182 
THE COTTAGE GARDENER. 
TO CORRESPONDENTS. 
*** We request that no one will write to the departmental writers of 
The Cottage Gardener. It gives them unjustifiable trouble and 
expense; and we also request our coadjutors under no circumstances 
to reply to such private communications. 
Dragon Arum (M. E. von D.). —By this we presume you mean Arum 
dracunculus. It is a native of the south of Europe, and is quite hardy, 
at least it blooms freely in a light soiled open border at Winchester without 
any winter protection. It would do the same, wc think, near London • 
but certainly if planted out beneath a south wall. Moving them in the 
spring has made your plants of it look sickly, for the bulbs produce roots 
very early, and these were injured by being taken up. Turn your plants 
out of the pots into a warm border at once, without disturbing them, and 
place a label by their side, so as to know where they are, for they die down 
early, and may get injured by the spade, or trowel, in putting in other 
plants. 
Blight on Greenhouse Plants (Ignoramus ). — Your plants 
“ covered with blight, and some appearing a mass of insects,” have been 
grossly neglected. Watering and steaming now is of no use, but tends to 
aggravate the evil ; for the increase of insects, like that of other animals, 
is promoted by the abundance of their food, and the more plants are 
watered and steamed, the greater the amount of sap which they contain, 
which is the food of the blight or aphis. Fumigate your plants for two 
or three succq^sive evenings with tobacco smoke, syringing them each fol¬ 
lowing morning. If the blight arises from the aphis, this will remove the 
enemy. Let us know the result. If the treatment does not succeed, the 
insect must be the thrip. 
Roup in Fowls (A Poultry Keeper). —This we have always considered 
very nearly resembling glanders in the horse, and if it is allowed to reach 
that stage when there is an offensive discharge from the nostrils and eyes, 
the bird usually dies. We should like to know the effect of minute doses 
of sulphate of copper given in this disease. At present, immediately 
symptoms of the disease appear, separate the bird from the other fowls, 
keep it warm, very clean, and give it tepid water to drink. Mix together 
two parts of powdered gentian, and one part hydriodate of potash ; make 
it into a mass with a little lard, and give a pill as large as a pea every 
night and morning. If you try sulphate of copper, mix a quarter of a 
grain in a little gruel, and pour it down the bird’s throat every morning. 
Flosver-Garden (An Amateur). —We have to apologise for the delay 
(A. B.), but we have hesitated some time as to engraving the plan. Your 
new garden is extremely pretty and exceedingly well planned, and your 
arrangement is very nearly to our mind. We would place the Ageratum 
in the opposite corner bed, No. 8, to the Heliotrope bed, No. 1, and place 
the Cuphca in bed No. 9 ; as the Lobelia is too dwarf between the two 
verbena beds. We would plant any other diamond bed under the half 
standard Roses, with the blue Lobelia and the Ivy-leaf Geranium, either 
pink or white, in the other diamonds, and train some of the shoots up 
the stems. The diamonds arc large enough for the roses, and next year 
you can raise the turf all round them, and place more good soil lor the 
roses, Avithout enlarging the sizes of the beds. We can hardly believe 
that you have learned so much from our labours. You have not too many 
roses. As your span roof is to be east and west, we would use the rough 
plate glass only on tfie south side, and British sheet glass on the north 
side; the latter will give more light, and you will have no shading 
required. You have proved that the rough plate is most excellent for 
propagating pits. 
Gooseberry Borers (J. Turner). —The berry borers sent were crushed 
from the corks being loose. Two appear to be the larvae of the winter 
moth (sec The Cottage Gardener, vol. I., page 53), and the other is 
the larva of some tortrix, which it is impossible to determine until the 
moth appears. Can you oblige us with more specimens in a stronger box? 
Bees Hived into a Bell-hive (A Constant Subscidber). — At the end 
of three weeks after the hiving of your bees, you may cut a hole at the 
top of the hive and put on a box, or glass, or small hive (see The Cottage 
Gardener, vol. II., page 104). You must not separate your two hives 
placed one on the other at this season. The best time for doing it will 
be in February, on a fine day; the bees will then be all in the upper hive. 
As they are at present, you will, in all probability, have neither swarm 
nor honey from them. 
Preventing Bees Swarming (Z.).—You ought to have placed 
another small hive between the one now on, and the parent hive, as soon 
as you had discovered any appearance of want of room, as directed for 
swarms, page 104, vol. II., of The Cottage Gardener; and some¬ 
times, for a short time, even a third small hive must be supplied in a 
similar manner before the upper one is sufficiently filled to be taken off. 
