XoTember 18, 1869. ] 



JOtlBNAL OF HOBTICULTUBE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. 



405 



Alexandrine Bacbmeteff, Aona Alexieff, Beaaty of Waltham, Caroline de 

 Sansal, Cumte de Naateai], Comtesse de Chabrillant, Br. Eushpler, 

 Duchess of Norfolk, DuchcBS of Sotherlaod, EuRt-ne Appert. Frani,-ois 

 Premier, General Waebington, Jacques Lafitte, Jean Bart, Jules Mar- 

 triittin, Le Lion des Combats, Lord Itaglan, Louise Odipr, Madame Boll, 

 Madame Eugtnie VenUer, Madame Julie Daran, Madame FruUeaux, 

 Madame Yidot, Murechal Vaillant, Marie Dauvesse, Marquis of Ailsa, 

 Moneienr de Montigny, Pius IX., Senateur Vaisse, Triomphe d'Amiens, 

 Victor Verdier, William Jesse, Reine des Violettes,andPrince6se Mathilde. 

 Roses for a West Wall {Wm. M. J/.).— Yoa will not have room for 

 more than three plants, though if your wall is a high one, you may plant 

 them 3 instead of 6 feet apart. Having no sun until 2 p.ii , Acidalie and 

 Sir Joseph Paxton, both Bourbon, would suit, and Gloire de Dijon for 

 the best position. 



DcNO FOR A Hotbed {Idem). — Horse droppings from a stable where 

 sawdust is used would make good hotbeds, but heat violently, and 

 ought to be mixed with litter or leaves in equal proportions. The heat is 

 then more durable and less violent. 



Gathering Late Peabs (Anxious]. — Late Pears, however hard and firm, 

 should be gathered before they are frosted. If in pots under glass, they 

 may remain longer on the trees. When we have allowed late Pears to 

 have from 4" to 7 of frost, although they did not appear to suffer, we 

 always thought they kept the worse, and were deficient in fiavoor. 



Vabieoated Mangold Wurtzel {Dublin). — From your description 

 and what we see of the dried leaf of Mangold, the plant must have been 

 very striking. N >thing can be asserted as to the seed from the plant pro- 

 ducing others equally variegated without trying it. The root will be 

 quite safe anywhere in a dormant state all the winter, provided it is not 

 frosted or eaten by vermin. Plant out in spring, and when the ehoots 

 approach flowering, cover with gauze, so as to let plenty of light and air 

 in, and keep insects, &c., out. 



Photectisg Fruit Trees (E. H. .4.).— Your plan will do. We presume 

 you mean to have a wall-plate on the top of your S-feet upright pieces. 

 We would in the length of 100 feet have eight, the uprights stronger— viz., 

 4 by 3 Inches. The front glass would do of 16-oz., as hail seldom breaks 

 the front. We presume you will have ventilation at the top. Your house, 

 with the exception of not being so high in front, will resemble the cold 

 houses at Trentham. If we wanted to make the most of such a space of 

 glass, we would have the house wider, and lower in front. 



Heating a Vinery {C, Subscriber), —The best mode of heating your 

 house would be by hot water. A cheaper mode would be by a small 'flue 

 all the length of the house, or if you intended forcing much, having two 

 furnaces in the centre, and a flue right and left. The flue would cost 

 least at first, and much less for firing. Hot water, however, would be the 

 best. For such a house you would require two, three, or four 4-inch 

 pipes according to the heat wanted. 



Plum trees to which you refer, planted eight or nine years, that bloom 

 profusely but do not fruit, are a more intricate affair. As you have found 

 the roots of one tree 1\ foot deep, that might be the repson, if the wood is 

 strong and imperfectly ripened. If so, lifting and replanting near the 

 surface would bo the remedy ; but if the wood is thort-jointed and well 

 ripened, and the blooms when examined seem perfect, we should concludo 

 that the trees were suffering from poverty or want of moisture, and there- 

 fore we would make holes and water, and then surface-mulch. From 

 what we have said you will be able to judge. If the trees do not grow 

 strong and the roots are as deep as yon say, wo would, in preference to 

 raising and replanting, remove a part of the surface soil and mulch. 



Figs Bursting [Anxious). — WTien Figs are to be used at home we never 

 mind, for we rather like to see them cracking, and their rich amber juice 

 beading out. When the bursting is more than thin, it is generally the 

 result of drenching with water after comparative dryness. 



Vines in Ground Vineby {.IrrmfcKr).— All things considered, the Vines 

 in ground vineries being so strong and healthy, we would let them alona 

 for another year, as moat likely the shanking wtis owing to want of water 

 last summer. We would surface-mulch and keep the surface moist after 

 growth had commenced. 



