Hay 30,18S6. 
JOURNAL OF HORTIGULTURE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. 
479 
worked on, generally with satisfactory results. The first rule I should 
like to impress on my fellow amateurs is to grow nothing but first-rate 
varieties. Get rid of all plants not coming up to that standard. Keep 
either to the “ Fancy ” or the “ Show Pansy,” in other words do not 
grow both, unless at the opposite ends of the garden, for satisfactory 
results. I certainly recommend the former. You will soon discover the 
varieties that are best suited to the soil of your garden, and from such 
plants take the best of your cuttings for the next year’s display. Root 
them where you intend wintering them, in a cold frame in the autumn. 
Keep the lights off until the severe weather sets in; do not be afraid of 
giving the young plants abundance of air on every favourable occasion, 
and bring them up as hardy as possible. After a severe frost, if the 
snow has thawed from the glass, shade them from the sun by means of 
a little straw or mats over the lights until the ground has thawed. If 
the weather is open plant out towards the end of March. Should a cold 
easterly wind set in before they are properly rooted shelter each plant by 
means of an inverted flower pot. 
PBEPAKiNa THE Geound. —In preparing the ground for them com¬ 
mence if possible in the autumn, by first digging in a good dressing of 
leaf mould, followed by a dressing of short well-decayed cow manure. 
Get both well incorporated with the soil, then turn up roughly, so that 
the frost can get well into it. If the weather permits in the early 
spring give the ground a good dressing of soot, and turn over. In 
February follow with a dressing of salt, about quarter pound to the 
square yard. 
Ip fob Exhibition. —If growing for exhibition give your plants 
abundance of room, strip side shoots, stake the leader, and do not allow 
the plants to bloom until about a fortnight or three weeks to the time 
you require the blooms ; do not pinch a bloom off, but break it off with 
a slight jerk to the right, close to the stem. So much for its culture. 
We will now turn to a few of the difficulties that are sometimes met with 
by amateurs and others. 
The Wieewoem. —The first and about the greatest enemy to the 
Pansy is the wireworm; it is to be found in most gardens, and is too well 
known to need any description. Sufficient to say there are several species 
of them, and nearly the whole family are pests in the true sense of the 
word. They are the larva of the click beetle, and it is said they remain 
in the soil in a larva state for the space of five years. To get rid of them 
I recommend the following remedies:—If space and time will allow, 
sow the intended bed thickly with white Mustard seed early in the 
autumn, destroy all weeds near. This pest, it would appear, cannot eat 
the roots of the Mustard plant, most probably from its acidity, and no 
other roots being in the soil near on which they can feed, the 
inference is they die for want of the necessary support. Be that as it 
may, they disappear. 
Another plan is to plunge full grown Carrots into the soil of the bed 
about 8 or 10 inches apart, and examine them every other day; nothing 
more is required than to remove the worm and replace the Carrot. This 
may be followed up when the plants are bedded out. it seems that the 
wireworm prefers Carrots to almost anything else. Another remedy that 
I have tried with great success is a perforated galvanised iron trap. Such 
traps may be obtained at a trifling cost from Mr. W. Sydenham, Tam- 
worth. Bait them with pieces of Carrot, Potatoes, Turnips, or linseed 
cake. These traps are not only useful in ridding your soil of the wire- 
worms, but numbers of other insect pests find their way into them. 
Occasionally watering with lime or soot water renders the roots of the 
plant distasteful to this foe as an article of diet. 
The Leathee Geub. —The presence of this pest may be too quickly 
seen, by finding one or more of the plants hanging dead or withering up. 
Examine the stem, and you will find that it has been gnawed through. 
At once make a careful search in the soil at and around the roots of the 
plant that has been attacked, the possibilities are that you will find the 
culprit. It is a grub of a dirty grey colour, large enough to be easily 
seen. Both soot and lime water are distasteful to this pest. 
Slugs. —Of these there are several varieties, but the most destruc¬ 
tive to the plant and bloom are the small black slugs. They bury them¬ 
selves during the day in the soil and under the leaves of the plant, and 
come out in the night time to feed. 
Remedy. —Take some fresh lime in a powdered state, put it into a 
coarse bag, and in the evening or early morning well dust between the 
plants. 
Lime Watee. —Lime water can be used, and may be made by 
pouring water at the rate of 3 gallons to a pound of lime in lumps, as 
fresh from the kiln as possible. Stir well, and allow it to stand for a 
few days ; it will then be quite clear. Use through the rose of a water¬ 
ing can. This should be done in the evening when the slugs are out 
feeding. Lime or lime water will destroy every slag’ it reaches. Do 
not be afraid to use either remedy. Probably you may spoil a bloom or 
BO, but you will not in any way injure the plant; in fact, lime has the 
reverse effect. 
