10S 
THE COTTAGE GARDENER. 
[June 13. 
application of manures. The British Queen is a good hearer under proper 
culture. , 
Melon Growing (A Farmer’s Daughter). —Let us refer you to a 
paper on their culture at page 80, in the number for May 9th of this year; 
you will there find every one of your inquiries, or nearly so, answered. 
Your soil would be better with some of your father’s furrowing clods 
mixed up with it, rough chopped j but pray do not riddle your materials. 
Let us advise you to burn your riddle. Cantalupes may do, but we 
prefer the Beechwood varieties. Take care your hed is cooled down with 
water if too hot. Four plants in a two-light frame. Begin by a liberal 
ventilation, and continue increasing it until the plants will by and bye 
bear the lights off in the day, like cucumbers. 
Damson-trees not Bearing (Y. 0. U.).—‘ The fruit you say sets well, 
but never ripens j and the trees appear as if scorched. We have little 
doubt that your greatest enemy is the red spider after all. Dust the trees 
immediately with flour of sulphur, so shaking it beneath the leaves 
as that it may ascend in a fine cloud and lodge principally in the bark of 
the leaves. Or you may make a solution of soft soap, three ounces to the 
gallon, and add four handsful of sulphur to each gallon, then syringe the 
trees all over, especially the under side of the leaves. We live in a dam¬ 
son country, and have had twenty-three years’ experience of damson 
culture. We have known trees nearly destroyed by Red-spiders in a hot 
summer, and the poor country folks feeling persuaded that their red 
appearance was merely the effect of heat! 
Vines (A.). —Your vine is “far north”—the wood requires to be 
more ripened. Until you carry out this principle, it matters not whether 
you stop at two or six eyes. See that the root is right. Follow up 
former culture, and above all, pray let the glass sash be done forthwith. 
Queen Wasps ( Tirydail ).—All those you enclosed were queen wasps. 
If gardeners have not looked as sedulously after these as you and we 
have, it is probable that wasp’s nests will be more than usually abundant 
this year. Eighteen queen wasps were killed in May upon one quickset 
hedge in our garden. 
Insects ( J. Vincent). —The thread-like worm you enclosed is Gordius 
aquaticus. frequently found upon garden beds after rain : very little is 
known about its habits. Your Crown Imperials will bloom next year ; 
moving them last year whilst in bloom prevented their blooming this 
vear. Their roots were injured and disturbed just at the time they were 
employed in storing up matters for the next year’s productions. (Veras).— 
The minute insects from the bark of your rose-trees arc a species of Burk 
Mite (Acarus). Soak the bark with ammoniacal liquor from a gas-work: 
this will destroy them. 
East Indian Seeds (J. C. P. 1.—The seeds from Calcutta, of which 
you sent us a list, are not worth the paper they are packed in. They are 
as good as these collections generally are from thence, and from Delhi; 
the plants producing them arc fine things enough in the East, but of no 
use here. 
Rose Stocks (W. D. W .).—YVe believe no rose will succeed well on 
the sweet briar. 
Godetias (Ibid). —These should not be topped, because they do not 
branch out well after the operation ; and a portion of the succession of 
bloom is lost by stopping. 
Lawns (Eugenia)—' The best way to keep a lawn “ particularly fine 
and smooth ” is, first, to spud out all the broad-leaved plants from among 
the grass, and also any strong coarse grass itself; doing this either in the 
autumn or in the spring ; then in summer to roll it once a week, and 
mow it the next day. Wood ashes is a very good top-dressing for lawns ; 
and the daisy rake will keep the daisies from seeding, and prevent them 
spreading that way ; but it will not eradicate the old plants. The daisy 
rake is a very useful tool. 
Sowing Flower Seeds (Ignoramus). —As a general rule, all pot 
plant seeds ought to be sown in light poor soil, well drained and lightly 
covered, and without any reference to the kind of soil the plants prefer 
when they are potted off. The Marvel of Peru comes under this rule ; 
and when the seeds are good they come up in a slight hotbed in about 
three weeks. Neither they nor any other seed “ rot before they germi¬ 
nate.” How could a rotten seed germinate ? 
Snowdrops (Ibid).— Soil for their seeds as above. We believe they 
do not vegetate under twelve months ; but we never sowed any snowdrop 
seeds. Can any one of our readers tell who has ? 
Peach-tree Blighted (T. D. P .).—If you mean by that very 
vaguely used term “blight,” that your tree is “in a most miserable 
state” from the aphis or green fly upon it, fumigate it with tobacco- 
smoke, and syringe it occasionally with tobacco-water. Hamilton's 
Treatise on the Pine Apple can be obtained through any bookseller; it is 
published by Mr. Masters, Aldcrsgate Street; its price is about four 
shillings we think. Pine Apple plants vary in price. Mr. Errington 
will give a description of a good pit for growing them some day. 
Cineraria (T. Me M.). —The specimen you sent was pressed quite 
flat, and withered. We cannot judge of a flower’s merits unless it conies 
to us perfectly fresh, well packed in a box, and surrounded by damp 
moss. 
Peach and Nectarine Leaves Blistered (31. R. and A Subscriber 
from the Commencement). —You drained your border and yet this occurs. 
We can only reply that there is still too much moisture at the roots; 
these are probably too deep below the surface, or have struck down into 
a wet subsoil. We should open the ground and cut away the deep 
descending roots, and encourage the production of others near the 
surface. 
