418 THE COTTAGE GARDENER AND COUNTRY GENTLEMAN’S COMPANION.— September 9, 1856. 
would be extra true greatness never to fall into an 
error. It is greatness next in degree manfully to 
acknowledge the error when seen, and by every means 
possible endeavour to neutralize its effects. “ Though 
conquered, arguing still,” is a practice fit only for the 
fast and reckless lads who crow over being “ game to 
the last,” whatever the cause they espouse. 
Had I been the sole cause of “ A. B.’s” misfortune, I 
had no two paths to choose between. Common honesty 
required that the unfortunate result should be as widely 
chronicled as what was considered to be, in some 
measure, a specific for an evil. In the present case, 
if the result is owing to the sulphur, I think, without 
any egotism, that “ A. B.” is chiefly to blame in making 
a reading of my directions for himself. What I feel 1 
am blameable in is not being more particular and 
, precise in my words and language at page 301, as I 
; suppose that is the place referred to, in answer to a 
I correspondent who could not master the rod spider, 
i This want of preciseness may be partly justified by the 
fact, that for two or three years I have recommended 
a similar mixture, and have heard good reports of it 
i from others. It was no idea of my own. It will be 
found stated in a previous volume, on which I cannot 
just now lay my hands, that I obtained it from a 
French writer, who used it for the mildew disease on 
the Vine. On trying it, I was immediately struck 
with the seeming strength of the liquid, and thought 
it might be as useful for destroying insects as for sub¬ 
duing mildew. With the exception of mildew, I had 
come to the conclusion that using sulphur in the dry or 
natural state, made into paints and washes, was just 
as efficacious as so much earth or mud. It reached 
insects only when its fumes were given off by heat, 
such as when placed on a hot-water pipe, or when a 
wall or paling was so painted with it that the sun’s 
rays would so heat the parts that the fumes would be 
given off. These fumes will arrest the progress of 
mildew, though a high authority states the contrary. 
The other day I saw some Vineries that had been 
attacked with the Vine mildew, but it was at once 
arrested by brushing the flues over with a mixture of 
sulphur and lime, and keeping them hot for several 
days. In such a case, however, it is right to give a note 
of beuare! There would be no danger in hot-water 
pipes, but the flue should not be covered with the 
sulphur within at least a couple of yards of the fur¬ 
nace, as sulphur ignites and melts at a low temperature, 
aud, wherever it does, farewell to every living twig that 
is at all green. Mr. Errington and myself have success 
fully fumigated Vineries and Peacheries by burning 
sulphur in them, for thoroughly cleansing the houses 
before shutting them up to force them; but whoever 
tries the plan must be thoroughly certain of the hard 
maturity of his wood, as every green, unripened part 
will be killed to a certainty. 
One hint more, the result of an accident last year. 
Such sulphur-fumigating should not only be done at 
night, but, if the next day is likely to be sunny, air 
should be given early. For want of this caution 1 
have had the front of shoots next the sun injured, 
though the parts behind and shaded were not touched. 
I The burning of sulphur in any house should, therefore, 
never be done but with consideration. Rightly used, 
it is a valuable servant; carelessly used, it masters 
most things with a vengeance. 
These desultory remarks are not quite foreign to the 
matter in hand. Washes could often be used when 
fumes from a heated surface could not easily be ob¬ 
tained. I had tried many modes for getting the qua¬ 
lities of sulphur to commingle with water, but none that 
seemed to me so effectual as this French mode of 
boiling about equal portions of lime and sulphur to¬ 
gether. When the first solution is poured off, a similar 
quantity of water is added, and the mixture boiled 
a second time ; but the clear liquid thus obtained is 
not so strong as the first. A gallon bottle will hold 
materials for many a syringing. I was so convinced 
of its strength that at first 1 used and recommended a 
dram glass, or half a quartern, for three to four gallons 
of water. For tender things, and when foliage was 
tender, I would recommend the same quantity still. As 
the foliage gets older and riper I found it would stand 
more uninjured, and in such cases I have used a 
quartern—a gill in Scotland—or a little more for a four- 
gallon pot of water. The case mentioned at page 301 
is an exceptional one. The minutise of preparation and 
application have been given so often that they are not 
repeated. The Peach-house is supposed to be cleared 
of its fruit, and by that time the leaves would staud 
more than they would have done a month or two 
previously. Even in such a case as this, however, the 
quantity used is not so extreme. The words are “ a 
quartern or a little more, but not more than half a 
pint ”—mutchkin in Scotland—into a watering-pot of 
about four gallons. Where our friend finds me recom¬ 
mending, as be says, one pint for four gallons of water, 
perhaps he will be good enough to point out. In this 
extreme case I have recommended from a fourth to a 
half only of the quantity he has used my authority for 
adopting. 
Even now, though advocating caution, I am not quite 
sure that the solution was the sole cause of the leaves 
dropping from “A. B.’s” Peaches. In the house referred 
to I lost many leaves of the tree so close to the heating 
medium, because there, for the sake of the fruit, the 
spider had been allowed to get more ahead; but had I 
used clean water forcibly, the result would have been 
much the same. After a leaf has been thoroughly punc¬ 
tured with this mischief of an insect its powers of vitality 
are reduced to a minimum, and it may pretty much as 
well be knocked off as remain. Perhaps the leaves of 
our correspondent may have been more injured than he 
imagined. At any rate, he will now see that he has used 
his solution from two to four times stronger than ever 
I ventured to recommend. Considering the free-growing, 
vigorous condition of his trees, prudence would have 
suggested trying the lesser quantity first. Any one may 
use what prescription he likes, but it is hardly fair to 
place the responsibility on another person’s shoulders. 
Casualties often thus happen. A friend of mine terribly 
injured his plants by fumigating them with sulphur, 
and it has been a sore point with him ever since. Some 
years ago I saw five Vines killed to the ground, and 
Peach-trees almost as bad, though under the care of one 
of the ablest gardeners of the day, merely by being 
washed over with one of the common washes in winter, 
consisting of soft-soap, sulphur, and tobacco. I have 
known such a solution used often, and without the least 
bad effect. There must have been something added— 
strychnine, for instance—or there must have been some 
peculiar mode of preparation, or the trees must have 
been in a peculiar state to cause such a calamity. The 
boiling of this sulphur, lime, and water makes a very 
different substance than any commingling of them cold 
would do. I have forgotten to mention, that though 
the leaves, many of them at least, dropped from the worst 
affected tree, the solution used, of a strength from a 
quarter to half a pint to the four gallons of water, did 
not affect the other trees at all where the red spider had 
made but little way. A similar solution has had no in¬ 
jurious influence when used on Peach-trees out of doors. 
I consider such a solution more effectual in keeping 
down and subduing the enemy than common water, 
though I am far from insisting that this solution will 
act like a miracle. If once allowed to got ahead, the 
destroying the red spider is no easy matter. Next to the 
direct fumes of the sulphur, which are given off freely 
