May 23.] 
THE COTTAGE GARDENER. 
WEEKLY CALENDAR. 
105 
M 
]) 
w 
1 ) 
MAY 23—29, 1850. Weather near London 
Sun 
Rises. 
Sun 
Sets. 
Moon 
R.&S. 
Moon’s 
Age. 
Clock 
bef. Sun. 
Day of 
Year. 
, 23 
Tn 
Greasy Frittillary Butterfly appears, [appears. T. 69 0 —39°. 
w. 
Fine. 
59 a. 3 
53 a. 7 
3 14 
12 
3 
35 
143 
24 
F 
Queen Vic. b. 1819* Small Heath Butterflv T. 76 0 — 50 °. 
S. 
Fine. 
58 
55 
3 39 
13 
3 
31 
144 
25 
s 
Princess Helena b. 1846. Bees first swarm. T. 72°—50°. 
N.W. 
Fine. 
57 
56 
4 7 
14 
3 
25 
145 
26 
Son 
Trinity Sunday. Aug. 1 st Archbp Cant. T. 73°—48°. 
S.W. 
Fine. 
56 
57 
rises. 
© 
3 
19 
146 
27 
JI 
Veil. Bede. Garden Carpet Moth. T. 77°—50°. 
S.W. 
Rain. 
55 
59 
9a.19 
16 
3 
13 
147 
28 
Tu 
Sand Piper first seen. [secnJ T. 58°—50°. 
N.E. 
Rain. 
54 
VIII 
10 10 
17 
3 
6 
148 
29 
w 
K. Charles II. restored, 1660 . Stinging Fly' T. 75°— 46 °. 
W. 
Fine. 
53 
1 
10 55 
18 
2 
59 
149 
On the 29 th, at Geneva, in the year 1829, died Sir Humphry Davy, 
the most distinguished chemist of the age, though no mental characteristic 
of his childhood threw a ray before prophetic of his future greatness. As 
a boy he was fond of poetry, and the fragments which remain of his early 
rhymes are above mediocrity; nor arc these the only evidences that his 
mind was highly imaginative, and, seemingly, more prone to fanciful than 
to scientific efforts ; even his first essays in science “ on heat, light, and 
colour,” most truly were brilliant fancies, bearing, as it has been said, 
“ the stamp of youth and genius ; for in them are the faults of the one 
and the redeeming qualities of the other.” The boy was the epitome of 
the decaying man; for when disease imperatively forbade deep mental 
thought and minute research, the imaginative qualities of his mind re¬ 
sumed their activity; and the dying man of science and of poetry gave 
birth to that beautiful little volume, Consolations in, Travel , qr the Last 
Days of a Philosopher. It comes not within the purpose of our pages to 
trace minutely his general researches in chemistry, splendid, though, were 
their results, and beneficial as they were to mankind. It must suffice for 
us to say, that if Lord Bacon, the father of experimental philosophy, 
could revisit the earth, and was permitted to have placed before him the 
discoveries made by one of his disciples, those of Davy must be selected. 
Never were a chain of accurate experiments and close inductive reasoning 
more beautifully exemplified than in his researches concerning the me¬ 
tallic bases of the alkalies, the simple form of chlorine, and the qualities 
of flame. The last resulted in that blessing to the miner, The Safety 
Lamp; and which he has erected into the most enduring memorial of its 
inventor, by naming “The Davy.” But we must confine ourselves to a 
notice of his researches relative to the cultivation of the soil; and here, 
also, he was most useful; for he was the first effectually to raise “ Agri¬ 
cultural Chemistry ” into a department of science. Very early in life, 
whilst yet an apprentice to Mr. Tomkin, a surgeon of his native town, 
Penzance, he made some experiments on the air disengaged by sea-weeds 
from the water of the ocean; experiments which convinced him that 
aquatic plants perform the same part in purifying the air dissolved in 
water, which land plants act in the atmosphere. These experiments gra¬ 
dually led him from Penzance to a scientific institution at Bristol, from 
thence to be Professor of Chemistry at the London Royal Institution, and 
ultimately to be President of the Royal Society. His earliest researches 
were connected with analyses of oak bark and other vegetable matters 
employed in tanning; and in 1802 he commenced a series of lectures 
before the Board of Agriculture—a series which extended over ten years, 
and which were published by him with the title of Elements of Agricul¬ 
tural Chemistry. It is the first, and is still the best, work shewing the 
composition of soils, and how to analyse them ; what is the food of plants, 
and how it can be best presented to them ; what are their functions, and 
how the cultivator must regard these to promote their health. It is, in 
short, the application, in its most effective mode, of chemistry to the cul¬ 
tivation of plants ; and we do not enter more fully here upon the import¬ 
ance and the benefits derivable from their combination, only because we 
shall have another opportunity for so doing. Constant mental exertion, 
and participation in‘metropolitan festivities, at length broke down his 
health, and he obeyed the advice to seek for its restoration in a milder 
climate and in total mental relaxation ; but the cessation came too late, 
and in his fiftieth year he died as we have already related. With an ex¬ 
tract from his last writing we will close our sketch. “ Religion, whether 
natural or revealed, has always the same beneficial influence on the mind. 
