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LIBRARY

OF THE

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AGRICULTURAL

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AMATEUR AND COTTAGER'S

GUIDE TO OUT-DOOR GAEDENING

AND SPxiDE CULTIVATION.

CONUrCTED

BY GEORGE ¥. JOHNSON, ESO.

[ OF THE " CAKDENEE's ALMANACK," " MODERN GARDESEK'S DICTIONARY," ETC.

THE PRUIT-GAEDEN, hy Mr. R. Errington, Gardener to I THE FLOWER-GARDEN, by Mr. T. Appleby, Floricultural Sir. P. Egerton, Bart., Oulton Park. Manager to Mcsscrs. Henderson, Edgeware Eoad.

THE KITCHEN-GARDEN, by the Editor, and Mr. J. Barnes, THE GREENHOUSE AND WINDOW GARDEN, by Mr. D.

Gardener to Lady RoUc, Bicton. I Beaton. Gardener to Sir W. Sliddleton, Bart., Shrubland Park.

THE APIARIAN'S CALENDAR, for the Management of Bees, by J. H. Payne, Esq., Author of " The Bee-keeper's Guide."

VOLUME I.

LONDON:

PUBLISHED BI WM. S. ORR AND CO., W, STRAND.

MDCCCXLIX.

J?e.x

J6£65 ,

TO OUR READERS.

Heahtily, though briefly, will we thaiik you for the support you have bestowed upon us ; and for having thus enabled us to complete the Tirst Volume of The Cottage Gaedeker so prosperously as to leave us without any anxiety but how to render its futui'e pages still more useful. To effect tliis, no effort on our part shall be absent ; and if, to sustain tliis effort, we obtain your continued patronage, and that blessing without which the pen and the spade are pUed in vain, we shall effectively pm-sue our course through years to come, rejoicing at our success in diffusing, among even the humblest cultivators of our native islands, sound Practice, guided by Science, and not untinted by Eehgion.

INDEX.

Abronia umbellata, 243

Acacia arniata, 2go

Achimenes picta, 62 ; culture, 1^1

Agapanthus, 226, 279, 311

Allotment gardening, 9, 124, 132, 236, 300 ;

cropping, 184 Allotments, profits of, 19 Almond, double-blossomed, 240 Aloe culture, 280 Alpine plants, 45, 89 ; list of, 90 Amaryllis, 129, 31 1 ; Josephinse, 206 American blight, to cure, 42, 245, 2/3; shrubs,

56 Ammonia, sulphate of, 84 Anemones, 35, 71, 77, 159> 254 Angelica, 15 Angle-shades moth, 21 Anisoptevyx tescularia, 259 Annuals, list of hardy, 137, ^7-* ; flowers, to

raise, 212 ; half-hardy, 279 Anthonymus pomorum, 145 Apple {Anglesea pippin), 10; pruning, 13,

44; select list, 32; new, 174; weevil, 145,

169 ; list of kitchen, 206 Apple-trees, choice of, 3 ; from cuttings, 113;

(standard), to manage, 65 ; top-dressing

old, 65 ; grafting on Siberian crab, l64; old

espalier, 290 Apricots, list of, 26o ; culture, 260, 2/3 ; for

Westmoreland, 200 April, calendar for, 312 Aquatic plants, list of, l6s Arenea obtextris, 252 Arnebia cchisides, 82 Artichokes, 48,299 ; Jerusalem, 300 Asclepius douglasii, 143 Ash-destroying beetle, 95 Ashes as a manure, 164, 204 Asparagus, 58, 94, 113; forcing, 92, I71 ; soot

good for, 156 Aspect of fruit-garden, 22 Auckland, Lord, 198 Auriculas, 4, 5, 25, 81, 99, 159, 201, 220, 274,

296 Azalea, propagation, 114.

Balm, 37 ; of Gilead, 192, 222

Balsimis, 276 ; sowing, 290

Barley, black, 308

Barred-tree, Lackcv moth, 207

]Jean, its varieties, '6I, 189, 300; plaiUmg, 18:>

Beans, earlv, 25, 80, 113; (runners), to train, 83, 138

Beautiful Lisianthus, 243

Jee-kceper's calendar, 238, 305

Bees, rules for keeping, 30; lecture on, 140; aspect for, hives for, purchasing, stand for hives, 239; their natural history, 241 ; feed- ing, 84, 136.239,306; atupifyiiig, 280; driv- ing, 279, 311; age of, 164; Queen, 190; working, igi

Beet, new, 189 ; sowing, 2go ; use of, 206

Belladonna lily, 130

Bcrtonia (hairy), 82

Bilberry-leaved polygonum, 243

Bilds, to frighten, 309 ; to protect from, 242

Biston hirtnrius, 22?

Blackberrv, 312

Blair, John, 199

Blight, American, 42, 245, 2/3

Blossom falling, i64, 1/4

Boiler, crust in, 84

Bone manure, 28, 62, 124

Border plants, early, 244

Borecole, 5, 49 ; best sorts, 121 ; Portugal, 104

Bower, to make, 104

Brepha partbenias, 249

Brindled Beauty moth, 227

British plants, 2l6, 309

Britton Abbot, 17

Brocoli, 49,58, 204; best sorts, 121 ; (Wilcovc),

10 Brodiiea, Califomica, 243 Browallia, Jamcsonii, 243 Brunsvigia grandiflora, 171 ; Josephinse, 206 Bruchus ater, pisi and granarius, 197 Brussels sprouts, 5, 25 Buckwheat sowing, 26S Building precautions necessary, 160 IJulljous, llowers, 34, 48, 57 Bulbs, examine, 14 ; Cape, 100 Bulbs, 2;j3 ; how to pack from abroad, I69 Burnet, 37

C,

Cabbages, 5, 15,49,204,238,299,300; Thou- sand-headed, 5; best sorts, 121 ; turnip and turnip-rooted, 104 ; for seed, 80; new, 244 ; red, 183

Cacti, propagating, 289 ; iu rooms, 309 ; cul- ture, 2/8

Calceolarias culture, 4, 202, 307, 312 ; seed to sow, 213

Califomian Brodicea, 243

Calla Ethiopica, 92

Camellias, 79, 81, 114, 311 ; shifting, 226

Campanula p>Tamidalis, propagating, 25S

Canary sowing, 268

Candalabra plant, 171

Canker, 154, 258

Canvass protections, 251, 290

Capsicum, culture, 277

Cardoous, 37, 195

Carnations, 5, UO, II9, 129, 159, 274, 286, 296 ; list of, 150 ; soot good for, 156 ; seed saving, 190, 189

Carrots, 5, 204, 214, 23", 300, 301 ; storing, 12 ; in old garden ground, tio ; seed thresh- ing, 62 ; sowing, 206 ; cause of forking, 62 ; best kinds, 132 ; soot good for, 156

Cattle fattening, 2l6

Cauliflowers, 5, 49, 58, 70, 204, 299; new, 1"^ ; in pots, 183

Cedars, l63

Celcrv, culture, 83, 92; ShefBeld, 136, 142; earthing up, 15, 49,310; Sheffield show, 30, 38; Seymour's, 10; soot good for, 193; new, 189 ; mode of growing, 235, 244 ; new kinds, 244 ; fly, 73

Cerastostema longijdorum, 52

Centipede, 155

Charred refuse, 17, 72, 83, 98, 104

Cherrj' culture, I77 ; in the IMauritius, 84

Cherries, list of, 178 ; for Westmoreland, 290

Chictogastra strlgosa, 188

Chimonanthus fragrans, 196

Chinese gardening, 41, 145

Chironia glutinosa, 143

Chives, 15

Cholera not brought on by vegetables, 43

Chou de Milan, 104

Christmas rose, 134

Chrysanthemums, 24, 47, 67, 79) 103, 253 , list of, 68

Cineraria culture, 79, 222 ; seed to sow, 213 ;

seedlings, 290 ; list of, 308 Citrus margarita, 2l6 City window plants, 282 Clematis indivisa, 40 ; tubulosa, 52 ; layering,

280 Climbers for walls, 46, 149, 279 ; for a south- east wall, 154 Clisiocampa neustria, 207 Coal-ashes as a manure, 268 Coal-tar on fruit-trees, 174 ; paint, 280 Coccinella 7-punctata, 29I Cockscomb, 274 Cold, greatest in England, 207 Coleworts,5, 49, 102 Columbine, slender spurred, 82 Compost, 124, 154, 168; for flower-borders,

211 ; yard, 219; to prcparc,219 ; heap, 258 Conservatory, earliest, 193 Convolvulus major. 268, 288 Coping of walls, 268, 292 Coral plant, 279 Cottage architecture, 260 ; farming, 193;

farming for January, 132 Cottage Gardeners' Societies, 146 Cottages, improvement of, desirable, 259 Cow-keeping, 186, 238 Creepers, for a trellis, 5' ; list of evergreen,

258 Cress, various kinds of, 276 Crocus culture, 171, 224 ; in rooms, 9 Cryptomeria japonica, 103 Crvptops, Hortensis, 155 Cucumber culture, 37, 58, 80, 132, 146,204,

214, 222, 266. 290, 299; new, 174; forcing,

171, 183 ; size, 196, 268 ; prize-fighter, 10 ;

bed, to make, 26 Cuphea platyccntra culture, 268 Currant-trees as standards, 174, 206 Currant pruning, 13, 210; planting, 9" ; best,

206 ; black, 3, 97 ; planting, 42 ; standard

trees, 123 Cuttings, 14, 295

Cyclamen, 9I, 114 ; seedlings, 311 Cyclobothra monophylla, 243

V.

pAHLiA CULTURE, 159, 233, 263; Storing,

14 Damson pruning, ig6 Daphne odora, 2gO ; pontic, 224 December moth, 105 Deodara cedar, to support, 206 Dianthus culture, 290 j^iffieulties, success under, 73 l>igging, 219 Uiosma hirsuta, 2l6 Dotted-lcaved macleania, 213 Doucin stocks, 206

Draining, 9, 55, 88, 98, 206, 310 ; cost of, l64 Dust as a protector, 132 Dutch mode, 294

Dwarf standards, 97; trained trees, 199 Dwarfing system, 200

Karly moth, 175 ICarthing-up, 80 Kconomy of space, 54, 97 Kbn-dcstroying beetle, 95 Kndive, 37, 49, 276 Kpisema cccrula cephala, 2

INDEX.

