448 



JOURNAL OP HOBTICULTUBE AND COTTAGE GARDENEB. 



[ NoTombev 18, 1875. 



receive a fresh invasion from abroad or, it may be, a distant 

 part of tlie country, and for a time the new comer runs riot 

 everywhere. I have recently had an addition to our " weed 

 list " which may be troublesome. 



For many years we have been iu the habit of coating our 

 walks over with a Blight sprinkling of cockleshells obtained 

 from the seashore. The walk, being previously formed of 

 every conceivable substance that would act as a substitute for 

 gravel, is last of all slightly coated over with these shells, 

 which, if not in a broken state at the time, speedily get broken 

 np into fragments often not larger than wheaten chaff or bran, 

 and a comfortable path is the result, unless in places where the 

 weeds grow and the hoe is had recourse to instead of applying 

 salt. I may here remark that where the surface of the walk 

 has been made of a considerable amount of fine gravel or 

 sharp sand the hoe may be used without much harm on level 

 ground ; but on hilly walks, liable to flooding from thunder 

 storms and the like, it is not advisable to loosen the surface to 

 cause it to be carried to the bottom by flood water, and in that 

 case salt had better be applied. Now I have heard a good 

 deal said against salt and not a little in its favour, and both 

 may be right to a certain extent ; but I confess being an advo- 

 cate for salt in all cases where the foundation of the walk is 

 of a moderately porous character, but the continued use of 

 aalt has a tendency to destroy that porosity. My object, how- 

 ever, is not to show what evils salt may now and then do in 

 the way of soddening a walk, but to point out an instance 

 where it has brought a certain plant of its own with it, and 

 this, too, in the shape of a weed not met with formerly on 

 the spot. 



The plant I have to complain of is, I believe, an Arenaria — 

 a low-growing spreading plant, the seeds of which doubtless 

 have been imported with the shells, and being a seashore plant 

 it seems to glory in and relish the doses of salt given the walk 

 to destroy the natural weeds of the place, and it occupies a 

 site where it is not advisable to employ the hoe ; and I should 

 like to know if any other of your readers have been troubled 

 with it who have shell-covered walks and depend on salting 

 more or less as a means of destroying the weeds. We have 

 not been troubled with it iu many places, but where it does find 

 its abode it seems very tenacious of life. I daresay hot water 

 or some poisonous substance would kill it, but I have an 

 aversion to the latter substance, and we are rather too far 

 distant from a building to get hot water handy. Other noxious 

 weeds are destroyed, but in most places there are spots not 

 much trodden on by pedestrians, and it is in such places this 

 pest fixes itself, insidiously spreading itself along the ground ; 

 and though not more than 2 inches high is very dense, and its 

 small pale rose-eolomed flowers are not without then- beauties 

 to the botanists and others, while to the gardener the plant 

 shows itself where it is least wished for, and no doubt others 

 as well as myself would like to know how to expel it by 

 some easy process that would neither disturb the walk nor 

 incur much trouble of another kind. I may at the same time 

 remark that in absolute wear it is nothing like so tenacious of 

 life as Bearbind and many other kinds of weeds, but it is 

 nevertheless a nuisance that it would be better to be rid of, 

 ind a ready way to do it will be acceptable ; while at the same 

 time it would be well to ask if it is met with elsewhere on 

 walks that have had a covering of sea shells given them.—: 



J. BOBSON. 



THE LATE EEV. "WILLIAM HICKEY, M.A. 

 In our last issue we merely communicated to our readers 

 the intelligence that death had snatched this just and dis- 

 tinguished man from among us. We now proceed to give a 

 few particulars of his useful, retiring, but not undistinguished 

 tareer. On Sunday the 17th October he performed Divine 

 service in Mulrankin church with his usual vigour. On Friday 

 ue felt slightly indisposed, and gradually sank, suifering no 

 pain whatever, until the following Sunday, when he resigned 

 his spirit into the hands of his Divine Master, at the patri- 

 archal age of eighty-eight. His whole course of action has 

 oeen associated with the state and progress of Ireland during 

 .be last fifty years, and many of the schemes propounded by 

 iiim fur the benefit of its people — at one time, perhaps, eon- 

 ■jidered Utopian — have since been practically and beneficially 

 lealiscd. He was the eldest son of the Rev. A. Hickey, D.D., 

 rector of Maragb, county Cork ; was scholar of St. John's 

 College, Cambridge, where he graduated as A.B., and sub- 

 sequently took the degree of M.A. in Trinity College, Dublin. 



