July  19,  IPOO. 
JOURNAL  OF  HORTICULTURE  AND  COTTAGE  GARDENER. 
61 
cardeh.gi^eAnincs 
Strawberries  San-scalded. — It  would  be  interesting  to  learn  if 
this  phenomenon  has  been  observed  elsewhere  during  the  bright 
sunshine  and  tropical  heat,  which,  especially  on  the  10th  and  11th  inst., 
at  Birmingham.  The  gardener  in  charge  of  a  large  garden  near  where 
I  am  writing  informed  me  that  dozens  of  the  best  berries  of  his  Royal 
Sovereign  were  blistered,  and  quickly  resolved  into  a  liquid  condition 
soon  after  gathering,  and  spoilt  uninjured  berries  in  close  contact. 
Those  berries  shaded  by  the  foliage  of  the  plants  escaped  injury.  My 
friends  had  never  observed  a  similar  affection  previously,  neither  have 
I  ever  noticed  it,  at  least  to  the  same  extent,  during  a  long  life 
experience  in  growing  Strawberries. — G. 
The  Chestnut  Plantations. — Thisyearfor  the  first  time  I  have 
been  a  good  deal  among  the  Chestnut  plantations  of  the  South 
of  England.  The  Chestnut  is  not  a  very  English-looking  tree,  some- 
how,  and  one  is  inclined  to  regard  it  as  an  alien.  Still,  it  thrives 
well  on  many  soils,  and  makes  by  no  means  a  useless  underwood  as 
distinguished  from  an  ornamental  timber  tree.  It  may,  when  ripe,  be 
cut  lor  Hop  poles,  and  it  is  largely  used  for  making  fences  and  also 
for  parts  of  farm  waggons,  but  not  for  house  or  outhouse  buildings. 
It  is  a  close,  hard  wood.  Laslett,  in  his  “  Timber  and  Timber 
Trees,”  says  it  is  of  ‘‘  moderate  hardness  and  weight,”  but  the 
qualifying  adjective  was  scarcely  called  for.  The  Chestnut  makes 
rather  a  gloomy  dark  plantation,  so  far  as  the  interior  is  concerned, 
and  scarcely  anything  will  grow  under  the  thick  foliage.  It  is  also 
monotonously  uniform  in  appearance. 
A.  Wild  Garden. — I  have  this  day  seen  the  most  charming 
wilderness  garden.  It  is  a  tract  of  about  a  quarter  of  an  acre,  border¬ 
ing  on  one  of  the  most  highly  kept  and  richly  flowered  gardens  in 
Reading.  It  was  the  owner’s  whim  to  leave  this  untouched  last  year, 
and  unmowed  until  this  autumn.  This  year  the  same  is  to  take  place, 
and  Nature  has  been  allowed  its  own  sweet  way  through  the  whole  of 
the  season.  The  result  is  a  wilderness  of  the  choicest  wild  flowers, 
many  familiar  forms,  and  some  as  beautiful  as  unexpected.  Amongst 
the  last — viz.,  especially  being  the  brilliant  yellow  and  most  fragrant 
scents  of  the  Galium  verum.  I  hope  I  have  got  the  name  right ;  better 
known,  perhaps,  though  this  is  new  to  me,  as  the  Lady’s  Bedstraw.  Vast 
masses  of  this  are  now  perfuming  the  air.  To  those  who  desire  a  new 
floral  sensation,  and  can  appreciate  beauty  unadorned  side  by  side  with 
that  adorned  the  most,  I  would  say,  let  a  grass  field  corner  have  its  own 
sweet  will  through  all  the  summer. — A.  C. 
Potato  Growth.  —  Whilst  I  thought  my  own  most  carefully 
preserved  Potato  sets  had  suffered  from  storing  in  a  somewhat  dry 
warm  place — but  over  which  I  have  no  control — yet  when  I  find 
how  universally  Potato  plants  have  come  unevenly,  I  realised  that 
some  general  cause  had  operated  to  produce  the  effect  seen.  That 
cause,  I  can  have  no  doubt  whatever,  is  the  one  stated  so  forcibly  by 
Mr.  A.  W.  Button  on  page  6,  as  I  planted  largely  very  fine  and 
apparently  capitally  matured  sets,  yet  the  sprouts  from  the  eyes  were 
weak,  indeed  out  of  all  proportion  to  the  size  and  firmness  of  the  tubers. 
