September 8, 1894 . 
THE GARDENING WORLD 
23 
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may be entrapped by placing pieces of bean-stalks 
amongst the branches infested with them. If these 
are looked over every morning and evening, and 
their contents removed—earwigs will not cause a 
great deal of trouble. 
Plums. —In most districts these are a very 
plentiful crop. The long continued wet of July and 
August has, however, caused a great deal of the fruit 
to crack. In localities where cracking is very 
prevalent, affected fruit should be gathered, used at 
once for domestic purposes, as if left upon the tree 
too long they will only fall victims to wasps, wood- 
lice, etc., and their appearance render them useless 
as a dessert fruit. Although often a shy bearer, the 
Washington is this year carrying heavy crops 
Peaches and Nectarines. — The succession 
shoots of such trees as have been stripped of their 
fruit will now require attention. If too crowded 
they must be thinned out, and those which are to be 
left, neatly nailed or tied in. Tying in too much 
wood is an error into which gardeners (especially 
young gardeners) often fall, but it is a great mistake 
to do so nevertheless. The garden engine should be 
brought into requisition, and all wall trees from 
which the fruit has been removed should receive 
copious syringings as often as possible. 
Gooseberries and Strawberries. —Gooseberries 
on a north wall may be (if netted) preserved for a 
while yet, although they will deteriorate in flavour. 
Ground may now be prepared where new planta¬ 
tions of Strawberries are to be made, and planting 
may be carried on in dull weather preferably. A 
good dressing of manure should be applied, and the 
ground trenched to the depth of at least two feet. 
In planting, the distance from plant to plant, as well 
as the amount of space between the rows, must be 
governed to a certain extent by the variety which is 
being planted. Thus such large leaved varieties as 
Keens’s Seedling and President will need more room 
than the smaller leaved sorts, such as Sir Charles 
Napier. A space of 2 ft. between the rows, and from 
18 in. to 20 in. between the plants will, however, be 
amply sufficient in a general way. If the young 
plants are in pots they will experience but 
little check from the shifting of quarters. When they 
are planted in the open ground in nursery beds, as is 
often the case, more care will be needed. Lift the 
plants with as good balls as possible, and carry 
them on a hand barrow to their destination, planting 
as soon as possible with a spade or a trowel. Avoid 
having too many plants out of the ground at once, 
and do not plant too deeply to cover the heart of the 
plant. Give a thorough watering when the opera¬ 
tion is completed.— A. S. G. 
-- 
Vines.— The earlier houses will now be cleared or 
nearly so of fruit. They should be thrown right open 
to assist in the ripening of the wood so necessary if 
a good crop is expected next year. Where ripe fruit 
is hanging a sharp look out must be kept for bad 
berries. These should be cut out with the scissors 
as soon as noticed as one bad berry soon makes two. 
Where wasps prove troublesome it is often necessary 
to cover the bunches with fine netting. The late 
vinery will need a minimum night temperature of 6o° 
Fahr. rising to 8o° by day with sun heat. Plenty of 
air should, however, be given as this will materially 
assist the colouring of the berries and improve the 
flavour of the fruit as well as affording egress for in¬ 
jurious exhalations. To keep up the requisite 
temperature and at the same time maintain such a 
circulation of air, fire heat will be necessary during 
the night as well as the day in dull weather. 
Figs. —These will require a plentiful supply of 
water. If the growth be not too rank, liquid manure 
may be given to assist in swelling the fruit. As the 
fruit ripens less water will be necessary, but neither 
the border nor pots must be allowed to get 
dry. 
Peach Houses from which the fruit has been 
picked will need to be freely exposed to the action 
of the sun and air to mature their growth. In the 
latter houses any leaves shading the fruit should be 
pushed aside to allow the sun's rays to perform its 
work in ripening, or the fruit will be comparatively 
poor with regard to flavour. This is especially the 
case with Royal George and Barrington. The 
former usually ripens about the beginning, the latter 
towards the middle and end of September. Both 
are alike, however, in needing free exposure to the 
sun to develop the flavour of their fruit. 
