I 
May 25. 
THE COTTAGE GARDENER. 
133 
I time occupied is considerable), if we iiud, in a day or 
•two after that, we h&,vo thrown, our enemy prostrate, 
never more to trouble us. 
Peaches and Nectarines. —Here wo have an ad¬ 
ditional antagonist, in the shape of what gardeners 
term Red Spiders. It is scarcely possible to say which 
does the most mischief to them, this or the Peach. Aphis, 
alias Gum fly. The difference, if thero be much, is this: 
I tho depredations of the Aphis are more sudden and 
apparent; those of the Red Spider more insidious. I 
, have repeatedly urged the application of sulphur, in the 
character of a paint, as soon as the trees are trained; 
ours wero done in April this year, and I cannot, at 
present, perceive any appearance of this pest. Those 
who have omitted it, and are threatened, may at once 
apply some clay paint, and for the mode of mixing they 
may consult back numbers, or our very useful Cottage 
Gardeners’ Dictionary, which our readers will do well 
to keep by them, containing, as it does, the best practice 
of our best gardeners. The Peach Aphis will now bo 
inclined to pursue its ravages, and must be destroyed; 
the same practice as detailed here for the Apricot will 
succeed. There is a blister, too, which affects the foliage 
of Peaches, which must be picked clean away; this, how¬ 
ever, is understood not to be produced by insects. Tho 
mildew, also, generally the consequence of stagnation or 
check at root; for this, hand-picking and sulphur must 
be resorted to. 
Plums. —The Plum Aphis is most to be dreaded, and 
here tobacco-water comes again to our aid, applied as 
to the Apricots. Sometimes caterpillars will be found 
coiled up in the Plum foliage, and must be picked by 
hand. 
Cherries. —The Cherry Aphis is sure to appear at 
this period, and requires a very careful application of 
the tobacco-water; Cherries suffer exceedingly, on walls 
especially, through this pest. As, however, the shoots 
of Cherries are generally not so thick as some other 
fruits, through the size of the foliage, dipping in tobacco- 
water becomes the most expedient and economical. 
Gooseberries. —The caterpillar is this year very nu¬ 
merous with us; and I find nothing like hand-shaking 
the bushes, spreading a cloth below the tree. The tree 
should be struck by very sudden and sharp jerks 
repeated. This will bring most of them off, and the 
cloth may then be emptied in a vessel. It may be 
necessary, however, to repeat the operation. 
Apples. —The American lliijht is a most terrible 
pest, and if it once gets ahead it is almost impossible 
to extirpate it. During the rest season, very strong 
applications of brine, strong dunghill water, or rather 
the running from the stables, may be used, and this 
scrubbed all over the tree will, in general, all but extir¬ 
pate tho enemy. It is necessary, however, to follow 
this through the succeeding summer with spirits of 
turpentine applied by a small brush ; if this is neglected, 
the odds are that the trees will be bad as ever by the 
end of summer to extirpate caterpillars. Hand-picking 
must be had recourse to with all the superior apples, at 
least; and, in many cases, a repetition is necessary, in 
; order to catch those hatched at a later period. 
Black Currants. —The Aphis should be destroyed 
on these if possible. The worst of it is, so much 
tobacco is requisite to go over all fruits. We have used 
a small amount of tobacco to a good deal of ordinary 
soap-suds, with capital effect. If Black Currants, how¬ 
ever, are well supplied with moisture at the root, and 
the soil is good, these pests seldom do much damage. 
Tt is with ill-used bushes, on dry and loose soils, they do 
most mischief, and such bushes may have weeds, or any 
halt-rotten rubbish piled over their roots nine inches in 
depth, and then receive a thorough soaking of water. 
R. Errington, 
| - 
HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY’S SHOW. 
May 14th. 
There uever was a better day for a May show than 
Saturday the 14th inst., nor a finer day for making up 
parties than the Friday before. A great deal of the 
success of an exhibition, near London, depends on the 
weather for tho last two or three days before it comes off. 
The first part of the week was full of April showers and 
smiles, but on Thursday we had a change to the first 
summer weather, and the bees for the first swarms 
might be seen clustering outside the hives in cottage 
gardens all round London, while the moths and butter¬ 
flies were busy enough in town, gnawing through whole 
webs of legislative tissue, or flying about in the move¬ 
ments of the court. Mrs. Lawrence, who, in the middle 
of the “peace period,” took “material guarantees,” to 
drive Mrs. Marryot out of our Principalities and do¬ 
minions, no sooner heard of the declaration of war by 
the Western Powers, than she sold out her high com¬ 
mission, retiring upon her well-earned laurels with 
honour and success, such as no other general, in or out 
of plants, had ever attained to in the same field. The 
“Prussian policy” was never more perplexing than this 
step on the part of the great lady, and all wondered how 
it would all end and affect the shows. But we must 
not lose sight of the fact, that while our great Autocrat 
put forth the whole strength of her heavy purse-strings 
to improve our craft, for the last quarter-of-a-century, 
and did improve it, almost beyond admiration, the 
Admiralty had been snoozing all the time, and had so 
neglected our defences, that Napoleon the Third was well 
nigh coming over them dry shod ; and, now, to get the 
right spirit into the tiling, the Queen and the Prince, 
and the older bairns, are going out into every port and 
passage to cheer the soldiers, the navies, and to get the 
vessels afloat. One of these had to be “ let go ” into 
the water on the 14th, and, of course, the Queen must 
go to encourage them, and when the Queen goes out in 
May, the bees follow her; the whole swarm was out 
that day, and our beautiful garden was all but deserted. 
We had the three best bands, the finest day of the 
season, and the most gorgeous Roses and Azaleas, to¬ 
gether with the most profitable and appropriate spe¬ 
cimens of stove and greenhouse plants, Orchids, and 
Geraniums, that were seen these twenty years back, and 
those who took the opportunity never had a better 
chance of seeing under favourable circumstances. Now, 
as I had helped on the rise and progress to this state of 
things—as well by my pen as by my head and ob¬ 
stinacy—I claim the privilege of advising the Society as 
to the size of specimon plants competing for our medals. 
But, first of all, let me tell how my obstinacy helped on 
the great impulse of the last twenty years—there were 
only two more out of fifteen of us who would cancel the 
medals when the plants did not deserve them. You 
may take what society you please, out of all the agri- 
culturals, and other culturals, and you may give them 
as much money as they can carry, and as many medals 
as would fill a house, but unless their judges are per¬ 
fectly independent of all the influences which are in¬ 
volved in the struggle, and of independent minds as 
well, together with skins thick enough to hold out 
against all fears or favours, against flattery, as well as 
against the most withering criticism and abuse, they— 
the said societies—will never be able to improve their 
craft so fast and so successfully as they of the Horti¬ 
cultural Society have done. 
There is no doubt but many medals, honours, and 
titles, will be given to good judges and bad generals 
before this war is over, but I am quite sure that not | 
one of them will be better deserved than to the 
first man who proposed to force, grow, and exhibit 
Roses in pots ; and I happen to know, personally, 
