214 
THE GARDENING WORLD. 
March 23, 1907. 
avoid disappointment this year. I have put 
in cuttings of each, but if .the fault is in 
the plant I, of course, shall not grow them. 
They were far too large to be elegant, and 
so had not the charm of the ordinary single 
blooms. (Amateur, Northamptonshire.) 
-Exmouth Rival is a Japanese variety with 
velvety crimson flowers. For exhibition 
purposes, cuttings of this should be put in 
about the middle of December, and the first 
crown should be taken to give the best 
bloom. We cannot find a reference to the 
variety named Mrs. A. H. Lewis, although 
there is one named Mrs. J. Lewis. There 
is just a chance that they might not be the 
right varieties. On the other hand, it very 
largely depends upon the treatment you give 
Them and the convenience you have for 
flowering late varieties. YV hen these ex¬ 
hibition varieties are stopped several times 
for the purposes of getting a large number 
of blooms, the individual flowers are smaller 
and may be open in the centre, but if you 
had the correct plant of Exmouth Rival it 
would hardly give rise to a single flower, 
even under bad treatment. These are sug¬ 
gestions that we make so that you can guess 
as to whether you have had the right varie¬ 
ties or whether it is merely that your con¬ 
venience for housing them is not good. In 
that event we should advise you to. grow 
early flowering varieties, which will bloom 
before the advent of bad weather and bad 
light. Good early flowering varieties are 
Mme. Marie Masse (mauve), Horace Martin 
(yellow), Mme. C. Desgranges (white), Har¬ 
vest Home (bronzy red), Gcacher’s Crimson, 
Mytchett White, Tuckwcod Early White, 
Mytchett Crimson, Primrose, Parisiana 
(white), September Bell (pearl-pink), and 
Robbie Burns (cerise). 
GARDEN ENEMIES. 
1659. Mice and Peas. 
I sowed some early Peas in February, but 
my garden is infested with mice, and I can¬ 
not succeed in trapping them. They dig 
holes in the rows of Peas, and already have 
made great gaps in the rows. Would yon 
advise me to lay poison, and what is the 
best method of doing it? (Troubled, 
Staffordshire. 
We do not think it a very advisable pian 
to lay poison, because you cannot tell 
whether the mice will carry it about nor 
whether some other animal may eat it for 
which you did not intend it. Ordinary 
traps can be set, but many?" cultivators have 
found it more successful to dig holes in the 
ground here and there amongst the plants 
being eaten and sink some vessels into them 
containing water in the bottom. Some¬ 
times zinc pails are used, merely greasing 
the sides. Others use large glass jam jars. 
The accompanying illustration will give you 
an idea how to set these. The mouth of the 
vessel should just be on a level with the 
ground so that when the mice run over it 
in the dark they drop into the vessels con¬ 
taining water and cannot get out. 
SOILS AND MANURES . 
1G60. Chemical Waste. 
Enclosed you will find a little of a sub¬ 
stance known locally as “chemic waste.” 
Would you be so kind as to tell me what 
its analysis is and whether I could use it 
in my garden for killing slugs, etc., with¬ 
out damaging.crops. (Phos, Lancs.) 
The parcel of “chemic waste” you sent 
us consisted chiefly of lime, but there may be 
other materials, in it, and we do not make 
analyses. As far as the lime is concerned, 
it would make a useful material for top 
dressing soils requiring lime, but it may 
contain ingredients injurious to plant life, 
and in that case it should be used with great 
caution, letting it lie on the ground for two 
months before sowing or planting anything 
there, just as in, the case where gas lime is 
used. We should not use it where there 
are living plants without first giving it a 
good trial amongst plants that are of no 
value to begin with. 
1661. Superphosphate of Lime. 
I should be very much obliged if you 
would tell me what superphosphate of lime 
is and where I could get a small quantity 
of it? (Phos, Lancs.) 
Superphosphate of lime contains phosphor¬ 
ous and lime in certain quantities dependent 
largely upon what it is prepared from. 
There is, of course, a variety of sources, 
some of it being prepared from bones, some 
from coprolites, and some from basic slag, 
Usually the term is applied to that which 
has been prepared by the use of sulphuric 
acid acting upon bones. You should have 
no difficulty in getting superphosphate by 
applying to any of the -sundriesmen who 
advertise in The Gardening World. Most 
of the large nurserymen who are not exactly 
sundriesmen also supply manure to their 
customers. There are several nurserymen 
mentioned on the front page of last week's 
issue who keep a variety of manures for sale. 
On the inside of the same leaf you will find 
other manure merchants. 
MISCELLANEOUS . 
1662. Prize Competitions. 
In your prize competitions the weekly 
prize articles must not exceed a column. I 
always thought it was limited to 150 words. 
Please what is a column ? I have counted 
500 words. Is this the average? (C. R. F., 
Surrey.) 
There are two sets of weekly competitions, 
and you must have been confusing the two. 
