415 
THE COTTAGE GAHDENEH AND COUNTRY GENTLEMAN, September 28, 1858. 
worked,—not caring to incur the expense of protecting each 
tree, and wattling with thorns being unsightly and scarcely 
less troublesome,—I am at a loss to know what to do protect 
the bark from hares, sheep, &c. Would a mixture of aloes 
and cowdung do ? or, as the latter easily washes off, would 
an application of gas-tar, with the aloes, injure the bark ? 
As I am inclined to think it would, I should be grateful for 
your opinion. Renewed once a month, with a painter’s 
brush, ought to be sufficient.—A Notice.” 
[Gas-tar is very bad indeed for fruit trees, and ill-smelling 
applications will not hinder cows, horses, and sheep from 
rubbing their greasy hides against them, as if they were posts 
set up for the very purpose. Any mess will keep hares and 
rabbits from eating the bark, as long as the mess smells very 
bad, but not longer. No messing, however, will answer for 
orchard trees : they must be individually protected, if beasts 
are allowed to graze there. The only question is, which is 
the least expensive way. No one cares to incur expense, if it 
can be avoided; but there is no way of getting out of some 
expense in this instance. The protection must be made with 
thorns, gorse, or wattling, or your trees will be ruined in a few 
years.] 
PEARS WHICH SUCCEED IN LANCASHIRE. 
I NOW send you a list of Pears which are excellent in Lanca¬ 
shire :— Jargonelle; Aston Town (first-rate on a south-wall) ; 
Beurre Grise; Comte de Lamy ; Marie Louise ; Beurre 
Bose ; Crassane; Clout Morceau; Bonne de Malines ; and 
Beurre llance. It would be easy to add to this list, but it is 
sufficient. I have, as usual, a heavy crop of Beurre de Capiau- 
mont this year, and the Pears are very large this season; but 
I consider this variety quite second-rate, though, as Mr. 
Errington says, a capital stop-gap. Is it necessary to add, that 
all these Pears, except the Aston Toivn , require a wall, and, of 
course, not a north aspect ?—W. C. 
Yucca Gloriosa. —I beg to send you an account of a fine 
Yucca gloriosa which bloomed here this summer. Its total 
height from the ground was thirteen feet, and the length of 
the flower-stem nine feet. Nearly eight feet of this stem 
was covered with expanded blooms upon forty spikelets. It 
was truly a “ glorious ” flower.—J. Colgate, Gardener to W. 
F. Wolley Fsq. } Camp den House, Kensington . 
TO CORRESPONDENTS. 
Pompone (A Correspondent). —Oar correspondent asks for “ the 
history of the word Pompone, as applied to the Chrysanthemum.” We 
shall he obliged bv information on the subject. 
Grapes Shanking (An Old Subscriber) .—The sulphur used by your 
gardener, though he wrongly applied it on bricks so hot as to injure 
the leaves, had nothing to do with the shanking of the Grapes. This 
disease occurs, apparently, from the roots not supplying the sap so fast 
as the fruit requires it. More warmth and more moisture to the soil, 
or better drainage, if the borders are wet and cold, usually prevents 
its occurrence. 
Blackberry Wine (Rose Adela). —See an answer to the same query 
at page 400. We extracted the recipe from an American paper. 
Mealy Bug ( W. H. H.). —Wash the leaves of your seedling Apples 
with tobacco water. There is no mode known of preventing the under¬ 
ground grubs attacking the stems of Cabbages. We search for them 
round a destroyed plant, kill them, and put in another plant. 
Grubs in Strawberry Bed (G. D.). — They are the larvae of the 
common cockchafer (Melolontha vulgaris). We know of no means of 
destroying them, except digging up the bed and searching for them. 
Onwards Potato ( V. A. M.).— Send twenty-four postage stamps, 
with your direction, to Mr. Smith, at Mr. Barclay’s, Printer, Win¬ 
chester, and you shall have some seed by rail. 
Holcus saccharatus (A. A.).—Cut it down, and protect the stool 
through the winter, by covering it with coal ashes. It is a biennial. It 
may produce seed in your warm Somerset gaiden. Indian Maize is 
best sown in a moderate hot-bed in March, and the plants put out into 
the open ground at the end of May. Sometimes it will ripen its heads 
if sown in the open ground in March. 
Club-root (H. A. S.). —Avoid growing the Cabbageworts, such as 
Broccoli, Cabbages, Cauliflowers, Brussel Sprouts, &c., as successional 
crops. As your ground is dry and sandy, put clay, chalk, and manure 
upon it abundantly ; give your plants plenty of liquid manure, such as 
house sewage ; and hoc the ground between the plants frequently. 
You will then have done all you can, and most probably effectually, to 
prevent the club -root or ambury. 
Celery Leaves Grub Eaten (A Yorlcshireman). — They were 
attacked by the grub of the Celery fly (Tcphritis onopordinis) . We 
know of no remedy but picking off the affected leaves and burning 
them. This prevents a brood next year too. You will see a drawing 
and description of the insect, in The Cottage Gardener, Vol. I,, 
page 73, and in the Cottage Gardeners’ Dictionary. 
Price op Tritoma and Tritonia (J. S.). —You will have seen what 
Mr. Beaton said last week, in answer to another correspondent. We 
will reply about your furnace in our next number. 
Marie Louise Pear Unfruitful (J. C. B.). — Boot-prune gradually 
and carefully, as directed by “ G. C.,” at page 378. Try ringing one 
or two branches of your vigorous tree. Cut the rings quite down to 
the wood next spring, as soon as the blossom-buds begin to open. 
