September 3, 1869.} 
JOURNAL OF HORTICULTURE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. 
195 
■as the four I have named. My crop was the heaviest I ever had, 
and I attribute it chiefly to my use of artificial manures. So soon 
•as the plants commenced growing they had a good dressing of 
-Jensen’s cod potash guano (which I also found excellent for 
"Tomatoes, Potatoes, and pot plants), and when the flowers expanded 
•they had a light dressing of ichthemic guano. Later on, when the 
■fruit was swelling, another application of the cod potash guano was 
given, the result being a heavy crop, which lasted a long time, for 
-every berry seemed to swell and ripen in due course. I shall treat 
•my plants in a similar way next year, and trust to obtain similar 
results, in which case to the query “ Does fruit-growing pay ?” I 
-shall decidedly answer “ Yes, if the right sorts are grown and the 
iplants judiciously fed.”—H. S. Easty. 
AURICULAS IN SCOTLAND. 
So far as my own knowledge goes, and from what my corre¬ 
spondents state, I am warranted in saying that the principal collec¬ 
tions of Auriculas in Scotland are now repotted. There cannot be 
a doubt that the period between the cessation of the plant’s active 
growth and the commencement of the next season’s growth is the 
tproper time for repotting. That period seems to be, as a rule, 
from the middle of July to the beginning of September. The 
plants being fully at rest they, under the new conditions of fresh 
■seil, begin to establish themselves by sending out strong roots to 
the sides of the pots. They have ample time before the winter 
-checks the second growth to be firmly rooted, and during the 
autumn months they require little care besides watering and keeping 
them clean. The plants this year have been in fine condition and 
healthy, though with me more of the stems have required cutting- 
in from the extremity being decayed than is usually the case ; but 
a little charcoal applied to the wound made everything right. The 
best way to do this is first to dress the wound with powdered 
charcoal and then place some of it on the top of the cone of earth 
round which the roots are arranged, and place the end of the stem 
uipon it. 
There has been a fair increase this year on most of the varieties, 
and I am pleased that the new “ cracks ” have given me a number 
of offsets. Since repotting all the plants are looking well, and I 
have good accounts from my Auricula growing friends of their 
-collections. No appearance of autumn blooms is reported among 
the plants potted within the last six weeks, but I saw last week a 
collection which was potted before the 10th June, in which some 
plants were already showing bloom, and from the appearance of the 
centres of many more I have no doubt ere long bloom will be 
plentiful. The plants were as large and as full of growth as they 
should be at the end of March. Their owner holds the opinion 
that autumn bloom is of no consequence and does not weaken the 
spring bloom. Most growers hold an opposite opinion, based on 
their experience and observation. In repotting it is not necessary 
’to carry out the old direction of keeping the plants shut up closely 
for some days. The best way is to give them a good supply of 
water and put them back into the open frame, which of course 
will look to the north. One grower of an extensive collection this 
year placed his newly potted plants in a shady place in the open 
air, where they have received all the recent rains, and they are 
looking well and growing fast. The Auricula is a hardy plant and 
-does not like so much coddling as some growers give it. 
In Scotland this has not been a good year for seed, and even 
those which I crossed have not given any seed. A large grower 
recently wrote me that the result of his crossing was the same. I 
believe green fly has been somewhat troublesome in some collec¬ 
tions, but my own plants are so often through my hands that the 
insects have no time to increase. If a plant is very bad with them 
I would recommend washing them off with pure water from a 
gently flowing pipe. Avoid soap and other substances which may 
close up the pores of the foliage. If properly done the pure water 
will Dot leave a single fly on the plant.—J. M., Dundee. 
NOTES ON PEAS. 
I have been very much interested this week by reading the 
Notes on Peas,” by ‘‘ W. S., Frome ,” in the Journal of Horticulture, 
page 174, inasmuch as in some respects his experiences are a reflex 
of my own, specially so as to bird depredations, and the peculiar 
disease he speaks of in the second paragraph of his notes. I wish 
I could throw some light on the subject. I have tried to get light, 
and am waiting now- for a report from Professor Oliver of Kew 
on specimens of diseased Peas which I submitted to the Scientific 
Committee of the Royal Horticultural Society at their meeting on 
July 23rd. As 41 W. S.” will see by reference to th & Journal of 
Horticulture of August 1st, page 91, the Scientific Committee 
referred my specimens to Professor Oliver for examination and 
report, and I am anxiously, very anxiously, waiting for the 
Professor’s report. If “ W. S.” would not mind sending me 
specimens of his diseased Peas I could see whether the disease is 
like that of my Peas, and in return I would send him specimens of 
mine for his examination. He and I would both be able by 
this arrangement to see if the disease was the same in both 
instances, and we should be in a better position to profit by the 
report, and the instruction which may be in that report, when 
Professor Oliver publishes it. 
