49G 
JOURNAL OF HORTICULTURE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. 
[ June 14, 1883. 
few will show themselves the first year ; an old chisel is a capital 
tool for the purpose. In budding stock plants, the only difference 
is that you plant your cuttings in a piece of spare ground very 
closely, leaving room, however, to hoe between the rows to keep 
down weeds, and in the autumn of the following year lift them 
and plant very shallow in rows, or as you like. Earth-up the 
same as for cuttings, and in budding let the bud be put in as near 
the root as possible. This is really the royal way to work Manetti, 
as you can get the bud so much closer to the roots than by work¬ 
ing the cuttings as planted ; but in either way the practice is the 
same, and the instructions for working struck cuttings will apply 
in every respect. The new shoot from the bud will require staking 
and tying, or the wind will blow many out, and is almost as fatal, 
if not tied, as it is to the worked Briar. I have only now to say 
that in setting the plants out, plant them deeply, so as to cover 
the union of the stock and bud 4 inches below the surface (see 
fig. 113.) 
I have seen Manetti-worked plants, when they have been worked 
too far from the roots, stuck in with the union 5 or 6 or more 
inches above the ground and—doing wonderfully bad 1 
In pruning the plants cut them down in March to from 2 to 
12 inches, according to the strength of the shoots, and so as to 
leave the top bud pointing outwards—that is, from the centre of 
the plant. It is always well to have an eye to the future form of 
the plant (see fig. 113, a) and keep the plant well open by thinning- 
out. Keep a sharp look-out for ‘suckers ; they will not trouble 
you much, but if one do get ahead it will utterly spoil and kill 
the plant, the growth is so strong and rapid. I was in a garden 
last summer where the dwarf Boses were almost without excep¬ 
tion Manetti plants, and the proprietor, and his lady especially, 
wondered they never bloomed. Truly they must have been very 
badly worked, but in the present state of competition and love of 
cheapness I do not wonder at that. I am sure properly worked 
Manetti plants cannot be grown at the price I have seen them 
advertised. 
[Although the first week in August is recommended as quite soon 
enough for budding, and for the excellent reasons stated ; yet the 
work may be performed sooner, and inexperienced persons will 
do well to commence practising as soon as buds can be obtained, 
in order to become competent when buds are to be inserted in 
the stocks in which they are required to grow. It does no harm 
to a Bose to take a bud from one stem and insert it in another, 
and no stocks are spoiled if the first inserted buds do not “ take.” 
We have seen buds inserted in June start into growth, flower the 
same season, and the plants sold in six months ; but such Boses, 
though they may form attractive heads the first season after 
budding, they seldom, if ever, produce such vigorous growths and 
grand blooms as when the buds have remained dormant during 
the year of their insertion, and started into growth the following 
spring. Grafting can only be done with advantage in a propagating 
house in the spring, and few amateurs have the requisite means 
for carrying it out successfully.] 
INSECT PESTS AND THEIR DESTRUCTION. 
Of the various insects we have to contend with I most dread 
the black aphis. The ordinary large green aphis is not difficult 
to destroy, but the case is very different with its hardy little black 
relatives. In some instances where aphides infest plants in houses 
the best remedy or preventive is fumigation once a week, or 
fortnightly when the insects'prove less troublesome. Our houses 
where Melons and Peaches are grown are very old, and it is im¬ 
possible to thoroughly fumigate them without burning a great 
amount of tobacco paper. Small houses which are not sufficiently 
air-tight can be made so by covering them with mats, carpets, or 
bags, and if these are heavily syringed but little smoke will 
escape. This plan we occasionally adopt. The foliage of every 
plant in the house should be dry when fumigated, and even if 
this rule is strictly observed some inj ury may be done where the 
fumes are very strong or much heated. Consequently it is ad¬ 
visable to be watchful, especially when tobacco paper is employed 
which is not of uniform strength. Where the plants are much 
infested the dose should be repeated the following evening, and 
this will kill all, or nearly, all that escaped the first time. Some 
prefer to fumigate again the morning following, but as we have 
had plants injured by the sun’s rays while the smoke remained in 
the house I do not recommend the practice. 
A more agreeable, cheaper, and equally effective remedy for 
destroying insects is a decoction of quassia chips and soft soap. 
