128 
THE COTTAGE GARDENER AND COUNTRY GENTLEMAN, May 31, 185‘J. 
here want the effectual means which the Russians on the Eastern 
Sea derive from the whale fat.—( [Urman’s Travels in Siberia.) 
The Aloe a Cube for Scalds and Burns. —M. l’Abbe 
Moigno recommends that the Aloe of any variety, but particularly 
the Soccotrina, should be cultivated as a specific against the 
effects of burns and scalds. M. Berthoud states to the Patrie 
that M. Simon, gardener at Belleville, having scalded his foot very 
severely, took a leaf from an Aloe, split it down the middle, and 
applied the inside on the wound. To his great surprise the green 
juice of the leaf turned purple, and the pain disappeared as if by 
enchantment. M. Lemaire, the Professor of Botany at Gaud, 
obtained the same result in a similar case; and M. Houillet, 
Director of the hothouses of the Museum, met with equal success 
in the case of a workman who had been dreadfully scalded with 
steam .—(American Gardener's Monthly .) 
TO CORRESPONDENTS. 
Hose for Liquid Manure (if.).—Vulcanised Indian-rubber tubing is 
the most flexible. Gutta Percba is the strongest, but very stiff and un¬ 
manageable. You do not say the purpose it is for. 
Oxide of Iron in Water (Northumbrian Subscriber).—It is injurious 
to plants. Lime added to the water may remove it. We doubt the con¬ 
clusion that it causes the roots of the plants to decay, and their leaves to 
spot. Excessive watering is a more probable cause. 
Peacii and Nectarine Trees Tailing (Young Gardener). — As we 
know nothing about the pruning and protection given, we cannot divine the 
cause of failure. The hot sunshine and easterly winds of the present 
season greatly promote the aphides you mention. Tobacco water will 
destroy them. Cropping “ the border every year,” is bad gardening. The 
soil, being “ sandy and light,” would be improved by the addition of strong 
loam and lime rubbish; by mulching the surface, and giving liquid ma¬ 
nure iu summer. 
Vine Mildew ( T. Dodds). —There is no remedy but dusting the leaves 
thoroughly with flowers of sulphur. Paint the stems also with the sul¬ 
phur, mixed into a cream with clay and water. Sprinkle sulphur also over 
the surface of the borders. Having the air thus constantly impregnated 
with the fume of the sulphur is the best remedy. The leaves you mention 
would not ‘‘increase the evil.” Do not burn sulphur in the house, for that 
would destroy everything. 
Lady Floriculturists (A Subscriber). —We do not know “any lady 
who follows floriculture as a trade.” Painting flower-pots is of no service 
to the plants in them ; hut the painting them of a dark stone colour 
greatly improves their appearance. Cactuses are not improved by liquid 
manure. 
Blistered Peach Leaves (An Anxious One). —The cause is believed to 
he disorganization by night frosts. Pick off all the blistered leaves. 
Farmyard Manure (An).—T he manure of pigs and cows is liable, late in 
the summer, to contain undigested seeds of weeds. It certainly does not 
foster slugs. We should prefer the mixture of pig, cow, fowl, and horse 
dung to the last-named alone. 
Digging (G. W.). —The writer of the papers on “Science of Gardening,” 
has given all the information he possesses on the force required to dig. 
M. Schubler’s experiments have not been published in a separate form in 
this country. 
Camellia’s Young Leaves Yellow—Scale Insect ( Amy Flower). — 
Give it a little liquid manure, and plenty of air and light. The leaves 
will soon become green. Remove the Acacia from the conservatory, or 
the scale insects will pass on to the other plants. Destroy the insects by 
dipping the Acacia into the following mixture :—Water, 4 gallons ; soft 
soap, 41b.; sulphur, 1 lb.; black Pepper, 4 oz.; boil together for twenty 
minutes, and use when cool. Neither White Broom nor Heaths, should 
be cut down after flowering. 
