746 
THE GARDENING WORLD. 
September 17, 1904. 
successfully conveyed to Europe, and thus become another 
article of commercial exports on a large scale. The experi¬ 
ments in this direction are being continued by officers of the 
Department of Agriculture. 
There were 1,493 acres under Pineapples in, 1903, against 
1,101 acres in the previous year, an increase- of 392 acres. 
The production last year was 340,832 dozen, and in 1902 it 
was 260,444 dozen, an increase of 80,388 dozen. The 
average yield per acre each year was 228 dozen, and 237 dozen 
respectively. Brisbane Petty Session District embraces 
nearly 'half the Pineapple cultivation and production, of the 
State; from the 601 acres planted there, 155,370 dozen were 
marketed. A large export trade in Pineapple® with the 
Southern States obtains. 
Winter Mignonette. 
Mignonette is always welcome ait any time -of the year, if 
only for its sweet and lasting scent, and a- good batch in winter 
and early spring is doubly acceptable at a time when most 
flowers, are: scarce. For a supply, seed may be sown any time 
in, August or September. Forty-eight sized pots a-rei best 
suited for the purpose, using a compost of 'two: parts fibrous 
loam, one part leaf soil, and one part rotten manure from an 
old hotbed. Some lime rubb-lei and sand should be mixed 
with this; and -the whole passed through an inch sieve. 1 
would not advise a finer soil, as it is apt to become sour, and 
the seed will germinate just as readily. Fill -the pots* up to 
within an inch of the rim, and press moderately firm. About 
ten or twelve seeds will be sufficient for each pot, as they can 
be thinned ouit afterwards. A sprinkling of fine soil over the 
seed will suffice, and waiter in with a fine rose can. The pots 
should bei placed in a cold frame and shaded "until the seed 
has germinated. Do not water unless they are quite dry, or 
failure will result, as Mignonette much dislikes ai wet state 
at the roots when young. As soon as the seedlings are large 
enough to handle, thin them out to about five or six in, each 
pot, leaving the strongest, and most promising plants. Should 
the weather be wet and cold, remove the plants to a. shelf in a, 
dry, airy house, and water very carefully. The plants will 
not make much growth up till Christmas, but with the turn 
of the year they will soon make rapid progress, and when 
the pots become nicely tilled with roots a slight stimulant 
about once a week will help them greatly. As the plants 
increase in height they will need -a, light support, either using 
twigs from a besom or staking each plant separately. Either 
method looks equally well if performed neatly. Only suffi¬ 
cient fire heat should be used, just to expel frost and (maintain 
a. buoyant atmospheres or the plants will become drawn in 
the dull -days of November and December. Two good varieties 
for winter use are Mile’s Spiral and Sutton’s Giant, both of 
which are very fine types. 
R. Thatcher. 
Wistow Gardens, Leicester. 
Disease amongst the Pepper Plants in India. 
The prevalence' of various plant diseases', whether of fungoid 
or insect origin, is a matter that impresses itself with in¬ 
creasing anxiety upon all who- are in any way responsible for 
the welfare of gardens or plantations at home or abroad. Time 
was when we had some belief in the immunity from the attacks 
of insects or birds of such plant® as have any distinctly poison¬ 
ous -or powerfully active principles, but these ideas we have 
Ion 0 " since been compelled to abandon, as almost every plant 
is now known to have its special enemy ; even such a, pungent 
plant a® the common Pepper (Piper nigrum) has its own, par¬ 
ticular pest, as we gather from a. recent report by Mr. C. A. 
Barber, the Government, botanist at Madras, who ha® been 
conducting some, investigations among the Wynaad Pepper 
plantations. One conclusion that he 'has arrived at 
is that the Vines are not suffering from one disease alone, 
but from many. The diseases, in the plains, he considers, ore 
probably of long standing, and consequently there need be 
no fear of any sudden or great diminution in the crops, but 
that probably the disease® will be on the increase for some 
time to come. 
Mr. Barber justly remarks that even" branch of culture has 
its own pests and periods of weakness, and these usually come 
after times of great success. For many successive years the 
planters in the Wynaad have been favoured with abundant, 
crops, but it seems now that the time has come for them to 
make a. powerful effort to save the industry, and to help this 
forward he makes the following suggestion: “ If we have 
passed the stage when merely cultural operations will bring 
relief—and by thesei I mean the various lines of experiment 
which have been suggested from time to time—there remains 
nothing but to infuse new vigour into the stock by seminal 
reproduction;. It is not. a. question of getting new varieties 
of Pepper, although that would be a. legitimate and interesting 
line of work, but the -plant® have been long propagated vege- 
tatively, and this mode of reproduction nearly always, sooner 
or later, renders the race liable to disease.” 
Clarem-ont, Lympstone, Devon. John R. Jackson. 
Lagerstromeia indica. 
This specie® of' Lagerstromeia was introduced from India, in 
the year 1759. 
Although ®o many years have elapsed since its introduction, 
I think there are few stove plants flowering at this time of year 
which afford one more pleasure than the subject of this article. 
The flowers, which are of a. fleshy pink colour, are borne in 
clusters at the extremities of the graceful drooping shoots, and 
are of a form characteristic of the natural order Lythraceae, of 
which the genus Lagerstromeia is a member. 
The. most suitable compoist in which to' grow this particular 
class of plants consists of good fibrous loam and peat, and 
when planted out in a. border, fine handsome specimens may 
be obtained, which will never fail to give satisfaction, providing 
a little careful attention is devoted to them. 
The old plants; after flowering, require cutting back rather 
hard and keeping a little drier at. the roots until new growths 
break away, when they may be encouraged by frequent, syring¬ 
ing and occasional waterings with diluted liquid manure. 
Multiplication of .stock may be readily obtained by cuttings 
of the young side shoots, inserted in spring and subjected 
to a. good bottom heat in the propagating ca.se. F. G. T. 
Winds and the Temperature. 
In an article on, the “ Temperature of the Air,” which Mr. 
William Marriott, Secretary of the Royal Meteorological 
Society, contributes to Knowledge as the first of a series on 
“ Practical Meteorology,” isi a summary of the effects of the 
prevailing winds of Great Britain on. the temperature : —- 
N. winds- depress 1 the- temperature throughout the year. 
N.E. winds do the same, except in summer, when their 
effect is small. 
E. winds lower the temperature very much .in winter, and 
generally raise it in summer. 
S..E. winds; do nearly the same, but less: markedly in winter. 
S. winds raise: the temperature much in winter, but scarcely 
affect it ini summer. 
S.W. winds do nearly the same. 
W. winds decidedly raise the temperature in winter, and 
lower it in summer. 
N.W. winds lower the temperature generally, but most in 
summer. 
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