12 



JOUENAIi OF HOETICTJLTURE AI^D COTTAGE GAEDENEE. 



[ July 7, 1863. 



MAKING A STKAWBEERY SOIL. 



The remarks made by my esteemed friend, Mr. Eobson, 

 at page 432, in reference to the repeated faOures experienced 

 by " A. Z.," induces me to bring to your notice a case in my 

 own experience, where an apparently similar difficulty was 

 suooessfiiUy overcome. It occurred in the garden of a gen- 

 tleman in my neighboui'hood. 



He was one day lamenting that he could not grow his 

 most favoiu'ite fi'uit, Sti'awbenues, in his gai'den, tiy what 

 he would, and begged me to go over to advise him. I did 

 so, and found the sod to be of the same light sandy nature 

 as that described by your cori-esijondent ; and I liave found 

 from experience that such soils when highly manured do 

 produce very fine foliage indeed, but very little fruit — in 

 fact, they "run to straw," as a farmer would term it. 



My advice was, to take off the top spit and supply its 

 place with 9 inches of clay and strong loam, such as is used 

 in making bricks, and incorporate it well with the subsoil. 

 This was done, and nothing coidd be more gratifying than 

 the success attending the operation, as the plants produced 

 fine fi-uit in great abundance, and I was glad to hear that 

 the example had been followed by several other jjersons in 

 the immediate neighboui-hood. — John Cox, Redleaf. 



WEIGHT OF 3IUSA CAVENDISHII FEUIT— 

 OIlIE]>rTAL OECHAED-HOUSE. 



HAvrNG seen in j'ovu' .Joiu'nal two notices lately of the 

 weight of heads of ft-uit of the Musa Cavendishii or Banana, 

 they have stin-ed up old recollections about a head of the 

 fruit I grew when I was a joui'neyman some ten years ago, 

 and of a singular incident that hapjjened concerning it, 

 which fixed it upon my memory. 



The said head weighed, when freed fr-om all superfluous 

 stem, 56 lbs., and numbered 220 or 222 pods of fruit. Know- 

 ing that the Banana is still grown extensively in the same 

 place, I wi-ote to the gardener, and the followmg is an 

 extract from his reply : — 



" Coodham Gardens. 



"Eegarding the Banana, I think that I have a better 

 fruit just now than either of those you mentioned. The 

 number of swelled pods are 212, and which I think will 

 weigh close on 50 lbs. I weighed a fruit last year which 

 was 53 lbs. I expect tius fruit to be ready towards the 

 latter end of .July, or the beginning of August. — E. A. 

 Stewart." 



Writing the a))ove remmds me of an article \Ti'itten by me 

 upon the cultivation of the Musa as a hothouse fruit for a 

 certain gardening periodical, which was not inserted because, 

 as the editor said, it was " not of general interest." Perhaps 

 now that we have liad a good deal of tilting and fii-ing of 

 blank cartridge upon the orchard-house question, mig-ht it 

 not be worth while to prefix the word " oriental," and try how 

 they would succeed ? A practical knowledge of the habits 

 of such fruits would soon fomi an idea of what an ■■ oriental 

 orchard-house," should be, and the skiU required in their 

 cultivation would be about a minimum. — Alesandek 

 Storrie. 



. P-S. — I have grown various varieties, but the Musa Caven- 

 dishii is the best. M. sapieutum grows taller, and has not 

 such large heads of fi'uit. 



DwAKF Sweet Pea. — I lately sent a query asking why it 

 is that a dwai-f eatable Pea has been obtained, and that a 

 dwarf Sweet Pea has not. Can botanists or florists assign 

 a reason ? At present neither have replied to it. Mio-ht 

 not hybridising the dwarfest eatable Pea with the Sw'eet 

 Pea, produce some change ? — Matthew Fitt. 



Early Celery. — The working men of Dewsbuiy have 

 long been celebrated for the production of early Celery. 

 Twenty years since it was considered very early if' it w.as on 

 the table at Dewsbury Feast (July 25), "now it is not con- 

 sidered to be so ludess it is dug up in June. Last year the 

 earliest was dug up the last week in June, this year the 

 first was on the table June 21st. The length of the best 



stalk was 21 inches long, blanched 10 inches, and of a pro- 

 portionate thickness. It was grown by a working man, 

 - -S. 



