THE GARDENING WORLD. 
January 18 , 1856. 
bis 
particularly the first sowing, and cover them with 
squares of glass to keep them close and free from too 
much water. When the seedlings are large enough 
to handle, prick them off into shallow pans, and 
before they become crowded pot off into small 6o's, 
shifting on as required, but do not go beyond 32-size 
pots. I myself prefer 48's. During the summer 
months they delight in slight shade from the burning 
rays of the sun, but shading must not be overdone or 
the foliage will become weak and drawn, for dwarf, 
sturdy habit enhances the beauty of Primulas. 
During the summer months ours were grown in 
two light boxes facing north, and stood on ashes 
which helps to keep them cool during hot weather. 
When the days became cooler and the nights longer, 
they were transferred to a brick pit facing south; 
but during that tropical week—the last in September 
—we found it beneficial to shade them with mats for 
a few hours each day. Those that still remain in 
the pit are given a little heat, ventilation according 
to weather, and we leave a little on all night to keep 
them cool and dispel damp. Primulas, particularly 
when in bloom, dislike humidity and coddling.— 
George Potts, January 6th. 
-4.- 
ESSEX SCHOOL OF HORTICULTURE. 
Winter Term, 1896. 
A short course of instruction in the Science and 
Practice of Horticulture will be given at the County 
Technical Laboratories, Chelmsford, during the 
first three weeks in February, 1896. The classes 
will be held daily. The course is intended to impart 
sound elementary instruction in the cultivation of 
plants, based upon a knowledge of plant physiology. 
The teaching throughout will be practical; every 
lecture will be abundantly illustrated, and imme¬ 
diately followed by demonstrations and individual 
practical work by the students themselves. There 
will be weekly revisions and tutorial classes, at 
which questions may be asked and puzzling or 
obscure matters more fully discussed and explained. 
The students will be required to attend each class¬ 
meeting, and to keep a daily record of the work done, 
and will also be expected to devote one hour and a 
half each evening to reading and study. 
The course is open to candidates resident in the 
county, between the ages of fourteen and twenty-five 
years, and who must be either already employed in 
a garden or seeking such employment. Selected 
candidates working satisfactorily will receive free 
instruction, use of instruments, tools, &c., and the 
Committee, at their discretion, will grant to selected 
candidates a maintenance allowance not exceeding 
fifteen shillings per week, during the course. One 
railway fare to and from Chelmsford will also be 
allowed. Application must be made on printed 
forms, which may be had of the secretary, and 
which must be filled up and returned on or before 
the 25th January, 1896. 
Any further information respecting the course of 
instruction may be obtained from the Staff-Lecturer 
on Biology (Mr. David Houston, F. L. S., County 
Technical Laboratories); but all business com¬ 
munications, and all applications for forms, should be 
addressed to the Secretary, Mr. J. H. Nicholas, at 
the County Offices, Chelmsford. See advertisement 
on another page. 
TOMATO PRELUDE IMPROVED. 
Slowly, but how surely, do seasons come round, 
bringing to many, and especially those where the 
pocket is the chief consideration, a greater desire for 
better results with regard to Tomato culture, even if 
previous ones have been fairly profitable. One of 
the chief points in Tomato-growing for profit is the 
selection of a good variety. It should be of good 
flavour, smooth, of good shape and medium size, 
and lastly, but one of the most important of all 
qualities, it should be free and a good bearer. This 
ideal Tomato will command a good price in any 
market, instead of being an eyesore in a shop 
window, as many fruits of the corrugated stamp 
most assuredly are. Tomato Prelude Improved 
possesses all the above points, and is without excep¬ 
tion, either for market or the dessert table, the best 
variety in cultivation. The only thing I find is that 
it won't take a prize at a show. However, we all 
know that it is the largest to which this honour falls, 
irrespective of flavour or even shape. I find this 
variety is at its best in a 12-in. pot, and I have 
averaged nine to ten pounds to each plant treated in 
this way. 