Melons. —As the month wears on so will the 
natural heat of the sun diminish. The housesshould 
therefore be closed early and more artificial heat 
given. Where fruit is ripening the supply of water 
may be reduced, although in bright weather an 
occasional sprinkling of the foliage with the syringe 
will do no harm. The laterals should be kept closely 
pinched out so as to throw all the vigour of the 
plants into the work of swelling and ripening of the 
fruit.— A. S. G. 
THE VEGETABLE GARDEN. 
Globe Artichokes. 
Heads of these will now be getting scarce, and all 
but the latest batch of suckers that were put in last 
spring will have ceased to throw up flower spikes. 
All those from which the heads have been taken 
should be cut down and the ground between the 
plants cleaned. In some gardens it is the practice 
to blanch the young growth to be used as a substi¬ 
tute for Cardoons, and where the plants have grown 
freely blanching may be commenced. This is done 
by drawing the foliage together with straw bands, 
then covering with soil to exclude the air. Quite six 
weeks should be allowed for them to blanch thor¬ 
oughly, for if this be not well done they are of but 
little worth. The young growth when blanched is 
called “ Chards." 
Arrears of Work. 
The late glorious weather has done much to help 
forward the work in the kitchen garden, as owing to 
such a long dull showery time there has been much 
difficulty in keeping down the weeds, for in spite of 
constant hoeing they still seemed to get the upper 
hand. Last week, however, was a good time to free all 
growing crops of them, so that the plants may have 
the full benefit of the sun. It has also been a good 
time for ripening and gathering in seeds, and for 
taking up and storing Potatos. Much as such work 
demands attention, it should not be overlooked, that 
all young crops also require constant care, and as 
these are to form the supplies for future use they 
ought to have the first thought bestowed upon them. 
The plants from the first sowing of cabbage seed will 
by this be large enough to transplant in their per¬ 
manent quarters, and if this cannot be done at once 
they should be pricked out to prevent them becoming 
drawn. Onions sown last month must be freed from 
all weeds, and have a gentle sprinkling with water 
each evening so long as this hot weather continues to 
prevent them receiving a check. For if this happens 
now they will not grow strong afterwards. Last 
season when the weather was so dry some of those 
sown in August formed bulbs about the size of 
marbles, they were planted out in October, and in the 
spring started into growth, but they did not make 
anything like such fine bulbs as those which received 
no check. 
Both Lettuce and Endive must be transplanted as 
the plants become large enough to handle, and the 
late sowings of Turnips and Spinach will need 
thinning. Such then is the pressing work in the 
kitchen garden, and with so many other tasks just 
now all crying out for labour, the gardener is put to 
his wits’ end to know what to do first, but as time 
overtakes all things so will it overtake the arrears of 
work, though it may be not till too late for the full 
benefit of our labours to manifest themselves this 
season. The Mushroom house, too, is often neglected, 
owing to the press of other important work, for while 
during the summer months when it has been empty, 
all necessary repairs might have been done without 
hindrance, such are often neglected till the 
house is wanted for making up the first beds. 
Where any such work is needed no time should 
now be lost in getting it done. 
The store house too, should receive attention. 
The walls ought to have a coat of lime wash to make 
the place sweet, and if any of the shelves require 
repairs, this should be put in hand without delay. 
All old lights should be repaired and got ready for 
covering, as frost will soon be upon us. There is 
now an abundance of French Beans, and if these are 
picked off and put into earthen pans and sprinkled 
with salt they will keep good till Christmas. Avoid 
putting too many together or they will become heated. 
When the pans are filled they should be covered 
over to keep out the dust.— Kitchen Gardener. 
A Plague of Caterpillars.—Evils and misfortunes 
as a rule do not happen singly, but in companies. 