I  saw  the  other  day,  in  the  gardens  of  Holly  Lodge,  Highgate,  a  further 
curious  illustration  of  the  truth  of  Mr.  Sutton’s  conviction  in  a  big 
breadth  of  Windsor  Castle,  the  growth  of  which  was  very  even,  yet 
in  every  case  was  relatively  weak  compared  with  the  growth  found  on 
a  breadth  close  by,  which  was  distinctly  luxuriant,  showing  the  variety 
in  its  best  form.  The  first  breadth  was  from  seed  tubers  sated  in  the 
gardens,  the  latter  from  seed  tubers  bought  in,  and  no  doubt  from  the 
north.  But  the  difference  was  singularly  marked.  I  have  this  season 
also  noted  a  great  deal  of  what  is  commonly  called  rust,  especially  on 
early  varieties,  causing  the  leaves  to  turn  nearly  black,  and  the  tops 
to  be  short  and  devoid  of  vigour.  In  some  places  this  rust  is  greatly 
in  evidence.  I  attribute  this  chiefly  to  the  drought  of  last  year  failing 
to  induce  the  peronospora  spores  to  spread  in  the  tubers,  and  thus 
decay  them,  hence  being  apj  arently  souna  they  were  stored  and 
planted,  with  the  result  that  now  the  disease  is  early  manifested  in 
this  rust-like  condition  in  the  plants.  Sets  not  decayed  cut  open  have 
shown  the  disease  in  the  flesh. — Wanderer. 
CultlvatlDgr  with  a  Rake. — Pew  people  know  the  use  of  a  rake 
among  little  plants  in  the  garden.  There  is  no  tool  more  important. 
Get  a  wide  rake,  with  long  straight  teeth,  not  too  close  together.  You 
can  do  more  work  in  an  hour  with  it  than  you  can  in  five  hours  with 
any  other  tool.  Rike  right  across  the  plants;  never  fear  that  you  will 
pull  them  up.  You  will  be  surprised  to  see  how  neatly  the  plants  slip 
through  the  teeth.  Young  Onions,  Radishes,  Beets,  Cabbages,  and 
Tomatoes  can  be  quickly  and  easily  gone  over. 
Cherries.  —  A  nervous  old  gentleman  lunching  out  with  some 
friends  helped  himself  to  some  fine  Blackheart  Cherries  which  were  on 
the  table.  Before  eating  them  he  washed  each  one  in  his  tumbler  of 
water,  snying  as  he  did  so  how  very  careful  one  ought  to  be  to  clean 
the  Cherries  thoroughly,  as  there  was  always  a  certain  amount  of  dust 
and  microbes  on  them.  He  enlarged  at  great  length  on  this  subject. 
Having  finished  his  Cherries  and  eaten  a  biscuit,  he  took  up  his  glass 
and  drank  the  contents.  Everyone  round  the  table  was  silently  much 
amused,  but  nobody  had  the  courage,  says  a  writer  in  a  contemporary, 
to  tell  the  old  gentleman  of  the  mistake  he  had  made.  He  is  still  in 
happy  ignorance,  and  none  the  worse  for  his  dose. 
How  Basic  Slag  Is  Obtained. — Not  long  since  the  writer  wa.s 
talking  to  a  man  who  objected  to  the  use  of  basic  slag  because  he  had 
been  told  that  it  was  iron  filings  and  the  sweepings  up  of  foundries, 
and  he  could  not  see  how  they  would  help  crops.  For  the  information 
of  others  equally  in  the  dark,  it  may  be  here  pointed  out  that  basic 
slag  is  a  product  in  the  purification  of  steel  made  under  a  particular 
process,  where  lime  is  added  to  combine  with  the  phosphorus,  forming 
a  phosphate  of  lime.  The  resulting  compound,  being  lighter  than  the 
metal,  floats  on  the  top  as  oil  does  on  water,  and  forms  a  scum 
or  slag,  which  is  run  off  the  top,  just  like  any  other  slag.  —  (“  Farmers’ 
Gazette.”) 
