306 
THE COTTAGE GARDENER,. 
* August 21 . 
At the Meeting of the British Bornological Society, 
held on the 6th inst., of which we gave a report in our 
last number, the following gentlemen were elected 
members of the Society 
M. J. De Jonghe, Brussels. 
Mr. W. Rollesson, Tooting, Surrey. 
Mr. Busby, Stockwood Park, near Luton. 
Mr. Oldroyd, Nurseryman, Shrewsbury. 
James Silver, Esq., Addison Road South, 
Kensington. 
John Elliot, Esq., Tresillian, Kingsbridge, Devon. 
Rev. Adam Fitch, Thornton Steward, Bedale. 
Death of Mrs. Lawrence. —We regret having to 
announce that this lady, so well-known as an exhibitor 
of first-rate plants, died on the 14th instant, at her 
residence, Ealing Park. 
VEGETABLE DISEASES AND AILMENTS. 
Perhaps I may be excused by my coadjutors, who 
write such good things about vegetables, for offering 
my experience on this head. I have, for thirty-five 
years, paid as close attention to kitchen-gardening as 
most men, and I feel in a position to offer practical 
advice. In these things, the man of long experience 
frequently holds much sounder views of such matters 
than a person of much higher talents, whose inferences 
or conclusions are deduced from a mere experiment or 
two. We old spadesmen have so often broken down, 
when we thought we were all right, that we are at once 
apt to draw inferences, and to receive testimonies with 
jealousy, sometimes, doubtless, to an unnecessary degree. 
Canker in Parsley. —Whatever may be the imme¬ 
diate cause of that destruction of the outer skin of the 
root, which frequently shows itself in a sort of copper- 
coloured decay, I am assured that poverty of soil will 
induce it. But I do not mean simply a lack of manure, 
but exhausted old garden soils, which although, perhaps, 
rich in humus, or the remains of former crops, yet lack 
some necessary constituents of which the soil has been 
deprived; in fact, inorganic matters. I feel, from a 
multiplicity of past facts, there can be little doubt that 
the only radical cure for most vegetable evils, in old 
kitchen-gardens, is very deep digging. Nothing agrees 
better with Parsley in land of this character than half- 
burnt weeds and rubbish; or shall we call it charred? 
I have been much troubled, in by-gone years, with this 
Parsley canker; and about balf-a-dozen years since, I 
commenced trenching for this, in addition to some other 
crops, when the change was extraordinary. I would re¬ 
commend those who are troubled with this disease to do 
the same, bringing up a portion of the subsoil, unless a 
rank clay or a gravel. Such a proceeding should take 
place in November, and the ground should lay in ridge 
until March, when, seeking a dry time, I would have 
the ridges thrown down, the ground manured, and then 
dug rather shallow, say seven inches. As soon as 
eligible, I would draw deep drills, regular Pea drills, 
and then, by hand, introduce my charred weeds and 
rubbish, filling the drills three-parts full; then, passing 
the foot down them to make the soil true, I would sow my 
Parsley on the prepared soil. This plan I have practised 
more than once, in fact, when I could find time, and 
last winter it answered but too well; the Parsley was 
wbat is called by farmers “winter proud,” aud suffered 
more severely than other Parsley worse treated. 
The Club in Cabbageworts. —Here, again, we have 
another awkward customer in gardens, one which has 
puzzled, and continues to puzzle, thousands. Half-a- 
score years since, I could scarcely produce a plant of 
any of the Brocolis without clubs, but in later years 
we scarcely meet with it, or if it exist, it has become so 
unimportant as to give little concern. Deep trenching, 
again, is, I conceive, the chief agent in getting rid of it. 
But I use a considerable amount of the charred rubbish 
before alluded to, in addition, in dressing both seed beds 
and the planting-out plots, and at plauting-out time the 
roots are all dipped in a puddle, composed of cow-dung, 
soot, and strong maiden loam, to which we have occa¬ 
sionally added lime rubbish. A hole is dug close to the 
seed-bed at planting time, one which will hold about 
half-a-bushel; this hole is filled half full of cow-dung, to 
which is added a few spadefuls of the loam, and about 
two quarts of soot; the whole is then well stirred into 
a thorough puddle, and in the act some of the mere 
soil from the bottom and sides of the hole become 
blended with it. The roots are dipped as they are drawn, 
in bunches, and placed by handfuls in baskets, from 
whence they are taken in like manner. This puddle 
adheres to them in complete balls, and I have no doubt 
the smell of the soot is retained in the vicinity of the 
roots for many weeks after planting. 
The Green Fly on Young Beets and other Crops. 
—Of all the puzzlers, this is one of the worst. I have 
known Beets, Parsnips, Carrots, Sea-kale, &c., so pun¬ 
ished, when just emerging from the seed-leaf, or even 
when nearly full grown, as to baffle the most earnest 
cultivator. Indeed, since tobacco is the only efficient 
thing at present known wherewith to stay the ravages 
of this minute, but multitudinous pest, it may well 
puzzle, for who can afford to purchase such quantities as 
would be necessary. 
In these, as in many other cases, all depends on an 
early detection of the marauders; it is no difficult 
matter to destroy them when their attack commences. 
One pound of strong shag tobacco will go a long way, 
made into four gallons of liquor, providing the operator 
has been used to handling the syringe. The crops before 
named are generally attacked when about a couple of 
inches in height, and in a short period, if uumolested, 
the leaves of young Carrots and other plants so curl 
as to render it almost impossible to reach the rogues. 
It is strange enough, that when insects attack any 
given plant they seem to possess the power of causing the 
leaves to curl, or become a kind of sac; and thus they 
at once provide a refuge from the sunshine and storm, 
and are in a tolerably safe position as to the destroyer. 
Last year I had a singularly stroug plant of the 
Heracleum giganteum, about which I was exceedingly 
anxious, as I had been at the pains of doing all I could 
to excite the plant to the boldest development possible. 
I had it mulched round six inches deep with rotten 
manure, and in addition, once or twice gave it during 
dry weather a soaking of manure-water. But it was 
all in vain; it became all of a sudden infested with 
Aphides, and both my hopes, and the monstrous herb, 
were, for the present, blighted. The foliage of this 
plant soon attained a kind of collapsed condition, and 
although I applied tobacco-water, it was all in vain. 
This year, however, it has been in all its glory; and I 
name the affair here, to remark, that I was at first sur¬ 
prised at the fly flourishing so rapidly on this umbelli¬ 
ferous plant, the whole order of which are understood, 
I believe, to be more or less of what the world calls 
poisonous; but there was little occasion for surprise, 
had 1 considered the case of the Carrots and Parsnips 
just alluded to, both of which belong to the same order. 
Bolting or Running to Seed. —Most vegetables are 
liable to this, and although neither strictly a disease nor 
an ailment, it is at times exceedingly inconvenient. It 
is apt to puzzle some unpractised persons, but it is, in 
truth, simple enough, aud I cannot better illustrate the 
matter in few words, than by showing how to produce 
this character at will. Do you want your Celery to 
