October 3.] 
THE COTTAGE GARDENER. 
13 
TO CORRESPONDENTS. 
*** We request that no one will write to the departmental writers of 
Tiie Cottage Gardener. It gives them unjustifiable trouble and 
expense. All communications should be addressed “ To the Editor of 
| The Cottage Gardener , 2, Amen Corner, Paternoster Row, London. 1 * 
Pansies (J. H. K .).—Your four pansier are all of good form and sub- 
j stance; and, as far as we could judge from the flattened, injured speci¬ 
mens, Nos. 1 and 4, arc the most novel in colouring. 
Taylor’s Bee-box (A Newly-Married Yeoman ).—The top of this is 
made in all respects as was directed in the appendix of the third edition 
of his Bee-Keepers Manual. The brass-headed nails used are the same 
as those employed by upholsterers about old-fashioned hair-bottomed 
chairs. 
Salting Asparagus Beds (Rev. E. S'.).— Salt is best applied in the 
spring and summer whilst the plants are growing. We usually apply it 
I three times, about March, May, and July. You may sprinkle it over the 
surface so as to make this perceptibly white ; eight pounds to each thirty 
square yards is not too much. We shall be glad of a description of the 
mode clay is employed for building. 
White Scale (L. C .).—This insect on the stems and leaves of the 
Acacias and Oleanders in your greenhouse is the Aspidiotus Ncrii , or 
Oleander Seale. The best remedy is to dip the plants into water heated 
to 114°, keeping them under water for two or three minutes. This 
repeated once or twice, if necessary, at intervals of two days, will remove 
the pest. To keep them away, let the air of your greenhouse be more moist. 
Keep a strict look out for their reappearance, and dip a plant as soon as 
one is observed upon it, for they are difficult to exterminate and increase 
rapidly. 
Rampion (C . B. C.).—This is the Campanula rapunculus of botanists, 
and it thrives best in a light, yet moist shady border. We agree with 
you in thinking it “worthy of a place in every kitchen garden,” but it 
will not thrive with you if your soil is dry or clayey. The roots arc good 
boiled whilst young and served up like asparagus. Sow three times—in 
March, April, and May, in drills eight inches apart. Dig the soil for 
them two spades deep, and turn in a little well-decayed stable manure 
with the bottom spit. Thin the plants to eight inches apart. Give fre¬ 
quent and plentiful waterings throughout the growth of the plants, or 
their roots will be dry and woody. 
Names of Insects (J. L .).—The grub you complain of as “most 
destructive to all young plants, biting their stems in two just beneath the 
surface,” is the larva of some moth, probably the Brown Heart-and-Club 
( A gratis segetum). Unfortunately they cannot be discovered except by 
their ravages. (Eliza, Richmond Bank). —Your children are right in 
thinking that it gives us pleasure “to tell them all about the insects” 
they caught. The moth (not butterfly) is a male of the Vapourer (Orgyia 
antiqua ) ; the peculiarly hairy and tufted caterpillar of which is fully 
described at page 316 of our second volume. The female is a downy ash- 
coloured insect, w ithout wings. The beautiful fly you sent us, and which 
seems a fitting inhabitant of fairy land, is the Golden-cyed lace-vvingcd 
Fly (Hernerobius pcrla of Linmeus, and Chrysopa perla of modern ento¬ 
mologists). It is really gratifying to know that such a beautiful creature 
is the friend of man, for its larva feeds on Plant Lice. 
Soap-suds (T. P. L .).— It is much too comprehensive a question when 
you ask, “will it hurt flowers to water them with soap-suds now and 
then ? ” What flowers do you mean ? Geraniums, fuchsias, and such 
hardy plants, when growing, are benefited by soap-suds applied once or 
twice a week. 
Ants Invading a Hive (A Beginner). —To prevent this, paint a 
broad band of coal-tar round the leg or legs of your bee stand, and 
repaint it when the tar becomes dry, which will not be for a long time. 
Cabbages Club-rooted (J. A. B.). — We think that your plants must 
have been pierced by the insect which causes the club-root, or ambury, 
before they were planted. If a cabbage or brocoli plant has a knob near 
| the roots, this should be removed before replanting, because in that knob 
I is either the egg or the grub which causes all the mischief. Make your 
j ground as rich as you can before planting your cabbage-worts in future ; 
and as you cannot get ammoniacal liquor, give the ground a dressing of 
soot and salt just before digging it. 
Peat (A. B. C.). —You ask us to give you “some idea of the nature 
of peat ; ” and we will endeavour to do so ; but any description will be 
| less effectual than your asking any florist in your neighbourhood to show 
you some, for each and all florists have it for potting purposes. The best 
peat is a mass of vegetable fibres, mostly black, mixed with sharp white 
sand. The fibres are chiefly the dead roots of heath. The best peat for 
I gardening purposes is found just below the surface, on Bagshot Heath, 
Delamcre Forest, and elsewhere ; and a specimen of this has been found 
to contain—fine siliceous sand, 156 parts; vegetable fibres and dccom- 
: posing vegetable matter, 111 ; coarse silica (flint), 102 ; alumina (clay), 16 ; 
oxide of iron, 4 ; soluble vegetable and saline matter, partly muriate of 
I lime, 8. 