Pit Painted Inside with Gas Tar (A. M.A.).—So long as the smell 

 remains it will not be possible to keep any growing plants in the pit. 

 There is no remedy but scraping off every bit of the tar. and that would 

 be easier done if you covered it with a thick wash of lime. This re- 

 peated once or twice may enable you to take the most of it off. If you do 

 not do something of this kind, the pit will be of no nse until the tar has 

 become thoroughly hardened by the sun of a following summer. Not 

 long ago a number of houses had to be emptied because the hot-water 

 pipes were painted \vith tar, and beautifully the pipes looked. We advised 

 a gentle heat in the pipes, oiling them well to soften the tar, and scrap- 

 ing it off— a very tedious business. Will any of our readers supply our 

 correspondent and ourselves with, a simple mode of neutralising or pre- 

 venting the fumes from tar '? 



Cocoa-nut Fibre Refuse in Stoves (L.).— We do not think that 

 cocoa-nut refuse is so apt to harbour woodlice, worms, &c., as tan or 

 decaying leaves. It is a very cleanly material in which to plunge plants 

 in a pit, and it retains heat wtll when given, but it is a bad conductor, 

 especially when at all dry, aud not good for making heat, or letting 

 heat pass. Thus, suppose there were some source of bottom heat, and 

 jou had 1 foot or 18 inches of cocoa-nut fibre over it, and the pots set on 

 it and partly plunged in it, they would have little bottom heat ; but if the 

 pots were placed on a mild heating turface, and packed round with the 

 cocoa-nut fibre, the heat would be retained about them. 



PiNUS austriaca (0. H.).— This will withstand wind well— so well, 

 that it is one of the best Conifers for planting near the seashore. For 

 high exposed places it would do well on the south side of a mountain, but 

 unless the soil were of fair depth on a hill side, we would not plant it in 

 nreference to the Larch or the common Scotch Fir. The heartwood of 

 Pinus austriaca is red, firm, resinous, and enduring. 



laoN Sto\'e (Idem).— The main pirts of your plate-iron stove are right. 

 If the stove become hot ejoutjh we have oo fault with the sand at the 

 sides. The great object should be to concentrate the heat in the stove, 

 and not to send it into the smoke-pipe. Your smoke-pipe is opposite the 

 furnace door ; in fact, rather below it. It would have been belter if tae 

 amoke-openinghad been as near the top as possible, and then the heat 

 would have struck against the top and sides of the stove before finding 

 such an ea?y exit. As you have too much heat in the pipe, and the fuel 

 bums too rapidly.you would lessen draucrht and economise fuel by having 

 a strong flat piece of iron 5 inches square, kept in position li inch in 

 front of your smoke pipe. Two iron spikes could go into the smoke-pipe 

 to keep it in its place. Meantime try what partly blocRiue-up your smoke- 

 pipe will do, by reducing it one-half with a piece of brick. Your great 

 error, however, is in haviny furnace and ash-pit doors not fitting closely. 

 When such a stove as yours is heated, and you merely wish a slow cou;- 

 bnstion to keep up a mild heat a long time, something like one-eighth-of- 

 an-inch opening in width, by 1 inch in length, in the ash-pit door, will be 

 snfiicient. On lighting and antil the fire gets hold, air must be giver, 

 and the smoke-pipe will become hot; but when vou shut up and reduce 

 the air to very little, the pipe will soon cool 4 or 5 feet from the stove, 

 whilst the stove will remain warm. With so httle air the stove wiil keep 

 warm after the fire has burned out. Before making the alterations in 

 your doors, just try, after the fire is fairly burning, what a 'ittle air for 

 draught will do, by daubing-up all the openings with stifi" clay or dough, 

 except such a small opening as referred to above, in the ashpit-door. 



Peach Tree for a Cold House- Plum Trees Unfruitful {A Kew 

 Subscriber).— We would recommend the Bellegarde Peach for your cold 

 house, and Elruge or Violette Hutive Nectarine for the batk wall. The 



Time for Pruning Vines (Idem). — Vines may be pruned as Boon as 

 the wood ia ripe and the leaves begin to fall and change colour. A Vine 

 several years old, like yours, should not be cut close into the stem, but to 

 a spur, leaving one or two buds at the base of this season's growth. As 

 respects a shoot of this season's growth, it should be shortened, and all 

 laterals cut off, leaving only the buds— that is, supposing the fruit is to 

 be produced on that young shoot next summer. 



Sowing Grape Seeds (Idem). — To raise plants from Grape seed, tho 

 seed should be separated from the pulp when the fruit is perfectly ripe, 

 washed, dried, and kept in a cool, dry, dark place until March, when it 

 should be sown, c:ivered thinly with soil, and the pot placed in a mild 

 hotbed, the seedlings being pricked-off into small pots as they appear. 

