July 8, 1884. ] 
JOURNAL OF HORTICULTURE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. 
7 
stock will find its way into general cultivation; and 1 venture to 
predict all growers of hardy plants will make it one of the 
lions. ’ Where does it come from ?—T. 
MULCHING AND TOP-DRESSING. 
I CAx assure your correspondent, Mr. E. Burton, that the omission of 
mention on page 459 of spent bark from tanneries was quite uninten¬ 
tional on my part. It is undoubtedly well adapted for the purpose of 
mulching, and I can also confidently assert that it is also a fairly good 
manure, having seen a great amount of meadow land much improved by 
it, and whole quarters of healthy fruit trees which never receive any other 
kind of manure. When thoroughly decayed, say after twelve months’ 
employment in forcing houses, it is almost as good as leaf soil for heavy 
land, and I should be glad of a hundred loads of it for our heavy unwork¬ 
able garden. Unfortunately, it is not within the reach of many places, 
or it would be more generally used. When applied fresh from the 
tannery and before April as a mulching to Gooseberries and Red Currants 
it is undoubtedly a good preventive of the destructive caterpillar or grubs 
hatched out of the eggs deposited on the leaves by the Gooseberry saw fly. 
‘Whether the juices from the tan affect the chrysalids or check the egress 
of the fly I am unable to say ; but, any way, it answers the purpose, 
besides being beneficial as a mulching. It will thus be seen that the 
omission of spent tan in my list of mulching materials was quite an over¬ 
sight on my part, and I wish to thank Mr. Burton for calling my attention 
to it.—W. Iggulden. 
A VISIT TO BELGIUM. 
Gardening is one of those difficult occupations requiring the ex¬ 
penditure of much study, time, and money, as well as occasional travels 
to the famed gardens of our own country and those of the continent, to 
enable all who are either professionally or otherwise connected therewith 
to become qualified practitioners. In England we have such a number of 
■gardening books and periodicals, in which all the best and latest infor¬ 
mation on all phases of gardening is freely given, that we might be 
'tempted to exclaim. Why do we need to expend time and money in 
iiravelling to all these famed British and continental gardens when we can 
sit at home and read all about them ? We reply. There is a greater need 
than many gardeners are aware of for visiting famous gardens. We 
must actually see the different phases of gardening in operation to learn 
■all about them, and this can only be accomplished by visiting our fellow 
practitioners. Having heard and read much about Belgian gardening, 
I had long had a wish to pay a visit to a few of the noted places in 
Belgium. This wish was gi*atified a few weeks ago through the kindness 
of my employer, who very generously provided the means to enable me 
to see and gain a little information on Belgian gardening. 
The time selected for my visit was not perhaps the most opportune, 
as in May gardeners cannot afford to be absent very long. The object of 
my visit was partly a business one, and preliminary to a more extended 
stay at a future date, to enable me to become acquainted with a country 
necessarily strange to an Englishman, hence my stay there was somewhat 
brief. Many gardeners would like to pay a visit there, but are deterred 
•on account of the difficulties of the language ; but I assure them that they 
need be under no misapprehension on this point, as English is spoken at 
‘the principal stations, hotels, and nurseries. I must confess to a vei’y 
limited acquaintance with the French and Flemish tongue, but this did 
mot deter me from making a pilgrimage alone to Ghent, the horticultural 
■metropolis of Belgium. Like all novices in the art (if I may so term it) 
of continental travelling, I elected to travel over there by day, thinking 
I should enjoy the voyage. I booked through from Cannon Street station 
to Ghent, taking a return ticket. You are booked through second-class 
do Ghent and back for the modest sum of £1 105. Qcl., the tickets or 
coupons covering all railway and steamboat charges. I left Cannon 
Street at 7.45 a.m. by mail train, and arrived at Ghent at 3.45 p m. that 
afternoon. The Belgian mail packet boats are not, perhaps, of the most 
comfortable pattern, and owing to the high speed at which they travel 
and consequent lightness of tonnage, the plunging of the vessel does not 
by any means conduce to the comfort of the passengers who, like myself, 
•suffer from sea-sickness. I took the precaution before landing at Ostend 
to get a supply of Belgian coin of the courteous steward. 
I enjoyed the ride by rail from Ostend to Ghent. The country is flat 
and well watered. I was astonished at the extraordinary thriftiness of 
the people in this Flemish province of Belgium. The trim, well-stocked, 
and cultivated fields testify strongly to their industry and skill in agricul¬ 
tural matters. The Flemish farmers have a peculiar way of p'anting their 
arable land. There are no fields bounded by hedges on a small scale as 
in England, hedges being seldom seen, the plots being divided by small 
watercourses, ostensibly for irrigative purposes. On one plot will be 
•seen a small patch of 'Wheat, another of Barley, one of Potatoes—these 
generally at the corners of the plot, whilst in the centre are irregular 
plantations of Hops. The latter occupies a position in nearly every plot, 
sometimes in the corners, and indeed anywhere, no regard being paid to 
■uniformity in arrangement. The Potatoes are grown on elevated ridges, 
and are earthed up in the same way as practised in England. The 
Flemish farmers turn their arable land to much better account than we 
do in England. For instance, I am told, as well as from what I saw, 
that as soon as one crop is off another takes its place without much loss 
of time, hence the peculiar system of planting their crops. The pasture 
land seems of good quality, and is well stocked with cattle. The farms 
and peasants’ houses are extremely neat and clean to the eye, externally 
having the appearance of being whitewashed, to most of which are 
gardens of a greater or less extent, well stocked with Peas, Scarlet Runner 
Beans, &c. One of the prettiest stations I ever saw was that of Alost, 
rather more than midway between Ostend and Ghent. It is built in the 
form of a castle, having a very ornamental exterior. The Belgian rail¬ 
ways and their carriages are very inferior to ours. The fearful creaking, 
shaking, and din considerably detracts from the enjoyment of the ride, 
especially if you wish to converse with a fellow passenger. 
