896 
JOURNAL OF HORTICULTURE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. 
[ May 15,185*. 
to the second week in May, and still they come. This prolonga¬ 
tion of emergence is one of the most serious aspects of the 
visitation, necessitating, as it does, constant vigilance, anxiety, and 
action to subdue the ubiquitous enemy. The combat is very 
determined : the trees will be saved, perhaps some fruit on Apples 
and Pears secured, and success even to this extent will be richly 
deserved by Mr. Campbell and his watchful, industrious, and able 
gardener. 
The fruit garden at Glewston is situated on a declivity above 
the beautiful valley of the Wye. The soil is a fertile sandy loam, 
quite light enough, yet splendid fruit is grown both outdoors and 
under glass, or chief prizes could not have been obtained for it at 
such shows as the Crystal Palace, Shrewsbury, Ledbury, Chelten¬ 
ham, Ross, Monmouth, Manchester, and other places. Good glass 
structures have been erected near the Court. In a 120-feet range 
not many more fruitful Vines could be found, and their condition 
is largely attributed to applications of liquid manure in winter, 
when the soil is in a suitable condition for its reception. The 
value of this practice I discovered many years ago, and recorded 
the same in the Journal of Horticulture and subsequently. Some 
gardeners cannot understand how land charged with fertility in 
winter can benefit fruit and other crops in summer, and some 
writers who are not gardeners condemn the practice, which they 
have never tried. It is sound and good all the same when properly 
carried out, as it is at Glewston and in other gardens and orchards. 
Long span-roof pits are devoted to Tomatoes, the plants being 
like trees, through being grown in firm shallow borders, abundance 
of air admitted, and a dry atmosphere maintained. There is more 
woody tissue in one of these plants than in a dozen of those which 
I have often seen fall a prey to disease. The Tomato disease is 
not in the least feared by the gardener at Glewston. He is of 
opinion that in by far the great majority of cases where it occurs 
it is the result of errors in management, and so am I. Cucumber 
growing. Peach growing, and various other items must be passed, 
but as showing that the climate is good as well as the soil a plant 
of Coronilla glauca, growing up the wall of the Court, easterly 
aspect, must be mentioned. It is 8 or 9 feet high, covering a space 
4 or 5 feet wide with a sheet of glistening yellow flowers such as 
are not seen on plants in pots. The protection of a blind is 
afforded during severe or inclement weather. On the same wall 
Eucalyptus globulus is in the best of health, and has a good and 
distinct appearance. 
Glewston is pleasantly situated, and notable for high culture on 
the farm and in the garden ; for a splendid flock of Shropshire 
sheep ; for its great collection of fruit; unfortunate for the hordes 
of caterpillars, and fortunate that it is the hands of a gentleman 
who appears to take delight in doing all things well. His gardener, 
Mr. S. T. Wright, is such a good man that I can scarcely suppress 
a feeling of regret in not being able to claim relationship with 
him. I intended in these notes saying something about Toddington, 
Lord Sudeley’s great and splendidly conducted enterprise in fruit 
culture. From the trees and bushes it is hoped 500 tons of fruit 
will be gathered this year for making into jam on the spot by Mr. 
Beach. Something must be said on the remarkable undertaking, 
so well managed by Captain Corbett and Mr. C. D. Wise, on 
another occasion, and more must follow about caterpillars.— 
J. Wright. 
P.S.—Since writing the foregoing I have received the following 
note from Mr. Campbell, written on the 12th inst:—“ Caterpillars 
are stiU hatching out, and yet it is nearly seven weeks since they 
commenced. Where no preventive measures have been taken it is 
safe to calculate on partial or total loss of fruit crops. It is too 
early yet to make any estimate, as the mischief is going on in the 
blooms to an extent of which very few people can have any idea. 
In spite of the good result from the repeated sprayings with Paris 
green, I can only speak with any degree of confidence as to the 
foliage, which I have great hopes of saving. I find that growers, 
who have taken no preventive measures, are now recognising that 
the crop is a failure, and deciding that nothing can be done this- 
season. On the contrary, I urge them to put forth all their 
energies to combat our foe. The caterpillar is beginning to let 
himself down to the ground. My emphatic advice is. Spray at 
once, and keep on as long as you can see a caterpillar, and then 
you may avert, or at least mitigate, an attack next year, t/sc,, 
however, only 1 oz. of Paris green to 20 gallons of loater, and 
be especially careful to heep the ni'xture thoroughly stirred. ' 
PREVENTIVES. 
