192 
THE FLOEIST AND POMOLOGIST. 
[ August, 
were noticed in 18G6 and 18G7, but it was not until tlie summer of 18G9, a 
season of romarkablo heat, following upon a severe winter, that the evil assumed proportions 
the magnitude of which have been steadily increasing ever since. The disease is confined to 
two districts, viz., the valley of the Rhone and the department of the Gironde. In the latter, 
the damage is of limited extent. The M(idoc country has escaped altogether; but in the 
former the results have been truly deplorable, the crops having been reduced to one-tenth of 
the average of former years. On the right bank certain districts have hitherto escaped ; but 
on the left, which possesses a different geographical conformation, wide plains and valleys 
watered by numerous streams, the disease has been almost universal. Out of 00,000 acres in 
Vaixcluse, 20,000 have been utterly ruined. Around Bouquemai'd and in Le Gard entire 
vineyards have been grubbed up, and the sticks sold as fuel at 4d. per cwt. The greater the 
distance from the banks of the streams, the less severe the ravages appear to bo. Everywhere 
the symptoms are identically the same—healthy plants die off suddenly without any apparent 
cause, the stems turn black, the leaves fade and drop off, and close examination shows that 
the roots are rotten throughout. The svliole of a vineyard is not attacked at once ; the disease 
appears to establish itself in a number of indopondent centres, from whence it radiates rapidly 
in all directions, until the entire area is infected. An account of the insect to which this 
terrible disease is attributed, will bo found at p. 246 of om' last year’s volume. 
- 3In Canada, a kind of preserve called Apple Butter is made in large 
quantities; it keeps well, is in continual demand, and is made thus :—The juice 
of apples, as pressed for cider, is boiled down until it reaches a certain degree of 
concentration ; it is then added to apples—pared, cored, and cut in small pieces—and the 
whole is stowed down into a mass, taking great care not to burn it. It is very good, always 
ready at hand for pies or tarts, or to eat at ordinary meals, and is wholesome -when people are 
used to it, although rather an active cathartic when they are not. The kinds of apples require 
to be skilfully selected, the sweet kinds modifying the acidity, and even the acerbity, of 
other kinds which keep well. This Apple-butter is made by the ban-olful. 
-- Certain Improvements in the Construction of Horticultural Buildings 
have recently been patented by Mr. Ayres, of Nottingham. These structures are 
described to consist of imperishable roofs formed without sashes, sash-bars, putty, 
or paint, or any woodwork outside—consequently no painting will bo required. The floors, 
plant stages, and side or partition walls are made of slabs of cement concrete, strengthened so 
as to bear any amount of pressure, and yet admitting of being perforated for the air to circu¬ 
late through them, panelled to hold -water for evaporation, or for the pots to stand in, or per¬ 
forated and panelled, while they can be manufactured of any required strength or size, and 
in the place where they are required to bo used, and they can also be left rough for ordinary 
use, or be finished plain or in colours -with a face like polished marble. For glazing, 
flat glass of great strength, jointed with transparent cement, or glass -with the sides turned, 
is used. The advantages claimed are,—economy in first construction, perfect portability 
(when desired), and when manufactured in iron galvanized, a house so imperishable as to 
wear for a lifetime without fiudhor cost. 
-- ^HE following method of Preserving Peaches has been recommended 
in the Gardeners Chronicle, by Mr. Smith of Exton Park, the excellent recipe 
being from the chef de cuisine there :—Split the Peaches in halves ; scald them in 
thin syrup to remove the skins ; arrange the halves in clean pint tins filled up with rather 
thick syi’up, made of 2 lb. sugar and one pint cold water, boil foiw minutes; have the tins 
covered ; put them into a vessel, pour sufficient cold water on to them to reach within half an 
inch of the top. Submit them to twenty minutes’ gentle ebullition. Keep in a cool place for use. 
0l){tuavg. 
- ijARON Charles von Hugel died at Brussels on June 2. He was an 
Austrian nobleman, who had rendered good service both to botany and to hor¬ 
ticulture, and latterly has filled the office of Minister Plenipotentiary at Brussels. 
To horticulturists he is kno-wn from his researches in Australia, and as founder of the 
Imperial Horticultural Society of Vienna. 
