205 
THE COTTAGE GARDENER AND COUNTRY GENTLEMAN'S COMPANION.— July 22, 1856. 
pvessly for them ; but if the amateur be desirous to 
try what can be done that way, I would advise him to 
have thin, shallow boxes to cover over those he grows 
his Cucumbers in, which would also answer the double 
purpose of excluding light and uncalled-for drenchings 
of water, which they might by accident otherwise receive. 
It he does this, he need not cover up with litter, except 
in one or two cases, as there is a disadvantage in using 
litter sometimes. The spawn, instead of perforating the 
dung-bed in all directions, exhausts itself by running 
into the litter, and the straw becomes a mass of small 
thread-work, alike useless as a medium for the crop 
growing in, and for the purpose of covering. 
There are many other purposes to which the boxes 
mentioned by our correspondent might be put; but 
as he wants them by Christmas or before to force 
Sea-kale, Rhubarb, and other things, I do not know 
ot any way of rendering them more useful in the 
mean time; and, as his position for them (underneath 
the stage of a greenhouse) precludes their being used 
in any way as a store for plants, I cannot see any other 
mode of rendering them useful in the autumn mouths 
than the way I have suggested ; and I will take care 
and give him directions in time about the next crops 
he purposes to stock them with, and have no doubt but 
he will find the under portion of his greenhouse stage 
as useful as the upper part. There is nothing more in¬ 
teresting than to see compact clusters of Mushrooms 
rising up in an artificial bed so closely joined together 
as to form a problem, when they are separated, how 
they all stood in so small a space, they being never so 
closely packed in a natural way. 
We cannot well call Mushrooms thus growu forced, 
for probably there will not be any artificial heating 
applied; but towards Christmas, or even before if it be 
very cold, some additional warmth may be of service. 
The principal thing is to get them iuto an early bearing 
state, and they usually keep on pretty well, and few 
productions present a more interesting feature than 
Mushrooms when a good crop of well-formed clusters of 
them greots the eye at intervals not long apart. It may 
here be proper to observe, that watering will be wanted 
if the boxes stand on a dry bottom, or if the atmosphere 
surrounding them be dry, which it often is in September. 
Afterwards it becomes more charged with moisture; but 
it would be well to cover the boxes at once (after 
filling) with loose litter to keep them moist, which, 
however, remove if the spawn seems likely to run into 
it; and if the covering boxes were laid over that, so 
much the better, J. Robson. 
STRAWBERRY CULTURE. 
I have just read the first number of Mr. MacEwen’s 
“Fruit Culture; or, The Culture and Forcing of Fruits. 
No. 1, The Strawberry, by George MacEwen, Gardener to 
U. W. Beaumont, Esq., M.F., Bretton Hail, and late Gar¬ 
dener to His Grace the Duke of Norfolk, Arundel Castle. 
Published by Groombridge and Sons, London, and sold by 
all Booksellers.” 
The work is handsomely “got up;” there is a coloured 
plate of the British Queen Strawberry, and an uncoloured 
plate of the Black Prince, together with an excellent likeness 
of Keen's Seedling and thirty pages of letter-press, all for 
the price of one shilling. Now, if you believe, as I do, that 
any man in his sober senses may go comfortably to bed 
after making a supper of bread and cheese and a pint of 
good home-brewed beer, you will not have any difficulty in 
summing up the hotel price of such a supper, or making a 
reduction of one-third of the sum if the man “sups” at 
home ; but, in this broiling hot weather, the best plan is to 
make a good tea and go to bed without supper, rise earlier 
next day, and take an extra “ mouthful" instead. Either 
way there would be very little sacrifice in saving a shilling to 
buy this number of the “Fruit Culture;” and I pledge my 
word for it, that there is not a better treatise on the Straw¬ 
berry in our language. Indeed, the Horticultural Society of 
London have found out this season that there is nothing in 
print but rank heresy about forcing Strawberries, and their 
Vice-Secretary lias told the world in print, very recently, that 
British gardeners—English, Irish, and Scottish gardeners— 
know les» than nothing on the subject of forcing Straw¬ 
berries ; that the secret of forcing Strawberries was only just 
then discovered, by Mr. George Gordon, in that Garden 
which the Council of the Society wished to get rid of, and 
by the very man whom the “ Committee of Investigation ’’ 
wanted to send adrift on the wide world, with only an “ excel¬ 
lent character ” from a set of managers who said—also in 
print—that it was not respectable to see men with “ excel¬ 
lent characters ” undertaking the conduct of the affairs of a 
gardening Society like theirs, or rather, ours, though I blush 
at the admission of being in such company. 
