July 16, 1874. ] 



JOURNAL OF HORTICULTURE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. 



G3 



Ground Vinery. — {Mrs. I. B. A.). — If you enclose thirty po3ta.:e stamps 

 with your addiesH, auJ order " Tha Vine Mftuual," you will receive it post 

 free, an! it coutaius all tho iuformatiou you seek for. 



Heap of Earth {F.J,). — Of no use except to improve the staple of heavy 

 soil. 



Destroying Insects by Hot Water (J. K.). — Immersing plants in 

 heated water to destroy insects is an old practice, and yet is but little adopted, 

 though mauy bli-^ht and insect-destroying compositions owe muoh of their 

 efficacy to the heat at which they are recommended to be applied, and at tho 

 same time it must be said a great doal of the injury resultiug from such ap- 

 plications is due to the high temperature of the solutions. It is difticalt to 

 say with safety the temperature of the liquid in which plants should be im- 

 mersed for the destruction of iusects. Green aphis is destroyed by a tempe- 

 rature of 12LI', and they require to be immersed for two or three minutes, 

 a time which acts injuriously on the tissues of softwooded plauts, and al^o 

 hardwooded plants in growth, though it does uo injury when the growth is 

 complete and the wood firm. The scale iusecta may be destroyed by syring- 

 ing the pUuta, laid on their sides, with water at a temperature of liU^; but 

 it will not do to immerse the plants even for a minute in water at so high a 

 temperature, as it injures tbeir soft parts, and the leaves fall from the 

 ripened growths. It is a subject that requires great caution, the state of the 

 plant being well considered. At best there is great danger of injury or loss 

 of plants. 



Brugmansia alba not Flowering (A. T7.).— Your plant certainly re- 

 quires a pot rather than a tub, its roots not beiug in a healthy state. We 

 should at one > have the plant removed and placed iu a pot — one that will 

 hold the roots after most of the old soil has been removed, repotting in 

 entirely fresh compost, providing good drainage, watering carefully, shading 

 from bright sun, and sprinklin'^- overhead two or three times with water until 

 it has recovered from ibe potting. Then expose it more fully to air and ligh'., 

 and shift into a larger pot wheu the otheris full of roots, and towards autumn 

 reduce the supply of moisture, and water so as to insure the ripening of the 

 wood. Iu winter the plant should be kept dry, but not so much so as to 

 cause the wood to shrivel, pruuing in spring to souud firm wood, aud leaving 

 three or four eyes of last year's wood. After it has made shoots an inch or 

 two long place it in the tub, aud it is likely you will have a good growth and 

 bloom. 



CoNSTRTTcriNG AND HEATING PiT (T. D.). — As your sashes areSfeet long 

 they will not allow of your having a pit 8 feet wide. The lights should have 

 a fall of 1 foot in 3 feet of width. Little less will do to insure the run-off of 

 rain water. Your back wall should be 4 feet 6 inches, and the front 2 feet 

 high; but if you have the tank iu front of the pit it will be necessary to take 

 the wall a foot higher, and that foot we should have ij inches thick, and 

 plastered with cement, which will give you a 4^-inch wall as strong as the 

 9-inch, and affnrd room for plants; iu fact, form a ledge 4 inches wide. A 

 wood tank would answer, but will be apt to wear out. It will need to be 

 6 inches deep to allow for the swell of the water, and should be S inches wide, 

 with IJ-inch division up the middle, and a waterway at the farther end from 

 the boiler of the same width as the others. In the length you name the tank 

 should have a fall to the boilerof about an inch, and the return water will have 

 that much of fall. If the tank be a few inches above the top of the boiler it is 

 BUttlcieot. Eighteen to 20iiches would be a good and suitable distance to leave 

 between the floor and the glass if low-growing plants arecultivated.orit would 

 answer for Cucumbers or Melons, but we should for these prefer 24 inches. 

 The tank will do covered with slates, and the floor of rough boards, but jou 

 will only in this case have bottom heat. For top heat we should have holes in 

 the wood that will allow of the heat from the chamber beneath rising through 

 funnels of wood; or 3-inch drain pipes will do, with a plug to close them or 

 let out the heat as required. If you have not soil on the boards it is likely 

 that sufficient heat will rise through the interstices of the boards to give yon 

 as much top heat as you will require. Aa you have so much wood we fear it 

 would no:^ be t^afe to have the furnace inside the pit with tho door outside, 

 but you may, if you can with safety, have it inside, and bo economise a con- 

 siderable amount of heat. 



