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JOURNAL  OF  HORTICULTURE  AND  COTTAGE  GARDENER. 
September  21,  It  99 . 
Here  we  come  to  another  point — When  is  the  best  time  to  manure  ? 
It  is  questionable  whether  much  money,  to  say  nothing  of  labour,  has 
not  this  season  been  spent  on  manure  to  very  little  purpose,  for  the 
simple  reason  that  its  good  qualities  have  never  been  abstracted  from 
it,  through  the  drought.  In  several  instances  I  have  observed  that 
when  Potatoes  were  being  lifted  from  land  manured  just  prior  to 
planting,  the  intended  food  came  out  in  much  about  the  same  condition 
as  when  it  was  put  in,  whereas  in  ground  dcuble-dug  and  mauured 
during  the  previous  autumn  and  winter  scarcely  a  trace  of  it  could 
be  se  en.  I  his  teaches  us  that  spring  manuring  is  not  the  better  method 
when  followed  by  an  exceptionally  dry  summer.  1  do  not  think  it 
was  so  much  the  anticipation  of  a  long  drought  as  the  knowledge  that 
I  had  no  water  if  it  did  come,  which  prompted  me  to  bastard  trench 
all  vacant  ground  last  winter,  and  when  breaking  up  the  bottom  spit 
to  work  in  a  dressing  of  good  ol  -fashioned  manure  from  the  farm¬ 
yard.  I  eas  and  Beans  have  borne  well,  while  Carrots,  Parsmps,  Beet, 
and  Unions  are  all  'good  crops,  in  spite  of  the  drought,  with  foliage 
healthy  and  green,  showing  a  marked  contrast  to  some  scores  of  gardens 
and  allotments  I  have  seen. 
A\  e  have  arrived  now  at  a  kind  of  stock-taking  time  when  we  must 
look  round  and  see  how  we  stand  for  the  winter.  A  good  supply 
of  greens  is  the  backbone  of  the  vegetable  garden,  and  in  providing 
this,  or  at  least  trying  to  do  so,  we  have  had  several  persistent  enemies 
to  cope  with— one  the  dreaded  caterpillar,  another  the  equally  dreaded 
flea,  which  is  in  reality  a  small  beetle.  I  have  never  known  either  of 
these  pests  to  be  so  numerous,  and  rarely  have  they  done  more  damage 
It  is  aggravating  to  have  a  nice  bed  of  autumn  Cabbage,  for  instance, 
which  you  consider  will  just  turn  in  right,  and  then  to  see  than 
riduled,  mutilated,  and  devoured  by  hordes  of  hungry  caterpillars. 
You  may  spray  the  greens,  dust  with  lime  and  soot,  kill  butterflies,  and 
yet  they  seem  to  come,  and  you  have  to  fall  back,  if  the  greens  are  to 
be  saved,  en  the  simplest  but  most  efficient  remedy — picking  off  the 
caterpillars,  and  it  is  surprising  what  a  couple  of  boys,  working  apart, 
of  course,  can  do  in  this  direction.  The  flea  is  another  matter.  He  is 
a  hard-backed  rascal  that  revels  in  sunshine  and  turns  the  leaves  if 
Cabbage  and  greenstuff's  brown  and  sickly  by  his  ravages.  The  remedy 
seems  to  lie  in  deep  cultivation  after  the  crop  is  off,  applying  to  the 
land  a  heavy  dressing  of  lime.  Again,  we  have  bad  a  useful  lesson 
taught  by  the  season  on  ti  e  wisdom  of  early  planting  for  Winter 
Greens. 
'I  he  crop  that  has  beaten  many  gardeners  this  year  has  been 
Turnips,  ar.d  I  never  remember  a  season  when  they  have  been  more 
difficult  to  grow.  The  first  crop  was  all  right,  but  after  then  it  seemed 
hopeless.  No  sooner  was  the  growth  above  ground  than  it  was  razed 
off  by  the  flea,  and  if  in  a  damp  situation,  and  by  constant  moistening 
and  dusting  the  plants  struggled  through  to  something  approaching 
maturity,  the  roots  cut  woolly  and  strong,  almost  destitute  of  that 
sweet  flavour  which  characterises  a  Turnip  grown  under  favourable 
conditions.  I  hose  who  have  attended  many  flower  show's  will  have 
had  an  opportunity  of  noticing  the  scaicity  of  Turnips.  In  many 
instances  the  class  has  been  empty,  and  in  others  the  produce  has 
been  so  inferior  as  to  be  quite  unworthy  of  an  award.  These  successive 
seasons  impress  on  us  more  and  more  the  much  felt  want  of  some 
means  of  being  able  to  successfully  combat  the  Turnip  flea. 
