430 



JOURNAL OF HORTICULTURE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. 



I Jano 1, 1876. 



former beauty. On the outside of the garden were other ranges 

 of epaa-roofed houses devoted to the culture of Pines, Fernp, 

 stove plants, arid the general run of greenhouse plants. In 

 the stoves Gardenias were grown extensively, and they were in 

 fine condition. Large quantities of cut flowers are required, 

 and for this purpose appropriate plants are cultivated to meet 

 the demand, which occurs to the greatest extent from Novem- 

 ber until .January. One house with shelves near the glass was 

 used expressly for Strawberries. 



The garden is surrounded with well-built walla about 12 feet 

 high, and covered with a fine collection of healthy fruit trees. 

 It is not exactly sqaare, but about twice the length north and 

 south as it is east and west. This gives a greater proportion 

 of east and west walls than it does of north and south. The 

 colleclion of Pears is choice and extensive, and Apricots are 

 largely grown. The Peach wall is protected with a coping of 

 glass, which projects about 2J feet from the wall, and hexagon 

 netting is hung in the front of the trees. They were in robust 

 health, and a fine crop of fruit was set. My friend Mr. Pearson 

 of Chilwell has many times condemned this system of Peach- 

 growing on the open walls; but while such results can be ob- 

 tained as are realised at Belvoir, and with such a season as 

 the present one. Peach-growing on the open walls will maintain 

 its ground despite what may be said to the cjntrary. 



The soil of the garden is naturally most uusuitable for ordi- 

 nary garden purposes, it being a cold clay, and the work of im- 

 proving it has been a long and heavy task. Year by year small 

 portions of the subsoil have been brought to the surface, and 

 all sorts of eombuatible materials have been charred and added 

 to the ground. 



Along the main kitchen-garden walks are broad herbaceous 

 borders, where many a onoe-daspised plant is nursed and cared 

 for. Id the reserve garden Mr. Ingram had a strong army to 

 fall back upon in case of gaps being made in hia beds by the 

 enemy. Hyacinths, Tulips, &c., are allowed, I believe, to re- 

 main in the reserve ground for two years, and when taken to 

 the flower garden they bloom quite equal to imported bulbs. 

 Among the herbaceous plants I noticed Corydalis nobilia, 

 Doronicnm austriacam, Erodium manescavi, PotentUla Douberi, 

 aud many others that I had not time to note. 



I have given but a faint idei of this princely place, but 

 majestic as are the gardens the cultivator is more than equal 

 to the task. I received a large amount of courtesy, and my visit 

 to Belvoir will long remain a bright spot in my mem Dry. — R. 



KIDNEY BEAN CULTURE. 

 I iiAY add just a line or two to your correspondent's excel- 

 lent notes. I use roots mainly (of course I am obliged to 

 use seed oocajionally whea the roots are too large from age, 

 which they are after some three years or bo). I prefer them 

 for two reasons: first they came sooner into bearing — that is, 

 plants from seed and roots, both being above ground on the 

 same day, the rojt plants v/ould be in flower from eight to 

 fourteen days earlier than the seed plants ; and another ad- 

 vantage is that they flower in profusion earlier too. The second 

 reason is that they are not, as a rule, so rank in growth, being 

 shorter-jointed, and therefore more beans in a given space. 

 By following Mr. Taylor's method by growing them in pots to 

 prolong their season one-year-old roots may be used to advan- 

 tage, or even two-year-old roots if not too large, for only the 

 small extremities ought to he out off. The roots keep best 

 in what we term here a " pit," the same as Potatoes are stored 

 in, but the frost must be entirely excluded, for the least frost 

 is fatal to Kidney Beans just as to Dahlia roots. — Geoboe Lee, 

 Market Gardener, Clevedon. 



THE PEA WEEVIL. 



