June 23, 1863. ] 



JOURNAL OF HORTICULTURE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. 



Shortly after water had been given at intervals of a day or two 

 SO as to gradually saturate the mass of dry earth, the buds com- 

 menced to swell, and the trees blossomed in April most vigo- 

 rously. In May, as soon as the fruit was fully set and about 

 the size of horse beans, the surface of the soil in the pots 

 was stirred and removed to barely 1 inch in depth, taking care 

 not to lacerate the surface-roots. The usual summer surface- 

 dressing was then placed on the surface of the earth in each pot 

 3 inches or so deep, so as to lie above the rim of the pot and 

 forming a shallow basin with the stem of the tree for its centre. 

 This prevents the water running off. Out of about fifty Apricot 

 treeB treated as I have described, upwards of forty are crowded 

 with fruit. It seemed, indeed, as if every blossom had set, so 

 that the thinning of the fruit was tiresome. 



The requisites for successful Apricot-cultivation in pots are, 

 according to my experience — 1, a firm tenacious soil disturbed 

 annually as little as possible, for in giving my trees their fresh 

 surface soil in October, the exhausted soil is not taken out more 

 than from 2 to 3 inches in depth ; whereas with other trees 

 from 5 to 6 inches is not too deep; 2, rich surface- dressings in 

 spring and summer — say three separate dressings in May, June, 

 and July, the first week in each month. 



The value of these surface-dressings can scarcely be estimated, 

 they are far preferable to liquid manure. I have tried all the 

 artificial manures mixed with different substances so as to form a 

 proper medium for surlace-dressing, and have come to the con- 

 clusk n that none of them approach in efficacy that which can 

 be made at home — viz., horse-droppings from the roads, or half- 

 decomposed manure chopped so as to be equally convenient in 

 mixing, and kiln-dust from the makings, equal quantities, the 

 mixture thoroughly saturated with strong liquid manure before 

 it is used. Care must be taken not to lay it in a large heap, for 

 fermentation is so violent as to injure the compost. In default 

 of kiln- dust (here our atmosphere is eminently malty and our 

 people, I fear, too beery, from the number of malthouses), the 

 manure or horse-droppings may be used without the dust, only 

 they should be well saturated with strong manure water. 



I have been induced to trouble you with this long array of 

 words on a very simple subject, because I saw that your corre- 

 spondent's gardener, as described in page 399, might lead your 

 numerous readers to think the annual repotting of fruit trees 

 necessary, and others to look at their culture with " fear and 

 trembling." Just imagine the labour of annually repotting a 

 well-grown fruit tree from eight to twelve years old : one might 

 as well think of annually retubbing the Orange trees at Versailles. 

 As I have advanced certain facts, I must make myself responsible, 

 I therefore give you my name. — Thos. Kitees. 



A PLEA FOE THE BIEDS. 



I HATE two neighbours— one, like myself, a true lover and 

 guardian of the feathered race, feeding, sheltering, and welcom- 

 ing them at all seasons, and not allowing any which build 

 their nests in our gardens to be disturbed. The other gentle- 

 man shoots and destroys them with equal pertinacity ; and 

 thus whilst his Gooseberry bushes have not a leaf left on them, 

 ours are in full foliage ; our little feathered "helps " destroying 

 the caterpillars as soon as they make their appearance. — A. Z. 



