THE COTTAGE GARDENER AND COUNTRY 
so another year, but in a more mitigated form, so as 
either to give way to the means applied or to the 
strengthening influence of improved weather. The 
latter, in my opinion, is the most important of all the 
remedies not only for this but for all other diseases to 
which the vegetable world is liable. 
Now, in admitting this I do not deny the merit 
justly due to the enterprising cultivator who assiduously 
applies the remedies best calculated to effect an im¬ 
proved change. The moral of the old fable of “ the 
gods only help those who help themselves ” may very 
properly be applied to Hop growing; but there is still 
much left to that “glorious uncertainty” of which 
Hops, above all other grown things, are remarkable, 
and though this uncertainty may terminate, as it often 
does, in a favourable way, still it is equally liable to be 
the reverse, and mildew , otherwise mould, is found an 
obstinate customer to deal with; at least we have found 
it so, and its appearance is looked upon as disastrous in 
the extreme to the grower. 
Scientific investigation having failed to point out a 
remedy, still less a preventive, the conjectures as to its 
cause are numerous enough, some thinking it arises 
from over-manuring, others from a reverse treatment; 
and the singular way in which it attacks one plot of 
ground and not another, though both seem alike liable, 
is one of the features not easily accounted for. Of 
course the consequence is generally fatal to the crop, 
many acres not producing a single hop, or, where only 
partially attacked, the quality is so much deteriorated 
as scarcely to pay for the expense of picking. As I have 
before observed, a dressing with flowers of sulphur is 
often resorted to, the whole plant being dusted over 
with it; but the effect produced is not always successful, 
and some of the greatest advocates for the sulphur 
dredging-box have been obliged to acknowledge the 
disease to have baffled them. 
Peas. —We now come to a more homely crop, and one 
which has been very indifferent the present season in 
many places. Having had a drier summer than usual, 
Peas have been scarce, and at the time I write (the 1st 
of August) the prospect is not at all good for the future. 
Like many others I have tried the all-potent agent, 
sulphur, with but indifferent success. The disease on 
the Pea arises, I think, from the plant being grown at 
an unnatural season. Nature’s object in directing a 
plant to grow, ripen its seed, and reproduce itself, is 
generally accomplished without any further detriment 
from insect or disease than is necessary to maintain that 
just balance of things so beautifully arranged by Divine 
economy; but Peas and many other crops are attempted 
to be grown under circumstances so widely different 
from those to which they were accustomed in a wild state, 
that disease or delicacy need not be wondered at. 
Now, in my opinion, the cause of mildew in Peas 
arises from the plant being unable to obtain a due supply 
of proper food, or, where it does so, the leaves of the 
plant, which are properly designated its lungs, are not 
in a healthy state to act upon it. Hence the plant 
becomes a victim to disease from two opposite causes. 
The first of them is, Peas being carried off by mildew 
in dry, hot seasons on dry, gravelly, or sandy soils, 
where the plant is denied the liquid food necessary to 
its growth; and, in the second case, the food sup¬ 
plied exceeds the capabilities of the plant to properly 
digest it. The lack of sunshine or other genial warmth 
paralyses the plant, and it falls a prey to mildew. 
This latter case admits of little that can palliate it, 
unless it be planting in a drier soil. The judicious use 
of the watering-pot may be of some benefit in the first 
case, when the evil arises from a lack of moisture ; but 
it must be borne in mind that deluges of cold spring water 
are as bad, perhaps, as the absence of enough moisture. 
Rain water somewhat warm, and holding some manurial 
GENTLEMAN’S COMPANION, August 18, 1857. 313 
substance in solution, is the best, guano or sheep-dung 
being as good as anything to mix with it; and after 
the ground has been thoroughly moistened with it 
let it be covered over with short grass or any suitable 
litter that may be at hand, to prevent the sun too hastily 
abstracting the moisture from it again. Repeating this 
once a week or oftener will be found to do more good 
than anything I have ever tried for preserving Peas, 
and a late crop may be secured in most cases. Planting 
them widely is also a preventive, as a due circulation of 
air has much to do in the matter, other things being 
likewise favourable. 
Many other plants might be mentioned as being 
peculiarly liable to the attacks of mildew, and it is but too 
true that the number of these is on the increase. But a 
few years since it first attacked the Grape Vine with a 
virulence which has been truly deplorable in some 
places; and, though we have a more effectual remedy in 
the flowers of sulphur to conquer it in our hothouses, 
its application out of doors has been, like that on the 
Hop, very uncertain and unsatisfactory. But, as some 
other writers may possibly be giving us their experience 
on this pest in hothouses, I will conclude these notes 
for the present by advising all those who find mildew 
show itself on their indoor Grape Vines to lose no time 
in coating over their hot-water pipes, flues, or other 
heating places with a sulphur mixture, and, closing up 
the house the first night, let fire be at once applied, 
moistening the house at the same time. The sulphurous 
vapour arising therefrom will do more to counteract 
mildew than much dusting over the foliage will do, but 
the latter plan may be adopted also. J. Robson. 
TOMTITS. 
From an answer to correspondent? in The Cottage 
Gardener of August 4th, 1857, it appears that one “ Theo- 
philus ” is desirous of a means of getting rid of Tomtits. 
I can only advise him to entirely rid his trees and hedges 
of insects, and the Tomtits will be starved. Until he 
can perform that feat I should rather persuade him to 
encourage them, as they and the chaffinches are the fruit 
grower’s best friends, and were it not for their destroying the 
insect pests no fruit could be grown. It is often that 
those who complain so much of the blight are the most 
determined destroyers of these little friends, which an 
All-wise Maker has sent for his benefit, and which he 
ignorantly exclaims against. 
I have watched the Tomtits, and cannot find that they do 
any harm, but that they are continually working for man’s 
benefit; and no bird is more affected by the want of food in 
Avinter, as by an all-Avise provision it is so arranged that, 
when the cold is sufficiently intense to destroy those insects 
in their Avinter retreats, it also kills the Tomtits : thus man’s 
interference only upsets the balance which nature was 
made to provide. The Tomtits and the bullfinches are 
usually termed bud-destroyers; but, wherever the bullfinches 
have pecked the buds most, there I have seen the best crop 
of fruit, so I do not think that they cause much destruction. 
This fact I have proved several times to my own conviction 
that no harm was done. Most people come too hastily to 
conclusions from mere appearances, without thoroughly 
investigating the case; but let those who are doubtful care¬ 
fully notice those trees which the bullfinches and Tomtits or 
chaffinches infest most in spring; let them examine on what 
these birds feed, and the consequences that follow both 
their presence and their absence, and I feel certain they 
will come to the conclusion never again to destroy any of 
these or many others, as the hedge-sparrow, yellowhammer, 
thrush, blackbird, and starling, which are among the most 
useful of our feathered friends.— B. P. Brent. 
