October 6, 1870. ] 



JOURNAL OP HORTICULTURE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. 



271 



little insects, they may become of great importance. We have 

 had no occasion to net from birds, game, mice, or rats seeds 

 committed to the ground, since we dusted them with red lead. 

 The most singular fact is, that- hardly ever is a hole made to 

 find out what like the seeds are. The instinct of the intruders 

 seems to say to them, It would be dangerous even to hole the 

 soil. So in the present case, could we do it without being 

 uncomfortable to ourselves, we have a strong growing conviction 

 that strong unpleasant scents would greatly deter our insect 

 enemies from visiting us in their various transformations. It 

 is often possible to secure a scent that would be distasteful to 

 them and yet be encouraging to vegetation, such as placing 

 strong soot water or other ammoniacal water in the evaporating 

 pans of hothouses. The fumes of sulphur are as distasteful to 

 many insects as they are to man, and if not presented too hot 

 will do little injury to plants. We shall use the garden engine 

 with not the most pleasant waters on our old Cabbage quarters, 

 as we have enough to keep us going elsewhere until a cleansing 

 rain shall come. 



Potatoes should now be mostly out of the ground ; and, espe- 

 cially where they are, owing to the dryness, taking a second 

 growth at the root3, and are sending out fresh tubers from the 

 old ones. The other day we saw young Potatoes as big as 

 walnuts, some even as large as eggs, coming from the regular 

 tubers, and these even not over-ripe. In all such cases the 

 young tubers are waxy and watery, and the older ones are 

 rendered hard and often stringy. It is best to take them up 

 whenever this tendency manifests itself, as there can be no 

 question the crop is otherwise greatly deteriorated in quality. 

 In a few limited cases such an unfortunate occurrence may be 

 turned to a beneficial result. For instance, we had lately sent 

 to us a Potato plant of a late white kidney vaiioty with seven 

 or eight nice-sized tubers attached to it, and from each tuber 

 there had come from one to three tubers from the size of 

 marbles to that of walnuts. There were some six rows of 

 40 feet in length in this condition. As young Potatoes always 

 brought a good price, especially after February, we advised to 

 let them alone, merely giving them an earthing-up, removing 

 the haulm as soon as it decayed, and covering the rows over with 

 litter to exclude frost, and to dig out in spring for the new 

 Potatoes. For private use such tubers, a3 new waxy Potatoes, 

 could come in before Christmas, but old gardeners know that 

 it is of little use to tempt with such things as early Potatoes 

 until after the new year, or even till after parliament has met. 

 Of course such Potatoes might not be so good as those grown 

 during most of the winter in pits and frames, but having tried 

 the plan several times they are very passable, and we should 

 think much better than the old Potatoes which, it is said, are 

 sometimes brushed and scrubbed to get the skin off, to look as 

 if they were new and early. Our Potatoes have long been up ; 

 but if we had a few rows similar to those alluded to, we would 

 have been tempted to let them remain in the ground until after 

 the new year. In a similar case long ago we lifted the Potatoes 

 in November, and put all the new growths in dry sand, and 

 thus kept them until needed, but we did not think they were 

 so good and sweet as those left as above on the plants during 

 the winter. We thought them quite as good as the produce of 

 Potatoes kept back and planted in the month of July. Of 

 course it is only in a peculiar season that the tubers of the 

 Potato put thus out the second growth of young tubers. Where 

 the quality of the crop is considered the second growth should 

 be avoided by lifting the crop earlier. There are still good 

 breadths of Potatoes in the ground, and, less or more, these are 

 attended with this second growth. 



