Bates's Nursery is about two miles from Oxford, on the Banbury road, and ranks, we believe, in point of age, the next to Penson's. Mr. Bates chiefly grows florists' flowers, and the commoner forest trees and shrubs; he also grows culinary vegetables. He has 13 acres thus stocked; and, in point of cleanliness, his ground is superior to the two preceding nurseries. He seems to have raised some good seedling georginas, in flowering which he is much annoyed by earwigs, which eat the flower while in the bud, and he is in consequence obliged to enclose some of the buds in small calico bags, kept distended by a ring of fine wire inside. The opening of the flower is retarded by these bags; and, in very hot weather, this may be an advantage, as, by opening slower, it may possibly open better. Mr. Bates endeavours, like other gardeners, to catch the earwigs in hollow tubes, formed of tubular flower stems of rhubarb and other plants, and in small pots of hay and moss turned down on the tops of the props.