Continue to kill queen wasps as long as you can see them, for their nests 
are not yet formed, or, if formed, not sufficiently forward to survive the 
loss of the queen. With Underwood’s Wasp Catcher, you would be able 
to capture those about your hives (see advertisement on cover of The 
Cottage Gardener). The “ Manual for Cottagers,” published by 
Mr. Payne, was expressly done so for gratuitous distribution ; and every 
copy has long since been given away. For “ the manner of preparing 
honey and wax,” see The Cottage Gardener, vol. II., page 285 ; but 
it must be remembered that only honey in the combs is admissible at 
table ; and, besides, when drained it fetches only half the price. Foriustruc- 
[JUNE 20. 
tion in bee management, let the cottagers read the pages of Tne Cot¬ 
tage Gardener, kindly lent them by those who wish to increase their 
comforts and their love of home. Honey in the combs, in small hives of 
from 8 to 12 lbs., has always a ready sale and at a good price, either in 
London or in almost any large town. We know several kindly disposed 
and influential persons in different villages in the kingdom, who will take 
the small hives of honey of the cottagers and send the whole produce of 
their village in one package to some respectable honey warehouse in 
London,—either Neighbour and Son, Fortnum and Mason, Milton, or 
some such house ; and, by so doing, obtain for them the best price. Your 
small hive, put on on the 16th of May, should have had another placed 
between it and the stock about the 1st of June; and then, as soon as per¬ 
fectly sealed up, taken away. The straw hives and cover, figured in 
“ Taylor’s Bee-Keeper’s Manual,” pages 35 and 37, were sent him by Mr. 
Payne ; and wc doubt not but, if applied to, Mr. Payne would have some 
made for you. The zinc covers are manufactured by Messrs. Deane and 
Dray, 119, Bunhill-row, St. Luke’s, London. Hives do equally well 
without a shed; if you prefer a shed yours is certainly one of the best 
kind. 
Soot-water (H. M.). —One gallon of soot to ten gallons of water, 
prepared as recommended by Mr. Savage in our seventieth number, may 
be, as you say, “ the colour of dark sherry,” without being too strong. 
The armnoniacal salts extracted from the soot by the water are the chief 
cause of benefit. 
Nipping-off the Tops op Potato-stems ( W . E. J.). —This we 
know to be a bad practice if done during an early stage of their growth, 
for it only induces the stems either to produce side-shoots, or the set to 
emit more stems ; either of which fresh productions are hindrances to the 
early production and large size of the tubers. Nipping-off the flowers 
we consider a good practice. 
Gooseberry Caterpillars (T. M. W. and T. 0. U.). —Every kind 
of these we find are destroyed by dusting over them and the bushes 
generally with white hellebore powder. We apply it by the aid of a 
common cook’s dredging box. You may get this powder of any chemist; 
and for such a purpose he ought to let you have a pound for a shilling. 
Your other questions shall be answered next week. 
Snails (T. 0. U.). —You may keep these from creeping over the wall 
from your neighbour’s ivy, by having a hair rope stretched along the 
wall on your own side. It makes a chevuux defrizc which they cannot sur¬ 
mount. A less permanent barrier would be salt strewed in a continuous 
line along the top of the wall. 
Names of Plants (H. H.). —Your plant was so damaged that though 
we have shown it to several botanists we could not, any of us, recognise it. 
Send us another specimen in flower, and protected by a box. (B. V.) — 
The leaf you sent us, given to you as “Mexican Kex,” is, we think, that of 
Heracleum gigunteum. (Fanny H.) —Your plant is Abutilon striatum. 
Cobcea Scandens (A. Subscriber). —This, as well as Maurandya 
Burcleyana , do best when planted out in the border beneath a warm 
wall. 
Lantana Crocea (Ibid). —This is propagated by cuttings planted in 
sand under a bell-glass, and plunged in bottom-heat. Propagate it in 
March for summer, and in August for winter. 
Standard Rose (Ibid). —This “planted last November throws up 
strong suckers from the roots, but the bush scarcely grows.” Remove 
the suckers immediately they appear, and water with liquid-manure. 
Mignonette and Ten-week Stocks (Ibid). —For blooming in 
winter sow these during July, and transplant the seedlings into small 
pots. 
Potatoes Producing Tubers but not Stems (Ibid). —When the 
eyes, or buds of the set which produce the stems, are from accident, or 
other cause, prevented developing themselves into stems, a wise provision 
of the Creator for the preservation of the species enables the parent set to 
give birth to numerous young tubers. 
Verbena Venosa (C. G.). —To bloom this at the same time as the 
old Scarlet Variegated Geranium in May, you must bed out strong plants 
of the Verbena in March. Apply to Messrs. Henderson, Pine Apple 
Place. 
Begonia (A n Amateur ).—Will see that his inquiry has been attended to. 
Heaths (Margaret). —The Heaths done flowering should be cut down 
freely if strong growing. If of a less strong habit let the pruning be done 
more sparingly. Do not repot until fresh growth has commenced. See 
an article on the Epacris lately published by us. Something else will 
probably appear upon the Heath before long. 
Crassula (Erina). —We are sorry wc cannot detect the cause of the 
spot on the leaf, unless it was burned by a lens formed in the glass ; and 
it docs not present that appearance. You did not use the soft soap 
lather too hot, for if you did, the edges of the leaf might afterwards 
present the sealded-like appearance. Unless the plant is a large one, and 
a great favourite, you had better discard it; as the restoring it to a state 
of health would cost more trouble and expense than rearing a young 
healthy one. 
London: Printed by Harry Wooldridge, Winchester High-street, 
in the Parish of Saint Mary Kalcndar; and Published by William 
Somerville Orr, at the Office, No. 2, Amen Corner, in the Parish of 
Christ Church, City of London.—June 20th, 1850* 
