IO 
THE GARDENING WORLD. 
January 4, 1908. 
Carnation Beacon, 
Dark coloured flowers are usually small 
b'- comparison with the lighter hues, and 
although that rule may not be absolute, 
it, nevertheless, conforms in this case. 
The blooms are only of medium size, but 
the plant makes up for this by the number 
of branches it produces, and the bright 
colour and sweet scent or the flowers. 
They are of a light orange-scarlet, and 
the petals, although they make a full 
flower, are not in any way crowded, but 
make a pleasing, loosely-built flower of a 
verv telling colour. Some woulid describe 
it as brilliant scarlet, and owing to the 
lightness and brightness of the hue, the 
flowers prove very serviceable even under 
artificial light. In the case of those that 
approach crimson, much of their beauty 
The Spraying of Tomatos, 
At the monthly meeting of the Jersey 
Growers’ Association on December 3rd 
Mr. F. W. Thoms read a paper on the 
spraying of Tomatos. The object he had 
in view in the reading of this paper was 
to give the members of the Association 
some idea of the results' and effect of 
spraying Tomatos with the Bordeaux 
mixture. As is well known, this spraying 
is lost except when the sun shines upon 
them. Happily that is not the case with 
the lighter-coloured ones, which show up 
with telling effect, and the more the light 
shines upon them the brighter they seem 
to be. 
Our illustration represents a bloom 
which was photographed at Regent’s Park 
on the occasion of the show of the Winter 
Flowering Carnation Society, where it was 
shown by Messrs. Hugh Low and Co., 
Bush Hill Park, Middlesex. Few of the 
growers of American Carnations are more 
enthusiastic than Messrs. Low and Co. 
All the new ones of any value appearing 
on the other side of the Atlantic are 
quickly added to their stock. Beacon 
should not be stopped after the end of 
August. 
consists of sulphate of copper and lime 
dissolved in water. He first gave some 
history of the origin and the use of this 
spray, and then went on to show that the 
deposit of sulphate of copper upon fruits 
that had been sprayed was so small as to 
be absolutely harmless. The fruits in the 
open ground may or may not be sub¬ 
jected to rain, but before they are packed 
for market the growers employ women to 
wipe the Tomatos clean. After that he 
could only trace something like one- 
fiftieth, one-thirtieth, one-twenty-fifth, and 
one-tenth of a grain respectively of sul¬ 
phate of copper per lb. of Tomatos. The 
amount of metallic copper would only be 
one-quarter of the above quantity. He 
also showed them that sulphate of copper 
was purposely added to preserved Peas, 
Spinach, Pickles, etc, to the extent of 
several grains per lb. with the object of 
improving the colour. In face of this the 
Tomatos could not be otherwise than 
harmless after being sprayed. 
Remedy for the Cat Nuisance. 
Gardeners, more especially those in 
suburban districts, are generally troubled 
with cats. A writer in the “Weekly Tele¬ 
graph” describes a simple invention of his 
own for dealing with these pests which our 
readers may like to try. “I got some six- 
inch nails,” he says, “and fixed them 
along the top corner of our garden walls 
so that they projected at a slight angle 
over the garden to the extent of an inch or 
an inch and a half. I then got some wire, 
and twisted it firmly and tightly to the 
head of each nail all round the walls. 
It acts perfectly, and now no cat can 
either jump up or down. The reason for 
this is because a cat, in jumping, requires 
to dig its claws into the top of a wall or 
fence, in order to pull itself up, and the 
projecting, tightly-stretched wire comes in 
its way, and prevents it from doing this, 
and in consequence throws the cat off. In 
jumping down a wall, a cat requires a 
dear run down it, and the projecting wire 
would get in the way of its hind legs, and 
throw it out of its equilibrium were it to 
attempt to jump down the wall in its 
ordinary way with this wire fixed. It 
must be a clean jump from the top to the 
bottom of a wall, etc., and few cats will 
do this. I find, too, that the wire is very 
useful to hang strings for creeping plants, 
so that it serves a doubly useful purpose.” 
The Glasgow Seed and Nursery Trade Asso¬ 
ciation. 
The annual dinner of the above Associa¬ 
tion was held in Messrs. Ferguson and 
Forrester's Restaurant on December 14th, 
under the presidency of Mr. Alexander 
Cross, M.P. The croupiers were Messrs. 
J. Cairns, jun., A. Cunningham, J. H. 
Parker, T. B. B. Kerr, and Wm. William¬ 
son. Mr. John Gilchrist proposed “ The 
Seed and Nursery Trade,” and in speak¬ 
ing of this, he said that there was more 
done in America in crossing and raising 
new varieties, but he felt certain that dur¬ 
ing the next ten or fifteen years there 
would be great progress in this country. 
He was also of opinion that much of this 
would be due to the influence of the mem¬ 
bers of the Glasgow Seed and Nursery 
Trade Association. To this the Chairman 
replied stating that the association was in 
a vigorous'condition and doing excellent 
work in providing lectures and in meeting 
for the discussion of matters affecting their 
trade. The seed trade laboured under 
certain disabilities, inasmuch as by Act 
of Parliament seedsmen were debarred 
from selling certain insecticides, spraying 
materials, etc., although pharmaceutical 
chemists were allowed to do so. He also 
referred at some length to the development 
of the various useful agricultural and 
horticultural subjects which owed their 
improvement to nurserymen. 
Carnation Beacon. Maclaren and Sons. 
