22— 1846.] 
THE GARDENERS’ 
CHRONICLE. 
357 
Wireworm he em. 
eake broken into pieces the size of a hazel nut, and 
sown with the erops. Rape dust will not do. The 
worms eat into the pieces of Rape-cake and it kills 
them. Cleanliness from weeds and frequent turning up 
of the soil prevent their increase ; buf as they are five 
years in the worm state they try the patience of both 
gardener and farmer. The above remedy, however, 
may be relied on.—C. C. 
The Fruit Crops.—l have at least 30 standard 
Apple.trees, besides 8 or 10 espaliers in my garden, 
good young trees, hitherto famous for the erops they 
yearly produc The blossom, though far short of 
What it used to be, is at the present time nowhere to be 
traced, part having dropped with the spur, and part 
having withered up by blight. Ido not at all exaggerate 
the evil when I say that of all those trees I do not ex- 
peet to get one single piece of fruit. Apricots I have 
e blossom never appeared at all, and the 
Strangest thing of all is that I have a profusion of small 
fruit, including Cherries. I never saw a promise of a 
better crop; and of these, the leaves, which in the 
Apple-tr we half eaten by the caterpillars, remain 
untouched, and seem quite unblemished. If in other 
parts of the country the fruit trees promise no better, 
the prospect for the autumn and winter supplies is sad 
indeed, and in the cider countries will be most ruinous to 
the small farmers. I live in the south of England, with 
very advantage of climate and situation ; bui I be- 
lieve from what I ean gather, that the swarms of 
insects with which we are infested have made less 
TAvages in the northern districts. —X. Y., Romsey. 
Disease in Cucwmbers.—Noticing in page 344, some 
account of a disease in Cucumbers and having myself 
deen pestered with an evil of a similar kind, I send the 
following aecount of its ravages, and the attempts I 
have unceasingly been making to arrest its progress, 
Having been a practical gardener for some years, I 
need hardly say that all ordinary methods to obviate 
the evil haye been resorted to. ‘The disease first made 
äts appearance in a pit heated by hot water flowing in 
aron pipes. The pits are about 54 feet deep, and in the 
first week of January were filled with manure from the 
farmyard, composed of $ cow, 4 horse, and about 
# pig manure. 
and 
With this material my pits were filled. 
When the heat had sufficiently. subsided, I planted my 
Cucumbers and Melons out on hills in the usual way. 
‘The plants grew freely for some time without any per- 
ceptible disease beyond looking rather yellow, which I 
attributed to the dull season, and thought they would 
soon recover ; but they daily got worse. By the middle 
of March, when they had set several fruit, the leaves 
became spotted, which increased ; the mid-vibs of the 
leaves being nearly or quite severed in two wherever 
the disease touched ; next the leaf-stalks, and then the 
Vine itself, together with the fruit, suffered. [have counted 
on a shoot a foot in length, 8 or 10 small specks, looking 
as if some burning acid had heen dropped on the parts 
in small quantities. - These kept burhing or eating their 
way further. I also tried a second pit filled with the 
‘same fermenting material, procured plants from a neigh- 
bour, and planted them in a different sort of mould, 
paying the greatest attention to them, and these are also 
sharing the disease, Finding it hopeless to expect good 
fruit from my first pit, I pulled the plants ont, and 
washed the pits with lime, removing the manure to the 
depth of about 3 ft., which space I this time filled with 
good horse-dung, When the heat had again become 
suitable, I planted young plants on hills all in new 
mould different from the other. These also soon began 
to show signs of the same disease, and 9-10ths of all the 
plants that I have raised in my pits have gone the same 
way, mostly after having been potted off, Moreover, 
a quantity of hardy ridge Cucumbers standing in 
the same pits. are, I fear, all going the same way, and 
for this month past I have daily been throwing strong 
though diseased plants away, the evil being of so burn- 
ing and penetrating a nature, that many of the vines have 
little holes more than half the way through them. From 
‘observatious I am led {to believe that the disease is 
caused by some destructive gas or salt arising from 
the fermenting material, and settling on different parts 
of the plant. Is this likely ? I should have stated that 
the Melons only suffer in a small degree, compared with 
the Cucumbers. Coekscombs, Capsicums, Tomatoes, and 
‘such like things do not appear to have suffered while 
Standing in the same pits, I am now trying Cucumbers 
out of doors, on slight hot-beds under hand-glasses, 
both in the shape of seed and plants, which I bope will 
be attended with better succe e [All this 
reads very much like over- watering.) 
