ST. PETER, the apostle, has his martyrdom commemorated on this day, and it is remarkable that St. Paul suffered on the same day, though in a different part of the world. When his Lord and Master summoned Peter from his occupation of a fisherman, to be, with his brother Andrew, "fishers of men," he substituted for his original name of Simon, that of Cephas, in the Syriac signifying "a rock." This in the Greek is Petru, whence our name of the son of Jona is derived. We need not follow this ardent, generous, self-confident apostle through all the notices taken of him in the New Testament. He was crucified at Rome in the year 65; and whilst, as transgressors, we may derive hope from the knowledge that Jesus loved Peter, even after the latter had denied all knowledge of him, yet let us remember that his repentance followed even upon one reproving look; that he shewed his repentance by a life devoted to the fulfilment of his Lord's commandments, and that in his death he did not deem himself worthy even to die in the same position as that in which Jesus suffered. Peter, at his own request, was crucified with his head downwards.

VISITATION OF THE BLESSED VIRGIN MARY.-A festival was instituted by Pope Urban the 6th in 1383, to be held annually on this day, to commemorate Mary's visit to her cousin Elisabeth, immediately after the Archangel Gabriel had announced "the glad tidings" of her being selected as the agent for the incarnation of our Reedemer. DOG DAYS BEGIN.-By dug days the Romans intended about forty days, during which occurred the heliacal rising of Canicula, the DogStar. But we calculate these days from the period when the sun comes in conjunction with Sirius, the brightest star in the constellation Canis Major (Larger Dog). These days last from July 3rd to August 11th, asd the greatest heat of the year usually occurs during their continuance, because at this period we receive the rays of the sun most vertically.

TRANSLATION OF ST. MARTIN.-Martin, Bishop of Tours, was noticed in our observations on Martinmas day (November 11th).

Highest

This day is commemorated by the Church of Rome as that on which the remains of Bishop Martin were removed, or translated, to a noble shrine at Tours. The same tradition is recorded of forty days' rain occurring if it rains on this day, as is recorded relative to the anniversary of St. Swithin.

PHENOMENA OF THE SEASON.-One of the most striking phenomena of this period is the plague of Aphides. We do not remember ever to have seen them in such myriads, and so universal as they are in the present year. Every plant seems to have its particular louse, or aphis, and whilst we are writing this, we have upon our table specimens of the blackish currant louse (Aphis ribes), of the black dolphin or bean louse (A. faba), of the green louse of the rose (4. rose), of the bluish green louse of the honeysuckle (A. lonicera), of the whitish louse of the filbert (A. corylle), and of the radish louse (A. raphani), the males of which are red and the females green. We could have others from the peach, the black currant, the sweet pea, and the apple, but our catalogue is sufficiently long, and as we look upon the total destruction they have brought upon a honeysuckle, we can understand more forcibly the plague of the flies wherewith "the land of Egypt was corrupted," and how powerless is man when God chooses to humble him even by an assailant as contemptible as an aphis. Mild winters, and cold moist springs, are favourable to the production of aphides, for in such seasons the tissue of the young shoots of plants remains long juicy and unripened into woody fibre. This green juicy state is that most productive of food for the aphis; and it is a wise provision that animals are always prolific in proportion to the abundance of their food. The female aphis during summer can give birth to twenty-five a day; and, upon data admitting of no dispute, it is shewn that during her life she may see around her descendants amounting to the enormous number of nearly six millions! No wonder, then, that during our present season of tardy vegetation aphides have been so injuriously abundant.

1841.

1842.

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Rain. Stormy.

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30

Fine.

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Cloudy.

Fine. 69°-50°

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Fine.

Fine.

Showery.

63°-59° 70°-50°

79°-50° 70°-53° 75°-48° 72°-54° Stormy. 69°-52° 79°-54° Fine. Rain. 730-58° 62°-53° Fine. Cloudy. Stormy. 76-59° 72°-57° 840-520 Fine. Cloudy. Fine. Fine. 780-53 68°-55° 75°-50° 920-66°

67°-370

Rain. 71°-52° 70°-58°

Fine.

Fine.

Cloudy.

720-53°

65°-40°

Showery. Cloudy.

Cloudy.

Cloudy.

65°-56° 75°-59°

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Cloudy. Rain.

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Fine.

Cloudy.