I oATHEE from an answer in one of your contemporaries and 

 from such books as I have access to treating on the subject, 

 that the habits and history of this insect are not perfectly 

 known to entomologists. 'There ought to be no diftioulty in 

 following it up if it is looked for in the right quarter, and I 

 will give one or two facts which may possibly assist in direct- 

 ing attention there. Examine Beans or Peas in March which 

 have been harvested in au infested spot during the previous 

 Bummer (not late in autumn), and on some of them will be 

 Been little round light-coloured spots not much larger than a 

 pin's head ; they are easiest found on Broad Beans, some of 

 which have two such spots, but generally only one. There is 

 no hole vieible ; the outer ekin is, as far as 1 kaow, perfect, bnt 



as soon as this is cut the infect, if arrived at maturity, will 

 escape with almost as much vitality as it possesses at the pre- 

 sent moment on the Pea leaves. Whether the seed is eown or 

 not the insect makes its escape in spring — generally, I think, 

 in April. Early-sown seeds are not hurt by it, probably be- 

 cause they germinate too scon for the perfect development of 

 the insect ; neither are late-sown seeds (unless supplied from 

 a midseason crop close by), because the insect has escaped 

 and probably perished before being placed in a suitable medium. 

 Seed more than one season old is of course perfectly free. The 

 above facts, I think, will suggest looking in the neighbourhood 

 of the flowers of the Pea and Beau for a certain portion of 

 this insect's history. — William Taylor. 



[Every gardener must have observed the edges of the young 

 leaves of his Peas and sometimes of his Beans eaten away in 

 scollops or semicircular pieces. This is often 

 done by the Sitona tibialis, but still more 

 frequently by another of the short-snouted 

 beetles, the Lined Weevil, Sitona lineata of 

 some naturalists, and Curculio lineatus of 

 others. In Scotland it is commonly called 

 " the Cuddy," or Donkey, from its grey 

 colour. In our drawing it is magnified, but 

 the line by its tide shows the natural length. 

 The whole body ia grey, and marked with 

 black lines ; the antenna) reddish ; the eyes 

 black. Mr. Spence found five or six upon a 

 Pea seedling. They survive the winter shel- 

 tered beneath moss, &a., and in bad weather 

 at all seasons retire undor stones only to re-appear with the 

 sunshine.] 



Fig. lie. 



EAKLY WfilTERS ON ENGLISH GARDENING. 



No. U. 

 EDWARD LISLE. 

 Edwabd Lisle was the only son of Sir William Lisle, and 

 born in 166G. He was a justice of the peace in Hampshire, 

 where he settled at Crux Easton, about the twenty-seventh 

 year of his age, and in 1U0.S or IG'Jl. He immediately deter- 

 mined to make the study of agriculture one of the chief amuse- 

 ments of his life. In pursuance of this resolution — not only in 

 thfl neighbourhood whore he lived, but in his journeys either 

 in Dorsetshire (where he had property) or to Leicestershire in 

 visits to his father-in-law. Sir Ambrose Phillips of Garenton, 

 or to his own estates in 'Wiltshire and the Isle of Wight — he 

 made it hisbn^iaesa to obtain informition from the most reput- 

 able farmers. 



He was a decided anti-Malthusian, for he had twenty children, 



seventeen of whom survived him. He died in 1722, and was 



buried at Dibden on the 18th of June in that year. As he 



died intestate we have been unable to trace the disposal of his 



property. A marble tomb marks the place of his sepulture in 



Dibden churchyard, for the brief inscriptions on which we are 



indebted to the rector, the Rav. Edward Carlyon. 



*' Here lies inter'd 



Edwabd Lible of Crui Eastou in this County, Eeqre., 



Who was snatch'd from his neighbours. 



His wife, cbiliiren, and country. 



By a lit of Apoplexy, 



Lamented by all, 



Jane 19th, iu the Year of our LoriJ 



1722, 



Aged 56." 



" Here lyeth ye body of Mary, 



The relict of Edward Lisle, Eeqi-e., 



Late of CrQS Easton in this County, 



Daughter of Sir Ambrose Phillips, 



Late of Jarrenton, in the County of Leicester, 



She departed this life the 



7th day of August, ad. 



17-19, in 



The 77th yeai- of her age." 



He continued gathering notes relative to the cultivation of the 

 soil until the time of his death, and evidently intending to 

 publish them, for he had prepared an index of them. "That 

 intention was carried out by his eldest son Dr. Thomas Lisle, 

 who dates the preface in 1750 from Burckre in Hampshire. 

 The volume is entitled " Observations in Husbandry, by Edward 

 Lisle, Esq., late of Crux Easton, in Hampshire, 1757." 



There is a chapter devoted to the " Orchard or Fruit Garden," 

 iu which are notes from Cook and other authors, but also hia 

 own observation. Thus he states, " I went with my gardener 

 into my crab-stock nursery to choose some stocks for grafting 

 on. Some I had raised from crab kernels, but had never been 



