106 
THE COTTAGE GARDENER. 
[May 23. 
So numerous arc tlie approvals with which the announce- j 
mcnt of The Cottaoe Gardeners’ Dictionary has 
been received, and so many are the relative suggestions , 
and communications sent to us, that we are induced, for I 
their better consideration, to postpone the publication of 
the first number until the (>th of July. In the meantime 
we shall be obliged by any of our readers sending us, 
without delay, a list of words which they may deem de¬ 
sirable to have explained, for we wish to have it especially 
a volume of reference for the amateur. 
Every season is favourable to the abounding of some 
predatory vermin; for when man brought upon himself 
the doom to eat bread in the sweat of his brow, among 
the difficulties made attendant upon the cultivation of 
the soil most certainly was the guarding of his crops 
from such marauders. They are the gardeners most 
wearying foes, and far more difficult to vanquish than 
the thorns and thistles against which he has also to 
contend. During the present season weevils are vastly 
more prevalent than usual; and so many are the letters 
| and specimens we have received, that we will give them 
i one prominent and general answer. 
One correspondent (A Constant Reader), writing from 
MereWorth, says— 
“We were infested last season in some parts of this parish 
with a beetle, or hug, amongst our filbert plantations, which 
almost destroyed the crop; and this season they have ap¬ 
peared in ten fold numbers. They are not to be seen in the 
day, because they retire then to round the bottom of the 
tree’s trunk, or under the clods near it, and there remain 
until night comes on; they then crawl up the trunk and 
seize upon the young buds or shoots, in some instances de¬ 
stroying the whole of its vegetation.” 
itfow this insect, of which a specimen was inclosed, is 
the Red-legged Garden Weevil ( Otiorliynchus tcnebri- 
cosus), a drawing and description of which we published 
in the first volume of The Cottage Gardener, page 
209. Similar specimens of this black-bodied marauder 
are before us, which had been found on the peach and 
nectarine, and on some greenhouse plants, by three other 
correspondents (P. F., Gretorex, Contributor). Now, 
to all of these we can give but one reply—Take an as¬ 
sistant bearing a lanthorn after nightfall, and with a quill 
feather in one hand sweep as many of the weevils as you 
can into a bason of water held in the other; next morn¬ 
ing cover the surface of the ground round your trees, 
and close up to your walls, with a thick coating of gas 
lime. Where your trees stand singly you may also 
adopt the system pursued by the writer of the next 
letter, from which we will now give an extract. 
This correspondent ( R. J. H.) writes thus :— 
“ About a fortnight since I was dismayed at finding my 
small plantation of i-oses attacked by a brown beetle, in such 
numbers as leaves little room to doubt, that had they been 
undisturbed the trees would have been totally destroyed. 
Since first discovering these enemies I have picked over the 
trees after dark every night, and by this means have killed . 
between 900 and 1000 on a small bed containing about 30 
trees; but in spite of all my pains most of the buds are eaten 
out, and the young wood barked. Recollecting that a strong 
solution of soft soap was a preventive of some kinds of i 
blight, I applied to each of my trees a plaster of this soap in 
a narrow band, at a different distance from the ground on i 
different plants. Since this application I have killed several 
of these enemies ever)' night, but in no instance have T been 
able to find one above the barrier of soap; I am thus in¬ 
duced to hope that this remedy may prove a preventive of 
further mischief. My present short experience gives no 
great confidence as to the permanent success of the plan, as 
the unwillingness of the insect to cross the line may proceed 
merely from the unusual nature or smell of the substance, 
to which in time it might become accustomed. I have 
never seen one of these bugs in the day time, but at dusk 
they begin to move out of the ground, and in a very short 
i time are to be found at the top of the highest standards.” 
This insect we found to be the Furrowed Weevil 
(Otiorliynchus sulcatus), of which a drawing and descrip¬ 
tion may be consulted at page 125 of our third volume. 
It may be caught at night in the same mode, and be 
destroyed by gas lime, as we have already advised lor 
its near relative. To prevent its ascent up the trunk of 
a tree we should paint round this a band of gas tar, and 
if a similar band were made round each trunk, and on 
the wall, so as to enclose the branches of each tree trained 
on it, it would be similarly protective. Unboiled gas tar 
is very long before it becomes dry, and is not affected by 
wet; soft soap, on the other hand, is washed away by 
rain, and its surface hardens in dry weather. 
THE l'RUIT-GARDEN. 
Hardy Fruits. —The necessities of this period re- I 
quire that we offer a passing notice on most of our out¬ 
door fruits ; and our remarks although brief, are deserv- j 
ing immediate attention. 
Apples. —Those who are troubled with the American 
blight, will find it making unusual progress at this 
period. We believe that nothing is better than spirits 
of turpentine, which must be applied with a small-beaded | 
brush. Much care is necessary in the operation, for if 
flowers, &c., grow near the affected tree, a clumsy 
operator may do much harm by want of care. Moreover, 
the operations of the brush must be confined as much as 
possible to the precise spot where the blight is located; 
for we would not have our readers suppose that trees j 
may be daubed over at random with so powerful a me- ; 
dicament. The application is best made by a young 
person, for the various and quick contortions of the 
body necessary, in order to hunt out the woolly little 
rascals, are not adapted to unbending frames of old j 
labourers; and it is seldom the work is well carried out | 
by these. 
The amateur who has apple-trees of choice kinds | 
under a course of training, should now look sharp out 
once a week, in order to guide refractory young shoots 
into the place intended for them, whatever the mode of 
training. By these means the trellis may be covered in 
half the time; for many a shoot may be made available 
by timely training, which otherwise would be thinned 
away amid the confusion which is sure to arise, if the 
disbudding and general spring regulation should get in 
arrears. Again, it is necessary to keep the root action 
under a proper control, for when this is too violent the 
trees speedily become unmanageable, and barrenness for 
a few years is the sure result; such barrrenness lasting 
until the greedy tree has somewhat exhausted the soil. 
1 And herein is manifest the extreme folly of making soils 
too rich, or too deep, for a dwarfing system ; there is not 
only a reckless waste of good compost in the original 
formation, but an annual loss for a length of time en¬ 
tailed on the unfortunate proprietor, besides the extra 
labour, and, not least, the chagrin at disappointed efforts. 
It will soon be known whether there is a good “ set 
of fruit; if it should prove over abundant, let it, by all 
means, receive a judicious thinning in time, the extent 
