August 8, 1878. ] 
JOURNAL OF HORTICULTURE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. 
115 
Cape Broccoli for autumn or early winter supply. Early-sown 
Cabbage prick off so soon as the plants are large enough in order 
to keep them sturdy and to enable them to better withstand cold. 
Attend to earthing early Celery and to watering the later crops 
liberally. Plants may yet be planted for a late spring supply. 
The trenches need not be deep now, well-drained light soil being 
made choice of, and a sheltered situation. Incomparable (San- 
dringham) Dwarf White and Williams’s Matchless Red are hardy 
and remain a long time fit for use. Any late plants required for 
using green after the blanched supply is exhausted may be planted 
in beds 4 feet wide, placing the plants 9 inches apart in rows a foot 
asunder crosswise of the beds. 
_ Ifavery late crop of Peas be wanted seed should now be sown 
in a pit in rows 2 to 2 feet 6 inches apart, affording them from 10 
to 12 inches depth of moderately rich light soil, and a distance 
from the glass for such kinds as Little Gem and Blue Peter of 
about 2 feet; but Unique, which is a fine Pea for this purpose, 
should have more head room, or eight or nine peas may be sown 
in 10-inch pots and then placed in a warm situation outdoors, re- 
moving them to a light airy house in October, or before frosts occur 
likely to injure them. A pit should be sown at once with French 
Beans for a late supply, and it must be heated so as to maintain a 
night temperature of 55°, and 65° by day when required, but the 
lights need not be employed until the weather becomes cold in 
September. Negro Long-podded is excellent for this sowing, also 
Osborn’s Forcing. 
HARDY FRUIT GARDEN. 
Wasp nests are numerous and should be destroyed. We make 
a squib by moistening gunpowder with water, adding about a 
fourth of flowers of sulphur to the powder, and forming the 
mixture into a paste, wrapping it in brown paper, tying one end 
up, and drying so as to have the squibs in the right condition for 
burning slowly. After dark, the nest being marked during the 
day, one of the squibs is lighted and pushed well into the hole. 
A sod is placed over it and rammed down so as to confine the 
fumes, and about a minute after the squib is spent the nest is dug 
out and the grubs crushed with the back of the spade, filling up 
the hole, and the work is done. If the nest is suspended tie the 
squib on a stick, light and apply to the entrance, holding it there 
steadily. The fumes will kill every wasp, and all that is wanted 
further is to take down the nest and bury it. Most under gardeners 
like this sort of work ; there is danger of being stung by stragglers, 
which makes the work enticing. The squibs require to be about 
half an inch in diameter and 3 inches long. It is an old system 
and better than many new notions for destroying wasps. 
Mildew, owing to the dry weather, appears upon the fruit of 
‘Vines against walls, and should be met by dusting with flowers 
of sulphur. All laterals should be closely stopped or removed, as 
well as superfluous shoots, so as to admit light and air to the 
fruit, which should be gone over to see that there has been no 
neglect in thinning the berries, for they do not attain so good a 
Size nor ripen so well as when they are thinned just sufficiently to 
prevent the berries wedging. 
Plums on trained trees against walls are swelling off well. 
Keep the leading shoots closely nailed or tied-in, pinching back 
superfluous shoots to one or two leaves, and remove or stop 
forerights ; if the shoots have not previously been stopped, stop 
them at the third leaf. Pyramid trees of Plums have cast most 
of the fruit. Rivers’s Early Prolific is now ripe, and valuable it | 
is on account of its earliness. Red spider is in many instances 
infesting fruit trees trained to walls, particularly the Peach and 
Nectarine, probably owing to the hot weather and the dryness of 
the borders. Give the roots a thorough watering, and when the 
trees are carrying a heavy crop afford them liquid manure to 
assist in swelling off the fruit and to help the plumping of the 
buds for future bearing. Syringe well in the evening, but not 
after the fruit commences ripening. Lay-in the young wood as 
it advances in growth, and secure the extensions by nailing or 
tying, keeping the shoots rather thin so as to secure the benefit 
of sun and air to ripen them. Any leaves overhanging the fruit 
may be shortened or drawn aside, but leave at least a portion of 
the leaf to mature the bud or buds at its base. In gathering the 
fruit of Apricots, Peaches, and Nectarines great care must be 
exercised, as the tender tissue is sooninjured by pressure or the 
least fall, and when either occurs decay soon sets in, whereas if 
it is handled carefully and laid on padded shelves in a well-venti- 
lated fruit room it will keep several days, manifestly improving 
ithe quality, as it is hardly possible to gather fruit from trees of 
sufficient ripeness for table without great risk of its receiving 
injury in handling, 
A few bushes of Goeseberries should be closely netted to exclude 
small birds, and if need be wasps, by hexagon netting, which is 
far preferable to mats, which should never be used unless the 
after consequences are unimportant. Red Warrington is one of 
the best Gooseberries for late use; but some of the Lancashire 
kinds are good for this purpose, such as in Reds—Kcho, Overall, 
and Top Sawyer; Whites—White Lion, Wandering Girl, and 
Tallyho ; Greens—Thumper, Jolly Cutler, and Profit ; Yellows— 
Husbandman, Teazer, and Viper: nor must Red and White Cur- 
rants be neglected covering-up to preserve the fruit until a late 
period. Morello Cherries must have thorough protection from 
birds, or hexagon netting if wasps are voracious. Continue to 
plant out Strawberries as the ground becomes vacant and the 
runners well rooted, which has been somewhat retarded by the 
late droughty weather. ‘Those already planted and growing away 
freely will put out runners, which must be removed as they appear, 
and the ground kept free of weeds by hoeing as required. 
