480 



JOUENAL OF HOBTICULTDIiE AND COTTAGE GAIIDENEB. 



( Juno 26, isas. 



when it lies a day or two, whilst thoBe picked carefully before 

 they are quite ripe, will keep well some days, and always 

 travel better. The very hot days the other week will prevent 

 as gathering in one house for so many weeks as nsual, but the 

 bright sun has given a lino colour to the fruit. Thinned out a 

 few of the smaller thoots and leaves from the pretty-well un- 

 trained Fig plants in tho pit, that more light and air should 

 reach the fruit. We beheve that often a Fig is scorched into a 

 flavourless thing when exposed fully to the sun, but then the 

 shade of the leaves should not be too dense. On some trees 

 out of doors not touched at all as yet in tho way of pruning or 

 regulating, the crop seems to be verv heavy, and is swelling 

 fast this moist weather. 



Cherries out of doors are changing and becoming soft enough 

 for the birds to be at them, and so must bo netted. Have 

 gathered for ten days some nice dishes from the coolest 

 orchard-house, and earUer from the other, which we keep a 

 bttle closer by shutting it up earlier. We have only had one 

 thrush inside as yet; if birds visit under glass wo must net 

 the ventilator-openings. 



Cherries are one of tho fruits from which great gatherings 

 can be had from pots, and the trees will bear heavilv for years 

 whilst scarcely increasing in size; but thev must have plentv 

 of water, and the water must not be stagnant. One or two of 

 our httle plants that produced heavilv for some years, have 

 shown signs of weakness this season' in not setting heavy 

 crops, though the bloom was abundant. For that time the 

 plants have been lifted out of the soil overv autumn, breaking 

 any roots through tho drainage holes, and then thev were weU 

 watered, and before winter the surface soil was picked and 

 scraped off and fresh compost added, and this, with the exception 

 of watering, is all tho trouble they have occasioned. Once or 

 twice during the summer they are mulched with rotten dung. 

 ^\e would use horse-droppings, but we do not Uke to be troubled 

 with the com that grows from them. If we can make the oppor- 

 tunity we have some thought of repotting all these productive 

 plants in the autumn— that is, to take the ball out, carefully 

 reducing it with a pointed stick or the finger, and to replace it 

 mth fresh compost in the same-sized pot; and wo would do 

 this if we could as soon as the buds were firm, and the leaves 

 iad a good deal of green on them, as we should Uke the rooting 

 process to go on at once. Merely on account of watering, 

 were we sole regulator in the affair, we should be inclined to 

 plajit them out, and keep them within bounds by root-pruning ; 

 but for amateurs with little space there can be nothing more 

 simple and pleasing than pot culture, and a smaU plant wiU 

 produce nicely in an eight-inch pot, as weU in proportion as a 

 larger plant wiU do in a li or IS-inch pot. 



Urchard-lwwics.—Vfeiit regularly over the trees in a wet day, 

 greatly thmnmg the fruit, and most Ukely leaving too many, 

 this thinning being the best security for carrying Peaches and 

 Nectarines over the stoning without dropping or other signs of 

 distress. Nipped out the points of the shoots, and thinned 

 them so as to let them have a fair amount of sun and air, and 

 to keep down red spider. Washed again with soap water and 

 iTishurst, treated as described tho other week. Though after 

 such a regular washing we could with a glass detect scarcely 

 one insect alive, in two or three days we could detect by the 

 same means, when carefully looked for, a few whitish-coloured 

 ones showing that they had not been long hatched into life. 

 LntU the very hot weather about ten days ago, wo had scarcely 

 seen a trace of red spider this season, and began to think that 

 lor one season it was going to give us no trouble. Its first 

 appearance was in the Peach-house, on a part of a tree that 

 comes quite close to the heating pipes, and which arrangement 

 wo cannot alter without pulling the whole old concern to pieces, 

 and then we know it is so rickety that though it may stand if 

 let alone, it will never be fit to put up again. This part of a 

 nat pipe was heavily coated with sulphur, and bricks were 

 placed on it flatwise, also encrusted and lined with sulphur ; 

 but, nevertheless, here for the space of a couple of square feet 

 the marked appearance of the leaves told of the enemy, whilst 

 j'^l' °^ *'"' ^°^^^ seemed untouched. This part was all 

 sponged, but that did not quite arrest the insect, though even 

 now there is Uttio appearance of it in the house, and it will be 

 easy to destroy it when the fruit is aU gathered. The orchard- 

 house is very near this Peach-house on the same wall, and we 

 have no doubt tho insects went from the one place to the other, 

 unless the heat hatched some eggs that all our washings, etc., 

 nad left to live on through the winter and spring. 



