August 23, 18M. ] 



JOURNAL OF HORTICULTURE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. 



157 



venting so many of them being caught as would otherwise 

 have been the case. Por about ten weeks not a wasp was 

 to be seen, and now we have them in shoals. We have 

 taken multitudes of nests, and mostly at a good distance 

 from us, and many by the sides of highways. In some cases 

 the wasps were stupified with powder and sulphur before 

 being dug out. In most cases tar was poured into the holes, 

 a little of which stupified them, and, in many cases, killed 

 all that were in the combs at the time. We have gone to 

 these tarred places, and never found a wasp returning to 

 seek the old nest. When taken in the old way, it is a good 

 plan to sink in the ground a bottle of water, or sour beer, 

 leaving only the hole at the mouth open and level with the 

 ground surface. We have taken bottles half full of wasps 

 by this process. Old wide-mouthed bottles, half filled with 

 enticing liquor, are also good traps, and so is the double 

 hand-light. A common hand-light is set on bricks, with a 

 basin of beer and decayed fruit underneath it. A hole is 

 left in the top of the glass, another hand-light without any 

 holes in it is placed over the first, and the part where they 

 join stuffed with moss, clay, &c. The wasp, after feeding, 

 flies upwards, and roams about until it finds the hole in the 

 lower glass, through which it passes, but never returns again. 

 Some upper glasses already contain many hundreds if not 

 thousands. We have tried poisoning them, but with no 

 great success. 



Ants, also, have become annoying on Apricots, &c, out of 

 doors since the dry weather. We cannot settle them as we 

 used to do for want of water to syringe or engine with. A 

 repeated hard engining of an evening with clear lime water 

 would bring almost the whole of them for shelter to the 

 bottom of the wall, and then we used to prevent their re- 

 ascending by running a band, 2 or 3 inches wide, of tar and oil 

 near the bottom of the wall. The oil prevented the tar from 

 drying. The orchard-houses were almost entirely cleared of 

 ants before the fruit ripened, by strewing some guano on 

 the floor, and chiefly by the side of the wall, and then water- 

 ing all over with sewage water. The ant hates anything 

 containing ammonia. Clear lime water will often cause 

 them all to sheer off, especially if there is much organic 

 matter in the soil. Though small, they are very destructive 

 in numbers, and should be kept down. They will eat sugar 

 and water with arsenic in it greedily, and soon their ex- 

 istence is settled. We used to place it in little saucers 

 with a bit of wood across, leaving room enough for the ants 

 to enter, then placed another saucer above, and a stone on 

 the top to keep it in its place. When exposed, cats and 

 dogs will be enticed to the mixture. All such poisonous 

 matter should be used with great care. Let us advise all 

 fruit-eaters to beware of what may be in the smallest hole. 

 Unfortunately lives have been lost by swallowing a wasp, 

 and we have known cases where the throat has been much 

 swelled by inadvertently swallowing an ant. 



Hexagon netting, and coatings of wool, or cotton wadding 

 will keep out wasps from fruit ; but unfortunately all such 

 remedies, by injuring flavour, are deprived of part of their 

 value. For regular houses the best plan is to put gauze 

 over all the ventilators, and then they cannot get in. 



For all matters relating to fruit we must refer to previous 

 weeks. We have trouble enough to obtain water to keep 

 Strawberries in pots going on, and for fruit in houses we 

 are obliged to shade more than we like, to lessen evapo- 

 ration. 



We have delayed cleaning the Strawberry rows and quar- 

 ters, as the runners and old leaves help to shade the ground, 

 and we found the part which we had cleaned and exposed 

 suffered the most from the drought. Apples, though a heavy 

 crop, will, we think, be smaller than usual, owing to the 

 drought. Morello Cherries on north waHs, owing to receiv- 

 ing little sun, have been very fine, and the most forward and 

 blackest have been gathered for brandy and bottling, to 

 keep them from the wasps that had begun on them. Melons 

 and Cucumbers we have been obliged to shade more than 

 we like ; and pots in the orchard-house, in addition to mulch- 

 ing, we have strewn over with hay and litter, to lessen 

 evaporation. 



ORNAMENTAL DEPARTMENT. 



Gave a little more air to the small stove, as the moist floor 

 was causing a few of the plants to damp, but we wanted to 

 save watering the individual pots as much as we could, by 



giving them an atmosphere in which they were .forced to 

 absorb pretty well as much as they perspired. Shaded con- 

 servatory with whitening, and kept the floor and stages moist 

 for a similar purpose as in stove, having proved that by such 

 means much less water would be necessary than by giving 

 more air and light and watering each plant as it required it. 

