December 7, 1907. 
THE GARDENING WORLD 
777 
Magnolia steLlata, and Spiraea argute. You 
can also plaint Spiraea japonica BumaLda. 
By cutting this hard back in March it will 
flower very late in the season, and there are 
several other Spiraeas that could be treated 
in the same way. Other dwarf plants that 
will come into bloom at different periods of 
the summer are Viburnum plicatum, Hydran¬ 
gea paniculata grandiflora, Pminus japonica 
flore pleno, Philadelphus Lemoinei erectus, 
Veronica Traversal, Hypericum patulum, 
and H. moseriantum. The latter is very 
dwarf and should be placed at the outside. 
I f you would like the same plants to continue 
in flower more or less during the season we 
should advise you to get Roses. For in¬ 
stance, Caroline Testout, Liberty and Mme. 
Albel Cbatenay are H.T.’s that would keep 
up a succession from June more or less till 
the end of October. For the same purpose, 
Lady Roberts, White Maman Coohet, and 
Princesse de Sagan are good Tea Roses; 
Perle d’Oir, iMme. N. Levavasseur, and 
White Pet are dwarf Polyanthas; while 
Laurette Messimy and Cramoisie Superieure 
are continuous flowering China Roses. For 
the sake of variety you might add the H.P. 
Mrs. J. Laiing, which is almost certain to 
flower well a second time in the autumn. 
CHRYSANTHEMUMS. 
2428. Cuttings of Chrysanthemum. 
Some of my Chrysanthemums that have 
just done blooming have no shoots at the 
root, only some side shoots on the stems. If 
I take these off with a heel, will they make 
good plants for next year? (D. R., War¬ 
wickshire. ) 
We should not recommend you to use stem 
cuttings of 'Chrysanthemums for any pur¬ 
pose, except in the summer time, when you 
can take off the -tips and root them so as to 
produce small plants for decorative purposes. 
If you take some cuttings at present the 
chances are that they will attempt to flower 
much sooner than you want them, and in any 
case will not lay the foundation for a good 
plant. The best plan is to cut down the old 
stems close to the pot and stand the pots in 
some greenhouse or cold frame, when -they 
will soon commence to throw up shoots from 
the base. Such shoots only should he em¬ 
ployed as cuttings for the .raising of young 
plants. - 
FRUIT. 
2429. Painting Vine Rods. 
Will you kindly inform me how to deal 
with something that is on the Muscat Vines? 
It resembles small pieces of cotton wool, is 
greasy, and about the size of a small Pea. 
I understand you must not fumigate Muscat 
or Lady Downes’ Vines. With regard to 
painting them after .the old bark is taken 
off, what is the composition used? (G., 
Blackpool.) 
From your description it would appear to 
be .the Vine scale (Pulvimaria Vdtis). We 
should not recommend yon to fumigate in 
houses in which Grapes are still hanging, 
nor do we think that the fumigation would 
be very effective. The scale is very con¬ 
spicuous and prominent owing to its size, 
and you might collect the specimens you see, 
.removing them carefully with a knife. 
These should be burned and not thrown 
down, as by this time they must be full of 
eggs, which would hatch out and the house 
would be worse than ever. After the Grapes 
are cut and the Vines pruned you can set 
about cleaning the rods. We are not in 
favour of cutting away baTk that still ad¬ 
heres closely to the stem. The 'best plan is 
to lay a cloth beneath the rods and proceed 
to ruib off any loose strands of bark which 
can be removed by the hands. After .the rods 
are smoothed in this way you can then brush 
the stems well with Fir tree oil, methylated 
spirit, or paraffin emulsion. This is much 
better than using the old mixture, which was 
a very filthy one, and we doubt if it was 
very effective. It consisted of a mixture of 
dissolved soft soap, Gishurst compound, 
flowers of sulphur, lime, soot and clay. All 
these were puddled together, forming a sort 
of paint, and every rod and spur was then 
painted with this mixture. We consider, 
.however, that when this material dries up it 
often forms matter under which the small 
insects can hide. It would be better, there¬ 
fore, to use some of the insecticides which 
we mention. We recommend paraffin emul¬ 
sion instead of paraffin itself, so that you 
oam brush close up to and around the buds, 
whereas it would be unsafe to use pure 
paraffin on buds of Vines. A simple method 
will be first .to clean the rods with the hands 
of loose bark, then to get a hard brush and 
.give them a .thorough scrubbing with a 
strong solution of soft soap or Gishurst com¬ 
pound. Next season keep a close watch upon 
the Vines, and if any of the scale makes its 
appearance have a bottle of methylated spirit 
handy with a small brush and rub the 
methylated spirit over this affected portion 
only before it has time to spread. 
2430. Pears Shrivelled and Damaged. 
I have a large Pear tree, and for the past 
three years the fruits have shrivelled up after 
being picked, although allowed to remain on 
the tree until the leaves were nearly all off. 
This year nearly al.l the fruits on the lower 
branches have cracked places as well. I am 
sending you a sample of each defect, and 
should be Obliged if you could tell me the 
camse of the same. (G. B., Wiltshire.) 
The shrivelled Pears were due to their 
being gathered before they were perfectly 
matured. It is just possible that these late 
fruits were the result of a late crop of blos¬ 
som. In any case .the past summer was much 
against them owing to the lack of sunshine. 
