THE COTTAGE GARDENER. 
April ll.] 
be allowed to attain its full size and ripen, after which 
it either may be boiled and mashed like turnips, or be 
made into soup, according to the recipe we gave on a 
former occasion. Cooked in any of these modes it is 
excellent. _ 
Numerous applications having been received by us for 
Payne's Improved Cottage Hives, and to inquire where 
they can he obtained at a cheap rate, we wrote to the 
inventor, and this is his prompt and very kind reply:— 
“ The man who makes my hives is a very poor man, al¬ 
though a very industrious one, living in an obscure village a 
few miles from this place (Bury St. Edmunds) ; sending his 
address will not effect the object desired I am afraid, but I 
will undertake to do as follows, and not think it any trouble, 
whilst I shall be serving two parties—the maker and the 
user. If a Post-office Order is sent me, at the rate of Is Oil 
for each hive required, I will undertake to send from two to 
any number of hives, to any address or addresses that I 
may receive. 
“ They shall be sent from here (limy) by rail, within four 
days, at longest, from the time of my receiving the order; 
and they will be precisely the same as those I obtained for 
you last spring.” 
We can answer for the excellence of the hives; and it 
remains, therefore, only for us to say, that any one re¬ 
quiring hives must write to “ John II. Payne, Esq., 
Bury St. Edmunds, Suffolk I inclosing a Post-office 
Order, payable to him, for as many hives as are required, 
at eighteenpence per hive. 
THE EIIUIT-GARDEN. 
Spring Frosts. —At the time we write, March 28th, 
we have the most astonishing frost for the period that 
we ever knew. The ground, also, has been covered 
with snow for twenty-four hours; the snow averaging 
at least three inches in depth. The ice on a sheet ol 
water close by is an inch, or very nearly so, in thick¬ 
ness, and well it may be, for the thermometer was at 
1 O'-’ this morning at six o’clock, thus indicating 10° of trost. 
This is a most extraordinary state of things, and the sure 
consequence must bo, we little doubt, the destruction 
of the apricot and gooseberry crop, at least, in this part 
of the kingdom (Cheshire). We are sadly afraid, too, 
that such weather is common to a great portion of the 
kingdom, from the circumstance ot the atmosphere con¬ 
tinuing in such a steady and unfluctuating character; 
the wind having been about N.I\ . by . all the while. 
This is a very serious matter to thousands; lor last year 
we had almost as severe a frost in April, and the hush 
fruit being nearly all in full blossom, the crop was mostly 
destroyed. Two years together! this is, indeed, most dis¬ 
heartening : let us, however, not despair, but look for¬ 
ward to more genial seasons. 
We do not know how those who are averse to cover- 
ing their fruit-trees will find matters, but we fear even 
for our peaches and nectarines, which are merely in the 
bud, although they are closely covered with Hulme's 
canvass. The pears are a splendid show this spring; we 
never saw such a profusion of bud before; and we look 
at ours with some confidence of a crop, for every tree | 
wo have—and there are some scores—are all well covered | 
with spruce fir boughs; indeed, we bad pears, plums, 
and cherries, nearly all covered some weeks since, in 
order to retard the blossoming period. 
Aphides. —l>y the time this reaches our readers, it 
will be time to look out for these pests on the peach- j 
trees, for the moment they are out of blossom, these 
destructive little rogues set to work. Let nobody fancy 
IT 
they have deferred their usual visit; they arc not parti¬ 
cularly shy, and, indeed, we never knew a season without 
them. Our practice, therefore, is to syringe with tobacco 
water two evenings in succession. We lay the utmost 
stress on two consecutive evenings; for, in the first 
place, it is impossible, without a great waste of the 
liquor, which is somewhat expensive, to search every 
portion of the tree at one dressing; and, again, unless 
the liquor be exceedingly powerful, the larger insects 
will oftentimes revive again. A second application, 
however, with us totally extirpates them; or, at least, 
having thus carried matters, we seldom or never trouble 
ourselves about them through the summer. We may 
here again state the strength and character of the tobacco 
liquor. There is nothing like strong shag tobacco for 
this purpose; and we would advise the amateur who 
has only a few trees to use such; but where there are 
great lengths of walling to be gone over such proves a 
rather expensive item, and tobacco paper is resorted to. 
We have before adverted to the great inferiority of 
the latter, as compared with the article sold under 
that name twenty years since; and we wish we could 
persuade all parties to use tobacco instead for one sea¬ 
son, for the diminished demand for the tobacco paper 
would tend to stay the adulteration, which is so great, 
that tobacco paper alone is completely impotent in the 
destruction of the aphides. Three-quarters of a pound 
of shag tobacco, then, to a gallon of hot water, makes a 
liquid perfectly efficient. For two successive evenings, 
however, perhaps half a pound to the gallon would suf¬ 
fice. We use three liquids :—the one ordinary soap-suds, 
the second tobacco water from the paper, and the third 
liquid from shag tobacco, half a pound to the gallon. 
We allow a pound of the paper to a gallon of water. 
Thus prepared, we mix two gallons of soap-suds with a 
gallon of each of the tobacco liquids; and six large water 
pots of this mixture—or 18 gallons—suffices for a wall 
240 feet long, nearly covered with peaches and necta¬ 
rines. It is applied with the hand-syringe; and the ope¬ 
rator after battering them one way to the end of the 
wall, returns and batters them again the reverse way, by 
which means scarcely a leaf is missed. Our trees are 
covered with canvass; and we choose a dry evening for 
the operation, applying the mixture about six o’clock, 
p.m., and drawing down the canvass immediately on 
the heels of the operation. The next day, also, we pull 
down the canvass in the event of sunshine or rain, in 
order that the effects of the liquid may not be too soon 
dissipated. 
The Red Spider. —Having provided against the ra¬ 
vages of the aphides, we may as well offer a little advice 
about the red spider, which is nearly as great a pest as 
the former, and is almost sure to attack the peach and 
nectarine soon after the leaf is expanded. In former 
days, copious ablutions from the garden engine were 
resorted to every evening, than which nothing could be 
more prejudicial, robbing the wall ot the heat which it 
had accumulated during the day, and which, indeed, 
constitutes the principal advantage of a wall. It, more¬ 
over, had a tendency to induce green and gangrenous 
matter on the shoots, through, we imagine, the sudden 
chill inflicted on the sap vessels. We confess to this 
bad practice until within the last twelve years or so, 
having, in early days, been taught to consider it indis¬ 
pensable; such is the force of mere prescription. In 
those days our peaches were like what too many are, even 
at this day; but since we discontinued the practice we 
have succeeded in peach culture to the utmost ot our 
wishes, although living somewhat northerly. Sulphur, 
then, is a sure preventive; and, at the risk of being tedi¬ 
ous, we deem it necessary to shew how we apply it; 
for although it has been before detailed, yet we must 
consider that not all of the present subscribers to I he 
Cottage Gardener have taken in the work from its 