Waltonian Cases. — Mr. Hibberd has sent us copies of the woodcuts 
employed in one of the works he quoted, and they are certainly not copied 
from "that given by us in The Cottage Gardener, Yol. XV., pp. 430, 
431. The drawings and description there given were the first and the 
fullest published ; and Mr. Beaton was. the first and the most influential 
advocate of the Case. We, therefore, agree with him in thinking that in 
giving a list of the works which have illustrated the Waltonian Case, it 
was not gracious to omit either Mr. Beaton’s name, or that of The Cottage 
Gardener. 
Spergula pilifera (J. Perkins). —We shall soon have more experience 
as to the best mode of establishing it. In the meantime the best informa¬ 
tion we can give is this extract from Messrs. E. G. Henderson and Son’s 
catalogue :—“ The seed may he sown either in or out of pots in the usual 
method observed for fine seeds, with a slight but uniform covering of soil, 
and placed within either a frame, cool pit, or greenhouse, using the usual 
precaution of shading the seed-pans from intense sunlight daily for a 
few hours, until well germinated ; after which, it may either be replanted 
in stores of ten to fifty plants within dishes or large pots, or otherwise 
planted out in a rather "shady border of the open ground for a few weeks, 
and ultimately transplanted upon the prepared lawn-surface in two or 
three plants, within one inch or more of each other; and such little plant- 
groups may he formed at a distance of six, nine, or twelve inches apart; 
in such positions the growths will progressively meet and form the rich 
and beautiful surface now described. It is also admirably adapted for 
picturesque green tufts and edgings on avenue lines and borders, for 
grouping the front spaces of massive roclcwork, and surfacing partially 
raised mounds around classic fountains and basins or artistic columns, 
where grass is unavailable for mowing, and equally telling for cultivation 
in larger vases, in alternate effect with the silvery sheen of the beautiful 
Cerastium tomentosum, -on terrace verges, and architectural approaches. 
Spergula pilifera is found to succeed admirably upon any retentive, close- 
bodied loam, or heavy gravelly soil on a cool under-strata, the surface 
being rendered firm, with the top strata of prepared soil for planting in. 
After the cold spring months the seed may be safely sown on open beds, 
of east or north aspect, in such positions where the surface soil is pre¬ 
served from dry and parching winds, and easily maintained with uniform 
moisture, and from whence the seeedling plants may be thinned out lor 
transplanting to a more open situation upon large store beds, where, 
after being well established to the number required, they may, finally, 
be planted on the permanent spaces required, close in proportion to the 
aggregate number of plants on hand. The closer the store of plants admits 
of the seedlings being planted, the sooner will a rich unbroken surface of 
verdure be formed; and the more uuiformly thin the seed is sown, the 
sooner will the young plants attain a uniform vigour, and more easily and 
safely admit of transplanting.” 
Raising Seedling Verbenas (A. A .). —Crossing Verbenas does no good, 
the kinds vary too much already without crossing ; hut if you must cross, 
the operation is very tedious, because the pistil Is within the tube, and so 
is the pollen; and to make sure of a genuine cross, the flower must first he 
pulled of!' entirely, when the mother will he in danger from the exposure; 
or, secon liy, if you slit the limb and tube of the flower to get out the 
anthers, the two pieces will so flap together as to endanger the stile and 
pistil. The surest way is, to put another flower on, from which the anthers 
were taken. A Polyanthus flower is just the same thing to cross, only 
easier, from being so much larger. They arc only those who do not under¬ 
stand the thing who talk about bees inoculating Verbenas or Polyanthuses. 
Bees can do nothing of the sort, hut ants might. All the seedling Verbenas 
are natural sports, and nothing more; and all the Dahlias are just the same, 
and crossing does no more good with the one more than with the other. 
As to rearing Verbena seed, it is the same process exactly as rearing Mig- 
I nonette, only very much easier, if you have room, frames, and tact tor 
management. Verbena seeds may be sown in February, and brought for¬ 
ward to bedding-out time, then to plant out the seedlings. But it is easier, 
and as good, to sow the seeds at once in the open ground, about the end ot 
April, and to prick out the seedlings and transplant them exactly on the 
same plant as young Lettuces. 
