146 
JOURNAL OF HORTICULTURE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. 
[ August 15, 1869. 
Hogg or members of the staff often remain unopened un¬ 
avoidably. We request that no one will write privately 
to any of our correspondents, as doing so subjects them to 
unjustifiable trouble and expense. 
■Correspondents should not mix up on the same sheet questions 
relating to Gardening and those on Bee subjects, and should 
never send more than two or three questions at once. All 
articles intended for insertion should be written on one side of 
the paper only. We cannot reply to questions through the 
post, and we do not undertake to return rejected communica¬ 
tions. 
Exhibiting Crapes (Fix ').—If the berries of the small and large 
bunches are equal in size, evenness, and colour, we should stage the 
larger if not very unshapely. You might have made their condition 
clearer if you had tried, as is apparent by your fragmentary letter. 
Water Melon (IF. S.). —The box and contents were crushed into 
a jelly-like mass, and we can only judge by a portion of rind that the 
fruit was a variety of Water Melon, several of which, as sold in shops, 
are inferior, but they vary ; and as grown in frames in this country 
they do not equal the best variesties of Melons that are usually culti¬ 
vated by gardeners. 
Vine laterals (IF E .).—If the fruit is swelling kindly thin the 
laterals, but do not remove them all. unless the main foliage is extra 
large. When the fruit is ripe and almost finished colouring, you may 
remove the most of them to give more light to the house, to enable the 
air to circulate more freely round the bunches, and to concentrate the 
powers of the plant more in ripening the wood. The reason for re¬ 
moving gradually has often been given of late. If removed all at once 
you would check the growth, and the fruit would not swell so well. 
Terra Cotta Rose (II. F.). —As with the third box of blooms 
you failed to make clear what you appeared to wish us to understand, 
and as you mentioned that Mr. W. K. Kaillem had commented on the 
variety when writing about Koses at the National Show two years ago, 
we sent the blooms to that gentleman, and his remarks thereon are 
published on page 138. The blooms from the Briar are larger than the 
one from the original bush, but the exact colour is not preserved. 
Whether it can be in plants from cuttings can only be determined by 
experience. 
Luxuriant Peach Trees (E. Butler ).—We presume that your 
wood was imperfectly ripened last autumn, and that and the frost 
together injured the fruit buds. That might be done and the wood 
buds break with great luxuriance, and then the vigour would be increased 
■from there being no fruit to moderate its strength. In thinning, the 
weaker and middle-sized shoots should be retained, and the other 
■strong ones taken away or shortened. If such thinning does not check 
luxuriance sufficiently, you ought to examine the roots, and either 
shorten or raise them early in September ; doing so just so much as to 
•check growth, but not to make the shoots flag seriously. 
King- of the Pippins and Golden Winter Pearmaln Apples 
(II. O.).— The original and true King of the Pippins, which is exceed¬ 
ingly rare, is that described in the “ Fruit Manna'” under that name. 
’The variety usually known in the markets under the names of “King 
Pippin” and King of the Pippins” is the old Golden Winter Pearmain, 
the name of which was changed by Kirke, a nurseryman at Brompton, 
to suit some trade purpose about the beginning of this century. The 
time of ripening of Golden Winter Pearmain is given in the “ Fruit 
Manual ” as October to January, and this we have found is correct. 
Pansies Eying (James ).—The cause of the sudden collapse of 
Pansies cannot be exactly defined. It is a very old “ grievance,” and 
•assuming the plants are established in good time and not twisted by the 
wind, there is either something in the soil that is injurious, such as grubs, 
■or it is defective in some constituent that is requisite for the continued 
support of the plants. Those planted late in the spring are the most 
liable to “go off” prematurely, while they fail in one part of a garden 
and succeed in another. If you are especially anxious to grow them on 
the particular plot in which yours fail, you will not be likely to succeed 
unless you remove a great part of the old soil find introduce fresh of a 
suitable nature. This at least is what experience has taught us in failing 
and succeeding in growing these flowers. It is always the best to grow 
them in that part of a garden in which they “ naturally do well.” 
Mignonette Falling (H. F. E.).— It 1- not safe to trust to 
Mignonette “sowing itself,” and last year was specially unfavourable 
to the ripening of the seed, Nor can it be expected to grow and flower 
satisfactorily on the same ground yearly without the addition of suit¬ 
able manure. As your plants fail in the centre of the bed, and grow 
well towards the outside, it would seem as if the necessary constituents 
for the support of the plants were extracted by the previous crop. 
Moreover, the plants cannot be depended on to grow so well from 
seed sown in May as when raised earlier and take deep root before 
the occurrence of dry hot weather. To this, with poverty of soil, 
we attribute the failure. The ground should be liberally manured 
a few months before sowing, and have some lime pointed in the spring. 
