806 
THE GARDENERS 
CHRONICLE. 
[Nov. 18, 
bourhood the Perch in a large pond come to the side for 
food as soon as the water is struck with the hand.—O. 
Guano.—It is suggested in the “Illustrated London 
News” of last Saturday, that the use of guano is the 
cause of epidemic among cattle in the north of England. 
I myself am not able to confute it. Will one of your 
correspondents take up the matter, as it might be an 
obstacle to the progress of this valuable manure.—T7. T., 
Derby. 
The Clover Dodder.—I can complete the chain of evi- 
dence as to the introduction of the Dodder,which is making 
so much noise just now. The seed your Northumberland 
correspondent bought at a bazaar, which was held here last 
year for the benefit of two of our local Societies, was given 
by me to one of the fair traders on that occasion, and I 
obtained it from the India-house through the kindness of 
Dr. Royle. I gave many of my Agricultural friends por- 
tions of it, but have not had an opportunity of inquiring 
whether the Dodder bas appeared in their fields. Most 
probably it will have done so, since on looking at some of 
the seed I have by me, I recognise plenty of that of the 
Dodder amongst it.—G. Wailes, Newcastle. 
Weeds in Ponds.—If the weed in ‘ H. S.’s’’ pond is 
what is called the Pond-weed, (Potamogéton natans,) I 
beg to state that I have no doubt a few geese would most 
completely remove it, as they appear to be so fond of it 
as to eat it in preference to grass. A pond in this neigh- 
bourhood was effectually cleared of this plant a few weeks 
ago by means of these birds. They were allowed abund- 
ance of other food, so that it could not be hunger that made 
them clear the weed from the pond.—_M. Saul. 
Pine-Apples.—In order to convince those who will not 
believe that Queen Pine-apples have been grown to the 
weight of 53lbs. or 6lbs., as stated in the Chronicle, and 
to show that such a thing is by no means a rare occur- 
rence, I send as follows, the weight of 13 Queen Pine- 
apples that have been cut at different times since the Ist 
of August, out of a pit at Bowood Gardens, viz. :— 
No. Wei No, 
Weight. 
if. 5 lbs. 12 oz. 8 . « 5lbs, 12 02. 
2 . » 5 14 9 . - 5 6 
3 » 5 3 10 . » 5 4 
4 tein 13 11 » & 10 
5 5 12 12 . - & 8 
6 5 8 13 . - 5 6 
5 
& . . 10 
Of these, No. 1 was exhibited at the meeting of the Horti- 
cultural Society on the Ist of August : see Gardeners’ 
Chronicle, p. 543. Nos. 2 and 3 were sent to the office 
of the said Paper, and are noticed at p. 608. I have 
arranged the weights in the order in which the fruit 
ripened. If any correspondent should wish to know the 
reason why none of the others were exhibited, by Jook- 
ing at the weights he will see that No. 2 was the heaviest 
fruit : the others, having ripened since that time, and none 
of them exceeding it in weight, Mr. Spencer did not think 
them worth sending.—™M. Saui. 
Rais.—Some of your readers would perhaps rather get 
rid of these pests altogether than attempt to banish them 
as ‘ Devonian’’ recommends. I think that they will, 
after all his scheming, be able to get inside, for I have 
known them when very hungry to bore down under the 
foundation of a wall, and up on the other side, not to 
mention coming in under the doors. I have also known 
them to, effect an entrance over the tops of walls, where 
trees were growing against them; and I am of opinion 
that ‘‘ Devonian’s’’ rats can get in at the top of the drain 
as easy as at the bottom; and he cannot make a well 
there without sinking the shore all the way through his 
garden. I would therefore recommend him or any other 
person that is troubled with rats to try the following 
method, which I have tried in three places with perfect 
success. Take some potatoes ; boil and mix them with 
oatmeal or flour, but oatmeal is best, and then make them 
into little balls about half the size of a pigeon’s egg. 