As a proof of how easily such insects may be carried from 

 one house to another, and from one garden to another, we may 



repeat what was before stated, that some Strawberry plants in 

 the Peach-hoQse began also to show signs of the visitors, and 

 on watering them on a raised ehclf, one of our young men ob- 

 served something like the finest dots of sand on the sleeve o( 

 a light dark coat. These were so small, that with tho naked eye 

 we could notice no movement ; but when examined through a 

 microscope we could see in motion the tiny limbs of very small, 

 young, white-coloured red spiders. Of course we took out the 

 Strawberrv- j)lant3 carefully and syringed the house where we 

 dared on account of the Peaches, and still the first part of 

 the house affected continues to be the place where more tbui 

 traces can be seen. AVhen taken in this young state these 

 insects are more easily destroyed, and were it not for the suc- 

 cessive broods produced so quickly and in such abundance, it 

 would be no great matter to keep a place free of tbem where 

 washings can be resorted to. We mention this about the sleeve 

 of the coat to show how easy it is to carry these insects even 

 by our clothes from one place to another, and wo do this the 

 more particularly because some friends have been inclined to 

 make merry and joke at a statement of ours, that insects were 

 often taken from one garden to another by the clothes of 

 visitors. We have no doubt that in a nice warm day these 

 young Acari would have lived for hours on the sleeve of the 

 coat, and if the wearer had gone to a garden five or ten 

 miles off, and accidentally brushed against some branches or 

 leaves in the houses so as to dislodge tho tiny dots, that there 

 at once they would consider that they had happily come into a 

 rich feeding ground, and would take possession accordingly. 



There are a few gardeners who, either on the untidy Mrs. 

 McLarty's principle of " I canna be fashed," or from the 

 foohsh pride that would tempt them to be independent of ap- 

 pearances, make a sort of apologetic boast when they visit 

 another garden — " Oh, I just started as I was," not sensitive 

 enough to perceive the fact that the gardener visited would be 

 ashamed when in their company to meet a respectably-dressed 

 person. A slight regard to our own self-respect — the feeling 

 that enables a working man to plant his foot more firmly on 

 the ground, and bear his head more upright when he is clean 

 and fresh in person and clothing ; tho respect for our neigh- 

 bour, that ho should not be ashamed of our appearance, what- 

 ever company might be with him ; aye, and the fact of the 

 insects on working clothes above referred to, ought to induce 

 us when we visit not to go out " as we are;" not by any means 

 as dandies, and gilded popinjays, but clean and respectable in 

 our aj^pearance, and in garments different from those in which 

 we perform our usual work. 



Viiit-rie.^. — We have as yet seen no trace of insects here, 

 though they have never been syringed ; but we must not be 

 too confident that they will not come, and yet from the time 

 the fruit has been cleared from each house, they have scarcelj 

 been empty of plants, except when the houses were washed. 

 We have just been taking out most things, as little light can 

 now reach them from the roof. In tho first division. Sweet- 

 waters are ripening, and some Hamburghs beginning to coloor, 

 and from this house wo will now clear everything as soon as 

 possible, in order that we may keep the atmosphere drier, and 

 as under-crops in the other succession-houses, we will place 

 Ferns, and fine-loaved Begonias, Sec, where enough of light can 

 bo obtained for them. The front of such houses with front 

 glass is a capital place for Gloxinias and Gesneras, provided 

 the glass is dulled a little higher than the flowers of the former 

 and the foliage of the latter. Watered the Vines against the 

 back wall of such houses with manure water, and threw soma 

 soot and superphosphate on the border out of doors, where the 

 rains would wash them into the border. Proceeded with the 

 first thinning of the late house — a work of great labour amongst 

 so many bunches, though only one bunch was left to a shoot. 

 In order to have a great supply, we have allowed the Tines 

 pretty well to cover the roof, instead of confining them to the 

 rafter, a system which answers that purpose very well as to 

 quantity and weight ; but it is much against growing man; 

 plants in pots beneath the Vines, after the leaves of the latter 

 keep out so much light from the floor. 



ORNAMENTAL DEPARTMENT. 



Out of doors the work has chiefly been mowing, sweeping, 

 rolling, weeding. Sec, when the weather would admit of it. 

 Potting, tying, and propagating in-doors, especially when wet, 

 such plants as alluded to a fortnight ago. Thiimed HoUyhock 

 stems, some for cuttings ; planted out half-hardy annuals ; 

 sowed hardy annuals for succession. Mignonette for autumn, 

 and in pots for early winter ; potted Chrysanthemums, aod 



