Jonrs).—'W6 think tho Peas you enclosed to ns have 

 had the outer covering of the stem destroyed by snails or slugs. Duat the 

 ground over the rows with quicklime before the plants appear, and every week 

 until they are sticked. There is evidence of mildew, which will yield to the 

 lime. A dressing of guano and salt, two parts of guano to one of salt, 

 sprinkled along the sides of the rows before earthing-up, would be very bene- 

 ficial, but keep it off the Pea haulm. The giound should onlv be made yellow. 



Strawberries Fruiting (Idnn).-~The not-digging between the rows and 

 BO not interfering with the roots is sufScient to account for the plants pro- 

 ducing a greater crop than those of which the roots weie disturbed by digging. 

 Strawberries are, however, as a rule, very fine and abundant this yeaa*. 



EosE Eudhing {Idem).—'We consider the first fortnight of Jaly, or as soon 

 as we have m-'ist weather after the fluwers are shed from the plants, the best 

 time for budding, and it may be practised up to the end of the month. 



Iw Seedlings {F. J.).— Seedling Ivy plants are just as good for covering 

 walls as those from cuttings. The best time to remove them is in October; 

 take them up carefully, and give a good watering after planting. From 

 September to April they maybe moved quite safely. 



Flower Beds— Bedding Geraniums iIdem).~When the plants in the 

 flowerbeds ai-e fully giown no portion of the soil should be visible, and where 

 they meet the grass, the edging, neatly trimmed off, should not expose any por- 

 tion of soil, or a very small margin. It is haid to say which are the best four 

 bedding Geraniums, crimson, scarlet, pink, and rose, but the following ai-e 

 superior sorts ; — Crimson, Bayard and Waltham Seedling ; scarlet, Jean Sisley 

 and Vesuvius ; pink, Master Christine and Mrs. Upton ; rose, Beauty of Dul- 

 wich and K. Evans. We have named two of each. 



Destroying Mealy Bug {W. TT.).— The best remedy would be to cut the 

 plant away, and have the house thoroughly painted. It is of little use striving 

 to getridcf it by the application ofinsect-det-troyingcompounds syringed on, as 

 the plant being so dense, the solution would fail to reach every pai-t. Thin it 

 out, and syringe forcibly, the greater force the better, with clear soot water, 

 made of one peck of soot to thirty gallons of water, stin-ed well up, and strained 

 before use. Do this twice a-day, and in time you will overcome the mealy 

 bug. or keep it under. If you could take the plant down, immerse it in 

 Clarke's compound, at a temperatm-e of 120'^, and then sponge it thoroughly, 

 and again immerse, it is likely you would annihilate the pest. The compound 

 should be ."5 oza. to the gallon of water. It may be advantageously syringed 

 on ; the only difficulty is to thoroughly wet the plant, and of joorse reach the 

 bug in eveiy pait. 



Vine Leaves Scalded (Joseph BouUon^—Thia is caused by lenses 

 formed in the glass, or by insufficient ventilation. 



Calceolaria Propagation (S. A. E.).—U yonr Calceolaria is of the 

 shrubby class you can not only preserve your old plant to bloom again nest 

 year, but you can also take cuttings from it to preserve over the winter ; but 

 if it is whftt/is called an herbaceous variety, you may have some trouble with 

 it. Your Vine leaves are scorched through thickened places in tho glass form- 

 ing lenses. 



Pears Cracking (A C?nrfr(0.— We suspect your soil is dry and sandy. 

 Give abundance of water in dry weather, and mulch the soU round tho trees. 



Classifying Koses [A Constant Suh:^<'.ribcr). — The classification of the 

 varieties of Koees is very arbitrary, and it is not easy to define what U a 

 Bom-bon or Noisette. Both of these were raised by the hj-bridisiug of species, 

 and now the varieties have become so crossed it is impossible to give a correct 

 definition of either. You can got the work you require by applying to Mr. 

 B. S. Williams, of Upper Holloway. There is a supplement to the " Cdttage 

 Gardeners' Dictionary," publishetl by Bell & Daldy. 



Weeds on Walks (ff. J.).— The ashes will not injure the Box edging. 

 Achyroolyne Saundersoni is a greenhouse climber ; and we have no experieuco 

 or knowledge as to its being able to withstand the winter. 



FtTNGUS ON Hollyhocks {E. C. J^.V— The fungus is PucoiniamalvaceBmm, 

 Mont., which abounds everywhere this year iu England, though hitherto it 

 1ms been observed on Hollyhocks iu Australia only. It was first noticed oa 

 Althfta iu Chili. Mr. Broome has found it on the common Mallow. How it 

 was introduced into this country is unlraown. There is no chance of "ottin" 

 rid of it except by burning at once the infected plants. 



Insects (Suhxcriher, Lincoln).— The small insects which have attacked 

 your Strawberries are a species of millipedes, or " forty-feet," named Jnlus 

 pulcbellns. The ground must have been foul, as the insects ai-e reared in 

 decayed vegetable matter. We know no other remedy in their present con- 

 dition than carefully cleaning the ground beneath the plants and pieking-off 

 the decayed leaves. — I. O. W. 



