370 



JOURNAL OF HORTICULTURE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. 



[ November 7, 1872. 



has been justly punished for digging np a bed of Strawberries previously to 

 giving up possession. 



Disa grandeetora {C. J. IF.). — Our artist could not draw from the copy. 



Pears Cracked and Scabby (Sea CHj}). — The roots have probably de- 

 scended deeply and into an ungenial subsoil. Dig a trench by each tree to 

 enable you to get at and cut through the descending roots, and manure the 

 surface and keep it mulched throughout the summer to promote more shallow 

 rooting. 



Fungus (R. T. T.). — The fungus you have proved to be edible is a well- 

 known esculent species, Agaricus personatus. In some places it is called 

 ' Blewits," and at one time was sold in our markets. 



Destroying- Grass and Moss in Pavement and- Asphalted "Wales 

 (J. S, A.). — Dissolve 1 lb. of powdered arsenic in three gallons of cold water, 

 boil and keep stirring; then add seven gallons of cold water, and 2 lbs. of 

 crushed soda, stir the whole well whilst boiling, and with a rose watering-pot 

 apply to the walks in dry weather, from March to May inclusive being the best 

 time. The above quantity will be enough for twenty-five square yards. An 

 inclining board should be placed at the sides of the walks or grass to keep off 

 the hot liquid, 



Scllla precox Treatment (W. T.). — It succeeds in a pot or planted out 

 in the open ground. Six or eight bulbs should be placed in a 6-inch pot, which 

 should be moderately drained, and filled with a compost of two parts light 

 loam, and one part leaf soil, with a free admixture of sharp sand. In potting, 

 the bulbs should be just covered with soil. Place them in a cold frame, 

 and in six weeks after potting set them in a light airy position in a green- 

 house, and they will flower early in spring. You may, instead, plant out in 

 ordinary soil; light, rich, well-drained loam is best. Plant them about an 

 inch deep, and the same distance apart. As a double ring they make a very 

 effective edging to a bed. This Scilla grows about 4 inches in length, and 

 freely produces its pendent, azure, bluebell- shaped flowers. 



Shortening Stephanotis Shoots (Madagascar). — We should not prune 

 or shorten the shoots 8 or 10 feet long, but train them in at their full length. 

 If the wood be well ripened you may expect a truss of bloom from nearly every 

 joint. 



Eoses for Bed (Amateur). — We consider the best kinds for a bed are the 

 Hybrid Perpetuals. We should have standards for the centre, then half- 

 standards, with dwarfs on the margin, say a double row all round : the latter 

 we should have on the Manetti stock. The following are good and free 

 growers — viz., Alfred Colomb, Baroness Rothschild, Camille Bernardin, 

 Charles Lefebvre, Dr. Andry, Duke of Edinburgh, Edward Morren, John 

 Hopper, Boule de Neige, La France, Mdlle. Marie Eady, Marguerite de St. 

 Amand, Perfection de Lyon, Pierre Notting, Senateur Yaisse, Thorin,Xavier 

 Olibo, General Jacqueminot, and Comtesse d'Oxford, with Gloire de Dijon, 

 Tea-scented. November is the best month for planting ; there is less danger 

 of loss from planting then than if it were deferred until spring. Mulch 

 about the plants with litter after planting. 



Galvanised Wire (F. J.). — We have not found galvanised wire injurious 

 to the branches of fruit trees out of doors. We should be obliged if those 

 having used galvanised wire would state their experience of itseffects, if 

 any, on trees trained with it both in-doors and out-doors. 



Admitting Air at Night (E. C). — We would leave the half inch of air 

 at the back of the frames containing Calceolaria cuttings at night whilst this 

 warm close weather lasts, or until frost come, when we would shut up. Close 

 shutting-up at night is the first thing to make cuttings weak and then to 

 damp. For cuttings generally, when there is little sun, it is well to allow the 

 ail - to remain on. On a bright day we shut np closely, and late in the autumn 

 we prefer just dewing the cuttings from a fine syringe in preference to shading. 

 Sudden extremes must, however, be guarded against. Cuttings that need no 

 care in dull weather would fall down before bright sun coming on them 

 suddenly. The great point is never to allow a cutting to flag. The safest 

 artificial manure for such plants is superphosphate of lime, 3 ozs. to the 

 gallon. Weak sheep liquid is also veiy good. 



