QUERIES AND ANSWERS. 
329 
PART III. 
MISCELLANEOUS INTELLIGENCE. 
I.—QUERIES AND ANSWERS. 
What is Mr. Stafford’s Mode of Destroying Sparrows? —On looking 
over your Horticultural Register , I see a reference to a method of destroying 
Sparrows given in a previous number, which I cannot find. May I request you 
to let me know the method, for I find them exceedingly mischievous ? In return 
I beg to give an effectual Recipe for destroying Caterpillars on gooseberry-trees. 
Early in March dig the ground round the gooseberry-trees, a full spade deep, 
aud you will bury the eggs of the caterpillars for that season. This I have 
found to be a sure remedy. Jas. Allin. 
Answer. —Mr. Stafford’s mode of destroying Sparrows stated Vol. 1, p. 178, is 
to take a flat earthen dish, put a quantity of soaked bread in it, and place it upon 
a garden wall, out of the reach of any domestic fowl. Having fed them regularly 
for six or eight days, mix a small quantity of white arsenic with the bread, 
which wall speedily poison them. This as well as former feedings should be 
given early in the morning. It need hardly be remarked that much caution is 
required in the use of this remedy, lest children should get at it. If Nux Yomic 
would answer the same end, it would be much safer. Conductor. 
The Plant Figured Page 140 is not the Ficaria ranunculoides.— 
I beg to draw your attention to an error in your number for March, page 140, 
in the representation of the figure of the Ranunculus Ficaria, which must have 
been intended for some other plant. The leaves of that plant all rise from the 
crown, each on a long foot-stalk, are heart-shaped, slightly succulent, and 
smooth-edged, not serrated. I inclose in this note, a small specimen. Sir Jas. 
E. Smith, Esq. Flor. 2nd Edit. Vol. 3, page 47, strongly objects to “ ranuncu¬ 
loides ” as a name for it. Johnson’s Gerard has an excellent figure of the plant, 
under the old name of Chelidonium minus, p. 816. T. B. Buxton. 
Answer .—The error originated in our draughtsman, and how it escaped our 
notice we can scarcely tell. We will, in our next, give a true figure of the plant. 
Remarks on Pruning Forest Trees. —There are in a paper signed George, 
in your last number, some strictures on pruning, evidently written by a person 
who has never seen trees annually pruned for a period of twenty or even ten 
years, and therefore he can be no judge of the immense advantages attending this 
mode of managing timber. As respects ornamental trees, I perfectly coincide 
with him, and consequently differ from your facetious correspondent, Howden. 
He is a comical, but I have no doubt a very honest fellow, and I shall be glad to 
see more of his remarks in your interesting work. Pray ask your readers to prune 
half an acre every year from the time of planting, or fifty trees in hedge-rows for 
a period of ten years, that is, taking out from three to five of the largest and 
strongest shoots, and then I will allow that they are judges of the advantages or 
disadvantages attending this system, which is found so beneficial, wherever it 
has “ Fair Play.” V. 
Rhubarb I lants. —In answer to the enquiry of your correspondent “F.” 
Vol. 1, page 666, I have to observe that it is, I believe, an ascertained fact, that 
allowing plants to seed has an exhausting effect, as well upon the plants them¬ 
selves, as upon the soil they grow in. Some, which, if prevented from seeding, 
prove perennial, uniformly die the following winter, if allowed to seed. Others, 
if raised too late to blossom the year in which they are sown, are well known to 