FRUIT HOUSES. 
Vines.—Muscats and Lady Downe’s cannot stand the direct rays 
of the sun through large panes of glass; but there is this differ- 
ence—Muscats must have plenty of light to put on the golden 
colour that denotes high finish, Lady Downe’s finishing well under 
a canopy of foliage ; indeed black Grapes colour in proportion to 
the ample foliage, and white Grapes appear to require more light 
and the shoots thinner. A night temperature of 70° should be 
maintained with a chink of air on at the upper part of the house, 
and very free ventilation by day until all danger from scalding is 
past ; and when colouring commences (as it ought by this time 
if the late kinds are expected to keep fresh and plump through 
the winter) have fire heat to insure a minimum temperature of 
70°, and maximum by sun of 85°, with moderate ventilation night 
and day in dull weather, proportionately increased in bright days. 
The roots must not be neglected for water ; but if they have been 
too dry during the swelling period Vines carrying heavy crops 
will afford a plentiful harvest of shanked berries. See that the 
laterals are kept well stopped, and everything likely to contribute 
to good finish attended to promptly. Late Vines in some localities 
were badly ripened last year both in fruit and wood ; and unless 
well attended to with water at the roots both inside and outside 
the house, and carefully fired through this season of successive 
dull weather and scorching days, may if kept close show indica- 
tions of mildew, which should be met by painting the pipes with 
sulphur, putting on brisker fires, maintaming a rather higher 
temperature with liberal ventilation. Red spider must be kept 
under by similarly painting the pipes, but the temperature need 
not be raised nor freer ventilation be given for it. Let the border 
inside and outside have a good soaking with water at 90° if at all 
dry, for the roots will require to send up a supply of nutriment 
in quantity for some time yet, and a healthy growing state of 
the soil does not retard but assist in the perfecting of the crop, 
insuring well-swelled berries and high finish. 
Peaches and Nectarines.—As the trees in the succession houses 
become freed of the fruit all the bearing wood of this season 
should be cut out unless forming part of the extensions, and the 
shoots where too thick should be thinned out to admit light and 
air to help to ripen the wood, afterwards giving the trees a tho- 
rough washing with the garden engine. See that the borders 
inside and outside do not want for water, especially in the case of 
late houses where the trees are now swelling off the fruit, such 
trees being assisted by liquid manure and mulching the surface 
with short manure. Continue the syringing morning and evening 
until the fruit is wel! advanced for ripening, admitting air freely, 
in fact full ventilation day and night except in the case of high 
winds and an unusual low temperature at night. Peach scale 
attacks the trees sometimes when the fruit is advanced for ripen- 
ing or just afterwards. If prior to ripening, we do not advise any 
measures to be taken against it other than picking and sponging ; 
but immediately the fruit is gathered syringe the trees thoroughly 
with paraffin a wineglassful to four gallons of water, mixing the- 
roughly with the water and keeping mixed by alternate squirts of 
the syringe into the watering pot and trees. If this be not done 
it is better left alone, as some parts of the trees will be smeared 
| with paraffin purely and other parts with water only, doing more 
harm than good, whereas properly used it destroys the scale and 
does not in the least injure the trees. It is also effectual against 
thrips and red spider, indeed every kind of insect. In the earliest 
forced house some of the leaves will be beginning to change and 
drop off, in which case the lights if removed may be put on, but 
admitting all the ventilation practical, as if heavy rains set in 
some of the buds may start into growth, but by putting on the 
lights the inside borders will be kept drier. 
PLANT HOUSES. 
Greenhouse—Young Fuchsias are every way better than old 
plants. Cuttings should now be taken of free-growing shoots 
(blooming shoots though they strike freely never make good 
plants), they strike freely in a cold frame kept close and moist, 
shaded from bright sun. When rooted pot off singly in small pots 
(3 or 4 inches), and keep them near the glass in a genial tempera- 
ture, shifting them into 6-inch pots about six weeks afterwards. 
They do well in turfy loam, and a fifth part each of well-decayed 
manure and leaf soil and a sixth of sand. Any plants of these 
that flowered early will, if now cut-in slightly and thoroughly 
washed with a solution of soft soap, 20zs. to the gallon, to cleanse 
them from thrips and red spider, removing an inch or so of the 
surface soil, replacing with fresh and rich, placing them in a 
rather close house or pit and syringing freely, they will break 
freely and show flower plentifully, coming in towards the close 
of September, and with a temperature of about 50° from artificial 
means will continue for a long time if assisted with weak liquid 
manure. They are very valuable for cutting from. 
