APHIS, GRUB, &c.

Colonist, Volume IV, Issue 401, 27 August 1861, Page 3

APHIS, GRUB, &c.

The Armidale Express publishes the following remedies for the blight in cabbages and trees.

, CABBAGES. ...... Mr. B. Naughten, of Armidale, has discovered an effectual destroyer of these pests to a gardtn. It is simply the application of fowl manure diluted with water. '

For the Aphis the leaves of the cabbages infected are stroked with the solution, which may be applied with the hand or a brush, followed by a slight rubbing with ashes or earth. For the Grub, Caterpillar, &c, pour into the ground at the bottom of each plant a pint of the solution.

In either case, if the first application is insufficient, it must be repeated, but it is seldom that more than one or two are necessary. Mr. Naughten recommends also, that, in putting out cabbage plants, only half of the root should bo inserted in the ground, as grubs prefer a.soft substance, and do not like to climb over a harder portion to where the leaves commence.

Of several grubs which we saw thrown into the solution, some lived a minute, but others survived only half-a-minute.

Flax.—Ninety-one bundles, ex Wild Duck, sold in London for £19 per ton and damaged £18. With respect to its adaptability for rope-making, Captain James, of the Salcombe Castle, writes to Mr. Lloyd, of Auckland:—'l have hadyour handmade rope, manufactured from native flax, in use on board of my vessel. It has given me every satisfaction, and I can recommend it to shipmasters and others as a strong durable rope. The B^-inch hawser you made for tne in April last I had occasion to make use of in Kaipara, when the ship lay hard aground there for forty-eight hours, and the hawser stood the strain of ten men with Gladstons's patent windlass. I intend sending a piece of the same hawser to the Great Exhibition of 1862.' It is also stated that Captain James tried the experiment of rigging his running gear, one side with New Zealand and the other with Manila rope, when the superiority ot the New Zealand rope was established.