[Some months ago I wrote my opinions on this subject. The 

 topic occasioned some controversy at the time. A correspondent 

 from Worcester, whose communications on other subjects I have 

 read with great interest, agreed with me, that in general these 

 tiny garden helps or garden pests, as they are alternately called, 

 are much too numerous. Some provincial papers I found also 

 took the matter up, and, as might be expected, considerable dif- 

 ference of opinion existed. I may, however, observe that in the 

 neighbourhood in which I write, where plantations of Apples, 

 Currants, Gooseberries, &c, cover many hundreds of acres, the 

 benefit of small birds destroying caterpillars is far from being 

 generally recognised. An extensive grower who owns some- 

 thing like a Bcore acres or more of Gooseberries, and who, of 

 Course, has at times suffered severely from the caterpillar, told 

 me not long ago, that he has shot birds of all kinds that are 

 to be generally found in such places, and he never discovered a 

 Caterpillar in the crop of any he had cut up. As the cater- 

 pillars are often as destructive in cottage gardens situated close 

 to a wood where there is abundance of shelter for birds, and 

 from whence these issue forth in seores to attack the Peas, seed- 

 beds, fruit, &c., it is far from certain yet that the birds destroy 



caterpillars, or, if so, it may only be when there is a lack of 

 other and more agreeable food. Observe, I by no means say 

 they do not eat caterpillars ; but as I never Baw them do so, 

 although I have seen them busy enough with other things, it is 

 not asking anything unreasonable to request thoBe who have 

 done so to inform us what kinds we are to regard as friends in 

 this matter. In giving opinions of this kind, we ought to lay 

 aside our predilections for or against the object in view, which is 

 more difficult to do than most will acknowledge. That small 

 birds play an important and useful part in the economy of 

 nature cannot be denied ; but do not wasps, snakes, rats, and 

 other things also form a useful part of the whole ? and yet we 

 are very unwilling to give them credit for anything but mischief 

 or destruction. I am not certain but that the last-named of the 

 three are the best sanitary agents we have, cleaning away the 

 refuse of drains and sewers, that might be pestilential without 

 them, and yet they are persecuted to the verge of annihilation. 

 As I gave my opinion at length at the time mentioned, I have 

 little to add now beyond the fact, that although I have never yet 

 seen birds pick off caterpillars from Gooseberry bushes, I am 

 willing to believe they have done so, but would like better to 

 be told by seme one who had seen them, than take it for granted 

 that as the caterpillars all disappear at a certain time, it must be 

 the birds that have devoured them. If a discussion arise on tritB 

 subject, I would take the place of a neutral. Give evidence in 

 favour of the little warblers, I cannot ; to condemn them on the 

 plea of their non-utility, I am unwilling, if evidence be forth- 

 coming that they really do destroy the enemy complained of; 

 but such evidence to be received ought to be that of an eye- 

 witness, not the opinion of an advocate. Without this proof, I 

 fear I must hold by the opinion expressed in my former article- 

 that, owing to the reasons there given, small birds are much too 

 numerous at- the present day. — J. Robson.] 



CATEEPILLAES— THE BEST "WAT TO 



DESTEOT THEM. 



My object in writing to you is to make known to the lovers 

 of the Gooseberry the method I have this year adopted for, I 

 trust, effectually overcoming the enemy. It is founded on the 

 maxim of old Ovid, who was an acute observer of nature as well 

 as a distinguished poet. 



"Principtis obsta. Sero medicina paratur 

 Cum mala per longas convaluere moras;" 



which I translate for the benefit of mere English readers — " Meet 

 the very beginnings ; medicine (Hellebore, &c), is provided too 

 late when the diseaBe has gained strength by long delay." 



But first let me describe how the caterpillars get upon the 

 bushes. I have observed two kinds — first, a light green one, 

 which is counted by units, while another, also green but dotted 

 over with numerous black spots, is counted by hundreds. The 

 latter is the production of a small fly, which may be seen flying 

 about the bushes in the first warm days of May — that is the 

 time hereabouts, but it may be earlier in the south. This fly is 

 the Nematus grossularise, and belongs to the order of insects 

 which have four membraneous wings, named Hymenoptera, and 

 to that class of them called Tenthredinete, or Saw-flies, from 

 the female possessing a saw-like ovipositor in the end of the 

 abdomen. With this she makes a series of small holes along the 

 veins on the under side of the leaves of the Gooseberry and 

 Currant, into each of which an egg is discharged, and along with 

 it a drop of frothy liquid, whioh covers it up. The punctures 

 thus made become more and more convex as the eggs increase in 

 size, and on turning up the leaves, they may be seen like strings 

 of small white beads ; generally from twenty to fifty eggs are 

 deposited on one leaf. This is the first of the four stages of 

 metamorphosis which all insects of this kind undergo. The 

 next is that of the larva or caterpillar. In a few days, according 

 to the warmth of the weather, the eggs are hatched, and the 

 juveniles immediately begin to gnaw the leaves ; the period of 

 their vivification is known by a series of small holes seen on the 

 upper side of the leaf as if pierced with a pin. At first they 

 keep together on the leaf on which they were hatched ; but 

 when that is devoured all to the veins, they creep upwards to 

 the adjoining leaves, and finally spread over the whole bush, 

 quickly increasing in size, for they are very voracious. After a 

 while they moult, or shed their skins several times, and then 

 crawl down and hide themselves in the earth. There they 

 attain the third state of their existence, called a pupa or babe, 



