482 
JOURNAL OF HORTICULTURE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. 
[ June 23, 1892. 
be easily seen a dusting of dry tobacco powder over them is a certain 
destroyer, applying at nights and syringing off next morning. If still 
living after these applications something bitter must be used in addition. 
Quassia chips solution is alone an effective insecticide, but used in con¬ 
junction with softsoap it proves more effective. To make the quassia 
chip solution dissolve half a pound of chips in boiling water, two gallons, 
letting the decoction stand a whole day, then strain and use. The bitter 
properties of the chips are imparted to the shoots, which are rendered 
distasteful to those pests which survive the dipping or spraying. A 
quarter of a pound of softsoap added to the mixture while hot improves 
its destructive powers. Eubbing the infested shoots when wet to disturb 
the insects or brushing them with a soft brush aids materially in their 
destruction. The regular use of a syringe or powerful garden engine 
series to prevent the increase of insects, while encouraging free, clean 
growth. The instrument should be worked so as to reach the under 
sides of the leaves as well as being directed from every available point. 
The operation is best performed about four o’clock in the afiernoon on 
warm sunny days, using water that has been warmed by the air and sun, 
or at least made slightly tepid. 
Layering Strawberries. —To have good crops of fruit from the 
first year it is necessary to obtain strong plants for placing out on well 
prepared ground at the end of July or the beginning of August. One 
method of rooting runners readily is to secure them on the surface of 
the soil in 3-inch pots plunged in the ground to the rim, filled with 
loamy soil containing at least half well-decayed manure, which retains 
moisture longer than soil alone. Plunging the pots also prevents 
evaporation. Secure each runner with a peg or stone ; water freely 
until moderately well rooted, when each plant may be detached from 
its parent, removing the pots to a moist base of ashes, and stand them 
closely together. Pieces of turf about 3 inches square form also an 
admirable rooting medium for early runners, securing them to the turf 
as soon as rootlets appear at the base. Less water is required by these 
methods than by rooting in pots on the surface of the soil, where moisture 
soon evaporates in hot weather. 
FRUIT FORCING. 
Peaches and Nectarines. — Early Forced Trees. —When the 
earliest varieties are continuously forced to ripen their fruits late 
in April or early in May, and the second-early or standard forcing 
sorts to perfect their crops in late May or early in June, a great 
strain is put upon the energies of the trees, as they have to make 
their growth during the early spring months and mature it in early 
summer. Over-maturity of the buds is a great drawback in the 
continued early forcing of these fruits, and the labour of attending 
to them in watering and syringing during the summer is considerable 
under fixed roofs. Peaches and Nectarines are not in particular 
demand until the sun has passed the spring equinox, for until that 
time there is no reliance to be placed on the amount of sunshine, 
and colourless Peaches and Nectarines are not favourably received. 
By growing the very early varieties in pots fruit can be had from the 
middle to the end of April, and the trees can be placed outdoors at 
the end of June or early in July, always before the buds become very 
prominent; where, plunged in ashes, they are less exacting for water 
and syringing than when continued under glass. The buds also are 
less liable to over-development or to cast them during the rest period. 
It is necessary, however, to keep them well supplied with water and the 
foliage clean and healthy by occasional syringings, and, if needed, the 
application of an insecticide. The trees should be top-dressed, or 
shifted into larger pots when necessary, before the leaves fall, and they 
will then form fresh roots at once, which is essential to the proper 
support of the blossoms and the swelling of the young fruit. 
The trees should remain outdoors plunged over the rims of the post 
in ashes, until the time arrives for starting them at the beginning of 
January to have ripe fruit by or soon after the middle of April. Such 
is quick work and not always safe, because the weather is often very 
severe and sometimes sunless for weeks together in the early part of the 
year. Under such conditions it is safer to allow the trees more time, 
either by introducing them early in December and bringing them on 
very gently, or not subjecting them to hard forcing in severe sunless 
weather. By the first a margin is allowed for severe periods, when the 
trees need only be kept in steady progress, and any loss of time can be 
made up when the external conditions are favourable, and advancement 
by sun heat is very much better than driving the trees in cold, dull 
weather. In the second case the fruit will ripen a few weeks later, but 
it will be finer and better flavoured than it would otherwise be, whilst 
the trees have not their energies so over-taxed as to be fruitless another 
year. The best Peaches for very early forcing are Alexander or 
Waterloo, which are much alike, and very often the one is substituted 
for the other, but Waterloo is the better coloured, heavier, and higher 
flavoured fruit of the two. Early Beatrice, Early Louise, and Early 
Rivers afford good successions, as well as variety and more quality, the 
two latter being light coloured. Early Albert and Early Leopold are 
capital setters, and the fruit is good. Of Nectarines Advance is the 
earliest, and, though not a “taking” fruit, has a very good flavour, and 
Lord Napier affords a good succession. The advantage of the pot 
system of growing Peaches and Nectarines is not carried out to the 
extent it deserves, they being as eligible for very early forcing as the 
very early forcing of Vines in pots, and the fruits are acceptable through 
giving variety to and enlarging the usefulness of desserts. 
