42 
THE GARDENING WORLD, 
September 19, 1885. 
FRUITS, FLOWERS & VEGETABLES. 
To Keep Wasps Out of Fruit Houses.— 
When at Elvaston Castle Gardens the other day, I 
noticed buckets containing tar in some of the vineries 
and Peach-houses. Being of an inquisitive nature, I 
asked Mr. Goodacre what they were there for, and 
received the frank reply, ‘ ‘ That’s the way to keep wasp3 
out of fruit-houses. ” He has tried this plan, and found 
it a complete success. As I know these-pests area 
great trouble to many of our brother gardeners, I ask 
them to try Mr. Goodacre’s plan, and let you know the 
result. The materials used are cheap enough to be 
within everybody’s reach, and Mr. Goodacre assured me 
that he had not seen a wasp or bee in his houses since 
he has used the tar in this manner.— Alfred Outram. 
The St. John’s Worts. — To the Hypericums to 
which “J.,” p. 21, calls attention, I would add H. 
oblongifolium (very beautiful), H. aureum, and H. 
giandulosum. The last, though the flower is not 
large, is beautiful as a shrub, especially when in fruit. 
I have not tried H. triflorum out of doors, and unless 
it comes from a great height it is not likely to be hardy. 
I would gladly exchange H. oblongifolium for it if 
“J.” has small plants.— George F. Wilson, Heather- 
bank, Weybridge Heath. 
Pansies, diseased. —The Pansies in this district 
(South of Scotland) have this season been subject to 
some kind of disease. I have just been looking over a 
bed, one half or more of the plants in which have 
perished, and I find other growers complain of the same 
thing. I send you one or two of the plants, and should 
be glad to know if you have heard of any such com¬ 
plaints from other districts. — R. F. [Are you sure the 
disease of your Pansies is anything more than the bad 
effect of the late hot and dry summer? We can see 
no trace of disease as caused by insect or fungoid 
parasites. Pansies are, however, sometimes badly at¬ 
tacked by fungi, and in the incipient state of the disease 
or diseases thus set up, the diseased plants are not to 
be distinguised from yours. We, however, do not 
think your plants are “diseased” in the true sense of 
the term, but that they are probably suffering from the 
drought of the late summer. Many cultivated plants— 
for instance, turnips— are now, in some places, exactly 
in the condition of your Pansies. — TV. G. &] 
Roses in Winter. —I have a house of Poses 
planted out in beds (Niphetos and kindred varieties) 
and want them to bloom in winter. They have been 
planted twelve months, and have grown freely this 
summer. Should I keep them growing, or should I 
take the lights off and give them a rest for a month or 
six weeks. If someone experienced in rose-growing 
would help me in this matter, I should be greatly 
obliged.— A. Swanson, Barton-on-Humber. 
The Fruit Trees at Trant Court. —With refer¬ 
ence to your note at p. 27, I may say that when Mr. 
Henderson took charge of the gardens about eight 
years ago, he found that most of the fruit trees had 
been planted without names, as bought at a nursery 
sale, so that he had to wait until they fruited before 
he could get to know what they were. A few solitary 
ones fruited, and proved to be good varieties, although 
much cankered. Mr. Henderson suggested to his em¬ 
ployer that it would be much better to plant a few 
varieties which he knew would suit the locality—such 
Pears as Easter Beurre, Winter Nelis, Josephine de 
Malines, Beurre Langelier, Vicar of Winkfield ; aud of 
Apples, Cox’s Orange, Kerry Pippin, Worcester Pear- 
main, &e.; but owing to various causes, until last autumn, 
no changes had been made, several trees which had 
been planted only in clay, and much too deeply, were 
dug up, the clay thrown in ridges, and the trees root- 
pruned, as many of the roots had perished. They were 
then banked up with light refuse from the rubbish heap 
and staked ; owing to the drought of 1884 fruit buds 
had been formed, but the trees looked sickly and would 
undoubtedly have perished. This season they have 
done well, made a better growth, and carry as fine a 
lot of fruit as anyone could desire. In another part of 
the garden were the soil is more open on a sandy sub¬ 
soil, some large plum trees were dug up and fresh 
planted, not a single tree succumbed, but bore an extra 
crop of fine fruit. The kitchen garden at Trant Court 
is not walled in owing to a fresh dislike to interfere with 
the picturesque landscape seen from the house. Walls 
would indeed be an eyesore from any point. The soil 
varies very considerably, no less than four different sorts 
of soil and subsoil being found in the garden, and in 
many parts there is scarcely a foot of good soil before 
clay, sand, gravel, or marl is reached.— J. F>. 
