870 



THE GARDENERS' CHRONICLE. 



[Dec. 28, 



liquid manure two or three times in the 



east inclialwT to north-J on this I have Fuchsias, Ac, it. with strong nquia manure two or uirco m»« .» — 

 rots -hey are in very warm weather, invariably watered month of February and frequent waterings during bear- 

 £ 1 i .VtT, ■ on is fairly at them, and this is generally ing time with pond-water are I have found, very bene- 



repeated once or twice afterwards during the day, and 

 more healthy plant, cannot be seen anywhere. The 

 analogy between watering in the full sunshine, and a sun- 

 shiny shower, I imagine is widely different ; because Cab- 

 bages, Beans, Lupines, and many flowers, which droop 

 from the heat of the sun, hold up their heads before the 

 shower— a sure indication of rapidly approaching rain. 

 What can effect this but a susceptibility in the plants 

 greater than that which the frame of man possesses, and 

 a restringing of the flaccid muscles of the plants to open 

 the mouths or pores for the grateful drops ? The rays 

 of the son being broken by the glass of forcing-houses, a 

 greater moisture <io<s or should exist in the atmosphere 

 of that climate than in the air; therefore, the application 

 of water at any rime of the day must cause a less shock 

 to the plants than it would out of the house. — A. W. 



Rats.— Pi few weeks ago a vast number of rats were 

 driven into the Thames by the sudden damming up of a 

 sewer. How very easily;migh f London be cleared of these 

 vermin by placing sluices in the sewers and drains, and 

 once a month, on a given day, stop them all up for a 

 certain number of hours, and then let the water, &c. off 

 into the river ! Ko rats could harbour and breed in them 

 then. Again, if In the country, l«\ a head was given for 

 every rat, they would soon be annihilated. — D. 



On Budding the Vine.— About the first week in 

 March I perform the operation, or as soon as I perceive 

 the sap begin to rise. I cut from a Victoria Grape an 

 eye about three inches in length, having attached as 

 much wood as I could possibly get with it ; at e ich end 

 of the eye I cut off about a quarter of an inch of the 

 npper bark, nuMng the ends quite thin. ] neit measure 

 off the exact ler»;'h of the bud on the base of the Vine 

 intended to be hu Ided, and make a nick slanting up- 

 ward at the upper part, and another slanting downward 

 at the bottom. I then take the piece neatly out, so that 

 the bud may fit nicely in, and by making the nick as 

 stated above, each end of the bud is covered by the bark 

 of the shoot. I bind the buds firmly round with mat- 

 ting, and clay it, taking care, however, that the clay 

 does not cover the eye of the bud. I then tie it round 

 with moss, and keep it constantly damp; and as the sap 

 rises in the Vine the bud begins to swell. When the 

 Vine commences to push out young shoots, take the top 

 ones off, in order to throw a little more sap into the 

 bud, and as you perceive it getting stronger, take off 

 more young shoots, and so continue until you have 

 taken off all the young shoots. Budding can only be 

 performed where the long-rod system is practised, as in 

 that case you have the power of confining the sap to the 

 bud, which will grow vigorously. As soon as you perceive 

 this, cut the Vine down to the bud. Budding has the 

 advantage over grafting, by not leaving an unsightly ap- 

 pearance whe-e the bud was inserted. A bud likewise grows 

 more luxuriantly. I have seen a bud m««ke a shoot fully 

 30 feet in length, with a beautiful bunch of Grapes 

 at the base in the first season ; whereas a friend of mine 

 bought a plant and grew it for two years before he ob- 

 tained fruit from it ; and even then his Vine was not 

 equal to the bu<l. I have budded many Vines in the 

 same manner, and have always found them answer the 

 end. I always allow the matting to remain on until 

 about the month of September, when I take it off, and I 

 have always found the bud perfectly united ; and without 

 minutely examining the plant the work is imperceptible. 

 ■*■*.«. Z#. S. 



Rabbits. — When I lived at Seaton Sluice, my com- 

 panions and I used to go at nights with a dark lantern 

 on Hartly Links, and catch rabbits with sea ferrets, as 

 we called them. We got large crabs (commonly called 

 dog crabs) trom off the rocks ; we stuck a lighted candle 

 about one inch long on the crab's back, and sent them 

 into the holes, before which we placed a net. Before the 

 crab got far into the hole, the rabbits came tappy lappy 

 into the nets. In this way we caught numbers of them 

 in a short time. —J. P. 



