AngnBt 31, 1876. ] 



JOURNAL OF HORTICULTURE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. 



197 



TO CORRESPONDENTS. 



%* All correspondence should be directed either to " The 

 Editors," or to " The Pablisher." Letters addressed to 

 Mr. Johnson or Dr. Hogg often remain unopened unavoid- 

 ably. We request that no one will write privately to any 

 of our correspondents, as doing so subjects them to un- 

 justifiable trouble and expense. 



Correspondents should not mix up on the same sheet questions 

 relating to Gardening and those on Poultry and Bee sub- 

 jects, and should never send more than two or three 

 questions at once. All articles intended for insertion 

 should be written on one side of the paper only. "W« 

 cannot reply to questions through the post. 



JBooks (A Constant Reader). — For referents on gardening matters the 

 "Cottage Gardeners' Dictionary" will Bait you, price 6*. 6d., post free Is. 2d. 



Removing Tuef (Daisy). — You cannot legally remove it. 



Pluhrago Eaten by Insects (Mrs. M.). — Syringe the plant occasionally 

 with a solution of soft soap of a strength of 2 to 3 ozs. per gallon, adding a 

 pint of tohacco water to each gallon of the soapy water. 



Eoses in Pots (Oxonian). — You will find the cultivation of Roses in pota 

 fully and ably described in the present number by Mr. Moorman, who is one 

 of the most successful of amateur exhibitors. You cannot do better than 

 follow Mr. Moorman's instructions. 



Seedlings or Phlox decussata (C. Bark). — The flowers sent are very 

 good, the colours being varied and the pips generally being well formed. "We 

 carnot aid you in their disposal beyond advising you to submit good trnsifis 

 of them to a florist dealing in hardy flowers. 



Fuchsias Unhealthy (E.M.M.). — Your plants are devoured with thripg. 

 Disiolve 2 ozs. of soft soap in a gallon of water, and to this add a pint of 

 strong tobacco water, and with this mixture syringe your plants every ten 

 days. If the plants are small you had better dip them in the solution. If 

 they are large lay them on their sides on a mat and drjnch them thoroughly. 

 The mixture should be UBed at a temperature of 100° to 120°. 



Seedling Carnations (IP. S. Bath). — Pot-off yonr seedlings in small pots, 

 using a compost of two-thirds of medium turfy loam and one-third of leaf 

 soil, addiDg also bruised charcoal and Bilver sand freely. The pots must be 

 well drained and the soil carefully examined forwireworms. The plants may 

 be placed near the glass in an unbeated frame, keeping close until they are 

 established, then admitting air freely, but guarding against cold currents, and 

 especially rain. They must be watered carefully, particulirly in dull weather, 

 or the plants may become affected with the spot or rust, which is more 

 injurious to them than cold. They may be wintered in the same frame, 

 plunging the pots in ashes and covering the ligbcs in very severe weather. 



Injured Rose Leaves (J. P.). — It is the black mildew, generally speaking 

 the result of drynesB at the root. The mildew attacks the leaves after injury 

 is caused from defective sap action, and hot dry weather injures the breathing 

 pores on the upper surface of the leaf, causing an exudation of Bap, on 

 which the fungns grows. Roses against walls and standards with long stems 

 which are exposed to the action of the sun, and consequently much dried up 

 in such weather as we have had between July 13th and August 1st, and again 

 between August 7th and the 23rd, are especially liable to such attacks. Good 

 farmyard manure in winter and liquid manure in the hot summer monthB are 

 the best remedies, or rather preventives. Give liberal supplies of water at 

 intervals, not driblets constantly. 



Hyacinthtts candicans (Q.). — We believe it was imported from the Cape 

 of Good Hope, and first exhibited by Mr. Wilson Saunders. Botanists were 

 long in debate whether to call it a Hyacinth or a Snowdrop. The first was 

 adopted, but several good botanists doubt the correctness of the decision. 