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79°-48°

INSECTS.-In light soils, especially, the onion is liable to suffer from the grub or larva of the Onion Fly (Anthomyia ceparum, or Scatophaga ceparum of some writers). The gardener who sees his young onions, when about the thickness of a straw, turning yellow, and the leaves sunk down upon the ground, may at once know that they are the victims of this insect. Even when of larger growth the onion is still liable to suffer from its attacks, and even up to the time of the bulb's full growth. If the outer coats of a young onion thus destroyed are stripped off, the grub is at once detected; but if the onion is older the grubs are often numerous. In both cases they will be found feeding on the very heart of the onion. The grub varies from about a quarter to half an inch long, is fleshy, shining, whitish, cylindrical, tapering from the head to the tail, and divided into twelve segments. The pores through which it breathes are yellow, and in the first segment. In about three weeks from the time of being hatched it changes into a chesnut-coloured, oval puparium, or case, within which is the real pupa. From this, in about a fortnight, the perfect fly comes forth, of the size of the cross lines, and appearing as magnified in our drawing. This is the female, and is entirely of a pale ashy colour, covered with black bristles. The male has a black line down the middle of the abdomen. The antennæ and legs are black; the wings are transparent, almost colourless, but irridescent pink and green. The female inserts her eggs within the leaf sheaths of the onion, close to the ground. She continues to lay her eggs from May to September, producing several broods during that period. The latest brood remains in the pupa state through the winter, so that all old decaying store onions should be burnt as spring advances. The best preventive of this grub is to sprinkle gas-lime between the rows of seedling onions-its fumes being offensive to the fly. It may be well, also, to try spreading

THE cold wet spring and ungenial summer of last year, followed by the mild winter, and a spring this year like that of the preceding, have fostered those plagues of the gardener, the aphis, the slug, and the mildew, until their ravages have been more general and more destructive than we ever remember them

No. XXXIX., VOL. II.

80°-46°

powdered charcoal among them in a similar way, for the fly is said to deposit her eggs in this powder as readily as in the onion plants.

in former years. The heat and dryness of the month now closing has done much towards the restraint and destruction of the two insect plagues, but the MILDEW still continues, and in some places, and under some circumstances, even in an exasperated form. To this we will, therefore, call to-day the

attention of our readers, premising that whether on the stems of wheat, or on the leaves of the chrysanthemum, pea, rose, vine, peach, apple, cucumber, or berberry, and on all have we seen it this year, it appears in the form of minute fungi, varying in colour and form, the roots of which penetrate the sap vessels, rob the plant of its juices, and disturb both its secretory and respiratory processes. It is quite clear that some of these fungi spread from plant to plant by means of their myriads of minute seeds being conveyed to their stems and leaves; as in the instances of the vine mildew being communicated to the chrysanthemums and cinerarias, as mentioned at p. 55 of the present volume. But we are also of opinion that in many instances these parisitic fungi are communicated to plants from the soil. The seeds of these minute yet destructive sapsuckers are wafted during their season of production in millions over the land, and will not only survive our severest winters, but will vegetate and emit seeds though attached to bodies widely differing from those living forms upon which they thrive most luxuriantly. Thus crops of parasitic fungi have been raised upon clods of damp earth, and we remember to have seen a large mass of that which is known as the smut in wheat (Tredo segetum) growing over the interior of a paper pill-box, in which some grain infected with it had been placed. Under such circumstances it is next to impossible to guard our plants from contact with the seed of these fungi, and after adopting, in addition to especial cleanliness, an annual dressing of our stoves, greenhouses, frames, walls, and the trunks and branches of our trained trees, with a mixture in which sulphur predominates, as recommended at p. 76, we have then done our best in the way of prevention of the destructive invaders. But another question has to be considered; can we do nothing to the trees and plants themselves rendering them less liable to suffer from their attack? We entertain a very strong opinion that we can, and we believe that the following observations, before made by us in another place upon the mildew which affects the peach, are applicable to all other plants subject to be similarly affected.