Some  July  Flowers. — These  are  the  days  of  the  Delphinium’s 
glory.  Almost  every  well  tended  herbaceous  garden  in  which  the 
owner  takes  a  pride  has  some  of  these  tall  flowers  of  the  dazzling  blue* 
Outside  the  garden  the  hedgesides  and  the  strips  of  green  at  the  edge  of 
the  road  are  gay  just  now  with  the  purple  Vetchlings  and  the  Mallow 
and  Bedstraw.  The  yellow  Bedstraw,  by  far  the  finest  and  sweetest 
of  its  tribe,  is  just  coming  on,  and  in  the  hedges  the  snow-white 
blossoms  of  the  Privet  are  taking  the  place  of  the  great  masses  of 
Elder  flower.  In  the  shadier  spots  the  wild  Orchids  are  blossoming  in 
quantities.  The  broad  leaved  Helleborine  is  just  coming  out  in  the 
woods ;  and  the  lovely  rose  coloured  pyramidal  Orchis  is  in  its  glory. 
July  is  a  great  month  for  the  flowers  of  the  wild  and  of  the  garden 
alike.  Roaming  about  Selborne  Hanger  and  Common  the  other  day, 
I  found,  says  a  writer  in  the  “  Daily  Express,”  several  specimens  of 
the  fungus  known  as  Agaricus  rubescens.  It  was  growing  under  the 
Beech  trees  where  there  was  very  little  undergrowth  of  any  kind.  This 
fungus  is  very  rarely  eaten  in  England,  but  on  the  Continent  it  is 
much  esteemed.  Ketchup  is  made  from  it,  and  it  is  also  eaten  like  the 
Mushroom.  It  is  most  frequently  found  under  the  Oak  and  Chestnut 
trees. 
Allotments  at  Highgate. — I  had  the  pleasure  a  few  days  since  of 
looking  over  the  admirable  group  of  some  fifty  small  allotment  gardens, 
the  Baroness  Burdett  Coutts  has  so  kindly  provided  for  the  workers  of 
that  locality.  The  ground  is  near  the  stud  farm,  and  on  the  lower 
part  of  the  Holly  Lodge  estate.  It  is  of  a  somewhat  stiff  clay,  but  its 
tenacious  nature  has  been  materially  mitigated  by  the  introduction  of 
street  manure  and  sweepings,  some  of  the  plots  being  appreciably 
raised  in  that  way.  The  plots  are  about  9  rods  each  in  extent.  They 
all  face  to  a  cart  road,  which  is  nearly  circular  in  shape,  and  there 
are  broad  gates  at  the  end  of  the  ground.  In  that  way  soil  or  manure 
can  be  drawn  by  carts  to  each  plot.  Then  because  of  these  road  frontages 
almost  every  plot  has  a  nice  flower  garden  in  front.  Some  of  these 
are  quite  a  rod  in  area,  and  not  a  few  are  charmingly  planted  and  kept. 
As  on  the  annual  show  day  of  the  allotment  produce  the  enclosure 
where  the  plots  are  is  thrown  open  to  the  public,  there  is  great  ambi¬ 
tion  on  the  part  of  the  workers  to  have  very  gay  fronts.  Generally 
the  cropping  was  first-rate.  I  pointed  one  on  the  Surrey  county 
basis,  and  found  it  so  remarkably  well  was  the  ground  utilised  and  so 
admirable  the  produce,  that  it  totalled  up  to  1 18,  which  is  very  high 
indeed  for  so  small  a  plot.  It  was  no  doubt  the  best  in  the  field. 
Competitions  for  priz?s  have  been  proceeding  for  several  years,  and  to 
those  competitions  is  so  greatly  due  the  admirable  work  seen  at  Uigh- 
gate.  Competition  really  becomes  the  soul  of  good  work  everywhere. 
—A.  D. 
