256 JOURNAL OF THE ROYAL HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



No. 462, p. 150). — A series of articles interesting to the practical gardener, 

 who wants to know rather more than the name of the chemicals he is 

 applying, or wishing to apply, to his fruit trees. — F. A. W. 



Chemical Foods in Horticulture. By A. Dautry [Le Jardin, 

 vol. XX. No. 459, p. 102, April 5, 1906). — A plea for the extension to 

 practical gardening of the experiments that are now exciting so much 

 interest in agriculture. It is suggested that each gardener should ascer- 

 tain the character of his own soil, by submitting it for laboratory analysis, 

 and that he should further know the special needs of the various classes 

 of plants under cultivation. A scheme for practical experiments is then 

 sketched out. A cabbage bed, e.g., may be divided into five plots, which 

 are variously treated with nitrates, phosphates, potassium compounds, 

 and ordinary manure, one plot being left to nature. The results are then 

 tabulated, and the most successful treatment can be perpetuated. The 

 writer insists on the great advantage of this method over any ready-made 

 mixtures to be bought in the market ; since it is obvious that these, like 

 patent drugs, take no account of the particular constitution of the soil in 

 question. — F. A. W. 



Chemical Foods in Horticulture. By A. Dautry {Le Jardin, 

 vol. XX. No. 461, p. 138, May 5, 1906). — Nitrate of soda and ammonium 

 sulphate are the two most useful to the gardener, the former for pot- 

 culture and all plants of rapid growth, the latter for winter cultures and 

 plants of prolonged vegetation. Nitrate of soda is invaluable, inasmuch 

 as it represents the truly assimilable form of nitrogen, and the author 

 again insists strongly on the advantage of supplementing the soil of a 

 garden by specific compounds rather than by the use of ordinary manure, 

 or patent mixtures, in which the proportions of the chemical elements are 

 unknown or ill-balanced. — F. A. W. 



Chinese Cabbage (Brassica sinensis), Autumn Cultivation of. 



By Sauvageot {Le Jardin, vol. xx. No. 459, p. 110, April 5, 1906). — Pe- 

 Tsai, or Chinese cabbage, should be sown in July, pricked out in August, 

 and utilised in autumn. It may be eaten as a salad or boiled like 

 cabbage. The stalks are a substitute for celery, the roots for turnips. 

 It resists frost, and the heads weigh about 2 lb. In China they are said 

 to attain a weight of 10 to 20 lb.— i^. A. W. 



Cider, Composition of, as Determined by Dominant Fer- 

 mentation with Pure Yeasts. By W. B. Alwood, E. J. Davidson, 

 W. A. P. Moncure {U.S.A. Exp. Stn. Virginia, Bull. 150; July 1904).— 

 Gives details, experiments, and results obtained with a large number 

 of samples of cider to which pure yeasts had been added. (Cf. Journ. 

 Roy. Ilort. Soc. xxxi. (1906), p. 307).— /. C. 



Coccidse, Catalogue of, recently described. By J. G. Sanders, 

 M.A. {U.S.A. Dep. Agr. Bur. Entom., Tech. Bull. 12; Part I.).— 

 Contains a list of references for all species described since the issue of 

 Mrs. Ferrald's "Catalogue of the Coccidae of the World " (in Bull. SS, 

 Hatch Exp. Stn. Mass., U.S.A. March 1903). Indispensable to all 

 workers with these important economic insects. — F. J. C. 