Enrthrina laurifolia, 2/9 Eseholtzia, 302 Espalier rails, )54 Everpreensforbedding-out, H4; propagating,

50 ; transplantiog, 34, y9, 193 ; for a wall,

149

Faircuild, Thomas, 21" j

Femerj-, QH. 108, I'iS |

Ferns in puts, 103; in glass cases, 128; list j of, 128

Figs, winter culture, 55; for a sheltered wall, I 290 I

Fiprure-of-8 moth, 2 I

Filberts, 3; to kt-cp, f)2 ; moving, 226

Filtering water, 2l6

Fires, management of, 78

Flat-body moth, -13

Flavour, what influences, 192

Flower beds, furnishing, 33

Flowers for exhibition, 114; succession of, 94

Flower borders, to dress, 211; compost for, 154

Flower-pots, price of, 280 ; size of, 268

Flued wall, 149

Fog accounted for, 20/

Forget-me-nots, 154

Fork for garden, 2^

Foundry loam, 104

Fowls' dung, 94

French beans, see kidney

French parterre, 294

Frost, 155

Fruits to be encouraged, 3 1

Fruit trees, to preserve, 31 ; arrangemeut of, ' 22; hedge-row, 107 ; station for, 87; gar- den aspect of, 8:c., 22; borders, 22; on shallow soils, 148 ; for walls, 226

Fuchsia culture, 220, 253, 310 ; sheltering, 38; list of, 245; spectabills, 52, 220,246, 280

Fumigation, 270

Furze for hedges. 162 ; traosplanting, l62, 307 ; beetle, 197

Gamma motd, 11

Garden, always shaded, 290

Gardenine, as a scource of liveUbood, 291 :

for children. 145 Gardens, laving out, 261, 273, 285, 294;

plaas, 307 Garlic planting, 223 ; soot good for, 156 Gas-heating, 124 ; refuse as a manure, Qi,

105 Gastronenia sanguineum, 40 Geraniums, scarlet, 104, 222, 233, 248 Geranium culture, 256 ; in a room, 150 ; slips,

39, 311 ; yellow, 170 Germination of seed, 227 ; moisture for, 249;

oxygen for, 269 ; phenomena, 291 Geometra prim,-vria, 175 Gesneria zebrina, 62 Gibbs, Thomas, 247 Gilbert, Mrs. Davis, 27 Gladiolus, 100, 256 ; spring treatment, 216,

226, 248 Gladiolus cardinalis, watering, S90 ; nata-

lensis, 278 Glass best for gardening purposes, 249 ; for

vinery, 154, 174; shelters, 218 Glazing, 21 6 Goat-keeping, 245 Golden triionia, 243 Gooseberry planting, 42, 97, 138; cuttings,

55; pruning, 55, 210; culture, 189, 303;

list of, 196 ; weight of, 1 14 ; standard, 206 ;

Lancashire, 190 ; buds to protect, 242 ; saw- fly, 261 Gossamer, 259 Grafting, different modes of, 229 ; claj and

wax, 231 ; apples, 206 Grapes, new, 174 ; best of, 284 ; storing, 82 ;

Reeves' Wuscadine, 30 Grass-plot, 98 ; seed for, 92 ; to renovate, 206 Grass mowing, 185 Gravel walks, 174 Green-fly, 270,272; on violets, 211 ; on roses,

211 Greenhouse heating. 174, 215 ; to build, 119;

climbers, 205, 234 ; roses, 206 Gutta pcrcha, for grafting, 280

H.

Hambukgu grape, red, 21

Hares, protection against, 215, 309

Haricots, use of. 206

Ileart's-easc. See pansy.

Heating by hot water, 265

Heat borne by plants, 280

Hedges, 77, 89, 107, 168, 174 ; on clay, 174,

215 Hedge-row fruit-trees, 13 HeUotrope, 134 Hepaticas, 240 Herbs. 27, 37, 266 HUl, Thomas, 16 Hives, 306; sliding plate for, 31 1 Hoar-frost, 145 Hoeing. 39

HoUv, 122, 174; hedges to cut, 114 Hollyhocks, 118. 246; cuttings, 173 Honeysuckles, 93 Horse-radish, 58, 248 Hot-beds, 254, 310 House-sewage, 7, 60, 62 Hoy a, 72 Hyacinths, 69, 71, 101; mouldincss in, 279;

seeds, 311; in water and moss, 69, 94 ;

liquid manure for, 205 Hybridizing, 85

I.

Ice, wise provision relating to, 155

Impatiens repens, 40

Ink for zinc, 2o6, 226, 27 1

Insects, destroying, 9I, 206

Irises, bulbous, 99 ; sowing, 257

iron in soil, 177

Ivy, culture, 60, 114, 115; pruning, 280

Ixias, 111

J.

Jacob^a lily, 130

Jameson's browallia, 213 Jasmines, Cape, 94 Jasminuni nudiflorum. 52, l63 Jerusalem artichoke, 58, 125, 204, 23? ; soup, 126

Kale- See Borecole, 23S

Kidney, French, beans, 6, 62, 121, 302; new,

174 Kitchen- garden soil, depth, 206 Kohl-rabi, 104

Labels, 179, 201

Lackev-moth, 207

Lady-bird. 291

Larkspur, 302

Laurustinus, 102

Lavander, 67

Lawns, soot for, 156 ; to make, 263, 273, 295,

311 Layering evergreens, 295 Leaf-mould, 15, 62 Leaves, should be cleaned, 90 Leeks, 5, 25"; Rouen, 199 Lemon-trees, 144 ; temperature for, 226;

sweet kinds, 2)6 Leneodendron argenteum, 1/0 Lettuces, 6, 93, 257, Lice, to kill, 258, 308 Life of plants, 217 Lilies, 41 ; lancifolium, 248, 258 Lily of the valley, 23, 81, 212 Lime Hawk moth, l65 Lime Looper moth, 31 Lime, super-phosphate of, 28, 144 Lime manure, 197, 268, 280 ; water, I98 Limncanthes rosea, 243 Lind (Jenny), anecdote of, 256 Liquid manure. 114, 280, 290, 299, 312; of

dung, 189; of soot, 156 Lisianthus pulcher, 243 Loam, 14 Loasa picta, 243 I^obster plant, 279 Love-apples, 6 Lupin, Barlow's, 41 Lupinus affims, 30

M.

M'Nab (W.). memoir of, 165

Macleana punctata, 243

Magnolias, hardy, I96; moving, 258

Ulaidcn trees, 199

niaize, 290

Man gold- wurtrel, 103, 280, 301; leaves to

keep, 42 Manures, cheap, 7 ; for flowers, 15 ; on

trenched ground, 280; economy of, 287, 309 March moth, 259 iMascall (Leonard), 50 Meadow, laying down, 2l6 Mechanics, good florists, 4 Melon culture, 132, 214, 233; new, 244 Melons in the open air, 18, "2; ridged, &c.,

266. 299 ; Queen Anne's, 299 Mellor (John}, 74 Mczercon, 289 Mice, 93, 192. 226, 309, 310 Mignonette, 212, 2/7, 290 Mint, 58

Mixed cropping, 133 Moles, 73

Monardella undulata, 40 Morocco plxmi, 3 flloss 303,

Mottled Umbre moth, 31 Mulching trees, 89, 104, 210, 253, 262, 293 Muscle plum-stocks, 206 aiushrooms, 49, 70, 102, 174, 204 Musk plant, 279 My flowers, 29, 38, 50, 59, 71, 81, 93, 103,

122, 134, 162, 172, 186, 204, 214, 224, 240,

266, 277, 288, 302 Myrtles, soil for, 290

N.

Nail-cleaning, 108

Names, to remember, 1 10

Naming plants, I78

Narcissus-fly, 85

Nastertium berries, 15; tuberous -rooted, 174 ; culture, 288

Native flowers. 154

Nectarine pruning, 116,209; in Westmore- land, 290; planting, 209; to select, 199; standard, 279

Nematus triniaculatus, 26l

Nemophila maculata, 40

Netting, 251

Night-soil, 174

Night-warmth, 78

Nohl-kohi, 104

Nourishment in garden produce, 44

Nut culture, 166; varieties, 166

O.

October work, 29;

Oleander scale, 144, 189, 206 ; diseased, to

treat, l64 ; culture, 286 ; dwarf, 298 ; not

flowering, 311 One-leaved cyclobathra, 243 Onions, 6, 48; storing, 12; litt of, 172 ; soot

for, 156; culture, 223, 301 Onion (potato), 48; two-bladed, 183 Onion-seed, threshing, 62 Orange Upper-^ving moth, 217 Orange Under-wing moth, 249 Orange-trees, 94, 144 ; temperature for, 226 Orchids for greenhouse, 278 Otiorhynchus tenebricosus, 269 Oxide of iron of soil, 177 Oyster- shells, 2l6

P«ONY, propagating, 289

Painted Loasa, 243

Painting, best mode of, I6I

Pansv, culture, 47, 77, »44, 159, 201,254; list of,' 20 1

Paradise stocks, 2o6

Parsley, 6, 49, 214

Parsnips, storing, 12, 49; cause of forking, 62 ; culture, 237, 257, 300 ; sowing, 279 ; for pigs, 310

Fassiflora neumannii, 188

Peach, pruning, 108, II6; crimson double- blossomed, 10 ; gain de Montrcuil, ID; reine des vergers, 10; pucellc de Malines, 10 ; dressing for, 157, 251; to prune maiden, 161, 196, 209; leaves falling. 196; to select, 199; planting 209; list of, 209; root prun- ing, 258 ; for Westmoreland, 290

INDEX.

vu

Pears, choiceof,3; priming, 13 ; Horticultural Society's, 41 ; stocks for, 65 ; soils for, 65 ; list of, 74 ; for south-east aspect, 94 ; to cure over-luxuriance of, 104 ; for gable- ends, 12G ; arbrc courbe, 10 ; beurre Breton- neau, 10; beurre d'Esperen, 10; beurre (Jiffard, 10; bon Gustave calebasse d'ctc, 10; calebasse d'hiver, 10; cassante dc Mars, 10; catinka, 10; Due de Nemours, 10; Orphcline d'Ena:hien, 10; passe tar- dive, 10; poire favorite, 10; reinc des poircs, 10 ; triomphc de Jodoigne, 10; vau- quelin, 10; to prune maiden, l6-i ; spur- ring-, 173 ; diseased, 290 ; for Westmore- land, 290

Peas, early, 42, 70, 113; new, 174 ; soot for, 156; list of, 162; sowing, 185, 311; beetle, 197; culture, 214, 248; best early, 206 ; new, 244, 300 ; supporters, 271 ; (sweet), 278

Peat, 14; soil to cultivate, 279 ; ashes, 114

Pelargoniums, yellow, 170

Penstaraon, 13; speciosum, 194

Perennial flowers, list of, 34, 253

Petunias, 4

Phloxes, 13

Pickles, 302

Picotees, 110,274, 286, 296; pink, 5; list of , 150

Pig-keeping, 186, 238, 245 ; manure, 246

Pine apples, soot for, 156

Pink, culture, 159

Pit, warm, 104 ; cold, to make, I60, 2l6, 2-18, 263 ; to heat, 257 ; made of turf, 46

Planter's puzzle, 309

Plantain rooms not injurious, 63; dedicated to days, J 76 ; heat endurable by. 280

Planting, preparing soil for, 12'; time for, 156, 168; trees, 2, 23; to save space, 55

Plumbago lariientic, 235

Plums, 3, 136; list of, 157, 24/; for West- moreland, 290

Polmaisc heating, 9*

Polyanthus, 4, 5, 25, 81, 99, 159, 201,220, 274, 296

Polygonum vaccinifoUum, 243

Pond, plant for edges of, 154

Potatoes, to preserve, 30 ; experiments with, 163; new, 17*

Potato murrain, 41, 139, 154, 196, 267 ; eyes. 72 ; on clay soils, 72 ; leaving in soil, 135 ; puUing-up stems, 139; influence of wet soil on, 140 ; autumn -plan ting, 6. 7, 20, 37, 49, 58,72, 144,226, 300; planting in Ireland. 8; growing in Lancashire, 59 ; forcing, iGl, 204, 214, 235 ; soot for, 156 ; lime for, igs, 226 ; preserving for seed, 236 ; selecting, 236 ; best soil for, 280, 311 ; early, 258

