June 27, 1887. ] 



JOUBNAL OF HORTICULTURE AND COTTAOE GARDENER. 



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making, and a better warming of the ground than it haa hitherto 

 received, after which we may surface-stir and pulverise as much 

 as we may. It should not be forgotten that, early in summer, 

 whilst surface-stirring the ground helps to prevent heat and 

 moisture from escaping, it also assists in keeping heat from 

 entering. lu sunny days in .June we have sometimes found 

 a" or 4° difference in the temperature at .'J inches below the 

 surface of a hard gravel i:)ath and that of earth stirred at the 

 surface, but equally exposed, and in favour of the hard gravel. 

 In the case of tender plants in the flower garden, where the 

 earth temperature is a matter of importance, we have some- 

 times deferred a little the surface-hoeing of the ground, con- 

 vinced that though the breaking of the crust to let air into the 

 soil would do good to the plants, it would do more good still if 

 the firm surface had previously been well heated. 



KITCHEN OARnEN. 



The work was to a great extent a repetition of that of last 

 week as respects surface-hoeing, watering Cauliflowers, Peas, 

 and Beans, pricking out, and thinning Onions, Parsnips, and 

 Carrots. Sowed a bed of the latter for pulling young, also 

 Lettuces and Turnips. Two matters we may notice : For six 

 weeks or two months we had in a Strawberry-pit a rat visit, 

 which annoyed us considerably, as neither poison nor traps 

 would dispose of him or them ; but at length a huge rat was 

 trapped. He must have managed to find his way in and out 

 by the openings for ventilation. He did much more mischief 

 by what he cut off and left than what he actually devoured. 

 Rven a rat, however, may bo blamed for what he does not do. 

 On the morniug he was caught we noticed that about a pint of 

 pods had been ))ulled and partly eaten from a flue row of Tom 

 Thumb Peas at the foot of a wall, and the same rat was blamed 

 for that as well as the Strawberries. Fearing, however, he 

 might have accomplices, we gathered enough for a good dish of 

 the most forward of the Peas, and we were glad we did so, as 

 the next morning from a peck to two pecks were spread along 

 the ground, some of the pods opened and gnawed, and a good 

 many that had Peas not half grown were untouched. This 

 was done though several traps had been carefully set close to 

 the Peas ; but for the injury he does we can hardly help ad- 

 miring the rat, owing to the cunuing, the wisdom, perseverance. 



every bird within visiting distance would find out what was 

 beneath these branches, and acted accordingly. Ou the same 

 principle, if a net is not made secure it will be worse than no 

 netting. The very sight of it sets every thieving bird recon- 

 noitering. We would let them have their share willingly, hut 

 when they are satisfied with nothing less than all the crop, it 

 is time to begin to think how we are to be paid for our own 

 labour. Mucli against our will, we were forced to thin the 

 sparrows a little with potatoes and arsenic beat up together, 

 and put down where no domestic animal or other favourite 

 bird was likely to go near the tempting bait. 



FRUIT GARDEN. 



Watered some Strawberries, to cause them to finish swelling 

 their fruit in perfection, removed the most of those under 

 glass, and watered trees in pots and Peach and Vine borders 

 with manure water. In going tbrongh an orchard-house we 

 noticed that in some bunches of (Jrapes just sot, the little 

 berries, like dust shot, were black at the points, and we feared 

 that some fungus or mildew was paying us a visit, more espe- 

 cially as, owing to the cold and sunless character of the weather, 

 there had been less air given than usual. On closer inspection 

 we found that the dark ugly appearance was owing to the calyces 

 of the flowers clinging to the young fruit, and a gentle appli- 

 cation of the hand along the young bunch, and a rather higher 

 temperature, caused the most of them to drop off. A little 

 more lieat, and a moister atmosphere when coming into bloom 

 and setting, would have caused the calyx to drop off freely 

 without assistance. Without the slight help given, most likely 

 the berries thus cramped would have failed to have grown or 

 swelled freely. The appearance of these few bunches before 

 being thus acted on, was just as it the points of the berries had 

 been painted with a blue blacking. Notwithstanding the little 

 trouble given, a few of the berries will prove to have been too 

 firmly embraced by the calyx to swell freely afterwards. This 

 appearance took place only on one Vine, and there is more 

 than double enough loft, .and the manifestation was entirely 

 owing to the want of more heat, to give an additional impetus 

 to vitality to throw off the calyx freely. 



