122 
THE COTTAGE GARDENER AND COUNTRY GENTLEMAN’S COMPANION.— May 13, 1850. 
land, but he lias made use of methods by which he has 
been enabled to obtain manure in a form in which you do 
not generally recognise it; and this is one of the great 
points I have to bring before you, that you may fully 
recognise the fact that there are other sources of manure 
besides cart loads of dung, straw, or guano. After having 
well prepared the whole field by thorough digging and 
forking, Mr. Smith dibbles his wheat in rows of three 
together, each one foot apart, and with a distance of three 
feet between every three rows of wheat. When the wheat 
is up, the one-foot intervals between it are repeatedly dug 
or turned by a fork about six inches wide, so as not to come 
nearer the wheat than three inches. Weeds are thus 
eradicated, aud air admitted to the roots. The three-feet 
intervals are treated throughout the spring and summer as 
follows, and are thoroughly turned over in every direction, 
aud well exposed to the air. This is done up to the time 
when the wheat almost meets over the three-feet spaces. 
When the crop is ripe it is cut; and the three-feet fallowed 
intervals are now dibbled with wheat, while the part which 
| bore the wheat is to be fallow. During the last four or five 
years, Mr. Smith has taken, on an average, from thirty to 
forty bushels per acre from his land without any addition of 
manure in the shape of guano or dung, or any other visible 
matter. He lias, however, been manuring all the time ; 
because, through the constant stirring, there has been a 
powerful absorption of materials from the air; nitre-beds 
have been formed, and the result produced is the same that 
i would follow from an absolute dressing of nitrate of soda. ] 
In cases where the soil has been light, and where the 
absorbent power lias not existed so powerfully, he has : 
used manure, with, I believe, very fair success. He shows 
a profit of At or £5 an acre on his wheat every year. He 
every year publishes a fresh statement of what be has been 
doing, and he says that even at the low price of tOs. per 
quarter, he realises a profit of several pounds per acre. On 
j lighter soils, as I have said, he is obliged to employ visible 
I manures.” 
EDWARDS'S EARWIG TRAP. 
Every Dahlia grower knows how unsightly 
are the inverted flower - pots placed upon 
stakes with moss inside for the purpose 
of seducing Earwigs to repose there. Such 
decoys, however, are absolutely necessary, for 
it is simply absurd to attempt keeping Ear¬ 
wigs from crawling up the stems of the plants. 
It is absurd because these insects have wings. 
Mr. Edwards, therefore, has invented the 
above-named very neat trap, to substitute for 
the inverted garden - pot. We happen to 
know that five hundred of them have been 
sent to Mr. Turner, florist, Slougb, and 
twelve hundred to Mr. Keynes, florist, of 
Salisbury, two of the most celebrated Dahlia 
growers of England. The following is Mr. 
Edwards's statement:— 
“ The Earwig Trap is a bell shaped iron 
box, preserved from atmospherical injury by 
being japanned ; its colour is a dark shade of 
olive green; it is three inches in diameter at 
the bottom, and four inches high. 
“ Figure 1 is a representation of the ex¬ 
ternal appearance of the trap, and Figure 2 is 
a section showing the internal arrangement. 
a is a fluted cone, open at top and bottom, n is another 
cone of plain metal, joined to the top of cone a, but having 
a wider base, so that there is a clear spnee about half nil- 
inch wide between the cone a and the cone d. e is a third 
cone, joined to the others at the top, but spreading at the 
bottom, so as to leave another half-inch space between it 
and the middle cone n. d is the outer case, fitting closely 
round the base of the cone a. e is a moveable cover or lid. 
“ In using the trap, the training stick is placed inside the 
fluted cone a, the projecting portions of the flutes hold the 
stick tightly, and there are spaces for the insects to crawl 
up; a little coarse sugar is placed inside the trap. The 
insects enter the trap through the opening at the top of the 
cones, and passing down the outside of the cone c, drop on 
to the bottom of the case n; they are now effectually im¬ 
prisoned, for there is no other outlet than the hole by which 
they entered, to reach which they must traverse the whole 
up and down route intimated by the dotted lines and arrows 
in Figure 2, besides which they will have to turn the sharp 
angles at the bottom of the cones, a process almost im¬ 
possible to them from the peculiar construction of their 
bodies, the legs being all at one end, and the chief weight 
at the other. 
“Earwigs are the most destructive insects that the florist 
and horticulturist have to contend against; they feed chiefly 
upon substances containing saccharine matter, such as the 
most luscious fruits, and the tender petals of flowers ; they 
never feed in the day-time, but as evening closes in they 
begin to move, aud they are in constant activity during the 
night. Their bodies being a favourite food of all kinds of 
birds, an instinct of self-preservation induces them, on the 
approach of daylight, to seek l'or dark, close, and safe 
places to roost in during the day, and it is singular that they 
always climb as high as possible in search of such places. 
“ Taking advantage of this instinct, the plan hitherto 
adopted for their destruction has been to place an inverted 
flower pot, containing a little moss, or other soft material, 
on the top of the training stick, these pots being examined 
daily, and the earwigs killed. This has been a very trouble¬ 
some and ineffectual remedy, for it was found that many 
escaped. The appearance, moreover, of the pots, was so 
downright ugly, and was such a disfigurement to an other¬ 
wise tastefully-kept garden, that the wonder is that the 
Dahlia has not been excluded altogether from ornamental 
gardens. 
“ The little invention now offered to the florist will 
obviate both these objections. It is ornamental in shape, 
forming an elegant terminal to the training stick, and being 
japanned of a fine neutral tiut of olive green, it is a pleasing 
object to the eye. 
“ Its utility is no matter of speculation, as it was thoroughly 
tested during the season of 1855, by one of the jnost 
eminent Dahlia growers in the kingdom, whose report on 
the subject appears in the Florist for October in that year. 
It may, however, be mentioned here, that as many as sixty 
earwigs have been caught in one trap in a single night.” 
QUERIES AND ANSWERS. 
GARDENING. 
A RUSTIC BASKET GAY IN SUMMER. 
“ W. IV. will feel greatly obliged to The Cottage 
Gardener if lie would tell him the best method of planting 
