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’WURXAL  OF  HORTICULTURE  AND  COTTAGE  GARDENER. 
February  24,  1898. 
-  Sir  Joseph  Paxton. — I  should  be  glad  to  know  of  any  work 
giving  a  biographical  sketch  of  Sir  Joseph  Paxton. — H.  N. 
-  Nitrogen  in  the  Soil. — The  season  of  the  year  when  the 
soil  contains  least  nitrogen  in  a  form  available  for  plants  is  spring.  Hence 
dressings  of  nitrate  of  soda  applied  to  Cabbage  or  Strawberries  are  more 
serviceable  at  that  period  than  later  in  the  year. — E. 
-  Correcting  Acidity  in  Garden  Soil. — Lime  is  very  useful 
to  apply  to  soils  that  have  become  somewhat  sour  and  acid  owing  to  the 
gradnil  accumulation  of  humic  matter.  It  combines  with  the  acids  in 
the  soil  and  releases  plant  food.  Basic  slag,  a  by-product  in  the  manu¬ 
facture  of  steel,  acts  similarly  on  soils  containing  much  humic  or  organic 
matter. — S. 
-  Two  Good  -Varieties  op  Peas.— As  an  early  variety  of 
Pea  English  Wonder  is  better  than  American  Wonder.  Both  are 
wrinkled  varieties.  The  first  named  grows  from  1  foot  to  16  inches  high, 
and  crops  well.  As  a  second  early  blue  Pea,  Harrison's  Glory  is  most 
prolific,  grows  to  the  height  of  2|  feet,  and  bears  handsome  pods.  Rich 
ground  and  good  cultivation  is  essential. — E.  S. 
-  The  Cost  of  London  Parks. — Sir  John  Lubbock  has  been 
trying  to  make  a  point  against  the  London  County'  Council  on  the  ground 
of  the  cost  of  the  parks.  There  is  no  more  popular  branch  of  the  Council's 
work  than  its  splendid  management  of  the  parks  and  open  spaces  under 
its  care,  and  the  cost  of  maintenance,  calculated  after  Sir  John  Lubbock’s 
manner,  by  the  acre,  is  wonderfully  cheap  compared  with  the  cost  of 
some  of  the  royal  parks  with  which  the  County  Council  expenditure  is 
compared.  For  example,  if  you  are  going  to  divide  your  cost  by  your 
acreage,  the  sum  voted  in  the  Estimates  for  the  maintenance  of  Hyde 
Park,  St.  James's  Park,  and  the  Green  Park  is  £36,650,  for  a  combined 
acreage  is  a  little  over  .500,  or  between  £73  or  £74  an  acre.  The 
expenditure  per  acre  complained  of  on  the  part  of  the  County  Council  is 
£28.  The  absurdity  of  a  calculation  by  the  acre  in  the  case  of  the  parks 
is  shown  by  the  com]iarison  of  the  cost  of  the  royal  parks  above 
mihtioned  with  Richmond  Park,  which  costs  the  county  £2250,  but  is  of 
so  large  an  acreage  that,  measured  in  this  way,  its  cost  is  a  little  less  than 
£1  per  acre.  The  County  Council  s  park  expenditure  includes  the  wages 
of  constables  who  patrol  the  commons  and  open  spaces  for  the  protection 
of  the  public  and  their  children,  and  many  other  charges  which  have 
little  to  do  with  acreage. — (“Daily  News.’  ) 
-  A  Very  Mild  Winter  in  Ireland. — Probably  the  pro¬ 
verbial  oldest  inhabitant  cannot  remember  a  milder  winter  than  that 
already  passed.  Most  of  us  remember  very  severe  weather  after  mid- 
February;  but  in  the  south  of  Ireland  it  is  very  unusual,  and  never  of 
long  duration.  It  is  providential,  so  far  as  the  humbler  classes  are 
concerned,  whose  daily  dietary  the  Potato  still  forms  so  large  a  fraction, 
and  which  in  many  districts  failed  badly.  I  shall  not  harrow  your  readers 
by  a  speculation  as  to  what  might  have  been  the  consequences  had  the 
winter — unfortunately,  not  yet  quite  over— been  unusually  severe. 