The disease is evidently of fungoid origin, and has some 
analogy, so it appears to me, to the disease in Potatoes, though the 
Pea disease originates in the earth and the Potato disease in the 
air. I have had instances of it in my midseason and later Peas 
for many years, but curiously to say, not in the early kinds. 
This year, however, it beats the record of any previous year. My 
Peas are all from a collection I had from Suttons of Reading, and 
their germination and early growth was all that I could wish. 
When about a foot high, or thereabouts, the mischief began, and 
so virulently and speedily did it spread that soon paralysis of 
growth, yellow foliage, unopened flowers, and eventual death set 
in. My rows were about 12 or 15 yards long, and in some rows I 
have had only four or five plants left in the row, and those sickly 
ones. For instance, Sutton’s Satisfaction, which by the way was a 
perfect satisfaction to me last year, had three plants left in it, 
Champion six ; Culverwell’s Telegraph and Prizetaker stood it a 
little better. Yeitch’s Perfection I have not had a Pea from, and 
Sutton’s Tall Marrow and Ne Plus Ultra have done little or 
nothing, there being only some twenty or thirty plants in a row. 
The effect of all this loss of Peas has put me in a very trying 
position. Fortunately I have had plenty of other vegetables, but 
as everyone knows, nothing can quite compensate a gardener for 
the loss of a crop of Peas. Added to this, the very sight of the 
sickly rows of Peas has been a daily misery to me, and in addi¬ 
tion to the other trials, the birds have been more than usually 
ravenous, and as for various reasons I cannot use the gun much in 
the kitchen garden here, they have feasted on my poor Peas to 
their heart’s content and my daily vexation. 
As do the cause of the disease I am quite in the dark. The soil 
here is partly clayey and partly sandy, being on a “fault.” The 
Peas this year are on a piece of the heavier portion, and this 
portion, lying near to a corner where we rot down yearly the leaves 
from shrubberies and lawns, with the lawn mowings and sweepings 
of the summer, it gets every year a heavier dressing of decayed 
vegetable matters than it does of farmyard manure. Whether it is 
the presence of too large a proportion of decayed vegetable matter 
or not I am not in a position to say. I limed it for Potatoes last 
season, and have thought of gas-liming this, but I am anxious to 
know whether this is the proper corrective or not, and it is just this 
which I am hoping Professor Oliver’s report will teach me and all 
those who are like circumstanced. To frustrate the birds I have 
rather made up my mind to grow nothing but dwarf kinds of Peas, 
not to rod them, and throw a net over them when coming into 
use.—N. H. Pownall, Lenton Hall Gardens, Nottingham. 
CANKER IN FRUIT TREES. 
I note my friend Mr. Hiam keeps “ pegging away ” as regards the fruit 
tree canker being caused by an insect. Why need he trouble more about 
it ? He believes it is ; I believe it is. If others will not, it is of no use 
going on, nor should I write now, but a curious incident has occurred in 
the garden of a friend of mine which I wish to make known. He has a 
number of fruit trees of various sizes and ages. None has ever had 
or now has any canker. Lately he bought several young trees to plant 
about those already in the garden. This is the second year of the new 
trees, and every one of them is cankered. This being so, why were the 
others free ? If it comes from the roots the old trees should have been 
well cankered ; if from frost, why do they escape and the new importa¬ 
tion of the same sorts not ? Why, indeed ? But the fact remains, and my 
friend intends pulling all the new ones up. My theory is they were 
impregnated with the insect pest when they came, though they looked 
healthy ; hence the canker. Of course I cannot mention the nursery 
whence they came, but he assures me that apparently there was 
nothing the matter when he planted them. Let those who say it is the 
root, those who say it is the frost, and those who say it is caused by an 
insect, think the matter over, and I trust settle it right out. 
For my part, my own experiments have so sufficiently proved to my 
satisfaction that it is an insect, that I trouble no more about it. If 
others think differently, well and good. If they believe their theory, I 
believe mine, thoroughly. I took several trees, some of which were 
cankered in the branches and in the stem. Each alternate one I had 
cleaned thoroughly, and twice a year covered with Gishurst compound. 
The canker healed over, and no more came. Several of the other trees 
not so treated became mere wrecks. I have no more to say on the 
