May 80, 1867. ] 



JOUBNAL OP HORTICUIiTUBB AND COTTAGE QAEDENEE. 



3?5 



the worst, and ia some places we are almost beaten by it every 

 season, because it grows too fast and too strong before we can 

 commence to combat it, and it is comparatively of little use to 

 cut it after it has twisted round something to the height of 



2 or 3 feet. By that tima if you cut the top, the old root has 

 received enough of strength to send out a lot more stiong 

 shoots. The most economical mode of extirpating it is not to 

 trouble yourself greatly with the large white roots when digging, 

 but to have a man on purpose, and tell him whatever else he 

 does, a shoot of the Bindweed is never to be seen more than 



3 inches in length. We have often resolved to do so, but then 

 when the pinch of so much to do conies, the man cannot pay 

 attention to this work in time, and in a few days if let alone 

 the pretty white-flowered Bindweed that adds, along with the 

 Clematis, such a wild loveliness to our hedge-rows, will cling 

 to and EuSooate in its embrace the very plants you would wish 

 to be free from it. 



What we can scarcely account for is, that after having been 

 extirpated foryears, it will come backagain without any apparent 

 cause. Some years ago we had two small pieces of ground, 

 perhaps 24 feet square, quite overrun with it. One piece we 

 kept hecing, and gave it a kind of summer fallow, planting 

 only some Lettuces, &c., but never allowing a shoot to grow 

 above a few inches in length. On digging we could soon have 

 taken out a barrowload of roots. The other piece was, if any- 

 thing, worse, and the weed was allowed to have its way until it 

 carpeted the ground with its twisted wreaths. It was then cut 

 with an old scythe, and the crop burned, and a layer of short 

 grass from the lawn a foot deep was placed on it, and allowed 

 to bo there until the autumn. In both of these pieces when 

 dug up at the end of autumn, not a root was to be seen. The 

 hoeing, and the cutting and grass-covering, had destroyed the 

 fleshy roots, and for years not a shoot made its appearance, 

 but this season in the latter piece, a few shoots have shown 

 themselves, and we fear they must have found their way in 

 small bits in the dressings apphed. We only wish the great 

 proportion of our readers may have no occasion to trouble 

 themselves with such a pest, beautiful though it is ; but if 

 any should be so unfortunate, the Dutch hoe used quickly 

 and repeatedly, is the best remedy. Hot abort grass laid over 

 the ground long enough will also destroy the roots. Some 

 years ago a lady sent a very fine variety of this climber. The 

 flowers are of the purest white, and very large, quite as large 

 as those of the beautiful Ipomfca Learii, and though in placing 

 it against a wall to show off its beauty, we took the precaution 

 to put the roots in a large pot, and plunged it, these roots and 

 shoots together found their way through and over the pot, and 

 if let alone would soon cover the wall from end to end. We 

 have often wished we had burned the roots instead of planting 

 them in any way except in a woodland wild. 



Mr. Keane, whose very timely and particular directions leave 

 us more at liberty to indulge in general remarks, tells us in 

 a recent Number to "manure and dig the ground as it be- 

 comes vacant, for the winter crops of Brussels Sprouts," &c. 

 But what if you have no vacant ground ? And what if you 

 have no rotten or half-rotten manure ? From a scarcity of tree 

 leaves this season, we are short of manure. We expect we 

 must get off the early Potato-beds, to place something beneath 

 them for Celery ; and as for crops of Cauliflower, as well as 

 winter crops that will not go between Peas, we must depend 

 chiefly for the help that can be obtained from short grass, and 

 no bad help may thus be had, and with but little preparation. 

 As the Broccoli is nearly cut, we wheel short grass on the 

 piece from the lawn, tumbling it into a good-sized heap, where 

 it heats strongly of itself, and then when shallow-trenched 

 down in a rather thick layer, it yields no bad nourishment to 

 all strong-growing crops. The only drawback to it is, that it 

 requires to be spread and dug in before ladies are about in the 

 garden. Even painters, who are used to disagreeable scents, 

 were fairly overcome by the fumes from this short grass. When 

 not so used, or forming a component part of hotbeds, linings, 

 &o., it is too valuable to be lost, and if made a component of 

 the rubbish-heap, and duly covered over, it will cause all to 

 ferment, and not only communicate a richness to the whole, 

 but, if the heat produced is strong, will help to kill all weeds 

 and roots in the heap. 



FKUIT DEPAETMENT. 