Bemoving Bulbs (Jane). —Hyacinths, Tulips, Narcissus, and Crocus, 
will remove as soon as they are out of flower. Anemones and Banun- 
culuses,_will not remove well, unless they are in strong soil, andean be 
lifted with halls. The bulb will do with or without balls, if carefully 
handled, and very well attended to after removal. An open place, 
but away from the sun, is best, and they must be watered, roots and 
tops, daily, until the leaves change colour. 
Flowers in a Smoky Town (J. B. Smith).—The two Boses you 
name, and all the Boses which we could mention, will not do well in any 
town where they do not consume all the smoke. But the Calystegia 
pubescens simplex will climb up twice or three times the height of the 
double kind, in any town garden in the three kingdoms. It is now up 
to a town bedroom window, eighteen feet from the front garden ; and it 
was only planted out last spring, from a 48-pot, and it made roots 
enough for one thousand such plants another spring. The right way, 
however, would be to plant abundance of it among evergreen shrubs, 
along the banks of a lake, or up the slopes of a waterfall, and all damp, 
dark places in wildernesses. It blooms from June to October. Ours 
has been very much admired. Apply to any florist for the Calystegia. 
Mode op Heating a Small Conservatory (Honore et Virtute ).— 
You have, very commendably, given many particulars, and yet not 
quite enough to enable us to decide what would be the very best mode 
in your circumstances. For instance, what is the room used for that 
below 7 the drawing-room, and where the gas is laid on ? If that 
room is a kitchen, furnished with a boiler closed on the top, and sup¬ 
plied by a cistern and ball some two feet or so above the floor of your 
conservatory, then from that boiler you might heat your conservatory 
without more trouble than collecting the live cinders close to the 
boiler on a very cold night. AVe know of several instances where this 
mode answers admirably. Two iron pipes are fixed on the boiler, about 
a yard in length, and from thence, if the distance is at all great or 
circuitous, lead pipes are used, about the same size in diameter ; and 
these again communicate with iron, and, in some cases, with tin pipes, 
inside the house, of some three inches in diameter. The first are the 
most lasting ; the latter are cheap, and will last a number of years, 
especially if kept from rusting. For such a house you would want 
from tw T enty-l'our to thirty feet of three-inch pipe to keep your house 
comfortable in all weathers. Of course, you would require stop-cocks, 
to prevent the heat coming in in fine, warm weather. A little heat in 
dull w'eather w T ould always be an advantage, because enabling you to 
give more air. To prevent the necessity of keeping a little fire in the 
kitchen fireplace at night, other amateurs have had a small furnace 
and boiler placed in the kitchen, and only lit the fire when necessary. 
AVe have not had much personal supervision of heating such places by 
gas, and, therefore, w'ould rather direct you to previous volumes for 
information on this subject But one thing is certain, the gas itself 
cannot be too rigidly excluded from a house in which plants are grown. 
Plants suffer greatly in towns by being kept in rooms where gas is 
burned. There is not only a little escape of the gas at times, but the 
burning of large lights dries the air and robs it of its oxygen. 
In all cases of heating plant-houses with gas, we prefer that the gas- 
hurner should be outside the house to be heated. AVe have no doubt 
that such a house as yours would be kept safe by having a large in¬ 
verted funnel over a large burner, communicating with thirty feet or 
so of inch and a half piping inside the conservatory, and the end of the 
piping opening to the external air. AVe lately saw a house, much the 
same as yours, abutting on a drawing room, the drawing-room being 
above the kitchen and scullery. The house, we think, was ten feet by 
seven. In a corner of the scullery, just over one end of the conserva¬ 
tory, was placed a large gas-burner, w 7 hich could be lowered to be 
lighted at pleasure. A tin kettle, about fifteen inches in diameter, 
was placed over it, or, rather, round it; as the bottom was so hollowed 
upwards, that in no part was there more than tw r o inches depth, or, 
rather, width of water. Two three-inch pipes of the same material 
went from the kettle round the front and two ends, and nothing could 
answer better. It had then been up several years, and had required 
no repairs or attention, except brushing the bottom of the kettle clean 
every night before lighting. You should also see an account of 
Thomson’s gas-stoves; hut in every case we advise that the gas- 
burner be outside of the plant-house. Instead of having such burners 
inside, we would much rather get a small iron stove, such as is used 
for heating small shops in winter, with a small iron funnel going 
through the wall somewhere, or even through the roof, by removing a 
square of glass, and fitting in with an iron pane, using charcoal, coke, 
or clear cinders, when necessary. If the joints are well luted, there 
will be little chance of impure air escaping; and though the atmo¬ 
sphere will be dried, that can be easily guarded against by applying 
moisture, and the crannies in the door and windows, even when air is 
not given, will supply the oxygen required for combustion. This 
would be the cheapest, and, on the whole, the least troublesome, 
except you can command heat from the kitchen boiler, as the water 
there would generally be hot enough to keep out all frost without any 
extra firing. In your circumstances, too, with your house raised upon 
pillars, if, you dislike any or all of these, you could place a small furnace 
and boiler in a coiner, and use it only when wanted. A"ou will notice 
more about heating by moveable furnaces in this day’s impression. 
One thing in using them should be attended to,—it is better to use 
them longer than to make them too hot, and use them a shorter time 
for raising the necessary amount of heat. The average heat of 45° in 
winter, at night, will be quite high enough. In warm nights, a few 
degrees above it will do no harm. In very cold nights, a sinking from 45° 