Potatos cracking.—Although I have not un- 
frequently met with split potatos, yet I have previously 
not heard of that complaint being made about Reading 
Russett. So far as my experience goes, cracking is at¬ 
tributable to check in swelling from drought and then 
to sudden renewed expansion through heavy rain falling. 
Of course that would only happen when the tops were 
still green, and would not result in such a season as the 
present ; for instance, when rain fall heavily after the 
greater part of the early and second early kind had 
died off. But whilst I have met with cracked tubers 
in the wet, I have never met with any which split after 
lifting. That is a marvellous and, I think, most un¬ 
wonted feature, owing entirely to some local circum¬ 
stances, as for instance, the tubers being lifted whilst 
the skins were yet thin and tender, or they may have 
been removed from a hot parched soil direct into a 
store or cellar, in which the atmosphere was moist; or 
even have been buried in some material holding mois¬ 
ture, and thus caused an unlooked for expansion of flesh 
through absorbtion. Of course, this theory hinges 
entirely upon the capacity of the Potato to absorb 
moisture after it has been lifted from the soil, a point 
upon which we have no evidence either way. If the 
moisture theory will not account for this posthumous 
cracking, then it' may perchance arise from change of 
temperature. The subject is an interesting one for the 
plant physiologist, and worthy of keen observation by 
scientists. Frost and excessive heat alike produce just 
the same effect upon Potatos, Apples, &c., for these 
natural phenomena cause the sap cell or, more properly 
speaking, the cellular tissue, of which these fruits are 
composed to expand equally ; and the outer coating, 
like that of a steam-press,ed boiler, must burst in the 
end. It may be taken for granted that some such 
action is operating in Potatos to create this splitting, 
but how really produced yet we can but imagine or 
suggest, and probably at present none can fully demon¬ 
strate.— A. J). 
Middle Men and Fruit Growers.—Noticing 
the remarks in your number for August 29th, on the 
low returns made to growers by London market sales¬ 
men, I may say that your observations apply with 
equal force to the provinces. I could add numbers of 
complaints made by fruit growers in this district, but 
confine myself to sending you the following cutting 
from the Peterborough Advertiser, of August, 29th :— 
‘ ‘ Gooseberry Grower” asks :—“How is it, that a salesman 
in the London Spitalfields market, should only forward 
to me his net sum of £33 2s. 5 d. for 25 tons of the 
finest samples of gooseberries that were to be found in 
the third week of the present season, when the ruling 
market price, averaged, taking the three days that they 
were delivered, £5 is. llid. per ton ? Will they still 
assert that we do not buy over and over again, in the 
first transaction we may have with them, their tubs, 
baskets, and bags ? Can I, out of that £33 odd, pay 
the cost of gathering and packing, which, exclusive of 
rent, rates, and taxes, amounts to at least £2 per ton ?” 
I am myself an extensive fruit grower in Hunts, and 
being well situated for using the Great Eastern Railway, 
it is my intention to open a fruit and vegetable shop in 
the north-east of London, to retail all I can at a reason¬ 
able price, and sell the remainder wholesale myself in 
a market. I should esteem it a favour if any of your 
correspondents would advise me in the matter. In the 
district selected, there should be some extensive works 
going on, and a market near the Great Eastern Railway, 
but where is there such a district ? Would Stratford 
be suitable ?— A Hunts Fruit-grower 
The Vineries at Barassie.—The Grape crops 
in the Vineries at Barassie, a place situated near the 
sea shore, some six miles north of Ayr, are remarkably 
fine, and worthy of a note in your columns. Barassie 
belonged to the late D. Y. Stewart, Esq. and subse¬ 
quently to his widow, owing to whose death it was 
put up for sale on the 9th inst. Four of the five 
vineries are span-roofed, and the fifth a three-quarter 
span ; the first is 120 ft. long, 21 ft. wide, and 9 ft. 
high, and planted with Alicante, Lady Downe’s Seed¬ 
ling, and Mrs. Pince’s Black Muscat, of which, Mr. 