Cdtting Melons (S, S. A, if.).— The Melons should be cut as soon as they 

 begin ripening, which may be ascertained by one or all of the following 

 symptoms : The fruit changing colour, its slightly cracking or showing indica- 

 tions of parting from the footstalk, and by its aroma. As soou as the latter 

 commences to be given off the fruit should be cut without delay, for it is the 

 best general evidence of a Melon being ht to cut. The fruit should be kept iu 

 a dry room; and when coloured throughout — every part of its exterior alike^ 

 and before it begins to show spots of decay it is at its best, and should be 

 eaten at once. 



Garden Inundated by Salt Water (East Anglia). — We presume you 

 wish to know what will succeed in your garden ground, the grass land having 

 recovered. The garden ground would grow the various kind of greens, as 

 Cauliflowers, Broccoli, Borecole, Savoy, &c., aud Turnips, and by uext spring 

 will bo available for most kinds of vegetable crops and fruit trees, accord- 

 ing to the amount of moisture falling in the meantime. It would be 

 useless, however, to replant fruit trees unless you can prevent by an 

 embankment a recurrence of the disaster. If the grass was destroyed we 

 should have the pasture broken up, and brought into good tilth by Septem- 

 ber, then sow it with Grass seeds. A suitable mixture per acre would be, if 

 the land is wet: — Poa fluitans, 4 lbs. ; Alopecurus pratensis, 2 lbs. ; Poa 

 trivialis, 4 lbs.; Agrostis stolonifera, 4 lbs.; Festuca loliacea, 4 lbs.; 

 F. pratensis, 4 lbs. ; Phleum pratense, 2 lbs. ; Lolium pereune (Pacey's 

 Perennial Ilye Grans), 12 lbs. We are unable to say that the above mixture 

 would suit your soil, as it may not be wet ; but if drained and otherwise not 

 subject to be overflowed, the land would be suitable for the better kinds of 

 Grasses aud Clovers. 



Strawberries for Light Soil (C T. S.). — Sir Joseph Paxton, though 

 not so early as som ■, is very good for early use. President for second early, aud 

 Dr. Hogg to succeed it. The last succeeds well on a light soil if the ground, 

 after being manured and deeply dug, has the surface made firm. IE you wish 

 for a later kind than Dr. Hogg, Frogmore Late Pine will suit. If you can 

 obtain well-rooted runners, July is the best time to plant; but wo have 

 planted early in August with very good result3. 



R.visiNG Hyacinths from Seed {\V. S.). — The seeds may be sown in 

 September in light sandy soil, and covered to the depth of half an inch, 

 sowing un a warm sheltered border, and protecting in winter from frost; or 

 you may sow in a pan or box, and place in a greenhouse, keeping moist, but 

 we prefer outside. The following year, when the leaves die down, cover the 

 bed with an inch of ^oil, and the year following in September the bulbs may 

 be taken up, and planted singly in rows 9 laches apart, and 6 inches from each 



other in tho rows, planting 2 inches deep, and covering with an inch of leaf 

 soil on the approach of frost. Tho bulbs may remain in this bed with the 

 annual mulching until they flower, or they may be taken up anuually and 

 replanted. They bloom in from three to five years after sowiug. 



Alyssdm saxatile coaiPACTU.\i FOR Spring-flowering {Sprinfj Garden) 

 — If this was BOflTu early iu Juue.tho plants should now be pricked-out in rich 

 light Soil 3 inches apart iu rows ti inches from each other, shading them until 

 ostablishad. If planted out in autumn they will flower nest spiiug, but not 

 BO well as plants that are a year older. We prefer them two years old. 

 Mr. Luckhurot, you would see last week, had more notes on plants lor spring 

 gardening, and will no doubt enumerate the plants you name— viz., the above 

 as the best yellow, and Iberia sempcrvhoua as the best white. 



Weight op Pgachgs (B. A.}.—\Ye have known a Late Admirable weigh 

 13 ozs., and a Salway 19 ozs. 



Caladidms, &c. [W. H. D.). — The leaves of the Caladiums from the Cor- 

 covada Mountains ai-e very novel, especially that with the white and crimson 

 ribs. The Scolopeudrium vulgare variety is the most densely crisped of the 

 variety digitatum we ever saw. We cannot identify the shrubs from the 

 leaves only. 



Grapes Diseased [Nero). — They are both shanked and spotted. Water 

 the roots liberaUy twice a weak with tepid very weak manuie water. The 

 flowers were smashed by the p jst-offijo punches. You need not seud Begonias, 

 for we cannot name florists' varieties. 



Vine Leaves Spotted (-4 Subscriber). — The spots on the leaves and the 

 seven Grapes tell that the roots of the Vino are too dry. Water liberaUy 

 two or three times a-week. 