The cold wet, which hung so long on Peach and Apricot trees 

 unprotected, has much injured the shoots, killing some of the 

 young wood outright. Had they been kept dry by even thin 

 hexagon Nottingham netting, we have not a doubt but that 

 they would have suffered httle or nothing. This is one of the 



tacts that will ever make unhealed orchard-houses so valuable. 

 The dryness and the stillness of the enclosed atmosphere are the 

 great points of safety. These secured, success will much depend 

 on retarding, by plenty of air, the time of blooming, giving 

 plenty of air then, and only taking advantage of the confined 

 heat from the sun after the fruit is set and sweUing. We trust 

 that Plums, Cherries, Pears, and Apples are sufficiently ad- 

 vanced not to suffer much from the frosty mornings. The 

 Apple bloom, and we never saw the individual blooms larger 

 and finer, had been mostly cast a few days before the 20th. 

 A few Cherries are spotted ; Gooseberries and Currants, which 

 are very abundant, are sufficiently defended by the fohage to 

 save them from danger. We think the Cherries were marked 

 more by the hail than the frost. 



Raspberries. — We have seldom had the canes injured by cold 

 before this season, and we believe the injury was done by the 

 severe frost after the new year. AVe were surprised that the 

 canes did not break as usual. On examining these faulty canes 

 there is hardly one of them which is not quite green, after 

 moving the bark, and the cane seems sound enough to the core ; 

 but the buds along the cane, though looking as if nothing was 

 the matter with them, when closely examined are found hard 

 and dry, as if burnt right to the heart. We think it possible, 

 that if the sap rises in such canes, fresh but latent buds may 

 be thrown out. In such a case, if this took place, the sap would 

 rise without the excitement of expanding buds. We can assign 

 no reason why some canes have thus had their buds destroyed, 

 and others have started and are showing fruit as usual. 



Figs Out of Doors. — We have some on a west wall, from which, 

 with but httle attention, we have had good gatherings, and 

 better since we left them not fixed so closely to the wall, and 

 that mode of proceeding we learned from Mr. Tillyard, who 

 had fine crops in-doors and out of doors at Bentley Priory. We 

 used to put a few branches, &c., against these trees in winter ; 

 but in the press of other matters they were forgotten in the 

 two severe frosts of last winter, and as we could scarcely have 

 the cold more severe the trees were left to take their chance. 

 We expected there would be little show this season, as every 

 Fig that was left was frosted, and withered up and fell off ; but 

 what we did not expect to see was this — though the points of 

 many shoots were killed by the frost, a plentiful supply of 

 young Figs is coming from near the base of the shoots, and 

 often all along them, and which would never have shewn at 

 all if a few small ones had been saved during the winter near 

 the points of the shoots. As, except in a few extreme cases, 

 the Fig tree never ripens more than one crop out of doors in 

 our climate, we have always recommended the cutting away all 

 fruit larger than a good-sized Marrowfat Pea that appeared on 

 the shoots of the present year's growth in the autumn, as 

 above that size they would almost certainly fall in winter. 

 The above fact is corroborative of the propriety of that advice, 

 and shows that when trees are wholly unprotected it may be 

 carried quite as far in the removing of the summer-shown fruit. 

 On these shoots, now bristling with young fruit, not one was to 

 be seen in March, or even in the first part of April. 



Strawberries. — As the houses become shady we have to re- 

 sert to various schemes, which have already been adverted to, 

 for keeping up a daily supply of fruit ; and another reason is 

 that in places where much artificial heat is used. Strawberry 

 plants after the middle of May are very Uable to attacks from 

 red spider, and when ripening it does not do to use the syringe 

 so freely as at other times. The frame and the pit, and sashes 

 over borders, must therefore help us instead of shelves in 

 houses. 



Out of doors we never saw bloom more plentiful, or in such 

 masses, and as already stated, except by retarding, we do 

 not think the severe frosts have done much harm. The 

 Dutch hoe has been driven through the spaces between the 

 rows twice, to leave a loose surface, and to help to keep in the 

 ground the moisture from the recent rains, and we would 

 have used a sprinkling of soot and lime if we could, but the 

 scuffling of the ground, which is rich enough, will do much to 

 start and unsettle slugs and mice, the two greatest enemies 

 which nets are powerless to keep away. 



The keeping the fruit clean is the next consideration, and 

 nothing is better than clean straw, where this can be had ; 

 but few places will be able to afford clean wheaten straw at the 

 present prices. The next best material is litter from the stable- 

 yard, well shaken, and packed in to the sides of the rows soon 

 enough to be well washed by the rains ; and the next best, if 

 not the better of the two, is long grass before it begins to seed, 

 and which is free from Daisies. This not only answers well 