Heating from Kitchen Boiler (E. Payne). — You would want fully 

 100 feet of 4-inch piping for the orchard house, to grow su^h a collection as 

 you name. We are sorry to say that, after all possible care and trouble, we 

 have no faith in your heating these ranges of houses from the kitchen boiler, 

 when the first thing you must do is to take the hot water 3 feet lower than 

 the boiler. It matters less though you raise it afterwards. As a general rule 

 no hot-water pipe should descend below the level of the boiler. For such a 

 range you had better have a separate boiler, with all the pipes above its level, 

 at least not below it. 



Hot-water Cistern Overflowing (J. R. 67.). — Your cistern in connection 

 with your hot-water pipes runs over because, as the water heats, it expands 

 and requires more room. When the water cools it contracts, and the cistern 

 will be left empty. The boiler is, probably, too powerful for what you want, 

 and jour first remedy is to use less firing; your second is to enlarge your 

 cistern to more than double the size, so that by not having the cistern nearly 

 full there will be room for expansion without running over. 



Mushrooms in a Cellar (Inquirer). — You cannot have a better place 

 than your cellar for Mushrooms all the year round. In winter the beds might 

 need a little dry covering to keep them at a uniform temperature. 



Planting Strawberries (A. Dumbell). — In such a case as yours we 

 should prepare the ground and then lift your Strawberry plants with balls, 

 and plant out on a fixe day in March or the beginning of April. 



Planting Apricots after Afkicots (C. H. W.). — If you plant young 

 Apricot trees where old ones have died you ought at least to give each tree 

 six barrowloads of good fresh loam. That may be enriched afterwards if 

 wanted, but the bulk of the border would be improved by trenching and ex- 

 posure, and would be sweetened before the young roots reached there. Fresh 

 soil would be best. Apples may succeed Cherries, and the contrary ; but in 

 their case, too, maiden soil would be preferable, near the new roots especially. 

 With such a boiler you can heat from 350 to 400 feet of 4-inch piping. 



Constructing an Orchard House (J. R.).— We are not sure whether 

 you contemplate a lean-to or a span roof ; if the former, a board 1A inch 

 thick, and from 7 to 9 inches wide, should be fastened with bolts and screw- 

 nuts to the wall, so as to receive the ends of the rafters, and be easily taken 

 away. For your purpose, if there is no wall, a span roof would be best and 

 cheapest, and you should build on stout blocks of wood. For a neat useful 

 house 12 feet wide you could have the s : des from 3A to 5 feet high, height at 

 the ridge from 7 to 9 feet, a walk down the centre, and a platform or stage on 

 each side. For a house 20 feet long, an opening over the doorway at each 

 end would be ample for ventilation. If you had two openings on each side 



we would have one square of glass on each side, say from 12 to "20 inches 

 deep, fixed in grooves, and the wooden ventilator beneath. For a lean-to the 

 rafter sash-bars would require to be 4 inches deep and 1 inch in widtn ; for a 

 span roof the rafter sash-bars should be from 2h to 3 inches deep, and in 

 either case placed thick enough to receive glass about 15 inches wide, all cut 

 to the same size. We do not understand your mode of using slips of wood 

 to receive the glass underneath, these rafter sash-bars. We should prefer 

 no laps, grooving the sash-bars, making them deep enough to permit expan- 

 sion on each side, and fastening beneath with slips of indiarubber or soft 

 cord. For ordinary purposes wooden sides 1 inch thick would keep out more 

 frost than a 4^ brick wall. For such a house, if you want to keep tender 

 plants in winter, you must have a small iron stove. H you wish for a cool 

 orchard house you will want no stages, but have a bed on each side of the 

 pathway. 



Cost of Digging and Trenching (A Young Gardener).— Digging light 

 garden ground a spit deep would cost from 2d. to 3d. per rod ; heavy ground, 

 id. ; trenching light soil two spits deep, Is. Id. ; heavy soil, Is. 4d. 



Koses for Exhibition in August and September (A Five-years Sub- 

 scriber). — For exhibition in August you will need to prune the plants late in 

 spring. A better plan is to allow the shoots to grow until May, and then 

 shorten them to within five cr six leaves of their base. This will cause 

 them to flower strongly in August and September — much more strongly than 

 were you to allow them to flower at the usual time, and then depend on the 

 second flowering for bloom. We should shorten the shoots of a portion of 

 the plants in May, and another portion early in June, and with good varieties 

 and good cultivation we consider you will stand a chance of success.' The 

 plants can hardly have too high culture, and another essential is to keep the 

 foliage clean. Only allow the plants to carry a fair amount with the weak 

 buds removed. 