The chips can be procured by any chemist or druggist. We buy 
6 lb 3. at a time. One pound of the chips and 2 lbs. of soft soap are 
put into about 6 gallons of soft water, and steadily boiled till the 
chips sink to the bottom, and from this is strained off upwards of 
1 gallon of an intensely bitter decocticn. Enough is made in 
three boilings to fill a large flower pot. We have no fixed quan¬ 
tity to be used with a given quantity of water, everything depend¬ 
ing upon the result of a preliminary trial. As a rule a 6-incb pot¬ 
ful for 3 gallons of water, whether for dipping or syringing, is 
sufficient, and if soft water heated to about 100° is employed it 
is still more efficacious. Any small plant and the points of Peach 
and other trees infested with any kind of aphis and thrips are 
dipped into the mixture, while Melons, Cucumbers, Cherries, 
Peaches, Plums, or large plants in houses or on walls are syringed 
and thoroughly wetted with it. One application is seldom suffi¬ 
cient, as the black fly especially is very tenacious of life, and 
increases at a marvellous rate. The decoction, however, if per¬ 
sisted in, proves too much for them, and also mildew. 
Paraffin mixture does not prove nearly so destructive as the 
above where the plants are in full leafage, but it is the best 
insecticide for a winter dressing of fruit trees—Grape Vines 
excepted. This, I was informed, would be the case by the origi¬ 
nator of the remedy, Mr. D. Thomson of Drumlanrig ; and I can 
fully endorse all that he has said in its praise, as it not only 
destroys any eggs deposited in late autumn by the aphis, but also 
any kind of scale that may infest the trees. 
Next to black aphis the red spider is most to be dreaded. This, 
again, is not particular in its feeding ground. Given a hot dry 
atmosphere, and it quickly makes its presence felt upon innumer¬ 
able kinds of plants, and is with difficulty dislodged from any of 
them. Dislodged tbe insects must be, or they will almost irre¬ 
parably injure everything they infest. Sponging with soapy 
water or some kind of insecticide is a good remedy ; but sponging 
in the majority of cases is out of the question. Those unacquainted 
with the symptoms will do well to examine closely the under side 
of Melon, Grape, or Cucumber leaves which present an unusual 
yellow appearance, and there in all probability they will discover 
a colony of very minute spiders. They are the smallest insects 
we have to contend with, but they are the quickest to affect the 
colour of the foliage and the vigour of the plant. Frequently 
syringing and a moist atmosphere will greatly check their ravages, 
but probably the majority of gardeners depend more upon the 
effect produced by coating the hot-water pipes with sulphur 
mixed with milk. At one time I was under the impression they 
could be destroyed in this manner, especially if the pipes were 
made as hot as possible ; but strange to say the sulphur fumes, 
though almost unbearable by human beings, do not destroy the 
spiders nor greatly check their ravages. Has anyone seen a red 
spider that has succumbed to sulphur fumes not made strong 
enough to also destroy plant life ? I have not seen such a 
phenomenon. 
I still believe in sulphur for checking red spider, but it must be 
applied in a very different manner—that is to say, either dusting 
it through a dredger or a muslin bag on to the previously damped 
foliage, or mixed with water applied with a syringe. The latter 
method I believe originated in a garden near Bristol, and it cer¬ 
tainly is the most simple as well as efficacious remedy I have yet 
tried. Sulphur does not easily mix with water, but if placed in 
a muslin or canvas bag, soaked a short time in a can of hot water, 
and then well squeezed in the hand, the sulphur quickly separates, 
and can then be kept mixed with the water. It requires to be 
frequently stirred with the syringe in the same manner as paraffin, 
the latter, however, floating while sulphur sinks. With regard to 
the quantity of sulphur requisite for three gallons of water, this 
entirely depends upon the nature of the foliage of the plants to 
be coated with it. For Peaches, Grapes, Crotons, and similarly 
comparatively smooth-leaved species four handfuls are necessary, 
or the mixture is made as thick as can be distributed by a syringe. 
A lesser quantity is sufficient for Melons and Cucumbers. Tbe 
under side of smooth leaves are not well coated with sulphur, and 
as this is necessary to insure success the dose should be repeated 
when that first applied has thoroughly dried. The spiders seem 
quite unable to withstand this attack, sulphur evidently not suit¬ 
ing their taste, and for the first time in my life I saw some dead 
red spiders, these being on some young Peach trees operated upon. 
The sulphur is quite harmless to the plant coated with it, and can 
easily be syringed off at any time. Syringing must not be re¬ 
sorted to in the case of Vines carrying crops of Grapes, but dry 
sulphur does not affect the bloom of the berries, and can be cleared 
off under a tap running clear water. Where Vines at the present 
time are affected with red spider I should recommend sponging 
the leaves with sulphur mixed with water in preference to any 
other remedy. Sulphur is distasteful to other insect pests, and is 
one of the best remedies for mildew. 
Mealy bugs once well established in a place are extremely 
difficult of eradication. Paraffin and soft soap is the grand 
destroyer of these, but not mixed, or rather applied in the form 