Potcntilla Menziesii, 143

Pot-herb planting, 223

Pots, to prepare, 214

Potted plants, soot for, 156

Potting materials, 42

Precoce de Tours plum, 3

Privet-cuttings, 62

Produce of one-eighth of an acre, 9

Pruning, 12, 17; its principles, 123

Punipbjns, 49 ; soup, 43

Pumpkin, Hitnalayah, 64, 114

Putty, to soften, 20

Rabbits' dung, 206

to frighten, 309

Radishes. 6, 70. 102, 204, 214

Rain-water, purifying, 141; monthly fall of,

197 Ranunculuses, 35, 159, 212, 220, 225, 254;

list of, 169 Raspberries, 8, 62, 97; kinds of, 196; au- tumn, 258, 272, 280; pruning, 55, 88, 104;

training, 258 Red spider, 63, 270 ; on violets, 211 ; on roses,

211 Rhododendron cuttings, 268 Rhubarb, 102, 153, 309; to check seeding,

280 ; varieties, 153, 189, 312 ; planting, 290,

203 Ribston pippin, probable produce, 104 Ridging, 39

Rivers' trellises, 223

Koclcwork, 89

Ruot-pruning, 45 ; protection, 46

Rosa Rugosa, 40

Rose-culture, 56, 66, 94, 104, 138, 172, 186,

215, 226; iron in soil for, 1/7; budding,

225 Rose-cuttings, 67, 173 ; in water, 2l6 Rt)?cs for cottagers, 25; dwarf, 253; tca-scen-

tcd, 253; evergreen, 268 ; greenhouse. 2(l6;

hardy, 2o6, 226; forty sorts, 24; forcing,

34, 211 ; pruning, 56, 139, 144, 262,290;

in pots, 99 ; manure for, 104, 144, 258, 268,

280 Rosemary, 15, 205 Rosy lake flower, 243 Rotation of crops, 51, 184 Rust on cabbages, 18

Salading, small, 70, 27G

Salsafy, 37

Salt as a manure, 53, 311

Sand, 15

Sandy soil, to improve, 124. 144

Savoys, 266

Sawdust as a manure, 52

Scale on myrtles, 84 ; on oleanders, 206

School gardens, 40, 142

Scorzonera, 37

Sea-kale, forcing, 102, 171. 182, 214

Sedum Kamtschatkia, 168

Seeds for a given space, 9. 185; strange to

sow, 279 ; to pack, I6g, 2/9 ; when to sow,

182; seedlings to raise, 255 Sh^lots, soot for, 156; planting, 223 Shelters, 35, 46, 76, 112, 218, 236 Shred cleaning, 108 Shrubbery, pruning, 56, 110; old, to rcnn-

vate, 66 Siberian crab stock, I61 Silk-worras, 142 Silver tree, 170 SUpper\vort, 202 Slopes, 54

Slugs, to destroy, 10. I6. 58, 9-1, 222 Smcrinthus tilite, l65 Snow, its uses, 125 Snowdrop, 171 Soap-boilers' ashes, 268 Soil, deepen the, 82 Soils, fresh or maiden, 3 ; their stajile, 147 ;

iron in. 1/7; required. 4 ; management of,

fi; to imjtrove, 206, 226 ; for flowers. 14 Soot as a manure, 72, 104, 155, 186 ; and salt,

216, 226 ; from peat, 196 Soups, 43, 126 Sowmg, its phenomena, 281 Spade husbandry, 226 ; best tool, 289 Spinach, 214, 266 Spring flowers, list of hardy, 2l6 Stable drainage, 280 Stakes, preparing, 104 Staking, 76, 84, 210 Stock, culture, of, 212 Stocks for fruit trees, 158 Stone-crop, 188 Storing ot roots, U Stove for small greenhouse, 280 Strawberry pruning, 55, 83, 273 ; planting,

205 ; forced, 290 Strawberries, Angelique Jamise, 10; Comte

dc Paris, 10; Princess Royal, 10; soot for,

156 ; the best, 205, Alpine, 2/3 Sulphur fumigation, 270 Swainaona Urt-yana, 143 Swammcrdamia antcnnaria, 243 Sweetbriar, QQ Sweet-pea, 213, 2l6 Sweet-william layering, 258

Tachy porus, golden- coloured, 125 Tank, svstem of heating, 72 Tanks, to make, 135, 242, 2/3, 283, 308, 312 Tanners' bark, 144

Tetragonia, 266.

Thavving, phenomena of, l65

Thrift edging, 30

Thrips, 270

Thrush, 124

Tigridia, 181

Time for operations, 175

Tobacco fumigation, 270

Top-dressings, 293

Torenia Asiatica, 18

Tortoiseshell butterfly (small), 281

Trees, choice of, 2 ; exhausted, 98 ; plants

under, 104 ; moving large, 104 ; lately

grafted, moving, 114 Trellis, 47, 228

Trenching, 39, 219 ; bastard, 40 Trentbam Hall kitchen-garden, 143 Tritonia aurea, 243 Troi)a.'oIum tuberosum, 174 Tuberose, 1/4, 180; pots for, 2/9 Tulips, 5, 18, 35, 77, 201, 233, 234 ; soot for,

156 ; list of, 57 Turf-manure, 23 Turf-laying, 203, 215 Turnips. 6, 2/6 ; lime for, 198 ; Swedish, 103,

301 Turpentine for scale, 206

Umdbled abeoma, 243

V.

VaNKSSA URTIC^, 281

Variegated plants, list of, 118 Vegetaiile marrow, 94, 104, 193, 226 Ventilation, greenhouse, 206 ; pit, 206 \'^cnus' looking-glass, 288 Verbenas, 4, 159, I68 ; list of, 159 Villa gardens, 232 Vines out of doors, 39, 283 Violets, to force, 23; in frames, 211; be- coming single, 290 ; tree, 48

W.

Walks, to make, 200, 262 ; to roll, 210

Wallflowers, 289

Walls, aspect of, 23, 76; shrubs for, 148, 196

Wardian cases, 128

Water, ornamental, I68

Watercress, cultivated. 25, 133

\\'ater plants. Hat of, l6s

Watering, 36, 39, 45, 68, 72

Watson, Robert, II9

Weekly calendar, 2, 11, 21, 31, 43, 53, 63, "3, 85, 95. 105, 115, 125,145,155. I65, 175, IQ/, 207, 217, 227, 249. 259. 269. 281. 291

Weevils, 145. 196 ; red-legged, 269

A\Tiitethorn hedges, 174

Whitewashing a wall, 2lG

"Willows. 294

Window- gardening difficulties, 68, 280

■Window plants, 36, 62, 92 ; gardens, 983

Winds, 175

Winter moth, 53

\A'istaria, moving, 258

Wood, ripening, 3

Worms not injurious, 62, 1((5, 124

Xantholruca croceago, 217

Yellow-likb Quaker-moth, 115 Yellowly's fork, 289

Zaucusnf.ria Californica, 10, 235, 295 Zinc, writing on, 2o6, 226, 27 1 Zinneas, damping otf, 290

WOODCUTS.

Figurc-of-8 moth Sewage system Gamma moth Pruning

Angle-Shades moth Lime Looper moth Flat-body motli Red spider Winter moth Sewage system Celery fly .

Narcissus fly Ash-destroying beetle December moth Yellow-line Quaker moth Peach-tree pruning .

Standard currant trees Golden-coloured tachyporus Bee-feeder Water filtcrer

Apple weevil Garden centipede Lime Hawk moth Early moth Isabels

PAGE

2

7 n 17

21 31 •13 63 93 61 73 85 05 105 115 117 123 125 136 141 112 115 155 lC5 175

179

Sea kale frame

pots

Furze beetle Ithubarb frame Lackey moth Peach pruning Orange-up])cr-wing moth Glass shelters Pruning Rose budding Brindled Beauty moth Itivcrs's trellises c; rafting fg modes) Payne's hives

Oran(;c-under-wing moth

I^farch moth

Pit heated by hot water

lled-legged weevil

Pea-supporters

Tortoiseshell butterfly

Window'gardcna

Vellowly's fork

ScvLn-spottcd Lady-bird

Taylor's hives

Plan of garden

PACS 183 183 197 203 207 209 217 218 224 236 227 228 236 239 305 219 259 263 269 271 281 283

2ug

291 306 307

THE

COTTAGE GARDENER.

IlfTRODUCTORY.

We do not offer The Cottage Gardener to the public without having well considered the sugges- tion wliich gave it birth. That suggestion was in these words : — "All England has and loves its Out- door Gardening, but where is there a periodical that devotes attention and space to promote its advancement, even equally with that of thp otlier departments of Horticulture which, from their cost- liness, are only within the reach of the cc-_para- tively few?"

In our reply, we confessed we knew of no such periodical ; and we now purpose to supply what is felt to be a very prevalent deficiency.

Our pages will appear every Thursday, and will be devoted chiefly to Out-Door Gardening, — to those branches of the art in which not only all delight, but which all have the means of pursuing.

Utility is our prime object; we wish to improve the gardening of the many, and we shall concentrate in our pages the information which will be acceptable and useful to every one who has space sufficient for a bed of cabbages, a row of currant-trees, and a flower- border. Whilst no gardener, we believe, will turn from our pages without receiving some ray of light, yet we shall especially trim our lamp for the amateur of moderate income, and the cottager. To them, columns devoted to the Pine Stove, and Orchidaceous house, offer little interest, and less instruction : it is giving knowledge, but knowledge that with them is inapplicable.

The information we have to offer to our readers will be presented under another aspect ; we shall en- deavour to teach them how to grow the most and the best crops on the plot beneath the sway of their spades.

We shall bring to their notice the varieties dis- tinguished for qualities most desirable ; we shall particularize the modes of culture found to be most successful ; we shall point out the most appropriate manures, with the modes of applying them most

economically ; and we shall detail the rotation of crops which have been found advantageous on various soils. Particular attention will also be paid to the diseases of cultivated plants, and to the insects which attack them, for the purpose of pointing out the most suc- cessful modes of avoiding their ravages.

It will be readily understood, tliat we especially address ourselves to those who have gardens of mo- derate extent. In the plotting or arrangement of these there is much more opportunity for the dis- play of skill and taste than most people take for granted ; and lengthened observation enables us to say confidently, that nine-tenths of our village and cottage gardens are so planned as to require much more labour than is necessary, and to be devoid of many beauties they might economically possess. To remedy these deficiencies we shall occasionally furnish plans of such gardens as we can recommend as models.

To enable us to attain these objects, we have secured the aid of some of the best practical men of the day ; and to facilitate their labours we solicit assistance from all others of like acquirements, whether professional or amateurs, but, in all we examine and all we recom- mend experience shall be oiu- touchstone.

No one values the services of science more highly than we do. We well know that it points out and illumines the path of the Gardener ; it aids and sus- tains him in his progress along that path — but the path itself is Practice. Upon this we shall place our foundation ; and when the first year of our labours closes, we hope it may be under the conscious feeling tliat we deserve at least as much praise as " the citizen who made two blades of grass grow where only one grew before." Swift says, that such a man is more meritorious than the most subtle of politicians ; and we shall claim praise, at all events, not more equivocal, if we know a garden in which the Cabbage has been more productive, the Apples more abundant, and the Mignonette more enduring, from information gathered in our columns.

No. I., YOL. I.

THE COTTAGE GARDENER.

WEEKLY CALENDAR.