Beech cut in Summer, Having been informed that 
Beech cut in summer was never affected by insecis, 
‘which is such a detriment. to that timber, and wishing 
to prove the trath of the statement, I had a tree cut 
down in June, 1831, and had it placed as a beam ina 
cottage, in which position it could be easily examined. 
It is now (May, 1846) as sound and free from insects 
as when put up.— 4. B. 
Polmaise Heating.—I have observed with much in- 
terest the discussion on the merits of the Polmaise plan 
of heating Vineries, and I think there is every reason 
to believe that though experience may produce useful 
modifications and improvements of it, the principles on 
which it is founded—the natural circulation within the 
house of a warm atmosphere, moistened by a self-acting 
Apparatus, and continually maintained in a state of 
Purity by the admission of fresh air from without, to be 
thrown into the house in a heated state by being passed 
through the air-chamber of the stove, and passing off 
naturally into the atmosphere from the top of the house 
after having performed its required function, and ex- 
pended its power, is a principle that looks very like a 
sound one. In visiting the Polmaise Vinery I was 
struck with the agreeable sensation experienced in the 
house, the air feeling light and pure, and the tempera- 
ture mild and pleasant, though the thermometer, as I 
observed with surprise, stood at 75°, and I could not 
but conclude that an atmosphere and a temperature 
thus salubrious and pleasant to the animal econom 
was probably equally so to vegetable life. It m 
be amiss to submit to your consideration : i 
of the Polmaise plan proposed by Mr. michael, the | 
late intelligent gardener there (who has now left that | 
place and profession and taken to farming on scientific 
principles), in a plan he gave me for heating a small 
Vinery and plant-house I proposed (making, of which 
the annexed is a sketch, which I hope may be under- 
stood. 
the wet blanket, as it has been called (but which is in 
fact a long web of coarse flannel, or what is called'in 
Scotland “plaiding,” not very thick or close in the 
texture), along the ba h 
air-flue, but continues the latter round the end of the 
house, in order to throw the warm air mor 
squares K 
for cold air f 
under the we 
gave for carry 
the house was, if I mistake not, that the d 
the original Polmaise plan he thought caus 
bottom heat by the passage of the still warm air from 
within the house.—J. §. H., Perthshire. 
I believe he still retains the Polmaise plan of 
k of the house over the warm 
forward. 
ng the cold-air flue 
1 too much 
E 
B 
VINERY 
22 or 24f6 i 
riu 
&. 
c 
belon 
Ea 
ft. square. 
ir flue of brick or deal. 
A, Stove, 
B, Warm. 
€, Cold; e, uare. 
D, Gratings admitting cold air, 
E, Outlets for warm air, 
Packing Plants for Transmission to Foreign Coun- 
fries. —T'he following is an account of my success in 
transmitting plants to New Zealand. The case in which 
they were packed was only 23 feet in length by lj in 
breadth, and 1 foot in depth at the side; the span roof 
giving it a depth of 2 feet in the centre, all inside mea- 
surement. The glass was well guarded by frame-work 
of strong wire. The top was attached to the body of 
the ease at one side by a pair of hinges, the other side 
having a lock and key. In the spring of the year I| 
planted in this little space upwards of 100 plants, such 
as Roses, Pelargoniums, Fuchsias, some culinary herbs, 
&e. &c., planting in rather light soil, with plenty of 
drainage ; of course the plants were small, most of 
them being cuttings of the previous autumn. They re- 
mained here with the lid open till the month of June, 
when I embarked. ‘The ease was allowed to stand on 
the quarter-deck during the passage, which was five! 
months, during which time I took advantage of mild 
weather to give the plants air by lifting the lid, more or 
less, according to the state of the weather, and to water 
as occasion might require ; likewise to pinch the top of 
those plants that were overgrowing their weaker com- 
panions. Out of the above number I managed to take 
upwards of 70 alive to the journey’s end. When our 
> 
> 
Fig, 1. 
