264 



JOURNAL OP HORTICULTURE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. 



[ April 7, 1863. 



daily fare. A pond and an isle with undergrowth are all they 

 require. Geese are worthless, and swans are little better. 



Wateb Rat (Arvicola aauatica). — " Nay, it eats young ducts 

 and goslings," say old wives. But for once the old wives are 

 wrong. The water rat is a sportive inoffensive creature — a 

 water-insect and aquatic-plant-devouring animal, valuable for 

 eating grasses that choke-up brooks and pools; and it, with 

 wild ducks, will clear any stream of Anacharis — that plague which 

 threatens to close the angler's sport. By-the-by, we had some 

 Water Lily (Nymphsea alba), from Cambridgeshire, out of the 

 sluggish streams there, and planted them in a pond. To our 

 mortification the Anacharis soon filled it ; but thanks to the 

 Normandy ducks, they cleared it sharply, not forgetting to destroy 

 the Lilies also to the root, but they came up again. 



Pea Fowl.— A swaggering gentleman, and a coward and 

 great bore. It is of no use trying to grow anything where there 

 are many of them ; yet they devour snake and viper esgs, the 

 young and the mature reptile also. 



Guinea Fowl. — Too shy and tender for a garden, not given 

 to scratch except in basking-holes, but of little value to the gar- 

 dener. Though they are large insect-consumers, yet they par- 

 take too much of the pheasant and partridge to be of much 

 utility. 



Owts.— Very valuable ; but who can pinion one, and put a 

 false wing on ? Very, very useful in a wild state, yet useless 

 when caged. I have heard gamekeepers assert that owls take 

 young rabbits and partridges. Be it known that they do no 

 such thing. I have watched them for hours when alone by my 

 botby door, and though I have seen a covey of partridges (and 

 young enough), and young rabbits in the paddock adjoining a 

 wood ; and the invariable chosen prey of the owl (horned, the 

 largest, and screch owl too, not excepting the white), was a 

 mouse. Happily the worthy owner did not believe keepers to 

 have much knowledge of owls, or they would soon have been 

 swept away. He spread his wing alike over the fowl and brute 

 as he did over the fatherless children and widow. Owls, though 

 solitary birds by day, court rather than shun the habitations of 

 man when protection is afforded them. The sereech owl har- 

 boured in an unfrequented tower over the laundry at the place 

 above alluded to, and I have known them shelter in grottoes, 

 and, in one instance, in a church Bteeple. The horned owl hides 

 itself in hollow trees, and the barn owls also select a secluded 

 resting-place where they breed, and to see them sally forth at 

 night in search of prey for their young is an instructive sight. 

 To see them skin a mouse before it is given to their young 

 may cause a shudder ; but, their catching a rabbit or partridge 

 is what I should very much like to witness. The food of owls 

 is the smaller quadrupeds of the mouse tribe, but rarely birds 

 and never are they poachers of game. 



Hawks.— The sparrow-hawk is a capital tenter of the smaller 

 birds, for though they may mock him in a pinioned state, yet 

 they dare not follow their nefarious practices, or Mr. Hawk puts 

 in his veto. A basin of water and raw meat is all the hawks 

 need. I have tried none of the larger kinds. 



The Cuckoo is a first-claBs insect-consumer, and a scarer of 

 small birds. Cuckoos may be reared with boiled eggs and 

 sopped bread. But do not pinion one ; rather clip its wing, and 

 towards autumn if it cannot fly clip the other and let it fly to 

 other climes, to return again in spring. 



Gtjixs. — I have had three kinds in gardens. The grey, white, 

 and black-headed, and a smaller kind under the name of a tern. 

 The black-headed are good, the grey next, and the tern best of 

 all. The tern is about the size of a jackdaw, and becomes very 

 tame. "When the gardener is digging it follows, picking up 

 worms, slugs, and grubs. The gulls never become very tractable, 

 but they are continually on the look-out for snails, worms, 

 insects, and mice. The gulls are the only bird that I know with 

 a pointed beak that devour animals. They will soon clear a 

 garden of mice, and they do not object to take a sparrow on the 

 sly. A sparrow they devour whole, head foremost, and they 

 relish young thrushes and blackbirds. In fact their gluttony is 

 unbounded ; but as their food is insects and small animals they 

 are invaluable to the gardener. Occasionally they will take the 

 heart out of a Cabbage, but beyond that they do no harm in a 

 garden. Two are enough for an acre. 



