May 



GARDENERS' MAGAZINE 



34i 



MORNING MIXTURE. 



Diluculo surgere saluherrimum est. 



I *" rn?r-\°he U ^a7her/ And why X anf goto to 



deliberately devote a paragraph to that hoary and time- 

 den IuL y tL„A larn ain? to do it is this '. When- 



e * r in !T &TthYweek or two that elapses between the mixing and 

 nature during the weeK^o ^ ^ ^ ^ ^ contrived to take place, 



Well, I want a change 



5 

 so 



• orn t0P he"pasr I have made an incidental" reference to it, whatever its 



during the week or two 

 out of the morning dose, a change has 

 w '" e t u reference is invariably inappropriate. 



-0 that the referen j ^ ^ Qf ^ ch of con . 



J° ^L F me by basing my remarks on an assumption that it is pouring 

 Everywhere If be trips me up, I shall have made one more 

 " HfiS on the altar of my Queen, my country, and my neighbours' 

 W cd beds, which (the seed beds) are 'at present m a genial condition of 



paste. 



who 



Wre<=sful gardening is not the science which some people would en- 

 favour to make out : it is the science of taking opportunities. A man 

 has got into the habit of promptly seizing chances is a man who 

 could become a good gardener, whether he be at present a Cabinet 

 Minister a Yankee admiral, or a professional window cleaner. But, 

 inversely the man calling himself a gardener, who has not mastered the 

 simple art indicated, is as little likely to be a successful horticulturahst as 

 he would be to become famous at the India Office, or in charge of the 

 Cuban squadron. Disguise it how you will, there are no terrific secrets 

 in gardening, but there are certain elements making for success, and the 

 nearer you get to them the better good work goes on. There is usually 

 a specimen of the genus hobbledehoy in my garden, and during the last 

 twenty years a fair string of them (they are known to local horticultural 

 wits as Peter's pigeons, I believe) has passed through. All these young 

 en have one lesson impressed upon them — never to let a chance slip. 

 If the conditions for sowing a successional row of peas are favourable 

 to-day, then to-day, and at no other time, has that row of peas to be 



sown. 



I tolerate, sometimes with amusement and sometimes with respect, 

 those venerable maxims which we are being solemnly assured at our 

 lectures and in our papers are vital to horticultural progress. We all 

 know those maxims. One of them is, never water in dribblets. I have 

 shown up the absurdity of this from a practical point of view before, and 

 now class it as amongst the simply laughable. Another is, keep light 

 soil close, so as to conserve the moisture ; it is docketted with the 

 dribblets. A third is, keep the hoe moving in dry weather. Excellent ! 

 I am a thorough believer in it, though it is a little humorous to perceive 

 that some of our estimable advisers have got so much into the way of 

 quoting it that that they do so as cheerfully now we haven't any dry 

 weather as when the ground is parched. But whatever the maxim be— 

 whether it be one of those which we keep on using because everybody 

 else does, or one of the list that common sense and experience teach us 

 the value of— I am prepared to back in practical importance the one 

 named above— seize your chances. 



The early morning's walk through the garden shows many things in 

 which we can later in the day take occasion by the hand. There is evi- 

 dence coming in from every quarter about the prospects of a good fruit 



TV,"' 1. u 17 man who has his # arden has the evidence before his eyes. 

 1 nere has been abundant blossoming, and pictures of beauty the trees 

 nave been ; but we want more than present beauty, and that is just what 

 many JiU not get. Old trees, neglected middle-aged trees, even young 

 Ei e ™ are i n a P un dance, which are utterly incapable of swelling off 



c^H tn P '"i • rfeCt ! 0n ' , The y wiU be S in to swe11 a °d they will suc- 

 Shl^ a,, l p0mt ' butthen their energies will fail them, and fruit 

 S a S have ^ own to noble Proportions will be small, wrinkled, 

 ^^15 n - gU8 " s J nckei1 * - In the heay y masses of s P urs a * presen 

 Ss whSfS ?T td Tv wlU have no difficult y ■ detecting, first, the 

 wh 3, a! ^ atUr ? W,U off in her own Sood time ; second, the fruits 



stances STES 1 8 V ld ° f '- but which under no conceivable circum- 

 noefl ™ a i e / ood specimens : third, the really promising. I go 



on ' thinning ' 1 simpIy revert to ™ y 



wdgallantlv ki^^l'r' lu °»™ e may take on our hats to coy Occasion, 

 ceives that unle £ £S k,™ ° f he J fluttenn g robe - T «e thoughtful man per- 

 by lobbhS 32 L ' oubles °™ frosts and blighting winds lighten the trees 



N '°w, it is\ t all tim. at0r ' th !y (the trees > have heav y w °rk before them. 

