October 14, 1869. ] 



JOURNAL OF HORTICULTURE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. 



30.7 



this pond last year— I do not say in the water, for I believe the 

 pond was dry, like most others, at that time. 



Retracing my steps a short distance, I entered the kitchen 

 garden, which is well cropped with the best of vegetables. A 

 large piece of Henderson's Short-top Beet was a beautiful sisht, 

 level as a die. all the leaves from 3 to 4 inches high, and 

 not " a rogne " amongst them. The roots were of uniform size, 

 4 inches in circumference, and of a fine dark colour. This is 

 just the sort for a nobleman's table. Onions were remarkably 

 good, larger than the general run this year. 



Frnit of all kinds has been very plentiful, with the exception 

 of Peaches, Nectarines, and Apricots, which have not been a 

 good crop anywhere. 



1 next entered a span-roofed stove, 50 feet by 12, in which 

 there was a collection of plants, including Orchids, Ferns, and 

 other choice plants in a thrifty condition. Blooming and hang- 

 ing in graceful profusion from the roof were Cissus, Allamandas, 

 and Passiflora princep.', affording a delightful shade to the 

 plants beneath them. The stove is heated by hot-water gutters, 

 which create a humid atmosphere in which almost all stove 

 plants luxuriate, and on one of these gutters Mr. Short has 

 contrived a lot of boxes, 9 inches wide and C inches deep, half 

 filled with sand, with moveable squares of glass to iit at the 

 top, and which work in a grove for the purpose of giving air, 

 &o. As Mr. Short said, " These boxes are just the things for 

 striking anything and everything requiring heat." 



I then entered an orchard house 70 feet by 6 feet, well filled 

 with Peaches, Nectarines, Apricots, Plums, Figs, &c., all planted 

 out and in good health. Unfortunately, this house is not 

 heated, and as with almost all other orchard houses without heat 

 in the blooming season, the crop has been almost a failure. 

 Mr. Short proposes having a flow and return pipe before 

 another season, and everyone else having such a structure 

 without the means of applying heat when the trees are in 

 bloom, should adopt the same precaution. 



The next house is a span-roofed greenhouse 50 feet by 14, 

 ready to receive a collection of Azaleas and other hardwooded 

 plants. Another structure 25 feet long by 15 feet wide, con- 

 tains a large stock of bedding plants coming on for next season, 

 all in excellent condition. In a vinery 50 feet long by 13 feet 

 wide, there was a good crop of fruit, chiefly West's St. Peter's 

 and some other old sorts. I believe Mr. Short intends plant- 

 ing some newer varieties ere long. The next structure was a 

 Peach house 50 feet by 13 feet, from which a good crop had 

 been gathered in June. Then there were a vinery 30 feet by 

 12 feet, of which the produce was just finished, and an early 

 ■vin«ry 30 feet, by 12 feet, which came in in May, the Tines 

 being pruned, and at rest. 



There are several ranges of pits heated by hot water, contain- 

 ing some good Pines, Melons, Cucumbers, Capsicums, etc., and 

 several hundred pots of Koses, Mignonette, &c., in good 

 condition for early forcing. A large batch of Strawberries in 

 pots, showed that they had been potted early and well taken 

 care of. 



Several fine rows of Sweet Peas divide some of the kitchen- 

 garden crops from the main walks, leaving a margin between 

 the Peas and Box edging for sweet-scented flowering plants, 

 such as Mignonette and Stocks. Mr. Short has a Gooseberry 

 — a seedling, I believe- with the fruit striped green and red. I 

 also noticed a row of Skimmia japonica well fruited. This, I 

 believe, is to be taken up for table decoration. 



I next entered Mr. Short's cottage, which is a square, sub- 

 Btantial building, facing the park, but just inside the garden, 

 with a flower garden in front taken out of the park. It is a 

 real gardener's cottage, being covered with Roses from top to 

 bottom. I noticed inside the dwelling that experiments were 

 going on there as well as in the most important parts of the 

 grounds. Mrs. Short has reared a very pretty seedling Pelar- 

 gonium, and has a young Oak tree growing in a vase of water, 

 the foliage and roots appearing quite healthy. Fancy the Oak 

 being made an aquatic. 



Various improvements are projected. A new kitchen garden 

 is about to be made, and the old one is to be cleared and planted 

 with choice shrubs. New carriage drives are marked out, and 

 there is a gasometer nearly finished, which is to contain gas 

 lor five hundred jets already fixed, and which will light the 

 three carriage entrances, the hall, the gardener's cottage, the 

 farm, stables, i-c. This will be a great boon to all concerned, 

 and a great saving of property in the end. When all the 

 alterations which are in progress, and those which are con- 

 templated, are finished, Flixton will boast of having one of the 

 finest gardens in the eastern counties, and great credit is due 



to Mr. Short, the head gardener, to whom the care and arrange- 

 ment of the gardens are entrusted. — J Perkins. 