Storeroom for Fruit (Han Thomas). — We see no objection to your house 

 or room; only, owing to the pipes passing through it, the atmosphere will be 

 too dry for keeping the Apples without shrivelling, and it will be too ■warm 

 for Apples or Pears to keep long and well. The only suggestions we have to 

 offer are to arrange the hot-water pipes that you may ensure the temperature 

 from falling below 40°. Keep the temperature as near that as you can, not 

 raising it more than 4o r from fire heat, and dry the fruit by means of renti- 

 lation in damp weather. Keep the room dark. When ripening, the fruit 

 should be placed in a room weU lighted and ventilated, having a temperature 

 of 45- to 50°. 



Tricyrtis htrta after Flowering {Constant Reader). — Keep the soil 

 no more than moist in winter, and let the plant have a greenhouse temperature 

 or be safe from frost. When it is growing freely water copiously up to flowering, 

 afterwards merely keep the soil moist. It succeeds in two parts light fibrous 

 loam, one part sandy peat, and one part leaf soil, with a sixth of silver sand. 

 Good drainage is necessary. 



Pruning Jasmines and Honeysuckles (Maria). — The shoots should be 

 regulated now, thinning out those which are old and weak, and training-in 

 the strong in their place. In February, or before growth begins, the shoots 

 that will not train-in well, or for which there is not room, should be cut back 

 to within half or three-quarters of an inch of then: base, and these will produce 

 flowering shoots. The long shoots trained-in will also give rise to many 

 short stubby shoots with flowers. Cut away the irregular growths in summer 

 after flowering, but do not shorten the shoots — merely remove the parts which 

 have flowered. 



Bluebottle Flies in Vinery — Management of Vines (West Cumber* 

 land). — Bluebottle flies damage the Grapes very much ; they find out 

 damaged parts in the benies and suck the substance out of them, but we 

 never saw them do any injury so late in the season as this. You should 

 place gauze or fine wire netting over the ventilators to keep them out. 

 Where the berries are hanging ripe, now and during dull wet weather fires 

 ought to be kept on in the day, with the ventilators open ; fires should only 

 be kept in at night when there is danger of frost getting in. Make the out- 

 side border any time dming the winter. As you have had much red spider 

 on the Vines, wash all the woodwork of the house with warm water in which 

 very little soft soap has been dissolved ; wash the wood of the Vines, after they 

 have been pruned, with soft soap and water, and afterwards paint with a 

 mixture composed of sulphur with soft soap and a little soot added. 



Vines for Greenhouse (A Constant Subscriber). — Your house, 10 feet 

 long, will afford room for three Vines as you propose, the end ones IS iuehes 

 from each end, and the others at 3 feet 6 inches apart. The kinds wc advise 

 are Frankenthal, and Trentham Black; Buckland Sweetwater, or White Fron- 

 tignan as white. For ripening in July you will need to start the Vines early 

 in March, keeping the temperature at 55- 1 after the Vines are in leaf, and 

 60° to 65° at night after they are in flower, with a rise by day of 5° to 10° in 

 dull weather, and 15° to 20° with sun and abundance of air. Your plants 

 will be ruined by this temperature ; therefore we advise you to treat as for 

 greenhouse Vines, giving only a little extra heat in cold periods. An Apricot 

 or Peach would succeed. Now is not too late to plant for fruiting next year. 

 but we should not plant until the shoots were 1 or 2 inches long. 



Names of Fruits (E. Cox).— It is the true old " Seek-no-farther. '* It is 

 portrait ed in Ronalds' " Pyrus Malus Brentfordiensis," and in Hogg's " British 

 Pomology." [Musk Pear).— OnePear isDuchesse d\Angouleme,and tl:j r Kher 

 Flemish Beauty. (W. Dulleyjun.).— The Apple is Alfriston. 



Names of Plants (Darlington Amateur). — We cannot name varieties of 

 florists' flowers. There is a legion of Fuchsias nearly like the specimen. 

 (Sea Cliff). — The shrub is Hippophae rhamnoides ; the other, Acanthus 

 mollis. (E. Walpole, jun.).— Oenothera macrocarpa, Pursk.; <E. missouri- 

 ensis, Bot. Mag., 1. 1592. (Flora).— Apparently some Escallonia, but we re- 

 ceived no leaves. (Mac). — None of your Mosses being in fruit, we cannot 

 attempt to name them. 



POULTRY, BEE, AED PIGEON CHRONICLE. 



TO ALL NEGLIGENT SECRETARIES. 

 It seems ungracious to be finding fault with those who labour 

 hard gratuitously, but on one point I must regularly, year by year, 

 appeal to you, until I find the appeal makes some impression 

 where it is needed. My rule is always to send the price of a 

 catalogue and prize list to the secretary of a poultry show, with 



