February 29, 1908. 
VS 0 
THE GARDENING WORLD. 
if it is still in print you could apply to 
17, Furnival Street, London, W.C. It is 
a small book, probably priced at 3s. or 
3s. 6d., with postage extra. 
2654. Calcium Carbide. 
As a reader of your valuable paper, may 
I ask your advice. Our house is illumi¬ 
nated by acetylene gas, consequently we 
have a quantity of spent calcium carbide on 
hand. Will you kindly tell me if this is 
of any use in the garden, and how it could 
be used to the best advantage? (H. B. H., 
Leicestershire.) 
Calcium carbide when burned is repre¬ 
sented by the formula CaC 2 + H, 0 —that is, 
calcium carbide and water. This would 
give another production of C.,H„-f CaO. 
The latter is quicklime, and would be valu¬ 
able if you could get it pure, but the chemi¬ 
cal changes do Hot even stop here. Owing 
to an excess of water used in the burning 
of the carbide there is another action set 
up, and the two are going on together, so 
that what ultimately results is 
C a H 2 + Ca(OH) 2 . The last-named is cal¬ 
cium hydroxide or slaked lime, so that half 
of the residue is practically made up of 
this. It could be used for the same purposes 
as slaked lime but owing to the presence of 
the other, and what the effect might be upon 
the roots of plants, it would be as well to 
apply the residue to the soil at least two 
months before planting or sowing anything 
upon it. In other respects carbide dust has 
been used to dress Vines affected with mil¬ 
dew. The French have also buried some 
of it at the roots of Vines attacked by Phyl¬ 
loxera with some good effects. In garden¬ 
ing operations, however, we are afraid that 
not much has yet been learned by direct ex¬ 
periment as to the value of the residue after 
calcium carbide'has been burned. You 
should therefore act cautiously in only em¬ 
ploying a light dressing to any particular 
crop and noting the effects. 
NAMES OF PLANTS . 
(E. J.) r, Fatsia japonica (It is most often 
named Aralia Sieboldi in gardens and popu¬ 
larly called the Castor Oil Plant, but 
wrongly so, as that has soft, not leathery 
leaves); 2, the botanical name of the Musk 
is Mimulus moschatus; 3, Agapanthus um- 
bellatus ; 4,Chlotrophytum statum variegatum 
(G. H. D.) r, Cupressus lawsoniana; 2, 
Thuya plicata ; 3, Jasminum nudifiorum; 4, 
Lonicera japonica oureo-reticulata; 5, 
Choisya ternata. 
(T. Warden) 1, Winter Heliotrope (Peta- 
sites Fragrans); 2, Anemone Hepatica; 3, 
Tusilago Farfara (a weed); 4, Adonis 
amurensis. 
TRADE CATALOGUES RECEIVED. 
Vilmorin-Andrieux and Cie, 4, Quai de la 
M6gisserie, Paris.—Catalogue of Autumn 
Chrysanthemums; also Catalogue of Dah¬ 
lias and Cannas.- 
The Native Guano Company, Limited, 
29, New Bridge Street, Blackfriars, Lon¬ 
don, E.C.— Native Guano. 
Barr and Sons, ii, 12 and 13, King 
Street, Covent Garden, London.—Barr’s 
Anemones, Begonias, Cannas, Dahlias, 
Gladioli, Lilies, Montbretias, and Other 
Bulbs for Spring Planting. 
Sutton and Sons, Reading, England.— 
Sutton’s Farmers’ Year Book. 
Francois Gerbeaux. Nancy, 21, Rue de 
Oronstadt (Meurthe-ei-Moselle), France.— 
Spring Catalogue. 
William Cooper, 751, Old Kent Road, 
London, S.E.— Nineteenth Annual Clearance 
Sale List. 
Robert Sydenham, Tenby Street, Bir¬ 
mingham.—The Growth of Bulbs in Moss 
Fibre, in China Vases without Drainage. 
Cucumbers 
Under Glass. 
An interesting paper on the cultivation 
of Cucumbers under glass was recently 
read by Mr. J. C. Scammell, of Wilton, 
before the members of the Salisbury Gar¬ 
deners’ Society. 
The span-roofed house was, he said, 
used in preference to any other, and, to 
begin with, the woodwork and glass 
should be thoroughly cleansed, the walls 
limewashed and after fumigation a clean 
start could be made and the frame would 
be ready for the soil. This should have 
been prepared some months in advance, 
and he himself preferred it being stacked 
in layers of good, sound, turfy loam, with 
plenty of fibre in it and a layer of fresh 
horse droppings between them; the turf 
should be laid with the grassy side down¬ 
wards so as to give each layer a good 
dusting of bone dust. 
