April 7, 1863. ] 



JOURNAL OF HORTICULTURE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. 



263 



possible, a foot of open drainage was packed underneath, and the 

 long roota brought near the surface, as in the ease of the Apricots, 

 with marked success. A similar course was adopted with 

 Plums and Peaches. In such a moist climate, dryness at the 

 root near the surface, and frequent raising and root-pruning 

 young trees, are great essentials to success. One of our old 

 tutors in Staffordshire lifted his Peach trees every other year, 

 and thus, though the trees were rather small, secured plump buds, 

 stubby wood, and freedom from canker and insects. Mr. Lind 

 does all that work, if possible, early in autumn before the leaves 

 begin to change much, and thus accelerates the ripening of the 

 wood, and finds an advantage instead of a disadvantage the follow- 

 ing season. If he commences in the beginning of October, he 

 shades the trees for a short time in bright sunshine, and uses the 

 syringe pretty freely, to prevent the leaves falling prematurely, 

 and thus the fine new roots will be running in the fresh, warm, 

 surface soil, before even the leaves all fall. R. Eish. 



(To he continued.) 



DOUBLE LESSEE PERIWINKLE. 



I send you by this post a box containing Sowers of the 

 double blue Vinca minor, hoping you will inform me, for my 

 own satisfaction and also for that of my friends, if it is a plant 

 in general cultivation. I do not remember having seen it before 

 this year. 



It is one of the most beautiful plants I ever 6aw for early 

 spring blooming. The plant I took the enclosed flowers from 

 is growing on a block of wood on the lawn, exposed to all sorts 

 of wind and weather, and has been producing hundreds of 

 blooms since the middle of January last. It has now quantities 

 of beautiful expanded blooms upon it, and will evidently con- 

 tinue to flower for some time to come, there being large numbers 

 of buds daily making their appearance. The plant grows very 

 compact and quite circular, and, I think, would be found an 

 admirable acquisition for suspended baskets in the conservatory, 

 or cold greenhouse. The snoots are about 2 feet in length, of 

 slender habit, and produce racemes of blooms from the crown of 

 the plant to the extreme point of the shoot. The foliage is small, 

 of a bright dark green, and beautifully contrasts with its lovely 

 hepatica-like flowers. I have been an admirer of spring-flowering 

 and rock plants for many years, but I do not remember any plant 

 more deserving of general cultivation. — Henkx W. Beowse, 

 Houghton Street, St. Jolm's, Worcester. 



[The specimens, abundant in number, sent by our correspon- 

 dent, we consider a very desirable acquisition, both for rock- 

 work in the open garden and for baskets in the conservatory, 

 if the plants will flower true and as abundantly there. In some 

 old florists' catalogues we find a double purple variety of the 

 Vinca minor mentioned, but we have no remembrance of it in 

 modern catalogues. — Ed3. J. of H.] 



GARDENERS' SOCIETY. 



I must thank your correspondent " G. A." for bringing the 

 above subject before the gardening public, and I hope it will be 

 well responded to, as I know the want of unity in the profession 

 has often been felt and commented on by numbers of gardeners 

 with whom I have come in contact. Could not the Gardeners' 

 Benevolent Society be extended to embrace the idea in a great 

 measure ? 



Two or three years ago the education of gardeners was criticised 

 rather severely in the columns of a contemporary, because some 

 of those hybrids between a groom and gardener applied for a 

 situation in letters containing some wretchedly bad spelling. 

 This was too hard upon gardeners as a class, and would not 

 have happened if public examinations in which first, second, and 

 third class certificates were given, had been the order of the 

 day. _ Should such be adopted, we should find the right man in 

 the right place more frequently than we do now. 



How often do we see the man who has worked his way up- 

 wards from the stokehole through different gradations to the 

 position of confidential foreman, after qualifying himself in his 

 leisure hours by studying vegetable physiology, botany, chemistry, 

 &c, find another, without study, and with half the years of prac- 

 tice, but with good private interest, gain the position in society 

 the former should have held ? If a certificate were required from 

 a recognised board of examiners, abilities would become more I 



prominent in the great competitive labour market. Again : 

 Gardeners, from the very nature of their employment being much 

 isolated from their brother gardeners, particularly in country 

 localities, the stated times of meeting at head-quarters of sub- 

 distriets would tend to bring them more together ; and the 

 exchange of ideas could not fail to be beneficial. 