M	w
U	D
5	Ti.
6	F
/	S
1 8	Sun
9	M
10	Tu
11 1	W

OCTOBER 5—11, 1818.

Faith. Botanical Society of London's [Monthly Meeting. 16 Sunday after Trinity. St. Denys.

Oxford and Cam. Terms begin. Old Michaelmas Day.

Plants dedicated to each day.

Aster-like Boltoniii Late Feverfew. Chrysanthemum. Sweet Maudlin. Milky Agaric, 'ape Aletris. Holly.

Sun Rises.

9aft.f)

11 „

13 „

l.i „

16 „

18 „

20 „

Sun Sets.

Moon R. ana Sets.

27aft.5

2.3 „

23 „

^1 „

18 „

16 „

14 „

10 35

11 34 morn.

0 39

1 49

3 4

4 21

Moon's Age.

1st Qr. 9 10 11 12 13 14

Clock aft. Sun

11 38

11 56

12 1> 12 30

12 46

13 2 13 17

Day of Year.

279 280 281 282 283 284 285

Phi'nomexa of TnE Season*. — Mr. Siillingfleet, in J?.i5, snys that in Norfolk, on the 1st of this monih, the berries of the holly and berbery %vere fully ripe.— 2nd. The fruit of the sloe wa< ripe. Mr. Jenyns says, tliat, on avi-rii^e of ten >ears' observatiuns marie ai Camhrid^"', the leaves of the walnut hefjin to f.ill on this day. — oth. Catkins of sallows formed iStillingfleet ;) walnuts ripe, and birch

Insects. — The Figure-of-eight moth (Epi- sema ccenila-cephuia) appears e;iily tnis

leaves beirin to falUJenyns.) — 6th. Leaves of aspen almost all off; of chestnut, yeilow ; of bitch, g>'Id-coloured (Siillingfleet.)— 7th. IJeech leaves be>;in to fall.— 8th. Cherrj- leaves begin to fall (Jenyns.) — 9tlt. Bcnies of spinille-tree ripe; some a^h-trees quite leafless; leaves of niarsh-etder beautifully pink (Stillingfleet.)— Ilth. Ash leaves begin to fall (Jen\ns.)

	IS-II.	1842.	1S43.	1844.	1845.	1846. Cloudy.	I8i7. Fine.
5	Cloudy.	Fine.	Fine.	Fine.	Fine.
		Fine.	Rain.	Fine.	< lo.idy.	Rain.	Fine.
	tine.	Cloudy.	Cl..u.1y.	Fine.	Rain.	■showery.	Showery.
		Fine.	Cloudy.	Fine.	Cloudy.	showery.	Fine.
	Ovt-rcast.	Cl..ndy.	Ram.	Cloudy.	Showery.	Rnin.	Bain.
	Rain.		tine.	Showery	Rain.	Rain.	Rain.
		Fine.	Hain.	Fine.	Rain.	Hain.	Showery.

yiGURS-OT-XICHT MOTR.

month. The bluish gre) upper win-is have a yellowish white spot in their centres. The spot being shaped like a double Mdnev or 8 eives the popular name to the msect. It sbou d l.e destroyed whenever observed, as its caterpillars, at the end of the foUowinR sprine Verv often destroy the young leaves ot plums and peaches. ° t""St cij wucn

€[)i lltfrk'H /nut-Cnirkning.

In commencing a Periodical which has for its object the dissemination of soimd t;ardening practice, adapted to all who cidtivate a garden, we have marked out a course by which we hope to render the subject readily familiar to the humblest cottager. We shall, there- fore, on all occasions, avoid the use of technical terms.

In endeavouring to lead the mind to a careful con- sideration of those first principles which may be considered the key to the gardening art, we shall at the same time abstain as much as possible from the use of scientific terms : that is to say, in all cases where terms of a familiar or conversational character can be found sufficiently expressive.

A plain style will, therefore, best seciu-e the end in view ; and as the day is gone by for rules based on custom only, we shall lay down a course of culture, which is the result of some forty years' practice, accom- panied by vigilant observation, and a due attention at all times to the improvements of the day.

The Planting Season. — We would in all cases advise early Autumn planting of fruit-trees, with the exception of the vine and the fig, provided the soil can be prepared in a mellow state. In the case of stubborn clayey soil*, however, the business had best stand over until the spring ; but the soil may be thrown out immediately, and by lying e.xposed the whole win- ter will be much improved for planting purpo>cs.

Preparations, therefore, may be made forthwith ; and in order to proceed in a businesslike way, the amateur and cottager should look over their existing stock, in order to see whether any decaying or worthless kinds should be destroyed. Another matter requires attention each succeeding autumn. However com- plete the arrangement might have been considered at the preceding planting-season, farther improvements will annually suggest themselves — not onlv as to the

choice of individual trees or bushes, but as to the line of succession which the garden at large offers.

All these things duly considered, stakes should be put down at the respective stations where a tree is Inquired, and a number marked on the stake referring to a list containing the selection previously made.

Choice of Trees. — It frequently happens that some trees or bushes have to be purchased from the nursery -gardens ; when such is the case, we would look them out at this period, and cause them to be marked with matting, which is the ordinary practice in nurseries. By these means, very superior trees may be secured at the same price as the ordinary ones ; for in general a fixed price is charged, whether for dwarf trees or standards; and as purchasers con- tinue to select, of covu-se a very inferior sample falls to the lot of those who come last.

The amateur who wants a peach, a nectarine, or an apricot-tree, should be very scrupulous in his choice. Some of those trees which look very lusty and pro- mising in the nursery, are at the same time very unfit for permanent trees. The first point in selection, we need hardly say, is general health of constitution, litis is evinced by healthy shoots, by a clear hark, and by a total absence of gum. A second is a thorough and equal union of stock and scion : if durability is required, the two should be nearly equal. If the scion overgrows the stock, the tree -ivill be fruitful betimes, but may not be expicted to endure so long. Another, and most essential aff.iir, is, that the young trees be well balanced; that is, that the number and strength of the branches on each side be nearly equal. Any great disparity in point of vigour between the two sides of a trained tree, is with difficulty overcome afterwards. It can, indeed, only be done in the growing season, by frequent stopping of the growing points • of this, however,

THE COTTAGE GARDENER.

more in due time. Thus far the amateur. We will now offer a few words of adnce to both amateur and cottager.

Choice of Applf.-trees.- —Canker is perhaps the greatest enemy we have to encounter in the apple. A practice has prevailed in some nurseries — ^and we hope that by this time it is nearly exploded — of attempting to render cankered or diseased trees sale- able, by cutting their main shoots back. Trees thus treated will produce strong shoots for the first year, which too often tempt the inexpei'ienced. After being planted a year or two, however, they revert to their original state of disease, in nearly all cases. Such, of course, should be avoided ; and they are readily known by having very long shoots on a very thick old stern. These remarks apply chiefly to dwarf trees intended for espaliers.

Another great fault in standard apple-trees is a thin and sickly stem. This is frequently the case in obscure countrj' nui-series, and arises, we conceive, merely from the mode of training. Our better sort of nurserymen make a practice of " spurring in," or shortening, the side-shoots, whilst the grafted shoot is forming the stem of the standard. Some coinitry nursery gardeners cut such side-shoots clean away at once, but spurring in, according to the other practice for a year or two, umch increases the strength and thickness of the stem.

Choice of Flemish Pears. — As to form or figure, everything depends on the mode of training. If for the pyramidal mode, (having the form of the Larch,) they should of course have some length of stem ; if for a low horizontal trellis, they should have a ])air of leaders at least, to turn right arid left : care should be taken to select none with decayed points — some of the kinds are liable to this defect.

Fruits which should be more encouraged. — The Morello cherry is one of the most useful of our hardy fruits, yet it is seldom found in the garden ot tlie amateur to any extent, and scarcely ever in that of the cottager. It is adapted fur either the ordinary rough espalier or for walls or fences. On a soutli wall it attains adegreeof flavour which woud astonish many persons who had been in the habit of tasting it from cold aspects. It will, moreover, if carefullv netted, hang well on the tree until the middle of October. It is one of the surest fruit-bearing trees we possess — bearing with certainty, even on a northern aspect. Trained as a rough espalier, it may be covered with a net, and be servicable for man)' weeks for making tarts. It prefers a deep and somewhat unctuous loam. Cottagers would do well to pay some attention to its cultivation, as it would succeed to admiration on any gable which would prove too cold for the apricot or the pear.

Plums. — Tliere are some very old kinds of plums which are deserving of a very extended cultivation ; of such are the Morocco, and the Precoce de Tours.

These are two of the surest-bearing plums ill the king- dom, and they ripen very early. We have never grown them on common standards, but we have no doubt of their ansvifering admirably, and also of their proN'ing a profitable crop for the cottager The Wash- ington also might be planted as a standard by the latter class, being very hardy, of strong growth, and a full bearer.

The Black Currant.' — Where the soil is of a moist character, or even a very adhesive loam, this proves a most profitable crop to the cottager. It frequently succeeds by the side of such ditches as become tainted with the wash from the house or the pig-stye. There are boggj' nooks in some gardens of a damp character, which could scarcely be better employed than under this crop.

Filberts. — We would remind the amateur, that such are worth adding to his stock of fruits, provided means are taken to dwarf them and to ensure their bearing. To accomplish this, they must be on a single stem ; the head must be formed in their earlier stages like a currant-bush, open in the centre, and all superfluous young shoots which, crossing each other, obstruct light and air, pruned away — the stronger shoots at the extremity shortened, and, above all things, suckers kept down. The white and red filbert the frizzled filbert, and the Cosfoid, are the best.

Fresh or Maiden Soils. — Those whose gardens are of a sterile or exhausted character should take care to provide some fresh soil for planting new trees in — the more turf or coarse grass it contains, the better. It should be rough chopped over, and any ordinary vegetable soil, weeds, or decayed vegetables, may be blended with it.

AcCELlRATING THE RiPENING OF TIIK WoOD.

Those who possess vines, peaches, nectarines, and apricots, should now take every means in their power to ensure the ripening of the wood. Where trees have been neglected in their summtr pruning, a trim- ming should now be resorted to, althoujh late. All late growths, and all superfluous points of young shoots which shade the principal leaves, may be cut away. The vine — especially out of doors — will require every lateral, or side-shoot, to be pinched away ; and even those side-shoots which had been stopped to a single eye in the end of June, may now be entirely displaced, in order to throw some lig''t on the early- made leaves, and, even at this period, on the fruit. Those amateurs who have canvas or bunting at com- mand, would do well to cover their vines, about four o'clock in the afternoon, while the sun shines on them. In the event of dull days, however, it need not be applied until six o'clock.

Gathering Fkui's.- — We will merely allude to the necessity of paying a constant attention at this period to this needful proceeding ; in our next we will oti'ec some farther advice, also more ordinary calendarial matter. R. Ehrington, Oiilton Park.

€^t !0tEk'0 jFlumrr-cSnrknitig.

