August 16, 1864. ] 



JOURNAL OF HORTICULTURE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. 



131 



the system has not made more progress is the want of men 

 who understand it, at least so it appears to me. Men of 

 little education require to see a thing done to be able to do 

 it afterwards, and without practice and experience make 

 poor gardeners and farmers, and even the best-read man 

 who is quite up in theory, generally pays at first for his 

 want of practice. 



Another thing struck me very much during my pleasant 

 visit to these places, and that was, that the fruitfulness of 

 the trees appeared to be greatly increased by age. Erom 

 what I saw I should not expect much from young trees, nor 

 should I fear them dying or being worn out by age, the 

 oldest trees were in every respect the best. — A. B. 



CUCUMBER DISEASE. 



A coebespondent sends the following as a remedy ; and 

 we append Mr. Fish's remarks, which will prove interesting 

 to our readers: — "A red-hot brick placed in a Cucumber- 

 frame, and sprinkled over with sulphur and water, produces 

 a vapour which destroys the disease. This remedy has often 

 been tried by an experienced gardener with the greatest 

 success." 



[Tour remedy — a red-hot brick sprinkled over with sul- 

 pur and water — -whatever effect it had on the disease, would, 

 we think, be fatal to every leaf that came under its influ- 

 ence. Da a large lofty house, and where the fumes and 

 vapour would be pretty well dispersed before reaching the 

 foliage, the danger might be lessened ; but it is a cure we 

 would not like to try unless where cure or kill was a matter 

 of but little moment. A sulphurous atmosphere has little 

 effect in curing the diseases of the Cucumber with which 

 we are acquainted, and we are left in doubt what your 

 disease is. 



If mildew were the evil the sulphurous vapour would do 

 some good ; but then that would be best applied by painting 

 the walls exposed to the sun with sulphur, or sulphur and 

 soft soap, or in heating a metal vessel to 150°, and then 

 painting the outside with sulphur ; or, better still, painting 

 the outside first, placing sulphur in the shape of thick paste 

 in the vessel, and then adding water of the temperature 

 stated above. Every bit of sulphur that touches a red-hot 

 brick carries destruction to", everything having vegetable 

 life that the vapour reaches. It would be less dangerous 

 in a large place, because the vapour would be more dis- 

 persed and cooled before reaching the foliage. We say 

 decidedly that our practice in this respect is thoroughly 

 opposed to that of the experienced gardener. We, too, have 

 burned sulphur in pits and houses, but it was after the 

 leaves were all fallen from deciduous plants, as the Vine, 

 and the wood was too firm and hard to be injured. We 

 would never think for a moment of exposing an evergreen 

 or a growing plant to such an influence. We know myriads 

 of cases of ruin thus produced. Some years ago one of the 

 best old practical gardeners of the day destroyed numbers 

 of plants in a conservatory by giving them sulphur vapour 

 too hot. He tried tobacco on insects ,- and as it did not act 

 quickly enough in destroying the numerous shoals of suc- 

 cessive broods on some Cinerarias, he put a bit of sulphur 

 along with the tobacco, and as long as he lived he used 

 every now and then to blame his carelessness and want of 

 consideration, and all the more because many years before 

 he knew all about what burning sulphur would do. We 

 have hesitated even to recommend mixing sulphur with 

 quicklime and water in a close atmosphere for this purpose, 

 for fear that the sulphur would be too much heated, and 

 because the lime from limestone will give out so much 

 more heat than the lime formed by burning chalk. For 

 mildew the sulphur may be spread, or rather dusted fine, on 

 the foliage, and the labour may be lessened by removing all 

 the foliage most affected. When leaves are pretty well 

 dusted over with mildew it is waste labour to attempt to 

 restore them. It should be treated as soon as the first 

 trace appears ; but, as stated above, for the diseases of 

 gummy excretion, or brown spot on the leaf, we have found 

 no remedy in sulphur. For these, as stated in "Doings of 

 the Last Week," the only remedies hitherto found are fresh 

 air, not too high a temperature, fresh soil, and repeated 

 planting with young healthy plants. Some of the once 



most successful growers of the day, and for a quarter of a 

 century past at least, know not the cause of the disease, and 

 know as little how to conquer it. Whenever it appears 

 fresh planting is the great remedy.] 