The white parasitical fungi, that are either the cause or injurious consequence of the peach-leaf mildew, are Oidium erysiphoids, Sporotrichum macrosphorum, Torula botryoides, and Erysiphe pannosa. We have little doubt that these fungi never attack plants that are in good health, for we entertain the opinion that it is only the sap of diseased plantssap in a state of decomposition-that is suited to be the food of the fungi. Prevention, therefore, is preferable to curative applications, and we have no doubt that if the peach-tree is kept in due vigour by having the soil well drained, and prevented from excesses of either moisture or of dryness—and if its leaves are similarly protected from being exposed to

sudden atmospheric changes-they will never be visited by mildew.

We are justified in this conclusion, because with this disease our peach-trees, in the whole course of our practice (which has extended over many years), have seldom or never been troubled. Mildew of all kinds generally accompanies an impeded root action, and we have generally found that stagnation suddenly caused, whether by excessive heat or drought, is liable to produce it, more especially if succeeded by much solar light. We have little doubt that in such cases the elaboration (by overtaking or being in advance of the absorbing power) produces more highly concentrated juices, which are adapted to be food for this obscure class of parasites. The best preventive is a good top-dressing of rotten manure in the early part of June, and as soon as drought sets in a thorough soaking of water. If caused by bad and deep borders, the remedy must be sought in thorough drainage, or an entire renovation of the soil.

There is no doubt that some peaches are more liable to be visited by this disease than others, and those are the kinds which are most luxuriant growers. It so happens that most of these have no glands at the bases of their leaves. This was long since noticed, and again lately commented upon by Mr. Blake, Secretary to the Croydon Gardeners' Society. He observed that the kinds which have no glands are all subject to mildew, such as Double Montagne, Ford's Seedling, Red Magdalen, Noblesse, Vanguard, Barrington, Grimwood's Royal George, Belle Bausse (Grosse Mignonne), and Early Galande. These kinds are all liable to be affected with the mildew, whether planted indoors or out, in any part of England: but then it is soon stopped; a little slacked lime and sulphur vivum settles it. There are a number of peaches, and very fine ones too, that possess glands; some with one, two, or three pairs of ovate, and some with the same number of reniform glands, all of which kinds resist the mildew. Mr. Blake trained the shoots of those with glands over those infected, and they would not receive the infection.

Similar observations are applicable to the mildew on the vine, apple, and cucumber. In every instance the grossest and most luxuriant growers are worst affected. At this present time we know of two vineries communicating by a glass door with each other; in the one the vines are vigorous and luxuriant, with their roots in the border, and they are severely mildewed; in the other vinery the vines are less luxuriant, and some of them, of compact habit, growing mildew in pots, and these are without any

upon

them.

IF THE COTTAGE GARDENER never wrought any measure of good further than that which is so unpretendingly acknowledged in the following letter,

we still should feel, gratefully feel, that we have not been labouring in vain. To announce this thus prominently for no other reason than because we would have our good work discerned would be no motive deserving of reprobation; but we do it from another motive, viz., to sustain what we urged the other day in favour of village Horticultural Societies. We then shewed that these societies are an efficient mode of encouraging a taste for garden ing among the tenants of "the cottage homes of England;" and this letter bears ample testimony to the happy consequences springing from such an aroused taste.

"In this, my first letter to you, I feel it a duty to bear my humble testimony to the great good, moral and physical, your important work has conferred upon me, and I trust it has also been so to many others. At the time your work appeared, from its novelty I was induced to take in the Numbers as they appeared, and then followed a strong desire to have a garden of my own, which I succeeded in obtaining about the middle of February, and from that time I may date a complete reformation in my character. Previously, the money and time I had to spare was spent in the public-house; now, both are spent in my garden, and to what a different end I leave you to judge. I never had better health than now; I have more money at command; my wife and children are better clothed and fed, and I am happy; and for all this I feel I am your debtor. I am afraid of trespassing on your time, or I might fill the sheet with benefits. After this I need scarcely say that your first volume has the proudest place on my book shelf. And now, having said more than enough, perhaps, of myself, let me say something for others. I have been trying the gas-lime at your suggestion. When I entered on my garden (which contains 770 square yards) it was quite smothered with weeds and grass, having been neglected last year. The walks were like a grass-field in appearance; and after cleaning them the grass still sprang up, and caused me much trouble. I then, after the second scraping, thought of the gas-lime, which I applied-drawing it thinly over the walks with a spade, and crushing the lumps. I have now clean and hard walks; not a blade of grass has appeared, nor anything except the dandelion, which still pushes through. I have tried it also with potatoes, and the six rows where it was dug in previous to planting are easily to be distinguished by their more healthy appearance. As a top-dressing I also tried it, and here its effects are wonderful. I threw it thinly over the half of a border where I planted some red potatoes, what are called here cups, the other half I left without; and now, while the former is without a weed, the latter is quite green with chickweed; and the potato tops are fully two inches higher on the limed ground than the other." S. F. C.

