i)n budding Peaches on Almond Stocks, iqj 



nfeally bug, I tried various methods to extirpate that insect, 

 but found nothing so effectual as soft soap. Having stripped 

 off the loose bark of the vines, I coated over the shoots with 

 the soap in the same state in which it is received. I then 

 steeped between two and three lbs. in hot water for a quarter 

 of an hour, adding cold water, and working it up with my 

 hands into a lather ; I continued adding cold water, till it was 

 of a temperature which would not injure the leaves of the 

 plants when thrown on them, and then washed the plants and 

 every part of the house with the engine. This being done in 

 the evening, I shut the house up till the following morning, 

 when I had the lather applied to every plant, leaf, and crevice 

 in the house with a small painter's brush. After this I put a, 

 little fresh mould on the surface of the pots ; this was about 

 two months ago, and I have never since seen the least appear- 

 ance of the bug in the house. I would recommend evei'y 

 gardener to see that any new plant which he may receive into 

 his stock is quite free from this pestiferous insect, which mul- 

 tiplies with extraordinary rapidity. I am, Sir, &c. 



James Strachan. 

 Clat/hill, Efifeld, Jan. 1. 1827. 



Art. XV. On budding Peaches on Almond Stocks, 'with 

 reference to Mr. Anderson's Paper on that Subject. By Cau- 

 sidicus. 



Sir, 

 It would be presumptuous in me to offer any observations 

 that might appear to militate with the conclusions of that most 

 experienced, skilful, and acute observer of nature Mr. Wm. 

 Anderson, of the Chelsea garden, were it not manifest to all 

 philosophic reasoners, that a general induction from partial 

 premises occasionally leads to erroneous conclusions. Mr. 

 Anderson's experiment in budding the peach and nectarine on 

 almond stocks, has been tried on the hot dry gravel of Chel- 

 sea, a soil invaluable in acclamating numerous foreign plants, 

 the natives of warmer climates, which even if not natives of a 

 siliceous gravel, yet find in the porous and warm stratum in 

 which Mr. Anderson naturalises them, a palliative of the 

 British winter for the loss of the richer and moister soil, in 

 which, combined with the advantage of warmer climate, they 

 luxuriated in their native country. But it is only a palliative. 

 If a plant loves argill and heat, argill and cold and moisture 



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