The autumn was a very mild one, however, 
and the unripe fruits might well have been 
left hanging on the tree right up till Novem¬ 
ber at least. Another year you might care¬ 
fully gather only those fruits which appear 
to be ripe and leave the greener ones till 
muoh later. The cracked fruits owe this 
blemish to the presence of a fungus named 
'Cladosporium dendritioum pyrinmm, which 
produces a skin disease, and .if it attacks the 
fruits early they may never come to any size 
or if the attack is slight the fruits may he 
unequal sided owing to growth having 
stopped on the damaged side. The remedy 
for this 'is to syringe the .trees with Bordeaux 
mixture, commencing when the young fruits 
are about the size of Peas. The Bordeaux 
rr : ::ure should consist of 2lbs. of copper 
'rj.Lphate dissolved in a small quantity of 
water and 2iozs. of fresh lime dissolved in 
another vessel. When 1 the}’' are entirely clear 
of lumps put the two liquids into one and 
add water till the amount is 18 gallons. This 
is the proportion for the ingredients, but you 
can use large quantities at the same ratio if 
necessary.' By syringing the trees at inter¬ 
vals of .ten days or a fortnight during the 
early part of the season you will save a 
great amount of damage to the fruits. 
GARDEN ENEMIES. 
2431. Scale on Gooseberry. 
Enclosed you will find a piece of Goose¬ 
berry shoot with something upon it which I 
cannot make out. Please can you say what 
this is, and if injurious? What is the best 
way to get rid of it? (W. Riley, Herts.) 
The shoots were affected with the scale 
that may be found on Black and Red Cur¬ 
rants, namely, Lecanium Ribis. To get rid 
of this you should prune the bushes during 
the present month, or not later than January, 
as the young scales commence to move about 
.them. Do not scatter the prunim.gs about 
then. Do not scatter the prunings about 
them burned, so as to destroy as much of the 
scale as possible. Then syringe the bushes 
with kerosene or paraffin emulsion. This 
should be made at the rate of one gallon of 
paraffin to gib. of soap and half-gallon of 
water. Dissolve the soap in hot water and 
add the paraffin and then churn the mixture 
with the syringe till it forms a creamy 
paint-tike liquid. This then is the emulsion. 
When about to use it, to one part of the emul¬ 
sion add nine parts of water and carefully 
spray all parts of the bushes and stems. The 
main stem with rough bark may be scrubbed 
with a hard brush, dipping it into the emul¬ 
sion so as to make sure of getting into the 
crevices of the bark. This spraying should 
be done before the end of January, while the 
young scales are still under the mother. 
SOILS AND MANURES. 
2432. Nature of Salt Petre. 
Could you oblige by stating to which form 
of potash 'is the ordinary grocer’s salt 
petre nearest, and would it answer the same 
purpose as muriate of potash or sulphate of 
potash to apply to the soil in autumn or 
spring? (Anxious to Know, Kent.) 
Salt petre may be said to be allied to all 
of the other manures you mention, seeing that 
it contains a certain quantity of potash, but 
it is equally distinct as any of them, and 
therefore hardly to be recommended for the 
same suitable purpose. .Salt petre (KNO3), 
or at least the commercial article, contains 
about 12 per cent, to 13 per cent, of nitro¬ 
gen and 46.59 of potash. It -is expensive as 
a nitrogenous manure, because when applied 
to Potatos it gives no better results than 
nitrate of soda, which is much cheaper. For 
instance, a ton of salt petre, that is, nitrate 
of potash, costs ^20, while nitrate of soda 
only costs about £9 10s. Muriate of potash 
is often-v a mixture of various things, but 
wben properly purified it should consist of 
80 -per cent, of potash, costing about £8 17s. 
6d. per ton. This, of course, is a potash 
manure, but kainit would be much cheaper, 
because, although it only contains 23 per 
cent, to 26 per cent, of potash it only costs 
23s. to 45s. per ton. Sulphate of potash, on 
the other hand, only contains 54 per cent, of 
potash, but the sulphate would also be ser¬ 
viceable as a plant food. It makes a useful 
manure for Peas., Beans, and .root cr^ps, but 
it is expensive by comparison with kainit. 
All of the manures you mention are Rela¬ 
tively valuable, but their expense forbids the 
use of them to .the same extent as nitrate of 
soda, kainit, and sulphate of ammonia. 
2433. Salt and Its Uses. 
What other plants besides Asparagus are 
'benefited by the presence of salt, and what 
is the best method of applying it ? We some¬ 
times use it on walks to kill weeds. Would 
'it answer the purpose of killing weeds in 
flower borders and among spring Cabbages ? 
(J. S. M., Hants.) 
Besides Asparagus salt may be applied 
with some advantage to Onions, Leeks, Cab¬ 
bages, and other members of the Brassica 
tribe. It should only be used in small quan¬ 
tity and not to such an extent as would kill 
weeds growing amongst those crops. It 
would be dangerous to flower borders where 
the plants are so numerous and varied. In 
order to keep down weeds amongst 
Cabbages and all crops where a hoe 
can be used that implement should be 
kept at work frequently during dry 
weather, as this will keep down the 
weeds and encourage the plants to grow by 
aerating the soil. In small quantity salt 
helps to decompose vegetable matter, and in 
some soils it helps to absorb moisture from 
the atmosphere, and would thus to a small 
extent prove serviceable in dry summers. 
Very .little of it gees to the building up of 
plaint bodies. It is most useful as an out¬ 
door servant in helping to decompose other 
ingredients of plant food. 