The best answer to the libel on British gardeners is this— 
that the author of this treatise received the following awards 
lastyearfor his forced Strawberries :—From the. Horticultural 
Society of London, their first prize for Strawberries in pots, 
April the 3rd; their first prize for the best three dishes of 
Strawberries, on the 16th of May; and on the 20tli of No¬ 
vember, for the best single dish, their first prize also; at the 
Crystal Palace, June 2nd, the first prize for the best single 
dish, and the first prize for the best three dishes; at the 
Regent’s Park, June 13th, the first prize for the best two 
dishes, and that prize was doubled at the instance of the 
Judges, for superior merit—a most unusual step on the 
part of fruit Judges; and at Brighton he swept everything 
before him. 
Here, then, you may say, “is the best forcer and grower 
of Strawberries in the kingdom offering us his modes of 
management for one shilling ; and although, as you well 
know, I do not much like going to bed without something 
hot, or think much about that sort of saving from the 
stomach which Mr. Beaton suggests, I think, on the whole, 
we might spare the shilling, and learn to grow our own 
Strawberries.” So the book is bought, and read, and studied; 
the ground will soon be marked oft' for the new Strawberry 
bed, the man is to trench it as deep as the book says, the 
very same quantity and quality of dung will be used, and 
the planting will be done as they “ did at the Duke’s;" and, 
sure enough, a fresh start will be taken this autumn, and 
will he kept up with fresh blood till Strawberries are as 
plentiful as Blackberries.—D. Beaton. 
THE GOOSEBERRY CATERPILLAR. 
In a communication from Mr. Walter Ballantyne, in 
No. 102 of The Cottage Gardener, that gentleman recom¬ 
mends white Hellebore as a cure for the Gooseberry Cater¬ 
pillar, and I know that it is one which is eminently effective, 
it having been used by the cottagers in this neighbourhood 
for the last thirty years. But I have always thought it more 
desirable to avoid the use of such deleterious matters, par¬ 
ticularly at a time when the bushes are covered with fruit, 
seeing that the pest can be prevented, and that “ prevention 
is better than cure.” It was, therefore, as a preventive that 
I recommended Mr. Nicol’s mode of procedure in No. 307, 
and also my own use of the tan; and so persuaded am I 
that the course I adopted has been thoroughly successful, 
that I would urge it upon all who are suffering as I was. 
The plot of ground to which I referred is planted with 150 
strong hushes, and since the time it was dressed with the 
three loads of tan, in 1841, it has never been dug or culti¬ 
vated in any way, except being kept clear from weeds. This 
jear, fancying the tan might have lost its virtue, and by 
way of securing the bushes from any danger of an attack, I 
bad the ground top-dressed with three loads more, and I 
have not the slightest doubt hut this will be sufficient to pro¬ 
tect them for ten years further. A more economical, simple, 
and effectual preventive, therefore, I do not think can be 
practised; and, apart from its properties in this way, it forms 
an excellent covering to the surface of the ground in wet 
weather, thereby preserving dry and comfortable access to 
the Gooseberry plot when it would otherwise he all hut 
unapproachable, the hark being always dry and clean.— 
Robert Hogg, Bogan Green , N.B, 