ship reached Portsmouth, two more cases of plants were 
added to her quarter-deck. These cases were larger 
than the one just mentioned ; one was filled principally 
with Camellias, Roses, and a few Pelargoniums, all in 
small pots plunged in mould. The contents of the 
other were principally Roses and Pelargoniums, planted | 
out, and much stronger plants than mine were. We | 
had not been long at sea when the latter case was com- | 
mitted to my care ; I never took the top off, it being | 
fastened down with serews, but there was a slide in the 
end of the case which I occasionally took out in order 
to give a little water and to pick out decaying matter, 
ut I never took it out for the express purpose of ad- 
mitting air. The other case was (as far as practicable) 
made air-tight, by baving the laps of the glass and joints 
of the case puttied, and it was not opened during the 
passage. From this it will be seen that the three cases 
received different treatment, and although deaths oc- 
curred in all the three, especially amongst the soft- 
wooded things, such as Pelargoniums, which damped off 
in spite of every precaution, I am of opinion that the 
best method to be pursued in long journeys is to make the 
cases as air-tight as possible, and not to allow them to be 
opened during the voyage, especially if they are not 
under the care of somebody who understands the nature 
of the plants they contain. Some nurserymen attach a 
piece of tarpauling to the top of the case, so that it may 
be rolled down or up at pleasure, for the purpose of 
shading the plants in hot latitudes, but this I consider 
be an evil instead of a benefit, as the cover is 
liable to be left on at times, until, perhaps, the plants 
become sickly by being in the dark. No fear need be 
Fig. 2. 
g 
F, The walls. 
G, Warm-air valves 
g, Small cold-air valves. 
H, Ventilation for the natural exit of the warm air 
regulated by valves. 
entertained from a tropical sun, as the cases are on 
the quarter deck, and this part of the ship is always 
protected from the powerful rays of the sun by the 
awning. In my opinion, the principal things to be ob- 
served in plant carriage to foreign parts are, lst, to 
have the plants well established in the ease previous to 
shutting them close down, and then to make them 
as close as possible ; 2nd, to guard effectually against 
the breakage of glass, by placing strong wire-work or 
small rods over the roof ; this ought to be y: 
attended to, as the glass is very liable to get br 
rd ship, and unless a person having interest in the 
affair is there, it is likely to remain broken, all hands 
being busy at the time, when glass is the most likely 
to get broken, and when the salt water will soon make 
sad work amongst the plants. I have known a whole 
caseful of valuable plants destroyed for want of this pre- 
caution. The annexed figures represent vertical sections 
of plant cases. Fig. 1 represents the ease in general 
use, but Fig. 2 is, in my opinion, preferable for two 
reasons, lst, it gives the plants more head room, and 
2nd, it gives a greater pitch to the g 1 
, which has 
the advantage of throwing off the salt water quicker, 
and is not so liable to get broken at an angle of 65° or 
g E : 
70°, as at 45? or 50°. Iused Fig. 2 case on my home- 
ward passage, and they are generally used at the Syd- 
ney Botanie Gardens, and were highly spoken of by 
Mr. Robertson, the late curator of that establishment, 
There should be no projections, as at A, Fig. 1, as the 
Ship's ropes, &., are very liable to get entangled in 
time of gales, when, very likely, the roof would get 
damaged. Besides the case which I had on my out- 
ward passage, I had a large strong glass bottle, filled 
with small Ferns, and a root of Gioger, in moist Moss 
(it hung in the quarter deck), kindly presented to me 
by a friend, for the purpose of proving whether or not 
some of those handsome little Ferns so plentiful in New 
Zealand could be brought to England in a similar man- 
ner. The bottle was closely corked, and only opened 
once during the five months’ passage, and that only for 
a minute or two, while I took out a slug which made 
its appearance inside. Most of the Ferns and Ginger 
lived, and grew when planted out, thus proving that 
it is very probable some of those pretty little Ferns 
might be brought home in, as far as practicable, air- 
tight vessels.—Alexander Burnett. 
————— 
Foreign Correspondence. 
CERCLE GENERAL D'HORTICULTURE. 
Panis, May 25, 1846.— The second Exhibition of this 
Society for the present year fopened on the 21st of this 
month, at the Orangerie of the Louvre, and eontinued 
four days. There was nolaek of plauts, and as a 
whole it was a decided improvement upon by-gone 
seasons. Reform is)considered a hard word here, and 
especially offensive to the amour propre of the old 
school of gardeners ; to say nothing of Horticultural 
Societies. Credit is therefore due to the officers of the 
Cercle in taking the initiative step ; the first move is 
half the battle, and the Royal Horticultural Society of 
Paris cannot remain behind. These exhibitions have 
hitherto been free to the public, and any one acquainted 
with Paris will be at no loss to calculate the crowd of 
idlers who daily thronged the room, to the manifest 
injury of the plants. The Cercle has now made the 
admission fee ten sous (five pence). Alarmists of the 
old school cried out “ ruin;” nevertheless there has 
been no lack of visitors. The decisions of the jury are 
not now open to those animadversions which formerly 
