70 



JOURNAL OF HORTICULTURE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. 



[ July 24, 1866. 



If rain do not come in a day or two, we shall be obliged to 

 water, much against our will, as the moisture which comes from 

 the clouds is more refreshing than anything we can give in that 

 line, at least, on a large scale; for a small space might be 

 watered in an evening, when it would be out of place to attempt 

 so treating a large garden, unless arrangements were made ac- 

 cordingly. In general, garden labourers require the evening 

 to look after their own gardens. 



FRUIT DEPARTMENT. 



A main feature of the week has been securing fruit, as Straw- 

 berries and Raspberries for preserving. The glut of the former 

 is now over, and the fruit will be smaller in consequence. "We 

 could keep none except what were netted. Raspberries we 

 kept pretty closely picked as they ripened, and used many 

 modes for keeping intruders away. Cuthill's Black Prince 

 Strawberry makes a beautiful preserve ; it is so much firmer 

 than the old small scarlets that were so much admired. What 

 has been procured latest will be the best. What was gathered 

 soon after the heavy rains would need more boiling. 



Every year there come in our way many wondrously eco- 

 nomical plans for preserving small fruits. We scarcely ever 

 found out the economy of using less sugar than a pound 

 in weight to a pound of fruit, or a similar amount of sugar to 

 a pint of juice. If much less is used you must diminish the 

 quantity by boiling longer than the regular twenty minutes, or 

 you run the risk of mouldiness, or wasting away, after you 

 have put your preserves into dishes. Some time ago a lady, 

 who baked her sugar and baked hor fruit before squeezing and 

 boiling all right enough, attacked us very triumphantly on our 

 scepticism, and boasted how she used hardly more than half 

 of the pound of sugar, and that her preserves always kept well. 

 On requesting to see a dish some six weeks after making, even 

 then the triumph of economy was considerably lessened, as 

 the vessels that were filled were not more than half filled when 

 thus examined. 



Cherries, that in ordinary weather and securely netted would 

 have lasted some time, will have to be used ere long, as the ex- 

 cessive heat is causing them to be inclined to shrivel, and in 

 some cases ants are attacking them. Some blackbirds get 

 their feet entangled in flying against the netting kept well out 

 from the wall, but they will often cause the net to rebound to 

 the wall, pick the best Cherries through the meshes, and got 

 off with flying colours. To be safe from them the net should 

 be scarcely of one-half -inch mesh. Even then, if the net be 

 close to the trees, or can be made to go close, they will sit on 

 the net and take what they like through it. Generally they 

 can calculate with mathematical precision the force with which 

 it is necessary for them to strike a distended net, so as to go 

 with their bodies close to the trees ; but several times we have 

 found, and especially when the net is tightened with rain, that 

 they have so miscalculated as to be sent back stunned, if not 

 killed, from the blow of the net. Net 1 inch or more in the 

 mesh, is of no use for keeping out many of the smaller birds. 



We were obliged to "Lex" for what he states at page 42. 

 The law against poisoning seed constitutes one of our diffi- 

 culties, and, like many laws, might have a coach and four 

 driven through it in defiance of informers ; but it is always a 

 serious affair to break a law, and it is more serious still to 

 have anything to do with poisons if it can be avoided. Notwith- 

 standing all this, poisons, or at least barytes, or plaster of 

 Paris, will no doubt be used to lessen the number of rats and 

 mice ; but even for gardening-purposes we should much rather 

 use something to keep such vermin and birds from seeds than 

 anything that would kill them if they partook of it. Why, 

 according to the law, we presume, if we used arsenic, or phos- 

 phorus, or nux vomica, &c, on bread or meat, and put it in the 

 holes and runs of rats, we are liable to a ten-pound penalty, 

 Would it be the same if we used barytes, or plaster of Paris, 

 nicely mixed up with ground suet, oatmeal, &c. ? because to a 

 rat, a mouse, a bird, even a tomtit, we suspect the plaster of 

 Paris would be almost as fatal as arsenic, though they would 

 require to take it in larger quantities, and we do not think the 

 latter is yet classed in the category of poisons. 



