General J^otices. 269 



sensitive plants, but, in general, all the species which are natives of 

 countries that, without experiencing severe frost, are cold enough, dur- 

 ing winter, to suspend the vital energies of vegetation. It will be per- 

 fectly within the gardener's power to keep the earth in which conserva- 

 tory plants grow sufficiently damp, during the winter, to enable them to 

 accumulate, by the return of spring, an abundant supply of new sap; 

 and this is all that he need be particularly reminded of, if he understand 

 his business scientifically: if he does not, advice to him would be only a 

 waste of words." — {Penny Cyc, Art. Conservatory, copied into Gard. 

 Mag.) 



Destruction of Insects by Manual Labor. — How often does one enter 

 a garden with the cabbages all dissected to shreds by caterpillars, and 

 the owner inquiring of every one for some recondite mode of killing 

 them; when, if he would offer to two or three lads a penny a quart for 

 all they could pick off', his cabbages would be cleared of every assailant 

 in a few hours; and in the same way he might have the aphides crushed 

 oflf any plant particularly valuable, and the caterpillars collected from 

 the gooseberry bushes, by shaking them suddenly over two or three 

 newspapers laid round them. Even on a large scale it might be Avorth 

 trying, if it would not answer, to employ boA's to brush off, with some 

 light kind of whisk, the aphides from hops, when extensively attacked, 

 on sheets spread below, when they could be easily collected and destroy- 

 ed : and if a few thousand ducks can clear a district of turnips from the 

 blacks, there seems no reason (seeing that, however fast the ducks gob- 

 ble, their stomachs have no great capacity, and must therefore soon be 

 filled,) why an array of boys, collected from the neighboring villages, 

 might not clear the land quite as effectually, and with little greater cost 

 in the end. The mischief is, that in England [and America, too. — 

 Cond.'\ we are prone to take it for granted that certain evils are irreme- 

 diable, without ever fairly trying to remove them. Thus, if our hedges 

 or trees are generally and extensively infested with caterpillars, we 

 should laugh at the idea of getting rid of them by manual operations; 

 and yet the French and Belgians, in similar cases, constantly ctiipjoy 

 such means; and, in fact, the municipal authorities every year enjoin, 

 by printed notices and fines for non-compliance, on the proprietors of 

 the land, echeniller, to cut off' [the points of the shoots infested] their 

 trees. Even the very Turks (in such matters less fatalists than our- 

 selves) have the good sense to send out whole armies to collect locusts, 

 and to destroy them (as mentioned in the papers in a recent instance) 

 by thousands of bushels. — (Extract of a letter from Mr. Spence, the 

 Entomologist, in the Gard. Mag.) 



Efficacy of Cotton in preserving Fruit. — We have been informed, by 

 a gentleman who has had practical proof of its success, of a new mode 

 of keeping fruits fresh for the table, as grapes, plums, &.C., a long time 

 after they have been gathered. It is simply to alternate them in layers 

 with cotton batting, in clean stone jars, and to place them in a chamber 

 secure from frost. A servant in the family of William Morey, Union 

 \illage, Washington County, about to visit her friends, secured a quan- 

 tity of plums in this way, to preserve them until her return. They 

 were found to have kept in excellent condition, long after the fruit had 

 disappeared in the garden. From the hint thus afforded, Mr. Morey, 

 Mr. Holmes, and one or two neighbors, laid down grapes in this man- 

 ner last fall, and they enjoyed the luxury of fresh fine fruit through the 

 winter, until the early part of March. (Cultivator.) 



Neiv mode of Destroying Jlnts. — Accident has furnished an ex- 

 cellent receipt for destroying ants. A merchant, whose warehouses 

 were infested by these destructive insects, remarked, on a sudden, that 

 they had deserted one particula room; and observation having con- 



