582 
THE GARDENERS' 
CHRONICLE. 
[Avc. 29, 
is the best crop in the field—indeed, an excellent crop, 
and of good quality ; and it is required now to dig as 
large a portion of ground in any other part of the field 
to find a basket of good Potatoes, as in the part where 
these diseased tubers were planted to find a basket of 
bad ones, Lime rubbish from old walls was laid in the 
bottom of the trench, on which was placed some old 
thatch, and the Potatoes planted thereon, and covered 
with earth, so that they lay as dry as possible.— Con- 
tant Readers. 
Pruning Roses.—1n “ The Tree-Rose" I find (p.48) 
that “the removal of the extraneous parts of the wild 
braneh, and the stem left above it, are best effected 18 
months after budding ; if sooner, the bud is apt to be 
injured." Now e 
** Audi alteram partem." 
In the Chronicle (p. 549) * H. B." says,“ when the 
bud has become a shoot, the whole of the stock may be 
eut down close to it," &e 
** Who shall decide when doctors disagree ?” 
Ihave now a bud of Charles Duval, which was in- 
serted early in July, and which has already become a 
shoot measuring more than 8 inches, I` have also 
another shoot of the same stock, which is just beginning 
to push. Am I to eut the wild stock down'to*the base 
of the former bud, now become a shoot, or to leave any 
part of it-“for 18 months ?" and what am I to do in 
regard to the latter? I observe “H. B." gives the 
preference to bast for tying, and objects to “lambs’- 
wool.” As the former is not always in remote places 
to be procured readily, I venture to remark that com- 
mon yarn, such as stockings are knitted of, makes a 
most effective and a very neat and easily-handled tie— 
experto crede. Ihave budded successfully many hun- 
dreds, and never use anything else. Take a strand 
about 30 inches in length, double it, pass the doubled 
end or loop round the shoot, and bring the two ends 
through the loop ; then adjust it to the junction of the 
two barks ; go on winding round as you descend, and 
when you get to the bud let one yarn go on the upper, 
and one on the other side of the bud, by which means 
a very neat and handy tie may be made.—L. B. N., 
ug. 21 
Mangold Wurzel Tops.—My attention having been 
ealled to your recommendation to eottagers to plant 
Swedes as a substitute for Potatoes, I cast my eyes on 
some very good Mangold Wurzel, and it struck me that 
the tender leaves might «make a good vegetable. I had 
some cooked in the same manner as Spinach, and when 
served up they had not only the appearance of that 
vegetable, but the flavour was also so very similar that 
I have several times passed them off as such. The 
Mangold Wurzel was the yellow kind, and though I 
have eaten of it freely and frequently, I have perceived 
no bad effects. I have tried your recommendation to 
pull the haulm of the Potato, and so far I can speak 
favourably of it, as the Potatoes are better than those 
the haulm of which have been cut off.—R. Hume, Mid- 
dlemass, Henley-on-Thames. 
of Pulling up the Haulm from Diseased 
tried the plan of pulling up the haulm 
immediately upon perceiving the disease this year on 
the early varieties (viz., Shaws, Ash-leaved Kidneys, 
&e.), and the result is all that could be desired, We 
have lost scarcely any ; the tops were left on the ends 
of some rows of Shaws, for the sake of experiment, but 
nearly all the Potatoes spoiled. Mowing off the tops 
we find to be useless, We have just leted pulling 
Copper Smoke a Preventive of Potato Disease.—In | the smoke of which absol ly destroys 
the district about Meath 
copper smoke prevails,” was the expression of an intel. 
ligent inhabitant with whom I fell into conversation, 
the Potatoes are sound, and the same person informed 
me it was also the case last year. I can verify the fact 
so far as the present appearance of the crop, as seen 
from the mail coach roof,can be considered a verification; 
but I state it with a view of inducing more particular 
inquiry into it. You are, I dare say, aware the district 
I speak of is erowded with copper smelting furnaces, 
B 
in 
and Swansea, “wherever the | its close vicinity, rendering acres as brown and. bare 
as the road ; a little farther off it is said to affect cattle 
injuriously, not by a direct effect, but by rendering the 
Grass unwholesome, and within this latter range it is 
(as I understand) that it seems to preserve the Potato. 
