32 



JOURNAL OF HORTICULTURE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. 



[ July 14, 1370. 



neceBsary to use slight fires occasionally for the purpose of 

 drying the atmosphere of the house. The propriety of this 

 will, however, greatly depend upon circumstances, for in small 

 well- ventilated houses damp will hardly be troublesome, whereas 

 in lofty houses with but little ventilation, and the roofs over- 

 grown with climbers, it may be so to a very great extent. 

 But at this season there is nothing to fear from cold, and air 

 should be freely admitted at every favourable opportunity, 

 using every care to keep the atmosphere of the house as dry 

 as possible, and keeping the plants clear of decaying flowers. 

 Considerable care will also be necessary in watering recently 

 repotted specimens, whether of the soft or hard wooded class, 

 as in the case of cloudy weather they will require very little 

 water, and will be speedily injured by a careless supply. Con- 

 tinue to carefully regulate the growth of twiners, but avoid 

 tying them too closely, and allow them to grow according to 

 their natural habits as much as circumstances will permit. 

 Examine the border plants frequently for insects, which, if 

 allowed their own way at this season, soon injure the young 

 tender growth. The Luculias are matchless subjects for the 

 conservatory borders and are deserving of every care, but they 

 are very subject to black thrips. Tobacco smoke is the most 

 effectual remedy for this pest. — W. Eeane. 



DOINGS OF THE LAST WEEK. 

 On the evening of this, the 9th inst., we have had thunder, 

 but little rain, though it has fallen heavily in some places in 

 the neighbourhood. In summer, especially, we often notice 

 that the cloud breaks on the height, and sheds its contents in 

 the valleys. In winter, the heights get their share more regu- 

 larly. However, the Bhowers which we have had, though as yet 

 doing little to fill reservoirs, have refreshed vegetation, and 

 even the lawn, beginning to be brown, is putting on its bright 

 green livery. As a commencement, we are having trough 

 piping placed round our pits, that the water from them, as well 

 as houses, may be conveyed to a clean-water tank. The water 

 from these pits was not lost formerly, as it fell on firm ground, 

 so sloping that the rains ran to cesspools, whence it was con- 

 veyed in pipes to a pond concealed from view. We thus from 

 roadways, &c, obtained a quantity of water, but it required 

 to stand some time to become clear. We shall now have more 

 clean water, and will just have so much less in the pond. 



Celery. — The cloudy days, helped by occasional drizzles, 

 enabled us to plant out a good deal in beds, generally three 

 rows in a 4-feet bed. As some of our coadjutors say, there is 

 no difficulty in earthing it up by placing light boards between 

 the rows, and moving the boards a3 the earthing-up proceeds. 

 We have long dispensed with the boards, even when we have 

 had from four to six rows across a bed, and, provided each 

 plant is nicely cleaned at the base, and then loosely tied, the 

 earth can be easily applied without the help of boards. The 

 earth is merely well pulverised and squeezed to the plants a 

 little by the hand. In stiff soils, and where slugs and worms 

 are apt to be troublesome, it is a good plan to have semicircular 

 pieces of old spouting, say 18 inches long, of tin or zinc, made 

 on purpose, two to be placed round and pretty close to each 

 plant, the interior to be filled with ashes, and then the space 

 between with earth, drawing up the pieces of pipe as you go 

 along. This plan is one of the best for preventing slugs and 

 snails marking the Celery. 



Our Celery beds have been filled until now with bedding 

 plants, dwarf Peas, and Potatoes, and now they have had an 

 addition of very rotten dung, made moderately firm before 

 planting. For large Celery, rather rank dung may be used. 

 When sweet, crisp Celery is desired, all rank dung should be 

 mixed with the soil at the bottom, if used at all, and sweet 

 dung mixed with soil near the surface. On the ridges we have 

 had rows of Peas, but the dry weather has caused some of them 

 to come to maturity earlier than we wished, and as some rows 

 were removed we used branches laid across the bed to give a 

 flickering shade until the air became cooler, and the clouds 

 gave a little more shade. After one good watering at planting, 

 we must be satisfied with a few surface sprinklings. Our 

 plants would not have required the latter if they had been 

 better established with good balls before turning out, as we 

 generally have them ; but in the press of matterB only part of 

 what is planted received the usual attention, and therefore 

 they feel the moving more at first. Our later crops will be 

 more independent in this respect, and where water is scaroe it 

 will ever be easier to water a bed somewhat thickly planted 

 than the same plants spread over a large space. Such plants 



forming good balls, with young fibres bristling all round them 

 like a wig, when well watered some hours before lifting, will re- 

 quire comparatively little watering when transferred to sunk 

 beds or trenches. 



