212 JOURNAL OF THE ROYAL HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



all. The berries were simply scalded through faulty ventilation. Either 

 the vinery had not a sufficient number of ventilators or else they were not 

 opened early enough in the morning. ' Muscat of Alexandria ' and ' Lady 

 Downed ' are both thin-skinned varieties, and scald very easily and quickly. 

 Ten times more harm, we think, is done by undue coddling and shutting 

 plants and houses up too closely than by the opposite treatment. Fruit 

 cannot be well grown, of good flavour, or good colour, without abundance 

 of air, but at the same time a draught is no more good for plant life than 

 for human. 



Lawns and Golf Grounds. 

 " This season we have been greatly troubled by the abnormal increase 

 of Clover. Is it due to the wet spring, or have the manures we have been 

 using favoured its growth at the expense of the Grass ? We have used 

 basic slag, bone-meal, sea-sand, soot, Clay's fertiliser, nitrate of soda, and 

 sulphate of ammonia." — We think that all the manures mentioned, 

 excepting the last two, would decidedly encourage the growth of Clover. 

 Any one interested in the subject will find some useful remarks on 

 page 852 of our last volume, XXVI. In making lawns &c. care should 

 be taken to get seed free from Clover. All the best seedsmen make special 

 mixtures of such Grass seeds as will be suitable for different purposes 

 and different soils. It is well worth the slight delay entailed by sowing 

 these rather than laying down turf full of all manner of weeds. Many 

 people think April the best time to sow Grass seed, but we like August or 

 early September, as then a really fair lawn may be obtained by the 

 following summer. 



The Asparagus Beetle. 

 In some parts of the country this always too common pest has this 

 year been still commoner than usual, and in places the whole greenness of 

 the foliage has been devoured. The best remedy we know of is to give 

 the beds a good dressing of 2 oz. of kainit and 1 oz. of nitrate of soda to 

 the square yard once a month while the plants are growing, and to syringe 

 the foliage of the Asparagus once a week with a wineglass of paraffin in a 

 gallon of water, taking care to keep it thoroughly well shaken up and 

 mixed together whilst it is being used. It is also better not to mulch the 

 beds with manure in autumn, as this protects the chrysalids and keeps 

 them from the frost in winter ; but mulch with well-rotted stuff in spring 

 just before the growth commences. 



Sweepings of Poultry-houses. 

 A Fellow writes to know how best to utilise the sweepings of poultry- 

 houses. It is of course a most valuable fertiliser, and may be used as a 

 surface dressing for indoor or outdoor fruit trees or vegetables. About a 

 pound to the square yard sprinkled over the ground, then lightly raked and 

 watered in the ordinary course of watering, suffices. It is also excellent 

 for mixing with the compost for potting soft-wooded plants. A 7-inch 

 pot full to a barrow load of compost and well mixed up with it will stimu- 

 late growth and produce good dark-coloured healthy foliage. Nothing, 

 again, is better for making liquid manure. Two bushels tied up in a 

 sack and allowed to soak for two or three days in 100 gallons of water 

 will make a splendid stimulant for pot plants or growing crops. 



