August  26,  18i)7. 
195 
JOURNAL  OF  HORTICULTURE  AND  COTTAGE  GARDENER, 
Carriage  of  Produce. — Speaking  at  the  annual  meeting  of 
the  Great  Eastern  Railway  Company,  Colonel  Makins,  deputy  chair¬ 
man,  said,  in  the  course  of  the  proceedings,  that  the  box  system  for 
placing  consumers  in  direct  communication  with  the  small  producers 
of  fruit,  vegetables,  flowers,  poultry,  eggs,  and  minor  products  of  the 
fa,rm  generally,  was  succeeding  very  well.  The  amount  of  money  it 
yields  dii-ectly  is  comjiaratively  small,  not  exceeding  at  present  £2000  ; 
but  it  has  the  great  advantage  of  attracting  from  London  direct  to  the 
pockets  of  the  small  farmers  and  market  gardeners,  allotment  holders, 
and  cottagers  in  East  Anglia  a  considerable  sum  of  money.  The  average 
value  of  the  contents  of  each  box  is  about  7s.  6d.,  and  as  the  number  of 
boxes  carried  during  the  year  ]  890  was  00,034,  the  aggregate  value  of 
the  produce  sent  to  the  metropolis  under  the  box  system  was  £22,500. 
During  the  first  half  of  the  current  year  the  number  of  boxes  of  produce 
sent  over  the  system  was  55,159. 
Flora  of  Santa  Clara. — The  flora  of  this  province  of  Cuba 
was  recently  dealt  with  in  a  paper  contributed  by  Mr.  Robert  Combs  to 
a  recent  meeting  of  the  St.  Louis  Academy  of  Science.  The  author 
described  the  results  of  his  explorations,  extending  from  the  commence¬ 
ment  of  the  rainy  season  of  one  year  until  the  close  of  the  dry  season 
the  following  spring,  the  territory  covered  lying  between  the  entrance 
of  the  bay  of  Cienfugos,  ,on  the  south  coast  of  Cuba,  up  the  bay  and  the 
river  Damuji  to  Rodas,  and  extending  back  from  the  river  to  Yaguara- 
mos,  and  almost  to  the  Cienega  de  Zapato,  a  region  including  nearly  all 
kinds  of  soil  and  condition  found  upon  the  island,  except  those  of  the 
mountain  regions  and  the  mud  swamps.  A  brief  statement  was  made 
concerning  the  origin  of  the  Cuban  flora  and  its  affinities  with  that  of 
continental  Central  America,  rather  than  the  geographically  nearer 
Florida  region.  The  paper,  says  a  contemporary,  comprised  a  full 
catalogue  of  the  collections  made,  which  had  been  determined  at  the 
herbarium  of  Harvard  University,  and  of  which  several  sets  had  been 
distributed  to  the  larger  herbaria. 
~  Spraying  Potatoes.— During  the  past  fortnight  many  fields 
of  Potatoes  have  shown  unmistakeable  signs  of  blight,  by  the  spotting 
of  the  leaves  and  the  peculiar  odour  always  present  when  attacked  by 
this  insidious  disease.  There  has  seldom  been  a  year  when  timely 
warning  was  so  strikingly  given  as  the  present,  the  earlier  sorts  in 
gardens  having  been  severely  hit  as  early  as  the  1st  July  ;  and  although 
the  later  varieties  remained  perfectly  healthy  for  several  weeks  after,  it 
was  hardly  to  be  expected  but  that  they  also  would  he  attacked  when  they 
reached  the  same  stage.  That  was  the  time  to  spray,  as  prevention  is 
better  than  cure  ;  and  many  fields  have  been  saved  by  growers  having 
profited  by  this  timely  warning  and  sprayed  extensively,  large  groAvers 
using  the  horse  machine,  and  still  keep  going  on.  It  is  not  too  late  to 
save  a  considerable  portion  of  the  crop  by  careful  spraying  on  those 
fields  where  the  disease  has  not  caught  hold  of  the  stem,  although  it  may 
e  perfectly  distinct  on  the  foliage.  In  Yorkshire  and  the  great  Potato 
growing  districts  of  the  south-east  coast  of  Scotland— about  Dunbar, 
notably— spraying  has  been  largely  carried  out— in  face  of  the  adverse 
decision  of  the  Highland  Society  ;  and  many  fields,  strongly  touched, 
have  been  brought  back  to  a  healthy  condition.  —  (“  Irish  Farmers* 
Gazette.”) 
