721 



JOURNAL OF HOEXICULTUBE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. 



[ JuiT 30, less. 



found fault with than have been our Gooseberries, for the latter 

 in a green state were as good as usual ; but it our Wellingtons, 

 Winter Quoinings, Stnrmer Pippins, and other favourite Apples 

 be as difScult to cook as these we have from abroad early in 

 spring, we shall remember the season of 1868 for that cause 

 alone, independently of its many other advantages and disad- 

 Tantages. Coupled, therefore, with my present inquiry as to 

 the Gooseberry, I would ask. What effect is the continued hot 

 weather likely to have on the Apple and other hardy fruits ? 



•T. RoESON. 



Royal Duke, Love Apple Cherry, Duchesse de Palluau, and 

 Nouvelle Royale, a late sort. These are all compact uprighC 

 growers, and here they all succeed best on the Mahaleb (Ce- 

 rasus mahaleb) stock, which appears to act upon them as the 

 Quince stock does on the Pear, in circumscribing growth and 

 making the trees fruitful, more particularly in a calcareouB 

 soil.— T. RivEBS. 



BIRDS AND CIIEERIES. 

 All lovers of Cherries— their name must be legion— know 

 well the difficulty of keeping their Cherries from the birds till 

 they are ripe ; in fact, a ripe Cherry on a tree in the open air 

 in woodland districts is not, it is true, a rara avis, but it is a 

 very rare thing. I have, therefore, a small pleasure in saying 

 that I have this day (July 20), some of the finest May Duke 

 and Archduke Cherries thoroughly ripe ; and that I have cir- 

 cumvented my feathered friends, who in spring give me so 

 much pleasure in listening to their harmony, and in summer 

 so much vexation because they will take the best of eveiT kind 

 of fruit. 



I had this season the most abundant crop of Duke Cherries 

 I ever saw. The trees, now ten years old, were at first dwarf 

 bushes on the Mahaleb stock planted on my lawn. A few 

 years ago I trained up from each bush from seven to ten 

 brauches, making every branch into a cordon by pinching-in 

 closely all the summer every lateral shoot. The effect has 

 proved remarkable and beautiful, for last April every branch 

 was a perfect cordon of flowers, followed by fruit in equal abun- 

 dance. I need scarcely add that this was before we received a 

 decree from France that no tree with more than one branch 

 could be a cordon. My Cherries commenced to colour, and 

 ihep. nets, and white worsted, and the gun were called into 

 action ; but aU of no avail, for the birds seemed to laugh at me 

 as I did at the cordon decree. They tore the nets with their 

 olawB, and thrust their beaks through the meshes they could 

 not tear, so as to destroy, although they could not enjoy- too 

 common among men as well as birds. Owing to the dry season 

 1 partially foresaw it would be one of bird-hunger ; and hap- 

 paiung to have a nice row of Duke Cherries, single upright 

 cordons, thirty m number, and about seven years old, I put in 

 practice an invention I gave to the public some years ago— viz 

 that of enclosing each tree in a tube of coarse muslin— a sort 

 of bottomless bag, made by stitching two yard-widths of coarse 

 mnshn together, say 2 yards in length, and then slipping it 

 over the tree, leaving the leader out, and then tying it at top 

 where the fruit commences, and at bottom where no fruit is 

 so as to enclose all the fruit in a bag. I am inclined to think 

 this coarse mushn at about 3d. per yard is better than t ffany 

 as It admits more air ; and I am not quite sure but that it 

 might be used in spring to protect the blossoms from frost, but 

 that 1 have not yet tried. 



I have never seen anything in fruit-culture more interesting 

 than my row of upright cordon Cherry trees. They are exactly 

 8 feet m height, their straight stems the size of a stout broom- 

 stick, so that no support is required ; and they have been so 

 carefully piuched-in all the summer for some years, that their 

 diameter, measuring through the fruit-bearing spurs, is not more 

 than 10 inches. They have had their leading shoots shortened, 

 and It 13 not intended to allow them to exceed 8 feet, their 

 present height. It is surprising the quantity of Cherries these 

 upright single cordons produce. In the course of years they 

 will become stout trees, and bear abundantly from "top to 

 toe. I have said 8 feet as a reasonable height, but 12 feet 

 may be in small gardens a better height, for the taller the trees 

 the larger the crop, only they will require muslin robes of 

 4 yards in length instead of 2. 



The best method to form these very nice garden trees is to 

 plant pyramids of the Duke Cherry tribe, to cut in all their 

 side shoots to 1 inch in length, to train up a straight leader, 

 with a stake if needed, and to pinch-in during the summer 

 every shoot to three leaves as soon as it has made four or five 

 My trees have been pinched for the third time up to this date, 

 and they will require being looked to till the end of August. 

