JOURNAL OF HORTICULTURE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. 
: 
August 17, 1882. ] 
151 
room is cleared of them. With respect to the objections that 
have been made to the use of this gum, I may state that there is 
no need to let the flies linger and die, as the strings may be taken 
down daily and the insects killed.” 
- The fourth Exhibition of the Wakefield Carnation 
and Picotee Society, which was held last w r eek, exceeded all 
previous exhibitions. The prizetakers in the chief classes were 
Messrs. J. Madock, H. Gill, G. Lamb, W. Wilson, A. Spurr, W. 
Mellar, J. Battersby, J. Hardwick, J. Steel, and J. Netherwood. 
The premier Carnation was Admiral Curzon, exhibited by Mr. H. 
Gill ; and the premier Picotee Lady Holmesdale, staged by Mr. T. 
Madock. Mr. George Rudd of Bradford was the competent Judge 
of the Exhibition. 
- Mr. F. Bezant, The Rectory Gardens, Aversham, sends 
us the following note :—“ I send you an Apple of D. T. Fish from 
a pyramid tree which I planted two years ago last October. It is 
a strong grower and good cropper here, with very fine even fruit. 
The Apple measures 11^ inches round, and I recommend all 
growers to give this variety a trial, as it is an excellent kitchen 
Apple.” Without doubt the variety is worthy of extended culture, 
and probably not a few of our readers have “ D. T. Fish ” without 
knowing it under its right name—Warner’s King. 
free grower and bloomer, it is an ‘everybody’s’ flower. It may 
be divided, but is very much better raised from seed, from which 
it comes perfectly true. Possibly the best time to sow is in spring, 
either in a particularly favoured spot or under a handglass in light 
rich soil. As soon as the plants have made three or four leaves 
they should be pricked out in half loam, half well-rotted manure, 
and watered should the weather prove dry. Under such con¬ 
ditions the plants will be strong by midsummer, when, during 
showery weather, they should be planted in the places they are 
destined to occupy. Transplanting should be done carefully, for 
it resents careless handling. As old plants fail it is best always to 
have a young batch coming on. For cut flowers it is a gem.” 
WASPS. 
Replying to Mr. Robert Warner’s letter in your impression of 
the 10th inst., I would inform you that we had an abnormal 
number of queen wasps make their appearance early this spring, 
and fearing for the fruit crop we paid 2d. each for them up to the 
middle of June. In spite of the great quantity of rain, which 
frequently injures the nests, the young insects have appeared in 
great numbers, and fully a fortnight earlier than usual. We have 
already destroyed four large nests, and my men inform me that 
they know of fourteen more. I would add that our situation is 
about ten miles nearly due north from London.— Winchmore. 
- Concerning semi-double Zonal Pelargoniums Mr. 
Iggulden writes :—“ We have now a great, and I may say bewilder¬ 
ing, variety of these to select from ; and seeing how extremely 
serviceable many of them are for flowering in large or small pots 
under favourable circumstances nearly all the year round, they 
deserve to be more generally grown. Single-flowering varieties 
may be the most showy, but for cutting and various decorative 
purposes are less valuable than the semi-doubles. One of the 
most successful propagators of, and a good authority on Pelar¬ 
goniums, recently kindly favoured me with what he considers a 
good well-varied selection of semi-doubles. The selection consists 
of Heteranthe, orange scarlet ; Victor Emanuel, salmon ; F. V. 
Raspail, deep scarlet, very fine ; Henry Cannell, bright crimson ; 
Gambetta, rosy scarlet; Jean Dolfus, magenta ; Madame Thibaut, 
pink ; Madame Thiers, white ; Nymphe, white ; and Guillon Man- 
gilli, crimson.” 