Where the rats most frequent, place portions of these 
pretty near one another—the quantity depends on the 
number of rats that you have to destroy; but wherever 
they seem to have been, there put two or three of the 
balls. The evening is the time to put them down, and in 
the morning look where the rats have eaten; if they have 
missed some places put less there on the next evening, 
and where they have taken it all put more ; but renew the 
whole every evening, and do this for three evenings 
successively ; then miss one, for the rats may have hid some 
of it, or have got something else beside, and will not be 
hungry. On the fifth evening, mix with the potatoes and 
meal, sugar and arsenic, and lay it down in the same wa: 
as before, wherever the rats had eaten on the preceding 
evening. On the following morning look carefully round, 
take up any of the poison that is left, for there is no use 
in leaving it there any longer, and put it into one of their 
holes and stop the hole up. Any one that is troubled 
with these vermin had better try this method now, for as 
there is not much at this time of the year for them to eat, 
there cannot be a better time for their destruction. 
There is one thing that I would mention, namely, if the 
night on which the poison is to be laid is likely to be wet, 
defer the poison until the next night, and feed them for 
that night. This method will not, however, answer in a 
gentleman’s house, where rats have plenty to eat, and 
where they are equally troublesome ; the plan, therefore, 
to effectually destroy them there, is to rub the inside of 
the holes with treacle mixed with arsenic, and when the 
rat goes in or out he rubs against the treacle; and as 
there is no animal cleaner than a rat, he licks the treacle 
off his hair, and by so doing falls a victim to the poison.— 
The Knave of Spades. 
Rat-traps.—Y our pond “D jensis’”’ will 
T fear, find himself di d in his drain-traps, for pre. 
venting rats from having further ingress. There are 
: : nd ea 
two of those traps in a drain here which leads from a sink in- | fruit ensured. By this means the late kinds are likewise 
side of the house to a cesspool outside, exactly on the same 
plan as that represented in the Chronicle by ‘ Devo- 
niensis.”? These vermin, however, (being nearly half 
amphibious,) were not to be debarred by a little water and 
mud, from trying what was to be found inside of a dwell- 
ing-house, and when once they got in they were not easily 
kept out again. Believing this drain to be the only com- 
munication whereby an entrance was obtained, I had lead 
gratings made, and put at the bottom of each trap; by 
this means { have at length got clear of them, being the 
first time for a number of years. I think your corre- 
spondent will do well to use the same preventive.—J. W. 
Fleas.—One of your correspondents asks—‘‘ How a 
dog may be kept free from fleas.” I beg to state that this 
may be effected by washing the animal occasionally with 
the water in which Potatoes have been boiled. I have 
also seen a very bad case of mange cured with this very 
simple application.— A. Clapham. 
Fleas.—The following is a good method for extirpating 
fleas from dogs :—‘‘ To four ounces of Fox-glove leaves 
(Digitalis) pour two quarts of boiling water, and with 
this, when it has become cold, wash the dog.’’ For pet 
dogs this operation may be repeated twice in the season, 
and I would also recommend that there should be in the 
box or crib in which the favourite sleeps a quantity of 
Cedar saw-dust, (clean from the saw,) for the bed. 
This will clear away the insects effectively, and, if the 
dandy-brush is used now and then, it will keep the hide 
clean, as well as remove fleas.—7'. F’. 
Great Productiveness,— Charles Barber, Esq., of 
Wilmslow, sowed four ounces of Onion-seed this year, 
using guano as manure, and has had the extraordinary 
quantity of 7 cwt. of Onions from that small quantity of 
seed. A Cabbage of the common kind was last week cut 
from the garden of Mr, Johnston, at Saunder’s Bush, in 
the parish of Arthuret, of the following enormous dimen- 
sions :—circumference, 154 feet’; diameter, 54 feet ; and 
weight, 4% stones.—Liverpool Mercury. 
Large Potatoes.—The following have lately been got on 
the farm of Mr. Wm. Crook, of Inskip :—two, called Pink- 
eyes, weighed respectively 2 lbs. 6 oz. and 2 Ibs. 14 oz. ; 
and a blue one, a sort recently introduced, weighed 2 Ibs. 
loz. Onarod or fall of seven yards the Blnes produced 
18 score 1 b., or 14 load. It may be remarked that all 
these Potatoes were planted in drills. This kind generally 
goes by the name of the Liverpool Blues; itis a very pro- 
ductive sort, much cultivated, and is said to be much used 
by bakers, on account of its being remarkably white when 
boiled ; but it is not a favourite for the table: the skin is 
a fine blue, and I am informed that it was raised in the 
neighbourhood of Liverpool a few years ago.—Facile. 
