18G 
[ March 2, 1893, 
JOURNAL OF HORTICULTURE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. 
should prove favourable during the time they are in flower. The mild 
weather of the last few weeks has brought forward the buds of Apples, 
Pears, and other fruits very rapidly—perhaps too much so for the 
season—and they may have to suffer for it later on if we have a spell of 
severe weather with cold east winds during the time the flowers are 
setting. I went round and inspected most of the fruit trees in the 
gardens here to-day (February 23rd) and found them bristling with 
flower buds from base to top, strong, plump, and considerably advanced 
for this early date. 
The buds of Pear trees trained on south walls are almost ready to 
burst into flower, and as a slight protection against frost I had them 
covered with old fishing nets. The pyramid Pear trees in the open 
quarters are not so easily protected when 30 feet high, so they must 
take their chance. Pitmaston Duchess I never saw so studded with 
flower buds all over and so forward at the present time. It makes a 
beautiful pyramid on the free stock, has a strong constitution, and fruits 
freely here planted in different positions. But the fruits are so large and 
heavy that the trees require propping to keep the branches from being 
swayed about with the wind and shaking the fruits off. Notwithstanding 
the great height of the trees, many of them tear so low that the fruits 
are sometimes resting on the ground. G.’ou Morc;eau is a late variety, 
and not quite so forward in bud as the former. It has a pendulous 
habit of growth, and succeeds well as a pyramid in this locality, and the 
fruits are not easily blown off the trees. Williams’ Bon Chretien (a 
flower buds this year as usual, but there is plenty if the weather should 
prove favourable to produce a good crop. 
Gooseberry and Currant bushes are almost green, and promise an 
abundant crop.—A. Pettigkew, Cardiff. 
It is yet the end of February and the scales have fallen from the 
blossom buds of Pears in the Thames Valley, and the buds on early 
flowering trees have a whitened aspect. Such development is sufficient 
to create alarm. Well may we be thankful for some recent cold days, but 
there seems to be little prospect of any material check, as the weather 
continues if not particularly mild, at least moist and open. It may be 
that so long as the flowers are kept from expanding until the end of 
April, and that is always warm enough even for Pears, no great harm 
may be done ; but all the same, every fruit grower knows that early 
starting of the buds, and then because of ungenial weather and low 
temperature very prolonged expanding, is weakening and greatly 
militates against fertility. It is a case in which human agency, how¬ 
ever skilled, can do nothing. 
What we see, especially on Pears, is a superb promise, as the trees 
generally are thickly studded with blossom buds. The crop last year 
was a moderate one, and there is good reason to hope, should no harm 
result from ungenerous spring weather, that we shall have a fine Pear 
season. 
Apple trees, too, arc on the whole well set with buds, though many 
FIG. 39.—MANGOLD WUUTZEL TRAPS FOR WOODLICE AND BIILLIPEDES. 
A, wood-louse (Oniscus asellus), full size; B, pill-millipede (Armadillo vulgaris), rolled up as a ball; 0, snake millipede (Julus pulcbcUus), maguifled, « natural size; 
D, upper half of Mangold ; E, lower half of Mangold; F, woodlice feeding on hollow part of Mangold. 
great favourite) is so straggly in its growth that it does not make a good 
pyramid, even with the best of treatment. The buds are prominent, 
and if this mild weather last much longer it will soon be in flower. It 
crops well in this district, both on walls and in the open quarters of the 
garden ; but, like the Jargonelle, the fruits soon decay after they are 
ripe. Beurre d’Amanlis, Marie Louise, Beurre Magnifique, and Louise 
Bonne of Jersey are looking well and full of bud. These varieties 
make good pyramidal trees, and fruit freely, with the exception of Marie 
Louise, which is rather uncertain some seasons. Beurre d’Amanlis is a 
sure bearer, robust in constitution, and is one of the best kinds I know 
for renovating inferior varieties, or varieties that are too tender to succeed 
in the open by grafting them with it. We had a row of very fine 
pyramidal trees of Easter Beurre growing in a border by the side of one 
of the principal walks in the kitchen garden here. They bore well 
enough, but never ripened their fruits satisfactorily, so I had them headed 
down, or rather the branches shortened back to within a foot or more of 
the main stem to form a framework for the grafts, and as many as 
thirty or forty scions of Beurre d’Amanlis were put on to each tree. It 
is only two years since they were worked, and now they are well 
furnished, and have all the appearance of established trees from sixteen 
to seventeen years old, showing plenty of fruit buds. Last year I had 
some large pyramid trees of Bergamotte Esperen cut back in the same 
way, and grafted with Beurre d’Amanlis, which will soon make well 
furnished trees. 
Apple trees are clean and healthy and better furnished wdth fruit 
buds than ever I remember seeing them. The buds are swelling fast, 
and some of the earliest varieties are beginning to open and show a | 
tinge of red on the top. The trees of Cox’s Orange Pippin, Blenheim 
Orange, Ecklinville Seedling, Lord Suflield, Wellington, Annie 
Elizabeth, Beauty of Hants, and GolJen Noble could not look better 
than they do at present, but a hard night’s frost might blight the best 
of prospects with the buds so far advanced at this early date. 
Peach trees are covered with strong healthy flower buds which are 
almost ready to burst into blossom with the first few hours’ sunshine. 
The walls here have a broad stone coping which project some 9 or 
10 inches over with iron hooks in it, from which fish netting is hung, and 
fastened at the bottom to stakes driven into the ground 3 feet from the 
wall to prevent it from being blown against the trees and injuring them. 
Plum trees were very much blighted last year, and are not so full of 
which cropped heavily last year are less promising. Still, we may well 
look for a good Apple crop. Other hardy fruits also are well set with 
buds. Oh, for a cool dry March that shall keep all these buds in check, 
and once into April we may feel that our fruit crops will be safe.—A. 
TRAPPING WOODLICE. 
I SHOULD like to bring a simple method of catching woodlice to the 
notice of Orchid and Fern raisers, also to raisers of Tomato plants and 
growers of Mushrooms. Last year when we planted Tomatoes we were 
troubled with wireworm, so placed small pieces of Mangold Wurtzel as 
traps. When looking for our enemy we found them covered with wood- 
lice. This year we raised 20,000 Tomato plants, and found the woodlice 
eating off the young plants, so we procured twenty Mangold Wurtzels, 
cut them in halves, scooped out the middle, and laid them down under 
the stage. We caught 500 woodlice at a time in one hollowed root—a 
pailful of pests in one house in a week.— W. Wood, Sidcup, 
[Our correspondent has done well in directing attention to this means 
of enticing woodlice. It is not new, though little known. We have 
found it excellent for clearing Strawberry plantations of snake milli¬ 
pedes, also the large millipede (Julus terrestris), and it is a good trap for 
the small slugs that are too often found inside ripe Strawberries. The 
traps should be placed near the plants in good time not later than the 
flowering period, examining them daily, and changing their positions 
occasionally. Beetles also seem to relish Mangold Wurtzel, at least they 
lurk in the hollows of the traps.] 
TRADE CATALOGUES RECEIVED. 
P. Barr & Son, King Street, Covent Garden .—TIardij Herlaceovs 
Perennials. 
Ketton Freres, Luxembourg.— Roses. 
J. K. Pearson & Sons, Chilwell Nurseries, Nottingham .—Skoio and, 
Zonal Pelargoniums, S-e. 
T. S. Ware, Hale Farm Nusseries, Tottenham .—Uardy Perennials 
Florists' Floicers, Climhing Plants, Primulas, cjr. 