Dasyrilion acrotrichum ( A Subscriber). —Your new plant is from 
Mexico. It requires exactly the same soil and the same kind of winter 
treatment as Tom Thumb Geraniums. It looks like a long and narrow¬ 
leaved Yucca. The leaves are sharply toothed on both edges. After you 
get it big enough to fill a ten-ineh pot, it will only want a shift once in ten 
years. We certainly mentioned it as in bloom last year at Kingston, or 
intended doing so. The flower-stalk rises from the centre to six, seven, 
or ten feet, and it blooms all the way up ; but, like the flower of the Aloe, 
it is more to talk of than to look at. 
PiNcniNG the Shoots of Annuals (J. Mignonette gives the best 
example of the effects of pinching off the long shoots and the seed-pods, 
to keep it bushy and in bloom tile whole season ; and Clarkia the best to 
show that pinching hack spoils it. The Silenes, Saponaria calabrica, 
Virginian Stocks, Sanvitaliaprocumbens, Lobelia gracilis, and all the annual 
Lupins do better by being constantly pinched back ; but Gilias, Clarkias, 
Poppies, Goodetias, Dianthuses, China Asters, Nemophilas, Portulaccas, and 
such habited kinds are soon spoiled by pinching back. 
Spergula pilifera (W. P/ayford). —The old turf must be taken off 
before the seedlings are planted. See what we have said in answer to 
another correspondent. 
Various (An Eighteen-months' Subscriber). —If you mean by the Chili 
Pine, Araucaria imbricate, it is natural to it to cast its bottom branches 
in dry soil, and in certain localities, but that does not hurt it much. The 
early growth, or young tops of the Holly, have been caught by the late 
cold easterly winds and frost; hut, if that is all, they will soon recover 
flow. June and July are a good time to put in cuttings of Double Gorse, 
and on to September! They should have a hand-glass over them on a shady 
border, and they root very easily. It is beautiful all over the banks at the 
Crystal Palace now. 
Fleming’s Salting Machine (Evesham).—It is a most effective destroyer 
of weeds. Two pounds of common salt are mixed with one gallon of water, 
and the solution, when in a boiling state, is applied to the walks. One, or 
at most two dressings, will suffice for the season. The beautiful condilion 
1 of the walks and drives at Trentham fully illustrate the efficiency of this 
j useful machine. It is manufactured by Messrs. Shanks & Son, of Arbroath. 
Names oi- Ferns (Truth ).— 1 and 3, forms of Polystichum angulare; 
2,Lastrca Filix-mas; 4, Polystichum aculeatum; 5, Lastrea FHix-mas, 
v. paleacea. 
POULTRY AND BEE-KEEPER’S CHRONICLE. 
POULTRY SHOWS. 
June 1st, 2nd, and 3rd, 1859. Bath and West of England. At Barnstaple, 
Devon. Director, S. Pitman, Esq., ltumwell Lodge, Taunton. Entries 
close May 1st. 
June 6th, 7th, and 8th, 1859. Glasgow. See., Robert M'Cowan, 17, Gordon 
Street, Glasgow. 
.Tune 16th. Essex. Sec., Robert Ellison, Halstead, Essex. Entries close 
June 1st. 
July 1st, 2nd, 4th, and 5th. Sheffield. Sec., Wm. n. Dawson, Sheffield. 
Entries close the 15th of June. 
July 21st. Prescot. Sec., Mr. James Beesley, Prescot. 
August 27th. Halifax. Sec., William Irvine, Holmfield, Ovenden, near 
Halifax. 
August 29th, 30th, 31st, and September 1st. Crystal Palace. Poultry, 
Pigeons, and Rabbits. Sec , William Houghton. 
September 22nd. Bridgnorth. Sec,, Richard Taylor, Bridgnorth. 
October 11th, 12th, and 13th. Worcestershire. Sec., Geo. Griffiths, 
7, St. Swithin Street, Worcester. 
RUN FOR CHICKENS—CRYSTAL PALACE 
SHOW. 
Ip (bis year you are fortunate enough to have any grass to 
mow, recollect that a week after the hay is carried the grass is 
the best run your chickens can have; it is fresh and healthy for 
them. 
Now, when you have many chickens about, let the rips in 
which the hens are confined be as far apart as possible. 