Cucumbers. — Our earliest, in a pit heated by hot water, have 

 been all that could be desired, but twice they have had a little 

 fly, and what was worse, they were attacked with red spider. 

 The latter was mostly our own fault, as three times suc- 

 cessively we put a row of Strawberry plants on a shelf close to 

 the apex, and thus got Strawberries to ripen and colour well 

 some days earlier than we could have ripened them elsewhere. 

 The dryness, so necessary to full flavour, prevented us syringing 

 near the top of the pit — in fact, we could syringe but little, hence 

 the presence of the red spider. These Strawberry pots were taken 

 there merely to hasten the swelling of the fruit, as it was all 

 set and swelling previously. On taking away the Strawberry- 

 shelf we cut off the leaves of the Cucumbers most affected with 

 the spider, and then two or three smokings with tobacco paper 

 and syringings with clear soft-soap water, removed all trace of 

 the insects, and the plants now look as healthy and vigorous 

 as they did at first. We had planted out a few more in case 

 the plants had shown signs of exhausticn. 



A few of the details of treatment may be given. The pit is 

 nearly 6 feet wide, with a space shut off inside of about half 

 that width. As we wanted Cucumbers soon after planting 

 out in spring, we considered that width too much. We there- 

 fore kept our plants in rather large pots, banked-up all round 

 with sweet hot dung to within an inch of the rims of the pots. 

 When fairly established the bed was surfaced all over so as to 

 be level with, and frequently to cover the rim of the pot, 

 the pot itself being filled with rich compost. Roots now come 

 from the top of the bed and run along the surface of the bed, 

 and a sprinkling of fresh rich compost has been spread over 

 them two or three times. The curbing cf the roots by the pots 

 caused the early fruit to swell better, and prevented over- 

 luxuriance, and the pots, though now concealed, do something 

 still to secure fruitfulness and moderate growth in such little 

 space. With elevated span-roofed or lean-to houses with a 

 good length of roof, we should consider such cramping of the 

 roots unnecessary, unless where early results were wanted. 

 We can produce Cucumbers plentifully enough in the usual 

 low pits and frames, but in general, and especially for all large, 

 vigorous-growing kinds, the pit and the frame are poor sub- 

 stitutes for the house with the more elevated roof, and where 

 the most of the work can be done by the operator standing 

 beneath the stems and foliage of the plants. In such circum- 

 stances, with even soft-soap water at command, we should give 

 little chance to red spider, thrips, or green fly to do much mora 

 than make their appearance. 



FRUIT DEPARTMENT. 



Here we pass other matters to chronicle a disappointment. 

 A Peach tree on the back wall of our orchard house, beautifully 

 supplied with fruit, and looking pretty well until within a few 

 days, is going to bid us good-bye. Although we knew it had a 

 trial to go through, we did not expect we should lose it. About 

 February or March the stem of the tree had been nibbled all 

 round by mice, every bit of outer and inner bark being removed 

 to the depth, perpendicularly, all round the stem, of from 6 to 

 7 inches. The alburnum, or last season's layer of wood, was 

 also eaten into in various places, but a good portion seemed to 

 be untouched. We covered over the place with a mixture of 

 clay and cow dung, tying it up securely with a cotton cloth, so 

 as to exclude air, and when examined once or twice we found 

 fresh bark freely forming from the upper and under sides 

 of the large wounded or barked part. As we had often wit- 

 nessed the heavy crops carried to completion on the branches 

 of fruit trees, where, owing to canker, there were open spaces 

 all round destitute of bark and alburnum, we were in hopes 

 that our tree, and the crop on it for this year, would not have 

 suffered, and more especially as fresh bark was forming on 

 both sides of the wound. We have noticed Plum, Pear, and 

 Apple trees living and fruiting for years with more than double 

 that space of stem destitute of bark. We have been 

 astonished to find, on removing Peach trees becoming ex- 

 hausted, how very small a space of living wood sufficed to 

 keep up the circulation. We felt annoyed at the mice thu3 

 olearing away the bark from the stem of a favourite tree, but 

 after covering the wound over we were in hopes that our tree 

 would eventually suffer no more than it would do from a 

 rather severe ringing. Something there may be in the very 

 nibbling of the mice, as we have often seen hundreds of 

 LaurelB die upwards, even though the nibbling did not go 