 Mr. G. F. Wilson, having Baved the seed of this bulb, has grown many, half 

 a dozen bulbs in a pot, in an orchard house. They grow between 4 and 5 feet 

 high, and are very showy. Plantei out in a cool border they produce strong 

 plants and endure the winter perfectly. ThiB answer has been accidentally 

 delayed. 



Raspberries, Currants, and Gooseberries Infested with Cater- 

 pillars (A. Huxtable). — The leaves of the Raspberry have been eaten by the 

 Raspberrj-bnd grub (Tinea corticella), which is injurious to the buds in spring 

 by consuming their interior, the presence of the grub being detected by the 

 withered appearance of the flower buds. It is the larvae which feed upon 

 the leaves usually in early August, continuing up to winter. They, so far as 

 we know, are only to be destroyed by pinching. The Gooseberry and Currant 

 caterpillar may be destroyed by sprinkling the parts infested with white 

 hellebore, 1 oz. to a gallon of water, applying with a whitewash or painter's 

 dust brush, sprinkling the bushes by means of the brush dipped in the helle- 

 bore water. It should be used fresh. We have no caterpillars, which we 

 attribute to the presence of small birds, which are the most effectual grub 

 and insect destroyers. 



_ Hautbois Strawberry Culture (Flora). — Make a fresh plantation in 

 rich deep soil, taking well-rooted runners of the current year, planting them 

 in rows 2 feet apart, and 18 inches from plant to plant. Next season do not 

 remove the runners, but allow them to root between the rows, and after the 

 crop is gathered and the runners well rooted cut away the old plants, leaving 

 the runners between the rows, keeping them to a row about a foot wide, 

 manuring the space in autumn where the old plants have been growing. 

 Alpine Strawberries may be planted now, but better plants are had from seed 

 sown in gentle heat in spring, and the seedlings hardened off and planted 

 out when ready. They will fruit in summer up to autumn; or seed sown 

 now and the plants wintered in a frame, planting them out in spring, will 

 give you earlier-fruiting plants. 



Pot Vines over Hot-water Pipes (Bus).— Place the pots upon the hot- 

 water pipes, and feed the roots liberally by surface dressings of rich compost 

 and liquid-manure waterings. The roots wandering from the pots cannot be 

 so readily fed as when they are confined to the pots. Our correspondent 

 mentions "as a good Tea Rose Madame de St. Joseph, an old Rose, but with 

 me quite a perpetual." 



Manuring a Neglected Garden (G. B.).— There is no concentrated 

 manure which can entirely supersede the use of ordinary manures on ex- 

 hausted soils, and never will be, for the simple reason that the principal fer- 

 tilising properties of manure are contained in the gases given off during 



decomposition. In your soil which has been cropped for seven years without 

 manuring there is a lack of vegetable matter, and nothing but vegetable 

 matter can thoroughly restore fertility. If the manure must be taken 

 through the dwelling-house something should be sought for less objectionable 

 than stable manure. Cocoa-fibre refuse is very good, and so is malt dust, 

 while a slight sprinkling of artificial manure would do no harm. Of course 

 every leaf which is grown in the garden and not required for other purposes 

 should be restored to the soil. Flower beds have done well for several years 

 manured only with the plants grown on them. 



Pruning Gooseberry and Currant Bushes (Idem).— Bushe3 6 feet 

 through and touching each other may, if the growth is crowded, be thinned 

 so as to admit light and air; aud so long as there is not more than a third of 

 the foliage removed they may be cut at once into any desired shape, bearing 

 in mind that the fruit of Gooseberries and black Currants will be mostly pro- 

 duced on the young wood, and that of red and white Currants on spurs and 

 wood which is two years old. You cannot grow a crop of vegetables under 

 the bushes without injuring them, as in digging you would cut the roots, 

 which extend at least a3 far as the branches, besides impoverishing the soil. 

 Suckers of Raspberries coming up a distance from the stools should be cut 

 off if not required for transplanting. 