 **y than a drv on?K dlfficult to find j° bs for the hands on a wet 



operation an/! a * 1S one task which is pre-eminently a wet 

 incredibirbut ovl the a PP Iication of liquid manure. It sounds 



n h 's reiteratJnn «? nd - ° Ver a P in 1 have seen the man who is loudest 

 * osin K _ washed-out phrase « never 



dry 



give dribblets," 



less 

 both 



Utter, and I s 'XT* LUC s « w ^ 



f th * soil and n«rS ™ 8 * r * \° k ~ take advantage of the present wetness 



sewage 



J WW A I 



My present 



spurs he is quite likely to observe some curling of the leaves, and if he 

 opens them out he is pretty certain to find within a creamy caterpillar, 

 about half an inch long. A dreadful nuisance is this caterpillar, espe- 

 cially if you get a lot of him. I cannot truthfully say that getting rid of 

 him is a wet weather job. Try it, and you will find the reverse. But 

 there is one consolation, like the majority of grubs and caterpillars, in- 

 cluding that vicious pest the onion fly, continued heavy rain tends to keep 

 him down. Should the clerk of the weather trip me up by ordaining a 

 dry spell about the time these notes appear, the caterpillar must be 

 attacked. No ! I am not so sure that it will be Paris green. I am be- 

 ginning to fight shy of that appetising dish. If I could always be sure of 

 getting an even quality, and if I could be equally certain that the sprayist 

 faithfully carried out his instructions by keeping it rigorously mixed, I 

 should look no farther. But the various editions of Peter's pigeons rather 

 prefer to leave the mixture to its own devices, so that part of it does no 

 harm whatever to the caterpillars, and the other part scorches the tree, 

 for the reason that the particles settle down. I am therefore falling back 

 on my stock emulsion of soft soap and paraffin. It does not poison the 

 caterpillar like Paris green, but it worries and thins him in its own con- 

 vincing way. 



I see a writer refers to what he calls a long-standing delusion amongst 

 gardeners that peach blister is caused! by cold winds in spring, and pro- 

 ceeds to demolish the/' delusion "by^describinglthe^real enemy in all its 



Licuala Jeanenceyi F.C.C. Temple Show. 



dread latinity. I was not aware that gardeners in general did labour 

 under the delusion. I thought it was a generally understood thing that 

 the wind stopped short at predisposition, and that the culmination rested 

 with a fungus. This question was thrashed out many years ago in a 

 horticultural journal. I don't remember quite how long it is since, per- 

 haps twenty years, but both our Editor and myself were not the stout 

 oarties" then that we are now. Both warriors— for there were two of 

 them-were doughty champions, and the fight was a rare one. But 

 SSughTt is perfectly true that the wind does not do everything it is 

 the real culprit after alL The wind pinches the tender young foliage, 

 and down- comes the fungus. 



I have had a good illustration of the course of events just lately. 



A 



If the reader tells me that he cannot do so, for of a pound to ten gallons ot water. 



about Lapland 



£ ake s, then I b 



°6 S . which are— t n 'rT^" uliy LU invilc nim 10 imitate my own uiutccu- 

 gttano (not the otW P a °. f superphosphate and half a pound of 



rt ter » l <> stir well !L W f y , ut ' lf y° u P lease ) into a ten-gallon tub of 

 ihalf tothe s 7 U a r a ^ oa PPly^"--^ * " " 



jutting end of one of the lean-to catches the sharp end of the nor'-easters 

 uit a g t that particular point where our present pigeon " thought it 

 expedient to open a ventilator ; why, no one knows, certainly not him- 

 self In an area corresponding to a nicety with the flow of the current 

 we have blister and a bad attack too. Of course, being there it would 

 5i3TiSd5 no wind, if we let it but within an hour • ol f mischief 

 heinfr Observed the wretched locum tenens of the absent chief had had 

 his wigging, and been started on a brew of liver of sulphur, a quarter 



I have just been 

 Peter did go there 

 pencil with him ! 



reading " Memories of 

 after all, and what is 



Ghent," by Servator. So 

 took his inch of lead 



ore 



Lux. 



Whe 



foresaid thoughtful cultivator is looking over lis frui 



THE I^^^J^SiJ^W^ 

 S^^^^. 4, Ave Man, Lane, London. 



is the "Gardening Year Book/ 

 Fruit, Vegetables, &c. Price i«. 

 [AdvtJ 