The culture of flowers is one of the most delightful and healthful recreations to which man can devote the powers of his mind and body. Even those who thereby earn their daily bread, may enjoy pleasures that the mere mechanic or artisan is debarred from by the very nature of his labours. The clear light of heaven, the sweet fresh air, and the beauties of the objects of the gardener's care, are all sources of the

most unalloyed pleasure ; and it is a wise dispensa- tion of the Giver of all good, that those delightful pleasures are within the reach of all. To the lady or gentleman florist, to the gardener by profession, to the amateur and the cottager, the flower-garden is, or may be, if the proper spirit is brought into action, an elevating pursuit. We who have tasted those plea- sures for nearly half a century, being desirous to in-

THE COTTAGE GARDENER.

crease the taste and instruct the ignorant, propose to give a weekly essay on the subject ; and if we can by j such labours make the culture of flowers more gene- ral, and the practice more easy, our object will be accomplished, and we shall think our attempt will have been a mite cast into the treasury of human happiness.

The Flower-garden. — Under this head we shall class those gardSns where a gardener or gardeners are employed. At this season of the year the floral beau- ties are in a great measure departing. Our chief care ought to be, to keep everything clean and neat. Cut down all decaying flowers, tie up the remainder, and keep the lawn short and clean swept, so that on fine days the garden may present a cheerful appear- ance. In the Frame-garden the auriculas and poly- anthuses should have as much air, and be kept as dry as possible — removing all decaying leaves as fast as they appear. All stores of verbenas, petunias, calceolarias, and other things to plant out in spring, require the same treatment. Keep large numbers of those plants, so as to have an abundant supply in the spring. It is much better to have a few to spare than to have to propagate them when they are wanted. Chrysanthemums will now be in flower, and should be well tied up, or the autiminal winds will damage their beauty.

Amateor's Flower-garden. — There are a large number of individuals who, loving a garden and having leisure time, devote a part of it, very wisely and properly, to the cultivation of flowers. Perhaps a still greater number would enjoy this rational recre- ation if they had the requisite information how to set about it.

Supposing you have a garden of moderate size, and pretty well stocked with the usual quantity of flowers, you should resolve to do everything in its proper season, and do it well and thoroughly. If possible, have by you in a snug corner the following soils, in such quantities as you may judge necessary: somegoodloam, vegetable mould (decayed leaves), peat soil, and rotten dung, with a small heap of pure sand. E.KCepting the last, which should be kept in a shed quite dry, let the others be turned over occasionally in dry weather, and always kept free from weeds. These materials are almost indispensable. Have also all kinds of tools in readiness, kept in a shed or toolhouse, quite clean and in good order. Where this is not the case, when you come to your garden you will find your tools work badly, and will soon be tired of using them. Pay particular attention, then, to this head : keep your tools clean, and every one in its proper place. You will find this a great comfort and convenience to you in your gardening operation ..

Cottage Flower-garden. — lowever humble may be the cottager's dwelling, the addition of a border or two of flowers gives it an air of comfort that to a rightly constituted mind is exceedingly pleasing. The culture of those flowers must exercise upon the cottager's mind the best effects: but we would not confine this pleasure to the labourer in the field or the dweller in the country only. Our mechanics and artizans, the workers in the busy factory, in the congregated masses of human beings of our large towns : these ought to have a flower-plot each ; to have something growing in the open air of heaven to draw their minds from sensual, besotting indulgences; — something to cultivate, watch, and care for, — to de- light in and love. The two flower-gardens are two distinct things ■ one adjoining the cottage, the other in a field let out in small lots. The dwelling-

houses of the mechanic are, as is well known, in general in streets and lanes, where land is too valuable to be spai-ed for g!.rdening purposes : hence it becomes necessary to the poor man loving a garden to have one in the field, at as short a distance off' as possible j and we earnestly wish that the owners of land near large towns would be more liberal in their grants of land, for the purpose of giving the artizan so inclined an opportunity of having a small garden for flowers as well as vegetables. We know, and rejoice that there are many persons enjoying such small gardens ; but we would wish their number to be greatly increased, to meet the wants of our growing population. Having said so much about the desirableness of the cottager's flower-garden, we will now say a few words about the means of furnishing it with plants. It is not to be expected that the cottager or mechanic is able to purchase many or very choice plants ; but one man can spare a few pence to buy a root, and another can buy a different one : the two can then propagate from their respective purchases, and have the power to ex- change. This principle, carried out on a large scale, would furnish plants sufficient for a great number of gardens. Seeds of biennials (two-year-living plants) might be purchased in the same manner : one man would buy sweet-williams, another hollyhocks, ano ther wallflowers, and so on to an almost unlimited extent. Then the day of exchanging comes — and what a pleasant aff"air that would be ! how many kindly feel- ings excited — what pleasing smiles — what admiration of each other's garden and flowers ! Would that such scenes were ten thousand times more common than they are !

FLORISTS' FLOWERS.

The question may naturally enough be asked, What are "Florists' Flowers?" To those who cultivate them the term appears simple and proper ; but a number of persons use it without properly understand- ing it. In their minds, to the cultivation of any kind of ornamental plants, the term "Floriculture" — or the culture of florists' flowers — would apply ; but "Florists' Flowers" are such as have been improved, either in form, colour, or size, or in all those qualities combined. It is true those gems of the earth are all beautiful, some exquisitely so, and that art cannot improve them : we might mention, as examples, the majestic, lovely, white lih', with its sweet, un- rivaled flowers of purest white ; the humble, but sweet-scented violet ; and the lily of the valley. These are familiar, and well known to all ; but, on the other hand, just glance at the wild tulip, and heart's-ease, or pansy, — the single carnation and pink, the polyanthus and auricula, — and the most prejudiced mind must allow that their beauties have been greatly improved by the florist's skill and unwearied persevei'ance. It is a remarkable fact, that the beautiful varieties now so much admired are principally raised by men in very humble life — men who earn their daily bread in the close workshop or the damp mine. It is also a curious fact, that our agricultural labourers have paid almost no attention to the raising of new varieties of florists' flowers. Of late years, indeed, the example of our shoemakers, tailors, and colliers, has been fol- lowed by men in higher ranks of life — by none iuore conspicuously than the Rev. Mr. Tyso, who has done more for the "ranunculus" than any other cultivator we know of. There are also some commer- cial men who have added to their other operations of cultivating fruit and forest trees for sale, the culture

THE COTTAGE GARDENER.

of "Florists' flowers;" and it is now becoming the fashion in almost every garden to attempt a little in this delightful art ; yet the meed of praise is justly due to the artizans above mentioned — they were the pioneers in the art of producing florists' flowers, and we fervently hope that the cultivators of those lovely ornaments may be increased tenfold. We are quite satisfied that thereby the happiness of man will be increased — the mind will bo weaned from more de- basing pursuits, and led to admire the goodness of the Author and Creator of all that is lovely on earth!

The subjects for this part of our work may be classed as follows : — Anemone, Auricula, Carnation, Dahlia, Polyanthus, Pink, Pansy, Ranunculus, Rose, Tulip.

Tulip. — At this season of the year the preparation for planting this favourite flower should be in a state of forwardness. The situation for the tulip-bed should be open to the full influence of the sun and air. If there is a hedge, or other shelter, on the north and west side of the bed, so much the better. The best soil is a light sandy loam, mixed with a small portion ■ of very rotten manure : by no means make it too rich, or the colours will run. Turn this soil, so mixed, frequently. The bed should be well drained with a layer of rubble ; and immediately over the drainage put a thin layer of littery dung, to keep the soil quite separate from the drainage ; then put in the

soil, to the depth of fifteen or sixteen inches. The bed should be raised, either by an edging of boards or slate, about six inches above the walks, and, when the soil is first placed in, it should be two inches above the edging, so as to allow it to settle and be pretty nearly level to the edging by the time of planting. The best time for that operation being about the first week in November.

Auricula and Polyanthus. — These should now be placed in their winter quarters, (or frame,) re- moving pi-eviously all decayed leaves, and stirring up the soil gently with a small fork or stick. No water is now required, and full exposure to sun and air on all fair days will be beneficial.

Carnation. — This beautiful class of florists'-flowers require considerable attention. They should now be in pairs, in five-inch pots, and placed in frames front- ing the south. Examine .nem carefully every day, to see that no mildew or Afireworms are preying upoD them. Very little watf r is required.

Pink.— Equally beautiful with the carnation, and much more hardy, is the graceful pink. At this season pinks have been planted out in thfir situation for blooming. A similar compost to that for the tulip will suit them, with the addition of a portion of leaf-mould. They require but little care ; only keep a look-out against snails and wireworms, and destroy them.

T. Appleby.

€\)t Wuk'B litrjjm-fnrknmg.

Borecole and Brussels Sprouts. — Plant a large bed, if not done last month. The heads and sprouts will keep the table supplied throughout the spring. The Brussels sprout, above all others of the cabbage tribe, should be now cultivated, not only on account of its great excellence, but because of its very large produce. The French express this valuable quality by naming it "The Thousand-headed Cabbage." When dry weather occurs at this season, it is a plan almost indispensable for securing success to soak with water the bed in which the seedlings are growing ; to fill the hole made by the dibble with water before inserting the plant, and to have the planting-time late in the afternoon.

The only objection to the Brussels sprout is that it is not quite so hardy as the Savoy, but it is more capa- ble of enduring severe frost than most kinds of bi-ocoli; and very rarely does a winter occur in southern or midland England which the Brussels sprouts cannot endure. Then it has these great merits — its sprouts grow close to the stem, so that the plants may be nearer together than Savoys ; and M. Van Mons is quite cor- rect in observing that it grows well in situations gene- rally unfavourable to the success of the cabbage tribe, — as between rows of potatoes and scarlet runners, or even among young trees. The bottom leaves of Brussels sprouts of advanced growth should be taken off to encourage the sprouting.

Cabbages. — Plant the main crops of those sown in August. The produce will be for table use from May to the end of July of next year. The same precautions in planting are required as mentioned above for bore- cole. The ground should be deeply trenched, and it is very desirable that it be laid up high, in narrow beds, so as to avoid the necessity of being trampled upon ; for it remains under this crop for nearly twelve months, and the ground, even of itself, becomes more conso-

lidated than is beneficial to the roots. Employ the strongest plants, and plant two feet apart each way. If strong early-sown coleworts* are at hand, plant a row between each two rows of cabbages, and a plant between each two cabbage- plants. These coleworts will be useful to pull up for early spring iise ; and the outside leaves, when potatoes are short, would be usei'ul, boiled, for a pig ; or given raw to a cow. If neither be kept, let the leaves be trenched into any spare ground as manure. Take care to fill every spare piece of ground with plants of some kind, for very possibly articles of food may be both scarce and dear next spring.

Cauliflowers sown in August may be so treated as to aiFord a successional produce during June and July of next year. If some of the plants are taken up, then' roots trimmed, and, being potted, are plunged in the earth under a cold frame until the end of February, to be then turned out under hand-glasses, their heads will be fit for use early in June. Those plants which are now pricked out upon a south border and left unmoved until the end of March, and are then finally planted out, will produce heads at the end of June; whilst a third portion of plants pricked out at the end of the present month, and not moved to their final bed until mid-April, will be fit for table in the early part of July.

Carrots, when ripe, may now be taken up and stored in a little dry sand, or without sand, if stored in a cellar, or tolerably dry place.

Leeks. — Plant; and hoe frequently between those planted in previous months. The soil for the leek cannot well be too rich, and certainly cannot be dug too finely, for it delighis in an open soil. In trans- planting these and other plants with similarly fleshy

* COLEWORT (Collet in some places) — a cabbage, previously to its heart becoming firm ; and to be eaten in that young state.

THE COTTAGE GARDENER.

brittle roots, the trowel is a tool far preferable to the dibble. Make the bole for the plant with the trowel, and then move the leek with the same implement, so tliat tile earth about the roots is fitted to the hole pre- viously opened.