Names of Plants (J. M. C.).— Eriophorum angustifolium. {A. C..— 

 Hemerocallis disticha. (C. CI);fDr«/i.—Circa>a lutetiana (Enchanter's Ni-jht- 

 shade). ( W. D.).— The fruit of a Fern is on the back of the frond, and there 

 is none oa either of your specimens. We cannot name plants from leaves 

 only, and your specimen No. 6 is o«ly leaves. [A. M. A'.).— 1, Adiantum 

 tenerum; 2. Spirsea oratregifoUa ; 3, PassiQora racemosa; 4, Paseiflora 

 cjerulea; 5,Selaginella twesiaj 6, Selaginella Martensii. (Dert/ia?^).— Astrantia 

 maxima. 



POULTKY, BEE, ATO PIGEON OHEOITIOLE. 



COTTAGE POULTET-KEEPING. 



In auswer to your correspondent " Rector," will you allow 

 me space for a few words in vindication of the policy adopted by 

 farmers in general iu forbidding their labourers from keeping 

 poultry ? " Rector " states that he " has often and often spoken 

 to his poorer friends upon the beneficial results in every way of 

 keeping poultry." I can assure him he is perfectly wrong. As a 

 practical poultry-keeper of more than twenty-five years' experi- 

 euce, I state boldly that poultry-keeping cannot pay in England 

 if yoti keep a proper debtor and creditor account of your ex- 

 penses and returns, and the only possible manner iu which 

 a cottager would find it answer to keep poultry would be 

 by tarnmg them out to pick up their own living as best they 

 could, or, in other words, to feed upon the neighbouring farmers' 

 crops. It is utterly impossible "to restrict them to the road- 

 sides," as badly-fed poultry will roam away great distances in 

 search of food ; and anyone who has had practical experience 

 knows that poultry, besides what they actually consume in the 

 corn and hay fields (and that is very considerable), do an im- 

 mense deal of damage by scratching up the seed and by tramp- 

 ling down the corn and mowing grass before the harvest begins. 

 Corncrakes are considered bad enough for this, but poultry are 

 fifty times worse. In my own case my poultry render useless, 

 and quite unfit and impossible to mow from this very trampling, 

 about three acres of a field every year reserved for hay. Again, 

 farmers know full vvell that during winter, if at no other time, 

 there is a great temptation to the labourer to fill his pockets 

 with corn from his master's granary to keep his poultry from 

 starving to death — a temptation that would not exist had he no 

 poultry to feed. 



In the southern districts of Sussex the farmers may, as you 

 say in your editorial note, allow the cottagers the free range of 

 the fields after the harvest is ingathered, but if they do it is an 

 extraordinary exception, and those who do not do so should not 

 be called "selfish and iiinty." The gleaning of the cornfields 

 is a valuable product of the farm, and it is customary for the 

 farmer to turn in his own poultry, Turkeys, Geese, and pigs, 

 which thrive and fatten well upon it. In the north of England 

 vast numbers of young Geese, imported annually from Ireland, 

 are bought by the farmers for the express purpose of being 

 turned into the cornfields as soon as the harvest is gathered, and 

 by which means they are fattened and got ready for the Michael- 

 mas market at a scarcely perceptible cost. No cue can have a 

 greater desire than I have to improve the status of the agricul- 

 tural laboirrer, but I am fully convinced that this cannot be done 

 by trying to induce him to believe that he could keep poultry 

 at a profit, if his master and employer would only allow him so 

 to do. Let him try. Let him feed his poultry well enough to 

 keep them near home ; let him agree to pay reasonable compen- 

 sation for all damage done to his neighbours' crops, hedges, &o., 

 and I think he would very quickly arrive at the conclusion that 

 cottage poultry-keeping was a delusion, without any beneficial 

 results whatever. — B. C. C. 



P.S. — I am firmly convinced that breeding and rearing the 

 common tame Rabbits can be made most pirofitable by cottagers. 

 Being kept iu confinement they cannot trespass; they can be fed 

 on sow thistles, grass, &c., gathered from the roadside; they 

 increase rapidly, and the more wild Rabbits are exterminated 

 as vermin, the higher will rise the price of tame ones. In your 

 last Joiu-nail they are quoted at Is. 5d. to Is. 6d. each. 



LITEEART PIRACIES. 



The article we published last week on tho " Management of 

 Setting Hens," and quoted from the Colnnial Farmer, is, we 

 find, an extract from Mr. Lewis "Wright's " Illustrated Poultry 

 Book." The practice, which seems very common among our 

 transatlantic brethren of copying from British books and pub- 

 lications without acknowledgment is, to say the least of it, 

 highly reprehensible. We are sorry to say that our own peri- 

 odical press is not free from the same imputation. It may be 

 considered by those who practise it a smart thing to do, but all 

 honest and honourable men regard it as something very different. 



cleckheaton poultry show. 



The fifth Show was held on the 19th inst. iu grounds ad- 

 mirably adapted for the purpose ; and although the pens used 

 were of a primitive description, having strained canvas for 

 the backs, and a roll of wire tacked on from end to end for 

 fronts, the birds showed to much advantage. In the Pigeons, 

 however, the pens for the Pouters were decidedly too small, as 

 the birds could neither stand erect nor comfortably turn in 

 them. The supply of food and water was ample, and the general 

 attention exemplary. Although for many days previously the 



