TO CORRESPONDENTS.

Auckland Star, Volume LXVI, Issue 236, 5 October 1935, Page 6 (Supplement)

TO CORRESPONDENTS.

F.B. (Knitnia) writes: I have a young Lisbon lemon which. I want to convert into a I’oonnan orange. Do you take a thin slice of wood with the bud, as with stone fruit, or do you use only the bark and bud ns in roses. Do you take the . buds from the young shoots or from more mature wood. Also is there a variety of sweet orange that would bear as a young tree and would ripen about the end of August to come in after tlie Poorman and before laic Glut Gong?—The lemon can bo budded as soon as the bark will lift easily. Cut ths bud thin and there is no need to take out the wood. You get the best buds on linn growth, not on the young sappy tips, but on what mny be termed half-ripened wood, fully matured, with plump bud.s and good loaves. Probably Late Valencia would suit your purpose, and so far as early , fruiting is concerned, it- fruits ns young as most varieties, tlie early setting of fruit depends a lot on stocks and soil. E.D. (Mangoniii) asks: (1) How to persuade Lily of tlie Valley to Hower after the first year’s planting. They seem quite healthy but do not flower? 12) I believe flint (here are carnivorous slugs. These should not be destroyed, since they eat other slugs. How can one distinguish one sort from the other? (.’>) Are the long, ribbon slugs harmful? (I) Is it. true that tlie flat hack snails also eat slugs, they are about Sin across?—(l) The Lily of the Valley needs a deep soil rich in humus, shade and moisture during summer. You will find it very diflieult to get them to do well with you. because there is no distinct resting period, and a dormant period and a good freeze is essential to the plant. (2) The slugs you refer to are dirty yellow with brown specks, sometimes almost black. On the hinder part of the back is a small depressed shell. These slugs live chiefly on earthworms. (3) Not as lam aware. (4) I cannot say. CAULIFLOWER (Epsom) asks: Why all the cauliflower plants have come blind?— The seed was from a poor strain.