Plants for Hybridising. — Among other plants T would 

 recommend the trial of hybridising the Daphne Laureola, 

 and the Mezereuoi, so as to obtain a Laureola with red 

 or white flowers, and to clothe the Mezereum with green 

 leaves. There is a white Buttercup, which if hybridised 

 with other kinds of Ranunculus, may give us a race of 

 entirely new flowers D. 



Strawberries. — As it is of great importance, in grow- 

 ing Strawberries in the open air, to make them produce 

 fine fruit as early as possible, without loss by frogs or 

 slugs, &c, which loss is generally very great, the fol- 

 lowing plan may be found useful : -Fix on each side of 

 the row of Strawberries, just before they come into 

 blossom, feather-edged boards at an angle of 50° or 55°. 

 This may be effected by nailing two narrow slips of 

 wood to each board, and pushing them into the ground. 

 The boards should be painted black. This plan makes 

 two or three weeka' difference in the ripening of the 

 fruit ; but glass, or an oiled-paper frame, being 

 placed on the ton, makes a greater difference still, and 

 prevents any of the fruit from being trod upon, or eaten 

 •y vermin. This plan, at first sight, may appear to be 

 an expensive one, but it is not so ; any old boards will 

 answer the purpose. . I have bought old feather-edged 

 boards at \d per foot ; and, as they are only used in 

 summer, they last for many years. The expense is 

 saved in the first year; for the wood, although painted 

 on each side with a coat of invisible- green, costs only 

 about IJrf. the foot; while the increase of fruit in quan- 

 tity, as well as in quality, quite compensates for the 

 ontlay. In conclusion I may observe, that watering 



ficial G. L. Smartt, Enfield. 



Dry-rot in Timber.— I have had a great deal to do 

 with this, and I have tried many remedies, but have 

 found none to answer except the following, which I tried 

 about four years ago. I took 3 lbs. of corrosive sub- 

 limate, and put it into a lar^e glazed earthen pot ; to 

 this I put about 4 gallons of water, and when it was well 

 dissolved I took a large painter's brush, and washed the 

 timber and walls with the water, and no symptoms of rot 

 have rmde their appearance since. — Scrutator. 



Productive Variety of Apple.— The Rymer Apple, 

 Caldwell, or Cord wall, as it appears to be called near Not- 

 tingham, proves a most productive and valuable sort. 

 The following note accompanied a specimen of the fruit: — 

 The tree will cover 100 yards ; and 240 pecks have been 

 gathered from one tree and sold for 14/. 15s. 830*. — S. 

 R. P. Shilton, Nottingham. 



Pruning Forest Trees — Much has been said of late 

 in the Chronicle on thinning and pruning forest-trees; 

 and much difference of opinion seems to exist on the 

 subject. A good deal, nevertheless, of what has been 

 written both for and against pruning is, in my opinion, 

 calculated to mislead those who have not sufficient know- 

 ledge and experience to judge for themselves. "Prune 

 not at all if you can help it," is a good maxim when pro- 

 perly unders'ood and applied ; but no practical man can 

 deny th*t pruning is often necessary, and when it is so, 

 must not be neglected. An unskilful pruner may overdo 

 it, but abuse of a system is no argument against the 

 utility of the operation. Mr. Thompson of Whitehaven, 

 in his article (p. 795) makes some excellent remarks on 

 the subject, in which I entirely concur ; but the method 

 he recommends, where plantations are expensive, would 

 reqirre too much labour and expense to be practicable. 

 Admitting the fact, that the greater the quantity of 

 foliage in a tree, the greater is the quantify of timber 

 produced, it does not follow that the greatest quantity 

 of valuable timber is produced : this, I am persuaded, 

 can only be obtained by judicious thinning and pruning. 

 The exact age at which to begin thinning and pruning a 

 plantation must depend, in a great measure, upon the 

 kind of tree, upon the situation, upon the closeness at 

 which the trees are planted, and upon the rapidity of 

 their growth. These things must be left to the judgment 

 of the person having the management of them. The 

 plantations of which I have now the charge afford good 

 examples of the effects of thinning and pruning, and of 

 the neglect of these two assistants of nature. These 

 plantations are of different dates, the oldest being about 

 40 or 45 years of age, and the youngest about 20. For 

 many "years, according to what I have been told, the 

 plantations were regarded, at any ra-e were treated, more 

 as harbours for game than as sources of profit. They 

 were left very much to nature. In course of time, 

 however, it was discovered by the proprietor that he had 

 run the risk of sacrificing all hopes of profit, without se- 

 curing even permanent shelter for game. The trees 

 were drawn up into an impenetrable mass, leaving the 

 earth bare ; the deciduous trees twisted themselves like 

 whips through the branches of the Firs, originally in- 

 tended as their nurses, in hope of catching a breath of 

 air, or a gleam of light; and the Firs themselves grew 

 indeed at top, but with all their lower branches rotting 

 off. The mistake was happily discovered in time to 

 save the later-pl anted woods; and for the last 10 year? 