Pansy (W. J. W., Hull).— Your pansy seems of good form, and is a 
deep purple self, but so crushed that no one can judge of its merits. See 
what we say about “ Cineraria” to another correspondent. 
Apricot Leaves full of Holes. —The “ perforations like shot 
holes,” are the result of the gnawing of the larvae of some of the small 
moths belonging to the race of Tortricidce ; such as Ditula angustiorana . 
See a drawing, &c., at page 81 of our third volume. 
Names of Plants. —We shall be obliged by our correspondents not 
sending to us wild plants, as we wish to confine our pages to information 
connected with those in cultivation, (il/. R.).— Yours is a common 
weed, Apargia hispida . (Constant Render , Mereworth). —Yours is 
Lycopodium clavatum , or Common Club Moss. (.4 Subscriber , Bury St. 
Edmunds). —Yours is Lonicera tatarica, or Tartarian Honeysuckle. 
Dapiine Pruning (H. D.). —Your hardy Daphne is probably D. 
pontica , and will bear cutting in; and you may so treat it now if you 
please without any injury. 
Seed (W. D .).—Thanks for the Coriander and Persian Lettuce seed ; 
we will attend to your request relative to the latter. We have not one 
Himalayah Pumpkin seed left. 
Steel Pens (Rusticus). —The best mode of keeping these clean and 
uncorroded, is to put them into a vase kept constantly full of water, so 
that no part of the pen whilst not in use is exposed to the air. 
Bees in old Bell-hive (J. L. 31.).— You had better leave these in 
their old habitation, and put a swarm from them into one of the Im¬ 
proved Cottage Hives. You may cut a hole in the top of the old hive, 
and put on a small hive or bell-glass ; but the best time for doing this is 
at the end of April. 
Bees in Australia (31. J. J.).—Whether bees to a colonist in Aus¬ 
tralia would be profitable, see The Cottage Gardener, volume 3, 
page 173. It would be folly to hazard the risk of taking them out, when 
they may be obtained so readily there. The proper time for putting the 
cap, or small hive, upon a swarm put into an Improved Cottage Hive, will 
be from 18 to 21 days after its being fixed. See Cottage Gardener, 
volume 2, page 104. We can give you no directions respecting the 
method adopted by “ a gentleman who always deprives his bees of the 
early honey, and allows them during August and September to collect for 
their winter use.” It is a plan we do not recommend. 
Moth (Eliza).— The specimen caught in your greenhouse is the Eyed- 
hawk Moth (Smerinthus occllatus). It is not rare. Its caterpillar feeds 
ehiefiy on the willow, but is also found upon the leaves of the apple, 
peach, and other trees. The most expeditious mode of killing insects is 
to put them into a wide-mouthed bottle or jar, closely corked, in which 
a good number of well bruised laurel leaves have been previously placed, 
and covered with a thin layer of cotton wool. The prussic acid with 
which the air in the bottle is impregnated, destroys the insect almost 
instantly. 
Geranium Leaves Scorched (31. 31. G.).— The geranium-leaves 
you have enclosed, which are dead and brown across their middles, are 
what gardeners call “scorched.” If you give them air earlier in the 
morning, or even leave the top-lights a little open all night, so that the 
upper surfaces of the leaves may be dry before the heat of the sun comes 
powerfully upon them, you will have no more such disfigured leaves. 
Your plants are the more liable thus to suffer, because you have been 
obliged to push them on freely, which makes them more tender, and 
loose textured. 
Blue Anagallis (A Subscriber).— It depends on your own judgment 
or fancy, and not on the anagallis, whether it is best “ pegged down ” or 
“ left to grow upright,” as it, and most plants of that habit, grow equally 
well both ways. 
Daphne Cneorum (Ibid).—' This is an extremely pretty plant while in 
flower, and worth all the care you can bestow on it; but it requires neither 
manure, liquid-manure, nor shelter from frost. It is perfectly hardy 
with ns even as far north as Caithness, and is not improved by stimulants. 
It is very choice, however, with respect to soil—a very sandy loam suits it 
best; and it comes from layers as freely as a willow by merely covering 
the young shoots an inch or two in the ground, without any other pre¬ 
paration ; and this is a very good time to do so, and a better time when it 
is done flowering. 
Cyclamen Seed (T. T. G.).—When the seed pods burst, the seeds are 
ripe. The autumn is the proper time to pot cyclamens that have been 
summered in the open borders. 
Sparaxis Versicolor (Ibid). —Your sparaxis plants, which have 
flourished without blooming, and now withering, are going on well; let 
them die off and remain dormant till the autumn. They were not flowering 
bulbs; if they were, they never miss flowering. Those you took up to 
see how they were will not flower next year; pray be not so curious next 
time. 
Crassula (Ibid). —If the roots of your long-legged plant are good, cut 
it down to within four inches of the pot as soon as the flowers are over; 
and after it starts or grows again into young shoots about an inch long, 
shake all the soil from its roots, and begin afresh with it in a small pot 
and new compost. Every morsel of the tops, “long legs and all,” will 
do for cuttings with little or no trouble. 
London : Printed by Harry Wooldridge, Winchester High-street, 
in the Parish of Saint Mary Kalcndar; and Published by William 
Somerville Our, at the Office, No. 2, Amen Corner, in the Parish of 
Christ Church, City of London.—June 13th, 1850. 