P.S. — I forgot to mention that in the orchard is a large Oak 

 tree, the branches of which spread into three different parishes 

 —viz., Homersfield, Flixton, and St. Cross. The age of this 

 tree is not known, but its branches cover a circumference of 

 297 feet.— .J. P. 



GRUBS. 



In " Doings of the Last Week," by " R. F.," there are some 

 remarks on these annoyances, and I hope he will pardon me 

 if I venture to say that in those remarks there are some errors. 

 Firstly, " K. F." says that " the worst form of Cabbage grub is 

 the larva of the cockchafer." Here, I think, he is quite mis- 

 taken ; the larva of the cockchafer is a feeder chiefly on the 

 roots of the grass tribe. I have never found it in the garden 

 soil, unless on an old burnt weed heap, where grasses are 

 growing. It is, I believe, a disputed point whether these and 

 the larva of the crane fly or daddy-longlegs, also a grass-feeder, 

 feed on the roots of the grass tribe or on the soil in which 

 the Wheat or other grass may be growing ; the result is equally 

 the same— the death of the herbage. To this point I will 

 return presently. 



The eggs of the cockchafer are yellowish in colour. The full- 

 grown larva, over 2 inches in length, is really a disgusting 

 object, having a large yellowish-brown head, armed with very 

 formidable mandibles ; its six legs are very strong, placed near 

 the head, and are of the same colour as the head ; the rest of the 

 body is whitish yellow, except that towards the tail there is 

 generally a large portion, say a third, of the whole insect that 

 is brownish blue or blue in colour. It is invariably doubled 

 up on itself, so that the tail is, as it were, clasped by the legs. 

 There is no resemblance whatever between the larva of the 

 cockchafer and that of the crane fly ; the latter is of a uniform 

 brown colour, about IJ or 2 inches long, and about one-quarter 

 the diameter of that of the cockchafer, which is half an inch in 

 diameter. " K. F." is right in stating that the crane fly larv^ 

 have no feet, but I think they have a few prominences at the 

 head and tail which do duty for the same. 



Rooks greedily devour the larva; of the cockchafers, and so, I 

 suspect, do starlings, probably also blackbirds and thrushes ; 

 but our beautiful songster, the lark, is a grand enemy to the 

 crane fly larva3 when it has young, and I have seen its nest 

 with dozens of dead larva; strewed around. The cockchafer, 

 the perfect insect, I mean,' feeds very constantly in the day- 

 time, preferring the Oak and Maple ; the former is often 

 stripped by it. Here let me be just ; the sparrow is no favourite 

 with me, the idle vagabond prefers hopping to our fowl-yards 

 for food to searching for his daily bread, but during the cock- 

 chafer-time he devours not a few, searching for them under 

 the leaves of the Oak, stripping off their wing-cases, and feast- 

 ing on the dainty morsel, and I have often seen the ground 

 under Oak trees strewn with the wing-cases, and watched 

 master cock sparrow at woik. The cockchafer remains three 

 years in the larva stale. 



I have said it is a disputed point whether they feed on the 

 roots of the grass tribe or on the black earth in which the 

 grasses grow. I think the great number of larv;i> are in some 

 degree coloured by their food ; for instance, I have removed 

 green larv.T of the Syrphus, one of the fly tribe, from Currant 

 trees, where they were feeding on the green aphis, to a Morello 

 Cherrv, and in a day or two the black aphis food has percep- 

 tibly altered the colour of the larvfc. The fact that, if you crush 

 the crane-fly larv», the contents are black and earthy-looking, 

 also favours the idea that the earth may be its food, but with 

 underground livers it is difficult to decide. 



Supposing, however, that I am right in saying that the cock- 

 chafer larva; turn up their noses, if they have any, at Cabbages, 

 who are the wrong-doers ? One larva that acts in this way at 

 the present time of year is that of the various tribe of dart 

 moths. I hear the larviB of these moths are known among 

 gardeners by the name of " leather-jackets." Are these the 

 culprits ? A very clever gardening friend of mine says that 

 they are only to be got rid of by search and hand-picking. 



Of course, with many of our pests the surest method of 

 lessening them in the larva state, when they are usually most 

 destructive, is to destroy the perfect insect. Cockchafers are 

 BO easily collected by children in the daytime, and to those who 

 keep our feathered friends— poultry, are so useful as insect 

 food for them, that it pays to employ some children for the 

 purpose. The first throwing-down of a cockchafer amongst a 

 group of chickens is ludicrous enough. First, the horror and 