KiD.NEY Beans yet bearing may be prolonged in that state for some weeks linger by arching over the rows with sticks, and protecting them with a mat at night.

Lettuces, sown in August, prick out as close as pos- silde, either under a frame, or, without that sheltei-, on a very dry border, facing the south. The best vai-ieties for tluis standing tlirough the winter are the Brown Dutch, Brown Cos, Hardy Hammersmith Green, and Green Cos. In planting out injure the roots as little as possible.

Love .\pples. — Gather during dry weather. Cut off a portion of the stalks wii'i each ; tie them at short intervals along strings, and fa=^ten these by their ends to the opposite sides of a dry room, near the ceiling.

O.Nioxs. — Autumn-sown onions should be kept free from weeds ; and a little dry earth or dust shook or sifted amongst them, to establish firmness and healthi- ness.

Store Onions should be cleansed and turned about, and the defective picked out.

Parslf.v. — Cut down, that it may produce fresh vigorous leaves before the winter stops its growth.

Potatoes. — Those who have potatoes and intend planting again, sliould now set about it ; for that spring planting is worthy of little dependence must have been well tested by many, of late years. At Bicton we have had this season most abundant crops, of good qualitv, from those planted last autumn ; and for several pre- vious years the autiimn-plnnied have been the only pota- toes of good quality and abundant in produce,

Radisues (TuRNir). — Sow on a warm south border, or on an asparagus bed that has had the stems cleared away and received its autumn dressing. They will grow milder, and continue longer good here than on any other soil. The white Spanish and the large purple are the best varieties for sowing at this season.

Spinach. — The surface soil of the winter spinach shoidd be kept open and healthy, to prevent its canker- ing.

Late-sown Turnips should be encouraged by fre- quent hoeings, and thorough cleansing established in every corner, and well maintained at all times and seasons, which is the only sure means of eradicating and preventing the ravages of vermin.

James Barnes, Bicton.

POTATO PLANTING. It will be seen from the statement of Mr. Barnes, that even in Devonshire, one of the most rainy counties of England, and in 1 848 — after a sunimei the wettest and most ungenial for the potato within the memory of any middle-aged man^the potatoes planted the pre- vious autumn were those which alone gave good crops ; those planted in spring having failed there as tliey have fa-led elsewhere throughout the length and breadth, not only of England, Ireland, and Scotland, but of many parts of Europe. For three years the Editor of The Cottage Gardener has adopted the same time for planting the potato, and with signal success. Wliilst his neighbours around are losing more than half their crops, and even those stored will be for the most part lost — and that chiefly from an errone- ous mode of storing — the Editor has not had one in twenty diseased; and those he has had stored, being done 80 in a mode which prevents unnatural heating

and premature sprouting, will continue gcod, as they continued last year, from September untd the follow- ing June. From long ex])erience, confirmed by numerous experiments and the experience of others, the Editor urgently recommends the following rules for growing the potato— rules which, if strictly fol- lowed, will restore the constitution of the plant, and render it as safe a crop as any other that can be culti- vated by the spade :

1. Never allow your potatoes to be uncovered by the earth for a single day ; but as they are taken up, place them in alternate layers with earth, wherever you intend to keep them through the winter. The heap thus formed must be Drought narrowing to the top, like the roof of a hous' , and covered over a foot deep with earth to exclude ihe wet and frost.

2. Plant at the end of Oct( ber, or early in November, during open, dry weather. Dig only enough ground for a row, and then insert the sets with a dibble, for this keeps the ground from being hardened bv tram- pling. Eight inches is the safest depth in the midland and northern counties, but six inches is a better depth for the southern counties. If planting is deferred till the spring, six inches is the best depth everywhere; and be sure to keep the potatoes covered in single layers with earth, and earth only, until the very day of planting. There is no loss of ground bj- planting in autumn, for rows of cabbages and savoys may be planted between the rows of potatoes.

3. Plant moderate-sized whole potatoes; that is, potatoes weighing about two ounces each.

4. Plant on ground that does not require the appli- cation of manure at the time of planting, b\it that is in good condition from manure applied to the previous crops. Never grow the potato two years following on the same plot.

MANAGEMENT OF SOIL. .\ SOIL would never get exhausted, if managed with skill, hut would continue to improve in depth and fer- tility in proportion to the industry bestowed upon it. The food of plants, it is true, may be exhausted from the soil by a repetition of cropping with any one family of plants, if we neglect the application of such fer- tilizers as may have been taken from the soil by that family ; but no part of the growing season is required for the soil to rest, or lay fallow, if judiciously managed by a successional varying of the crops, or supplying to them such food as may be a compensation for what has been taken off by the previous crop. The first object to be attained for securing a certain and profit- able return of produce from the soil must be thorough drainage ; — the next object is, breaking into the subsoil to the desired depth — not without first considering whether it is proper and profitable to sliift or turn up the subsoil at once to the influence of the atmosphere, or whether it is best to break into it well first, by shift- ing the surface soil, and allowing the subsoil to remain to receive — first the beneficial inliuence of the atmo- sphere, and then — at the next trenching, a portion oi the subsoil may be safely stirred up and mixed with the surface soil ; this practice continued for every suc- ceeding crop, will establish a healthy fertilizing sur- face soil to any desired depth. If repeated successional surface stirrings are adopted, according to the nature of the soil and weather, every growing crop will con- tinue in healthy luxuriance, without either suffering or receiving injury from too much moisture, drought, or frost. In addition, by constantly scarifying, hoeing, and forking the surface soil, not only obnoxious insects and their larvae are expelled, but weeds would never

THE COTTAGE GARDENER.

make tlieir appearance, much less have a chance of committing their accustomed robbery of the soil and crops. Besides, by such repeated stirring, the soil is always prepared, sweet and healthy, for succeeding crops; — no mean consideration, either when we observe the loss of time and produce occurring to such a ruin- ous extent in some localities, by allowing weeds to rob and choke the growing crops, and to shed their seeds, productive of a progeny similarly injurious to the crops next in rotation.

The application, of manures is most essential, and may be applied most beneticially when the soil is established in a he.ilthy condition, and maintained thus by a constant attention to surface-stirring. Yet the application of manure is a secondary consideration , for though it may be very liberally applied, and with considerable expense, yet, without first insuring the healthiness of the soil, much property and labour will be sacrificed.

J. B.

Ttlmrtllaneniis !liifnrnintinn.

CHEAP MANURES.

[No. I.] Every substance which increases the fertility of the soil into which it is dug or mixed, is a manure. Even sand may be a manure, for when mingled thoroughly with a heavy, clayey soil, it improves its staple, makes it more open, helps to enable all superfluous water to escape from it, and thus keeps the earth warmer, for wet soils are cold soils; and it in other ways makes the crops upon it more productive. Sand, therefore, is a manure for heavy soils. However, we only mention this to impress upon our readers, that when we talk of manures we do not mean the dung of animals only. It is quite true that rmless a soil is kept dteply, thoroughly, and constantly stirred, either by the spade, fork, or hoe, half the benefits derivable from any manure are lost. This is no new notion, for even Cato, who lived some two thousand years ago, said, in his book (De Re Rusticd) on cultivating the soil, "What is the most important part of farming? — to plough. What is the next most important? — to plouyh. The third is to manure.'

But though quite true that to stir the soil often and deei.ly, is one of the most important practices of all cultivation; yet unless we return to the soil by ma- nuring it, what our crops have taken from it by their roots, it will soon become incapable of yielding any- thing hut weeds.

Every gardener is fully aware of this — and no com- plaint is more common, both with the auiateur and the cottager, than of the expense and difficulty of obtaining a sufiicient supply of manure ; and yet that difficulty arises from their own waste and neglect. If all the night soil, vegetable and animal refvise, soap- suds, etc., were as carefully preserved in Great Britain as they are in China, each household would have a store of manure nearly sufficient for fertilizing the garden ground required for supplying that household with vegetables. We shall recur to this important department of cultivation more in detail, but at pre- sent will do no more than request attention to the following very valuable and useful communication upon the subject.

FILTERED HOUSE SEWAGE.

EY CUTHBERT W. JOHNSON, ESQ., F.R.S., ETC.

In erecting, last year, a cottage at Waldronfield, near Croydon, I took the opportunity of testing a plan for employing the sewage of the house (I use the word sewage in this Paper in its most extensive sense) for the use of the garden, which lias succeeded so well that I think it might be employed in most situations, with the required modifications, with the same measure of success. For although, in my case, I have the advan- tage of a considerable fall between the house and the kltchen-gai-den, yet that circumstance is not essential to the success of the plan : for even in the case of a perfect level, it would only be necessary to add a com-

mon iron lifting pump to the second tank; or the object might be accomplished by even one tank only, if furnished with a division. My plan was to test the possibility of filtering the entire sewage of the house through a filter of sand sufficiently fine to remove almost all the mechanically suspended matters of the sewage, so as to render the filtered liquid available as a rich liquid manure, without being offensive to those who had the use of the garden. For this purpose I had two tanks, constructed of bricks and mortar, and lined with Parker's cement, of about five feet cube each. Into the first, marked No. 1. in the an- neexd plan, a!l the sewage of the house is discharged, through an iron pipe of 4J-inch bore. This tank is

Section of the Sewage-system at Mr. Johnson's Coltage, on a scale of 30 feet to the inch.

A. The House.

B. Pipe conveying Sewage to Tank No. I.

C. C. C. Ground-line, jjlanted with Shrubs.

D. Plug regulating the Discharge of the Filter No. 2.

E. The Filler.

F. The Kitchen Garden.

furnished with an iron pipe of the same diameter, which (regulated by a long-handled plug from the top of tlie tank, marked fJ) discharges the sewage as it is needed from the tank No. 1. into the tank No. 2. This lower tank is also of a cube, equal to about five Ceet in diameter. This is furnished with a filter, through which the liquid portion of the sewage finds its way, and is thence drawn off from the bottom of the tank by menus of iron pipes of |-inch bore, to con- venient places in the garden. The filter (E) is placed (resting on bricks) about eighteen inches from the bottom of the tank : the bottom of the filter is formed of perforated tiles, used by maltsters for their kiln floors ; on this is laid a layer of gravel, about two inches thick, on this about two inches of coarse sand, and on the top of the sand (to prevent disturbance by the rushing in of the sewage from the upper tank) another layer of the maltsters' tiles. Thus constructed, the sewage finds its way through the filter with suffi- cient rapidity for the copious supply of the Kitchen- garden. As thus prepared, the liquid manure passes through, so as to possess but little smell, and without leaving any obnoxious appearance on the surface of the ground. I need hardly say that the effect of this liquid is exceedingly powerful ; and we have noticed it as remarkably so in the case of some newly-planted

THE COTTAGE GARDENER.

bods of asparagus and rhubarb, which have been irri- gated with it ; and, in fact, there is no doubt of its value for ensuring tlie rapid growth of all kinds of newly-planted culinary vegetables. I have so arranged the pipes in my kitchen-garden, that I can irrigate to any portion of it, by merely turning a cock. This plan of fil'ering seems, in fact, to remove all the objections that can be possibly urged against the use of the house sewage ; and in tlie case of gardens, both for the ama- teur and the poor cottager, I feel convinced that by such a mode as tliis, many of the difticuliies of inces- sant cropping, and little-varied exhausting rotations, may be successfully met. The waste of fertilizing mat- ters in such sewage is, in fact, so much larger than is commonly supposed, (a loss by the ordinary mode of constructing these tanks disguised in every possible way,) that I feel assured it only needs the adoption of some such a mode as that which I have described, of rendering its use no longer distasteful to the occupants of the house, to ensure its almost universal employ- ment. The amount of sewage is much larger than is commonly understood ; and in dry weather, when the demands of the gardener are larger, it is, we find, very easy to increase its bulk, in case of need, by pumping water into the tanks through the ordinary means. It may be useful to those who are about making similar attempts for me to add, that the j-inch iron pipes (gas service pipe) cost Is. per yard, and the iron cocks of the same bore, 2s. 6(/.*

RASPBERRIES.

