The Garden.

Te Aroha News, Volume VII, Issue 436, 11 January 1890, Page 3

The Garden.

(By HORTIS.)

Flowers by Mali.

As many desire to send flowers a long dis tance, we insert the following, from an Eastern magazine : Flowers, to be sent by mail, should be cut in the morning, before the sun has had much effect upon them. The best packing material is their own foliage, or instead of that, any good foliage. The best package is a tin box or case. Place a bit of. moist brown paper at the bottom, lay in the flowers so that they will snugly All the box, pub another piece of damp paper over all, and enclose with the cover. If oiled paper is at hand, the box can be lined with it. No damp paper will then be needed.. A paper wrapper about the box, securely tied, completes the package. Damp cotton is often tied about the stems of the flowers, but usually this supply of moisture is too great for them when closed from the air, and causes decay. It is unnecessary when packed as before described. Dry cotton is often used to protect the flowers, but it is useless for this purpose, as it absorbs the moisture from the flowers and leaves, and they reach their destination quited wilted. The Importance of Grading Fruit ior TMarhet. Faulty packing is causing considerable trouble and complaint in the markets of the East as well as our local market. The principal cause of complaint is from ungraded fruit. Your packers should receive positive, imperative instructions to grade as to' size. S nail fruit distributed through a box or basket of otherwise line, large fruit, will kill the sale. There is hardly a shipment made but what should be packed under at least three grades as to size. Dealers and buyers having a trade for handsome, large fruit will pay a handsome price for packages well graded : others having trade for medium-sized fruit will purchase the same at a reasonable price ; while others having a cheap trade will purchase the small fruit at a low figure. The net results from shipments thus graded will be far greater than to pick and pack all sizes together, excepting that the large fruit will sell the small fruit. This is one of the greatest mistakes that the fruit-grower can possibly make. The large, fine fruit will sell itself at a good price, the other sizes and grades will sell themselves ; but, if mixed all in the same package, the large, fine fruit will sell for no greater price than the small or medium - sized fruit would in a package by itself. This is the true business, and growers and shippers have been informed of it time and again, and in the face of these facts and information they will pick, pack and ship 3,000 miles to New York, without the slightest regard as to grade, and frequently fine fruits ungraded sell in the New \ork market for barely enough to pay freight and shipping expenses; whereas, if properly graded,they would pay the shipper a handsome net profit. California fruits .at the East this year are receiving a terrible “ black eve ” from faulty packing. It would pay California fruit-growers, through their various associations, to employ inspectors or graders, who should be called upon to inspect and pass all fruits packed for Eastern shipments, and the manager and dispatcher of these fruits at Sacramento and elsewhere should be instructed not to receive and forward fruits to the East that do not bear the inspector’s stamp. Great injury is bound to result to the fruit-growing in dustry of this State if more care is nob exercised in the methods of packing, grading and style of packages used. Taking this season as a guide, unless some radical change is wrought, it is doubtful if growers generally will ever become packers and shippers to distant markets. —“California Fruit-Grower.” How to Che el: the Codlin Moth. A number of gentlemen interested in the matter of the cultivation of orchards and vineyards, flower gardens and horticultural pursuits generally, met at the offices of Messrs Challey Brothers yesterday to hear the views of Mr J. E. Knight, nurseryman,of Sandhurst, upon the spread of insect pests and the best means of coping with it. Mr Knight produced several examples of fruit, flowers, ana vegetables in which the pest — codlin moth, and moths and borers of various descriptions had commenced and ended, or begun, and were proceeding with their devastating raids, and explained the state of affairs in regard to the conflict, and the best means to fight with the ruinous insects. He said : “ There is a natural law that has been in existence since the creation regarding all the forms of grub life, and the faw is active and inactive life, and it is with the latter we will deal. All grubs are reproduced by eggs at a certain season of the year. Grubs do not lay eggs, but they ■undergo a complete change at certain sea--sons. Let us trace the life of a grub. After it is hatched it commences feeding on the substance i-ound about it for a time until it receives strength to look for food itself, and from the time it is hatched until it becomes inactive at is feeding day and night, and the consequence is that a single grub can destroy a great quantity of fruit or foliage according to its size and taste. After it is finished feeding its life becomes inactive, but before it rests completely it makes provision for if# safety, each variety of grub in its own peculiar way. Codlin moth grub protects itself iD the following way -.—First, by issuing from the body a kind of silk with which it snakes a complete covering for its body just before it goes into an inactive life. These small cocoons can be found in various ways, attached to the trees, leaves, weeds, and any rubbish close at hand, but each grub generally likes the variety of tree that it has been feeding on. I have samples of codlin-moth grub in an inactive state.. It ia now in the power of man to destroy it in time entirely. It can be done without any cost, or very little. When the leaves fall, rather every leaf together and place them in a basket or sack to be burnt or boiled. All weeds and rubbish of every description, ■dead fruit-trees or vines, and vinetleaves, must be collected together and burnt after the land is thoroughly cleaned, and pruning commences. First obtain a tarpaulin and spread it on the oround under the tree, and let all the prunings drop on to the tarpaulin. Afrer a tree or vine is pruned, remove all old bark or any covering chat protects the grub, and cart awav all prunings. and burn them. The object of the tarpaulin is to catch all the cocoons that would drop on the ground, •and these must be burnt or boiled. All orchardists protect in every possible way the codlin moth grub. They plough in all the leaves. These rot, but the grub is protected until tie spring, and then it turns into a moth, and after a time lays its eggs and dies. In the same way it is protected on all the dead trees, prunings, etc., by placing them in .the back yards for firewood for some future use. I want to correct a few errors in regard to codlin moth. 1. The eggs are nob laid in the flower and the heart of the apple. Where are they laid ? In £,be eye of fch.© Apple, ifhe ©ggs

must have warmth, light, and air to hatch. 2. The grubs do not start from the inside to the outside, but from the outside to the inside. 3. Female grubs have no wings, and cannot fly. Neither can the male grub fly. All that are caught with short wings are those nob long left the cocoons, both male and female ; but in a few days’ time their wings will grow as well as the body, and then they can fly. It is against the law of common reason to suppose that the female grub can clinib the tree and reach the flower, and crawl over each flower and deposit an egg in each. I have never vet seen a female moth or butterfly without its natural wings, unless an accident has happened toit. I havenoticedthis: thatthemale butterfly or moth is brighter in colour than 1 the female. Why don’t apples and trees start to decay the moment they are formed ? Why do they start to decay the moment the grub touches them? Because the law that governs them is touched. How ? By admitting the air; and the moment that is admitted it starts to decay. When the law is touched the life is touched. Unless the Government compels all orchardists and private growers of fruit trees to burn all the leaves or boil them, and to burn all dead fruit trees or any rubbish so as to destroy the grub while in an inactive state during the months of June and July, and that this year the grub will be more than ten times worse next year than it has been. If orchardists and private growers do not burn their rubbish, they must put up with the consequences. Another great advantage to gain by burning all rubbish, prunings, etc., is that it destroys all sorts of insect life that feed on fruit trees. A man might as well try and stop the water at the Falls of Niaua.ra as attempt to stop effectually the codiin moth grub in an active state. A few can be trapped and caught, but it will never be stopped unless it is destroyed while in an inactive state. The same law that applies to codlin moth grub embraces all the forms of grub life that are now creating such a havoc amongst the fruit and vegetables. Fire will cure it entirely if done at the right time.”—“Australian Press. ”