Arriving at Ghent I was struck with the dissimilarity between English 
and Belgian life. There are no vast shops occupying the sides of streets, 
but instead a great number of hotels and estaminets, or common lodging 
houses, especially around the station. Each hotel keeper strives to out¬ 
vie the others by occupying as much of the pavement and street as they 
possibly can with tables and chairs, which are pretty well occupied, 
especially in the evening. There is plenty of travelling accommodation 
in the shape of cabs and tramcars ; the latter are inferior to our London 
cars. There are some very fine huildings, such as the Palais du Justice, 
ancient churches, and fine old convents. Through the kindness of 
M. Louis Van Houtte I had the pleasure of inspecting the interior of 
one of these interesting buildings. On my arrival at the station I took 
a cab direct to M. Van Houtte’s to deliver up a letter of introduction. 
Van Houtte’s extensive nurseries are within ten minutes’ drive of the 
station. M. Van Houtte was away from home just then, but I received 
a hearty welcome from the genial and courteous manager, M. Van 
Eechaute, who, by the way, is a fluent English speaker. Having made 
arrangements for the next day, I had to seek an hotel. I had some diffi¬ 
culty in finding suitable quarters, but at last secured excellent accommo¬ 
dation at the Hotel le Due and “ Englishe Taverne,” where every attention 
was shown me during my stay by the obliging host, who speaks English 
well. After a refreshing sleep and a hearty breakfast, morning landed 
me as arranged at Van Houtte’s nurseries, to inspect which was a task 
of no small magnitude. To give a detailed description of those vast 
nurseries would require more space than our indulgent Editor would 
grant, hence I must treat the various topics as briefly as I can. "VVe will 
commence with the glass departments first, which are of enormous extent, 
containing myriads of plants in all stages of growth.—T. W. Sanders. 
CTo be continued.! 
THE INSECT ENEMIES OF OUE GARDEN CROPS. 
THE PEAR. 
(Continued from page 425 ) 
Before we notice the numerous destroyers of the leaves and 
fruit of the Pear a few words must be given to an insect that 
appears on the branches principally (but sometimes spreads 
itself from the bark to the leaves'^, which belongs to a brother- 
h-ood of the worst pests the fruit-grower has to assail and 
conquer, if he is to attain success. For this enemy not only 
reduces the crop of fruit, it also, by its smothering influences 
upon the bark, rapidly diminishes the vigour of the tree attacked. 
The Pear oyster scale (Aspidiotus ostrseseformis) is nearly allied 
to the mussel scale of the Apple, a species which indeed some¬ 
times visits the Pear as well as the tree, which is more usually 
its resort. This Pear scale, which, if unmolested, soon appears 
in clusters, has individually much of the appearance of an oyster 
in miniature, hence the name. It is, of course, as with others of 
the family, the withered body of the female insect which serves 
to protect the young when feeding upon the juices of the tree; 
these ai'e drawn up by a rostrum or sucker. The adult male has 
wings and long antennae, the colour is greyish ; the female while 
alive resembles a flattened rounded maggot, it is rather yellowish, 
and has only the rudiments of wings and legs. The old and 
certainly objectionable mode of assailing this scale was by 
scrubbing the branches with sand, or, preferably, with strong 
suds, and some still syringe the trees in winter with a soapy 
solution. But as Mr. Downie and others have shown, the very 
best remedy is to paint the trees well in December or January 
with pure whale oil, which does not damage the bark or the buds, 
though it effectually disposes of the insects. 
Allied to the preceding, but more akin in habit to the aphis 
tribe, is an insect which comes out during early spring, seeking 
the young leaves or expanding flowers of the Pear. It rejoices 
in a variety of names. The Germans call it the Pear sucker, in 
America it is the jumping Pear louse, and Mr. Wood styles it the 
Pear Chernies; the scientific name is PsyUa Pyri. From the 
aphides, however, it is distinguished by its power of leaping, and 
the perfect insects also live through the winter in sheltered 
crannies, where they are not easy to discover. They ai’e yellow 
and green, but turn darker after they have been out for a short 
time, with four milky white wings and broad heads, in size about 
equal to a large aphis. The tiny eggs are ingeniously hidden. 
From these the larva, at first yellow with white horns, but 
darkening as they grow like the perfect insects, show themselves 
for a week or two on the under surface of the leaves, or on the 
calyx; subsequently, however, they gather in crowds upon the 