He was ordained in 1811, and appointed to Dunleckney, 

 diocese of Leighlin ; became rector of Banuow, in the diocese 

 of Ferns, in 1820; rector of Kilcormuck iu 1820; rector of 

 Wexford in 1832, from which he was promoted to the parish 

 of Mulrankin in 1834. Previous to his departure from this 

 town for the new sphere of his spiritual duties an address was 

 presented to him signed by all sects and parties — the late 

 William Wliitty, who had been selected the first Catholic 

 Mayor since the Reformation, heading the list, followed by 

 upwards of 130 names. The address was presented by the 

 late Dr. Eenwick (Hon. Secretary) in these words : — " It has 

 happily fallen to my lot to be the medium of conveying to you 

 the accompanying address, signed with an unanimity that 

 has never been exceeded, if indeed it has ever been equalled, 

 iu any community composed like ours of Protestants, Roman 

 Catholics, and Dissenters. Looking at the state of society in 

 this divided country, never was a higher compliment paid to 

 the character of any individual than this truly representative 

 address embodied; and never was the sentiment crci/i monu- 

 mentnm ir.re, pcrennius more faithfully exemplified than in 

 this instance." Therefore we need not add that as a parochial 

 clergyman he was highly valued by his flock; and in his 

 public ministrations, both as reader and preacher, hie capa- 

 bilities were acknowledged to be of the highest order. As a 

 wi'iter he early commenced to advocate the improvement and 

 social progress of his feUow countrymen. So far back as tho 

 year 1817 he published a pamphlet on " The State of the 

 Poor in Ireland." Afterwards appeared several letters from 

 his pen under the nom de plume of " Martin Doyle," by which 

 name he has been so generally recognised as an author. 

 "Hints to Small Farmers" succeeded those of "Martin Doyle," 

 and were read with deep interest, and the sequel proved with 

 signal advantage, by those for whose welfare they were written. 

 They were followed in rapid succession by the subjoined well- 

 known works : — 



" The Hurlers," " Common Sense for Common People," 

 " Irish Cottagers," " Plea for Small Farmers," " Address to 

 Landlords," " The Kitchen Garden," " The Flower Garden," 

 " The Illustrated Book on Domestic Poultry," " Hints on 

 Gardening," " Hints to Small Holders on Planting, Cattle, 

 Poultry, Agricultural Implements and Flax," " Hints on 

 Emigration to Canada," Hints on Health, Temperance, and 

 Morals," " Book on Proverbs," " The Village Lesson Book," 

 " Cyclopaedia of Practical Husbandry," " The Labouring 

 Classes in Ireland ; an Inquiry as to what beneficial changes 

 may be effected in their condition." 



He also translated from the French "Sermons by Monad," 

 and for a length of time was a regu'ar contributor to " Black- 

 wood's Journal of Agriculture," " Chambers's Journal," and to 

 various other periodicals of the day. In all these publications 

 he took the broadest philanthropic views, studiously avoiding 

 religious and political controversy. His latest production was 

 "Notes and Gleanings of the County of Wexford," a work 

 abounding with statistical facts and information. In con- 

 junction with the late Thomas Boyce of Bannow he started 

 the South Wexford Agricultural Society, and founded the 

 Bannow Agricultural School, which was the first of the kind 

 established iu Ireland. He was a member of the Royal Dublin 

 Society, and was awarded their gold medal in recognition of 

 the services rendered to Ireland by his teachings; and Govern- 

 ment in granting him a pension from " The Ijiterary Fund " 

 only endorsed the universal sentiment of the empire. For 

 mauy years he held the commission of the peace for the 

 county Wexford, and no man ever discharged its functions 

 with more fidelity. He died comparatively poor ; for, through- 

 out a lengthened ep.an not accorded to many he invariably 

 denied himself that he might be the better able to assist 

 others, and iu this lies his most effective and unfading eulogy. 

 — {Wexford Independent.) 



NOTES ON VILLA and SUBUBBAN GARDENING. 



Asp.utAGCS, SF.iiiALE, AND Ehoe.are. — With these the forcing 

 season may be said to commence, and I would say that there are 

 few things, if any, that can be artificially brought into use with 

 so little expense. A little trouble there must be, but that must 

 be thought little of in comparing the success that is likely to 

 attend the efforts to obtain the luxury of a few early dishes of 

 these delicacies at the most unseasonable time of the year. It 

 should be remembered that those who regularly practise the 

 system of forcing these vegetables pay much attention to tho 

 proper growth of the stools the year or more previously ; because 

 if the crowns are properly developed, and have well ripened off, 