It will be interesting and useful to many, to know a simple and certain mode of producing an abundant crop of this very useful fruit in a small space.

There are many varieties of various properties of this fniit, but, after practically cultivating several within these thirty years, I now confine myself to three of the most prolific — tb ^ Yellow Beehive, the True Fastolf, and the Autumn-bearing ; the latter of which I should confine myself to, were I only to cultivate one variety, as it is the most profuse bearer when managed as follows : — Select a corner, or, which is better, an outside of a quarter, next the walk or alley, to be planted as a boundary ; trench the ground well, and work in a good portion of rotten vegetable reftise — leaves, or even old tan, they are fond of Incorporate all well together by frequent forking through the winter; procure suckers, which maybe safely planted any time previous to the middle of March, to produce a good crop the same season ; plant two feet from plant to plant, and cut down close to the ground the first week in April, and mulch with half-decayed leaves or vegetable refuse. The suckers, a; soon as three inches high, should be hoed or thinned out to at least six inches apart; and a third of them should have their tops picked out when about fifteen or eighteen inches high, another third of them when a foot higher, and the others allowed to grow their natural length. This will insirre an abundant crop from the earth's surface to the topmost branches, in regular succession, from the end of July to the middle of November, and when the winters are favourable, even longer. A most essential point is, as soon as they begin to swell their fruit, to apply occasionally good soakings of liquid manure, brewed from the excrements of horses, cows, pigs, sheep, deer, or ])ouItry. Apply, also, a good portion of chimney-soot and some salt — which treatment we find swells the fiiiit not only to an immense size, but greatly im- proves the flavour.

* 1 purchased mine of Messrs. Baiiey, Pegg, and Co., Bankside, London.

Fifty plants thus managed will produce enough to supply a large family. The raspberry-canes should never be allowed to stand upon the same ground more than two years. A succession should be planted every season, and treated as above to maintain an abundance of fine fruit. If they are tardy in pro- ducing suckers, scrape off the mulch with a draw-hoe, by which you will cut and bruise some of the surface- roots, and thus induce buds, and consequently suckers. The mulch should be at once returned again.

J. Barnes, Bicton Gardens.

POTATO-PLANTING IN IRELAND.

The gratifying intelligence has reached us that, in some parts of Ireland where autuiun-planting has been introduced, it has been signally successful. The following is an extract from a letter we have received from Guy P. L'Estrange, Esq., Shantonagh, near Castle Bla}Tiey :

" Last year I had a short correspondence with you relating to autumn planting of potatoes. I tried it, and although it was November before my crop was put in, it succeeded well, and there were none dis- eased : all those planted in the spring have suffered more or less. I am now desirous of planting my general crop in this month, and should be very happy to learn if you still adhere to your opinion upon this subject.

" I beg also to enclose you a short account of an experiment made by Sir William Bethain (Vice- President of the Royal Society.) at Dublin, by plant- ing the offsets, from which a fine crop has resulted, these I have myself seen.

" With respect to the general crop in Ireland, I fear the)' are now going very fast indeed ; and I think, by Christmas we shall have a great scarcity of potatoes : the late planted never came to maturity."

The following is the extract from Sir W. Betham's letter, referred to by Mr. L'Estrange :

" Royal Society, Dublin, 8t!i Sept., 1848.

"I called the attention of the cultivators of pota- toes, early in the year, to an experiment [ practised last year (184" ;) viz., that of taking off all the stems which arose from a cut of the potato excejit one, and transplanting them in drills, two feet apart, and one fout in the drill between each plant. The trans- planted stems produced me an excellent produce of good sound potatoes. This spring I adopted the same practice on a larger scale with perfect success, and am now digging a good crop from the transplanted drills, of red apples and cups, and have not discovered a sinj^le instance of disease in either kind ; the produce of both are clean and perfectly sound. The most important result, however, was with the ridges from which I took the offsets, leaving but one stalk to each plant; the produce has been remarkably abundant, and all large and marketable potatoes. My ridges were four feet six inches wide. I weighed the pro- duce of a perch of twenty-one feet, and found eight stone of large sound potatoes !

" Being in London in March last, I saw on the table of a friend, where I dined, some very fine mealy potatoes. I procured twelve large tubers, which I brought over in my carpet bag. I cut them in the usual manner, and planted them in drills, on a plot twenty-one feet by twelve. I dug the produce the day before yesterday, and to my astonishment I weighed them — ten stone of excellent sound potatoes without any small ones ! They were treated in the same manner as the others ; viz., only one stalk leftto each plant, and the offsets transplanted."

THE COTTAGE GARDENER.

COTTAGE AND ALLOTMENT GARDENING.

(No. I.)

BY THE EDITOR.

r

WELL-ORDEKED garden is a real friend) always ready to afford seasonable aid ; yet no cottagers, who are wise, will ever think of getting a living out of their gardens. The_v who might be contented to live upon nothing hut potatoes, cabbages, and similar food, fesx^iV-i^^' would soon he reduced to the present T'-V^riZ^i condition of the Irish peasantry : drag- ging on at all times a degraded exist- ence, never doing more than just escaping from actual want ; and when a failure of any particular garden crops occurred, starving or living upon charity. No right-minded English cottager will desire such a state of things as this ; but it is a totally different matter for him to have a garden that will afford profit- able occupation for his own leisure hours and for the leisure liours of his wife and family. Such a garden is one of the cottager's best helps — it does not Jill his pot every day, but every day it will yield something to put into the pot— something which willmakeits con- tents more nourishing andmoreagreeable. Nocottager should desire to have more than an eighth of an acre for his garden. A slip of ground, twenty yards wide and thirty-one yards long, will be about that size. If it be much larger, no cottager can keep it well manui-ed, well dug, and well hoed, — and if oH this be not done, and well done too, he had better have a still smaller piece ; for a less piece thoroughly well cultivated will yield him much more than a piece of ground twice the size badly cultivated. Besides, who with a spark of proper pride about him would have a weedv, ill-cultivated garden ? — such a garden bespeaks a man who does not care about his home, or its com- forts ; and from some years' experience we can say, without any reservation, that we never knew an un- worthy cottager have a well-tended garden, nor a worthy cottager have one badly tended. Be assured, the man "is not worth salt to his porridge," who does not care whether a nettle or a rose-tree grows before his cottage window ; nor whether a vine or a nettle spreails around its walls. It has been so from times long before the wisest of men wrote; for he says, " I went liy the field of the slothful, and by the vineyard of the man void of understanding; and lo! it was all grown over with thorns, and netiles had covered the face thereof, and the stone wall thereof was broken down," Piov. xxiv. 30.

Now what ought a garden occupying one-eighth of an acre to yield? Why we will tell you not only what it ought to yield, but what it has been known in many instances to yield. In Essex and Hampshire we have known it to produce year after year thirty bushels of potatoes, five bushels of parsnips, five bushels of car- rots, five busliels of beet-root, five bushels of onions, three hundred cabbages, besides sprouts, with many boilings of peas and beans, as well as radishes and savory heibs.

Before giving any directions for the cultivation of the particular crops, we will make a few observations upon some of the operations applicable and beneficial to them all.

Draining. — We put this first, because it is least at tended to, yet scarcely a garden exists in all England that would not be very greatly benefited by bein^: drained. We know a cottage-garden that no manur- ing would make productive — it was overrun with

sorrel, mercury, and other weeds in the summer, and in winter the crops were always frost-bitten. We told the tenant it would be all cured by draining; and though he laughed at us, yet, as his landlord said he would take twenty shillings from the next rent pay- able at Lady-day, if he did in the meantime drain the garden, the" cottager did drain it — he drained it well, too ; saved a fifth of his twelvemonth's rent, and his garden has been productive ever since.

There was a ditch down one side of his garden, so he cui a drain, one foot wide and four feet deep, across his garden. 'This drain sloped down into the ditch; and falling into this first, or main drain, he cut other drains, nine inches wide and three and a half feet deep, and ten yards apart : he filled the bottom eighteen inches of each of the drains, with flint stones, put a little haulm over the top of these, and then returned the earth he had first dug out. Water from this drain into the ditch never ceased running, even in summer. If any cottager wants a further proof that draining will improve his garden, let him be satisfied with this other fact : Lord Hatherton had, at Tedde>ley Hay, in Staffordshire, a great many acres of land, which he let at 1 2.S. per acre ; he drained those acres thoroughly, and they now let for lully 31s. per acre. (^To be continued.)

HINTS FROM OUR CONTEMPORARIES.

Ckocises in Rooms ai-e usually kept too warm at first. The best treatment is to plant them not later than October, in earth or moss, only slightly damped, and to keep them in the windo-v of a room where there is no fire. In January they may be kept a little warmer, but in all places give them as much air and light as possible. — Gardeners' Chronicle.

NUMBER OF SEEDS IN A GIVEN QUANTITY, A.sD THE SP.iCE THliY WILL SOW.

loz. of Par.sley-seed has in it 16,200 seeds; and a quarter of it is enough for sowing a drill 60 yards long.

loz. of Salmon Radish-seed contains l,f).50 seeds, and will sow, broadcast, a bed containing 10 square yards.

loz. of Onion-seed contains 7,600 seeds, and, sown broadcast, will suffice for 14 square yards of ground, but, if sown in drills, will be enough for 20 diills — each 4 yards long, or for about 24 square yards of ground.

1 pint of dun-coloured Dwarf Kidney-beans con- tains 750 seeds, which are enough to sow four rows — each 7 vards long.

] pint of Scarlet Runners contains 264 seeds, and is enough for 4 rows — each 9 yards long.

1 pint of Bioad Windsor ijt-ans has 170 seeds, and is sufficient for 7 I'ows — each 4 yards long.

1 pint of Knight's Dwarf Marrow Peas contains 1720 seeds. 1 pint of Early Warwick Peas, 2160.

1 pint of Prussian Blue Peas, 1S60. 1 pint of Scimetar Peas, 1299 ; and any one of these pints will sow 8 rows — each 4 yards long, as the larger peas require to be sown wider apart in the rows than the smaller-seeded peas.

loz. of Carrot-seed, or Parsnip-seed, sown broad- cast, will be sufficient for a bed containing 16 square yards — and for one containing 28 square yards, if sown in drills.

loz. of any kind of Cabbage or Brocoli-seed will be enough for a bed containing 9 square yards, if sown broadcast, or for 16 square yards in drills.

10

THE COTTAGE GARDENER.

HARDY PLANTS LATELY MADE KNOWN AND WORTH CULTIVATING.

