292 
THE COTTAGE GARDENER AND COUNTRY GENTLEMAN, February 12, 1861. 
NEW BOOKS. 
Gardener's and Farmer’s Yade Mecum.* —Although this 
is in reality the seed catalogue of Messrs. Carter & Co., the 
enterprising seedsmen of Holborn, still it is so different to the 
generality of seed catalogues, that we have included it among 
our notices of New Boohs. Nearly thirty years ago we re¬ 
member the comparatively small but always carefully and 
scientifically prepared catalogues of Mr. Carter, and from year 
to year we have watched their gradual development till they 
have now assumed a proportion unusual among trade catalogues. 
In the work before us, the usual tabular form with the column 
of general observations adopted last year are retained and aug¬ 
mented. There are numerous descriptive notices in the form of 
paragraphs of the newest kinds of vegetables and flowers, in 
some instances illustrated with woodcut engravings; and, to 
complete the whole, there are two excellent calendars, one for 
the gardener, and the other for the fanner. The work is published 
at the price of Is., but we believe it may be had gratis by those 
who are customers of the house. 
TRADE LISTS RECEIVED. 
Butler Sf McCulloch's Spring Catalogue for 1861, Covent 
Garden, London. —VVe have here an admirable and very com¬ 
prehensive catalogue of Elower and Vegetable Seeds, extending 
to nearly 100 8vo pages. It includes every novelty we can think 
of, and the amount of information, both descriptive and tabular, 
is verj full. 
Hooper 4' Co.'s Spring Catalogue of Flower, Shrub, Tree, 
and Vegetable Seeds, Covent Garden; and Catalogue of Vegetable 
and Flower Seeds, by Stephen Brown, Sudbury, Suffolk. —These 
are also full and excellent catalogues, carefully prepared, and 
contain a great many useful descriptions. 
* James Carter <y Co.'s Gardener's and Farmer's Fade Mecum for 1861. 
London : 237 & 238, High Holborn. 
TO CORRESPONDENTS. 
Fruit Trees {Sami. Burn, Whitby ).—You wiil find the following do 
well with you against your walls and fences. Apples.— Cellini, Blenheim 
Orange. Pears.— Louise Bonne of Jersey, Beurrc Diel. Cherries.— 
Mayduke, Belle Magnifique. Peaches.— Early York, Grosse Mignonne. 
Apricot. —Moorpark. Gooseberries for open plantation, prize sorts.— 
London, Conquering Hero, and Wonderful, red ; Catherine, Drill, and 
Leader, yellow ; Thumper, General, and Overall, green ; Queen of Trumps, 
Freedom, and Snowball, white. 
Potatoes [Aut Ccesar aut Nullus ).—For exhibition in July grow Ash- 
leaved Kidney, Soden’s Early Oxford, and Rylott’s Flour-Ball. For exhi¬ 
bition in September, Fortyfolds and Flukes. Among “twelve Ranun¬ 
culuses to name,” you may exhibit any kinds that are named. 
Slugs—Salvia patens (Amateur Hibernians).— The “most effectual 
mode” of destroying them is to pare and burn three inches of the entire 
surface of the old garden. The usual mode is to sprinkle slaked lime 
oyer the surface late in the evening and very early in the morning. You 
will find directions for using Salvia patens as a bedder combined with 
Calceolaria amplexieaulis in our No. 506, page 150. Bed-out your Tom 
Thumb Geraniums eight inches apart leaf from leaf, not stem from stem. 
Your Wattle Tree from Australia is one of the Acacias. 
have I 5 inch wide and 4 inches deep, and placed 18 inches apart, to receive 
squares 18 inches across by 12. The rafters will be fixed at the lower end 
to the wall-plate. Five of these squares close to the top should be framed, 
and made to open on a hinge or swiug on pivots for top air. A Bellegarde 
Peach and Violette Ilative Nectarine might be grown on the back wall, and 
the Vines planted within two feet of front. But for that we would plant 
the Vines at back. Drainage will be necessary, and fresh loamy soil in 
part at least. 
Tobacco Smoke and Green Fly (Glasgow). —If the trees when pruned 
are washed with soap water at 90° temperature, and when dry are painted 
with a mixture chiefly of clay, and sulphur, and a little tobacco water, the 
fly will not generally appeir until some time after the fruit is set. If 
tobacco smoke is used in moderation, and the smoke presented cool (two 
or three slight smokings being always preferable to one severe one), we 
have never noticed any bad results. To the inexperienced we recommend 
shag tobacco for this purpose. The mischief generally takes place before 
smoking by allowing the fly to get a-head. The first fly seen should be 
removed with a small brush ; if three or four can be seen, smoke that night. 
There are many means, but none better than tobacco smoke. 
Cucumbers in a House (W. W.).— Is your flue 3 feet high as well as 
the beds? We would have preferred the flue being under the bed, or 
partly so. Does the side of the flue form the wall of the pit also? Then 
the side of the flue will give a good amount of heat to the soil, &c. With¬ 
out that, well-heated tan would be the best for bottom heat. The 
manure and sawdust will do if you do not plant out your Cucumbers untiL 
March or so. As the flue goes first along the east side, we would use that 
for the first Cucumbers and the west side for later ones. If we devoted 
the bouse to Melons and Cucumbers too, we would have Cucumbers in the 1 
first half both sides, and Melons on the other half both sides. The reasons 
for this are, that though when growing and green the plants do need much 
different treatment, the Melons as they approach ripening require a drier 
atmosphere to give them flavour than would suit Cucumbers, and, being at 
one end, that can he better secured. 