 Unless the flowers of the Grape were crosa-fertilised, there would be little 

 use in raising from seed. 



Ripening Tomatoes Artificially (Idem).— Tomatoes, full-sized but 

 green, will ripen in the kitchen screen, or any warm place. Cold and 

 wet will cause them to blotch and rust. 



Pruning Vines {W. W.).—The only object of leaving two buds instead 

 of one on a spur of a Vine in a ground vinery is that thus you have a 

 double chance of obtaining a fruitful shoot from the same joint. Leaving 

 both shoots if they both showed fruit, would depend on how the other 

 joints showed fruit. In general it would be advisable to leave only the 

 shoot with the best show, and rub off the other one, choosing, if possible, 

 the shoot nearest the main stem. This spurring system is the easiest, 

 but some succeed best with rod-training- that is, when the Vine is 

 established, shortening every bearing side shoot to one joint beyond the 

 bunch, training a young shoot from the base to fruit next year, and 

 cutting away the old one, just as you do with Raspberries. 



Pears not Fruiting (Idc7n).~~V^e think the Pears in the pots which 

 have not set must either have been too wet or too dry, when Peaches and 

 Plums set so well. Pears require more direct air when in bloom than 

 Peaches, but they do well with similar treatment to Plums. 



Grapes Red and Acid (HaJf Pai/). — We suspect this is chiefly owing 

 to the fact that the Vines have borne such a quantity of Grapes. Most 

 likely if you had left only a half or two-thirds, the Grapes would have 

 been all right. If, as a neighbouring gardener says, there is much red 

 spider on the Vine, and very likely he is right, then, if much infested, 

 that would to a great extent account for the bad condition of the fruit. 

 We are more inclined to think he is right, as the Peach leaf sent, though 

 we found no insect on it, showed that it had been well punctured by the 

 little red spider. If the Vine leaves have the same greyish dotted ap- 

 pearance as the Peach leaf, there would be no doubt about it. If the 

 leaves of the Vines are at all green, and the wood not well ripened, you 

 must not think of burning sulphur in the house as advised. That can 

 only be safelv done with deciduous plants when in a state of rest and the 

 wood thoroughly ripened, and therefore it requires judgment and expe- 

 rience. Besides, as the Grapes are now thin, the remaining bunches 

 may he better, and it would be a pity to lose them. The red spider when 

 full grown resembles in size the smallest grain of red sand, and can be 

 easily seen by young eyes on the under side of the leaf. Wherever you 

 see that grey-dotted spotted appearance as on the Peach leaf, you may be 

 sure that the litttle enemy is present. If, in addition, you see pieces of 

 foliage having a shining oiled-paper-like appearance, you may be sure 

 that the jumping thrips is with you— a small insect, not more robust, but 

 much larger than the red spider, and as difficult to eradicate. We may 

 here say, in passing, that the midrib of your Peach leaf showed marks 

 where scale had made a home for itself; one leaf of the Vine would 

 have made us more certain. From what you state, the only way you 

 can use sulphur now is as follows : — Shut the house or houses up by 

 three o'clock. Tnen take some large pots, say 12 inches in diameter, fill 

 them about half full with quicklime, pour on enough of water to slacken 

 and saturate it thoroughly, and then sprinkle over each pot about 1 oz. of 

 sulphur. For a U^Oae 30 feet long and 10 feet wide we would use two 

 pots. In the morning, sjringe freely wheie there is no fruit. This, with 

 less sulphur, is a good preventive in summer, ihis is very different 

 from burning sulphur. When the lime is very strong use less sulphur. 

 At this advanced season, however, your main remedy for next season 

 would be, as soon as the leavei fall, or are removed, to wash everything 

 in the house, as well as the trees, with soft- soap water at fully 150^ to 160', 

 and then paint the trees with weak Gishurst, or a paint of clay and 

 sulphur, using the syringe pretty freely next season after the fruit is set. 

 or weak sulphur fumes from hot-water plates, or other surfaces not hotter 

 than 160". See " Doings of the Last Week" lately. 



Planting Vines— Border— Vines in Pots (T. J. .If >.— As you are 

 only now making your border, we would allow it to settle until March, 

 before planting, so that there will be no risk of straining or cracking the 

 roots. The brick rubble at the bottom of the border is all right enough. 

 but that will not be suflBcient unless 50U have a drain besides, if there is 

 the least chance of stagnant water. The reversing of the green sods 

 over the bricks is all right, but the garden refuse we should consider the 

 worst material you could use, and the most likely to produce mildew at 

 the roots. A mixture of soil, half-inch bones, and oyster shells, is quite 

 right ; say five or six busheU of the former, and ten of the latter, for your 

 size of border, but one-tliird of dung would be out of place; one-twelfth 



