14 



JOURNAL OF HOKTICULTtTKE AND COTTAGE GAEDENEE. 



[ July 5, 1854. 



This disease for two years, showing itself in little brown I 

 spots on the leaf, and a guttering gumming of the fruit, 

 showed itself on every member of the Cucumber family 

 except Melons, which never were more healthy. In-doors 

 and out of doors, by hot-water heat, and dung heat, and no 

 heat at all, under hand-lights, and in the open air, Cucum- 

 bers and Vegetable Marrows suffered and in almost every 

 variety of soil, and we failed to have good Cucumbers except 

 by frequent planting. We were not at all troubled last 

 year in the early part of the season. As yet we have seen 

 no appearance of the evil, and we hope we shall escape the 

 infliction. It was annoying to be scarce of Cucumbers when 

 they could be bought for " two a-penny." 



We have nearly a dozen of inquiries on this subject, and 

 we say honestly to them all, that after trying all sorts of 

 schemes we could not destroy the evil, and the safest plan 

 is just to sow again whenever a trace of the disease appears. 

 'Grow the plants to a good size in pots, and destroy the old 

 ones. Clean the place well and plant in fresh soil. What 

 brings it we are quite unable to say, as in almost every con- 

 ceivable position, Cucumbers were affected here after mid- 

 summer last year, when they had borne only a short time 

 and produced at first healthy fruit. Generally a bed of 

 Cucumbers used to last the season, but they have not 

 done so lately with us ; but we hope that our beds will con- 

 tinue to produce as abundantly as they have done this 

 season. If so, we shall be glad; but if we should be so 

 fortunate, we freely confess that we shall be as unable to 

 account for the continued success, as for the previous 

 presence of disease, as the course of treatment is much the 

 same as that followed for many years, when Cucumbers 

 were such a matter of course as to give no trouble whatever 

 except the routine of management. 



EKTJIT GARDEN. 



Much the same as previous week. Plenty now to pick 

 and choose from. Gave a little more water to British Queen 

 Strawberries, where the crop was heavy. Hope to have 

 drier weather for the other kinds to get them gathered, 

 liaised Melons on fiats to keep them from the soil, and thus 

 prevent cracking. Gave a drier air to those ripening, so as 

 to secure flavour by that and full sunshine. The shading of 

 Melons is one cause of their inferior flavour. In managing 

 Melons disbudding is better than pruning. The mode of 

 disbudding and stopping which we consider most systematic 

 and correct has been given several times already. Here we 

 think it necessary to state a little fact in the way of caution. 

 We have used bruised laurel leaves for destroying greenfly 

 and other insects. We tried it a short time ago on Cucum- 

 bers and Melons, where a little green fly showed itself. The 

 leaves or young shoots of the laurel are very strong in prussic 

 acid when bruised now, and, therefore, much fewer of them 

 must be used than in winter and spring. In a two-light 

 box of Cucumbers half a peek of these leaves, bruised, were 

 placed in an open box, and they settled the insects without 

 hurting the plants. When about the same quantity was 

 placed in a bed of Melons the larger leaves were consider- 

 ably injured, and had to be removed ; and this also injured 

 the fruit then set a little more. As we had others about the 

 same stage we removed the fruit as well as the affected 

 leaves, and allowed the young shoots to run again, which 

 are now setting with young fruit. We have often found 

 that Melon leaves are more sensitive to tobacco smoke than 

 Cucumber leaves. The same seems to hold good with the 

 fumes from laurel leaves. Such facts tell us to beware of 

 strong doses of anything. We believe that the Melon leaves 

 were dry. 



We do not think we can give the rationale of the result, 

 but we have seen the half of a house syringed before smoking 

 with tobacco, and the other half left dry. Though both 

 ends of the house were filled with similar plants, the syringed 

 plants suffered considerably, whilst the dry plants were not 

 the least injured. In places that can be at all shaded it is a 

 good plan to give little air for twenty-four or thirty-six hours 

 after smoking, and though the paths and the stages of the 

 house are kept moist, no syringing until after that time should 

 be given to the plants. Insects that are only sickly at first 

 will die in such an atmosphere. H washed off and not 

 killed by the fall they are refreshed by the water and the 

 pure air near the floor, and will be able to crawl up again in 



shoals. These may be some of the reasons why insects are 

 found worse to destroy at some times than at others. 



