Februai-y 27, 1866. ] 



JOURNAL OF HOETICULTTJRE AND COTTAGE GAEDENEE. 



169 



over plants in bloom and setting. We had the most of our 

 outstanding pots in an earth-pit, set on or plunged in leaves, 

 and so that we could protect them with old sashes or hurdles, 

 &c. We have escaped pretty well until the other night, when 

 the mice began on the crowns in earnest, rendering from twenty 

 to thirty pots useless. There being a considerable quantity of 

 litter for covering, and the pots being set with tree leaves 

 packed between them, it was very doubtful whether we could 

 exterminate the mice before doing more damage, so that we 

 have moved the plants out and set them in the orchard-house, 

 without anything to protect tlie pots, but if the weather prove 

 very severe, wo can throw a little rough hay over them. The 

 Strawberry plant will stand a good amount of cold, but plants 

 in pots to be forced should never have the pots hard frozen, as 

 it greatly injures the roots. If the pots are phmged they are 

 not so apt to be injured. The above hint as to mice may be 

 useful, especially if severe weather come. Cue gentleman told 

 ns last season, that out of eight hundred plants in pots fully 

 five hundred were rendered useless by the nibblers in a few 

 days. Both mice and rats will commence on the best and 

 hardest crowns. Plants protected from frost and bad weather 

 are more liable to be thus attacked than those grown iu the 

 open air. 



Took in more plants into pits and houses, where room could 

 be found for them near the glass. This is the only mode by 

 which many of us can produce early Strawberries ; and though 

 good Strawberries are always useful and desirable, the make- 

 shifts to secure them are often attended with a great amount 

 of labour, and not uufrequently with injury to the permanent 

 plants of the house. We have seen Strawberries taken from a 

 series of shelves iu an early Peach-house, that would have 

 much more than paid the labour and fuel in forcing the house, 

 without the value of a good crop of Peaches in addition ; but 

 though the shelves were removed before the Peaches began to 

 ripen, the shade of the shelves in tha earUer part of the season 

 did nothing to add to the vigour and robustness of the trees. 

 A good Strawberiy-house, such as that at Enville, or the kind 

 recommended by Mr. Ingram, is very desirable when it can be 

 obtained. Such houses could be used for many purposes when 

 the Strawberry season was over. 



Orchard-Iioii.sea. — Kept them open night and day when we 

 could do so without dread of winds. The trees on the wall 

 have been tied to the nail-studs, and most of those in pots have 

 been staked and set in their places. Few buds as yet are 

 showing signs of opening, and they will be early enough. It 

 is easy to bring them on rapidly, if wanted, after the fruit is 

 ^t, by early shutting up. An enthusiastic amateur told us 

 the other day that his trees were coming into bloom. We 

 would rather that rude March would show a little of the temper 

 he was in before the blooms in unheated houses opened. If 

 the weather should continue mild, or no more frost occur than 

 we have had, he will be all right with his early-blooming trees. 

 If a severe frost, say of 20° below freezing point, should come 

 in March — and that has been the case in times gone by — the 

 only safety for such trees would be a close, still atmosphere at 

 night, and, if danger were apprehended, a few small charcoal 

 stoves in the Iiouse. An Amott's stove, a small flue, or even a 

 hot-water pipe in such houses, will be useful in such an emer- 

 gency, if used at no other time. 



The first quiet dull day that we can spare the time, the trees 

 will all be syi-inged with the sulphur-and-lime mixture alluded 

 to the other week. Very often these precautions do away with 

 being troubled with insects much dm-ing the season. Preven- 

 tion in all such cases is ever better than cure. The way in 

 which insects come to a place, or make their appearance, is 

 often as inscrutable as the breaking out of the dreaded rinder- 

 pest. We recoUect sometimes visiting two gardens about ten 

 miles apart. In one you could scarcely go through, especially 

 in the tropical houses, without getting mealy bug on yom- 

 clothes if you brushed accidentally against the plants. The 

 other garden was singularly free of this and of other insects. 

 All at once the mealy bug appeared in this second garden too, 

 although no new or fresh plant had been introduced for more 

 than a twelvemonth. One or two young men had gone from 

 the first to the second named garden in the course of the year 

 as visitors, and it is possible they might, quite unintentionally, 

 have carried a brood with them on their clothes. 