EIG TREE THROWING ITS FRUIT. 



"A lady" has a Fig tree which has been planted in her 

 garden for about fifteen or sixteen years, and for the last 

 few years all the young Figs have fallen off, with, perhaps, 

 one or two exceptions. Imagining that this might be caused 

 by a draught of cold wind, to which it was exposed, her 

 gardener, last year, trained it, without removing it, under a 

 projecting roof, and upon a wall in an unexceptionable situa- 

 tion, where it was exposed to the south and to the west. 

 As it had been necessarily much cut-in, nothing was expected 

 of it last season. This year it produced a very fair pro- 

 portion of Figs, but many have already fallen off, some 

 having nearly attained their full size ; and all the rest will 

 no doubt fall off also, as they are turning yellow. The lady 

 regrets that she cannot remember the name of the Fig. Its 

 fruit is large and brown, and it was considered a first-rate 

 kind. 



[The Brown Turkey, or Lee's Perpetual, is one of the best 

 of Figs for bearing freely. We question, however, if this 

 be the kind you have, as the fruit is not so very large. 

 Tour description would, perhaps, apply better to the Bruns- 

 wick, a good Fig, but not such a free bearer as the Brown 

 Turkey. We are left in a little doubt as to the cause of the 

 fruit falling off, because you do not say whether the wood of 

 the tree is extra luxuriant, or rather somewhat stunted. Da 

 the former case extra luxuriance will sometimes cause the 

 fruit to fall ; and the best temporary palliative for this is 

 ringing the shoots below the fruit, slipping out about the 

 twelfth-of-an-inch ring all round the shoot, which will soon 

 fill up. The object is to lessen extra luxuriance, and keep 

 the elaborated sap more in the vicinity of the fruit. The 

 most effectual remedy is to lift', replant, or root-prune in 

 autumn, drain, keep dryish in winter, and give plenty of 

 water after the fruit appears. If your tree is not extra 

 luxuriant, the dropping of the fruit for successive years leads 

 us to the opposite conclusion — that the fruit drops for want 

 of sufficient moisture at the roots. 



Figs grown in pots, if allowed to become dry at the roots 

 when the fruit is swelling, are almost sure to drop more or 

 less, and after each such case of dryness. We have known 

 Fig trees, moderately luxuriant, out of doors, drop their fruit 

 from over-dryness at the roots. When the fruit is swelling 

 they will drink almost like an aquatic, but the moisture 

 must not be stagnant. 



Were we to plant Fig trees out of doors, we would secure 

 good drainage ; a bottom for the border, through which the 

 roots would not penetrate, or be tempted to go — some 6 or 

 8 inches of open rubble all over, then a depth of from 12 to 

 15 inches of strong loamy soil, and a width of border of from 

 3 to 4 feet, beyond which the roots should not be able to go. 

 Here the wood would grow robust and be well ripened, and 

 water could be given in summer without any danger of 

 stagnant moisture. Some years ago we described a large 

 Fig tree, most of it possessing short stunted shoots bristling 

 with fruit as closely as they could be, the nodes being so 

 close to each other. One part of the tree produced luxuriant 

 wood but little fruit, and on a close examination we found 

 the large limbs of the productive part had the bark all 

 gnawed near their base with mice. In fresh planting we 

 would wish to attain the same beneficial result without 

 having to resort to ringing, root-pruning, or the nibbling 

 of the mice. 



Without some such precautions as to the state of the 

 roots and moisture, the Fig tree will often be an uncertain 

 bearer out of doors. We have two trees that generally bear 

 well. This season the fruit is dropping a Utile, owing to 

 dryness at the roots and to a luxuriance produced by the 

 roots going deeper than they ought to do. We cannot do 

 anything to them without much labour ; and as we have 

 plenty of others we do not set great value on them, and 

 generally get as much fruit as we want. We neutralise the 

 luxuriance by keeping the shoots well sunned in summer, 

 and not too many of them. Da a neighbouring place a gen- 



