31843.) 
CHRONICLE. 
907 
THE GARDENERS 
AS RAS P BERRY. | without any manure. ‘No stimulant could have given | | Abundant as these insects are, and frequently as I have 
r Sew OLSK RHUBARB. petter fruit, so far as health was concerned. met with them, I have never been successful in finding 
I TWO SEEDLING PICOTEES. The author of the « Rural Economy of the Midland either the maggots or the pupm ; they are, I doubt not, 
FINEST CARNATIONS AND PICOTEES. Counties ” states, that the fragments of charcoal left veky son 0, ShOHe 3  tueeatode-contihe ae Soe 
muc. 2 0 & 
(uae Bip eee kcal aa ave bean found ot great description of the perfect insect, which was named by 
DUTCH HYACINTHS, & other 
ARAUCARIA IM BRICATA. 
tow ready for sending out: for Particulars of which, see Adver~ 
i tisement of the 16th inst. 
_ Yourun & Co., Great Yarmouth Nursery, 
ee 
Che Gardeners’ Chrowicle, 
' 
s 
Dec. 29, 1843. 
to be, in his time, 
benefit to land. He reports them 
and for fining 
in esteem as a manure for Turnips, 
grass-land. 
The well-known operation of paring and burning 
has been supposed to prove SO beneficial in conse- 
quence of its’ removing jnsects and destroying the 
hesi of stiff clays. The latter is, no doubt, 
SATURDAY, DECEMBER 30, 1843. 
—_— 
TWO FOLLOWING W!) 
} MEETINGS FOR THE EEKS. 
Pecicrdeash ic, + Botanical aetse te Si Bs 
Watweioat,Jan/10°. Society of Arts + . 8 Pat 
Tum conclusion of another year of uninterrupted 
ecess leaves the Editor of the Gardeners’ Chronicle 
ittle to do, except to express his grateful sense of the 
valuable contributions which the friends of Horti- 
ature continue to supply from all parts of the United 
Kingdom. It seems, however, due to those who so 
poaly interest themselves in the prosperity of this 
‘aper to mention what preparations have been. made 
‘or maintaining an abundant variety of information for 
the year to come 
_ The intention 
Acriculture without further ¢ 
announced. At the same time, @ small increase in the 
‘size of the paper itself will be made, so as to give a 
somewhat wider margin, and this will render the 
Gardeners’ Chronicle and Agricultural Gazette as 
large as the utmost limits permitted by Act of Par- 
liament. It has, indeed, become necessary to con- 
struct a new printing-machine, of the largest size 
jknown in London, on purpose for the delivery of the 
Paper. Connected with these changes will be some 
jélterations in the arrangement of the matter, so that 
it will be folded upon a new and better plan than 
heretofore. 
_ Among the new matter provi 
complete set of instructions for th 
illustrated by numerous woodcuts ; a series of leading 
articles on Heating, with reference to the new methods 
of applying hot water ; special articles on Florists’ 
‘flowers ; a lengthened inquiry into the Diseases of 
‘plants ; an account of the Weeds of Farms and Gar- 
‘dens; and a new dissertation on Bee-management. 
Letters from Paris are also in type relating to the 
French method of growing Pine-apples without pots- 
it is, moreover, hoped that it may be possible to pro- 
cure some good matter relating to landscape-garden- 
ing; that the articles on Familiar Botany, so long 
interrupted, will be renewed with some sort of regu- 
larity, and materially extended; that a still larger 
supply of Entomological articles will be received from 
Mr. Curtis; and 
“of adding 24 weekly columns of 
harge has already been 
ded for the year is a 
e Rose Gardener, 
that the important subjects of 
ial consideration. 
a great change is 
onsibility 
4 
upon any on 
duty to ‘six or seven of the most eminent cultivators 
that can be 
ing, 
down to th 
allotments of a Cottager. 
Of course, in addition to these important subjects, 
there will be the usual supply of miscellaneous 
matter upon all possible branches of Gardening, 
But for these and other matters we would refer our 
readers to acts rather than to intentions. 
_ A rorrniaur ago we called attention to the increas. 
ing evidence as to the value of CHARCOAL, as an agen 
of cultivation, and we alluded to the employment of i 
aletter from Mr. Barnes, in which he entirely con 
firms the statement we then made. “ Charcoal,” h 
says, “is the most astoni: 
for all purposes of cultivatio 
under artificial treatment. 
experience in its use. 
employing it largely among 
consists of nothing but charcoai 
particle of manure of any sort. 
care has some charcoal used about it. 
the plant that did not delight in it, anc 
is most especially acceptable.” 
opinions thus strongly expresse 
Gardeners in the country, mus' 
the most sceptical. However, we 
a few other facts before we leave 
experimental proof to which it is now cer! 
subjected all over the country. 