EITHER next week, or the week following, accordingly as our arrangements may be completed, THE COTTAGE GARDENER will be enlarged, without any extra charge to its subscribers, to sixteen pages. Of the four pages thus added a portion will be devoted

We have the full address of the writer, but for obvious reasons merely publish his initials.

to advertisements, and the remainder to additional information in our present departments, and to one new department-THE STOVE. We do not make these additions without having kept primarily in view how we can increase our utility. By enlarging our size we shall not only be able to make the pages devoted to advertisements form a cover to each weekly number, so much desired by some of our subscribers, but we shall be able to devote more space to each branch of gardening, and to give directions for the culture of stove plants, many of which we find either are or can be cultivated by our readers. When these arrangements are completed we shall be the largest and cheapest periodical devoted to gardening, and were it necessary we could fill some of our columns with testimonials of even a higher and more gratifying character.

THE FRUIT-GARDEN.

TRAINING YOUNG TREES IN GENERAL.-By this period young and healthy trees will have made lengthy shoots; and, where it is desirable the trees should take any specific form, much pains must be taken in the early period of their existence; in order to force them to assume the desired form. Modes of training are so various that we can do little more than speak of general principles. First of all, we advise that the distance of the main leaders be taken into particular consideration. We have known many a capital mode of training defeated by neglect during the first year or two in this respect. The distance of the main leaders must be regulated by the character of the tree, in regard of its partiality for light, and the size of its leaves. Where the tying down system is intended to be carried out, the principal leaders should be a considerable distance apart. If on walls, such as the pear and the plum should 'be about ten inches, and the apricot about eight inches. As for the peach and nectarine, we may suppose them to be on the fan or radiating principle; and all we can advise about these is to place the shoots at such distances as that the leaves may overlap each other as little as possible. One point we must here advert to in connexion with the early training of young trees, whether on walls, espaliers, or as dwarf standards. Young trees, for a year (or it may be two years) after planting, are apt to produce but a very few shoots, and these may, in the second year, take a somewhat luxuriant character. Now, part of the extra strength concentrated, in such cases, in the principal stem, may be diverted into the production of an increased number of fresh shoots, which will prove of much service in assisting to form the future fabric of the tree, merely by binding the grosser shoots down betimes: this will cause more shoots to be developed than otherwise would be the case. Since the shoots which are making rapid growth, then, must be trained in the direction or form they are intended to assume, let it be done as early in the season as possible. Sometimes it happens that central shoots in young trees of the peach, the plum, the apricot, and the pear, are exceedingly luxuriant: when such is the case, it is highly advantageous to pinch off the point of one or two, in order to produce an increased amount of

shoots: by these means the wall or trellis will be much sooner covered than it would have been. Such pinching should be performed as early in June as possible, in order to give time for the young spray to become ripened.

HEDGES. We would here direct the attention of the cottager to his hedges, to which he cannot pay too earnest attention, for what is a cottage or allotment garden without a good fence? The first thing necessary in establishing a good hedge is to keep it free from weeds. Some people seem to think that it does not matter about a hedge being a little foulthey are much mistaken: one half of our hedges are spoiled during their earlier stages by weeds alone. If the quick takes the mildew early, we find it the best plan to dub or clip it immediately. The next set of shoots will very probably prove free from this pest.

THE VINE IN-DOORS.-It is now high time to redeem our promise of assisting gardeners who possess a small greenhouse in which they attempt to carry out grape culture, as well as that of plants in general. Most of the plants which were inmates of that greenhouse through the winter are now placed out of doors in some sheltered situation, and their place supplied by the annual tribes, half-hardy gay flowers, Achimenes, Gloxinias, Sinningias, Thunbergias, Torenias, &c. &c. Now most of these things will not only bear but enjoy more heat than the hard-wooded tribes in general, and, so far, things will better agree.

