J 01 , Y 7. 
THE COTTAGE GARDENER. 
1 
j/ 
there is no appearance of the Potato disease." It is too 
early yet to form any conclusion even as to the probabi¬ 
lity of its appearance or non-appearance. From Corn¬ 
wall, where vegetation is forwarder than in any other 
district, we received Potato apples, or berries, about 
half-grown on the first date above-mentioned. They 
were from a gentleman residing near Helston, in that 
county; and the accompanying note states as iollows , 
“ In this part of Cornwall the Potatoes are looking 
well—better, on the whole, than for some years past : 
no murrain at present, although it is too early to cry 
‘all right;’ the general crop being now in blossom. 
I have taken up some Potatoes for ten days or a week 
quite free from disease, both in tuber and haulm, and 
good berries' formed. Enclosed I have sent you two 
berries, which I think you will say are all right. 1 
shall to-day try a few Potatoes dried at 140°, for a short 
time, and then plant.” 
From another district, and on the 2?th of June, we 
received the following :— 
“ As you have requested your readers to inform you 
of the state of the Potato crop in their different neigh¬ 
bourhoods, I have pleasure in stating that in the neigh¬ 
bourhood of Hungerford, in Berks, an experienced 
judge says there never has been a more promising 
appearance, and for some years past not by any means 
so good a one at this date. The disease has slightly 
shown itself in the plants grown in frames, both in the 
gardens of the Countess of Craven, at Highclere, near 
Newbury, and of F. Popliam, Esq., of Littlecot, near 
Hungerford; but the open-ground crops everywhere 
within the neighbourhood are perfectly free from it, aud 
remarkably healthy in appearance. 
“ As you ask for, and encourage your readers to offer, 
any information on gardening subjects that they can 
vouch for with confidence, I venture to give you two 
experiments which have been tried with complete suc¬ 
cess by Mr. Robert Criswiclc, a clever and experienced 
gardener residing in the parish of Kintbury, in Berk¬ 
shire. Three years ago he discovered that a bunch of 
green furze, placed in the middle of a gooseberry bush 
infested with caterpillars, had the effect of driving them 
completely away. Last year he tried it again with the 
same desirable result; and this year, having experienced 
l similar effects, he has expressed a wish that it should 
be made known in your widely circulated Journal, which 
I am very happy to do. I have myself seen the bushes, 
with some of the lower branches stripped of the leaves, 
but the insects departed, and the rest of the bush in full 
j vigour, with the bunch of furze lying in the middle. 
Mr. Criswick thinks that the unpleasant smell arising 
from furze when dying may be the cause of this simple 
but most effectual remedy. 
“ Mr. Criswick has also practised, with good effect, the 
| following remedy for the fly in turnip crops :—He mixes 
black sulphur in water, in the proportion of one quarter 
of a pound to a bucket of water, and, with a little bough 
flicks and sprinkles the leaves of the crop with this mix¬ 
ture. The above quantity will be sufficient for a quarter 
of an acre. He wishes this experiment to be made 
255 
known also, as it has proved quite successful, and may 
be of great use to Cottage Gardeners, and others with 
small nieces of land, where such a process could con¬ 
veniently be carried on. 
“ I ought to state, in connection with the subject of 
the gooseberry blight, that Mr. Criswick’s bushes have 
been well sprinkled with lime, but in none have the 
insects disappeared except where the furze bunch is 
placed. R. F. J.” 
GLEANINGS. 
Hitherto, fruiting Grape Vines in Pots has been 
considered one of the most difficult efforts of fruit- 
culture, and even now it requires more attention and 
judgment than in obtaining fruit from a Vine planted 
in the border. 
The first efforts at this pot-culture were made by Mr. 
G. Stafford, in 1831, he being at that time gardener at 
Willersley Castle in Derbyshire. He wrote upon the 
subject in the Horticultural Register , and since then we 
have had published the practice followed by Mr. 
Mearns, Mr. Spencer, Mr. Elliott, and others, but by 
none is this pot-culture made easy so well as Mr. 
Elphinstone in a little shilling volume entitled A 
Treatise on the cultivation of the Vine in Pots. Mr. 
Elphinstone is Gardener to Sir R. J. Adams, Bart., at 
Flixton Hall, Suffolk. 
This Treatise is plain and practical, so that any one, 
even the merest tyro in gardening, can understand the 
whole course of culture from planting the bud to 
ripening the fruit. We will give one extract as a 
specimen:— 
“ To Fruit a Pot Vine the First Season from the 
Eye. —Many, even gardeners, doubt the possibility of fruiting 
a Vine the first season from the Eye, but it is to be done, 
and has been repeatedly done by me, and in this wise;— 
when they are shifted into twelve-sized pots, and grown 
about eighteen inches in height, select some of the most 
vigorous, and pinch off the top, treat them as the others, as 
to liquid manure, syringing, &e., stop all laterals as soon as 
they appear, pulling them entirely away from the axil of the 
leaf. The consequence of this will be, that the buds formed 
for next season’s fructification will swell and break, and if 
well grown will at the fourth joint show fruit. Stop one 
joint beyond the hunch and all subsequent laterals and 
tendrils, thin out the bunch or bunches, give liberal soakiugs , 
of clear liquid manure until they have swelled their full 
size, when it must be given more sparingly. I have in this I 
■way cut good bunches of Hamburgs and Muscats in 
September, that is, within seven months from the insertion 
of the Eye. 
“ The sorts I recommend for Pot Culture are the follow¬ 
ing :—viz. White Frontignan, Black Hamburg, and Muscat, of , 
Alexandria.'' 
COVENT GARDEN. 
The most attractive feature now in the Market are 
the Strawberries, which, during the last week, have | 
come on, as it were, all at once; and the consequence 
is, the number of visitors is so great as to create a com¬ 
plete stoppage in the passage of the centre arcade. Of 
all attractions in this quarter there are none which act 
more powerfully on the popular taste than the fruit. 
The Strawberries are remarkably fine, large, well grown, 
