JOURNAL OF HORTICULTURE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. 
January 25, 1883. ] 
71 
The “bugs,” to use an uninviting but appropriate epithet for 
the insects placed in the order Homoptera, would, if left un¬ 
molested, convert many a promising garden into a scene of deso¬ 
lation. “ Black fly,” “green fly,” flies of divers colours belonging 
to the aphis tribe, spare few of our vegetables, appearing at inter¬ 
vals during the season ; the unpleasant “ cuckoo spit” (Aphiophora 
spumaria) has its special time of attack in the early summer. To 
this order belong the scale insects, but they rather frequent the 
houses and orchards. And then we come to the Diptera, or two¬ 
winged flies, an order bringing us many minute but ever-active 
enemies to the Cabbage, Lettuce, Carrot, Celery, Onion, Turnip, 
and other plants in much demand. Yet here we have also our 
friends in the form of parasite destroyers of insects. Lastly, in a 
rather anomalous group we have such wingless species as the 
millipedes, the mites, and those curious skippers, the Collimbola. 
—Entomologist. 
BRUSSELS SPROUTS. 
The last few years I have been very much disappointed with 
Brussels Sprouts. I tried all the varieties in the catalogues, but 
they all came very irregular, some producing good buttons, but 
as a rule the greater part were worthless. I determined to select 
plants and save seed, but the severe winters stopped me. After 
seeing the Aigburth at the International Show at Manchester I 
decided to give it a trial, which I did, and a finer piece of 
Brussels Sprouts I never saw. They are about 2 feet high, and 
every plant is true. Some of the buttons are rather too large for 
the table, but not for the servants’ hall, and there are plenty 
that are small enough. I am so well satisfied with it that I 
thought I should grow nothing else, but the favourable accounts 
of Reading Exhibition has induced me to give it a trial. 
The seed of the Aigburth was sown the first week in March in 
a cold frame. By the time the plants had been twice transplanted 
a piece of ground that had been trenched the previous winter was 
planted in spring with Early Hammersmith Potato. These were 
now cleared, and the Brussels Sprouts planted with large balls of 
earth. I might add they were previously transplanted on a piece 
of ground adjoining, as they could not so easily be carried to a 
distant part of the garden.—J. L. 
LOMBARDY POPLARS AND FROST. 
The effects of the severe winter of 1880 have been particularly 
noticeable in this village of Astwood Bank, locally known as 
“ The Bank ” from its elevated position or ridge, which a mile 
nearer Evesham is named Ridgeway, on the borders of Worcester¬ 
shire and Warwickshire, nearly midway between Birmingham 
and Evesham, north and south, and nearly equal distance from 
Worcester north-east. Before the severe winter referred to it has 
always been a very easy matter to point out the village in the 
landscape from a distance of many miles by the many slender 
Lombardy Poplars then growing, now I do not think there is one 
left “to tell the tale.” Standing on a prominent spot in Sep¬ 
tember last, when other trees were in full foliage, I counted over 
fifty leafless Poplars which have now succumbed to the woodman’s 
axe. It is also curious to notice that the same species of Poplar 
only a short distance away, situate in a valley, the tops of which 
would probably be on a level with the roots of those killed, are 
still living. Now, as a rule, frost is more severe in low-lying 
places, and the inference is that it must have been the penetrating 
wind which accompanied the frost at the time which proved so 
fatal. It would be interesting to hear any remarks from other 
quarters on the subject.—J. Hiam. 
RAISING VINES IN TURF. 
What does “Vitis” mean by growing young Vines in turf? 
Does he mean he strikes the eyes in pieces of turf and places that 
on bottom heat, or how ? How thick should young canes be in 
autumn struck from eyes in the previous February ?—H. Stone. 
[We promised in our correspondence last week to reply to this 
question more fully than we could do in the column in question. 
As the subject is one of importance, and this method of propa¬ 
gation a most excellent one, we reproduce the article of its ori¬ 
ginator, Mr. William Thomson of Clovenfords. Our correspon¬ 
dent “ Vitis ” appears amongst others to have followed Mr. 
Thomson’s practice and has found it worthy of recommendation. 
So have we. 
“ My objections to the usual system I had better state to begin 
with. The first is the rich soil used for growing the Vines. This 
gives rise to strong soft roots few in number, and which generally 
perish during the winter. The second is the coiling of the roots, 
first round the small pot, in which the eye is started, before it is 
shifted into a larger pot; then the same process continued in the 
larger pot; and lastly, when the Vine has to be turned out of the 
pot for planting, the extreme difficulty of disentangling the roots, 
in which process all the spongioles and small roots are destroyed, 
leaving a few long bare roots which have to be spread out in the 
border, reaching a long way across it, and from the points of 
which the newly-formed roots start, leaving a great part of the 
carefully prepared border behind them. 
“To avoidj’such evils as I consider these are, I proceeded as 
follows :—On the pavement of what was intended for and is now 
a Pine stove, under which are hot-water pipes for giving bottom 
heat, I placed a complete covering of tough fibry turf taken off a 
sheep-walk ; on this I placed 4 inches 
of fine fibry maiden loam. In this, 
at a distance of 6 inches or so from 
each other, holes an inch deep were 
made, and filled with white sand, 
and in the sand the Vine eyes were 
placed, and just covered with it. The 
bottom heat did not exceed 60°. 
“ The Vine eyes started in the 
usual way, and out of sixteen hun¬ 
dred not six failed to make rapid 
progress. When they were about 
9 inches high, with four or five fully 
developed leaves, and their first set 
of strong quill-like roots beginning 
to interlace each other, I had each 
plant cut round with a knife, so that 
it rested on its own isolated bit of 
turf, and had the points of its roots 
cut off. They flagged a little for a 
few days, but soon began to grow 
again, and I had each plant raised 
on a square trowel and transplanted 
to a similar bed of turf and fibrous 
loam, but this time they were placed 
from 9 to 12 inches apart, according 
to their strength, filling in all round 
with loam in which there was no 
manure of any kind. When raised 
on the trowel, the edges of the square 
of soil they were growing in was a 
mass of fine white needle-like roots 
springing from the large roots that 
were cut across. The Tines seemed 
to suffer no check from their removal, 
but grew rapidly. 
“ When the Vines were about 
3 feet high, and just a week before 
I meant to plant them in the borders, 
I had them cut round again, but this 
time the blocks of loam in which 
they were growing were from 9 inches 
to a foot square, and 6 inches deep, 
and one mass of fine active roots 
more like those of a Box or Privet 
bush than of a Vine ; they were 
moved entire to where they were 
planted with the greatest facility, 
not a root being injured. 
“ The progress the Vines made after 
being planted in the borders was, in 
my experience, altogether unparal¬ 
leled. The eyes were put in the soil 
on the 7th of February last, and I 
send you samples of the wood cut 
exactly to a day eleven months from 
the time the eyes were put in the soil. 
They were chiefly Muscats, Lady 
Downe’s (black and white), Gros 
Colman, Alicante, and—strongest of 
all—the Golden Champion. Vou 
will note how little pith there is in 
the wood. 
“ About seven hundred of such 
Vines as I did not require for plant¬ 
ing I had potted for either fruiting 
in pots or planting, and they have 
been equally successful; therefore I 
can recommend the system for either 
purpose. An examination of the border shows that the roots are 
\ 'lift 
'in-, l 
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