It  there  is  any  feeling  of  real  satisfaction  this  year  it  is  over  the 
1  ofatoes,  and  the  lesson  learned  is  that  the  indispensable  tuber  love3 
a  dry  summer.  There  have  been  complaints  about  the  tubers  bein'* 
small,  and  perhaps,  so  far  as  the  early  crop  is  concerned,  the  grumble 
was  -justifiable.  But  we  are  now  digging  the  later  sorts,  and  are 
gratified  with  the  heavy  crop  of  even,  good-shaped  tubers,  with  no 
mice  of  disease,  and  hardly  a  speck  of  scab.  In  the  south,  the  tops 
showed  signs  of  decay  before  August  was  out,  and  where  they  still 
look  green  an  examination  is  advised,  for  this  season  second  growth 
is  very  prevalent.  As  I  am  only  generalising  I  will  not  dwell  on 
varieties,  except  to  say  that  we  have  every  reason  to  be  satisfied  with 
all  well  tried  sorts. 
Lnt  one  lesson  only  suggests  another,  for  there  are  so  manv  to  be 
learnt  at  the  end  of  a  summer  such  as  we  have  just  experienced, 
j  here  may,  however,  be  enough  in  the  above  observations  to  provide 
food  tor  thoughtful  ruminations,  and  perhaps  bring  forth  experiences 
and  suggestions  that  will  be  useful.— G.  H.  H. 
TOMATOES. 
In  common  with  most  other  Solanaceous  plants,  Tomatoes  are 
easily  growTn  by  anyone  as  far  as  an  abundance  of  foliage  is  concerned, 
but  to  obtain  good  fruit  is  quite  another  matter.  Many  crops  of 
what  might  have  been  good  fruit  are  spoilt  every  year,  and  the  editors 
of  the  gardening  pre-s  are  worried  by  samples  of  different  diseases, 
which  are  often  more  the  result  of  mismanagement  than  anything 
else. 
A  failure  with  Tomatoes  is  caused  by  one  of  three  things,  or 
perhaps  the  three  combined — overbreeding,  overfeeding,  and  planting 
too  closely.  There  is  danger  to  be  apprehended  from  the  first  in  the 
immediate  future,  as  new  sorts  are  raised  every  year,  and  each  one  is 
an  advance  in  form,  size,  or  colour  upon  those  which  have  preceded  it. 
But  it  is  to  be  feared  that  this  advance  has  been  in  fruit  alone,  and 
that  the  plant  itself  is  gradually  getting  weaker  and  becoming  more 
and  more  susceptible  to  some  of  the  fungoid  diseases  w-hicli  so  readily 
attack  plants  that  are  not  constitutionally  strong.  It  may  be  urged 
that  the  plants  are  as  strong  now  as  they  used  to  be,  but  are  they  ? 
'l  lie  greater  spread  of  disease  among  Tomatoes  during  the  last  few 
years  points  unerringly  to  weakness,  wfrch  will  have  to  be  reckoned 
with  in  the  future.  Any  sort  which  shows  signs  of  weakness  through 
being  too  highly  bred  should  be  discarded,  and  only  those  kept  which 
are  of  good  constitution. 
The  two  other  causes  of  disease  are  more  apparent,  and  therefore 
can  be  readily  dealt  with.  The  Tomato  is  a  strong  growing 
plant,  especially  if  in  good,  rich  soil,  where  it  makes  many 
leaves  which  have  to  be  cut  away  to  induce  it  to  fruit.  But  it  is 
rather  poor  policy  to  grow  leaves  only  for  the  rubbish  heap,  to  say 
nothing  of  the  severe  check  given  to  the  plants  by  removing  from 
a  half  to  two-thirds  of  their  leaf  surface  at  a  time.  This  tends  to 
weaken  the  plants  physically  (a  different  thing  ftom  constitutional 
weakness)  and  to  render  th  m  a  prey  to  any  fuDgus  spores  looking  for 
a  home. 