Large Scarlet Geraniums (J. A. Of.).— The plants should not be pruned 

 back in the autumn. Ihey should be potted every year until they are 

 established in potB of the size required, aud then a good portion of the soil 

 should be removed annually in Bpriug, replacing it with a fresh rich compost 

 of loam and decayed manure. When the pots are filled with roots copious 

 supplies of water must be given, using manure water twice a-week daring 

 the season of growth. Large plants are quickly established by planting them 

 out for a year or two, potting them in the autumn and pruning away the 

 gross sappy growths, permitting the short-jointed shoots to remain nn- 

 shortened. 



Names of Fruits (Henderson)-. — The Fig was smashed and quite unre- 

 cognisable. (Connaught Subscriber). — 1 and 2, Corse's Nota Bene; 3, Belgian 

 Purple. 



Names of Plants (G. R. B.). — It is a Stapelia, but we cannot say what 

 the species is from so fragmentary a specimen. (W. W.). — 1, Bignonia 

 grandiflora ; 2, Rhus Cotinua; 3, Biota aurea ; 4, Picea Kordmanniana ; 

 5, Polystichum aculeatum var. ; 7, Hibiscus syriacus. 



POULTEY, BEE, AND PIGEON CHRONICLE. 



DISQUALIFICATIONS.— Part 2. 



On July the 13th we wrote on this subject, and then alluded 

 to the importance of the reason of the disqualification being 

 always declared. We want to say a few more words on the sub- 

 ject this week, for Bince then the topic has been much ven- 

 tilated and more disqualifications have taken place. One of 

 our contemporaries went into the subject last week, aud we agree 

 with a great deal there written. It advocates that not only 

 when an exhibitor has a bird disqualified he should forfeit the 

 whole of his prizes won with other pens, but even proposes that 

 anyone once disqualified should never be allowed to exhibit at 

 the show again. This sounds all very good and proper, and we 

 quite believe that very likely much improper work might be so 

 Btopped. Bnt before anything very definite is arranged we 

 think exhibitors too, as well as committees, should have their 

 say. We have not the remotest intention of supporting a dis- 

 qualified exhibitor if honeBtly disqualified, but we do say once 

 more that the reason of the disqualification should be made 

 known to all, that opportunity should be given to the owner of 

 any doubtful bird to clear away the suspicion that the judge 

 haB not been very careful in what he has done. By enforcing 

 such very striot rules about disqualifications we can see many 

 difficulties. We will give one or two examples. 



At a late show an exhibitor waB disqualified for having a 

 Spanish cock in the pen which had had its comb cut. Now 

 this exhibitor had bought the bird of another exhibitor, having 

 claimed it at the catalogue price at a Bhow. When bought the 

 bird's comb was in precisely the same state as when it was 

 exhibited afterwards. Now we ask, Was this exhibitor to forfeit 

 all the prize money and be debarred from ever exhibiting again 

 at that show because of someone else's work? or would the 

 matter be investigated and the real vendor and operator become 

 the culprit ? But surely then that party would say, " I never 

 asked the purchaser in question to buy, and the bird was bought 

 with its failings and merits, and so why Bhould I be prevented 

 from ever exhibiting again at this show 1" Or would the dis- 

 qualification under these circumstances fall through altogether, 

 and the exhibitor have the prize money Bave of the one dis- 

 qualified pen ? If the latter, surely a great opportunity could 

 be given to unprincipled people to palm off their own work on 

 others. Or again, another instance : when a judge disqualifies 

 a bird wrongly is the exhibitor to bear the blame for, perhaps, 

 some crotchet of an adjudicator? We remember once seeing a 

 pair of Cochin hens belonging to one of our oldest and largest 

 exhibitors at a summer show in the deepest moult. Breasts 

 and thighs and backs were in many places bare, and their tail 

 feathers were also entirely gone. This pen was disqualified 

 because of the absence of the tails. Every exhibitor who under- 

 stood a Cochin's points said that the judge had made a mistake, 

 and that the tail feathers with the other feathers on the bird's 

 backs and thighs had moulted out ; for even had the bird de- 

 sired trimming, no one in their senses, especially this Cochin 

 exhibitor of a score of years' fame, would have bodily plucked 



