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JOUKNAL OF HORTICULTCEE AND COTTAGE GABDENEB. 



[ October 27, 1870. 



Had I much to do with antieorroeion paint, from all I have 

 seen and learned I would apply for Carson's antioorroBion, 

 which is to be had of all shades of colour. 



The very best paint I have seen for standing waB made of 

 zinc and oil. I have heard little of it of late. One thing 

 against it was, it strained the wrists and arms of the painters in 

 wielding the brush, as it worked so stiffly. The anticorrosion 

 paint, even if good, is easily put on ; but there is a precau- 

 tion to be taken when it is used by itself or in conjunction 

 with lead paint, and that is not to have too much in the paint- 

 pot at a time, and to stir it frequently with a stick. For 

 reasons assigned above, for clean dry walls and woodwork out 

 of doors I would prefer anticorrosion to lead paint. I will 

 add one more caution to the inexperienced as respects garden 

 sashes, and that is to use a small brush for the putty part of 

 the sashbars, and, if new, to tie it firmly across about 1 inch 

 or less from the point, to prevent the paint going on the glass. 

 Even with that care it will be well to have a Boft rag to wipe off 

 any little drop that may get there. Be very careful, especially 

 with all lead paints, that none is allowed to get in and remain 

 about the finger-nails. 



Some of your readers may say, Why all this to-do about putty- 

 ing and painting, when, by using metal that cannot rust, and 

 grooves or packing for glass, there will be no need for paint or 

 putty ? Why, indeed, if all who take a pride in their gardens, 

 and would rather see their garden frames and sashes neat and 

 serviceable, instead of little better than sieves, for keeping out 

 water — if all such could at once adopt such new improvements. 

 With every wish for improvements, a good many of us must 

 make the best of very common, rather unsuitable materials ; 

 and if the best is made of them, the results are often anything 

 but despicable. Sometime ago a great lover of Auriculas was 

 sadly vexed that some of his best plants damped so in winter, 

 though he had them near the glass in a nice two-light box, 

 in which not a single square was brokeQ, and air was given 

 freely back and front. The squares, like a good many old- 

 fashioned lights, were rather small, but that was not the cause 

 of the mischief. Though the glass stood better than could be 

 expected, the putty was nearly gone, and the rest loose at the 

 sashbar, and at every drizzling rain or even very heavy dew 

 there was drip all along the sashbars over the favourite plants 

 beneath, one of those things of which the Auricula is particu- 

 larly impatient. I could call to mind many instances where 

 Pines have been spoiled and late Grapes damped from the drip 

 from wasted putty; and whilst such glaziDg exists means must 

 be taken to stop such dripping and Becure the glass. I have 

 omitted to say that moveable sashes can be best painted when 

 oft, two men to a sash, and the sash set up on its side, so that 

 one side of the sashbars can all be painted, and then tbe under 

 side of the saBh placed at the top side, so as to paint tbe other 

 side of the bars. The work can thus be done much more 

 quickly. 



Washing glass, woodwork, and walls is a great job with us in 

 the end of October and the beginning of November. A little 

 dullness of the glass is often desirable in summer where regular 

 shading is not forthcoming. I use little shading but whiting 

 put on for temporary purposes, as mere whitened water, or 

 mixed with milk and size when I wish it to be more perma- 

 nent. This whiting does no harm to paint or putty ; but 

 some use lime instead, and if that is at all quick it will injure 

 both. All these, and all dullness and green spots in glass, it is 

 desirable to get rid of before the dark days of winter are on us ■ 

 then the glass cannot be too clean. 



For outside washing I find nothing better that clear soft 

 water, heated a little if the weather is cold. The same does 

 very well, or weak soap water, for the inside of sashes in places 

 where no artificial heat has been used, and where no insects 

 have appeared. In the case of sashes over pits, frames, &c, 

 or over houses, where we cannot move them, and where the 

 least trace of green fly, thrips, or red spider has appeared 

 during the summer, I like to syringe the whole well with water 

 at about 180', and if soap is dissolved in it at the rate of not 

 more than 1 oz. to three or four gallons all the better. There 

 is not a cranny in sashbars, rafters, stages, back walls, &c, 

 but forms a good nest for the eggs of insects. Much of security 

 from insects in a followirjg year will depend on all these little 

 crannies and openings receiving a good forcible washiDg of hot 

 water. Water at that heat can be applied with the syringe, with 

 the help of a thick cloth over the syringe, so that the left hand 

 can hold it freely. Of course, however near it is, the water 

 will be cooler before reaching the crannies and walls. At 

 such a temperature deciduous fruit trees that have lost their 



leaves may be washed or syringed, and thus eggs of insects, as 

 well as the insects themselves, may be destroyed. In lean-to 

 houses, brick back walls and plastered walls are great refuges 

 for insects and their eggs, and such remain dormant until 

 the advancing heat brings them into active vitality. It ia 

 better than nothing to limewash these walls every season ; but 

 it is much better to wash them well with hot water and to 

 wash off the old whitewashing before putting on the new. 