Spot in Cucumbers ( X. X.).— You could not do better than fumigate 
the empty house with sulphur : you have given it a good dose, ceitainly. 
The blackness is owing to a sulphate of lead being formed. Let it alone, 
and it will disappear as the oxygen of the air gets the better of the sulphur. 
You have given us too little information about your house and your 
management to enable us to say what caused the spot in your case; but 
thorough cleanliness in walls, fresh air from 60° to 65° in temperature, and 
fresh sweet soil are the great preventives. When once introduced, it is 
next to incurable. Last season was a bad one for Cucumbers. You would 
see that Mr. Fish did little good with them, and many more good gardeners 
generally extra successful had their difficulties with them. We must just 
try and hope on. 
Vulcanised Indianrubber Rings for Hot-water Pipes (J. Finer ),— 
These vulcanised rings answer perfectly for the joints ofhot-water pipes and 
for portable hothouses. They are the best joints now in use, for they can be 
easily undone without hurt or hindrance. Mr. Beaton has these joints in 
use at the Experimental Garden, and some joints in the same apparatus 
ars of “ tow and tuck,” and they see no difference in the two kinds of 
joints; nor is there much or any difference in the first expense of them. 
He has seen one instance only in which a joint with a vulcanised ring was 
made leaked, and he has heard of two more instances of leakage in the * 
vulcanised joints ; but no sort of hot-water joint that has yet been made in 
this country is or has ever been entirely free from leakage more or less. 
We have seen all on the leak, and could stop all of them ; but we do not 
know yet the exact way of stopping a chance leak in a vulcanised ring. 
What we should first try to stop such a leak would be to endeavour to 
twist round the pipe a little in the socket, so as to adjust some defect in 
the fitting of the iron surface with that of some portion of the ring ; and a 
few raps on the junction or joint with a mallet would be as likely as 
anything to stop the leakage of vulcanised joints. We have no hesitation 
in saying these aie our own favourite joints, but we have no knowledge of 
where they are made or sold. The hot-water apparatus people are the 
proper persons to apply to for all proper fittings. 
POULTRY AND BEE-KEEPER’S CHRONICLE. 
POULTRY SHOWS. 
Removing Fruit Trees (Kate ).—If you mean to buv trees, go at once 
to the nurseryman and arrange to have them in pots. ‘You can then turn 
them ont without disturbing the roots, and thus be enabled to plant them 
even late in spring if the building of your house is delayed. If you are 
only intending to move young trees already in your possession, we should 
take them up at once and put them in large pots, and place them on the 
north side of a wall until the house is ready for them. The ventilation 
proposed is ample without shutters in the wall. 
Lardizabala biternata (Idem ).—It is a hardy evergreen climber from 
the colder regions of Chili. It is well worth cultivating. Its pendulous 
spikes of peculiarly coloured flowers and its very copious foliage render it 
very handsome. It merely requires the protection of a wall. There is a 
drawing of it in the volume for 1850 of “ Botanical Magazine,” t. 4501. 
Grass Laid Down Last Year ( W. 11. It would be better in some 
respects to feed it off this year ; but we should not hesitate from mowing 
it if more convenient, cutting it whilst young, and giving it immediately 
afterwards a dressing of manure. 
Lean-to Orchard-house agatnst a Stable Gable-end (A SuffolkSu 
scriber ).—We presume you do not mean to go higher than 12 feet 6 inch 
—that is, to the eaves of the stable. For an elegant house you might ha 
a brick wall 3 feet high iu front, and 3 feet of swing sashes above it. Yi 
could have a longer roof by a three-feet wall, and ventilators in it as 
.no- -2. The same result, but at less expense, would be gained by five pos 
in front, 2 feet in ground, and 2 feet 9 inches above ground, and a pla 
3 VT 63 by 5 fix . et * along them. The front to the ground being filled 1 
With one-foot-wide boards, and one of these made to swing in two piec 
tor the whole length for ventilation along the end of the stable, at t 
height of 12 feat 6 inches ; five one-ineh-and-half boards and 5 inches wid 
to receive the end of the rafters, to be nailed to it. These rafters we wou 
February 13th and 14th. Liverpool. (Poultry and Pigeons). Sec., Mr. 
A. Edmondson, 4, Dale Street. Entries close January 26. 
March 6 th and 7th. Preston. Sec., Mr. H. P. Watson, Glover Street, 
Preston. 
March 13th and 14th. Plymouth. Sec., Mr. W. R. Elliott, 5, Windsor 
Villas. Entries close March 1. 
April 1st and 2nd. Sunderland. Sec., John Littlefair, G, Bridge Street. 
Entries close March 19th. 
May 21st, 22nd, and 23rd. Chesterfield and Scarsdale. Hon. Sec., 
Thos. P. Wood, jun. 
May 22nd and 23rd. Beverley. Hon. Sec., II. Adams. Entries close 
May 4th. 
June 4th, 5th, 6th, and 7th. Bato and West of England. 
N.B .—Secretaries will oblige us by sending early copies of their lists. 
THE GAME SEASON. 
Although by name, and happily, in fact, we are the “ Poultry 
Chronicle,” yet we have somewhat to do with Game. We quote 
it weekly, and doubtless many of our readers take an interest 
in the subject. As “ The Country Gentleman,” a review of 
Pheasants and Partridges as they have been during the past 
season will he acceptable; the more so, because we believe that 
the breed and the supply are, after all, to be better judged in 
London than elsewhere. It is the great market, and all local 
ones are mere tributary streams. 
Game, bred in the first instance for sport, suffers the fate of 
