The Dorset County Express and Agricultural Gazette.
Dorchester, Dorset, England, 1877-05-22 00:00:00

AGRICULTURAL ITEMS.

A returer.rum—is-6;d-1;y-the Veterinary Department
of the Privy Council. dated May 9th, shows that the
total number of cases of cattle plague reported since
the commencement of the present outbreak is 45. The
number of animals which have died is 34 ; the number
of sick animals killed, 214; and the number of killed
that were not nick, 835. It is officially notified that
no further outbreak of cattle plague has been reported
to the Privy Council since the Bth inst.

Having seen in the Gardeners' Chronicle a short
time since a letter from one of your correspondents
stating a way of protecting peas from rats, mice, birds,
kr., by soaking the peas for two minutes in benozline
before sowing, I acted on his advice, with the following
result. I procured some good sound seed of Culver.
well's Prolific Marrow, soaked them in benzoline for
two minutes, and sowed them in the usual way. After
watching them very carefully for some considerable
time, to see if the mice or rats did trouble them, I
found they did not interfere with them at all; which
bore out your correspondent's statement as far as mice
and rats are concerned, but not one of the peas came
up, and on close examination I fund the peas rotted
in the ground. I write this in hopes it will save some
of your readers from trusting to inch a dangerous
experiment. It. W.

THE LOVES OF THE 110E1974.—n ii often very
&minting to discover the accidental truth id florists'
deecription of flowers to the distinguished public
characters after whom they are named. The follow-
ing, for instance, are taken from the spring catalogue
of one of our leading florists :—lord Elcho, fine bold
flower, good for exhibition; Prince Bismarck, very
dark and double; Lord Granville, dark and satiny;
Lord Derby, pure true blue, clear eye; Lord Beacons-
field, bright carmine and brilliant crimson, of great
substance, free flowering, distinct; Mr. Gladstone.
dark and very incurred (a soft-weoded plant) ;Samuel
Plimsoll, large, and very constant, of perfect form,
extra fine ; .Tohn Bright, a fine improvement on earlier
forms, and the best of this cLiss ever sent out. This
exhausts the list of statesmen popular with our English
florists, and the fitness of the descriptions of the
flowers to the distinguished personaims after whom
they are named makes one suspect more than mere
coincidence, and that it is due to the subtle likeness
which exists between all living things, and which
close observers of Nature like gardeners are quick to
catch and identify. By no act of unconscious cere-
bration would a gardener ever identify any flower of
earth or heaven with Mr. Lowe. A brimstone-
coloured Hollyhock named Match Tax has been
suggested as appropriate!
A oorrespmdent in advocating the culture of nar-
cissuses, says they are " Everybody's flowers—that is,
they will thrive almost anywhere, in sun or in shade,
and in nearly every kind of soil. The different
varieties flower over a long period, and no flowers re-
sist the effects of rainy weather so well as do these.
The flower buds expand freely when cut and placed in
water, and they there last in beauty nearly or quite so
long as when growing on the plantt,"

A gentleman who has kept a meteorological diary
since 1847 says that the present is the most backward
spring that has occurred since that year. In his
garden at Croydon the first dish of Asparagus isusually
cut about the 17th of April, but this year it was not
cut until the 11th of May. The latest previously was
In 1833, when the first cutting was on the sth of May.
The turnip is such a useful vegetable that every per-
son who has a garden grows it to a certain extent, but
In many cases A is not cultivated so largely as it ought
to be. Ido not mean that it should be grown in great
breadths, but email quantities should be grown for
succession over a period of eight or ten months.
Turnips may be had nearly all the year round with
very little trouble, provided due attention is paid in
selecting suitable varieties and they are sown at the
proper time. For the earliestsupply I sowed about two
doom 12-feet rows of snowball one south border the first
week in March. In favourable weather those sown
about the beginning of March will be ready for use
by the end of May. From the let of March until
now two sowings are sufficient to give • fair supply,
but after this time a row or two should be sown every
fortnight until the end of July, as during the hot
weather of July and August the bulbs soon become
hot and stringy, and sowing often is the only and
neverlailing mode of insuring a constant supply of
tender young turnips. In choosing the ground avoid
clay soil, and select a part that has had some early
potatoes or some such opening crop on it. Soil that
has been mixed with ashes does capitally for turnips,
to malts sure of a supply in the spring months a
good patch of the swede must be sown. This is a
splendid hardy turnip, and always good in flavour
from November until March. Never sow turnip seed
thickly, as it germinates very freely. The rows should
be from nto 18 inches apart. The drills may be
from If to 2 inches deep. Always leave the soil over
the seeds rather rough, but at the same time never let
any large clods remain that will hinder the your
pinata from pushing up. Thin out from Btol2 =-
apart as soon as the yg plants have formed from
fear to six learn. Hoe amongst them frequently, and
ismer allow them to become choked with weeds.—
M.M.P. in Journal Horticulture.

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