— -  Fertilisers  and  Feeding-stupfs  Act,  1893.— The  Board 
of  Agriculture  has  issued  a  leaflet  giving  publicity  to  the  provisions  of 
the  Fertilisers  and  Feeding- stuffs  Act,  which  came  into  force  on  and 
after  January  1st,  1894.  The  provisions  of  the  Act,  which  applies  to 
Avholesale  as  well  as  retail  sales,  may  be  classified  as  follows  : — 1,  Pro¬ 
visions  relating  to  the  warranty  to  be  implied  on  the  sale  of  a  fertiliser 
or  feeding-stuff ;  2,  Provisions  relating  to  taking  samples  and  obtaining 
analyses;  and  3,  Provisions  relating  to  offences,  penalties,  and  legal 
proceedings.  Provisions  relating  to  the  Warranty  to  be  implied  on  the 
Sale  of  a  Fertiliser  or  Feeding-stuff, — Every  person  who  sells  a  fertiliser 
i.e.,  any  article  sold  as  a  fertiliser  of  the  soil — which  has  been  manu¬ 
factured  or  subjected  to  any  artificial  process  in  the  United  Kingdom,  or 
imported  from  abroad,  is  reijuired  to  give  to  the  purchaser  an  invoice 
stating  the  name  of  the  fertiliser,  and  whether  it  is  artificially  com¬ 
pounded  or  rtot,  and  what  is,  at  least,  the  percentage  of  the  nitrogen, 
phosphates  soluble  and  Insoluble — i.e.,  in  water — and  potash,  if  any 
contained  in  the  fertiliser,  and  this  invoice  is  to  have  effect  as  a  warranty 
by  the  seller  of  the  statements  contained  therein.  This  provision  does 
not  apply  to  a  sale  where  the  whole  amount  sold  at  the  same  time  Aveighs 
less  than  half  a  hundrediA^eight.  The  fuller  details  are  comprised  in  a 
leaflet,  to  be  had,  free  of  charge,  from  the  Secretary  of  the  Board  of 
Agriculture,  4,  Whitehall  Place,  S.W, 
—  Exacum  macranthum. — Mr.  W.  Watson,  in  the  “  Garden 
and  Forest,”  say.s,  “For  many  years  this  beautiful  tropical  Gentianad 
has  been  successfully  cultivated  at  Kew,  but  it  has  not  yet  become  a 
popular  garden  plant,  although  several  market  growers  near  London 
have  essayed  its  cultivation.  It  has  numerous  erect  stems,  from  1  to  2 
feet  high,  clothed  Avitli  rich  green  elliptic -lanceolate  leaves  .3  inches  long 
and  bearing  terminal  many-flowered  corymbs  of  rotate  deep  blue 
flowers  nearly  2  inches  across.  It  is  a  biennial  and  retjuires  the  con¬ 
ditions  of  an  intermediate  house.  This  year  the  plants  at  Kew  are 
exceptionally  vigorous,  and  this  is  due  to  their  having  been  planted  out 
in  beds  of  loam  in  the  newly  erected  Mexican  house.  I  have  also  seen 
beautiful  pot  specimens  grown  along  with  Begonias.  The  plant  is  a 
native  of  Ceylon,  where  it  is  said  to  be  common  up  to  5000  feet  elevation. 
It  is  the  only  one  of  the  twenty  species  known  that  possesses  any  merit  as 
a  garden  plant.” 
-  WiREAYORMS.  —  The  Zoologist  of  the  Royal  Agricultural 
Society  has  been  engaged  in  conducting  a  series  of  “  pot  experiments  ’’ 
to  ascertain  the  efficacy  of  “  mustard  dross  ”  as  an  antidote  to  wireworms, 
and  has  arrived  at  the  following  general  conclusions  : — (1)  The  dross  is 
obnoxious  to  the  AvireAvorms,  and  fatal  to  them  if  they  remain  in  it  ; 
(2)  sown  with  the  seed  it  keeps  off  the  worm  in  the  earliest  and  most 
vulnerable  stage  of  the  plant’s  growth ;  (3)  if  used  too  plentifully  it 
delays  the  germination  of  the  seed,  but  there  would  be  no  likelihood  of 
this  with  the  ([uantities  which  the  cultivator  would  probably  use ; 
(4)  experiments  on  the  small  scale  do  not  indicate  that  it'would  be  of  any 
use  as  a  top-dressing  Avhen  the  crop  is  up,  as  it  has  a  burning  effect  on 
the  plants  themselves  ;  (5)  it  seems  eminently  likely  to  be  useful,  if 
drilled  with  the  seed,  in  cases  where  wireworm  is  to  be  anticipated,  as 
after  grass  or  Clover  in  land  much  subject  to  Avireworm ;  (6)  it  is  very 
light,  and  Avould  have  to  be  mixed  with  ashes  or  drilled  on  a  calm  day  ; 
(7)  (juantities  equivalent  to  2^  cwt.  per  acre  have  given  distinctly 
beneficial  results  in  the  pot  experiments. 
