THE COTTAGE GARDENER. 
236 
June 26 . 
length I named it to my friend, whose plan I had adopted; 
and when I told her that the boards had been, about two 
years ago, covered over with naptha varnish, which is a sort 
of gas-tar, she said at once that she felt certain that it acted 
as a poison to the trees. I should mention that I placed 
similar boards over two Apricot trees without the netting, 
with a like result. For about two feet under the boards the 
leaves were unkind, and not half so forward as the rest of 
the tree. One other thing I ought to state, that the 
Hexagon Netting was dipped in a tan-pit. My garden is 
low, situate in the valley of the Severn, and, notwithstanding 
all my precautions, the severe frost about the 5tli of May 
destroyed all my fruit.—A. F. S.” 
[In low-lying situations, the worst possible for fruit-trees, 
there is the greatest difficulty in preserving the blossoms 
from the spring frosts. Wall-fruit should there especially 
be grown under glass-protected walls. The diseased state 
of your wall-trees’ leaves we have no doubt arose from the 
naptha-varnished coping boards. AA r e recently saw a garden 
wall which had been painted with gas-tar, which had 
occasioned similar injury to the trees trained against it. 
AA r e incline to think that it is the creosote in the gas-tar 
which is so injurious to the leaves of growing plants. A 
drop of creosote put upon a leaf destroys its texture. It is 
a most pungent poison. Flesh meat immersed in a solution 
of creosote for some minutes has no tendency to putrefy ; 
and it is the creosote in the smoke of burning turf and 
wood which renders them so efficient in the curing of hams, 
bacon, and fish, imparting to them their peculiar llavour. 
A few drops of creosote in a saucei', or on a piece of 
blotting-paper, if placed in a larder, effectually drive away 
flies, and make the meat keep several days longer than it 
would if the creosote were not there. A small quantity 
added to brine, or vinegar, imparts the “ Westphalian,” or 
smoky flavour, to meat. This violent, penetrating agent is 
abundantly present in gas-tar, naptha-varnish, and similar 
preparations.] 
THINNING GRAPES. 
“ In June, 1852,1 planted some Alnes in a small, cool 
greenhouse, which have all made good progress; but 
amongst them is a Muscadine, which has not only grown 
luxuriantly, but would have borne a fair crop the following 
season (185d), had it not been prevented by advice kindly 
afforded to me in your correspondents’ column. This season 
it has produced two bunches on each lateral, between seventy 
and eighty altogether. Should not a large portion of them 
be removed ?— Edwd. Dent.” 
[You had better remove about one-third of the bunches, 
leaving the largest and most promising, and let these be 
freely thinned of the smallest berries.] 
PRUNING A BEECH HEDGE. 
“ Last autumn twelvemonths I planted a Beech hedge 
with plants, about five feet high, that had before formed a 
hedge in another place. Last summer they did pretty well. 
This summer they are, I think, doing better; but a good 
many of them are dead a good way down the plant from the 
top, but breaking out below. Would you advise me to cut 
the dead part away now, or leave them until the autumn ? 
My knowledge about planting is so little, that that must be 
an excuse for my troubling you. Some few of them are all 
dead; these I have concluded to leave standing until I 
replace them in November, as by taking them out now it 
would disturb the roots of the others, I think.— Subscribed” 
[Cut all the dead wood away now, and remove also the 
dead trees, as they must necessarily interfere with the living 
ones on each side of them. No injury will be caused to the 
roots of those left standing.] 
THE MANGOSTEEN; AVHO FIRST FRUITED 
IT IN ENGLAND? 
Not long since a drawing of the Mangosteen appeared in 
“ The Illustrated London News,” where it was stated it was 
“ considered by those conversant with the difficulties attend¬ 
ing the labour as one of the greatest triumphs of modern 
Horticulture. This being, we believe, the only successful 
attempt made since the introduction of the plant into 
England in 1729. It is to the care and skill of Mr. Iveson, 
head-gardener to the Duke of Northumberland, Sion 
House, that this successful result of exotic fruit culture 
must be mainly attributed.” Mr. Beaton informed us, in his 
Life, that he is favoured with an excellent memory, and 
from other memorable information which he has been 
pleased to give, I will suppose he may have known AValcot 
Hall, Salop, some twenty-five years ago. If so, when he 
has “ nothing else to do !’’ would he be good enough to 
assist us with his memory, as to whether the late Earl 
Powis was not the first person who fruited the Mangosteen 
there about that time; and did he not present one of its fruit 
to A. Knight, Esq., of Downton Castle, the then President 
of the Horticultural Society, as being the first of “ all the 
fruits of the East” ever brought to perfection in England? 
Such was the fact, I believe; and to all who know what an 
enthusiast the present Earl’s grandfather was, and to what 
a practical extent he entered into Horticultural experiments 
at AValcot, they will cease to wonder at any extraordinary 
achievement having been arrived at there. 
This enthusiasm was catching, as shall be shown. My 
odd man of yore was the stupidest fellow about gardening 
matters possible to conceive, but he could fall any tree 
upon the exact spot required. Something outrageous he 
had committed, one day, caused me to tell him he was no 
more fit to be trusted at large in the garden than a cow! 
He indignantly repelled the idea, and begged to remind me, 
that he had once lived with the “ Yarl Powis,” and that he 
considered himself capable (by reason of that, I suppose,) 
of managing any garden, provided there was not a “ vast 
quantity of glass! ” His employment under the “ Yarl ” 
was the care of a team of mules.— Upwards and Onwards. 
VINEGAR. 
Mr. Editor. —As one of the readers of The Cottage 
Gardener, I take this opportunity of thanking you for the 
trouble you take in catering for our instruction and amuse¬ 
ment, and to send you a few notes I have on A T inegar, the 
subject having been suggested to me by the season of the 
year, and by the observations on “ the Ahnegar Plant ’’ in one 
of your recent numbers. I do not know what some of the 
stuff is which is sold for vinegar; but I recollect, some years 
ago, we had a large crop of Tomatoes, too large to have 
allowed the whole to remain to ripen, and we made up our 
minds to pickle a certain portion of them green. AVe were 
not then up to the way of making our own vinegar, and 
therefore sent to the nearest market town for a supply. AA r e 
pickled our Tomatoes, and bottled them. AVe did not use 
many of them during the winter; but what we did use were 
good enough, though nothing like what we now make with 
our own vinegar. In the summer following, to our astonish¬ 
ment, our stock of pickles became putrid and wholly unfit 
for use. AVe are told, too, that the beautiful green pickles, 
which we buy in shops, are preserved of that colour by the 
addition of copperas, or some such deleterious substance; 
and it, therefore, cannot be wondered at that there should 
be so many with weak stomachs and injured constitutions in 
J the world, when we think of the quantities of poison we eat, 
| as has been from time to time revealed in the Lancet, and 
again recapitulated in the Edinburyh Review. However, as 
j we make our own vinegar, and our own pickles, and know 
j what is in them, I shall tell you how we prepare the former. 
I Take yellow or white Gooseberries, when they are quite ripe, 
| and bruise them to a pap in a tub with a wooden pestle, and 
i to every two gallons of this pap put two gallons of water. 
After mixing them well together, let it work for two or three 
weeks, stirring it two or three times a-day. Then strain the 
liquor through a hair-sieve, and to every gallon put one 
