September 16,1880. ] JOURNAL OF HORTICULTURE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. 253 
wasps retire to their nests at noon daily. I cannot say that I 
have observed this to be the case. 
What can be done to mitigate the effects of this plague ? The 
nests if found can be destroyed. One neighbour has had over a 
hundred nests in his grounds thus treated, others eighty, and so 
on. The wasps in many of these nests have been killed most 
easily by introducing just within the nest a piece of cloth 
fastened to a stick, soaked in a saturated watery solution of 
cyanide of potassium. The effect is, I understand, immediate 
death to all within the nest. The cyanide, I ought to mention, 
is a powerful poison, and care should be taken in its use not to 
breathe the emanations from its solution. Many nests have been 
destroyed on our own grounds. Those which were approached 
by a descending channel were drowned and scalded by pouring a 
good quantity of boiling water upon them ; others on a bank, 
which seemed to have an ascending covered approach, were easily 
filled with the destructive vapour of sulphurous acid— t.e., the 
fumes from burning sulphur at the mouth of the nest. This latter 
is an easy and effectual method. One nest so destroyed when dug 
out was found to contain sufficient comb to fill a large-sized ordi¬ 
nary zinc pail. All our destructive operations were carried on in 
the dark, for most of the wasps are then at home, and a paraffin 
lamp, as well as pieces of rag soaked in paraffin, were kept burning 
near at hand. In this way the operators were protected during 
the process of destruction, for the wasps fly to the flame and many 
are thus killed. 
But numerous nests are never discovered, and as each nest may 
contain so many as thirty thousand w r asps, the hosts in such a 
season as this are diminished by all our destructive agencies in no 
very appreciable degree. Indeed, there is no reason to think that 
they often travel long distances in quest of fruit. Whether one 
wasp can communicate to another where these alluring treasures 
may be found, or whether some subtle emanation from the fruit 
is capable of impressing from afar the organs of some special 
sense apart from sight and perhaps smell possessed by the wasps, 
has yet to be discovered. Certain it is that after destroying every 
nest within our ken or reach, and killing in other ways seldom 
less than a quart of wasps daily, bands of robbers settle still upon 
every Apple, Plum, Fig, Grape, Peach or other fruit that is left 
to us and is approaching maturity. It is all the same whether 
within or without the glass houses, for the wasp hovering over 
the whole surface of the structures finds out some minute chink 
or hole, and there he enters. 
All that we can do is to gather some of the fruit before it is 
ripe, and to cover some of the trees or the best laden branches 
with Hay thorn’s netting ; in this way a remnant of fruit is vouch¬ 
safed to us. Some of the Peach trees we thus enclose ; and as 
regards bunches of Grapes, if a bag of netting deprives the 
Grapes of their attractive bloom it does not interfere with the 
flavour. 
By the way, I have observed in our vinery that the wasp assails 
the purple Grape first, and neglects the white Grape close by its 
side although equally ripe ; thus, the fruit of two Vines of Trent- 
ham Black are eaten up, whilst that of Foster’s Seedling is so far 
untouched. So also Madresfield Court is attacked, whilst Dr. 
Hogg remains unscathed by its side. May the great merits and 
virtues of Dr. Hogg be always thus protected from hostile attack ! 
One cannot practise the wholesale destruction of wasps without 
a feeling of regret that it should be necessary to sacrifice a people 
showing so much of ingenuity, industry, and untiring energy. 
Even although they be bold and unscrupulous thieves, they are 
entitled in justice to have their fair side also recognised. I have 
this day seen numbers of them busy on the leaves of a Plum tree 
infested by black aphis. Perhaps they had taken to this some¬ 
what coarse animal food when thwarted m their banquet upon 
the luscious vegetable diet.— A Surrey Physician. 
[Our esteemed correspondent’s article was written before the 
publication of Mr. Taylor’s notes on page 240, which we think 
show at least one great cause of the abundance of wasps this year 
—namely, a “ dry spring, and especially a dry May.” Destroying 
the queens at that season—and all wasps are queens then—is 
the true mode of preventing the plague that is this year so 
destructive.—E ds.] 
Lobelia “What’s That.” —Amongst other plants tried this 
year we have a Lobelia from Swanley with the above absurd 
name. Just fancy taking a walk round the garden with a friend, 
who stops at a plant he never saw before, and queries, “What’s 
that ? ” and you answer “Yes I ” Until the middle of August our 
new friend with the funny name did not at all attract my atten¬ 
tion, but since then I have been gradually taking to it, and next 
year, all being well, it will be grown in quantity. Its peculiar 
charm is in the shade of colour, though it also flowers profusely. 