In the readers’ competition the article should 
not exceed a column in length of The Gar¬ 
dening World. This runs on an average to 
560 words, bult 500 words would be quite 
sufficient to gain a prize if the information 
was good or interesting. The prize letter 
competition is limited to 150 words or 21 
lines with heading. 
1663. Wood Preservative. 
I am putting down some wood edging in 
my garden and should be glad to know if 
you could recommend me a good preserva¬ 
tive instead of tar; something with good 
preserving qualities but not so much trouble 
to deal with? ' (F. J. D., Surrey.) 
Creosote is generally considered the beat 
material for preserving wood, but during 
the past year or more there have been com¬ 
plaints against it for destroying summer 
flower bedding in the vicinity of wood pav¬ 
ing. You could, however, paint the wood 
edging with some green hue, or preferably 
stone colour, which would not be conspicu¬ 
ous nor obnoxious to the eye when seen in 
the garden. Your plan should be to have 
the wood thoroughly dry in a shed for 
instance, then give it a good coating of paint 
all over, and after that is dried, go over 
it again and give it another coating. Allow 
this to become perfectly dry before it. is put 
down as an edging. The paint will keep 
the wood sound for a good while, provided 
it is perfectly dry before the paint is put 
on. 
1664. Slow Combustion Stove. 
I should be much obliged if you will in¬ 
form me if a small Tortoise slow combus¬ 
tion stove could be utilised to heat a small- 
house 8 ft. by 5 ft., in which I want to try 
and grow Melons ? Or do you think it pos¬ 
sible to grow them without heat, after, say, 
the end of May, as while they are small, I 
could accommodate them in the warm house? 
The little house outside is very warm and 
sheltered; but even if the Melons would do 
without heat, I should like to uise the stove 
(which I have by me) next winter, if pos¬ 
sible-. (Ivanda, Staffordshire.) 
There should be no difficulty in the heat¬ 
ing of the small house you mention, because 
quite a small stove would serve to keep that 
warm. You say that you could grow the 
Melons in another house until the weather 
gets warm. Even admitting the advantage 
of that we think it would be still more 
advantageous to have the stove fitted up in 
the little house. For months yet our climate 
is very uncertain. During the night it may 
get quite cold and even right up to tfie 
third week of June we may have frost. 
Then again, there might be cold east winds 
browing at night and during the early morn¬ 
ing. The stove would then be useful to 
maintain the temperature. Make sure that 
the fumes will be carried right outside the 
house and not escape in the interior. Them 
is more danger of sulphur escaping from 
fires that are burning slowly than from those 
that are burning briskly, so that every pre¬ 
caution should be taken to prevent sulphur 
fumes from getting into the house. 
NAMES OF PLANTS. 
(G. Wilkins) Gerard’s Double-flowered 
English Lent Lily (Narcissus Pseudo-Nar¬ 
cissus plenus). (Vine) Bear’s Foot or Stink¬ 
ing Hellebore (Helleborus foetidus)—(H. W. 
G.) 1, Pellionia pulchra; 2, Fittonia Vers- 
chaffeltii; 3, Episcia cupreata; 4, Fittonia 
argyroneura; 5, appears to be Podocarpus 
neriifolia variegata; 6, Abutilon megapo- 
iamicum variegatum; 7, Hoffmannia Ghies- 
bregh'tii; 8, Acalypha macafeeana.— (J. C. 
W.) 1, Galanthus nivalis flore pleno; 2, 
Crocus vernus var. ; 3, Iberis gibraltarica; 
4, Vinca major; 5, Sedum reflexum monstro- 
sum; 6, Saxifraga ligulata.—(A. F. Porter) 
1, Ligustrum ovalifolium or Oval-leaved 
Privet; 2, Ligustrum vulgare or Common 
Privet; 3, Cotoneaster Simonsii; 4, Aucuba 
japonica. 
TRADE CATALOGUES RECEIVED. 
Harrison and Sons, Leicester. Harrisons’ 
Farm Seeds. 
The English Home of Alpine Plants, 
Endfield Cottage, South Pool, near Kings- 
bridge, Devon.—-Catalogue. 
Little and Ballantine, Carlisle.—Farm 
Seeds. 
TRADE NOTICE. 
rnra-Btn ——— 
HOP MANURE. 
Many gardeners and amateurs find great 
difficulty in procuring farmyard manure, or 
at least a sufficiency of it. When procured, it 
is also expensive to transfer from place to 
place, especially if the distance is great. A 
manure sent us by way of a sample is com¬ 
paratively light-, and as a vegetable manure 
it would be Highly concentrated. It prac¬ 
tically consists of the hop catkins after they 
have passed through the process of being 
utilised by the brewers in order to extract 
their bitter principle. These are dried and 
packed in bags for despatch to customers. It- 
is now becoming popular simply because 
people are discovering its utility. As a 
manure, it is clean to use, does not give on 
offensive smell, and may be kept in a dry 
place for a considerable length of time unt 1 
it is reciuired for use. It may be used tor 
top-dressing plants of any kind for which 