After the plague had been raging for some time in 
Hong-Kong, coolie labour became scarce owing to 
the numbers that had left the place. To this 
succeeded a plague of caterpillars which threatened 
to completely destroy the Pine trees and thus undo 
the labours of the Forest Department. Nevertheless, 
an offer of five cents for every catty (1J pound of our 
weight) of the caterpillars was too good to be 
neglected, for a large number of coolies set to work, 
and collected, according to the report, nearly twenty- 
five tons of caterpillars. This had the desired effect 
and the insects appeared to be exterminated, but 
doubtless many have escaped by passing into the 
pupa stage, and some will be sure to have been over¬ 
looked. In any case the process should be repeated 
next year in order to still further reduce the numbers 
of the troublesome moth. 
The Mummy Pea Again.—Two years ago come 
December next a gentleman obtained nearly twenty 
seeds of the Mummy Pea in Egypt and sent them 
home to a friend who distributed them to the gardens 
of Mosfennan, Spittalbaugh, Netherird, and amongst 
the villagers. The seeds were said to have been 
taken from the hands of a mummy, where they had 
been deposited about 3,000 or 4,000 years ago. One 
would like to have the mummy’s version of this and 
similar stories which continue to be received by the 
ubiquitous traveller and others in all good faith. 
For many years past there have been sufficient 
quantities of the Pea in this country to overburden 
all the mummies of Egypt. The villagers were 
delighted with the beauty of the flowers, the strong 
growth and peculiar habit of the plant. The stem 
is stout, fasciated, and bears the flowers in a cluster 
at the top, and the pods are small, containing only a 
few seeds. In short, the curiosity is simply a 
fasciated, but otherwise very little improved variety 
of the common garden Pea, which has probably been 
cultivated in Egypt for centuries past. As far as 
beauty is concerned we consider the flowers of the 
field Pea, grown for feeding horses and cattle, far 
darker in colour and superior in point of beauty, 
while its stems are more graceful and the pods 
larger. The story of the seeds keeping alive for 
3,000 or 4,000 years ought to have been as dead as 
the mummy from which the seeds were said to have 
been stolen. 
Felling trees with electricity.—There is no 
end of work to be done in the future by electricity 
when the methods have been discovered. Amongst 
some of the more recent purposes to which it has 
been applied, is that of felling trees. A platinum 
wire is stretched between two poles, and is then 
heated till it becomes incandescent. It is then 
drawn tightly round the base of the tree, into which 
it penetrates by burning its way. The tree is thus 
brought to the ground in about one-eighth of the 
time necessary for felling it by the usual method of 
sawing. 
Cherry-trees on the house tops.—During the 
rainy weather some time ago it was discovered that 
the gutter on the roof of a house on Ludgate Hill 
was choked. A man was sent up to ascertain the 
cause and clear it, when he found four or five 
healthy young Cherry-trees growing in it. How 
they got there was ascertained upon remembering 
that a party of sight-seers on the Royal Wedding 
day of the previous year, sat upon the house-top to 
see the procession pass and while waiting, regaled 
themselves with cherries, the stones of which were 
allowed to drop there, thus explaining the strange 
position of the trees. Birds might have done the 
same thing, but the absence of cherry orchards in 
the neighbourhood precludes the idea. 
Nitrates in Egypt.—Some months ago a deposit 
of nitrate bearing beds were discovered in Upper 
Egypt, and since then more exact information has 
been obtained regarding the same. The beds are 
50ft. to 60ft. thick, and consist of thin layers of 
socene marl with veins of white gypsum, crustations 
of common salt and some sulphate of sodium. The 
nitrate occurs at the rate of one to 17 5 per cent, but 
doubts are still entertained as to whether the dis¬ 
covery is sufficiently valuable to pay for working. In 
the meantime about forty tons of the crude material 
have been sent to Cairo to ascertain their full value 
before finally pronouncing upon them. 