Also, if a fund for sick and disabled members could be added 

 so much the better, as it is very lamentable to see a once-respect- 

 able man in his old age come to want, as is often the case. 

 Gardeners when young are not thought capable of filling a 

 head place, consequently they have not the chance of providing 

 for a rainy day so well as persons engaged in many other trades 

 and professions. 



I will conclude by hoping that the importance of the subject 

 will cause it to be well ventilated. — J. A., Hants. 



[We are enabled to state that steps are being taken to effect 

 the establishment of a " Gaedenebs' Society." — Eds. J. oe H.} 



ANIMAL HELPS IN GARDENS. 

 The Hen. — A fowl that devours greedily all kinds of insects 

 in the egg, larva, or chrysalis state, and in most cases the mature 

 insects. Woodlice hens are partial to. I have known a single- 

 hen devour a gill (quarter of a pint), in a few minutes, which 

 I had caught by the simple and old-fashioned contrivance of 

 putting a boiled potato in a 32-sized flower-pot, and placing a 

 little hay loosely over it in the pot. This, along with pouring 

 boiling water clown the walls of a Mushroom-house, effectually 

 eradicates the troublesome woodlice. When it can be done, 

 hens will speedily clear dung of woodlice, and a large quantity 

 of larva; or maggots more or less present in dung. They not 

 only catch all they see, but they search with their feet for more. 



Were it not for their ardour in searching for prey with their 

 claws, and scratching such deep holes to cool and clean them- 

 selves^ I should have no objection to their entering a garden j 

 but I have tried them there, and was glad to be free of them. 

 They scratch anywhere, and never in the right place ; destroy 

 seed-beds completely, ' eating the seeds; and they will pull 

 currants off the trees for mischief, and anything that looks like 

 "grub" they tamper with. In return, they make quick work 

 and good of snail or slug eggs. 1 have no proof that they 

 devour the perfect insect, though I have watched and put them 

 in their way. 



In a garden they are a nuisance, and do more harm than 

 good. I have known people wrap bantams' claws in a kind of 

 leathern bag, so as to make them web-footed like ducks, and 

 I can vouch for their then doing good service. A couple even 

 then are enough on an acre of land ; and they must be fed twice 

 daily, and a supply of water provided. 



Ducks. — These are wholesale devourers of insects, the Blug, 

 and beetles occasionally, but not when other food is plentiful ; 

 the larvte, however, they gulp down should they put in an 

 appearance near the surface. They also destroy wireworma 

 and dew-worms, but seem to respect them when fecundating 

 in July ; and they put their bills into Strawberry-beds, break- 

 ing some plants off or trampling them to death and into 

 Thrift and Box-edgings, and mostly suck in something, as often 

 bits of sand and quartz as anything else. In reality they are 

 useful in a garden, and of great service to the gardener. In 

 point of damage they break succulent plants, as Calceolarias, and 

 Bodden the ground by their putting some four pounds pressure 

 so frequently in one place, and the dirt made by them is not 

 pleasant to the eye. 



A couple of ducks are enough in a garden of one acre, and 

 they may rear their young until five weeks old, when they must 

 be put out of the garden altogether. 



It is advantageous to have a small pond in which they can 

 swim and wash themselves ; but it is not absolutely necessary, 

 for a shallow galvanised basin (ours is 2 feet by 6 inches), will 

 answer the purpose of drinking, a wade-through, and a wash 

 besides. They must be fed once daily in the morning in summer, 

 and twice daily in winter during severe weather. The reason 

 they are not to be fed at night is to make them forage. 



Where there is the convenience of a pond, ball, pintail, and 

 other small breeds are not only ornamental but useful ; and as 

 they are shyer than the Aylesbury, Rouen, &c, their excursions 

 are taken during early morn and night, but they never wander 

 far. Even they must be fed at least once in twenty-four hours. 

 Watee Hen. — Shy, but insects and aquatic grasses form their 