 Ihe great advantage of these upright cordon trees is their 

 adaptation to either small or large gardens. They should be 

 planted 3 feet apart, and thus any small suburban garden may 

 have Its dozen of prolific Cherry trees. The best sorts for the 

 purpose are the Empress Eugenie May Duke, Archduke, 



DESTROYING INSECTS. 



Some delay has been caused in the preparation of my notes 

 on insects from my having been favoured with a compound 

 from Mr. J. C. Clarke, Vinery House, AUerton, Liverpool, in- 

 ventor and patentee, also maker of Clarke's water-jacket fur- 

 nace boiler, a boiler I think not half so well known as it deserves 

 to be. I have it heating a conservatory and three vineries very 

 satisfactorily, and with a small consumption of fuel. Of this 

 boiler I trust to give a more extetded report at some future 

 time, and shall, therefore, confine myself to the insect-destroy- 

 ing compound. 



Mr. Clarke, I ought to state, is very fond of gardening, having 

 extensive glass houses and gardens, and takes a more than 

 common interest in the gardening at Vinery House. 



The compound very much resembles soft-soap in colour, but 

 it is moderately hard like brown common soap, and it is mottled. 

 The compound came to me in a roundish lump, half of which 

 I was to cut in thin slices and boil in a gallon of water for ten 

 minutes. This was done, and I had a liquid holding the whole 

 of the compound in solution — no sediment ; no straining re- 

 quired. It passed freely through a syringe without any clogging ; 

 but I made a blunder at the very commencement, for the 

 solution put in a painted watering pot whilst cooling showed 

 its effects upon the paint. Transferring it to a bucket, a narrow 

 one, in order to give depth for dipping, I dipped several plant* 

 in the solution, holding them in it for a short time, the solu- 

 tion being cooled so that the hand could bear it comfortably. 



I first dipped a small Fig tree infested with red spider ; 2nd, 

 a plant of The Czar Violet, also infested with red spider ; 3rd, 

 several young plants of Ferns, including Platyloma adiantoides 

 infested with green aphis, Blechnum corcovadense, Pteris ser- 

 rulata, P. tremula, Cystopteris fragilis, and other small plants, 

 in all about a dozen, which though clean, I dipped to test the 

 effect of the compound on the young tender growths ; 4th, 

 a Cineraria in flower and infested with thrips ; 5th, four 

 branches of Cactus, all having two or three flowers, some open, 

 others on the point of expanding, and covered with green aphis ; 

 6tb, a plant of Platycerium alcicorne infested with brown seale t 

 7th, two plants of Bletia Tankervillis infested with brown seale. 

 much honeydew, and ants busy sucking the sweet secretion. 

 Now, upon withdrawing the plants, the ants were giving their 

 last kick. I had been longing for more than twenty years for 

 something to kill ants, and now I had it uneapectedly. i 

 must now stop further dipping the plants and hunt ants. 

 These are not difficult to find at any time, but particularly 

 this season. As they run I dipped my middle finger in tha 

 solution, and a drop hanging from it, the solution on touching 

 the back of the ant fell, and with a marvellous effect on the 

 ant, which began to writhe in tha agonies of death. The ants 

 did not stir beyond giving a few convulsive movements of the 

 head and legs, and died in less than half a rainute. 



Satisfied that the compound would kill ants, I ooatinued 

 further search for plants infested with insects, but finding none 

 having different insects from those already dipped I gave up 

 dipping, thinking I might have injured the foliage of quite 

 enough plants at once ; but as this Tvas an all-important con- 

 sideration with any inhfct-destroying compound I dipped Pe- 

 largoniums Countess of Bestive, Mrs. Pollock, Fontainebisau, 

 Argus, Mountaia of Light, and other plants all in full flower, 

 for it was one p.irt of the recommendation of the compound 

 that it would not injure the lowers, finally, I took a syringe 

 and syringed a bed of Koses (dwarfs on the Manetti stock), 

 consisting of such kinds as John Hopper, Prince Camille de 

 Bohaa, Madame P.ivers, Charles Duval — all in fall bloom, and 

 from which the sparrows had been for several days at work 

 clearing off green aphis. I gave them the whole gallon of tha 

 solution, very little being lost in dipping the plants, and made 

 the tlowers thoroaghly wet. AU the above were done in the 

 evening of a very hot day, and the succeeding days ware equally 

 fine and hot. The following evening I went to register the 

 results, having givsn attention to the plants in the morning, 

 expecting to find the flowers at least discoloured ; but the 

 Ca^tHfi bods of the previous eveiiiDg wereexj;i!mded audgorgeous, 