Looking  through  my  garden  (which  is  a  comparatively  small  town 
one),  I  notice  several  plants  continued  to  grow  and  bloom  the  whole 
winter  through,  notably  Mignonette,  Violas,  Pansies,  and  many  Ten- 
week  Stocks  ;  while  Gladioli,  several  bulbous  Lilies,  Irises,  Columbines, 
and  Anemones  never  ceased  growing.  Such  hardy  Tea  Roses  as  Gloire 
de  Dijon,  IMadame  Bernard,  and  even  Devoniensis  and  W.  A.  Richardson 
never  lost  a  leaf,  and'  have  now  flower  buds  half  an  inch  in  diameter. 
Some  of  my  neighbours,  with  specially  constructed  rock  gardens  and 
alpine  collections,  can  produce  lists  of  flowers  that  would  be  reasonable 
two  months  hence.  Indoors,  the  greenhouse  and  vinery  show  precocious 
progress,  and  indicate  an  unusually  early  season.  The  great  look  out  for 
the  next  month  or  more,  however,  will  be  the  fruit  crop.  Some  Pears  are 
unusually  forward.  One  expects  Jargonelles  to  be  early,  but  Beurre 
Superfin  and  Bergamot  are  bursting  into  bloom  ;  and  others,  like  Bon 
Chretien  and  Beurrd  d'Amanlis,  are  masses  of  bloom  buds.  Some  of  these 
were  equally  so  last  year;  but,  alas  !  a  “killing  frost  one  night  “cooked 
them.'’  I  had  tried  folds  of  fish  netting,  but  it  proved  useless  as  a 
protection.  Except  Irish  Peach,  Apples  are  still  dormant  ;  but  Plums 
are  preparing  to  burst  open  their  fruit  buds,  especially  Victoria,  Green 
Gage,  Transparent,  Pond’s  Seedling,  and  Orleans.  I  have  protected  a 
Nectarine  and  Apricot  that  promise  well  on  a  south  wall.  In  ihe 
farming  world,  everything  speaks  of  an  early  spring.  Young  January 
lambs  are  frisking  about.  The  fields  are  unusually  green,  the  growth  of 
grass  having  never  been  checked.  Several  instances  of  young  thrushes 
and  blackbirds  are  related  ;  notably  thrushes  at  Ballygowan,  co.  Down, 
and  blackbirds  at  Newtownbarry,  co.  Wexford.  The  reported  presence 
of  the  cuckoo  is,  however,  doubted. — "W.  J.  Murrhy,  Clonmel. 
-  The  Growth  of  Lawn  Grass. — It  is  evident  that  the 
mowing  machine  will  soon  be  required,  as  the  grass  is  becoming  quite 
thick,  long,  and  luxuriant.  March  is  usually  soon  enough  to  commence 
cutting,  but  should  the  present  mildness  of  the  weather  continue  it  will 
be  essential  to  make  a  start  earlier. — E.  D.  S.,  Gravesend. 
-  Essex  Manuring  Experiments. — In  some  recent  experi¬ 
ments  in  manuring  in  Essex  the  following  results  were  oblained  ;  but 
they  only  endorse  principles  which  have  previously  been  determined  by 
some  of  our  leading  agricultural  chemists,  hence  they  are  valuable  on 
that  account.  (1)  Phosphatic  manures  both  increase  the  quantity  and 
improve  the  quality  by  increasing  the  proportion  of  Clover.  (2)  Nitro¬ 
genous  manures  increase  the  quality,  but  decrease  the  proportion  of 
Clover.  (3)  Lime  increases  the  proportion  of  Clover  to  a  remarkable 
extent. 
-  W INTER  AT  Last. — It  is  reported  that  South  Buckinghamshire 
and  Bedfordshire  experienced  their  first  real  touch  of  wint  r  on  iMonday 
night  and  early  on  Tuesday  morning,  when  a  succession  of  blinding 
snowstorms  prevailed.  The  weather  was  bitterly  cold,  and  farmers 
welcomed  the  change,  as  the  cereal  crops  M-ere  in  too  forward  a  state. 
Heavy  falls  of  snow  have  been  exjierlenced  at  Bath,  Cheshire,  Devon¬ 
shire,  Dorset,  and  Somersetshire.  Severe  weather  is  said  to  have  set  in 
in  the  Fen  district ;  on  Tuesday  morning  13°  of  frost  were  registered 
and  18°  at  Market  Harborough. 
