General Notices. 587 



natural history once more to its real purposes of great utility to man ; 

 and I do therefore hope that some of your practical correspondents will 

 give the public information as to the best method of dislodging the va- 

 rious species of ants from our fields, orchards, and gardens : for I cannot 

 help suspecting but that the eggs of the cotton blight, so destructive to 

 our apple-trees, may be preserved in a similar manner. 



There is a curious article in § 299. of Cobbetfs English Gardener, on the 

 ant. He maintains they are exceedingly destructive to gardens ; and that 

 the only way to destroy them is by pouring boiling water into the nests. I 

 hope you will point out something more practicable in the large way. 

 Yours, &c. — X. Y. Aug. 14. 



Remedy for Blight. — A decoction of feverfew and elderberry flowers, 

 applied to the black blight on peach and cherry trees, will effectually destroy 

 the insects and recover the trees. Probation est. — Joseph Tyso. Walling- 

 ford, Sept. 1. 



Honesty in Matters of Taste. — " People are afraid to like for themselves ; 

 and until they can find some other examples of note to countenance them, 

 dare not express their taste. Let all the world know that one man's liking 

 is as good as another's, according to its intenseness. Tutored persons and 

 untutored persons like different things, it is true ; and, for that very reason, 

 the untutored person should not adopt the taste of the tutored, because he 

 does not feel it. The contrary practice is the worst of all sorts of hypo- 

 crisy. People pretend to like or dislike Mademoiselle Taglioni, for example, 

 or any other object of taste, without the perception of any feeling whatever ; 

 or if they find the authorities going one way, they follow the stream, bongre 

 malgre, and thus give themselves the pain perhaps of concealing a partiality, 

 in deference to others, who, it may be, excel them only in impudence. Let 

 no man say he either likes or dislikes, without really feeling the correspond- 

 ing emotion in a manner not to be mistaken. If he is indifferent, let him 

 say so ; if he is sensible of a pleasure or a pain, let him not seek a sanction. 

 Let us be honest. As the pain of pretending to like or dislike as the wind 

 blows, so is the pain of being afraid to declare your taste whatever it may 

 be. With taste as with opinions, nine-tenths of the world neither form 

 opinions nor feel emotion from objects of taste; why then pretend to do 

 either ? We say again, let us be honest ; neither let us say, ' I think,' 

 when guiltless of thoughts, nor ' I like,' when free from all movement of 

 pleasure." {Spectator, July 3.) 



Garden Operations for Ladies. — In our last notice on this subject (p. 312.) 

 we omitted several things ; among others, the gathering of flowers or fruits, 

 or the cutting off of decayed or injured leaves from the high trees, from the 

 upper part of green-house stages, from the back or interior parts of beds or 

 borders, or, indeed, wherever the unassisted hand cannot reach. This is to 

 be effected by a very ingenious instrument, invented some years ago, called 

 the flower-gatherer (Jigs. 113, 114, 115.), and, though little known, manu- 

 factured for the last seventeen years by Messrs. Steers and Wilkinson of 

 Sheffield. It consists of two parts, the clipping or cutting part, and the 

 handle. The former, by a spring, may be inserted in the latter. The cutting 

 part being formed on the principle of a wire-worker's pliers, cuts and holds at 

 the same time (/). The handle is formed of any light wood (&). Previously 

 to using the instrument, the iron collar of the cutter (c) is moved upwards 

 towards a projecting knob (d), in consequence of which the spring (Jig. 1 14. 

 e) throws the cutting part (/) open to receive the leaf, flower, or twig, to 

 be cut. The operation of cutting is performed simply by drawing back the 

 collar (c) from its position at d by the line g. Besides the ordinary opera- 

 tions of gathering flowers and fruits, those of pruning off small twigs and 

 taking off leaves infested by insects from high trees (by the French called 

 echeniller, and the instrument an echenilloir) may be performed by ladies, 

 and form as goo.l exercise for the arms of the very delicate, as 

 archery for those of the more robust. The handle may be made to any 