We are now getting Cherries out of doors in plenty, before 

 we have finished with Cherries in pots in the orchard-house. 

 The latter seem to be the best flavoured. A Cherry-house 

 must be a fine sight. For early ones we would be disposed 

 to have a house in two divisions ; to set the fruit in the colder 

 almost open house, and then take them to swell off where 

 more heat could be given — even if that was by an earlier- 

 shutting-up. We had Cherries by this means very early. 

 A few Plums in pots will also come early so treated. When 

 we fairly try Apricots in pots, we would treat early ones 

 much the same. Neither they nor Cherries will stand a con- 

 fined warm atmosphere in their earlier stages. With all 

 this, however, and seeing anything but the impossible in the 

 culture of fruit in pots, we by no means say a word as re- 

 spects the economy of the thing. The watering alone will 

 make a hole in the question of economies. For amateurs 

 who do a good deal of the work themselves, and who have a 

 pleasure in having a great deal in little room, we have no 

 fears of the system going out of fashion. 



In general, and in dry weather especially, kept the floor 

 and stages pretty moist, except in the places were Grapes 

 are ripe and ripening. This we consider a better plan in 

 general than "washing the Vines all over, until and even 

 after the bunches are colouring. "Unless the purest water 

 can be obtained the Grapes are apt to be disfigured. We 

 never can depend much on our water as to clearness and 

 purity, and therefore we prefer that what the Tines do receive 

 shall be pure, such as is raised by evaporation ; and we like to 

 see the dew drops hanging from the points of the leaves in a 

 morning which they have condensed during the night. We 

 generally give the Vines a good shake, as soon as the fruit is 

 set, to get rid of the bloom ; and then, generally, we syringe 

 every part well with tepid water, the clearest we can get, to 

 remove all remains of the bloom, and after that we syringe 

 no more. With a little sulphur on the pipes, and the moisture 

 on the paths, and a rather close atmosphere instead of a very 

 airy one, we are seldom troubled with red spider; and we 

 see little of thrips on the Vines since we gave up placing 

 Azaleas under the Vines. If there was a single thrips on the 

 Azaleas he would be sure to found a colony on the Vines. 



It is a grand thing when plants are kept in their separate 

 houses, instead of being forced to make every house an 

 omnium gatherum, or a general receptacle. We never have a 

 house for Vines alone, until the Vines are getting ripe. At 

 all other times whenever a ray of light can be obtained, 

 there are plants below for profit or pleasure. 



A few of the brown beetle appeared in the Peach-house, 

 from which we have been gathering some time, and these 

 we were forced to squeeze and wash off. Smoking was ont 

 of the question, as it would have lefo its nauseous flavour 

 with the fruit. This house was not smoked during the 

 season. H a few green fly appeared they were rubbed off or 

 washed, as the house until lately has been supplied with 

 Strawberries on shelves, and after the fruit commences the 

 second swelling a smoking with tobacco injures the flavour, 

 unless, perhaps, for veteran chewers of the weed. Some 

 time ago, we had nice-looking Keens' Seedling Strawberry 

 sent to taste, and one tasting was enough. We could not 

 make it out at all, until some close questioning brought out 

 the fact, that a few days before the place had been smoked 

 three nights running. The Strawberries might nearly as well 

 have lain an hour in tobacco juice. We do not know any 

 fruit that is not less or more affected by tobacco smoke, 

 when the fruit is ripening. We recollect tasting a fine 

 Melon with a peculiar custard flavour, which seemed to give 

 a sort of piquancy to the natural aroma of the Melon, 

 though a little more would have made the Melon disagree- 

 able. We found out that just as the fruit was cracking its 

 skin a little as it was ripening, some bruised Laurel leaves 

 had been put in the frame to keep some green fly at bay. 

 All fruit as it ripens should be kept in the purest air, and 

 that air if possible drier than usual. Every thing uncleanly 

 ought to be avoided. Some objections have been made to 

 what we said the other week about washing Strawberries. 

 AH we shall say is, that if those who will take the trouble to 

 grow Strawberries, will not take the trouble to keep them 

 clean, they pretty well deserve to be choked with dirt. 

 Even the grit would be preferable to fruit washed in a 