Large Eel.—On Monday last a young man caught upon 
Milnthorpe Sands, after the ebbing of the tide, a large eel, 
which measured nearly five feet in length, and 20 inches 
in circumference, and weighed 32lbs. It was exhibited 
to the public in the King’s Arms’ yard in the evening, and 
many availed themselves of a sight of this monstrous fish. 
—Facile, 
Peas.—I tried a quart of Farnes’ Peas against a quart 
of Early Frame Peas : the Farnes’ were a week later. The 
soil was strong and wet. I tried almost every kind of Pea 
last year, and I found the Auvergne and Knight’s Dwarf 
Marrow the best bearers and by far the best flavoured. 
The Pois sans parchemin is nota good bearer ; and as the 
pod wanted the hard skin inside, it was much more open 
to the attacks of the Jays and Tom-tits.— Totty. 
Tropeolum pentaphyllum.—In Loudon’s ‘ Hort. 
Brit.,”, “ Paxton’s Botanical Dictionary,’ and in the 
Chronicle, p. 633, this plant is accounted tender, but here 
it has proved itself quite hardy. Several tubers of it were 
planted in two rustic vases, which have stood exposed 
without the slightest protection for the last two seasons. 
The plants in both vases having been in flower since 
August are now in fruit, and still continue uninjured, 
although the frost on the 17th ult. was so severe as not 
only to destroy the more tender flower-garden ornaments, 
such as Heliotropes, Dahlias, Pelargoniums, &c., but also 
the hardier sorts, such as Fuchsias, Salvias, and the like, 
and to bring the leaves from the hardy deciduous trees in 
myriads. On reference to my meteorological memoranda 
for the last two winters, I found the registering ther- 
mometer indicated several times 16 deg. of frost, and as 
the mean diameter of the vases in which the plants grow 
is only 2ft. outside measure, I have no doubt but the 
entire mass of earth in them was completely. frozen 
through. I consider that the above facts place the har- 
dihood of Tropzolum pentaphyllum beyond a question.— 
A, Brander, Dalrey Gardens. 
On Training Gooseberry and Currant Bushes.—As I 
have not seen any remarks in the Chronicle upon the 
training of Gooseberry and Currant Bushes, I beg to offer 
the following :—My present situation (Swinton Park, 
Masham, Yorkshire,) being within a short distance of the 
moors, is high and bleak, and we consequently suffer from 
winds, more especially during the equinoctial gales. Many, 
or indeed most of my Gooseberry and Currant bushes 
were rendered useless or unsightly from this cause, and 
to remedy the evil, I procured some stakes,4 feet in length, 
and 3 or 34 inches in circumference. To these, which 
were disposed after this manner X X X X X X X Xp i 
trained the trees in the fan method, and tied the shoots to 
the stakes with matting. After a fair trial, I have no 
hesitation in saying that the experiment has been success- 
ful. Independent of being secure from the wind, there 
are other advantages to be gained by this mode of train- 
ing; the space taken up is less, the pruning is more easily 
performed, and the whole surface is regularly exposed to 
the action of the sun and air. The wood is also equally 
roperly ripened, and better crops of well-flavoured 
much more easily and more securely protected from the 
depredations of birds and wasps, and from injury by frost 
or wet. A single mat thrown over the bushes is sufficient 
to preserve the fruit until Christmas, or later. And, 
moreover, by this system the trees, in matting up, are not 
disfigured or crushed ; the wet is more effectually kept off, 
as it does not fall on the mat and soak through to the 
fruit; but, from no flat surface being presented, the rain 
runs off the mat, as it falls; the fruit is kept perfectly dry, 
and there is little or no injury done to the mat. he 
stakes never want renewing, as the bushes, when once in 
a regular shape, support themselves. They have a neat 
and pretty appearance at. all times, and especially when in 
fruit. The gardens and romantic grounds at this place 
are, by the kindness of the proprietor, open to the public, 
and during the last season have been visited by a great 
number of persons, most of whom particularly remarked 
a row of about 120 yards trained in the above style, and 
their observations induced me to send this account of it.— 
James Snow, Swinton Gardens. 
Conducting Powers of Water.—I thank ‘‘C.” for 
setting me right on this head. What he says is perfectly 
true, but the conducting power of water is so feeble as not 
to affect the question. I put the case in a strong light on 
purpose to meet objections which reached me against 
shallow tanks; otherwise I might have been more explicit. 
