312 



JOURNAL OF HORTICULTURE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. 



[ October SI, 1872. 



frew, on the 19th inst. Notwithstanding the very unfavour- 

 able season, many of the spring-sown Onions measured from 

 14 to 16 inches in circumference, and were of the finest quality. 

 The Leeks were very numerous and extra large, many of them 

 measuring from tip to tip of the leaves, when spread out, nearly 

 8 feet. The variety of Leeks that carried off all the prizes 

 was Dobbie's Champion. 



DESTROYING PLANTAINS ON LAWNS. 



A pae more expeditious mode than digging out and salting 

 the holes is the application of oil of vitriol. It is also equally 

 effectual, as it completely kills the Plantains. Take an old 

 blacking-bottle with a wire round it to carry it by, and a stick 

 to dip with. The stick should not be pointed, but notched 

 round for an inch or two at the end the better to hold the 

 liquid. Just one drop quite in the heart of the Plantain is 

 sufficient to cause death, and the notched stick will contain at 

 one dip enough to destroy three or four plants. If the acid is 

 good (it varies in strength), the work of death can be both 

 seen and heard, for the vitriol hisses, and it burns up the 

 Plantain in a moment. 



The remains of the burnt leaves can afterwards be swept or 

 raked up. A row of Plantains a foot wide sprang up on the 

 lawn here where an iron fence formerly ran. The owner, 

 seeing at a place he visited the good effects of vitriol in ridding 

 a lawn of the weeds, put the hint into practice. The Plantains 

 were killed in an hour, and have never appeared again, and 

 never 'will. It is three years ago, and it is impossible to recog- 

 nise the line of the fence. After the leaves were raked up a 

 little grass seed was sprinkled on the bare place, and in a few 

 weeks it was green and like the rest of the lawn. I have ex- 

 amined the roots after the doctoring : it completely burns 

 them out. I have tried it on large Dandelions with the same 

 result. One of the young gentlemen here amused himself by 

 hunting out the longest Thistles he could find to experiment 

 on : the vitriol completely killed them by eating the roots out. 

 Beginners are apt to err in using the vitriol too freely. Just 

 one drop will do ; and the stick must not be carelessly daubed 

 on the grass, or it will leave its mark behind. Care is required 

 ■that it do not touch the skin, boots, or clothes, and on this 

 ^account it is not safe in the hands of children, but a man or 

 woman with ten minutes' practice can kill Plantains much 

 ■juore quickly than any lad can eat Gooseberries. — J. Weight. 



SECURING WELL-FLAVOURED EARLY 

 POTATOES. 



There are numerous ways of obtaining an early dish of any 

 vegetable with its natural flavour and other properties. I 

 have tried many plans to shorten time and economise space — 

 by putting a quantity of Potato sets into a shallow box and 

 placing them in a vinery at work, likewise putting the sets 

 in turf or moss, tied round with matting, to be started and 

 afterwards planted where they were to be grown to maturity. 



To have a few early Potatoes I have found the following 

 system answer well. I plant my Potato sets in pots, say about 

 5 or G inches in diameter ; the soil I use is a pure turfy maiden 

 loam and charred earth, with a little soot. Being in pots they 

 can be started wherever there is a little heat. While they are 

 coming on in the pots, leaves and a little manure are put up 

 in a round heap to ferment, then put into a pit or frame ; 

 after the bed is in a fit condition of heat the surface is covered 

 8 inches deep with half-rotten leaves. When the heat is up 

 the pots may be plunged in this material, and the plants kept 

 in the same pots till the young tubers are the size of large 

 peas or small marbles. This can easily be ascertained by 

 turning them out of the pots. I consider the chief advan- 

 tage derivable from this system is, that as they are confined 

 in the pots, only a limited supply of nutriment is afforded, 

 which causes the plants to tuber much sooner than would 

 otherwise be the case. Whenever I find that the young Pota- 

 toes are as large as I have stated I immediately take off the 

 top soil the pots were plunged in. If I find the heat is de- 

 ficient I add a little new warm manure to the inside of the 

 bed, and turn it over. Then, having had some good, dry, 

 turfy soil, and charred or burnt earth, with a mixture of a 

 little soot, the bed is covered over to the depth of 14 or 

 15 inches ; the Potato plants are next turned carefully out of 

 their pots, and planted in a furrow in rows in the new soil 

 after it has attained the natural warmth of the bed. 



