HORTICULTURAL CLIPPINGS.

Te Aroha News, Volume V, Issue 236, 7 January 1888, Page 5

HORTICULTURAL CLIPPINGS.

Inundation Against Pjiyiaoxeka. — From a communication, to the press by Mr fi Watney, which summarised the ravages by the phylloxera, it appears that for the ; four years from 1875 to 1878, inclusive, the aveage yield of the French vintage was 1,275 million ' gallons. The last threevintages, 1882 to 1885, hayc decreased at a greater rate than 100 million gallons a year, so that the production of wine in Franco has fallen to little more than half of what it was before the spread of the phylloxera. The animals can be destroyed as yet^ by only one remedy, namely, inundation, begun in November and continued for forty days. This was pro\ed by M. Fancon at Mas-le-Favre, t.ear Avignon. Ho produced in 1867, 925 hectolitres of wine in his vineyard ; in the next year the invasion of the phylloxera took place, and he harvested only 40 hectolitres; in 1869, 35 hectolitre!?. Ttie vineyard was row inundated with water irom the Durance Canal, which supplies Marseilles with water. The yield of the vineyard thereupon rose to 120 hectolitres, and has increased every year until it has attained its former high figure. These facts should be noted by our Australian cousins, and wherever possible inundation of phylloxera infested vineyards tried.

A Fuxgus Pest of the Onion.— -The subject of injurious plant parasites has become a most important one for thoae occupied in tho cultivation of fruit, vegetable, or farm crops, and we therefore never like to miss an opportunity of drawing attention in The Farmer to" any new pest of this kind wherever it may have shown itself, for altnough it may not be known in New Zealand at the time of writing, there is no knowing when it may be introduced. On the other hand, if it happens to be here already, a description of it may lead to its identification, and measures for its repression. An official bulletin from Kew Gardens is devoted to the record of an investigation into a disease which- has been severely scourging the onion crops at the Bermudas, which form the staple product of these small island/?. It seems that the disease is caused by a fungus— a species of peronospora known as Schhidcniana — which lives parasitically upon the leaf. Like similar diseases, its growth is favoured by warm, moist, calm weather. The fungus is reproduced by ordinary spores and also by resting spores, as in the case of the potato fungus. As in the case of the latter pest, it is the persistent vitality of the resting spores which makes the disease so difficult of eradication. The general strengthening of the crop by means of good manuring and cultivation is recommeoded as one method of combatting the attack, though this is but indirocfc treatment. The sprinkling of affected crops with su'phur or quicklime, or spraying them with a eolution of green vitriol is suggested, and the burning of all affected plants is also recommended, though it might have been well, as has been advised in the case of potato disease, to recommend also the paring amd burning of the surface of the soil with a view to the destruction of the resting spores.

The Canning Industry.— This industry is rapidly assuming enormous dimensions in America, and in California ifc promises to become one of its great agricultural factors. In that state, canning has now been brought to euch perfection that frail) as luscious as when first picked can be served on the dinner table in every part of the world, in the depth of winter as well ac in the middle of summer. The use of the conservatory to raise early fruit is at an end. The seasons are practically abolished. Housekeepers can set the samedeesert before their guests at Christmas as at midsummer. They are now canning peaches and apticotfl in California which maybe eaten next New Year's Day at St. Petersburg, and will be found as full of delicate flavour as when they were taken from the tree in the oichard. Californian canned peaches, table fruit, are selling &t 5d a pound, and apriat 3Jd ; and a large trade is being opened up with Europe.

Strong Fertilizer.— For tomatoes, cucumbers, and plants which grow strongly, take a good handful of the parings from, horses' hoofs, to be readily obtained at a. farrier's shop, and mix with tw o quarts of sandy loam. A handful or two of this mixture placed about the roots of the plants will have a grand effect. Soil made up in> this proportion is good for all bulbous plants, chrysanthemums, pelargoniums, &c. •A Recipe for Kerosene Emulsion.— A Florida orange-grower gives the following hints on making a kerosene emulsion for application to trees of the citrus family against the scale pest :-—" A solution containing only one- sixteenth of kerosene is used here (Flotida) to kill the bark scale. In very extensive experiments conducted by H. G. Hubbard, special agent of the United States Department of Agriculture, ife was found that a stronger solution was apt to injure the trees ; while a weaker one had little effect on the scale. In some experiments of my own, I find that a far stronger solution of potash might be used in winter (when our orange trees are dormant) than in the season of growth. We would never think of 'shaking in a jug until a complete union has taken place/ three gallons of emulsion. This would bea very tiresome diversion* Have an ordinary tall stone jar and fit it up with a rotary dasher, and churn the mixture until it becomes united. Better still, churn it by passing it through, a good hand spray pump. A few minutes of fast work with a small, nozzle (which will make thereturn flow of the mixture into the vessel enter with great force) will make of the mixture a cream from which no 'free kerosene Mill rise to the top. 51 ' Formula. — Common or whale-oil soap, half a pound, dissolved in one gallon of boiling water. Add two gallons of kerosene, and churn while hot. In using, dilute with ten parts of cold water. This makes 33 gallons at a cost of less than one cent per gallon, where you have cheap kerosene ; but in Florida it costs us nearly two cents per gallon. Do not use petroleum or cheap light oils, as' these are apt to injure tho plants.

' Sunflowers and Malaria. — Ibis stat ed o» the authority of a Cuban journal, that since the sunflower has been cultivated in certain 'swampy districts on > the banks of the river Potpmac, malarial fever has almost ceased to be endemic there. Similar beneficial re''suits appear also to have followed the cultivation of 'this'plant-in the neighbourhood of the mouth of the Scheldt, in Holland. The editor of the Monthly Joumalof Pharmacy, who has -been engaged in' observations on sunflowers, found that during- the month of "June, 1885, a quarter ,of i an acre of sunflow.ers exhaled,, with a mean temperature of 70 deg« F. at -midday, -exactly 1,9 50 gallons r "of -\vater in >ihe form.of 'vapour, or 65 gallons * -a* r day; "He attributes -the; ariti-malarial 'action of'the'Sunflower/ therefore, not only, to itis properties of 'absorbing a'nddestroying s tKe malarial- miasms' and» emitting an Abundance of' pure 'oxygen^ 'tis? taught by bther.iwriters,^ but' dl sp to its' great* capacity,, f bw,i|) g; to its* rapid and .vigorous vegetation, 'of 'absorbing. .and'Xiti'lisiH^ -the*<moisture of • iri dis'tMcfe^whirht^ai'e Unfit for * hllnian^habitatioiii < HfeiUikeVviyLsuggests • 'tlhat the^romatic;odotfr)tff> thb'^tvere may ijpjerbapsbepossesgeU d^^ntiseptioWirtues;— - Public Opinion, "<*''< *j < *' ? '^<^nr m.- :•--«•