Perhaps in no season have there been more complaints of 

 young bunches decaying, shanking-off, or becoming little better 



and forethought which he frequently exhibits. Unless when ! than a tendril, from the flowers dropping. When such appear- 



very hungry or hard pressed, he will not go near a trap or a 

 bait so long as the smell of the human hand will linger near 

 it. Some time ago we detailed how we caught, tarred, and 

 feathered a rat, and for a number of months we were let alone ; 

 but now, as the stackyards in the neighbourhood are getting 

 empty, we are threatened with a fresh inroad of an army that 

 will come to no terms of conciliation. They must either be 

 killed or driven away if we wi.^h to enjoy the fruits of our labour. 

 We have numbers of letters from various parts of the country 

 telling the same tale — that where game is greatly encouraged, 

 where pheasants are fed and reared, there will be sure to be 

 plenty of rats and clouds of sparrows. In a lot of Peas, the 



ances are not due to the want of reciprocal action between 

 roots and branches, to unripened wood of the previous year, or 

 to bare roots a long way from the surface, they are likely to be 

 produced by a too close and moist atmosphere in the house, 

 and which with many of us is apt to be the case in cold, sunless 

 weather, when we wish to economise fuel, which we must have 

 burnt if we had given much air. 



Blotches and scaldings on the leaves are also produced from 

 the same cause, and mildew is likewise to a great extent due to 

 the same fertile source of mischief. Early ventilation, and a 

 little more artificial heat to enable it to be given, would be the 

 best cure for most of these maladies. Painted the pipes in the 



garden being more still last Sunday, if one pod was picked by i viuery when pretty cool with flowers of sulphur and water, and 



sparrows there was fully a bushel so used, and at a time when 

 every pod was wanted to keep np a regular supply. Under 

 such circumstances the greatest advocates of the featliered tribe 

 need not wonder that we resorted to means to lessen the number 

 of such visitors, even though against our inclination, for we 

 love to see them hopping about and chirrnping. One of our 

 favouriles, and who seems to like the protection he obtains, is 

 the dishwasher, or water wagtail, one of the most beautiful 

 and useful of British birds, as he picks np the innumerable 

 insects. We thought that the winter had thinned considerably 

 the thrushes and the blackbirds, but as soon as the Cherries 

 and Strawberries are swelling we have whole clouds of them ; 

 in f^ct, without securely netting we never could have fruit of 

 any of these fit for table. What is puzzling and a little irri- 

 tating is, that whilst we could not leave a Cheriy unprotected 

 after it took the second swelling, and long before it was ripe, 

 there are large Cherry trees in meadow orchards within less 

 than a mile of us, close to hamlets, with seemingly nothing to 

 disturb the birds, and there the Cherries will become ripe and 

 scarcely one be nibbled. Last season when, owing to not 

 netting and never firing a gun, scarcely a Pear flower-bud was 

 left on our dwarf trees, at a short distance in village and farm 

 gardens not a bud was touched. The firing of a canister of 

 powder has saved our Pear-buds this season, and the crop 

 consequently will be good. The only trees that suffered from 

 the birds were some early ones that we put some Laurel 

 branches round to protect from the cold ; and if we had not 



to make this paint adhere better, used dissolved soft soap in 

 the water. V/hen the pipes became warm the sulphur and soap 

 smelt rather strongly, and for several nights a little air was left 

 on at the top of the house, even all night, to avoid every possi- 

 bility of danger. There is no better preventive of mildew, red 

 spider, &o., than keeping a coating of sulphur on the pipes, but 

 it must not be applied to a house where the pipes are hot, 

 without air being given, or it will rust the berries when young. 

 The Black Hamburgh is, perhaps, the most likely to be affected 

 injuriously when in a yonng state, just out of bloom. Some 

 plants, as Ferns, also suffer from sulphur fumes, especially if the 

 heat in the pipes is above 160'. A little air kept on will make 

 all safe, and the sulphur will be the best antidote to mildew.naj 



OENAilUNTAL rKPARTMENT. =">f.' 



Much has been done in this field of labour, but we bare 

 time to advert to only two subjects, in addition to those re- 

 ferred to last week. 



With or without bulbs, the flower garden is generally any- 

 thing but at its best for some weeks after the bedding plants 

 are turned out, and though much may be done with earli/ 

 animals, beds of these, if sown where they are to bloom, pre- 

 vent due justice and preparation being given to the bedding 

 plants. We have frequently followed a system with early- 

 flowering low-growing aunua^, that rendered the flower-beds 

 gay at once, after early bulbs, -or without them, and that inter- 

 fered but little with the welfare of bedding plants in the same 

 beds. The beds were dug and prepared in the usual way, and 



removed the branches we would not have had a bud left, as . then were planted in patches, with Nemophilas, Chukiaa, ic. 