Soot and soot water will keep them away if it does not kill them. 
To improve the colour of the bloom there are few things better than 
soot if you use it dry. Be sure that it is not too fresh. 
Soot Watee may be made as follows :—Enclose soot in a coarse 
bag at the rate of about 1 quart to every 3 gallons of water. Place in 
the bag containing the soot a brick to sink it. Allow it to stand a few 
days before using. 
Another good and easy way is to strew a few fresh Cabbage leaves 
about the bed in the evening. In the morning the chances are that you 
will find many of these slimy pests adhering to them. 
Aphides (plant lice or blight bugs).—This numerous family are at 
home in almost all kinds of plants. The’ aphis that generally attacks 
the Pansy is of a dark reddish-brown colour. Its presence may be 
detected by the unhealthy appearance of the foliage, or by the blooms 
being disfigured with spots. 
Remedy. —Syringe with a solution of ioftsoap and water in the 
evening, and the following morning before the sun is on them, with 
clear water or tobacco water. A solution of boiled quassia chips, or a 
dusting with anuff or: tobacco powder, are all useful in destroying this 
pest. The lady bird (Coccinellea) renders great service in destroying 
myriads of these troublesome pests. 
Shading and Sheltebing. —It is an easy matter to obtain per¬ 
fection in the colour of a bloom, but to retain it there just at the time 
it is most needed is one of the greatest difficulties a grower has to 
contend with. To retain any of the beauty in the bloom, the plant must 
be protected from the hot sunshine and heavy rain. The best modes 
with which I am acquainted are as under :— 
Utilise your frames in hot weather, substituting a canvas awning for 
the lights. Another way is by having a few frames something after the 
clothes horse pattern, over which canvas is stretched, hinging two 
together on the top, thus—(fig. 84). 
Fig. 84. 
Another cheap and useful shade may be made by faking a piece of 
stout paper, say 20 inches by 10 inches, and cut it as shown in fig. 85, 
and form it into a cap, thus—(fig. 86). 
Fig. 85.,, Fig. 86. 
Secure the sides by means of a couple of paper fasteners, insert 
around the plant you intend protecting three or four slight stakes in a 
slanting direction to receive the cap. It will be an advantage to give 
the paper (before forming the cap) a coating of boiled linseed oil, to 
which is added a little white lead. 
Another excellent method by which shade may be obtained from 
the midday sun, and shelter from the rough winds, is by sowing not 
too close to the bed on the south side from east to west a row of Sweet 
Peas. 
[The six essays, all of which contain useful hints, will, we are 
informed, be published in pamphlet form at 3d. each. * The late Mr. 
William Dean states in his “History of the Show Pansy,” in Mr. 
James Simkins’ excellent work, that Lord Gambler collected wild 
Pansies in the fields, and requested his gardener, Mr, Thompson, 
to cultivate them in the gardens at Iver, near Uxbridge. This was 
done, and improved varieties were soon obtained. Mr. Dean mentions 
the Walton-on-Thames case, but he believed, with Dahl, that “ it was 
at Iver that the improvement of the progeny of the wild Pansy was 
first made.”] 
A TEXT—POWDER. 
I FEEL the sermon has been owing to these pages for some consider¬ 
able time, but non possumus ! During the last six months—times of 
transition—when a man found himself blessed with two parishes, in the 
shape of acting overseers’ and surveyors’ work to do, you can doubtless 
give a pretty near guess how things have been sailing with him in his 
ship-shaping and piloting course through delectable gulfs of the modern 
parish meetings. However, I have nearly weathered the storms, escaped 
the quicksands, and I retain all my old offices in their new arrangement, 
I conclude with a highway survey audit and a vestry for church 
purposes this week, which will relieve me, I hope, to give more attention 
to the Solanum tuberosum. For three years I have been successful in 
warding off the Potato disease through the application of Tait and 
Buchanan’s anti-blight powder. I pin my faith to the mystic No, 3, 
therefore allow me to advise those who wish to preserve their crops of 
the noble tuber, and its congener, the Tomato, to order at once a 
quantum of the powder from Messrs. Barr & Son, 112, King Street, 
Covent Garden, W.C., who are among your advertisers, and therefore 
entitled to mention here. 
I have, as our worthy Editors can guarantee, kept my Potato and 
Tomato haulms perfectly free from disease, and consequently the 
tubers, by constantly dusting them with the powder from their infantile 
state, to allow no loopholes on the foliage for the fatal spores to 
take possession. I consider the dusting application far more important 
and convenient in its application for horticulturists than the sloppy 
