50 Bicton Gardens, their Culture and Management. 



some authority to refer to, as I mean to relate nothing but 

 what I have put into practice fully ; and I do not care who 

 examines me. Perhaps I may not sufficiently explain myself, 

 but the sooner I endeavour to do so the better. 



Is it not disgusting to go into a house of fruiting pines and 

 see them covered with scale and coccus of all kinds ; and to 

 smell black and yellow sulphur, black soap, and many other 

 fetid drugs ? I have seen such fruit sent to noblemen's and 

 gentlemen's tables as I have not considered wholesome to eat ; 

 such as I would not have tasted myself. Houses of grapes 

 covered with coccus, red spiders, and other vermin ; the bunches 

 shanked, cankered, and mildewed, &c. Can such fruit be whole- 

 some to eat? I have seen melons, cucumbers, and other things 

 in the same way. Whose fault is it? Not nature's, but those 

 who had the charge of the plants. Now, the grand secret is to 

 sweep, brush, and mop ; to use pure water and pure soil, with 

 a proper drainage. These are the preventives for all kinds of 

 disease and vermin. Well, but how are we to clean the already 

 foul and diseased collection of fruit and plants? I will tell you, 

 and in doing so state nothing but facts; but you must persevere, 

 or you will not conquer. You must give your hothouses, green- 

 houses, forcing-houses, pits, and frames, air before the sua 

 comes on them, and keep every thing properly watered ; and, to 

 clean and expel the present stock of vermin, you must use 

 clean hot water from 140° to 150° Fahrenheit. Cut a bit of 

 cloth into a circular shape, a little larger than the pots, and in- 

 sert in its circumference a string to draw and tie round the rim 

 of the pot; put a good handful of moss underneath the cloth, so 

 as to keep all tight together, and prevent the earth from falling 

 out, and the hot water from getting to 

 the roots of the plants, &c. The cloth 

 must be cut in the manner shown in 

 fig. 6., with a slit or opening half-way 

 across it, to admit the stem of the plant 

 to pass through. Then tie it up quite 

 tight, and apply the water with a sy- 

 ringe. I find that water heated from 

 140° to 150° Fahrenheit is sufficient to 

 kill or expel any kind of mealy bug, 

 coccus, scale, or vermin whatever, but not 

 by one application; for, if the plants are 

 very dirty, the insects will in time reappear 

 from the crevices where they had taken 

 refuge. You must, therefore, persevere in repeating the syring- 

 ing with hot water, and you will have the pleasure of seeing 

 your plants become clean and healthy. Pray observe that, 

 if the plant is in a growing state, you must not use the 



Cloth for tying over the 

 Surface of Pols. 