The subject of Tomato culture being rather a 
heavy item for one note I purpose in next week’s 
issue to give the best system of growing for early 
work, as intending growers should now lose no time 
in commencing operations.— J. G. Pettinger, Straw¬ 
berry Dale Nursery, Harrogate. 
-- 
KEROSENE EMULSION. 
To many gardeners the above expression will sound 
familiar, and to others it may seem an enigma, but 
a little reflection on the matter here related will 
solve the question easily. But what is Kerosene ? 
some may ask. It is described as a liquid hydro¬ 
carbon or oil extracted from bituminous coal, used 
for illumination and other purposes. Hundreds 
would name it paraffin ; but though every gardener 
in this country would readily grasp the meaning of 
that, the term would be incorrect, inasmuch as 
paraffin is a solid and cystallised substance. Petro¬ 
leum comes nearer the name for it, and it is in fact 
largely used. It is simply rock oil, which exudes 
from the earth in certain districts or is obtained from 
wells and springs by boring in order to make a 
passage for the liquid. There is, therefore, some 
distinction between kerosene, petroleum, and 
paraffin ; but all are hydro-carbons, and largely 
used for various purposes, including that of illumin¬ 
ation. In the particular case under notice, it is to 
be used as an insecticide, both as a preventive and 
for the destruction of all insects, such as scale and 
mealy bug. American blight, and all other insects 
that obtain their nourishment from plants by sucking 
their juices in contradistinction to those that actually 
gnaw and eat the foliage or other parts of the plants. 
This class of insects is, unfortunately, too common, 
but may be thoroughly kept under, as many a good 
gardener has proved. There are several methods of 
effecting this end, but the best form of emulsion is 
that under notice. 
Petroleum is often advocated as a good remedy 
against scale insects, but the term employed is 
paraffin. The crude material merely mixed with 
water is a dangerous article in careless hands, as 
many know to their cost. It has been repeatedly 
used with success ; but if the emulsion only were 
employed, the inexperienced might use it without 
danger of bad results. Mr. James 'Gibson, of 
Devonhurst, Chiswick, prepares it in a very simple 
way. He takes one pound of soft soap, and dis¬ 
solves it in a pint of milk over a slow fire. The 
solution is then taken off the fire, and a gallon of 
a good sample of petroleum is added to it. The 
petroleum is slowly poured into the soap solution, 
which is kept well stirred all the time. A wine glass¬ 
ful of the mixture is added to a gallon of rain water, 
stirred up, and is then ready for use immediately. 
The emulsion may, however, be kept till required 
for use at any time. 
When he took the gardens at Devonhurst in hand 
the stove plants were in a filthy state with scale of 
various kinds and mealy bug. The Peach trees 
were in the same condition, but all that has been 
thoroughly altered. Last year there was little or no 
fruit upon the Peach trees. Now they are perfectly 
clean, with robust, short-jointed wood, and bore an 
excellent crop of large and luscious fruits, weighing 
close upon a pound each. Last year the trees were 
frequently syringed with the emulsion, according to 
the above formula, and so effectually were the scale 
and bug destroyed that the trees have been per¬ 
fectly clean all last season, and the shoots are 
now well furnished with plump buds. The 
stove plants are also clean and healthy, with glossy 
foliage, dark green or coloured as the case may be. 
They include Palms, Dracaenas, Pandanus, Acaly- 
phas, Ferns, and various other subjects, to which 
the emulsion has not been in the slightest degree 
injurious, but beneficial rather than otherwise, 
judging from appearances. The destruction of the 
insects has prevented injury to the leaves, which 
have undoubtedly benefited by the surface being 
kept clean and th* pores open. The epidermis has a 
glossy appearance as if oiled. 
Seeing that the emulsion is so easily prepared, so 
effective and yet so harmless to the plants, the ques¬ 
tion arises whether gardeners should not give up 
petroleum or paraffin (so-called) altogether and adopt 
this simple preparation of petroleum emulsion. 
Several other formulas are given, differing from the 
above in slight respects. For instance, the Riley- 
Hubbard Formula for kerosene emulsion is given as 
follows:—Kerosene oil, two gallons; common soap or 
whale oil soap, half a pound ; and water, one gallon. 
