October 11.J8S8. ] 
JOURNAL OF HORTICULTURE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. 
34a 
do first-rate on Manetti, yet for choice I prefer the Briar cutting to 
seedling Briar, Manetti, or any other stock, as I have never found it 
fail me whatever kind is worked on it. Mr. Gilmour is wrong in sup¬ 
posing nurserymen have no quantity of plants excepting maidens. I 
have something like 4 acres of them ranging from two to eight years 
old, from which I cut many thousands of blooms every morning during 
the summer months, and very many are used at the early shows before 
the maidens are in flower.— Benjamin R. Cant. 
I DO not desire to continue the discussion on this subject further 
than to ask your permission to point out to Mr. D. Gilmour that when he 
says, “I could go on pitching in the Manetti over several sheets ” (261), 
and my reply (287), that “ I am sure any reader who has been a 
student of his racy style and fertile imaginat’on will take this readily 
for granted,” dor.i bear another interpretation besides that of impugning 
his veracity. I meant to write in the same good-humoured vein as he 
did ; and you must permit me to say I extremely regret if I have 
annoyed him, as he seems to think I have made “ insinuations ” against 
him. As to his queries about my “ limited ” number of Roses, I have 
already answered them by anticipation ; and as I mean to lift them 
within the next few days I shall know how the roots grow, or from 
whence they come—none on the Manetti after eight years is dead. The 
soil is a strong limestone loam ; Messrs. Dickson’s seems much lighter.— 
\Y\ J. Mubphy, Clonmel. 
A TWIN ROSE. 
I ENCLOSE a double Rose bud, two flowers on one hep. I am aware 
that there is nothing very unusual in it in itself, but it is remarkable as 
springing from a shoot of the striped sport mentioned in No. 2083, and 
from the same portion of the plant as produced the pink sport, and would 
seem to point out an inherent tendency in the strain to vary in every 
possible w ay— colour, growth, shape, and strength —Dcckwing. 
[It is an example of fasciation,. two buds and stalks having become 
combined in an early stage.] 
FIXED TEMPERATURES FOR VINES. 
Me. Young said, “ We have no fixed temperature, but work by the 
‘feel’ of the pipes, which are kept comfortably warm.” I said on 
page 260 that I agreed with him. For years I have wrnrked on the 
principle that he advocates, but I have invariably found that young 
men took a good deal of drilling before they could thoroughly grasp the 
matter and carry it out properly. Once this is mastered—and it should 
be done by the dullest pupil in a week—it is the easiest and safest 
method of maintaining the necessary temperatures for conducting forcing 
operations under glass. I do not believe that one man in a hundred 
would have a desire to return to the keeping of his houses at fixed 
temperatures after he has once been thoroughly initiated into regulating 
the temperature by external conditions. “ Fixed ” temperatures result 
from breathing upon the thermometer and other kinds of deception before 
the chief enters, so that the mercury shall be “ right ” whether the 
house is or not. Even in following what we may call a natural system, 
it is necessary to have a stated temperature, especially for the guidance 
of the inexperienced ; but in doing so a wide margin should be given, 
often 15°, in the night temperature. But it is needless to fix tempera¬ 
tures for the inside unless they are arranged to allow for variations 
externally For instance, if we wanted a house, say 55°, it would be 
maintained at that temperature if the thermometer stood at freezing 
point outside ; and if it continued to fall, the temperature inside would 
be allowed to fall to 50°. If it stood 45° to 50° outside, it would be 
maduess to try to keep any structure at 55°. On such occasions the 
pipes would be kept gently warm, even if the house stood at 70°. 
This is the principle upon which I have worked, and I have found it 
to be more satisfactory than trying to keep the temperatures at a fixed 
degree, whether mild or the reverse, without the slightest deviation 
being permitted. 1 nearly killed a house of Odontoglossums once by 
trying to keep it at 45° where the thermometer was hanging. Three 
parts of the house was at freezing point. Most of the plants took two 
years to recover, and some died. It taught me a lesson I have never 
forgotten. The maintenance of fixed temperatures was one of the 
mysteries of gardening for many years, and it will be a long time before 
it is obsolete.— W.u. Bardney. 
CATERPILLARS IN THE PAST SEASON. 
Commenting upon a circular on the caterpillar pest, which has 
just been issued by the Agricultural Department, a daily contemporary 
refers at some length to the subject in an article from which the 
following remarks are extracted:—• 
The past season, apart from the drawback of continuous cold and 
wet, was disastrous to fruit growers, owing to the swarms of caterpillars 
which attacked their orchards. Apples, Pears, Plums and Filberts were 
rapidly stripped of leaves, so that no sight was more common during 
the summer than to see trees almost bare of leaf, instead of being 
covered with blossom or with fruit. When the flower buds and the 
young leaves began to expand, legions of caterpillars—little, light, 
unsightly things—seized on them, until in a few days many of the 
usually prosperous plantations in parts of Kent., Hereford, Worcester, 
and other counties, looked as if a sirocco had passed over the country, 
scorching every green thing in its course. The result was, of course, a 
scanty crop in the blighted districts ; and (what is quite as serious) the 
trees, it is feared, have been affected, so far as their bearing powers are. 
concerned, for next season. The reason is plain. The caterpillars which 
worked such woe were the larvae of various small moths, which are 
already laying their eggs, and will in the second generation multiply a 
hundredfold, if their numbers are not diminished either by man, or 
birds, or the weather. The two latter contingencies are not to be 
depended on, so that the farmer and fruit grower must now bestir them¬ 
selves to put in force the preventives which lie ready to their hand. 