The other day Mr, Stewart, G: 
7 and loam, without 
Every plant under m 
of Garden- 
-houses 
in the Pine-growing at Bicton. We havesince received 
shing article to make use of 
n, and especially for plants 
I judge from many gears’ 
What you say respecting my 
my Pine-soil is true. It 
J never yet saw 
1 to Heaths it 
Tt seems to us that 
d by one of the best 
t carry conviction to 
nay as well mention 
the question to the 
tain to be 
H ardener at Stradsett 
Hall, exhibited to the Horticultural Society, some 
Cucumbers grown in equal parts of loam and charcoal, 
its effect in part ; but we entertain no doubt that the 
charcoal formed from the rootsof grass and other plants, 
is also of much importance in the operation. Try, for 
example, brick-dust—which is burnt clay without 
charcoal_—and the burnt clods of the fields, containing 
charcoal, against each other, and the distinction will 
soon be seen ; yet, so far as mechanical alteration of 
the texture of the soil is of value, they are not in a 
very different state. 
Then listen to what is stated by Mr. Rivers, in the 
iti s Guide.” “Ihave 
uecess (for Roses in pots) 
ron placed in temporary 
been kept 5 
This chars 
»(p. 192). 
used,” he says, “ with much s 
turf roasted on a sheet of i 
brickwork, under which a moderate fire has 
about one how’s roasting is sufficient. 
the under side, and acts most beneficially 
We have reason to know that this is a most important 
fact in the management of Roses in pots; and let the 
reader only consider how entirely it confirms all that 
we have said on the subject. 
When we last mentioned 
the experiments of Mr. Rigg, 
of other chemists, to prove that 
carbonic acid with the oxygen of the atmosphere, 
under ordinary circumstances. We have since met 
with a passage in De Candolle’s “ Physiology,” which 
shows that we do not stand alone in our belief that 
charcoal does, even in the air, form gaseous combi- 
nations of some sort or other, and so furnishes food 
to plants, independently of the matters it may be able 
to condense within its pores. “Count Rumford,” 
says M. De Candolle, “has proved by direct experi- 
ment that charcoal, so long regarded as one of the 
most fixed of known substances, is capable of com- 
bining with oxygen, and forming with it carbonic 
acid, at a temperature very far below that at which 
it burns perceptibly. This slow combination of char- 
goal with oxygen explains why those places in the 
woods where the charcoal-burners have been at work, 
although at first sterile, become fertile, in proportion 
as the charcoal combines with the oxygen of the 
atmosphere to form carbonic acid, which dissolves in 
the surrounding water.” 
We may add that the quality of charcoal is much 
improved by steeping it in liquid manure ; and that 
the lighter and more spongy it is, the better for the 
purposes of the cultivator. 
ENTOMOLOGY.—No. LIL. 
CaLANDRA GRANARIA (the Grain or Corn Weevil). 
Farmers and gardeners not only suffer from the inroads 
of insects in the field, but after their Corn and seeds are 
safely stored they not unfrequently fall a sacrifice to the 
attacks of little insects which breed in granaries and rooms 
excluded from light and air. We have already described 
two of these pests,’ and will now treat of others, which 
are often complained of an 
of these, called the Grain 
as the Z'inea sarcitella ; it 
Barley, committing tremendous ravage: 
lish its, where i t 
this matter we quoted 
against the assertions 
charcoal will form 
are reduced to the o 
an imported species, 
latitudes ; and in sucl 
beetles breed in the open 
the female deposits her eggs 
Corn, or upon the incipient and tender germ 
bability they are 
grain, the skin o! 
feed and undergo th 
that it has been remarked, 
been inclosed within a grain o| 
minute puncture or any other sign o! 
discovered upon the skin. 
Mr. Mills, who prosecute 
the Corn Weevils were hatched by a heat am 
110° Fahrenheit England not being hot 
nately, to naturalize them in the open air, 
ain a settlement an 
quently they are found in our gi 
been imported from abroad with 
tually they become, if not regular in! 
least the tenants of our buildings. 
dof a 
; in all pro 
£ 
t 
¢ which closes over them, and they thu 
£ Indian Corn, not the mos! 
f an inmate could bi 
e 
ounting t 
they can onl 
a 
Ne 
maggot enters 
can be no dow 
the same substance, 
with strong, although minute, jaws, 
Weevil conce 
stances they appear to have escap 
ties, the skin being imperforated, 
“Gard. Chron., Voli, pp. 156, 188.” Trans. Ent, Soc.,v.i. p. 24 
d are equally formidable. One 
Weevil, does as much mischief 
feeds alike upon Wheat and 
s in many malting 
thirds of the grain 
utward shells. This small beetle is 
which attacks the Maize in warmer 
h climates as Madeira, where the 
field, there is little doubt that 
amongst the blossoms of the 
soon hatched, and penetrate the young 
eir transformations in such security 
when the pupa has actually 
d these remarks, found that 
enough, fortu- 
d multiply under shelter, and conse- 
yanaries, whither they have 
foreign Corn, and even- 
habitants of our land, at 
In storehouses they 
grain, which the little 
There 
rostrum. On opening the husks, which are frequently 
perforated on the side (jig. 4) one_ generally finds a 
aled there, sometimes dead 5 in other in- 
ed at the open extremi- 
but entirely cleared out. 