Pinks, Carnations, and Picotees Defined (M.). — Carnation, marks are 

 iu flakes, or ribbons, of colour, from centre to edge, and through the edge; 

 and the more dense these ribbons, or stripes, or flakes of colour are, and the 

 more diotinct the white grouud between them, the better, and the more 

 eijually divided as to quantity they are the better. As the petals are broader 

 as they approach the outer edge, so also are, or should be, both the colour 

 and the white. They are divided into classes, called Btzarres and Flakes ; the 

 former having two colours of stripe beside the white, the latter only one 

 colour. These Bizarres aud Flakes are subdivided, there being jjurplo Flakes, 

 rose Flakes, and scarlet Flakes; audamoug the Bizarres. scarlet Bizarres, which 

 have scarlet stripes, and a second c j1 our, which is considered better for a rich 

 contrist of black, and approaches to it; then purple Bizarres, which have 

 purple stripes, with a light pink, or rose, or some other colour, formiug a con- 

 trast. The Picotcc has the colour only on the edge, and broad or narrow, as 

 the case maybe, but ramifying towards the centre; any mark or spirt of 

 colour that does not touch the edge is a blemish. Some, therefore, are only 

 marked round the edge very distinctly, but as narrow as possible ; others have 

 a sort of feathering, narrow or deep, as the case may be, but feathering in- 

 wards from the edge; the outer edge solid, aud the inner edge rough or 

 feathery. The Pin'c is distinct from both these. The lacing, as it were, of a 

 Piuk 18 rough outside and inside, with a portion of white outside the laciug, 

 as if a band of colour had been laid on; besides this, there is colour at tho 

 bate of every petal, and, perhaps, one-third of the distance along the petal, 

 60 that it forms an eye, or centre, of colour, which is pecuUar to itself, and 

 which never occurs in the Carnation or Piootee. A Pmk without its laciug 

 all round each petal, and its narrow strip of white outside it, would be worth- 

 less as a show-flower. The more distinct this lacing is the better; it shoold 

 look like an even piece of embroidery, just fairly within the outer edge of the 

 white. 



Insects [West Cumberland). — It is impossible to determine by such small 

 shrivelled bits of plauts (without any insect) what the species of larva may 

 have been which is said to attack indiscrlniinately Onions, .Cauliflowers, 

 Broccoli, and aU other kitchen garden plauts. — I. O. \V. 



Name of Fruit (An Old Subscriber). — There is no doubt it is IMay Duke 

 Cherry, but this dry season has prevented the swelling of the fruit to ita 

 usual size. 



Names op Plants (H. M.).— Hypericum calyoinum, Large-calysed St. 

 John's Wort. It is a native plant and popularly known as Aaron's Beard, re- 

 ferring to its numerous stamens. (J. P.). — 1, Chrysanthemum coronarium; 

 2, send a specimen in flower. ( West Cumberland). — I, Centranthus ruber; 

 2. Tradescantia virginica; 3, Campanula sp. [T. P.). — 1, CyrtantheraPohliana 

 var, (Justicia carnea, Lind!.); 2, Sedum reflexum ; 3, Lilium Martagon, 

 [T. it/.).— Valeriana pyrenaica. {X, Y. Z.J.— l.Populus grandidentata ; 2, Alnas 

 glutinosa lacinlata. 



POULTRY, BEE, AND PIGEON OHRONIOLE. 



THK POULTRY-KEEPER.— No. 11. 



NOTES ON LA FLECHE FOWLS. 



The La Fleche of a fine strain, ia peculiar to Maine. Ita type 

 13 al\>'ay3 kept pure, especially in the euvirona of La Flecha, 

 where they practise the mode of fattening that suits them. Mr. 

 Lctruae, to whom I owe some of the information, thinks that the 

 origin of the La Flijche is unknown. Their reputation, he says, 

 may be dated from the fifteenth century according to some old 

 historians. I think, however, they have a more ancient origia. 

 It was in Mans that they had these beautiful fowls first, then 

 at Uijzeray, and then at La Fleche. Also they are known 

 under different names. Poultry-rearing has ceased for a long 

 time in Mans, it decreases at Muzeray, aud is not well kept-up 

 in La Fleche and the surrounding places. 



The La FK-che fowls are easy to fatten, are very hardy, and 

 rarely ill. They acclimatise themselves in whatever country 

 they are sent to, and the purity and superiority are easily pre- 

 served, provided promiscuousness is avoided, aud fresh blood is 

 introduced every now and then. They habituate themselves to 

 any food after they have attained a certain age, but they ought 

 at first to be fed with food something like that they have in 

 their native couutry. Bcought-up at liberty they do not roam 

 far, particularly if provided with grass. 



