434 Bicton Gardens, their Culture and Management. 



flower seed about every 20 days through the season, from the 

 first week in January until the 15th of October; and I have 

 never been without cauliflowers one day since the 15th of April 

 last. I have at this very time cauliflowers as close, fine, and 

 white as they were in May last, with every appearance of having 

 them as good until January next ; having 200 fine plants of 

 diflerent ages potted in the large pots in which I grew my 

 balsams, cockscombs, globe amaranthus, &c., and placed in 

 the melon pits, &c., and other sheltered corners. These pots 

 would be doing nothing at this time of the year, if I did not 

 use them for this purpose. It is only to get up an hour 

 earlier in the morning to get these extra jobs done, which is 

 good for the health and I think nothing of the trouble ; it is a 

 pleasure, and where there is a will there is a way. So, if you 

 have no melon pits nor frames, it is always easy to throw out a 

 4 ft. trench right and left, and form a home-made pit ; getting 

 some of your kidneybean sticks to put over it; and covering 

 with mats, straw mats, heath, or fern. 

 Bicton Gardens, Nov. 21. 1842. 



Letter XVIII. On the Gooseberry Caterpillar, 



In the course of my practice, I have seen in some seasons great 

 destruction caused by the gooseberry caterpillar. When a boy, 

 I would sooner do any job than pick caterpillars, on account of 

 their strong disagreeable smell, and the tediousness of the job. 

 In the year 1817, in the garden where I was then employed, 

 the gooseberry bushes were attacked by such multitudes of ca- 

 terpillars, that some were very soon stripped entirely of their 

 leaves. All hands were put to picking them off, and other 

 remedies were tried. At the time, I saw a heap of soot in a 

 back yard, which the sweeps had that morning cleaned out of 

 the house chimneys, and, knowing of a quantity of fresh wood 

 ashes under a large copper furnace used for brewing, I took a 

 quantity of each and mixed them together, and gave the bushes a 

 good dredging with it when damp, and in two or three applica- 

 tions had the pleasure of seeing the whole of the caterpillars 

 expelled. 



The gooseberry bushes, and all the fruit trees in that garden, 

 were covered with lichens and moss. The following autumn, it 

 was observed, every tree that had been dressed for the caterpil- 

 lar was quite clear of the moss and lichens ; the remedy was 

 therefore in damp weather in winter applied to all the fruit 

 trees about the garden, which were completely cleansed by it. 

 A quantity of both soot and wood ashes was collected and laid 