-  Horsforth  Gardeners’  Improvement  Society. — A  lecture 
was  given  on  Monday  evening,  February  14th,  at  Horsforth,  by  Mr.  W.  A, 
Clarke  of  York,  who  took  for  his  subject  “  A  Ramble  Through  the  Lake 
District.”  The  lecture  was  of  a  very  instructive  character,  all  the 
principal  mountains  and  lakes  in  Westmoreland  and  Cumberland  being 
fully  illustrated  by  lantern  slides,  showing  different  sections  of  the 
mountains  inhabited  by  plants  of  various  kinds.  The  meeting  was  well 
attended  by  gardeners  from  different  parts  of  Yorkshire.  At  the  close  a 
vote  of  thanks  was  given  to  the  lecturer,  which  terminated  a  pleasant 
evening. — P. 
-  Earthquake  Effects  on  Plants.— Mr.  W.  Helps,  writing 
to  the  Agri-Horticultural  Society  of  India  under  date  14th  August, 
states  “  A  most  remarkable  thing  has  happened  to  all  my  Papaya  trees 
since  the  earthquake.  I  am  sending  you  some  of  the  fruit  to  see  the 
condition  they  are  in,  and  you  know  what  fine  ones  I  had.  The  fruit  I 
am  sending  j  ou  were  the  same  size  as  when  the  earthquake  took  place 
on  12th  .June,  so  that  growth  in  the  fruit  has  been  stopped  entirely  in 
some  remarkable  way  since  then,  but  not  in  the  plant,  which  is  still 
growing  and  flowering  in  the  usual  w-ay.  It  is  not  one  plant  only 
affected,  but  every  one  I  have.  Can  it  be  the  earthquake  I  wonder,  for  all 
plants  are  very  healthy  looking  ?  Fruits  that  have  formed  outside  the 
influence  of  the  earthquake,  a  foot  or  more  above  where  the  specimens 
have  been  taken  from,  are  growing,  and  are  from  three  to  four  times  the 
size  of  what  I  send  you.”  The  Secretary  of  the  Society  writes  : — “  The 
specimens  received  were  the  size  of  an  ordinary  duck's  egg.  In  the 
Society’s  gardens  it  has  been  noticed  that  little  or  no  progress  has  been 
made  in  the  growth  of  Papaya  fruit  since  the  earthquake.”  The  fore¬ 
going  is  taken  from  the  Society's  printed  proceedings  for  July  to 
September,  1897. —  (“Indian  Gardening.”) 
-  Not  the  Place  for  Gardeners. — A  recent  visitor  to  the 
home  and  farm  of  Rhodes  in  Rhodesia  has  given  the  following  description 
of  it.  The  farm  at  Inyanga  is  about  5000  feet  above  the  level  of  the 
sea.  Its  size  is  about  3000  acres,  and  the  house  stands  in  the  middle  of 
it.  It  is  without  fence  or  hedge  of  any  sort,  but  is  well  watered  by  streams 
from  the  mountains,  and  the  soil  being  particularly  rich  almost  anything 
could  be  grown  there  if  it  were  not  for  the  locusts,  which  for  two-thirds 
of  the  year  swarm  in  countless  myriads,  eating  every  blade  of  grass  and 
leaf,  in  fact  everything  green  on  the  farm.  The  kitchen  garden  being  a 
particularly  favourite  spot  of  theirs,  it  is  almost  impossible  to  grow 
vegetables  or  to  get  any  fruit.  Woe  betide  the  spot  which  they  may 
select  for  their  night’s  resting  place,  for  it  is  brown  and  dried  up  next 
morning  as  though  parched  by  a  long  drought.  It  has  truly  been  said 
that  God’s  hand  rests  heavily  on  this  land,  for  the  plagues  of  all  Egypt 
seem  to  have  settled  on  Rhodesia,  as,  in  addition  to  locusts,  drought. 
Hies,  and  fevers,  there  are  rinderpest,  scab,  tsetse  fly,  ants,  sand  storms, 
whilst  the  fatal  black  water  fever  and  painful  jigger  insect  are  by  no 
means  unknown  in  the  Umtali  district,  making  life  in  our  new  territory’ 
almost  unbearable  to  Europeans.  Little  wonder  is  it  then,  to  find 
prospectors  and  miners  leaving  this  part  of  the  world  to  risk  the  cold  of 
Klondyke  in  preference.  It  could  scarcely  be  anticipated  that  the  name 
I  of  the  home  is  “  Fruitfield.’ 