Verbenas (Ibid). —Twelve good varieties which will do well for you 
I to exhibit are—Wonder of Scarlets; Mountain of Snow, white; Spe- 
ciosissima, red ; Mrs. Mills, bide; Gladiator, orange scarlet ; Excelsa, 
| pink ; Apollon, violet purple ; Beauty Supreme, carmine ; Ramona, 
maroon crimson •, Haulee, lavender; Rubens, rosy crimson; and Woodsii, 
dark maroon. 
Worms (P. M. H .).—Worms benefit a soil by piercing and loosening 
the texture. Your subsoil cannot be “sandy or clayey”—they are 
totally opposite. We must have a more accurate description of both the 
soil and subsoil before we can venture to recommend any manures to mix 
with them. 
Heavy Soil (Eyre, Brixton Hill). —Have it drained with one-inch 
drain pipes—the drains twelve feet apart, and two feet and a half deep. 
It is quite impossible to lie more specific unless we knew the place. 
Disease in Chickens (IV. Barnard ).—Your chickens with swollen 
crops, drooping wings, and disordered bowels, are attacked with the 
Cheep, or Chip. The name is applied to the disease on account of the 
peculiar note they utter whilst suffering from it. It arises from exposure 
to cold and damp. Confine them until they are a month old to a dry, 
warm place; feed them on groats, with occasionally an egg boiled hard, 
with a little onion chopped up with it, and you will probably avoid the 
loss of which you complain. If you take The Cottage Gardeners ’ Dic¬ 
tionary until completed you will find all the practical directions you 
covet. 
New Garden (Popplcwcll). —The only things you can plant now are 
cubbagcs. In November you may plant potatoes and broad beans. Put 
in some cabbages on the ground out of which you are taking potatoes. 
The trainer you mention will suit the Tropwolum tricolorum ; but it is 
too much to ask us to incur the expense of having a drawing engraved 
for you. 
Names of Plants (Clericus, Beds). —Your annual is Eutoca viscida. 
(C. G. R.y. —The small leaf is of Melia Azederach, but the other we 
cannot recognise. Let us have a flower if it blooms, and we shall be able 
to assist you. (T. P. L.). —Your miserable specimen seems to be a 
piece of Aubrictiu deltoidea —a useful rock plant. Calystegia ptibescens 
can be obtained of any respectable florist. Bulbs of crocuses and snow¬ 
drops may be put in now. 
Cyclamen Persicum (T. T. G .).—These which have been plunged 
in your border all the summer repot immediately, but disturb the roots 
as little as possible. Merely rub off gently a little of the old soil, and 
return them into the same pots, adding a little fresh soil to replace what 
has been removed. 
Mulberries Preserving (S. S. J.).—These may be made into jam 
the same as any other fruit, and the preserve is delicious. Allow rather 
more than half a pound of loaf sugar to every pound of mulberries. Let the 
fruit boil up slowly and gradually, then add the sugar, and boil for three 
quarters of an hour longer, stirring it the whole time. Mulberry syrup, 
for this fruit is too juicy to make into jelly, is very good, allowing the 
same quantity of sugar to every pint of juice. We have tasted some that 
was made into syrup last year, and added this, to some fresh blackcurrant 
jelly, in the proportions of one-third mulberry, to two of currant, and the 
mixture is firm and excellent. We have never seen mulberries bottled, 
nor preserved whole in any way. 
Bee-keeping (J . E. W.). —Your being absent from home from eight 
until six, is no insuperable objection to your becoming a bee-keeper, if 
you have any one to watch the hives during the swarming season, and 
who can hive a swarm if it comes forth. 
Night-soil Fumes (W.). —You can mitigate these by sprinkling a 
little powdered Gypsum over the soil every evening, and doing the same 
with a little Chloride of Lime every morning. 
Fuchsia Brockmannii (L. A. C .).—As you have no greenhouse, 
leave this in the border all the winter, covering over its roots all round to 
the distance of a foot from the stem, and up its stem a foot deep with 
coal ashes. 
Calico Covering for Frames (Ibid). —For fifty square feet of calico, 
one pint and a half of pale boiled linseed oil, half an ounce of sugar of 
lead, and two ounces of white resin, are required. Grind the sugar of 
lead in a little of the oil, before adding the remainder and the resin ; mix 
them together, and simmer them gently in a large iron pot over a gentle 
fire. Apply the mixture to the calico with a large brush whilst hot. The 
calico should be damped before being tacked on to the frame, and when 
again quite dry the mixture applied as above directed. Plant out your 
Hollyhock seedlings at once where you wish them to remain. For Cal¬ 
ceolaria seedlings, you will find very full directions at page 63 of our 
third volume. 
Ammoniacal Liquor ( H. G. L.). —Where did wc ever recommend 
this “in its concentrated state,” to be applied to Strawberries ? No 
wonder it has killed yours. We recommended it in its concentrated state 
to be applied to vacant ground before it is dug for cabbage planting. It is 
then turned down into the soil, kills surface vermin, and comes gradually 
to the roots. For watering between the rows of cabbages, when they arc 
rooted and growing freely, but not before, ammoniacal liquor in the pro¬ 
portion of one gallon to five gallons of water, may be used with great 
benefit. Do not even then pour it into the holes round the stems of the 
plants, but into a trench drawn between the rows. 
Seeds of Annuals (E. S. P.).—Apply to any of the seedsmen or 
florists who advertize in our columns; we cannot recommend any par¬ 
ticularly. 
China-asters (G . H. P.). —They are only reared from seeds sown in 
