TO OUR READERS. HAVING Concluded our second volume, and with it the first year of our periodical existence, we turn, like the Pilgrim, to look back over the path we have traversed. Like him we are grateful for the past and hopeful of the future: grateful because we have won our way most successfully, and because we know we have achieved a measure of good by improving the gardening, and by sprinkling pleasure and comfort round many British homes. We are hopeful because our sphere of usefulness widens as we go, and because the materials and the aid for effecting our purposes increase around us as we advance. The cultivation of the soil is ever improving, to keep pace with the increased wants and numbers of mankind; and, like the Giant of old, our contributors, each time they touch the soil, seem to gather fresh strength for successful efforts. We can assure our readers that the difficulty with us all is not to find information, but to select that which best suits their present need; and to do this will obtain, as it has obtained, our untiring exertions. There is a rich harvest to be gathered in during the year before us, and at its close may we again be able to say, with that Pilgrim of other times to whom we have alluded, "We gather strength from the things which are passed." Amherstia nobilis, 259 Ammonia, sulphate of, 138; sulphate and Anemone roots, storing, 186; culture, 36, 45, Aneroid barometer, 328 Angelica culture, 70 Annuals, sowing, 129, 303; culture, 278 Anthomyia ceparum, 149 Antipathies of plants, 91 Antirrhinum culture, 137 Ants, destruction of, 30, 51, 114, 167 Aphides, to destroy, 20, 47, 77, 110, 128, 138, 231; list of, 149 Aphis ribis, 82; fabæ, 88; cerasi, 85; lani- Aphrophora spumaria, 249 Apples, storing, 295; pips, sowing, 203; da- maged bark, 271; caterpillars on, 180; Apricot, Haisha, 234; dropping, 180, 235; April showers, 21 Aquarium, formation of, 184 Aquatic plants injured by insects, 348; list Aquilegia glandulosa culture, 138 Arbutus, 89 Argynius euphrosyne, 293 Argyrotoza bergmanniana, 86 Aristolochia sipho, 62 Artichoke culture, 70, 121, 232 Asparagus culture, 70, 121, 132, 232, 281; Beans failing, 72 Bedding-out, plants for, 35, 78, 90; potting, Bee, sting of, 42; Nutt's discovery, 42; distance, 161; ventilation, 161; Taylor's Beet, red, 7; removing leaves, 271 Benevolent Institution, 22 Berberis dulcis, 315 Biennials, sowing, 129; transplanting, 196; Bindweed, to extirpate, 224, 303 Birds, to destroy, 23; to scare, 110; conse- Bishop, David, 306 Black arch moth, 237 Blackberry jam, 346 Blackthorn winter, 18 Blossoms falling, cause of, 71 Bog earth, 71 Boiler, open, 113 Bombyx lubricipeda, 205; Æsculi, 225; mo- Bones, dissolved, 29, 51; for manure, 327; Borders, for fruit, 39, 257; cropping, 204; in Bouquets, to arrange, 193, 261, Bouvardia triphylla, 169 Box-tree pruning, 10, 191 330 Brocoli culture, 28, 80; planting, 148; but- Broom, 178 Brown beurre, 62 Broxbournebury, Mrs. Bosanquet's, 264 Brunsvigia Josephinæ, hybridizing, 242 Buds, to distinguish, 248 Buff tip moth, 260; caterpillars, 317 Bulb moving, 61, 62 Bulbs, leaves of, preserve, 67; forcing, 311, CABBAGE culture, 38, 200; sowing, 214; not Cactaceæ in rooms, 44 Cactus culture, 10, 44, 72; seed sowing, 147; Cælestina ageratoides, 91, 223 Calandrina umbellata, propagating, 303 Camellias, best kinds, 58; potting, 59; cul- Campanula pyramidalis, culture, 50, 297; Canary nasturtium, 30, 38; creeper, 81 Carnation culture, 25, 50, 62, 130, 197, 278; Carrot culture, 40, 103; storing, 52; after Caterpillars, hand-picking, 96; on standards, Catharanthus, species of, 213 Cauliflower culture, 28, 38, 80; kinds of, 61; Cedar and Deodara alike, 32 Celery culture, 7, 80, 132, 232, 300, 343; ma- Cerostema porrectella, 21 Charcoal as drainage, 236 Charred refuse, 340 Chaumontel pear, 112 Cherries falling, 180 Cherry, aphis, 85; tree barren, 303 Chicory in England, 50; sowing, 191 China Aster, sowing, 28, 315 Chinese manuring, 64 Chiswick garden, 140 Christmas rose culture, 180 Chrysanthemum moving, 81; culture of, 106; Cicada, 83 Cider grounds as a manure, 10 Cinerarias, done blooming, 62, 99; seedlings, Citrus vulgaris myrtifolia, 72 Clayey soil, to drain, 112; culture, 123, 138, Clianthus puniceus, 17, 272 Climbers, pruning hardy, 14; for greenhouses, Clove and carnation, 291 Clubbing in cabbages, 20, 126 Coal ashes, 204 Coboa scandens, 123 Coccus hesperidum, 92; testudo, 92 |