176 



JOUKNAL OP UORTICULTUBE AND COTTAGE GAKDENER. 



[ September 5, 1867. 



it over. I then fill into the trench manure, old soil from the 

 potting-bench, and the soil taken out of the trench, so as to come 

 within 2 inches of the top. I next rake the soil even, and 

 sow in each trench six rows of Peas, about 4 inches apart and 

 three-quarters of an inch from each other in the row. They 

 are then covered with 2 inches of soil. As soon as the young 

 plants appear above ground I dress several times with soot and 

 fine earth in equal parts, to keep away slugs and other ver- 

 min, and when 2 inches high place small branches, about 

 12 inches high, taken from the Pea-sticks, amongst the Peas. 

 As soon as they clasp these they are stieked in the usual way. 



After trying nearly all the new Peas, I consider Veitch's 

 Perfection to be as good as, if not better than, any Pea in cul- 

 tivation. I measured some of my rows to-day, and I find they 

 are nearly 4 feet through, and literally covered with fine well- 

 filled pods. The soil is a rather stiff loam with a clay subsoil. 

 — Henky Ellis, TIic Gardcnx, Alfirlon Park, 



CLUB-ROOT IN THE C.VBBAGE TPJBE. 



C.\N you enlighten me as to the cause of clubbing in the root 

 of the Cabbage tribe ? 



I have some plants of Sprouting Broccoli raised from seed 

 in a bed never used for the same purpose before, and dibbled 

 out when very small at short distances to strengthen. On 

 pulling them now to plant out, I find some rows all clubbed, 

 and other rows without one clubbed plant in them. — J. H. T. 



[The club-root, or ambury, being caused by an insect, the 

 ravager may pass along one row of plants, and leave the neigh- 

 bouring rows untouched. The insect is a very small weevil, 

 Curculio contractus. It is only a line in length, of an uniform 

 black colour, and its thorax very contracted in front. Fre- 

 quent transplanting, dipping the roots at each removal into a 

 creamy mixture of soot and water, is the best mode of keeping 

 the insect at bay. The female punctures a root or the base of 

 the stem of the plant and deposits an egg in the puncture. 

 The gi-ub eats the inner bark of the plant, causing the swelling, 

 or clubbing, and this enlarges, the wound putrifies, and the 

 plant is ultimately killed.] 



THE INFLUENCE OF PAST AND PPvESENT 

 UPON FUTURE STATES OF THE WEATHER. 



It has been said with trutli that " a symbol is an instrument 

 for the discovery of facts." If this be the case, then, in me- 

 teorology, where facts are as numerous and as complicated as 

 in chemistry, symbols must be more useful than mere enume- 

 ration, or even than the usual form of curvilinear diagram, 

 for they present to the eye with ease what figures would con- 

 vey but slowly to the mind. A symbolic method, then, it is 

 evident is the readiest form of investigating atmospheric phe- 

 nomena, even in the difficult phases constantly presented by 

 local causes. 



To the agriculturist and to the horticulturist any simplifi- 

 cation of prevalent methods must be a gain ; and as a means 

 of ready reference, and also of immediate and complete iden- 

 tification of " possible influences of past and present upon 

 future states of the weather," no method seems to me so per- 

 fect as that inaugurated by Dr. S. Elliot Hoskins, in a paper 

 which has been published by the Koyal Society, of which Society 

 he is a Fellow. Dr. Hoskins has been long known in the 

 Channel Islands as a laborious and scientific collector of me- 

 teorological phenomena ; indeed it may with truth be said that 

 to him we are indebted for by far the greater portion of what 

 is now known of the peculiar climates eujoyed by the sister 

 islands. The Channel group, though alike enclosed in a large 

 bay whose form attracts the mighty tidal wave of the Atlantic, 

 while lying close to the gi-eat European mainland, have also 

 their distinctive and peculiar climates ; and Guernsey, in which 

 island fortunately for science Dr. Hoskins resides, from being 

 the outlying island, and from its peculiar size and land ele- 

 vation, is by far the most interesting as typical of climate. 



In England the atmospherical phenomena developed in these 

 islands are either generally confounded together or not under- 

 stood at all. From time to time in this Journal I have en- 

 deavoured to draw attention to these facts, and to show how 

 much certain local conditions, and chiefly among them the 

 comparative equabiUty of the night temperature, and the vio- 

 lence and direction of the prevailing local winds, account for 

 many cuxumstances of general interest to students of horti- 

 culture. I have thus arrived at the same conclusions as Dr. 