—W. [We have the writer’s name, but should be èx- 
tremely obliged to any of our friends in this district if 
they would enquire into the statement; if the facts are 
as represented, we have perhaps a clue to the cause of 
the disease. ] | 
Hazard’s Plan of Heating.— Y promised (p. 480) to 
furnish the practical results of my system of heating, 
which was formerly considered only in a general and 
theoretical point of view. For this purpose I send a 
forma bottom heat. By this extended radiating sur- 
face, which has also the advantage of being through 
out its Whole extent in immediate contact with the 
source of heat, the gardener has been enabled to 
maintain an invariable temperature with 
only two attendances daily ; and by the 
kindness of a gentleman who has employed 
a similar apparatus in his houses of equal 
size, lam in p ion of a th i 
table, showing the temperature maintained 
in the severe season of 1844-5, from which 
the following is extracted :— 
Date. Evening. Morning. Ws 
ALENTO Anc bios, puc ee 
QU HM. DU Nec i-o BAEREN A T 
Farle cat! Ces cod veges! Duo “og 
6 TOE wota ABE 
3524; L m 58° 
The explanation of the rise in the tempera= 
ture on the last day will be found in the 
fact, that in anticipation of a very severe 
night, the ventilators admitting the warm 
air were left more open, but no difference 
was made in the fire, I have the satisfac 
tion of adding, that this ventilating system 
of heating has proved uniformly favour: 
able for plants in all stages, particularly 
when fruit is setting, and I have witnessed 
this process going on most successfully 
under the management above described, 
when the old plan of hot-water warming has 
not been able to induce the same result, The 
vapour appendage only now remains to be ex= 
A, The stoking hole; B, The chamber for apparatus, of which K is the fire-box ; 
tors ; hem 
striking-pit, with bottom heat; ec, Ventila: ET 
so placed to be built in the garden wall; JJ, Melon pits. 
; CC, The hot-air drains ; D, The 
outh of drain, H H, for supplying fresh air; I, The chimney 
sketch of a range of garden-houses heated under my ) plained ; it is made of copper pipe attached to the water 
direction, comprising a forcing-house 30 feet long, and 
greenhouse 16 feet long, both 14 feet wide, and two 
Melon-pits 8 feet square. The apparatus for warming 
cistern, and resembles a fork with perforated prongs, 
through which water is made to drop at will upon the 
the whole of these, g p of bottom 
heat, an area of upwards of 8000 cubic feet, consists 
of a fire-box (K) 18 in. by 16 in., connected with the 
ke-flue by a series of five rows of tubes five tubes 
the stalks off our late varieties. "The Potatoes in this 
neighbourhood are affected with the disease as bad, or 
worse, if possible, than last season.—S. and J. Dilli- 
stone, Sturmer Nursery, Suffolk. 
ato Disease in North of Ireland. — Between 
the 12th and 20th of this month I traversed the pro- 
vince of Ulster, passing from Dublin to Belfast, and 
Coleraine ; and thence southwards by Armagh, Mona- 
ghan, Fermanagh, and Cavan, through Meath to Dublin 
again ; the only county which I did not see being Done- 
gal. During my whole course, I saw but one field of 
Potatoes which was not evidently and hopelessly affected 
y the disease ; that field was close to the city of 
Armagh. The dry and the wet lands seemed alike 
blighted, the levels and the slopes. The crops growing 
on soil along the volcanic rocks, on the chalky and the 
mountain limestones, on the gravel, the sand, and the 
bog lands, appeared all equally destroyed, so far as a 
passing eye could judge. The fields cultivated in the 
usual Irish ridge bed mode, and also those im the better 
drilled rows, were alike. All had the appearance of 
having been struck with frost, the blackness of the 
leaves travelling in general upward from {the roots. 
Some fields were so bad that the peculiar” scent of the 
disease was perceptible even from the adjoining road. 
Fields which had, as I was informed, looked well a week 
before were now gone, and I was told, that, in some 
instances, a single day had sufficed to throw the blight 
over the whole surface of a field. The roots which I 
Saw were everywhere small and watery, even where 
they were not unequivocally diseased ; and this, not 
only in the late kinds, which, of course, are quite un- 
ripe ; but, even in the earlier varieties, which, at this 
Season, ought to be mealy and wholesome, The rich 
and the poor held but one language, that of deep de- 
jection, and the universal impression seemed to be, 
“the Potatoes are leaving Ireland for ever.” Yet the 
poor, both Protestants and Romanists, seemed to feel 
contented, for they said, “The Almighty will never 
leave us to starve ; some other food will be sent us.” 
could not help noticing that the Turnip erops were most 
promising where the Potatoes seemed most destroyed.— 
A W.B. 