THE GOOSEBEEEY CATEEPILLAE AND ITS 

 HABITS. 



Noticing a remark made by youi' correspondent " E. F.," 

 on the 2nd of June, in his " Doings of the Last "Week," 

 respecting the non-appeai'ance of the gooseberry catei-pillar 

 and his attributing the disappearance to the agency of birds, 

 I am induced to offer a few facts that have come under my 

 own obsei-vation. 



Like " E. P.," as soon as the trees were in frill leaf and 

 the weather genial, I commenced examining the trees to see 

 if the caterpOlars had made theii- appearance, and I found 

 them in various stages of existence. Some appeared to be 

 just issued from the egg, and had made many small holes 

 through the leaf; in most instances each grub had eaten 

 out a hole the size of a small shot. Other caterpillars were 

 more advanced, some being half and others three-foui'ths 

 gi'Own, and there were some that had apparently attained 

 their full size. Amongst the latter there were a few of a 

 l^ale gi-een colour ; and adhering to the leaf they were on, or 

 close by, was the dark skin. 



I then began to look for the parent insect or fly, but could 

 discover nothing but a black fly, which was very numerous ; 

 and in most instances, upon the trees being touched or an 

 attempt made to captiu'c them, they fell to the ground and 

 were lost. At fii'st I began to tliink they might be the 

 parents, and, if so, could see no means of saving the trees 

 and crop but by catching and killing them. I consulted all 

 the works I had on natural history, but could find no other 

 information than that these caterpUlai's are the produce of 

 a si^ecies of saw-fly, which deposits its egg on the leaf of 

 the tree ; the egg in cour-se of time giving birth to a cater- 

 pillar ; the caterpillar, after attaining its period of existence, 

 falling down from the tree and bui-ying itself in the earth tOl 

 the following spring, then bursting fr'om its crusty shell and 

 seeking the young leaves to perform the like offices again. 

 I therefore resolved to try some experiments upon them, and 

 for that piu'pose I prociu-ed two fiill-gi'own caterpillars and 

 placed them under a bell-glass on the 23rd of April. 



After the caterpiUai's had changed then' skins and fallen 

 from the leaves on which they had been previously feeding, 

 I began to examine the sand in the flower-pot to ascertain 

 their whereabouts, and 1 found the one that changed first 

 directly under the leaf from which it fell, buried about 

 an inch fr-om the surface. The other I unfortunately damaged 

 with the point of a knife used to discover them, probably 

 owing to its not having attained sufficient strength of shell. 

 I then placed them on the top of the soil in a smaller flower- 

 pot, covering them with a bell-glass as before simply for 

 convenience. 



On Satiu'day, May 16th, about eleven o'clock, I had the 

 gi-atifioation of seeing a fly under the glass, which I was 

 satisfied had come from one of the chrysalises. It was 

 about one-third of an inch in length, the fore part of its body 

 of a dii'ty yellow, and the tau of a bright yellow colour', with 

 transparent wings very similar in appearance to the fly that 

 is the cause of galls upon the Oak trees in many places. 



At one o'clock I collected some more cuttings ; and, 

 after proceeding as in the former instance, I placed the fly 

 under the bell-glass with them. The fly now seemed less 

 restless than before, and began to walk about the leaves 

 apparently with pleasui'e. After watcMng it for a few 

 minutes I observed it walk to the under side of a leaf, and, 

 after examining it for a short time, it walked to the top of 

 the leaf and then commenced laying its eggs along the 

 midrib in the direction from point to footstalk. The number 

 of eggs deposited on the midrib was about twelve. Then 

 the fly went to the fom' side-ribs of the leaf, and there 

 deposited from eight to ten eggs on each rib, amounting in 

 the aggregate to fifty-two. A number of eggs were Laid on 

 other leaves, but they were not so regidarly placed. Their 

 total numbers, I believe, were about 200. The eggs are of 

 a transparent white colour', about one-sixteenth of an inch 

 long, with a dark spot at one end, and they are deposited 

 with great regularity about the same distance apart. 