H kins respecting the peculiar influence of our local climate 

 on vegetation ; and though " by another road," our opinions, 

 as he says, " point to the same direction." 



The object of the pamphlet published by Dr. Hoskins, and 

 the perusal of which has led to these observations, is stated by 

 him to be " an attempt to determine whether any month or 

 class of months stand to each other in the relation of cause 

 and effect ; in other words, whether the atmospheric conditions 

 of autumn exercise any appreciable influence upon the fruitful 

 or unfruitful character of the ensuing season." 



To show this in the simplest and briefest way, tables were 

 accordingly prepared from meteorological records at Greenwich 

 and in Guernsey, in which tables the excess and defect of 

 temperature, of rain, and of wind, on an average of twenty 

 years, were carefully calculated. The resulting numerals, con- 

 verted into simple and familiar signs, were then delineated in 

 squares upon a sheet of sectional paper, accurately engraved 

 according to scale. A square space was assigned to each of the 

 months, and they were laid down as abscis.^ni, with the years 

 as (irJiiiad'.-i. In this way diagrams were constructed which 

 present, at one view, the state of the weather during each 

 month from 1843 to 18G2, divided into two periods of ten years 

 each, or decades. 



These diagrams (preserved for reference in the archives of 

 the Boyal Society), form not only registers, but facilitate com- 

 parison. They were afterwards decomposed, and the combined 

 signs in the squares transformed into letters of the alphabet, 

 so as to represent these four states of the weather — viz., heat, 

 cold, dryness, and moisture, and their combinations, as follows 

 — A := warm + dry ; B — warm + wet ; C cold + dry ; and 

 D ^ cold + wet. The letters were then arranged in columns 

 imder the heads of months and years ; the number of times in 

 which each recurred was noted, and resulting numerals, which 

 are the coefficients of the sums of the letters, were collected in 

 lines and columns — those of the mouths at the foot, and those 

 of the years at the sides, of the tables of analysis. Many 

 unexpected combinations resulted, remarkable also because the 

 data employed had been gathered m their natural course, and 

 not prepared to meet any preconceived notion. The horticul- 

 turist, therefore, may gather from these analytical tables that 

 the period from 1843 to 1852 was much warmer than that ex- 

 tending from 1853 to 1SG2 — that is, that the first decade was 

 warmer than the second, the warm months of the first being 

 equal in number to the cold months of the second. 



On comparing also the two groups of Novembers it will be 

 seen that their ratios were also in contrast ; the warm Novem- 

 bers of the first decade (1843 to 1852) being to the cold as 8 to 2, 

 and those of the second decade (18.53 to 1862) as 2 to 8. Fm:- 

 thermore, from 1851 to 1861 eight of the Novembers were de- 

 fective in temperature, and they were followed by Mays and 

 Junes of a similar character. These facts seem to justify the 

 surmise that the state of the weather in autumn did exercise 

 some influence upon the succeeding springs, during the peirod 

 under consideration, both as regards Greenwich and Guernsey 

 This similarity of disposition is all the more striking when the 

 difference in position and latitude between the inland and the 

 insular station is taken into account. 



The symbolic mode adopted by Dr. Hoskins seems to me to 

 be admirably adapted to guide and simplify the labours of the 

 horticulturist. It has, besides, the advantage of being adapted 

 to the investigation and recording of atmospheric phenomena 

 peculiar to localities ; and its adoption on an extended scale 

 might enable scientific observations to be carried out which 

 would help to solve many an obscure problem in our daOy 

 work. The spirit of inquiry now so greatly developed requires 

 some such guide and ready means of reference, and, from a 

 conviction of its usefulness, I have wished to bring it before 

 the notice of the readers of this Journal. — T. C. Bbehaot. 



MR-ROOTS ON VINES— GRAPES RUSTING. 



Many and different are the opinions of gardeners as to the 

 cause of air-roots on Vines, some contending that they result 

 from bad management, others that they arise from too-deep 

 planting. I have come to the conclusion, when air-roots do 

 not appear till after the young shoots have been stopped, that 

 the sap, being suddenly prevented from flowing in its usual 

 channels beyond a certain point, is expended in the production 

 of these roots. They have no bad effect upon the Vines, for 

 the fruit soon demands all the sap which will flow to them, 

 and the air-roots shrivel and dry up. 