The rough-growing Figs in a low house are scarcely forward 

 enough yet to enable us to prune them, which pruning wiU 

 chiefly consist in taking out the worst-placed and most barren 

 of last year's shoots, and stopping with the thumb and finger 

 nails, or a sharp knife, the terminal bud when it is from i to 



1 inch in length. Went over trees in the Peach-houses, re- 

 moving the foreright and other shoots , and merely stopping a 

 number more, so as to give no sudden or severe check to the 

 growing powers of the trees ; we prefer removing these extra 

 shoots at several times instead of at once. The fruit being set, 

 we use a few evaporating-pans on the pipep now ; but in the 

 dull weather we use little fire heat, being content with an aver- 

 age temperature of from 50° at night to 55° during the day, 

 with a rise of from 10° to 20° from sunshine in bright days after 

 a little air has been given. When the day promised to be sunny 

 after frost, put on no fire in the morning, and thus a minimum 

 of cold air was only necessary to be admitted. There is nothing 

 more trying to early-forced plants of all kinds than the meet- 

 ing together of a fierce sun heat and a strong heat in the heat- 

 ing a'ppai-atus. Letting in a large amount of cold air under 

 such circumstances subjects the plants to another extreme. 

 Labour and cost may often be saved from a careful noting and 

 forecasting of the weather, which most people can do pretty ac- 

 curately at those places with which they are long and intimately 

 acquainted. 



0ENA3IEOTAL DEPAETMENT. 



Much the same as last week. Little doing as yet out ci 

 doois. — E. F. 



Death of Mr. Eobekt Osbokn. — We regi'et to have to an- 

 nounce the death, on Friday last, of Mr. Osborn, at the Fulham 

 Nursery. He was in his 8ith year. 



COVENT GARDEN MARICET.— February 24. 



Supplies coDtinue abundant, and the demand is good but not brisk. 

 Importations froui abroad are kept up, and consist of the same articles 

 as mentioned in previous reports. Black Grapes consist almost entirely 

 of Lady Doynie's and Barbarossa ; White, of Tokay, Trebbiano, and a few 

 Muscats. Pears for the dessert are scarce and confined to Beurre do 

 Hance and Easter Beurre ; Apples to Cockle Pippin, Nonpareils, Golden, 

 Knob, Fearn's Pippin, and one or two others. 01" Asparngns there is a 

 rather short supply ; but Rhubarb and Sea-kale are plentiful. It is 

 seldom there is any fluctuation in the price of Garlic, but the demand 

 which has sprung up for it as a remedy for the cattle plague, has trebled 

 the price and rendered it difficult to be had. Potatoes still pom* in in 

 large quantities, and there is a hea^■y stock on hand. 



FRUIT, 



Apples ^ sieve 2 



Apricots doz. 



CheiTies lb. 



Chestnuts bush. 



Currants, Red ^ sieve 



Black do. 



Figs doz. 



Filberts lb. 



Cobs .... 100 lbs. 

 GooaebeiTies. . ^ sieve 

 Grapes, Hambro lb. ) -.^ 



Muscats.... lb. I ^" 

 Lemons 100 6 



s. d. B. d 



6to4 











16 



























160 







18 



10 



























Melons each 



Mulberries. . . . punnet 



Nectarines doz. 



Oranges 100 



Peaches doz. 



Pears (kitchen)., doz. 



dessert doz. 



Pine Apples lb. 



Plums A sieve 



Quinces | sieve 



Raspberries lb. 



StrawbeiTies oz. 



s. d. s. d 



VEGETABLES. 



Artichokes each 



Asparagus..,, bundle 10 

 Beans Broad. . bushel 



Kidney 100 



Beot, Red doz. 



Broccoli bundle 



Brns. Sprouts.. i sieve 



Cabbage doz. 



Capsicums 100 



Carrots bunch 



Cauliflower doz. 2 



Celery bundle 1 



Cucumbers each 2 



pickling .... doz. 



Endive score 1 



Fennel bunch 



GarUc lb. 2 



Herbs bunch 



Horseradish . . bundle 2 



d. s. d 

 6to0 

 14 

 



4 

 3 

 

 

 6 

 



Leeks bunch 



Lettuce .... per score 

 Mushrooms. . . . pottle 

 Mustd. & Cress, punnet 

 Onions . . . .per bushel 



Parsley ^ sieve 



Parsnips doz. 



Peas quart 20 



Potatoes bushel 



Kidney do. 



Radishes ..doz. bands 



Rhubarb bundle 



Savoys doz. 



Sea-kale basket 



t^haUots lb. 



Spinach bushel 



Tomatoes ^ sieve 



Turnips bunch 



Vegetable Marrows dz. 



TO CORRESPONDENTS. 



*,• We request that no one will write privately to the depart- 

 mental writers of the " Journal of Horticulture, Cottage 

 Gardener, and Country Gentleman." By so doing they 

 are subjected to unjustifiable trouble and expense. AU 

 communications should therefore be adchessed Kolely to 

 The Editurs of the Journal of Horticulture, dc, 171, Fleet 

 Street, London, E.G. 



Rabbit Trap.— B. T. wouJd be obliged by the description of a trap to 

 catcb rabbits. He finds MUes's vermin trap of no use for catching 

 rabbits. 