In youth, in health, and in prosperity, it awakens feelings of gratitude 
and sublime love, and purifies at the same time that it exalts ; but it is in 
misfortune, in sickness, in age, that its effects are most truly and bene¬ 
ficially felt; when submission in faith and humble trust in the Divine will 
from duties become pleasures, and undecaying sources of consolation; 
then it creates powers which were believed to be extinct, and gives a fresh¬ 
ness to the mind which was supposed to have passed away for ever, but 
which is now renovated by immortal hope, and is the Pharos guiding the 
wave-tossed mariner to his home. Its influence outlives all earthly enjoy¬ 
ments, and becomes stronger as the organs decay and the frame dissolves; 
it appears as that evening star of light in the horizon of life, which, we 
are sure, is to become in another season a morn ing star, and it throws its 
radiance through the gloom and shadow of death.” Such was the dying 
declaration of one of the greatest philosophers of modern days ; such the 
attestation of exalted judgment, acute perception, and fervid imagination 
united in one mind. Can the scoffers at religion bring such a champion 
to the lists ? 
Meteorological Phenomena of the Week. —The highest and 
lowest average temperatures of these days at Chiswick, during the last 
twenty-three years, have been 67 0 and 45.3° respectively. The greatest 
heat, 91°, was on the 28th in 1847 ; and the greatest cold, 29°> was on tho 
25th in 1839. Rain fell on 59 days, and 102 were fine. 
Insects. — If the season con¬ 
tinues as it has commenced, there 
is a probability that the gardener 
will never have to deplore a spring 
more productive of insect ravagers 
than the present. Slugs are the 
only vermin who seem in diminish¬ 
ed numbers ; for the severe winter 
and the dry March just passed have 
thinned their tribes, and kept the 
survivors in check. Foremost among 
RANGE OF BAROMETER—RAIN IN INCHES. 
! May 
1841. 
1842. 
1843. 
1844. 
1845. 
1846. 
1847. 
1848. 
1849. 
I 23 
B. 
r 30.159 
29-857 
29-784 
30.136 
29-834 
30.212 
30.070 
30.314 
30.205 
129.994 
29-785 
29.016 
30.086 
29.793 
30.201 
29-780 
20.261 
29.977 
R. 
O.Oi 
0.01 
0.53 
0.16 
— 
— 
— 
— 
24 
B. 
/ 30.180 
29.838 
29.553 
30.076 
29.822 
30.232 
29-885 
30.287 
30.202 
130.137 
29.790 
29.479 
29.968 
29.803 
30.202 
29.861 
30.256 
30.036 
R. 
— 
0.02 
0.06 
— 
0.54 
— 
— 
— 
— 
I 25 
B. 
rno .165 
29.854 
29.677 
30.103 
29-788 
30.207 
30.230 
30.266 
29.971 
130.133 
29.845 
29.605 
30.019 
29.685 
30.102 
30.112 
30.158 
29.945 
R. 
— 
0.23 
— 
— 
0.10 
— 
— 
— 
— 
B. 
r 30.070 
29.823 
29.697 
30.206 
29.685 
30.138 
30.242 
30.106 
30.013 1 
| 26 
1 29.955 
29.767 
29.547 
30.156 
29.610 
30.115 
30.103 
30.031 
30.003 j 
R. 
— 
0.01 
0.20 
— 
0.27 
— 
— 
— 
— 
27 
B. 
r 29.882 
29.929 
29.535 
30.199 
29 . 7 /S 
30.109 
30.084 
30.130 
30.186 
l 29-823 
29.911 
29.433 
30.125 
29-758 
30.046 
29 . 96 s 
30.101 
29.910 ' 
R. 
0.03 
0.13 
0.14 
0.06 
0.08 
— 
— 
— 
0.04 
28 
B. 
r 30.038 
30.066 
29.802 
30.026 
29.790 
30.243 
29.932 
30.107 
30.173 j 
l 29-893 
29-988 
29.520 
29.956 
29-772 
30.153 
29.860 
30.014 
30.161 
R. 
0.03 
— 
0.16 
— 
0.01 
— 
0.56 
— 
0.97 
29 
B. 
r 30.096 
30.124 
30.032 
29.935 
29.692 
30.320 
30.157 
30.009 
30.208 
130.061 
29.991 
29-912 
29.927 
29.682 
30.305 
29.746 
29.963 
30.165 
j 
R. 
— 
0.30 
0.07 
0.07 
the insects from whom the gardener 
is now suffering, are the Aphides ; 
these are thick upon our goose¬ 
berry and rose bushes; and we 
warn -our readers to attack them 
the moment they are detected, for 
they multiply with almost incre¬ 
dible rapidity. The amount of in¬ 
jury they cause to a plant, by rob¬ 
bing it of its sap or blood, is pro- 
portioned to their number, and the time they are allowed to infest the | alive and not from an egg, Reaumur has shewn that one female may bs 
i- . xv- ~^ott La I the ancestor of nearly six millions in five generations! It is needless to 
describe minutely the rose aphis. It is usually light green, with brown 
antenme and legs, and transparent iridescent wings. They frequently 
change their skins ; and these may be seen hanging about the leaves and 
shoots of the rose. The males may be known by a double row of black 
dots on each of their sides. The most effectual of all applications for 
their destruction is tobacco smoke ; and the best inode of applying it is 
to cover the bush with a sheet, and fill the space enclosed with the smoke, 
by means of Brown’s fumiggtor, 
subject of their attack; and the amount of that injury may be appreciated 
by the fact, that the hop-duty is often .£’468,0.00; but the hop-louse 
(Aphis humttli) frequently so destroys the crop as to reduce it to little 
more than £ 15,000. The green fly on our roses {Aphis'Roste) is that of 
which we will now offer a few particulars. It is curious that these always 
are most abundant after the prevalence of easterly winds ; and Mr. Jenyns 
observed in Cambridgeshire, during October, and Mr. White at Selborne, 
in August, mvriads of aphides, in both instances, after the wind had been 
for some tim'e easterly. So fast do they multiply, twenty generations 
being producible in one year, and the young at this season being born 
No. LXXXVL, Vol. IV. 
