GARDEN NOTES.

Lyttelton Times, Volume XCIII, Issue 10594, 1 March 1895, Page 2

GARDEN NOTES.

A few months ago the Tasmanian fruitgrowers resented the imputation that they were exporting apples infested with the codlin moth. They are now energetically protesting against the introduction to their colony of infested apples from Sydney and Melbourne, and the codlin-moth inspector reports having destroyed several shipments. It would seem that even Tasmania is dependent upon the neighbouring colonies for early fruit. According to the " Musee des Families,” the following is a very simple and cheap method of preparing a mushroom bed that will yield a crop all the year round. In a pine box about 20in in depth and 3ft square place a 4in thick stratum of a mixture of three parts of dry cow manure and one part of garden soil. Having procured some mushroom spawn, break it up and sow it in a second stratum of manure and earth 2in in depth. Slightly compress the whole and cover with an Sin layer of earth, which should be kept damp by watering through a fine rose. In six or eight weeks the first crop of mushrooms will appear at the surface, and will continue to do so for at least two years, provided the bed is kept damp. A small quantity of aqua ammonia; added to the ■water with which the bed is moistened will hasten the appearance of the fungi. The box should be placed by preference in a place where the light is not too bright, say in a cellar in which the temperature is moderate and equable, or iu a dark part of a stable. A compound manure for tomatoes that has given the best results at the New Jersey experiment station consisted of 1601 b nitrate of soda, S2olb boneblack and 1601 b of muriate of potash.