The soap is to be dissolved in boiling water over a 
brisk fire, and when perfectly dissolved, the solution 
should be taken from the fire and the oil added. 
The mixture should then be violently agitated with a 
force pump or syringe, according to the quantity, 
until the emulsion forms a cream-like paste. For 
use against scale insects dilute one part of the 
emulsion with nine parts of rain water and apply it 
in the form of a spray. 
Milk-kerosene emulsion consists of two gallons of 
kerosene to one gallon of sour milk. It is prepared 
precisely in the same way as the foregoing. The 
Department of Agriculture at Washington recom¬ 
mends one gallon of kerosene oil to half a gallon of 
cow’s milk, either sour or fresh. This is thoroughly 
agitated in the cold state until the compound assumes 
the form of a thin paste or butter. For use, dilute 
one pint of this creamy mixture with one and a half 
gallons of rain water, adding it gradually and con¬ 
stantly stirring it until the whole of the water has 
been added. This is used for spraying the trunks 
and branches of fruit trees that are infested with any 
kind of scale, and does not injure che trees in any 
way. 
--*•- 
MESSRS. LAING’S PRIMULAS. 
We have for some years past been noting the 
improvements being effected in the strain of Chinese 
Primulas, in the nurseries of Messrs. J. Laing & Sons, 
Forest Hill. As we were going to press last week, 
a box of blooms reached us from this well-known 
firm, and contained a great variety of beautiful 
colours from the purest white to vermilion and dark 
crimson, or as near those shades as we find them 
amongst Chinese Primulas. Amongst the white 
varieties was a bloom measuring 2 in. in diameter, 
with the segments overlapping to such an extent as 
to give the flower a semi-double appearance. 
Another distinct white was nearly as good. A blush 
variety was also noteworthy, and the large greenish- 
orange eye was very conspicuous in all the three light 
colours. From this point the colours ranged through 
soft and dark pink, rose, dark salmon, light and dark 
purple, to brilliant shades of carmine and crimson. 
The carmine flowers were beautifully shaded with 
violet in the centre. It may be remarked that the 
most intense colours were shown by the smaller 
flowers, while very large flowers were mostly pale. 
This is a characteristic feature of all strains of this 
popular flower as far as we remember. Dark purple 
flowers are intermediate in size. A dark blue one will 
also commend itself for the sake of the variety it affords. 
All of the above were single flowers, but the collec¬ 
tion contained a semi-double white and a very good 
vermilion that cultivators will doubtlessly appreciate. 
Perfectly double sorts included a white and rich pink ; 
but from appearances, these two would have to be 
propagated from cuttings. The others above- 
mentioned, including the semi-double ones, produce 
seeds. As a collection they should meet the re¬ 
quirements of most establishments. 
« l «- 
RAISING FERNS FROM SPORES. 
For some reason or reasons unknown the idea is 
pretty widely disseminated that the operation of 
raising Ferns from spores is a somewhat difficult 
one, and that the success in this direction that 
attends the efforts of any other than an expert is apt 
to be decidedly precarious. True enough the sowing 
of Fern spores requires some delicacy of manipula¬ 
tion, but not more than that required by the various 
minute seeds which will soon be handled in enormous 
quantities by gardeners all over the country. But 
is it not difficult to induce many of them to 
germinate ? is the query with which some of our 
readers may greet us. Not to any abnormal degree, 
must be the reply ! Certain it is that some kinds are 
rather more fractious than others, but none are 
unmanageable. Many of the commoner kinds may 
be observed to be growing on walls, beneath stages, 
or, indeed, anywhere that they can obtain the 
necessary moisture in scores of our plant houses. 
Where such chance-dropped spores germinate so 
readily and produce healthy and vigorous little 
plants, surely there should be no difficulty in getting 
others to grow in pots or pans that have been 
specially prepared to receive them, and, we suppose, 
made up in such a way as to test suit their special 
proclivities. 
