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THE COTTAGE GARDENER AND COUNTRY GENTLEMAN, Eebruary 23, 1858, 
Peaches have ceased blossoming a fortnight, before 
aphides appear. That they do immense injury to all 
plants or trees, is universally admitted, but to none 
more than to the Peach. 1 have for years, in the 
pages of The Cottage Gardener, urged the ne¬ 
cessity of early cleanliness with the Peach, and I 
may here repeat it, that no permanent success may be 
expected, if the ravages of the aphis be permitted. 
And what are the consequences, let us ask, of the 
ravages of this pest ? The earliest young shoots of 
the Peach, on which we should depend for the fruit of 
the ensuing year, are blighted and deformed at their 
very entrance into being ; and after one week’s ra¬ 
vages of the fly, become almost incurable. The tree, 
of course, makes a second effort at growth later in the 
season, but this wood is neither of so good a character, 
nor so mature, as the early shoots would have been. 
The fruit, in course of swelling, suffers in a corres¬ 
ponding ratio, and, indeed, the whole system of the 
tree becomes perverted. The roots, by consequence, 
also become partially paralysed—if I may use the 
term—for a while, and the result of all this, is an 
amount of, at least, temporary debility, highly pre¬ 
judicial to the constitution of the tree. The Vine does 
not suffer quite so much ; nevertheless, the prevalence 
of the fly is highly injurious. I may here remark on 
early fumigations, or applications of tobacco water; 
such applied as soon as any fly appears, if a little 
previous, all the better. Indeed, tobacco fumigations 
should generally be used as preventives, rather than 
remedial measures. Thus it will be seen, that every 
precaution is necessary, with fruits under forcing, as 
to the ravages of insects ; and, here, let me allude to 
the best general means of promoting them. Winter 
dressings of the branches begin the list; to this let 
me add, an annual whitewashing and general cleansing 
of all houses, or other structures. Next in order at 
the forcing period, secure plenty of humidity in the 
atmosphere of houses ; this continued, less or more, 
according to circumstances, up to the ripening period. 
In accomplishing this, mere syringing is not enough, 
on many occasions; the evaporating covers must be 
liberally used, and plenty of water thrown over floors, 
&c. 
Cleanliness is one of the main essentials in all 
forcing houses, and this involves a liberal use of 
water. But here let me name the frequent use of 
sulphur, applied to pipes as a paint: it can do no 
injury if such pipes never become too hot for the 
touch. R. Errington. 
POTATO DISEASE AGAIN. 
In the early spring of the year following that in 
which the Potato disease appeared, with so much vi¬ 
rulence amongst us, anxious inquiries were made re¬ 
specting those growing in hotbeds, or in some other 
forced manner. So important did the matter appear, 
that some of the most popular members of the Legis¬ 
lature made a point of collecting evidence, which was 
duly reported to the House. That evidence soon 
showed the evils of the disease, and the inefficiency of 
the means used to obviate it. Potato disease in frames 
appearing as bad, or nearly so, as it was the year 
before. This fact (it is not too much to say) had con¬ 
siderable weight on important political measures then 
before the House, and, as might be expected, set every 
ingenious cultivator’s wits to work to discover a cure. 
That some useful ideas were made out, in so doing, it 
would be wrong to deny ; and at various times, since 
then, further observations have been made, but the 
main features of the disease, “ its causes and pre¬ 
vention,” seem as little understood now as they were 
then, for it continues to exist amongst us to an extent 
varied by local circumstances, and the difference 
arising from the characters of the season at a par¬ 
ticular period of their growth. 
Serious as this is, it would be infinitely much worse 
if any of the substances, forming the staff of life, were 
attacked in a similar incurable manner. The Vine 
disease is the only one analagous to it, but this is 
certainly more clearly understood, and though, per¬ 
haps, not, on all occasions, under the control of the 
cultivator, the disease is better known, and has been 
dignified with a specific name, which the other has not. 
How far the present season may differ from preceding 
ones, in respect to the well-being of their crops, 
time alone will determine ; but, most certainly, the 
Potato disease has shown itself in its most malignant 
form, at an earlier period than I ever had it among 
my forced Potatoes before; and, if that be regarded as 
a forerunner of evil, the prospect is bad enough. The 
particulars of the case are these :— 
About the middle of November, and later, when the 
bulk of the leaves that are usually collected together 
in the autumn were put into their places, some box 
frames were placed over them, and planted with Po¬ 
tatoes, of early kinds, which having ripened early 
during the summer, were already beginning to shoot. 
About the same time, or it might be early in De¬ 
cember, another frame was made up, mostly of Po¬ 
tatoes that had been left in the ground at taking-up 
time, and grown six inches or more high, nice, strong, 
busliy plants. These latter did not seem, at the time, 
to suffer much by their removal, and continued to 
grow for some time, but they were the first to show 
the disease, and have fallen a complete prey to it; they 
being, in fact, wholly gone. The others resisted for a 
few days, but followed in lamentable order. I cannot 
exactly say when it first appeared, but it was not 
noticed to be very bad, until the last week in January, 
and, of course, it spread rapidly afterwards. 
I mention the above case, as one likely to have 
occurred in many places, and, as the autumn was 
exceedingly mild, Potatoes growing unhurt out of 
doors till after Christmas, there was a great temptation 
to remove some of them to sheltered positions. Whether 
that change affected them, so as to cause the disease, 
I am unable to say, but in the experiment here, I 
should say not, as they continued to grow after their 
removal, and were forming tubers of a promising kind. 
Doubtless, confinement under glass had much to do 
with it, and, possibly, some changes in the weather at 
the time, hastened it on. As it is, I hope the general 
crop of the season, 1858, will not be so bad as the 
forced ones, or the result will be deplorable enough. 
J. Robson. 
[We do not consider this as any forewarning that 
the murrain will be more early, or more virulent, than 
heretofore, among our open-ground Potato crops. If, 
as we incline to believe, this disease arises from a long 
course of unnatural treatment, then, Potatoes so forced, 
and so unrested, as Mr. Robson’s, would be especially 
liable to the murrain.— Ed.] 
NOTES EOR MARCH. 
The increasing power of the sun will now give sufficient 
warmth to excite the seeds committed to the soil into immediate 
growth. The cold soil, and frequently heavy rains of the pre¬ 
ceding month, are unfavourable for the germination of seeds ; 
and, if postponed until the next, some small portion of their 
season of growth is abridged ; therefore, the present month is 
the best for sowing the general crops of vegetables. No time 
should be lost, when the weather and the state of the ground 
will permit, to sow Parsnips, Onions, Leeks, early Carrots, 