But in doing so regard must be had to the habits of the caterpillars, or 
rather of the moths of which they are the intermediate stages. The 
chief offender was the Winter Moth, though the Pale Brindled Beauty, 
the Mottled Umber, and a few other species with a similar life-history 
shared in the mischief. As the females of these moths are practically 
wingless, they must remain not far from the spots where they have 
passed their chrysalis, the mummy or cocoon-like stage, and hard by the 
trees upon which they live during their caterpillar existence. There 
was, however, a second group of moths busily at work all summer, or 
spring, which must be checked in their costly career by means in accord¬ 
ance with their habits. The Lackey Moth, one of the pests of Oaks, 
Elms, and Beeches, and especially of Apple trees, the Ermine Moth, 
and the Figure-of-eight Moth, are types of this section of the orchard 
owners’ enemies, though they were not quite so destructive as the first- 
named group. The females of the second group of moths can fly, and 
some of them lay their eggs upon the twigs and spurs of fruit trees, 
where they remain until spring. 
In the case of the Lackey Moth, the Entomologist of the Agricul¬ 
tural Department tells us that its caterpillars change to chrysalids 
under rubbish, grass, and clods near the fruit trees they have injured^ 
Accordingly, to limit the family, it is necessary to destroy the progeny 
in these quarters, by brushing off the grass an l weeds under the trees, 
and raking up and burning all rubbish. Lime and other caustic 
materials might also be usefully applied to the surface, as the chrysalids 
do not burrow deep in the soil; while a preliminary digging and hoeing 
in cultivated ground, before the liming is put into practice, is likely to 
render the process even more efficacious. To throw finely powdered 
quicklime into the trees in winter during a damp fo', when there is 
just sufficient moisture to hold the lime up on every part of the twigs 
and spurs, mwht also be useful. This treatment applies excellently to 
mossy Apple trees, as it destroys the lichenous growth, which looks so 
picturesque and poetical, but in reality harbours all kinds of insects. 
It is nevertheless clear, owing to the free flight of the female of this 
group of moths, that it is more difficult to provide preventives against 
their raids than to apply remedial agents after they have begun work. 
But when the fruit grower has to deal with the first group his task 
becomes easier, and the results more certain. The moths being wingless 
and their habits therefore less wayward, all that is needful is to destroy 
them in the caterpillar condition, which terminates towards the end of 
October, by digging the ground around the trees, and applying lime and 
other caustic substances. Again, the female moths may be prevented 
from ascending the Apple and other trees, for the purpose of laying 
their eg s, by tying round the trunks and branches bands of cloth or 
ropes of hay dipped in tar or smeared with cart grease, or with one of 
the various compositions sold for the purpose. Oil cake or manure bags 
dipped in a mixture of softsoap, paraffin oil, or carbolic acid, in any of 
its various forms, are even better. In the United States and Canada— 
where for many years past the various State and Provincial Govern¬ 
ments have bestowed much more attention on these matters than we- 
have—girdles made of tin and stout line, well smeared with these sub 
stances? are fastened round the stems. Drenching the ground under the- 
trees with water having paraffin oil in it, or applying strong liquid 
manure, dressings of quicklime, gas lime or soot, at some distance from 
the trunk, are the most approved modes of killing the chrysalids before 
the perfect insect emerges from them. 
In fruit plantations it is also possible to get at the chrysalids by 
digging all round the trees in October, working in at the same time- 
lime, soot and other substances of a like disagreeable character. This is 
especially necessary in the case of Filbert and Cobnut trees, round which 
it is not always practicable to place guards. Such trees, when badly 
attacked by the Winter Moth, should not be pruned until January, after 
the eggs have been deposited, and then the lopped-off branches should 
be burnt. At the same time the loose bark of Apple trees should be 
removed, and the stems brushed with softsoap, paraffin, or carbolic 
soap—a treatment equally applicable to Pear and Plum trees. In the 
circular nothing is even hinted at regarding the services which birds- 
render to the fruit grower in keeping in check the insects which so 
seriously diminish his profits. It was, indeed, loudly affirmed this year 
that the wholesale destruction of sparrows by the Wirral and other 
farmers’ clubs had not a little to do with the extraordinary increase of 
the other winged creatures. This, so far as sparrows are concerned, is r 
we think, a mistake. There is no doubt that in towns, where the. 
sparrow—a graminivorous bird—cannot procure more appropriate food,, 
it destroys aphides, cockchafers, and the like. Yet there is no denying 
the allegation that this bird is an indifferent friend of the farmer ; and 
unquestionably, for every caterpillar it might devour in an orchard, it- 
would ruin a large quantity of fruit. The Buff-tip Moth caterpdlar i& 
easily shaken from the Lime tree in showers ; and in Germany, especially 
when the caterpillar is torpid in early morning, it is found that it is 
easy for three people to clear fifteen trees in a few hours of Pine Sawfly 
larvse by simply jarring the branches. The small Ermine Moth cater¬ 
pillars can also be easily shaken to the ground, and then dispatched ; 
and cockchafers are sometimes shaken down, when they are speedily 
disposed of by pigs and poultry. The most effectual means, however., 