But is ‘¢ C.” more to the point when he says, “ We have 
only to turn our attention to the great Ocean when the 
noon-day sun is shining upon it, to be convinced of the 
fact 2’ I beg to say that I have often turned my atten- 
tion to the Ocean without becoming acquainted with these 
facts. But, after all, what are these effects but what we 
see daily in our own circulation of heated water, only on 
so much a larger scale? The sea is heated at the equator 
to a great depth, and it is true enough that a circulation 
from hence is effected ; that its influence is felt almost to 
either pole is also true, and as a natural inference we must 
suppose an under-current towards the equator to be 
equally true ; but there do not seem to be facts here to 
prove anything for or against our practice, farther than 
perhaps that deep pool-like tanks might do well enough 
without central divisions to divide the currents, and 
have no doubt this would answer, were it not for the folly 
of having deep tanks to try the experiment; and here we 
have an explanation of a great natural phenomenon, viz. 
the disposal of the vast quantity of water which flows 
into the Mediterranean through the Straits of Gibraltar. 
The idea of an under-current cut through the Straits 38 
only of a comparatively recent date ; the daily loss by 
evaporation being thought sufficient formerly to balance 
the influx, although the drainage of the ‘‘ rivers and foun- 
tains of water” carried down by the Po itself might 
be supposed to be equivalent to the loss by evaporation— 
to say nothing of the Danube, the Nile, and lesser streams 
which find their way to the Great Sea.—D. Beaton. 
Weeds.—1 beg to state, that however useful the ammo- 
niacal liquor of the gas works may be as a manure, ad: 
ministered under certain known modifications, yet applied 
in its crude state, fresh, just as itcomes fromthe retort, it 18 
certain destruction tothe vegetable principle—at least I hav? 
found it so in several instances in my own garden. My plat 
is this :—If Ihave a strong vigorous knot of Couch-grass 
Docks, or any of these common pests of our gardens, 
get the scythe and mow them off, and having a common 
watering-pot full of the liquor by me, pour it on while the 
wounds are fresh. It is marvellous how soon the whole 
mass is not only dead, but rotten. I would advise agt 
culturists to treat the Dodder with a dose of this, afte 
cutting off the top. As gas works are now so generals 
there can be no difficulty in obtaining the liquor, and 4 
common garden-potfull would in most cases be sufficient 
The managers, I should think, would give such a trifle a8 
this, and if not, a penny or twopence a gallon is no great 
object, and it would not be more. I would be glad to 
know the result.—J. 4. 
Drainage of Pots.—I have observed very good effects 
from adopting the following method of draining pots 
Rib-bones (of mutton) are crushed with a heavy hammer 
into pieces, varying from half an inch to two inches i? 
length. The action of the hammer loosens and weakeD® 
without entirely destroying, the fibrous texture of the 
bones. A layer of these is placed at the bottom of the 
pot, and over that another is laid crossways 5 and 80 o 
to the height of about an inch, and the earth is then P¥ 
in. These layers of crushed bone form a reticulated mae 
which does not get clogged up, but on the contrary seem 
to become more porous as the soft gelatinous or anim’ 
particles in the substance of the bones decay ; and oa 
minute fibres of the roots push in all directions throug 
them, and derive much nourishment from the substratum 
of bones.—J. H. 
Achimenes pedunculata.—The scaly tubers whi 
so numerously upon the stems of Achimenes pedun¢ 
seem to possess ‘a certain degree of sensitiveness: >. 4, 
days since I gathered a considerable number of these ey, 
a seed-pan, and happening afterwards to stir them uy 
with my hand, a curious worm-like, or grub-like, mov! 
ment occurred among the tubers, which continued for g 
second or two after the motion produced by displacrt 
them with the hand had ceased. The same mover, 
followed the shaking of the pan without touching He 
tubers, therefore the irritability was not induce yt 
warmth or moisture of the hand.—J. B. Whiting. ig 
New Heating Apparatus.—In the* Aberdeen Be A 
lately was the following notice of a “,New Heating i 
paratus :’’‘* We have been favoured with a sight aie 
New Heating Apparatus, on an entirely new aa 
invented by Mr. Reid, of Queen-street. The plan 0 frst 
invention is simple, and its {effects are obvious ee ate 
sight. The apparatus consists of a stove, to whic! 
ch form 
ulatay 
Some 