- An American contemporary has the following note :— 
“ Important in reference to their value in rural economy are the 
Acacia Farnesiana, which produce the fragrant flowers so much 
used in perfumery, and the A. HOMALOPHY^LLA, the wood of which 
is highly prized and dearly paid for by manufacturers of fans. In 
every Moorish garden in North Africa there can be seen a few 
trees of the A. Farnesiana, of which the flowers are gathered by 
women and children for family use ; whilst in France and Italy 
it furnishes a not unimportant article of commerce. In the dis¬ 
trict of Cannes alone about 36,000 lbs. of flowers are yearly pro¬ 
duced, for which the perfumers pay from 50 to 75 cents, per 
pound, which would amount to about 45,000 dols. One tree fur¬ 
nishes, according to age, from one to five or more pounds ; and 
one acre planted with about eight hundred trees would produce in 
a few years a notable increase of income to many of our farmers, 
some pin money to their wives, besides making farm work and 
farm life both pleasant and profitable to their children. But this 
pleasant prospect cannot be realised as long as the extraction of 
perfumes is not undertaken, because the Acacia flowers, like most 
of those flowers whose perfume is extracted, must be treated while 
fresh and on the spot.” 
-—- A writer in the “Gardener” has the following upon 
Aquilegia chrysantha : —“This is one of the aristocrats among 
hardy flowers. The whole family is attractive, but there is a 
dignity, grace, and refinement about this one that makes it a 
favourite wherever it is seen, and as it is easily come by, and a 
My experience at the present time is just the reverse of Mr. 
Warner’s. I think I never saw so many queen wasps in the 
spring—certainly not for many years past. During April I de¬ 
stroyed two small nests, each with eleven maggots in them ; these 
were in some Rhubarb roots which were put in a cold frame. 
After that I did not see a wasp until about three weeks ago. On 
the Gth inst. I destroyed the first nest. Since then I have de¬ 
stroyed fourteen within an area of 400 square yards. This is 
considerably more than I have ever known in such a short time 
and so near each other, for as a rule there are not many wasps in 
this neighbourhood—not a quarter as many as there are in some 
of the midland and northern counties. Although the nests are 
very strong in numbers I do not know what the wasps live upon, 
for I have not seen one on any of the fruits, either Grapes, Goose¬ 
berries, Plums, or Currants.— D. Walker, The Gardens, Dunorlan, 
Tunbridge Wells. 
WHY, WHEN, AND HOW WE MANURE OUR VINES. 
When I wrote “ Of course urine contains no phosphoric acid ” 
I referred to what is to be had at the stables, for sheep urine is 
hardly ever to be obtained, or that from swine either, and human 
urine is generally disposed of as quickly as possible. When the 
words “ very weak” were used in regard to the water from the 
sewage tank, it was more with reference to the usual strength of 
liquid manures than to the usual strength of sewage water. As 
that referred to is mixed only with the water which comes from 
the closets, kept distinct from what comes from bath-rooms, lava¬ 
tories, pantries, sculleries, laundries, and so forth, it is not to be 
compared with ordinary sewage water. The sewage from towns 
is mixed with all these and much more, and is comparatively 
valueless compared with what we use here. Although a weak 
liquid manure as gardeners would view it, it is quite as strong as 
such waters ever should be used when large quaLti Us are re¬ 
quired. As to how many grains of phosphoric acid it contains 
per gallon I cannot even hazard an opinion ; but applied to all 
sorts of vegetables and plants, including those in pots, its action 
is very satisfactory indeed. For giving small plants a start 
nothing can be better. 
When I said that in seasons of drought its application to Vines 
was very satisfactory I did not intend to mean that the applica¬ 
tions were made to plants suffering from drought. Under such 
circumstances the mistake might be made of attributing to manu- 
rial matter effects brought about by the water alone. What was 
meant was that here in seasons of drought the water supply is 
apt to fail, and the garden supply has to be brought from a dis¬ 
tance. To give Vines nothing but liquid manure for a whole 
summer might look like excess ; but having tested such as is used 
here against pure water, or as pure as is generally found in canals, 
the results are in favour of the sewage water. Such results, we 
think, may be fairly attributed to the manurial matter contained 
in it,’ and we may safely conclude that four or five thousand 
gallons contain more—very much more—phosphates and nitrogen 
than an ordinary house of Vines can possibly want in a season. 