-  American  Peaches.— The  Maryland  Peach  crop,  especially 
that  on  the  eastern  shore,  Avas  seriously  injured  by  a  frost  on  the 
20th  of  April,  which  killed  a  large  portion  of  the  fruit  buds  iu  the 
tidewater  section  of  the  State.  But  it  is  true  also  that  the  curculio 
has  done  an  uncommon  amount  of  injury,  as  the  great  number  of  specked 
Peaches  in  the  New  York  market  indicates.  Peach  growers  have  never 
felt  the  necessity  of  combating  the  curculio,  as  Plum  growers  are  com* 
polled  to  do.  And  certainly  they  have  not  yet  taken  ordinary  precautions 
against  this  danger.  I^ast  year,  says  an  American  contemporary,  the 
Peach  crop  was  unusually  large,  and  the  overloaded  trees  produced  much 
small  and  inferior  fruit,  which  was  allowed  to  remain  in  the  orchard. 
This  gave  the  curculio  an  unusual  opportunity,  and  Professor  W.  G. 
Johnson,  the  State  entomologist,  suggested  to  the  growers  last  autumn 
that  it  would  be  wise  policy  to  destroy  as  many  of  the  small  Peaches  as 
possible,  so  as  to  prevent  the  larvm  of  the  curculio  from  entering  the 
ground  for  pupation.  There  is  no  doubt  that  if  this  had  been  done  the 
crop  would  have  been  less  seriously  injured.  The  fact  that  Professor 
Johnson  predicted  this  danger  ought  to  lead  Peach  growers  to  listen  more 
carefully  to  expert  counsel  in  the  future. 
-  A  Beautiful  Cemetery.  —  The  pretty  little  cemetery  at 
Harton  is  now  looking  its  best,  and  every  evening  during  the  past  month 
the  grounds  have  been  crowded  with  visitors,  who  have  not  been  back¬ 
ward  in  expressing  their  appreciation  and  admiration  of  the  happy 
results  achieved  by  the  superintendent,  Mr.  B.  CoAvan.  It  is  barely 
seven  years  since  the  cemetery  was  opened,  and  the  transformation 
brought  about  is  really  wonderful.  During  that  short  space  of  time  the 
trees  have  grown  prodigiously.  There  is  not  a  weed  to  be  seen  anywhere, 
the  paths  are  the  picture  of  tidiness,  and  the  whole  place  gives  evidence 
of  the  amount  of  care  bestowed  upon  its  Avelfare.  The  collection  of 
alpine  and  herbaceous  plants  is  considered  by  connoisseurs  to  be  one  of 
the  best  in  the  district,  Avhile  the  display  of  East  Lothian  Stocks  is  very 
fine.  The  carpet  bedding  has  never  looked  better  ;  the  summer  bedding 
is  beautiful ;  and  the  likeness  of  her  Majesty  designed  on  a  carpet  bed  is 
ajstrong  feature  of  the  place.  It  is  an  artistic  combination  of  hardy  dwarf 
plants,  shaded  to  show  a  very  pleasing  contour  of  the  face ;  it  is  easily 
perceptible,  and  has  attracted  during  the  summer  thousands  of  admirers. 
To  the  ordinary  visitor  the  place  has  more  the  appearance  of  a  gentle¬ 
man’s  private  park  in  design,  the  trees  being  so  arranged  round  the  burial 
plots  as  to  shut  out  the  sight  of  the  graves.  Mr.  Cowan’s  arrangements, 
from  an  educational  point  of  vieAv,  must  be  of  immense  advantage,  for 
every  tree,  plant,  shrub,  and  flower  is  correctly  labelled  in  English  and 
Latin. — (“  NeAVcastle  Daily  Chronicle.”) 