“Prevention is better than cure ” is an adage familiar to alF 
from the days when it figured as the headline on our copybooks at 
school, and the forcible illustration of the pedagogue is still fresh im 
the memory of many an erewhile schoolboy. The successful man 
in any calling owes most of his success to forethought in preventing- 
occurrences which would have entailed loss of time and much 
additional anxiety before the enfeebled result of a cure wai^ 
obtained. Certainly there are events which no amount of ingenuity 
can prevent, and perhaps it is well that this should be so, although 
it forms no genuine excuse for the neglect of proper precaution iii> 
matters over which we have control. It is only the thoughtful 
man who finds real enjoyment in his work as he sees his carefully 
laid plans succeed each other with the same certainty that spoke 
follows spoke in a revolving wheel. In all matters contingencies 
have to be provided against, and the stronger the reinforcements in- 
that direction the better. 
Each individual seems to think that his own special pursuit calls 
forth the greatest mental exertion, this doubtless arising from- 
intimacy with its intricacies ; and, while not ignoring the work of 
others, it must be allowed that to be a successful gardener much 
forethought is necessary. There is the variability of climate- 
which is beyond our control, and frequently makes the system that 
proved right one year to be quite the reverse, the next. This is 
strikingly illustrated in that very important spring vegetable the 
Cabbage. Last year early plants were most useful to their 
possessors, turning in with only a very small per-centage “ bolting,,” 
and owing to this favourable occurrence many were induced to 
plant largely at an early date during the past autumn, hoping to 
gain like results. But the different weather of the past winter has 
acted on many forms of vegetation in a different manner from its- 
predecessor, so that this spring it is no unusual sight, to see whole 
plantings of early Cabbages with scarcely an exception running to- 
seed. It is at such times as these that the thoughtful man reaps 
the fruit of his forethought, for instead of trusting too fully to or^e 
planting he has reinforcements in succession. 
Fruit culture has been receiving much attention lately, and 
great interest has been centred in its various details, and here again 
we see that forethought precedes success. Some time ago an 
account of the Castle Gardens, Cardiff, appeared in the Journal 
and in the notice of the fruit trees I was especially struck with the 
winter dressing they receive. How many of the insect pests were 
destroyed through this agency it is impossible to imagine, and 
doubtless the annual application prevented some from ever gaining 
foothold. Many of the failures in fruit growing are rightly 
attributed to insect agency, and when our knowledge of their 
habits is more complete—and praiseworthy endeavours in that 
direction are going on—so that we may be able to catch them 
napping, we will soon get rid of their contumacy when awake. A 
thoroughly effective system of winter cleaning the fruit trees would* 
undoubtedly be a good step forward in fruit growing. 
A fondness for Roses is one of my failings, and from my 
intimacy with them I have found that many of the ills which they 
are heir to can be stopped by the timely application of preventives. 
Take the grub as an instance ; the worm i’ the bud which blights- 
the hopes and tries the patience of many a grower. It is the sad 
experience of many to find this enemy eating the bud of the most 
promising shoot, and the process of searching for them daily at a 
critical time is the most unpleasant occupation of a rosarian. 
Many an hour that could ill be spared have I spent in the vain 
endeavour to annihilate them until, a few years ago, I adopted a 
course similar to Mr. Pettigrew’s with his fruit trees. About the 
beginning or middle of April, according to the season, just as the- 
buds are bursting, before they show leaf, the plants get a good 
syringing with a mixture of petroleum, softsoap, and water rather 
stronger than is generally used for plants in leaf — i.e., two wine¬ 
glasses full of petroleum and a small handful of softsoap dissolved 
in three gallons of water. I cannot account for it being more 
efficacious at that time than when the buds are quite dormant, but 
it is so, and it may be that instinct causes the embryo grubs to leave 
their resting place then to search for prey. This is now a question 