 and more a judicious system of thinning and pruning has 

 produced as fine a crop of trees (of young Oaks chiefly) 

 as is rarely to be met with, forming a striking contrast 

 to their elder brethren, who are still suffering from want 

 of a timely and wholesome application of the knife. The 

 method pursued here is as follows : — When a young 

 plantation has arrived at such an age as no longer to 

 require the Firs as nurses, the latter are thinned out, 

 leaving them only scattered about in spots suited for 

 them ; the deciduous trees, which are chiefly Oak, are 

 then moderately thinned wherever the branches are ob- 

 served to interfere with one another, and, where it is 

 required, a few of the under branches are cut off close to 

 the stem, taking care, however, always to leave a suffi- 

 cient proportion of top. The tops are carefully looked 

 over in order to remove all shoots that are likely to rival 

 the leader, and such branches are fore-shortened as 

 appear likely to affect the proper balance of the top. In 

 a few years the same operation is repeated, and so on 

 until the trees are about 20 or 25 feet in height, when I 

 consider pruning not only unnecessary but injurious, 

 excepti g in particular cases. — G.S.H. 



HeremarCs Vegetable Dllutium. — This destroys the 

 mealy-bug, and may be used with safety for cleaning 

 many plants, if Mr. Hereman's directions are strictly 

 attended to. There are, however, some plants that, 

 although the dilution is carefully administered to them, 

 are apt to be injured by it. I have observed, in apply- 

 ing it for the destruction of mealy-bug on Mammil'aria 

 gracilis, that wherever the liquid touched the plant, that 

 part of it perished ; therefore, those who adopt this 

 method of destroying insects should be cautious how 

 they perform the operation. — D. 



The Wren's Nest.-Xt p. "910 of last year's Chronicle 

 I made some observations on the cock wren's nest, 

 which have been again fully borne out this year: the same 

 two birds have continued together as I have described, 

 until their death, which happened yesterday morning 

 (Dec. 14.) Ifoundoneof them dead on the ground, near 

 the wall of the cottage where the nest was. This led 

 me immediately to examine the nest, and there I also 

 found the other (the cock) dead in the nest; no doubt 



cheir death was occasioned by hunger and cold, the 

 frost being very severe here for the last fourteen days t 

 indeed, supassing any we have had for some years at this 

 season. These, however, are not the only birds which 

 have suffered from the severity of the weather. I have 

 to-day (Dec. 15) met with the P. pelagica dead at this 

 place, which is seven miles from the sea ; it was 6 inches 

 in length, and weighed 7£ pennyweights. This bird 

 inhabits most seas. It is seldom seen even near the 

 shore. It braves the utmost fury of the storms; it is 

 sometimes seen skimming with incredible velocity along 

 the hollows of the waves, and sometimes on the summits 

 and if seen hovering around the sterns of vessels is a sure 

 presage to seamen of the approach of severe weather. 

 — M. Saul, Fort Green Cottage, Lancashire. 



Stephenson's Boiler. — I was induced to purchase one 

 of Stephenson and Co.'s improved Conical Boilers last 

 year, for the purpose of heating my Grapery, in which I 

 keep, during the winter, my Pelargoniums and a few 

 other plants. I used for fuel coals and cinders, but I 

 soon found, that although the heat in the cast-iron pipes 

 was quickly raised to the requisite temperature, the fire 

 soon went out ; in fact, it could not be left an hour with- 

 out, attendance. Inconsequence of this serious defect, 

 I called upon the manufacturer, who assured me that if 

 I changed the fuel, and used coke broken into small 

 pieces, I might leave the fire for 12 hours without at- 

 tendance. I stipulated for eight hours, and they agreed 

 that if the fire did not continue burning unattended for 

 that period, they should consider their boiler a failure. 

