Qiceries and Ansivers to Queries. 109 



With respect to garden men working over hours, I see no reason why 

 they should, without being paid for it at the same rtue as they are paid in 

 the usual hours of working. It is customary for men to begin early in the 

 morning to mow, but to give over when their hours are up. Also, garden 

 men in some places are taken off to other employment at very unseasonable 

 times : although it be but a day, or half a day, now and then, it is not 

 unfrequently attended with great inconvenience to the proper conducting 

 of garden work. 



I am well aware of the difficulty of fixing upon the necessary quantity 

 of men to be employed in every case, situation ami local circumstances 

 being so very different ; but, doubtless, some approaches may be made 

 towards fixing some certain data to refer to. 



I have been induced to throw out these hints, on purpose to draw the 

 attention of your correspondents to this subject, which I think of consider- 

 able importance, it frequently occasioning disjuites between gardeners and 

 tlieir employers. — An Old Gardener. 



A humane Mouse-trap. — A correspondent in a former Magazine (VoL IV, 

 p. 5 16.) complains of the cruelty of catching mice in a flower-pot, and 

 leaving them to perish by a lingering death, and recommends the employ- 

 ment of some speedier method of destruction. I have found that sinking 

 in the ground a common brown pickle jar even with the surface, with some 

 hog's lard or kitchen fat, mixed with some oatmeal well browned before 

 the fire, put in the inside under the neck or shoulder, and the jar half filled 

 with water, the surface of which must be covered with oat-chaff to prevent 

 their seeing it, is an effectual method ; for, when the mice are feeding, they 

 overreach themselves, and falling in, are drowned. If you think this answer 

 worthy of notice, it is at your service. — James Rollins. Dingle Bank, 

 Jan. 3. 1829. 



The Genus Phlox. — Sir, In answer to the latter clause of your corre- 

 spondent D. F.'s query in Vol. IV. p. 188., respecting the genus Phlox, I beg 

 to state that the greatest number of species and varieties of this delightful 

 and very ornamental genus, including P. formosa P. MSS., P. elegans P. 

 MSS., P. excelsa P. MSS., P. Lyoni P. MSS., P. cordata Elliott, and P. 

 tardiflora Penny in Hort. Eps., may be obtained at Messrs. Young's nursery, 

 Epsom. — Alpha. iVou. 10. 1828. 



Loudoii's Hortus Britdnnicus. — Sir, I have deferred purchasing a cata- 

 logue of plants these two years, in expectation of your Hortus Britdnnicus 

 coming out : when will it be published? — Ansiu. It has been delayed a 

 little by our absence on the Continent ; but it will certainly appear in the 

 course of two or three months. 



\5 ihe Baltimore Pippin in the London nurseries? — We are not sure 

 that it is in the nurseries, but it may be had at Cobbett's garden at Ken- 

 sington. 



Why do you so frequently confound Clapham with Clapton ? (See 

 Enci/c. of Gard., first ed., p. 1284., and Gard. Mag., Vol. I. p. 222., and 

 Vol. II. p. 248., &c.) From i/ou we expect more accuracy. — The numerous 

 errors of this description in our Encyclopcedia of Gardening are chiefly 

 owing to the state of extreme ill health in which we were when we pre- 

 pared the first and second editions of that work (the subsequent editions 

 are merely stereotype impressions), and partly, as in the case of names of 

 places and pei*sons in the Statistics, Part IV., to the want of data. The 

 errors in the Gardener's Magazine are inadvertencies, which we endeavour 

 as much as possible to avoid ; and we hope the longer we go on the more 

 we shall improve in this respect. 



Do you recommend keeping the pathways of hot-houses, where tropical 

 plants and fruits are grown, flooded with water during winter? — This 

 must depend on the temperature. We should think flooding could seldom 



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