Linneus, Curculio granarius, but it has been separated 
from that immense group by Clairville, who called it Calan- 
dra granaria (fig. 1) : some are chesnut-coloured, others 
are tawny; they are depressed and shining : the proboscis 
js stoutish, slightly curved, not so long as the thorax, and 
the antenne are inserted on each side near the base; the 
thorax is large, oval, and truncated behind, coarsely 
punctured with long excavations, leaving a ridge down 
the back: elytra, not much longer and scarcely broader 
than the thorax, beautifully and firmly striated, the inter- 
tured : wings, none: legs, short and stout, the 
ted by a curved claw: the tarsi 4-jointed, 
int bilobed, the fourth furnished with 
represents the head and thorax in 
profile. 
The other beetle figured (3) which assists in the destruc- 
tion of the grain, and gefierally accompanies the Corn 
Weevil, is the Silvanus Surinamensis, Linn.,* called also 
bricius Anobium frumeritarium: it is narrow, flat, 
brown, and thickly punctured: the head is large 
the margin reflexed: thorax oval, with 
three elevated longitudinal lines, the sides toothed: elytra 
long and narrow, with four slightly elevated lines on each, 
and rows of punctures between them : wings ample : legs 
short: tarsi 5-jointed, the fourth joint exceedingly minute, 
fifth terminated by two claws. The natural sizes of the 
beetles are shown by the lines. i i 
accompanies the above is the Ptinus ovatus, 
brown beetle, with a nearly globose abdomen ; this, how- 
ever lives in the worm-eaten floors, and probably may not 
attack the stored grain. 
rust: 
and subtrigonate, 
: The seasons suited to the propagation of the Corn- 
insects appear to be uninterrupted, for I have seen them 
in extensive flour-mills in Norfolk in the spring; in June 
and July they were abundant in the sweepings of a malt- 
house in Norwich ; in September and the three following 
months in granaries, and in the winter they attacked and 
ate up some pearl Barley in the possession of a scientific 
friend. There are many remedies which might be em- 
ployed to destroy the eggs, and likewise the larva and 
pupe, as sudden transitions, of temperature, friction, &c. 5 
but such mild applications could have little effect upon 
the hard beetles, which, secure in their horny coats of 
mail, defy both heat and cold to an extraordinary degree ; 
and as there seem to be no periods of the year when they 
are not actively engaged in infected localities, we must have 
recourse in bad cases to the most efficient means, such as 
heating the Corn artificially : this mode has been adopted 
y a gentlemen in Madeira who suffered exceedingly trom 
the attacks of Weevils, and has been attended with complete 
success. He has a room capable of containing 800 bags 
of Corn, which can be heated by hot water conveyed 
through pipes ; the Corn is thus subjected to a tempera- 
ture of 135° of Fahrenheit, by which means the Wheat is 
freed from the living insects, and after being sifted, is said 
to make as good and sound bread as at first.5 In the 
West Indies, Rice in store is kept free from the inroads 
of a similar Weevil merely by exposing the grain to the 
sun, and by frequently winnowing it.— Ruricola. , 
AMATEUR’S GARDEN.—No. LII.” 
Nexr to the skill requisite for the production of large 
and perfect specimens of fine-foliaged hard-wooded plants 
comes the difficulty of keeping them in a perfect at 
healthy state after they have arrived at their maximum 
growth. It is no difficult matter at the present time to 
meet with large plants (of Heaths, for example) ; but it is 
a rare thing to.meet with a plant that is perfect in every 
respect, andjwhich carries its foliage down to the base of 
its oldest branches—and why is this? In nature we 
generally find healthy plants clothed with branches and 
foliage to their very base; but our large specimens of pot- 
culture too frequently either cast their foliage, or allow it 
to become diseased after they have attained such a size as 
to render it inconvenient to remove them to a larger-sized 
pot. Now, the difference between the plants is ;—in a 
natural state the roots are always in an equable state 
to moisture, while under pot-culture they are 
quently fluctuating between drought and moisture,- 
though they may not be, to appearance, actually si 
for the want of water, yet at times have not so mu 
as is necessary to the healthy circulation of the juites of — 
the plant ; and the consequence is, the leaves become dit=) “| 
eased, and after a time either fall off or are removed b Ls 
hand as unsightly objects. tz) b 
Ss 
t 
e 
0 
y 
1. 