 Shaded all freshly potted plants, as Cinerarias, Primulas, 

 and Geraniums for a similar purpose ; and even with plung- 

 ing will have difficulty in keeping Chrysanthemums growing 

 on healthily. Out of doors it is amazing how well many of 

 the flower-beds look. Calceolarias are yet pretty fair, and 

 Geraniums would be magnificent but for the brown lawn by 

 which they are surrounded. The ground being so dry we 

 fear that a thunderstorm will pretty well dash off the carpet 

 of bloom ; but if it does so it will enable us to proceed with 

 our kitchen cropping. What have suffered chiefly are Salvias 

 and Dahlias, both of which we have been compelled to leave 

 to their fate, as not a drop of water could be given them. 

 It may be trying enough to have a constant dripping atmo- 

 sphere ; but it cannot be so worrying as seeing things dying 

 for drought and no means of averting the ruin. 



Our work has chiefly been threefold. First, switching 

 over the lawn with the daisy-knife to cut down any bits of 

 Lotus, Bent, or Plantain, that in various colours raised their 

 heads above the level of the rusty-brown lawn ; and, secondly, 

 picking off lots of the exhausted flowers, and moving with a 

 small Dutch hoe every bit of space round the beds, or any 

 little spot among the plants where the hoe could have access, 

 and except at the verge there are but few places where a three- 

 inch hoe could get in. Wherever the surface can be moved 

 it so far acts as a cooling to the plants, and if a shower 

 should come it will go in instead of run away over a hard 

 surface. These little hoes act as hoe and rake ; the forward 

 move loosens the surface, or just moves it when loose, and 

 the back stroke makes it as level as any rake would do. 

 For all general purposes in a flower garden as respects the 

 beds, we never allow a rake with its horrid teeth to be used. 

 In all picking, hoeing, &c, we clean as we go, allow no 

 heaps to be formed, to have the pleasure of going after- 

 wards and taking them up, and sweeping and cleaning 

 the bottom of each heap. We recollect in our young days 

 trying how smoothly we could rake a flower-bed, and calling 

 it " dressing" and " high keeping." If the work is taken in 

 time and there is not much to remove, the hoe will leave all 

 in better order as respects encouragement to growth in a 

 fifth part of the time. Then what lots of plants are injured 

 and torn up by the teeth of even a small iron rake ! The 

 best plan is to lock rakes up and keep them for some very 

 particular purpose indeed. 



The third sort of work has been putting in lots of cuttings 

 after the Verbenas, following with Scarlet Geraniums, Ac. 

 These are mostly placed in moveable wooden boxes, at 

 perhaps a trifle more than an inch apart ; and though 

 they would do well enough in the open air in ordinary cir- 

 cumstances, yet as we wish to keep up the regular outline 

 of our beds, and therefore select very small bits for cuttings, 

 and besides have little or no water to give them, we place 

 the boxes under shelter of some kind, such as old sashes, 

 tiffany, calico, &c. Thus it is well to suit our operations to 

 our circumstances. The principle of adaptation cannot be 

 too much studied or acted upon. — R. F. 



COVENT G-AHDEN MAE.KET.— August 20. 



The market continues to be abundantly supplied, both with home-grown 

 and foreign fruit ; and vegetables are sufficiently plentiful notwithstanding 

 the drought. Lemons, being scarce, have again advanced in price. 



Apples jBieve 1 



Apricots doz. 1 



Cherries lb. 



Currants, Red.. .J sieve 3 



Black do. 4 



Figs doz. 2 



Filberts & Nuts per lb. 



Gooseberries . ...4 sieve 1 



Grapes, Hamburghs lb. 1 



Muscats 3 



Lemons 100 12 



Melons ,. each 1 



d. s. 

 to 1 

 



FRUIT. 



d 

 6 

 

 6 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 



Mulberries .... punnet 



Nectarines „ doz. 



Oranges 100 12 



Peaches doz. 



Pears (kitchen). ..bush. 



dessert doz. 



Pine Apples lb. 



Plums £ sieve 



Quinces do. 



Raspberries lb. 



Strawberries ...punnet 

 Waluuts bush. 



s. 



d. 



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20 







4 







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20 