Gulls require fish when young to rear them, and anything 

 afterwards you please to give them, cereals excepted. They 

 should have a basin of water to drink at, wade through, and wash 

 in ; but a pond they are averse to, on account of the fresh 

 water being colder than their native element— sea water.— G. A. 



GISHUEST COMPOUND. 



Mb. WlISON says that he has proved that 8 ozs. to the gallon 

 might be applied bo as not to injure buds, but I have found out it 

 does so to a great extent ; for 1 dressed the trees in an orchard- 

 house about the last week in December, using 8 ozs. to the 

 gallon, and on some of the trees it took a great effect. From 

 some of the Peaches three-parls of the buds fell off, and, I think, 

 there is hardly enough left for a crop. The Pears seem the 

 same, for about half the buds became black and fell off. The 

 Cherries, and Plums, and Apricots do not seem the least injured. 

 I brushed them all softly with a small painter's brush. 



I am not the only one about here that it has taught a lesson 

 to. The trees were all in pots, and have done very well before 

 every year. I will take good care to use no more Gishurst. I 

 think some of your worthy friends, such as Mr. Rivers and a 

 whole host of others that bo highly recommend it, could not 

 have thoroughly proved it. I believe that I used it the same as 

 directed in this Journal time after time — 8 ozs. to the gallon 

 for trees at rest. — S. P. 



[We think you have formed too hasty a resolve against the 

 Gishurst compound. This winter has been so mild, that even in 

 December Peach trees under glass had their blossom-buds as 

 much swollen as they are usually in February. Wait until the 

 end of the year before you add a Mede-and-Persian law against 

 the Gishurst to your gardening code. — Eds. J. op H] 



Extkact from annual report of the Van Mons Society of 

 ium. Printed at Brussels. Tenth publication. 



"In 1859 appeared for the first time the destruction produced 

 by the Scolytus, ravages which were not perceived till then, so 

 little was it thought that this insect would attack Pear trees. In 

 cutting-up one of these trees, the inside was found entirely per- 

 forated, and Scolyti were found measuring 6 to 7 centimetres 

 long, and 3 to 4 centimetres in circumference. Various remedies 

 have been tried to destroy this hidden enemy. The treea have been 

 stripped of their bark to the inner rind, and washed with milk 

 of lime ; but what has produced the best result, is a composition 

 which we received from Scotland under the name of ' Gishurst 

 compound,' which, diluted with a certain quantity of water, was 

 introduced with the small syringe into the perforations caused 

 by the Scolyti, and destroyed them." 



WOEK FOE THE WEEK. 



KITCHEN GABDEN. 



Everything connected with this department should now be 

 kept in good order. Take every opportunity of eradicating 

 weeds; hand-weed where practicable, as it more effectually 

 answers the purpose than hoeing and raking. Cut the Box- 

 edgings and keep the walks well rolled. Basil, a warm sheltered 

 spot may now be chosen to sow in the open ground ; but being 

 rather a tender annual, it is generally the best plan to sow in 

 pans or on a slight hotbed and afterwards to plant it out. 

 Beans, earth-up the early crops, but before doing so lay a little 

 soot close to the stems. , Timely earthing will also prevent the 

 wind damaging them. Borecole, make a sowing lor the first 

 crop, what is commonly called the Scotch Kale is the best 

 variety. Broccoli, most of the varieties may be sown about the 

 end of the week. By sowing early there is time for a Becond 

 sowing in case of failure. Cabbage, pull up any of the plants 

 that are running to seed in the autumn plantations, and fill up 

 from the reserve -bed. At the same time Btir the soil between 

 the plants and earlh them up. Carrots, thiu out those in 

 frames, and give a plentiful supply of water when dry. In 

 sowing the main crops put in the seed rather thickly, as it is 

 more liable to fail than any other kitchen-garden crop. Celery, 

 the main sowing for the winter crop should now be made. 

 Continue to prick out from the early sowings. Dwarf Kidney 

 Beans, a sowing may be made on a warm sheltered border where 

 the soil is favourable to early crops, or a Bowing may be made 

 in pots for planting out as soon as all danger from frost is over. 

 Lettuces, give air to the plants in frames night and day in mild 

 weather. Loosen the Boil about those planted in the open 

 ground. Onions, bow the Silver-skinned on a poor piece of ground 

 to produce picklers. Plant into beds the autumn-sown or those 

 sown in boxes in the early part of the year. Draw shallow drills, 

 and lay the roots of the plants in them at regular distances, after 

 which cover them with fine soil. I'eas, bow any approved sorts 