We must here stay to deprecate the wrath of our worthy coadjutor, Mr. Beaton, on whose manor we have been poaching for a moment; and, having the fear of his syringe before our eyes, we will get us away to our vines speedily, hoping that he will throw light on his subjects beneath the vines, for we fear the vine laterals will much shade them. Indeed, this is one of the leading points in in-door vine culture, where plants must be retained beneath the vines; a leading point, we say, to know at all times how much of the lateral growths may be displaced or held in check, for the sake of the plants, without injuring the permanency of the vine. We think, therefore, that it will be well to talk this part of the subject over before proceeding further. particularly anxious that our readers, especially the amateurs, who in the main are a shrewd and reasoning class, and delight in reasons more than mere dry rules, should be thoroughly grounded in the very first principles which lie at the bottom of all important horticultural processes; we shall, therefore, at all times, make it our duty to give the rationale of all matters which we deem of first-rate import.

We are

VINE STOPPING is one of these matters of importance. It will be obvious to every one that, unless some process of this kind is resorted to, the shoots of the vine in-doors would speedily become confused, and that most of the larger leaves would be shaded by spray of inferior growth. Such, beneath the murky skies of Britain, would not answer; beneath the glowing and, I may add, at times, burning atmosphere of the East, and beneath such a vast increase of atmospheric heat, there is little doubt that a slight screen of laterals thrown over the larger leaves is, at times, exceedingly beneficial, and intended specially by nature for that very purpose. The bountiful hand of God is manifest in this very matter, for this plant of all ages and many climes is so constituted that, pruned or unpruned, it may become subservient to the wants of man under the varying conditions to which it may be subjected.

The principal leaves, in our dull clime, require the

full action of sun-light, in order to elaborate completely those juices on which the flavour and size of the fruit, as well as vigorous constitution of the tree, depend. To throw some light on this portion of the subject, and by way of illustration, we may here direct attention to the fact that a course of very close stopping, persisted in from the first, with young vines, would for years prevent their attaining that bulk of stem which is necessary in order to carry full crops every year for many years in succession. Indeed, by carrying it to a great extreme the vital powers of the vine would, doubtless, be seriously injured.

We have observed thus far in order to shew that a medium must be observed in stopping processes; and we proceed now to shew that the vine, like most other trees, moves by periodical fits-if I may be allowed the term-even in its annual course, and that the stopping must be made to bear a direct relation to such habits. These peculiar periods on which, as we have before observed, the amount as well as the stopping necessary must be brought to bear, are

1st. The development of the bunch.
2nd. The first swelling of the berry.
3rd. The last swelling of the berry.

We will now briefly explain each of them; it will be matter for future COTTAGE GARDENERS, as springs return, to enter still further into this interesting subject, which is not to be entirely settled in a page

or two.

1ST PERIOD: DEVELOPMENT OF THE BUNCH.-In order to concentrate as much as may be the energies of the vine in the neighbourhood of the tiny young bunch, and to give the latter those broad shoulders and other appurtenances deemed so necessary, stopping is had recourse to; not the same in character, however, as the subsequent ones; this is a stopping of the very first efforts of the vine to fulfil the destinies assigned to it, but which man thus modities to his own peculiar aims, a modification of which it was made susceptible from the beginning. This consists in merely pinching off the point of the growing shoot one joint above the "show;" which

show," in other words, is the joint from which the fruit proceeds. The reason why one joint is selected is this-it is found by experience that, in a roof covered with vines in Britain, every allowable means must be taken at all times to check the tendency of one shoot to overlap another. Light is the prime object after all; and it must be borne in mind by our young and rising horticulturists, that if the stopping took place two or three joints beyond the "show" there would be no harm, but probably good, all other circumstances bearing a just relation to the proceeding.

2ND PERIOD: THE FIRST SWELLING OF THE BERRY. -After the young points have been pinched, or, in gardening language, "stopped," in a very few days each joint below the stopping will put forth a side shoot, these are termed lateral" or "axillary" shoots. We here stay to request our readers, once for all, in the most emphatic way, to reconcile themselves to the technical terms existing amongst gardeners, and to endeavour henceforth to charge their memory with them. This will save the writers of THE COTTAGE GARDENER-not endless trouble, for being exceedingly busy is nothing new to them-but it will save the readers a host of repetitions, the place of which may easily be supplied with sound information. This digression has been forced upon us