See last week's notes as to pricking-out Lettuces, Cauli- 

 flower, &c, and transplanting Lettuces half grown to where 

 protection could be given to them. Sowed the last piece of 

 Radishes in an earth pit, so that a little protection can be given 

 them if necessary by the end of the month. Forked in a dress- 

 ing of lime in the ground intended for Cauliflower glasses, so 

 as by frequent forkings to get all slimy enemies away. Earthed- 

 up at once part of a Celery bed, it having been tied some time, 

 and after watering with sewage, put a couple of inches or so of 

 earth on some other beds to prevent the moisture escaping, 

 exeept through the leaves, which it has done very rapidly of 

 late. Before earthing-up, and as ashes at present are scarce, 

 we strewed powdered lime over the bed, and threw it against 

 the Btems of the plants below the leaves, whilst these stems 

 were damp with dew. This, as well as a little dusting of soot, 

 will keep worms and slugs from rising and disfiguring, the foot- 

 stalks of the leaves. We have seen no grub in the Celery leaves j 

 this season, and we attribute that chiefly to the fact that the > 



little water we could give was from the house sewage, and to a 

 slight sprinkling of soot over the foliage, which we think helped 

 to deter the fly from depositing its eggs. Where the grub 

 mines between the two skins of the leaf, and makes it alike a 

 comfortable home and a rich dining place, there iB no means 

 of touching it there, and the only remedy is to crush and kill, 

 or pick off the infested leaves and burn them. The Celery tied 

 some weeks ago is now pretty well blanched at the centre. The 

 tying also induces the centre to rise. As lately stated, much 

 of our Celery has not been long planted, as we could not have 

 watered it, but the plants were large, and with large balls, so 

 that even for a day they scarcely felt the moving, and will come 

 in before the earliest ones are used up. Thanks to shading, &c, 

 though we could scarcely give any water, we do not notice a 

 trace of a bolted head. 



FKDTT DEPARTMENT. 



Strawberries in pots for forcing we moved, so as to give more 

 room to the large foliage, and thus help the ripening of the 

 buds. Owing to the dryness we could not obtain early runners, 

 but now the most of the plants are quite large enough to our 

 taste. In moving, every vestige of a weed and runner was re- 

 moved. No autumn could be more favourable for such plants, 

 the bright sun beaming on them, and not a shower for more 

 than a fortnight. By this time we have often had to turn the 

 pots on their sides to prevent their being incessantly deluged. 

 When such rains come in October, or the end of September, it 

 would be well for the plants if we could take them under 

 glass, so as to have an abundance of light and plenty of air. 

 Few of us, however, are able to give them such good quarters. 

 We have no doubt that many fine plants are injured by their 

 being constantly wet, or when the pots are laid on their sides 

 and are then struck with a sudden sharp frost, which affects 

 the plants more than when the pot stood upright, as then the 

 leaves would so far bo a protection. We are quite convinced 

 that many a plant that goes blind in the forcing house would 

 have fruited but for the bad treatment it had in the autumn 

 and early winter months. A plant exposed in a pit has a hard 

 time amid changes of weather, temperature, &c, as compared 

 with a similar plant growing in the open ground. It is difficnlt 

 to know at times, with limited means, what to do with them. 

 In the beginning of last winter we packed a great many pots 

 with dry leaves in an earth pit covered with old sashes, leaving 

 the tops of the plants exposed, and no place could have suited 

 better, but the grass mice and rats were attracted by the mere 

 protection, and, in spile of every scheme we could think of, 

 they cleared out the buds of some hundreds of our best plants, 

 whilst we do not think they ate a single bud of the plants 

 growing in the ground out of doors. 



Partly taught by the above circumstance, and partly owing to 

 the wish not to have so many pots filled with Strawberry plants, 

 thus saving the attention and labour requisite, we generally 

 about this time turn out a good number of young plantB 

 into a piece of ground which has been well exposed to the air 

 and enriched on the surface, planting them 6 or 7 inches apart, 

 and raising them if we should want them in spring. Good 

 runners planted out in September do very well for this pur- 

 pose, but they do rather better, and are more easily managed, 

 if before this planting-out they have made a little ball of roots 

 in a small 60-sized pot. When planted out the fresh roots 

 keep closer together, and the plants lift better for frames, pits, 

 and for potting in spring. These do very well for the last 

 crops in-doors when taken up about the end of March or the 

 beginning of April. For all early work it is necessary that the 

 pots should be crammed with fine healthy roots in September ; 

 in other words, that the plants be fully established in the pots 

 before resting in the beginning of winter. 



Proceeded with gathering Apples and Pears, and on the whole 

 find them individually larger than we expected they would be. 

 They swelled very much after the showers came, and now the 

 bright sun is giving them a good colour. It is such a loss when 

 good fruit drops ; it seldom keeps any time, and always shows 

 the blemish when cut or peeled. It is well to keep all fallen 

 fruit by itself for earlier use. Such a plan would lessen the 

 labour in a fruit room, where only the best fruit is placed. It 

 is of little use storing up inferior fruit, which will have again 

 to be shortly removed as useless. A few Pears on bushes are a 

 little spotted this season, and housing what would not do even 

 for stewing is of little use. Talking of stewing, a friend of ours 

 mentioned the other day that the fine old stewing Pears seemed 

 to be quite at a discount, which may be owing to the fact that 

 our very best Pears when used when hard, before they begin to 

 be the least mellow, turn out also the best when stewed. 