Tomatoes  when  planted  out  should  he  put  in  a  rather  poor  soil, 
and  no  manure  of  any  sort  ought  to  he  mixed  with  it.  Fresh  stable 
manure  especially  must  be  avoided,  and  the  soil  should  be  made  up  in 
ridges  like  those  for  Cucumbers  or  Melons.  The  plants  may  be  kept 
to  a  single  lead,  and  all  side  shoots  be  removed.  When  the  first  fruits 
are  swelling  nicely,  liquid  manure  should  be  given  at  each  alternate 
watering,  or  a  top-dressing  of  soil  with  some  artificial  manure  mixed 
with  it  may  be  used.  The  manure  is  required  for  the  fruit,  not  to 
make  the  plants  grow,  as  the  Tomato  will  grow  fast  enough  without 
help  from  stimulants.  Grown  in  this  way,  the  plants  make  short- 
juinted,  firm  wood,  with  plenty  of  fruit  ;  v$;ry  different  from  the  soft, 
sappy  stems  of  those  treated  too  liberally  from  the  first. 
The  evils  of  planting  too  closely  are  easily  seen.  Tall  spindly 
plants,  with  a  few  fruits  at  the  top ;  no  circulation  of  air  to  keen  the 
plants  dry,  and  no  sunlight  on  any  part  but  the  extreme  top  soon 
invite  disease,  which  spreads  through  the  clcse  ranks  with  great 
rapidity.  Each  plant  should  be  at  least  3,  or  even  4,  feet  from  its 
neighbours  on  eveiy  side,  so  that  each  one  can  have  the  full  benefit  of 
all  the  light  and  air  necessary  for  its  welfare.  Half  the  number  of 
plants  in  a  certain  properly  apportioned  space  will  yield  double  or 
treble  the  amount  of  fruit  that  twice  the  quantity  would,  and  the 
fruit  will  be  of  far  better  quality  as  well. 
To  sum  up,  good  sound  varieties  should  be  used,  the  plants  must  have 
p’enty  of  room,  and  manure  ought  only  to  be  used  to  assist  the  plant 
in  the  development  cf  fruit.  If  these  three  points  are  carefully 
attended  to,  the  various  fungoid  diseases  of  the  Tomato  will  not  cause 
much  trouble  to  the  cultivator  of  what  has  grown  from  a  luxury  of 
the  lew  to  be  a  necessity  of  the  many.  Prevention  is  better  than 
cure. — C. 
Zizania  aquatica. — The  tropical  weather  of  the  past  few  months 
appears  to  have  suited  this  North  American  aquatic  perfectly  at 
Ivew,  where  large  clumps  are  to  be  found  in  various  places.  The  best 
clump  is  in  the  new  Nymphaea  pond  in  the  arboretum.  In  that 
place  it  has  grown  to  a  height  of  9  or  10  feet,  with  a  diameter  of  the  same 
extent.  In  general  appearance  it  is  a  graceful  plant,  with  arching  leaves 
3  to  4  feet  long  by  to  2  inches  wide,  surmounted  with  large  plumes  of 
flowers.  The  inflorescences  are  in  many  cases  18  inches  long  and  a  foot 
through,  composed  partly  of  yellowish,  inconspicuous  female  flowers,  and 
partly'  of  reduish  male  flowers,  the  males  predominating  and  showing 
very  conspicuously'  above  the  deep  green  foliage.  From  an  ornamental 
point  of  view  it  is  worthy  of  a  place  among  the  best  of  plants  for  the  margin 
of  a  pond  or  lake,  and  if  the  difficulty  of  getting  the  seeds  to  igerminate 
can  once  be  overcome,  it  is  little  or  no  trouble  afterwards.  Although  by 
no  means  a  new  plant,  it  is  very  uncommon,  the  seeds  appearing 
to  lose  their  vitality  very  quickly  after  ripening.  If,  however,  seeds  can 
be  ripened  in  England,  and  sown  as  soon  as  ripe,  it  will  doubtless  be 
popular,  being  quite  distinct  from  the  ordinary  run  of  water  plants,  and 
making  a  bold  and  imposing  feature  in  a  very  short  time.  It  should  be 
planted  in  good  loam,  and  the  roots  ought  to  be  a  few  inches  under  the 
water. — W.  D. 