 I have since adopted the coke, and certainly find it 

 answer much better than the coals or cinders ; still I do 

 not consider that the fire can be safely left even now 

 for more than two hours; and, notwithstanding my man 

 has remained up very late during the present frost, some 

 of my plants have suffered. Perhaps some of the readers 

 of the Chronicle who may chance to have one of these 

 boilers, will have the kindness to inform me what they 

 think of them ; and whether my want of success hitherto 

 arises from defective management. — Thomas Canning ; 

 Elsenham Vicarage, Bishops' Stortford, Herts, 



Destruction of small Birds. — 1 perceive in the 

 Chronicle of last week, that the " Laird o' Cockpen" 

 seems almost to condemn the poor sparrow, whose cause 

 I have often advocated, on account of its mischievous 

 acts in destroying the buds of his Gooseberry-bushes. I 

 certainly admit that it is difficult to excuse the acts gene- 

 rally of this mischievous little fellow amongst the Goose- 

 berry-bushes, Lettuce-beds, &c, and in tapping the 

 young Peas on their first appearance above ground. It 

 is true such depredations are very grievous ; but let us 

 closely pursue his actions during the spring and summer 

 months amongst the various fruit-trees, and we shall find 

 his services in thinning the ranks of numerous Cater- 

 pillars, so destructive to both blossom and fruit, as well as 

 in destroying various species of aphis, moths, butterflies, 

 beetles, &c, to more than counterbalance the evils we 

 have admitted. Bradley has calculated that a pair of 

 sparrows having young to maintain, will destroy 3360 

 caterpillars in a week ! And indeed, from my own general 

 observation, I am of opinion that were it not for the 

 sparrow and other birds destroying the caterpillars in 

 seasons when bloom is scanty, little or no fruit would be 

 the result. I think, however, the crimes of this little 

 culprit may be a good deal prevented by frequently dust- 

 in »r the bushes well with quick-lime just after rain, that 

 the dust may better adhere to the plant ; and so with 

 Peas, &c. I may here repeat what 1 have before stated 

 in other publications, viz., never to destroy birds indiscri- 

 minately, but to notice their usefulness. Among the in- 

 sectivorous birds 1 may mention the b ue-cap, the fly- 

 catcher, the spink, the thrush, the blackbird, the rook, 

 Sec— Joshua M ajor, Knosthorpe. 



~~ iRrtieto*. . 



Geology - Introductory, Descriptive, ^d Pract ^ . 

 By David Thomas Ansted, M.A., F.K.fc. - ™«- 



Van Voorst. 1844. , 



ology, through the large accumulation of facts oy 

 later observers, has, within the last twenty je*«'"£ 

 sumed quite a new character. Its first ^Utvators 

 had a Wge field before them, in which there outedg 

 a few well-attested facts, and with these scanty materia 

 did they build up the structure of their science At 

 not to be wondered at that generalisations too large for 

 their facts, and assumptions, that would not Dear 



It is 

 for 



the 



rigid application of the principles of other ****«*'" 

 cupied a prominent place in their .peculations Gcato T 

 requires, perhaps, more knowledge of correlative science 

 than an; one we could name, and yet it was not un com 

 mon to find that those who cultivated it were ig £oran 

 ... ,. . .. .;_ .:_._. ~r o„»r« d^nartment of science 



of the first principles of every department 

 embraced. Such was its Position t.ll very recently, whe 



the vigorous minds and active hands of •«*»«» 

 Smith! Lyell, Phillips, Sedgwick, «*•»''*!•"»•,% 

 rescue and geology and geologists are no *«««•£ a 

 amongst the sister sciences. At the same ti»e, we W 

 deep conviction that some of the most ardent cultivate »o_ 

 geofo— >.— h »«>od to brine their minds in »" 



try 



have 



much need to nnng B ^ PnC es 



jection to the admitte^ Jirincipl^ ofjhe «.«£ 



of 



of chemistry, botany, zoology, and w^P™*"? m „ nT m 

 The want of this knowledge i* very e««'^ 



m introductory to geology. We are glad, ° 



the work 



dnced 



ever, to find that Professor Ansted has been mauc- 

 publish these volumes, containing the * ££" iD 

 hi. admirable lectures, and we have no h««|^ •» 

 stating, after a careful examination of the work, tn« 

 elartf to a knowledge of the relation of other sciences .» 

 g e e*o!ogy, it is in advance of books hitheru .written c*» 

 lubject. The work is distinguished from others oy 