But, without joking, we think it is very much the same as 

 O'Connell driving a coach and six through an Act of Parlia- 

 ment, this law forbidding the poisoning of anything that can 

 be exposed, and allowing to agriculturists — and gardeners too, 

 we presume — the poisoning of seeds that are just placed under 

 the surface of the ground — that is, sown or pretended to be 

 sown. We recollect in making some remarks on that very 

 useful book, useful for what it contains and the more so for its 

 cheapness — "The Science and Practice of Gardening," rather 



insisting on darkness aiding germination, such darkness as a 

 covering of earth gives ; but then, as many things if other- 

 wise favourably situated would germinate without being buried 

 at all under an earth cover to promote comparative darkness, 

 what would become of the law if we sowed our seed, well 

 poisoned, on the surface, more especially if we could summon: 

 into court the authority of one of our conductors, that darkness, 

 and therefore covering, was not essential to germination ? 



It will be seen that we are alluding to this matter in a kindly 

 spirit, as one reason why we feared to use red lead with our 

 sown Peas was the dread that the birds who eat them, and 

 especially the pheasants, might be injured; and we hope that 

 some correspondent of more experience will yet help us in 

 this matter, as what is wanted is something to repel rather 

 than to destroy ; for if the red lead encrusted on Peas would kill 

 the pheasants, we would be as unwilling to use it as we would 

 be to use a net of a mesh sufficient to let their head through 

 and hang them in the process of trying to get it back again. 

 We are sure many beside ourselves will be thankful to " Lex " 

 for his sound information, as we country folk may very easily 

 and somewhat innocently become entangled in the meshes of 

 the law, from which we should all try to keep clear, as, even 

 in a good cause and a heavy loss, the first loss is often better 

 than a later success when law has been appealed to. 



Of course, we are perfectly well aware that if a gentleman 

 chooses to turn his pleasure grounds and his kitchen garden 

 into a game preserve, and consequently into a preserve for 

 much more than game, he has a perfect right to do so ; and if 

 aU the produce of the garden is thus consumed, the gardener 

 has no right to grumble so long as the employer is satisfied ; but 

 he has a right to complain when such a state of things exists 

 that no nest of birds of any sort must be touched, no sound 

 of the gun must ever be heard within his bounds, and yet 

 orders should be given for produce as if none of the natural 

 eaters-up of that produce were present to render so far nuga- 

 tory his labours. Where the shoe pinches with many of us 

 blue aprons is simply here — that whilst all these devourers 

 are to be allowed to take what they like without let or hin- 

 drance, the gardener is expected to supply a large establish- 

 ment as if he had nothing but the routine of the seasons to 

 oppose him. We have received so many thanks for mere fair 

 statements, that it is no credit to us to state a self-evident 

 truth — that from the same piece of ground you cannot obtain 

 the same results for an employer's table with the free ad- 

 mission of game and their attendant vermin as without it, for 

 wherever game is thus encouraged in the garden premises you 

 will also encourage all sorts of birds, mice, rats, &c. 



Gave a good watering to some late Cheiries, as the Florence, 

 now swelling, and securely netted from the birds. To give an 

 idea of their rapacity we may mention that on some young 

 trees of May Duke not netted the fruit was all taken almost 

 before it began to take its second swelling — in fact, when quite 

 hard and colourless. Nothing relieves us from the constant 

 next-to-uuavailing contest but a good continuous rain, which, 

 in the shape of slugs, worms, &c, brings other food near to 

 them. We must here mention that we have never been less 

 troubled with these marauders, showing, as mentioned last 

 week, that in moderation birds are friends rather than enemies ; 

 but wherever pleasure gardens abut on the fruit and kitchen 

 gardens, birds will be sure to be too numerous if left to them- 

 selves. We felt it rather annoying this spring to walk round 

 some of the villages and find the Pear and Plum trees one 

 mass of healthy bloom, after seeing the ground at home 

 covered with the remains of bloom-buds, and hardly a blossom 

 left, though if not interfered with they, too, would have been a 

 mass of bloom. 



In our case Plums and Tears, and even Apricots and Peaches, 

 suffered chiefly from birds. By the time that Apple and 

 Cherry trees began to swell their buds the birds must have 

 been able to attack something else, for they interfered less 

 with them. The clearing off the frnit-buds has made our dwarf 

 standard Pear pyramids, See., grow with greater vigour, and 

 during the week an operation has been begun which we would 

 have wished to have done sooner— namely, shortening back 

 most of the shoots within a few inches of their base, leaving a 

 few merely shortened at the point to continue the growth, and 

 prevent the smaller buds being tempted to lengthen into wood- 

 buds. For several years we have had little trouble with these 

 dwarf trees, as the heavy crops prevented a too vigorous growth, 

 but the birds in pretty well demolishing the fruit-buds gave too 

 great a stimulus to mere growth, which must thus be counter- 

 acted to prepare for the fruit-buds, which we hope may have 



