214 
THE COTTAGE GARDENER. 
January 1. 
burning of sulphur, [feeling confident that neither he 
nor auy of our readers will imagine I am going out of 
my track in doing so, as such a matter is of importance 
in every department of gardening, and in none more so 
than where one house has in rotation to receive a great 
many occupants. 
Merely premising, then, for the present, that sulphur 
should never be burned in a close place, in the presence 
of plants, unless they are deciduous, have lost their 
leaves, their wood well ripened, their growth suspended, 
and in a dry condition, then all these circumstances 
being present, burning sulphur maybe used with profit, 
in-doors and out-doors, as a “ searching ordeal,” destroy¬ 
ing everything of an animal nature, and of a fungous 
vegetable nature that have less to protect their vitality 
than the well-ripened bark and scaly buds of deciduous 
vegetation. 
1 will first present a few statements respecting sul¬ 
phur, that our more uninitiated readers may see the 
importance in all cases where it is heated enough to 
throw off its volatile fumes, to use caution, and more 
especially if they attempt to burn it, that the above con¬ 
ditions are indispensable. 
Sulphur is found joined with metals and minerals in 
our own country. It is frequently present to a consider¬ 
able extent in coals. Often have I been obliged to tie 
a handkerchief over my mouth when grubbing out the 
clinkers from furnaces. A lucifer manufactory was a 
trifle to it. The mode of heating by flues was often 
objectionable on this very account. Eor plant stoves 
and forcing purposes, wherever the coals used are known 
to contain much sulphur, the flues should be stronger 
than usual. In all such cases as a continuous more than 
a sudden heat is necessary, I should have them built 
brick on bed instead of brick on edge. I have seen most 
serious effects from the discharge of sulphur from a thin 
flue, even where the closest investigation would fail in 
discovering a crack or fissure. I have even failed in 
discovering the latter, when the appearance on the glass 
told too well that sulphur had been there and trying for 
an outlet. 
Flowers of sulphur are more easily applied than when 
in the solid state. 
As a preventive and an eradicator of mildew in its 
many forms of parasitic vegetation, flowers of sulphur 
have been long known. Its application for this purpose 
to the vine is merely new, because the disease itself is of 
recent manifestation. Its application to mildew, either 
in a dry state by itself, or mixed up with water and 
other ingredients, is almost the only case where I should 
depend upon it being of effectual use. In almost every 
other case I would depend, not upon the sulphur touch¬ 
ing the affected parts, but upon its volatilized fumes. In 
the mildew itself I would depend, to a great extent, both 
as prevention and cure, to these fumes, but I would not 
hesitate to make doubly sure by also dressing liberally. 
In most other cases, where sulphur forms a constituent 
of a paint for destroying insects by smearing them, 
anything else that would equally shut out the air 
would answer equally well. In every position, such 
as against a wall where the heat would slowly volatilize 
the sulphur, then its effects would be felt. In nothing 
has the gardener derived greater benefit from it than for 
ridding him of the red spider, bad enough in the open 
air, but ruinous in houses. Well, after powdering and 
washing with sulphur and water infected leaves, I have 
seen the little fellows as merry and sportive as ever, 
laughing in their sleeves at your wisdom, and, as if 
to mock you, riding rough shod in the happiest manner 
over those very nodules or hills of brimstone that you 
thought would frighten them away. But give these same 
worthies a fume of sulphur from a hot water plate, 
ranging from 170° to 195°, and if not soon quieted, it will 
only be by their quickly removing to fresh quarters. 
If, then, the fumes of sulphur are so useful to the 
gardener, how can he most safely apply it? A most im¬ 
portant question—no law of mediums here will do. If you 
err, let it be on the safe side of low temperature. When- 
ever sulphur burns it will destroy, not only animal life, 
but everything vegetable that is growing and green. It | 
will burn spontaneously when exposed to a temperature 
of 302°, at a higher temperature still the very fumes will 
again ignite, In putting a paint of flowers of sulphur 
upon the warm end of a flue, there is always this great 
danger. It should always be put on at some yards from 
the furnace. It fuses or melts, but does not burn at 220°. j 
Long before that heat it gives off volatile fumes. Hence I 
for hardy things, smearing hot-water pipes, unless close j 
to the boiler, will never be dangerous, because the 
water will scarcely ever reach 200°. But at that heat 
the fumes given off would be ruinous to foliage just , 
forming, and many flowers would immediately drop. In 
all cases where leaves were young and deficient in j 
organizable matter, I should not like to use a higher j 
temperature to obtain fumes than from 170° to 180°. 
Many things, such as some of the Achimenes, Gesneras, 
and the finer foliaged Ferns, do not seem to relish these j 
fumes at all. In obtaining fumes for a house, therefore, j 
it might be necessary to remove things that are tender | 
and young. As some, if they have not burned their own 
fingers, have settled their plants by being rather too 
rash, these hints will not be thrown away. 
Now we come not to the obtaining merely of fumes 
from, but actually to burn the sulphur, thereby producing 
sulphurous acid. Some twenty years ago I assisted, by 
means of burning sulphur, in destroying whole nations 
of bugs, that had settled down comfortably in a large 
gardener’s lodge. In afterwards growing succession crops 
of French beans, cucumbers, melons, &c., under the same 
glass, I generally, after removing the old plants before 
inserting the new ones, shut up each pit and frame, and 
burnt inside a handful or two of sulphur. A little of 
the surface soil being removed afterwards, and air freely 
given for several hours, the place was sweet and pure 
for the new plants. Of course not a thing was left in 
that it was desirable to keep alive. Some eight or nine 
years ago I was greatly troubled with the scale on my 
peach-trees in the houses, notwithstanding all the scrub¬ 
bing and washing I could give the trees in winter. It 
seldom made its appearance until the fruit was approach¬ 
ing maturity, and then it got on with such railroad pace, 
that the excrements not only blackened many of the 
leaves, but rendered some of the fruit unsightly. I had 
in the meantime observed, that small stakes made from 
raspberry canes, and used as supports in kidney bean j 
pots,—when these stakes were left, and smoked in the 
pots with the sulphur, and used a second or third time, : 
instead of being killed, as I expected, would frequently ! 
burst their buds, and shew leaves and flowers. From 
that time to this I have regularly smoked my forcing 
houses, and scale and other insects have since been 
scarcely discoverable—in fact, the former is very seldom j 
seen. I did not find it convenient to do so with one , 
house last season, and from that neglect, joined to 
placing in it a few Azaleas, that had not been quite des¬ 
titute of thrip, I had the mortification to see Vines 
arrested in their growth by thrip at the most critical 
period. It is all right to talk of keeping houses for 
certain objects: cheap as glass is, the greatest variety 
of results from the most limited space is still, and likely 
for some time longer to be, the prevailing desire. 
I have already indicated the conditions in which the j 
sulphur is to be burned, and, to prevent mistakes, will ! 
shortly recapitulate— 
1. Mode of burning. —I have generally placed some | 
red embers in a pot, put a few bits of dry straw on the | 
embers, then placed on this the flowers of sulphur, and 
covered the top of the pot with a layer of dry moss. I 
