532 
JOURNAL OF HORTICULTURE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. 
[ December 22, 1887. 
process of earthing them up. Messrs. Cocker & Sons, of 
Aberdeen, have instituted a series of experiments upon 
the three stocks which I have mentioned, by growing a 
number of varieties on each of them side by side. For 
this they are much to be commended, but it remains to 
be seen whether they will succeed in establishing any 
facts which are not known at present. 
The ordinary Rose pests were, with me, neither 
better nor worse than usual in the past season. We 
heard a good deal last year about Orange fungus or red 
rust, but I have hardly ever found it do any practical 
harm. I had some leaves among II.P.’s touched quite 
early in the spring, but it did not seem to spread. 
Some weakish seedling Briars were a good deal affected 
by it, but as these were to be budded with Teas, which 
are not liable to this parasite, I did not trouble about 
them. I have in most years had some H.P.’s which have 
lost a good many of their leaves in August from this 
cause; but I have found no harm beyond a possible 
weakening of the autumnal bloom. “Ah! but a loss of 
the leaves prevents a due ripening of the wood,” someone 
said to me; but I do not see what is the use of ripened 
wood, if it is all cut clean away down to the ground in 
March. 
Aphides trouble me but little, and I quite agree with 
Mr. Duncan Gilmour that, leaving out of account ex¬ 
ceptional visitations like the winged swarms of 1885, 
Roses in vigorous health need fear little from this plague, 
I find the aphis brush the most speedy remedy for those 
I do have. When budding this last summer a row of 
Briar cuttings, I found there were a good many red ants 
about their roots; and, having occasion last month to 
transplant these cuttings with their dormant buds, I 
found on the underground stems and the roots adjoining 
them a quantity of aphides of a plum colour, but giving a 
yellow stain when crushed. I never heard of Rose 
aphides underground before, and hope they are excep¬ 
tional, or they might be as bad as the phylloxera; but I 
imagine they were carried and established there by the 
ants, which were still in attendance upon them. It is 
known, I believe, that ants do transplant aphides, and 
treat them as their milch cows. The moral seems to be, 
Get rid of your ants by boiling water or other means. 
They will often completely eat up a fine bud, though I am 
doubtful if they ever make the first incision. I rather 
fancy they are generally attracted by the sap issuing 
from a hole made by a caterpillar, and, having once got 
at the sap, come “ in their thousands,” and finish the bud 
right off. However, Orange fungus, aphides and ants I 
do not mind. My two great enemies are mildew and 
thrips, and I know of no prevention for either. 
The nature and life history of mildew has been most 
clearly shown us by Mr. Worthington Smith; but there 
is one thing about it I do not quite understand. I gather 
from his investigations that during the winter mildew 
spores, which have fallen with the leaves, rest in very 
minute damp-proof and frost-proof boxes (perithecia), 
which are only burst by the warm rays of the returning 
summer sun. How is it, then, that in attempting to force 
Roses in a house which has never had a Rose in it before, 
mildew is very apt to make its appearance, even in quite 
wintry months ? Oh ! for a preventive of mildew. lor a 
remedy I have gone back to the old one of sulphur pure 
and simple. 
I was never troubled by thrips till two or three years 
ago, but last year it was a great nuisance. I had not a 
single,bloom of Madame Lacharme, Yiolette Bouyer, and 
Ducliessede Vallornbrosa, which was not absolutely spoilt 
by it. These three varieties were by far the greatest 
sufferers, though a dozen eacli of them was grown in two 
separate places amongst others. No doubt the drought 
had a good deal to do with it, and if the blooms as well 
as the roots had been well watered the thrips might have 
been banished. But then these are just the blooms which 
are luined by wet after they begin to show colour, so that 
I was regularly in a dilemma. I tried different remedies 
with no effect, and of course anything that would stain 
the petals is inadmissible. I think I shall try wetting 
the buds, or applying something bitter, next year, before 
they show colour, but I have doubts as to the use of any 
such remedy. Any hints on this head will be gratefully 
accepted by—W. R. Raillem. 
HEAVY SOILS AND THEIR MANAGEMENT. 
A good, strong, holding soil when properly managed is one of 
the best a gardener can have to deal with, for as compared with a 
sandy soil it will grow better crops with less manure and retain its 
moisture much longer. To state that heavy clay soils are the best may 
startle some young gardener, it would have startled me six years 
ago. To see the water standing on the surface all the winter, and 
sometimes in summer too, like little ponds ; to require two spades 
for digging, one to take up a spit and another to push it off with ; 
and then in summer to see it bake like huge bricks, with cracks 
G inches wide and as deep as the cultivated soil; surely such a state 
of things may well startle any young gardener, especially if he has 
never seen what can be done with such soils. When in this deplor¬ 
able state heavy soils are by no means the best. One of the sandiest 
description would be far preferable to it, for then we could grow 
autumn and spring crops ; but with the other nothing is satisfactory, 
and unless a gardener be allowed sufficient labour and other facili¬ 
ties for bringing such soils into a friable condition, whether he be 
young or old, he has an especial claim on the sympathies of his 
brethren, for his life will be one of heavy toil, producing very 
meagre results. My object in writing this paper is to ti’y and show 
how these close heavy soils may be made friable and capable of pro¬ 
ducing the best of flowers, fruits, vegetables, and farm produce, 
thinking it may be of use to some inexperienced readers of the 
Journal. 
Burnt clay, or ballast as it is generally called, is an indispensable 
element for mixing with heavy soils to render them porous. Nothing 
we have tried equals it, and the manner in which plants of nearly 
all kinds root into it proves it beneficial to them. It seems to have 
the power of multiplying roots, for fruit trees will become a perfect 
mat of fibrous roots if a good quantity of fine ballast be mixed 
with the soil for them. 
We have burnt thousands of tons of clay in the last five years, 
not merely because we wanted the ballast, but because acres of 
good land were covered with it, and many valuable trees were being 
killed because 2 or 3 feet of clay had been piled over their roots. 
The process of burning clay has already been described in the pages 
of the Journal, and “ W. M.,” page 356, has promised to send par¬ 
ticulars of cost, so that it is not necessary for me to enter into detail 
on those points. I can, however, assure those who may wish to 
begin that clay burning is a very simple operation, requiring more 
common sense than skill, and that any labourer with a fair amount 
of the former will burn from 30 to 40 tons of clay with 1 ton of 
coal at 7s. per ton delivered, and that if the clay be carted to him 
will burn it in from three to four days— i.e., after the fire is well 
started. The ballast will require screening, but as that is generally 
done at odd times I am unable to state the cost. 
Having secured plenty of rough and fine ballast we may 
proceed with the draining, for all attempts at improving the 
surface will be of little avail unless we provide good drains for 
carrying off the surplus water. Draining is an old practice, but 
is it thoroughly understood ? or is it always done in a rational 
manner ? I could point to instances where hundreds of pounds 
have been spent in draining without doing any good ; in some 
instances the ground has been positively injured by being made 
less porous. Most gardeners and farmers know how to make 
puddle by treading and otherwise knocking clay about so as to 
stop up the pores that it may hold water, yet it is the custom for 
them to have the clay trodden, and sometimes even rammed, when 
it is being returned into the drain, thus stopping the pores of the 
clay and making puddle of it ; neither is that, all, for it stops the 
pores and joints of the pipes so effectually that it is impossible for 
either water or air to enter them. The primary object of burying 
draining tiles is the same as that of crocking flower pots—namely, 