“a 
in each row. The heated gases produced by the com- 
bustion of the fuel, traverse the whole of these pipes, 
affording a radiating surface of 200 superficial feet. 
The supply of fresh air is brought from (F), and 
after being warmed by contact with the tubes, is 
distributed over the different portions of the house, 
being first compelled under the striking-pit (D), to 
heated tubes, and may be so regulated as to continue im- 
perceptibly saturating the phere with moisture; or 
by allowing a greater flow of water through the perfora- 
tions, a steam is raised sufficiently dense to cloud the entire 
house in the course of a few minutes. Thus we have an 
unlimited power of producing artificial dew, which a con- 
sideration of the economy of nature shows to be largel: 
required in hot climates (else why so largely provided P, 
and while we strenuously endeavour to make an artifi- 
cial tropic in our colder clime, we must not omit to 
imitate its inseparabl i freshing dew.— 
Robert Hazard, Bristol. 
Wasp Traps.—Take two hand-glasses of a similar 
shape and size, place one of them on four bricks, then 
with the point of a knife carefully take out one of the 
panes a little below the top ; turn the other glass upside 
down, and sprinkle the inside with a mixture#f honey 
and vinegar, which will create a scent; place it imme- 
diately over the one resting on the bricks. - If the two 
glasses should not fit exactly, as they seldom do, on all 
four of the sides, get some wet moss and squeeze it into 
the apertures with a pointed stick, The trap will now 
be complete. In consequence of the glasses being ele- 
vated on bricks (inverted flower-pots will answer as 
well), the wasps will obtain a read ission under- 
ever they are found, pour into the hole a little gas-tar, 
place a bit of turf on it, and tread it down hard, and all 
that are at home will die.—Joseph Melony, Brightwell, 
August 24, 
Sir Robert Peel and Cheap Glass.—1 am one of the 
many who have reaped the advantage of the removal of 
the tax on glass, and as a gardener I am grateful, I 
propose we should obtain one of the finest shaped Pine- 
apples, both as to size and form, send it to Mr. Elking- 
ton’s, and have it electrotyped in gold, place it on a 
silver base ornamented, and present it to Sir Robert 
Peel, as the token of our gratitude. If you and your 
neath, and directly mount up through the opening made 
in the under glass into the apartment above ; and, as a 
wasp never flies downward, they will never get out 
where they got in, consequently they will all be made 
prisoners if the upper glass be free from holes. In the 
course of a day or so they will all be dead; but, in 
order to destroy them as quickly as possible, take some 
brown paper previously dipped in melted brimstone, 
apply a match to it and place it under the glasses, the 
fume will soon ascend through the opening mentioned 
before into the upper chamber, and kill them all ina 
minute. Should the wasps be numerous, and one trap 
only be found insufficient, several should be employed ; 
I have sometimes had ten in different parts of the 
garden. Every other day the upper glass should be 
taken off and sprinkled as before, or oftener than this, 
if brimstone be used. I have in some seasons ensnared 
myriads of those vexatious enemies by the plan just 
deseribed, I do not mean to say that it will do away 
with the necessity of destroying the nests; I would ad- 
vise this to be done by the following easy method. Wher- 
p like the plan I will gladly join any sub- 
scription, and moreover, will obtain from one of our 
best ornamentists a model of the base.—Dodman, [Not 
a bad idea. We shall be happy to co-operate.] 
Country Shows. 
Gooseberry Shows.— At the White Hart, Carrington; 
July 25.—Weaviest of all colours, Barnes’ London, 
17 dwt. 11 gr. 
Stewards’ Prizes. 
dwt. gr. dwt, gre 
Loyd's Companion .. 14 21| Leatherland’s Keepsake 13 22 
King’s Leader .. + 16 4| Grundy’s Sherwood Maid 12 23 
Prizes in Classes. 
g dwt. gr. 
14 1 
Red, dwt. gr. Green. 
Barnes’ Wonderful .. 14 21| Loyd’s Keepsake «+ 
Wright’s Companion.. 14 7| Porter’s Victoria.» 12 ag 
Leatherland’s Guido .. 13 20| Grundy’s Thumper ... 12 
King’s Lion <.  .. 1223 
Yellow. hite. +f 
Loyd'sLeader,. .. 15 21| Barnes’ Tally-ho ++. 14 
Grundy’s Birdlime: 
esht 
Leatherland's Dublin. . Wright's Sherwood Maid 11 
Porter's Queen of Trumpsll T 
| 