Early forced trees must now have plenty of air, ventilating the 
house to the fullest extent after all the fruit is gathered, removing, if 
possible, the roof lights about midsummer or before the end of the 
month, or if the roof lights are not moveable, in addition to full venti¬ 
lation the border should be frequently damped and duly watered, so 
that no check is given likely to induce the premature ripening of the 
wood and foliage. Keep the latter free from red spider by syringing occa¬ 
sionally, and if necessary apply an insecticide, as it is of the greatest 
importance that the foliage be kept healthy, and that it ripen naturally. 
Laterals encourage root action, but they must be stopped so as to 
prevent overcrowding, otherwise some lateral extension is desirable as 
a safeguard against the wood and foliage maturing too early. All shoots 
that have borne fruit, and which are no longer required, should be cut 
away to the growths originated from their base for next year’s bearing, 
and any superfluous wood be cut out, alike to make space for those 
which are left, and allow of the free admission of light and air, also 
for the free action of water to cleanse the foliage from insect pests and 
dust. 
Ilotises ivith the Fruit Bipening. —The trees started early in Feb¬ 
ruary have the fruit advanced lor ripening, and must be kept dry. With 
a view to prolong the season of iruit fire heat may be discontinued, 
unless the weather is unusually cold, as it has been lately, and air 
admitted freely by day and night, maintaining a good, but not excessive, 
moisture at the roots to compensate for the lessened moisture in the 
atmosphere consequent on the fruit ripening. Where it is not wished 
to retard the fruit maintain a night temperature of 60° to 65°, and 70° to 
75° by day ; free ventilation will enable the crop to swell freely and 
develop good flavoured fruit, allowing a rise of 10° to 15° from sun 
heat. Keep water from the fruit, but the floors and other available 
surfaces should be damped so as to afford a certain amount of atmo¬ 
spheric moisture for the benefit of the foliage. Water at the roots must 
be given both to the inside and outside border, and a light mulching 
of rather short lumpy material will lessen the necessity for it and 
encourage surface roots. 
Trees Swelling the Fruit. —In houses that were started in March, or 
where the fruit is taking the last swelling after stoning, syringe 
vigorously to keep down red spider, but merely wetting the trees is no 
use, as it does not dislodge the pest, so that the mites remain and 
increase amazingly after the syringing is discontinued, impairing the 
quality of the fruit, and disastrously affecting the foliage, causing it to 
fall prematurely, whilst the buds for future bearing are imperfect. If 
the trees need support supply liquid manure, or water through a mulch¬ 
ing of short manure, sprinkling a handful of superphosphate to a square 
yard before watering. Admit air early and in plenty with the rising 
temperature, and to insure the fruit swelling to a large size close early 
with abundance of atmospheric moisture, allowing the heat to rise to 
85° or 90° or more afterwards. Turn the fruit with its apex to the 
light, and draw the leaves aside or shorten them, so as to admit light 
and air to the fruit, and thereby secure its even ripening. Keep the 
shoots well but not too tightly tied down, and pinch laterals back 
to the lowest leaf, thinning out the growths where crowded, and remove 
superfluous shoots. 
Gathering Peaches. —Great care is necessary in removing the fruit. 
The least pressure makes a mark and spoils its appearance. A piece 
of wadding should be held in the hand and the fruit removed by gentle 
pressure, then laid carefully in a padded shallow basket. Tne fruit 
intended for peeking should be gathered before it is dead ripe, and this 
is a matter requiring some judgment. If gathered too soon the fruit 
shrivels and has a sour or insipid flavour, therefore it must be full sized 
and coloured with the ripening tint to about half the extent of the fruit, 
then it will be in prime condition in about twenty-four to forty-eight 
hours. Dead ripe fruits are somewhat mawkish. This can be prevented 
by gathering it as soon as it parts freely from the trees. Allowing it to 
fall IS a bad practice, but it is a good plan to fiA some netting a short 
distance from the trees and loop it to form pockets, so preventing the 
fruits damaging each other by contact. Morning is the best time to 
gather the fruit, and it should be placed in a cool room to cool and 
mature before being sent to table. In bright weather the trees should 
be looked over in the evening as well as in the morning for the removal 
of the ripe fruit. 
Late Houses. —The fruit should be thinned to the quantity required 
for the crop, or a few more may be left than will be required to allow 
for casualties in stoning. Syringe morning and afternoon in flue 
weather, but avoid syrinaing on dull days and on mornings when 
moisture has been condensed and hangs on the margins of vigorous trees 
in the early morning. Admit air freely and early. Mulch inside and 
outside borders wit’n short manure and supply water abundantly. 
Shoots not required for next year’s crop, and those not needed for 
furnishing the trees, should be removed. Keep laterals closely pinched, 
and cut away gross shoots. Tne shoots on young trees should be left 
about 15 inches apart for next year's bearing, and if they are disposed to 
elongate beyond 18 inches they may be pinched to 12 or 15 inches, 
stopping the laterals at the first leaf, but extensions or main shoots 
should be allowed to grow their full length provided they, are evenly 
balanced and there is room. Avoid laying-in the growths too thickly ; 
the branches should be a foot apart, and these should be as evenly 
balanced as possible. 
Melons. — Houses and Pits Cleared of Fruit. —When the plants are 
healthy, and not infested with red spider, they may be reserved tor a 
second crop, in which case growths should have been retained and 
encouraged in the latter stages of the first crop, and a good set of fruit 
will have been secured in these whilst the structures were kept drier for 
the fruit ripening. The old growths in this case should be cut clean 
away, but not all at once, as that would give a check, reserving the best 