I never use any manure, but a little soil is put on the drills 



after the plants are established. By keeping them near the 

 glass, and well aired at every favourable opportunity, a good 

 crop of fine natural-flavoured Potatoes will be obtained. — 

 Williaji Melville, Dalmeny Park. 



THINNING-OUT SHRUBS. 



In all old places much labour must annually be expended 

 in thinning-out or shortening-down shrubs. When Laurels 

 have been used as nurses and screens for better subjects, much 

 may be done by cutting-down and layering the outside branches, 

 and pegging them down, so as ultimately to present a surface 

 of evergreens 18 inches from the ground. There are many 

 positions in which such an evergreen undergrowth would be 

 superior to grass, and cutting once or even twice a-year would 

 involve less expense than the weekly cutting of grass during 

 the summer months. 



Much thinning can be better done now than at any other 

 period, when deciduous trees are leafless, as, whilst the leaves 

 are on, one can see what one is doing, and judge of results 

 better than after the leaves have fallen. For permanent effect, 

 evergreens, on the whole, are to be preferred to deciduous 

 plants, though on fine lawns, where they stand as single speci- 

 mens, they cause a considerable amount of trouble in keeping 

 the ground clean, as it is in summer that they gradually throw 

 off their older leaves. In many places the common Laurel, to 

 be kept healthy, requires frequent pruning, as otherwise the 

 points are apt to become unhealthy and die. I would not 

 scruple about cutting over-large branches of Laurels now, and 

 would have no fear of the frost and wet of winter injuring 

 them if the cut parts were daubed over with a dark paint, or 

 even with soot, clay, and a little oil ; but for the offensive 

 colour, a stone-coloured paint would be best. 



I knew of a case in which some fine trees, standing as so 

 many ornamental pillars, with hillocks, and noble roots run- 

 ning on the surface as a splendid pedestal, were almost de- 

 stroyed by painting the base of the trees and these large roots 

 with tar to keep deer and other ruminants from them. The 

 fierce heat of the summer's sun burned and carbonised the 

 wood beneath the tar, and there was no passage of sap except 

 in the part of the large roots close to the soil. A free use of 

 liruewash over the tar arrested the evil. The black paint — oil 

 and soot — for smearing large cuts of shrubs and trees, is just 

 as good as any in winter, and it soon becomes invisible, but a 

 lighter colour is better in summer. In general the foliage 

 keeps off the fierce sun in summer. This clogging-up of 

 large wounds, so that the rains of winter may not percolate 

 into the cuts, is of importance where free future growth is 

 wanted. Numerous inquiries and expostulations have been 

 made to the following effect : — We do not wish to be troubled 

 with this thinning ; we wish to have just as many trees and 

 shrubs in our place as will reach their maturity without any 

 thinning. That is just the reason why, when large expensive 

 specimens are not used at once, so many little lawns present 

 such a meagre appearance with small unhealthy trees and 

 shrubs on them. Trees, like men, are fond of company, and 

 after having tried single and thick planting, I have come to 

 the conclusion that if a gentleman wishes a new place to be 

 quickly and well furnished, he should plant his favourites at 

 such distances that they will have a chance of ultimately 

 filling the space allotted to them ; but he should place other 

 plants as nurses round the main plants, and prune and thin 

 these out, so as never to intrude on the free air and the free 

 branching of the principal plant. I am convinced that the 

 favourite specimens will grow as much in ten years under this 

 treatment as they will do in twenty or thirty years when each 

 favourite plant stands fully exposed. In general cases the 

 rule still holds good, " Plant thick, thin quick." — R. F. 



Insects Shaped to the Needs of Flowers. — The flowers 

 of the Yucca plant are peculiarly constructed, so that it is im- 

 possible for the pollen to reach the stigma, it being glutinous 

 and expelled from the anthers before the blossoms open. It 

 has been, therefore, the opinion that the plants must needs 

 rely on some artificial agency for fertilisation. Professor C. V. 

 Riley, of St. Louis, has lately discovered that the work is done 

 by a' small white moth which he calls Pronuba yuecasella, an 

 insect which forms the type of a new genus. It is most 

 anomalous, from the fact that the female only has the basal 

 joint of the maxillary palpus wonderfully modified into a long 

 prehensile spined tentacle. With this tentacle she collects the 