With the sun shining on the plants it presents a silvery appear¬ 
ance, though the colour is of the faintest lilac. Lobelia Dixon's 
Gem is a great improvement on Lady Macdonald. There are also 
two new Ageratums from Swanley well worth growing.—It. P. B. 
PRUNING FRUIT TREES. 
The extreme difference of the weather this autumn from that 
of the last three years, which were as unsuitable for ripening all 
kinds of fruit trees as could well be imagined, gives every hope of 
next season crops being full. To make the most of the weather 
it is, however, necessary that we should bestir ourselves and give 
our trees every opportunity of profiting to the utmost from the 
glorious change we are now experiencing. In my own case, as I 
found that Pears and some others would be all but failures this 
season, I early in the summer thinned-out spurs and extra wood, 
so that these have had the whole summer and autumn to develope 
strong buds. Apricots, Plums, Apples, and other fruits are now 
being pruned so as to give them every benefit of the warm air.— 
E. B. 
MORE ABOUT POTATOES. 
We have been blessed with a marvellously prosperous season 
here in Devonshire. The weather from the end of April to the 
present time has been simply perfect. Other parts of our islands 
have suffered from destructive thunderstorms accompanied by 
hail and heavy rains, but they have happily not passed over this 
neighbourhood. Occasionally a refreshing shower has fallen, so 
that we have not experienced anything like a drought, and yet 
there has not been sufficient rain to hurt those crops which are 
impatient of excessive moisture. A most bountiful harvest has 
been gathered-in in the best possible condition, while the Potato 
crop is one of the finest on record. We have, therefore, every 
reason to be thankful. For Potato growers especially it is most 
cheering, for it appears as though a panic was rapidly setting in 
among them. A succession of bad seasons had driven most of us 
to our wits’ end to know ■what to do next. The cry of “ Something 
must be done ” was loud and frequent, but the doctors as usual 
disagreed. All kinds of remedies for the disease were suggested, 
but all alike failed to stand the test in the hour of need. Science 
has stepped in, and with the aid of the microscope has enabled 
us to see and to take the measurement of the little fungus which 
is at the bottom of all the mischief, but as yet no microscope 
has been found powerful enough to bring to view the antidote. 
Now for my part, although I admit that it is a good thing to be 
able to see your enemies, it is better still to see the means of 
defeating them. Many profess to tell us how to do so. One cries 
“ Plant deep another, “Plant on the surface another, “Pull 
up your stalks;” another, “Leave them on another, “Lift 
while the haulm is greenanother, “ Leave the tubers in the 
groimd until the disease has done its worst.” These are but a few 
specimens of a multitude of contradictory directions given by 
cultivators who have all, it appears, carefully conducted experi¬ 
ments and arrived at different conclusions. This proves decidedly 
that as yet no real remedy has been discovered. 
Disease-resisting Potatoes, so called, are another panic makeshift, 
the outcome of a series of bad seasons ; to be tolerated indeed, but 
only at such times, seeing that this tendency to resist disease (and 
it is only a tendency at the best) is generally their only recom¬ 
mendation. Coarse in stalk and root, gross feeders, cakes of soap 
rather than balls of flour, the majority of them are fit only to be 
cast out to feed the pigs. Like “ A Lincolnshire Potato 
Grower,” I also would enter a protest against the introduction 
of such varieties as a step in the wrong direction. I am not one 
who thinks that a bad Potato is better than none at all. With 
the great variety of farinaceous foods which are now obtainable 
at a cheap rate, the poorest person need never be reduced so low 
as to be compelled to eat those waxy indigestible lumps which 
pass for Potatoes fit for human consumption in these days. More¬ 
over, I do not despair of a good time coming, perhaps not so very 
far distant, when the disease cycle shall have rolled away, and 
the Potato plant shall again bo as free from its present adverse 
circumstances as it was in times past. 
When that happy time comes what a misfortune it would be 
for us or our posterity to have nothing left in our hands but coarse 
and inferior varieties. And yet such a calamity is by no means 
improbable if the present neglect of the finest and most delicate 
kinds is persisted in for the sake of those varieties which are more 
sure to produce a paying crop, by reason of greater staying quali¬ 
ties. Unfortunately this power to stay seems to be linked in¬ 
separably with inferior qualities in other respects. And you may 
be quite sure that if a "Potato has any claims to be a resister of 
disease, it has few to be either palatable or presentable at table. 