We find sprays of other flowers in the box, but you make no reference 
to them in your letter. They are, however, named below, on the 
assumption they were sent for that purpose. 
Keeping Black Hamburgh Grapes 1 (R. 0. 8.). —The Grapes 
being now ripe it will be necessary, in order to retain them in good 
condition as long as possible, to keep them cool, allowing a free circula¬ 
tion of air night and day, and when the sun is very powerful it will be 
necessary to shade for a few hours in the hottest part of the day. 
Sprinkling the floors in the early part of hot days will also be beneficial. 
Sufficient water must be afforded the border, especially that inside, to 
maintain the foliage in good condition. The shading will only be 
necessary during hot days this month and early September. Keep the 
laterals closely stopped to one joint, and examine the bunches occa¬ 
sionally for decayed berries, which must be removed promptly. Fire 
heat will not be necessary for the next six weeks, unless the weather 
prove very wet and dull, when a little by day will be beneficial so as to 
admit a change of air, not raising the temperature by that means above 
60° in the daytime, and turn off the heat early, so as to have the pipes 
cool before night. After September an equable temperature of 45° to 
50° should be secured as far as practicable, and the Grapes will keep till 
November, probably later if they have been well finished. 
Hydrangea paniculata (B. R.). —This plant can be readily pro¬ 
pagated by cuttings of half-ripened wood taken from the plant after 
flowering and inserted under handlights placed on the shady side of a 
wall or hedge. Younger growths can also be employed for cuttings, 
and these will root quickly if inserted either singly in pots or a number 
together (the first method being preferable), and placed under hand- 
lights or in a close frame until they are rooted. If propagated in heat 
give a good watering after insertion and keep the cuttings close and 
well shaded afterwards until they are rooted ; cuttings possessing two 
joints—one to be in the ground and the other just above the soil—will 
suffice. The chief secret of flowering this Hydrangea well in a pot is the 
thorough maturation of the wood. After flowering the plant should be 
hardened and placed outside, then in autumn or early spring should be 
closely pruned back ; if one pair of eyes is left on the new wood that 
will be ample. By giving your plant greenhouse treatment after the 
new year you will be able to have it in flower by the end of the month 
of June. If required earlier it must bo subjected to forcing ; an inter¬ 
mediate temperature is best for this purpose, where a fair amount of air 
can be given daily when favourable to maintain a dwarf sturdy growth. 
If forced in a close warm house its growths will be weakly and may fail 
to flower; but they flower freely under a more judicious system of 
forcing. 
Making- Mushroom Spawn (A. M.). —No better time for making 
the spawn can be selected than the end of August and the month of 
September. Take, as materials, a barrowload of cowdung, rather stiff, 
and two barrowloads of horse-droppings, with a little short straw with 
them, and half a barrowload of fibry loam. Mix these up into a stiff 
mortar-like substance until it is pretty well, incorporated and looks like 
grafting-clay. Then make a frame either of iron or wood, say half-inch 
boards if the latter, and in four pieces—that is two sides and two ends, 
enclosing a space of 9 inches long, 4^ inches wide, and 1J inch deep. 
Then obtain a flat clean board and a bucket of water, dip the frame in 
the water, place it on your board, fill it with the prepared dung, strike 
level with a spade or trowel, and turn out the brick on boards, to dry 
on its flat side. In a couple of days make two holes in the bricks, but 
not going through—say three-quarters of an inch in diameter, turn the 
bricks until they are tolerably dry, then into each hole push a piece of 
good spawn, and draw a little cowdung or clay over it to prevent its 
falling out. Next make up a slight hotbed of litter, on which build 
these bricks in open honeycomb or pigeon-hole fashion, and cover over 
with litter, so that these spawned bricks shall have a temperature of 
from 80° to 85°, and not more. As the spawn runs, the bricks must be 
examined, and, as soon as they are filled with the gossamer-like white 
spawn threads, removed, and kept in a dry place until wanted for use. 
Some bricks or pieces will be ready to remove before others. 
Peach Leaves Skeletonised (B. Hall). —The leaves which you 
have sent have not been eaten by any insect. The immediate cause of 
the injury to the foliage is scorching, but there may possibly be a more 
remote cause that has led to the evil. If you carefully examine the 
injured leaves, which at the first glance appear as if they had been 
eaten by an insect, you will find first a dark discoloration, then a shrink¬ 
age of those parts where the tissue has been ruptured, and which 
eventually separates from the healthy portions of the leaves, and thus 
form holes and fissures. If the roots of the tree were healthy and 
active and could obtain the requisite moisture for the support of the 
growth, the evaporation would not have been so disproportionate with 
the supply of sap, and the withering would not have occurred provided 
there was no fault in the glass that led to scorching. As a remedy we 
should first shade the tree, either by sprinkling limewash on the glass or 