Cockburne, the gardener, speaks in the highest terms 
as regards its long keeping qualities ; he has kept it till 
March without a shrivelled berry. The second house is 
100 ft. long, 13 ft. wide, and 13 feet high, and planted 
with Alicantes, a few Lady Downe’s Seedling, Muscat, 
and Golden Champion, a variety of which with Duke 
of Buccleueh, the late Mr. Stewart was very fond. In 
the third house, which is 90 ft. long, 29 ft. wide, and 
21 ft. high, are Alicantes, Lady Downe’s Seedling, Gros 
Colmar, and Mrs. Pince’s Black Muscat ; and in the 
fourth, which is 61 ft. long, 15 ft. wide, and 13 ft. 
high, Black Hamburgh, and Duke of Buccleuch occupy 
36 ft. run of the structure, the remainder being devoted 
to Tomatos ; while the three-quarter span, 43 ft. long, 
13 ft. wide, and 13 feet high, contains, Black Ham¬ 
burgh, and Golden Champion only. In all the houses 
the crops are remarkably heaw, and of fine quality — 
J. D. 
San day’s Seedling Potato.— This Potato is 
claimed as a distinct seedling, and is said to be a cross be¬ 
tween Crystal Palace and River’s Royal Ashleaf. This 
reputed parentage appears to be a kind of afterthought, 
for, to the best of my knowledge, no mention was made of 
this when it was first shown at the Crystal Palace. Having 
grown it, I fail to see any difference between it and the 
ordinary Lapstone, though it is said to be less pointed 
than that variety 7 . As other of your readers have no 
doubt grown it, it will be interesting to learn what is 
their estimate of it. I should hesitate to show it and 
the Lapstone in a collection of twelve varieties. — E. W. 
Mutisia decurrens.— Earnest as “J.” (p. 21) 
is in his praise of this lovely climber, he does not over¬ 
rate its merits in any point; for it certainly is a plant 
of great beauty. With regard to its management and 
propagation, and the skill in its cultivation for which 
he is kind enough to give me credit, I am bound to 
say that I never found the plant either difficult to 
grow or propagate. I consider it just such a plant as 
Tropceolum speciosum—one that will grow itself if put 
in a proper position, in a soil and situation that it 
likes, but which no amount of coaxing will even get it 
to live in a place that is not suitable. Knowing that 
most people failed to propagate the plant, I carefully 
studied it, and from its habit, and from the delicate 
woolly covering of its young growths, I came to the 
conclusion that the failure arose from the cuttings 
being kept too damp and close. I therefore made up 
some cutting pots of turfy loam, watered them well 
overnight and next day, taking off a number of young 
side shoots (with a heel where possible), I dibbled 
them in in the usual way, and placed them alongside 
the parent plant, which was in a shady part of a 
Camellia house. The part of the house in which they 
were was rather moist, and so the cuttings did not 
require water for several days, although no bell-glass 
or frame was put over them. In a fortnight or so they 
were well rooted, and potted off' singly-. Afterwards, 
I never had any trouble in striking the young side 
shoots whenever I could get them, aud I found that 
they rooted freely if only just stuck in the soil in 
which the old plant was planted. M. decurrens is just 
one of those plants which if one old specimen is de¬ 
pended on, that one invariably goes off suddenly ; but 
if several young ones are propagated and tided in 
several ways, a place can generally be found where it ' 
can take care of itself. I believe the cuttings would 
strike root well out-doors like Pelargoniums . — James 
O'Brien. 
Birds.—I have just been engaged putting a large 
number of fine Marie Louise Pears into paper, indeed, 
tbe wall now resembles one large head in curl papers, 
and I have to thank the mischievous tom-tits that so 
much labour is needful. It is, indeed, exasperating to 
find day 7 after day 7 that these little creatures are spoiling 
all the best fruits, simply by peeking holes in them 
close to the stems. Netting a big area of wall is out of 
the question, especially 7 if one has no nets, aud as I 
cannot be always on the look-out with a gun, the 
putting the Pears into paper seems to be the only 
means of keeping the birds out of mischief. But 
whilst the tom-tits are worrying me in this way the 
sparrows have set on voraciously to a batch of Lettuces 
seeding, and I am compelled to cut it, and get the 
seed under cover, really before it is as ripe as 
desirable. What makes the matter so much more 
aggravating is that in some years the Lettuce seed gets 
very much eaten by 7 maggots, and if the birds would 
destroy these they would do good service. This season 
maggots seem to be scarce, but birds are, alas, extra 
plentiful, hence seed is destroyed wholesale. But the 