This should remain, outside for some 
four or six months, but care should be 
taken that wire worms and ants did not 
get into it. People should avoid using 
the same loam on a second occasion, and 
whatever the style of staging on which the 
soil was to be placed, a layer of stable 
litter should be laid on, and then a thin 
turf. The distances for the plants might 
be from two and a half to three feet from 
the centre of each. The soil should be 
broken up with a spade and should be in 
lumps about the size of an egg; it should 
be thoroughly mixed before being brought 
into the house, and a compost of lime and 
wood ashes worked in with it. The house 
should now be kept closed for a week or 
ten days, where with the heat turned on 
the soil should be about the right tem¬ 
perature for planting. The bottom and 
day heat should be from 70 to 75 degrees 
and the night heat from 60 to 65 degrees, 
while the top heat might run up with sun¬ 
shine to 80 to .85 degrees with plenty of 
moisture. 
Sowing the seed was the next thing to 
be considered, and Mr. Scammell found 
that the beginning of February was as 
gbod a time, as any to start in order to 
cut fruit at Faster. The seed ouglit not 
to be less than two years bid. Clean 
three-inch pots could be used with a little 
moss instead of a" crock, and soil com¬ 
posed of half leaf mould and half loam. 
A little sand could be used; the soil 
should be pressed rather firmly and the 
seeds inserted singly about ^-inch deep, 
the pointed end downward. The young 
plants should be allowed to have as much 
light and sun as they required. 
Cucumbers should, if possible, have a 
house to themselves. The seeds, of 
course, should have been put into moist 
soil and no more water given until they 
had come up. The plants should not be 
allowed to become pot bound or bad re¬ 
sults would follow. If dry, the pots 
should be half plunged in bottom heat 
and their surroundings kept nicely moist 
by svringing or otherwise. The plants 
should be placed in the centre of each 
mound and a stake placed behind each of 
them, reaching to the lowest wire on 
which they were to be trained. 
Before nipping out the top, twelve or 
more leaves should have been formed, 
and so cause the side shoots to develop. 
All shoots from the bottom to eighteen 
inches should be taken away and all 
shoots above these stopped at the second 
joint from the main stem and at every 
'two joints afterwards. Stopping and 
tying should be attended to every day. 
With regard to watering, discretion 
should be used. For the first few weeks 
the soil should remain in a semi-dr}- state 
as the roots revelled in it. When the soil 
was filled with roots and there were num¬ 
bers of Cucumbers, copious supplies of 
water should be used. Applying water 
tends to lower the temperature of the 
soil; water should be preferably used in 
the morning and watering should be done 
thoroughly. Plants could not grow in a 
soppy, heavy soil. 
When the roots had reached the outside 
of the mound fresh soil could be applied 
as a top dressing, as new supplies of loam 
increased root action. The coarse sift¬ 
ings of an old mushroom bed worked in 
with the dressing was an ideal compost. 
To every top dressing a sprinkling of 
lime would improve the flavour of the 
Cucumber and prevent bitterness. Bitter¬ 
ness, in the speaker’s opinion, was pro¬ 
duced by too low a temperature. 
With respect to manures he had found 
guano a good fertiliser to swell off the 
fruits. Weak liquid manure given at the 
time of watering was generally the rule. 
Summer Cucumbers were easy to grow. 
Houses were generally empty of plants at 
this time of the year, and could thus be 
utilised for growing them. Winter Cu¬ 
cumbers required more attention, and 
needed a warm house with a good service 
of hot water pipes. In thinning the 
fruits, the foliage and the fruits ought 
to be fairly balanced. 
For general use, Mr. Scammell said 
Improved Telegraph was hard to beat. 
Cucumbers for exhibition were next 
dealt with. The first thing to do was to 
select some good quality and allow the 
plants a little extra room. The plants 
should have plenty of time in which to 
grow, and they should not be stopped too 
hard. Every’ leaf should have room to 
develop. Promising fruits would soon 
appear, and they should be pollinated 
in good time, and when about six inches 
in length. The pollination should in¬ 
duce them to swell straight and evenly. 
After describing the, treatment for 
various insect pests and diseases, Mr. 
Scammell concluded with some remarks 
on shading and ventilation. Air, he said, 
should be admitted early in the day to 
prevent too high a temperature, the pipes 
were preferable to open side lights. At 
night a blind run down on the coldest side 
was a wonderful aid to keep up a good 
temperature. 
-- 
Royal Horticultural Society. 
The above society’s next exhibition of 
flowers and fruit will take place at Vin¬ 
cent Square, Westminster, on Tuesday, 
March 3rd, from 1 to 6 p.m. There will 
be a lecture at 3 o'clock on “ Bulbous 
Plants in New Zealand,” by Mr. E. 
White. 
United Horticultural Benefit and Provident 
Society. 
The annual meeting of the above so¬ 
ciety will be held at the Royal Horticul¬ 
tural Society’s Hall,, Vincent Square, 
Westminster, on Monday, March 9th, at 
8 p.m. 