 The fresher the lime for this purpose the better it will answer. 

 The whiteness of a back wall will in most cases be no draw- 

 back in winter, as the white surface will reflect the light. 

 Where lime alone would be too glaring, it could be toned down 

 a good deal with a mixture of sulphur. When the sashes are 

 rather steep, so as to catch the rays of the winter and spring 

 sun rather direct, and tender plants are grown near the apex 

 of the roof, it may be desirable to tone down the colour there 

 considerably more, by adding a portion of lamp black, or even 

 fine toot, to the limewash. In either case you will fail to make 

 a good uniform wash unless you make the Bulphur and the dark 

 colour fine, and then with a small quantity of water beat each 

 up into a paste before mixing with the limewash ; then there 

 will be no difficulty. Without such a simple process of wetting 

 and making into a paste, you will be able to mix neither well so 

 as to get a uniform homogeneous colouring. 



Merely as a matter of precaution and prevention, I adopt the 

 above systems of washing in almost every change of crop, in 

 wooden frames or brick pits. Lately I planted out strong 

 Cucumber plants in a brick pit, but before doing so, glass, 

 woodwork, and walls, were well syringed with hot water before 

 fresh limewashing the walls. In this pit a few green fly had 

 appeared twice during the season, and early in spring some 

 Strawberry plants near the apex had a few red spider. A little 

 care now will often save much smoking and washing after- 

 wards. 



There is another preventive method I sometimes resort 

 to, and that is burning sulphur in such pits and frames when 

 empty ; then it can do no harm, but care must be taken that 

 the fumes find their way to no other place where plants of any 

 kind are growing. Sulphur may also be burnt in houses of 

 deciduous fruit trees, such as Tines and Peaches, when the 

 wood is ripe and the leaves falling or removed, but with great 

 caution, as if the wood is at all green — not thoroughly ripened 

 — the sulphur will do great injury. Even these fumes, strong 

 as they are, will not kill everything. I know of a small house 

 thus smoked twice in order to destroy the mealy bug, but on 

 taking up some shelves there the insects were quite jolly be- 

 tween the shelf and the bearers, though the interstices were 

 large enough to let the sulphur vapour in. Exposing houses 

 to frost would kill many insects, but I am not sure that the 

 eggs would be destroyed, and I have known of some instances 

 where mealy bug, notwithstanding its love for a high tem- 

 perature, has, defended by its woolly coat, stood 10° below the 

 freezing-point seemingly unirjjured. I never knew it withstand 

 water near the boiling point when forcibly applied. 



At this dull season of the year much may be done by ensur- 

 ing cleanliness, to aot as a preventive against insects during 

 the coming season, and thus labour and expense will alike be 

 saved. In houses with earth floors an additional security is 

 obtained by scraping away the surface, and sprinkling with hot 

 water before surfacing with fresh soil. — B. Fish. 



BIJER KNOT APPLES. 



Your " Constant Beadeb," page 282, is right when he says 

 that the Burr Knot Apple of the north is a good kitchen Apple, 

 but wrong when he says that it does not resemble the English 

 or any other Paradise stock, and he forgets, or does not know, 

 that there is another Burr Knot, a still nearer relation of the 

 Paradise, and which roots as freely from truncheons as its 

 northern congener, which, I suppose, Dr Hogg did not think 

 worthy of a place in a work upon select sorts, but he has in 

 his " British Pomology " described btth the Burr Knots. 



I have obtained both kinds from suckers taken from stocks 

 on which other sorts of Apple were grafted, and also several 

 other varieties of so-called Paradise stocks ; in fact, there are 

 several sorts of Apple that resemble the Burr Knot and 

 Oslin in their character, and that form roots from truncheons. 

 Yet I may say that the rooting of Apples from cuttiDgs is not 

 a profitable way of procuring them. I have put in thousands 

 by way of experiment, but have always had poor success with 

 them in this way, and as far as I know, nurserymen generally 

 prefer layering to trying cuttiDgs. My own favouiite Paradise 