Crimson Double- blossomed Peach {Amygdalus Persica sanguinea plena.) — This highly ornamental shrub was brought from China by Mr. Fortune. The flowers being double, it of course does not bear fruit. It is propagated by grafting or budding upon a plum, or any ot!ip<- stock upon which the common peach will succeed. — ftorticidtural Societij's Journal, iii. 246.

Californian Zmjschneria (Zaiischneria Califor- n'lca.) — This rival of the Fuchsia is a bushy perennial sent to England from Santa Cruz in California by Mr. Hartweg. It is about three feet high, and bears numerous bright scarlet flowers. It requires a light garden soil, and will probably ^o well upon rock- work. It may be propagated either from seed or cuttings. Sown in May, the seedlings will flower in September. The flowering season of established plants is from June to Octobei-. — Hort. Soc. Journal, iii 241.

Peachfs. — Gam de Montreuil and Heine des Ver- gers; both late, and cling-stnne». Pucelle de Malbies, is very rich, juicy, and melting ; it is not a cling-stoue. Ripens early in September on a south wall.

Peaks. — -Arhre courbe : melting ; ripe in October ; suits a west wall. Beurre Bretonneau : melting, rich, oval; March and April. Beurre d'Esperen: large, melting, perfumed; February to May. Beurre Giffard : melting; east or west wall, or pyramidal ; July. Bon

Gustave Calebasse d'Ete : half-melting; not produc- tive as a pyramidal ; August. Calebasse d' Hirer : February and March ; otherwise like preceding. Cas- sanle de Mars : crisp , either as a pyramid or on a south wall ; March and April ; does not do on a quince stock. Catinka : melling, but soon spoils ; as a py- ramidal, or on wall ; November and December. Due de Nemours : melting. Orpheline d'Engki^n : melt- ing ; November to January ; as a pyramidal, or on a south wall. Passe Tardive : crisp, keeps twelve months; on a south wall. /"o^Ve/aTOW/e ; half-melting, slightly perfumed. Heine des poires : half-melting ; pyramidal, or on a west wall; November to January. The old Reine des poires ripened earlier. Triomphe de Jodoigne : melting and perfumed ; November and December. T'aucjuelin : juicy, rich, sub-acid, and perfumed; November to March.

Strawberries. — Angelique Jamin : large, sub-acid, raised from Keen's seedling. Comte de Paris : middle- sized, scarlet. Princess Royale : vinous, firm-fleshed.

Cucumber. — Prize-jighter ; good bearer. Length, 16 inches.

Apple. — Anglesea Pippin : verj' like a peach in appearance. Flavour excellent. Very early.

Brocoli. — Wilcove closely resembles the Wa'cheren.

Celery. — Seymour's White Solid and Red Solid: are large, and, being solid-stalked, not liable to that pipiness which celery usually acquires by age. It has been known to stand two yeai's without running to seed.

[C. W. asks whether we shall have a corner dedicated to ' although we cannot promise a constant devotion of space reject such verses as those which he has sent to us.]

I SEE it now, through bygone years,

As plainly as of yore ! — • Though grief and age have worn life's page

And stain'd its traces o'er. That fairy home of boyhood's time.

When the world was pure and gay. Comes sweeping back o'er memory's track

As fresh as yesterday.

I see again the well-known scene —

I tread the path anew Where lily, rose, and eglantine,

Commingling fragrance threw : You cannot say I'm weak and old.

Or that my locks are gray, — I 'in hale and young — I stand among

The scenes of yesterday !

Thou reverend, old, and hallow'd oak,

I hail thee once again ! The stately wave thy branches gave

Is solemn now as then. When underneath thy charmed shade

I mused the hours away. Nor thought too bright the dreams I made

In sunny yesterday.

'Poetry of the Garden;" — our answer is, that for this purpose, we shall always be unwilling to

Thou creeping vine, that lovest to twine

Around the cottage door, And weave thy slender, netty arms

My chamber lattice o'er, — I 've clnpp'd my little hands for glee,

And thought no vine so gay As the vine that cluster'd fruits for me

In childhood's yesterday !

Ye tinted flow'rs, of varied hue,

That fringe the walks along — Ye modest plants that hide from view

Amidst the blooming throng — • I 'm bounding down your garden slope

With my long-forgot " Hurra ! " — I 'm shouting loud the song of Hope

You taught me yesterday !

Alas ! alas ! that boyish song,

For me, is hush'd and still ; The blood that danced so light along

Creeps slowly now and chill ; My sight grows dim — my limbs grow old —

The vision fades away : Though bright it seem, 'tis but the dream

Of bygone yesterday !

Charles Wilton.

TO CORRESPONDENTS.

Anthont. — We consider not only Pelargoniums and other window-llowers subjects clearly entitled to consideration in our columns, but also greenhouse cultivation altogether.

H. J. B. — We will endeavour to give you the information you ask for, relative to Thomas Hill, next week.

Nemo will find the best mode of preserving his seedling cauliflowers from the attacks of ^lugs, is by sprinkling over the surface of the soil enough slacked lime to make it quite white. It will remain caustic for three or four days, if no rain occurs. At the end of three days give another sprinkling, and conlinue to repeat it until the seedlings are grown out of harm's way.

Si> numerous are the suggestions kindly made by our Clerical Friends, that we mustiest contented to day with giving a general assurance that those suggestions shall receive our best consideratiou.

THE COTTAGE GARDENER.

11

WEEKLV CALENDAR.

M	w	OCTOBER 12 — 18, 1848	Plants dedicated to	Sun	Sun	Moon R.	Moon's	Clock	Day of
			each day.	Rises.	Sets.	and Sets.	Age.	aft. Sun.	Year.
12	Th.	Birch leaves fall.	Wavy Fleabane.	21	12	rises	Full	13 32	286
13	1'	Trans. King Edward Confessor.	Smooth Helenium.	23	10	6 a 1	16	13 46	287
14	s	Beech leaves fall. [leaves fall.	Indian Fleabane.	25	7	6 38	17	14 0	288
15	Sun	17 Sunday aft. Trinity. Cherrj'	Sweet Sultan.	26	5	7 21	18	14 13	2S9
16	M	Oak leaves fall.	Milfoil.	28	3	8 11	19	14 20	290
17	Tu	Etheldreda.	Ten-petal'd Sunfl.	30	1	9 7	20	14 38	291
IS	W	St. Luke.	Flocculose Agaric.	32	IV	10 9	21	14 49	292

Phenomena op the Season — ISth. Elder leaves begin to fall. — 14th. Sued wild flowers as the heart's-ease, white bebn, black non- such, hawkwced, bugloss, gentian, honeysuckle, and small stitch- wort, are yet blooming in uncultivated i)laces. — 17th. Hazel leaves

Insects. — Just after sunset at this peritid, and hovering round flowers, may be seen the Gamma

begin to fall. The linne has lost all its leaves. This is the time of apple-harvest in Herefordshire and the other cider-counties. It is also the vintage-time or grape-harvest ol France, Italy, and Ger- many.

	1841.	1842.	ISIS.	1844.	1S4S.	184G.	1847.
12	Showery.	Cloudv.	Showery.	Fine.	Cloudy.	Hazy.	Fine.
13	Cloudy.	Fine.	Fine.	Cloudy.	Fine.	Showery.	Hazy.
14	Cloudy.	Hazy.	Fine.	Rain.	Fine.	Ram.	H.nzy.
16	Rain.	Hazy.	Cloudy.	Rain.	Fine.	Rain.	Showery.
10	Kaiii.	Fine.	Fine.	Showery.	Fine.	Pine.	Fine.
17	Cloudy.	Fine.	Showery.	Fine.	Cloudy.	Cloudy.	Fine.
18	Showery.	Showery.	Fine.	Fine.	Cloudy.	Rain.	Sho\Yery

Moth (Nncfiia gamma, called also Plusia gamma by some naturalists). It is called the Gamraa Moth, because about the middle of the upper wings, but towards their inner border, there is a silvery shining mark, like the Greek letter gamraa (y).* This enables the moth to be easily known ; but we will give a further description of it, that the gardener may be certain that in every one he destroys he has removed an enemy. The outspread wings are about an inch across : the upper ones gray-coloured, marbled with brown, and shining ; the under wings pale ash, with a brown edge ; the head and throat brownish, edged with gray lines ; the belly, or abdomen, yellowish gray, tufted with brown hairs. At this season they deposit their eggs, and it would he an aid to the warfare against them to ascertain what plants they select for this purpose. The eggs hatch at various times from May to September, but chiefly dnring July. The caterpillars proceeding from them are green, beset with greenish single hairs; head brownish green ; on the back and sides three or four yellowish white lines ; feet tivelve in number, and marked with a yellow stripe. These caterjiillars coramlc great ravages, especially in the south of England, upon our peas and other garden vegetables ; the best remedy for which is hand picking. It is quite possible for the progeny of this moth to become quite a plague, as in one season a single pair can produce 80,000 eggs, and in 1735 their caterpillars actually ravaged France. On the roads they might everywhere be seen crossing in all directions. They devoured all the leaves of the peas and pot- herbs; and a vulgar prejudice beijig disseminated, that they were poisonous, all garden herbs were avoided at Paris for some weeks.

* The shape of this mark has acquired to this insect another name, — the Y-Moth.

GENERAL OcTOBEK is the Gardener's harvest or storing month ; his apples, pears, carrots, parsnips, and many of his seeds, all have to be gathered in during some por- tion of its days. Now, upon the gardener being successful in preserving those fruits, roots, and seeds, depends not only the future supply of his table, but much of his profit. Wien we speak of "profit," we do not confine the meaning of that word to the money for which he might sell that produce of his garden, if he be a retail gardener or a cottager selling his surplus, — but we extend it to the produce of the Amateur's garden. Profit is the absolute re- verse of loss ; and, therefore, as it would be a loss to the amateur to have his fruits and roots prematurely decay, and his seed refuse to vegetate, — so, conse- quently, to have the two first long preserved, and his seed fertile, is as muta to his advantage or profit.

Yet, though all ar.; so much interested in the pre- servation of such produce, there is more carelessness and ignorance shown in this department of gardening than in any other. Let us, if we can, arouse a little more attention to this subject, and show how advan- tageously common sense may be exercised upon it.

REMARKS.

We will confine our observations this week to the storing of roots, and begin with the fundamental ques- tion— In storing them, what should be our great aim and object? The answer is obvious: to keep them, as long as possible, from decaying and from growing. Everything, therefore, that promotes either decay or growth ought to be excluded. Now, it so happens that the two chief circumstances that pro- mote the one equally promote the other ; viz., warmth and moisture. Roots should be so stored, therefore, as to he kept cool and dry; but especially cool— for they contain within themselves, at all times, sufficient moisture to enable them to grow, if they are exposed to a degree of warmth favourable to growth. We remember, as an illustration of this, that we were consulted as to the cause of onions growing and be- coming useless year after year, though they were most carefully dried and hung up in ropes. The cause was at once detected when we were told that the ropes were hung up in the kitchen, where, even in winter, the cook's fire kept the temperature up to the heat of summer. Next year, the ropes were hung up in the scullery, where no fire appeared all the

12

THE COTTAGE GARDENER.

winter, and the onions remained without growing even until late in the following spring.

Onions, though bulbs, are affected by warmth and moisture the same as carrots ; and to keep these last cool and dry, yet without drying internally so as to wither and be unfit for cooking, the best mode is to put them in a dry cellar, or in an out-house on the north side of the house, in alternate layers with dry sand. They may be thus stacked upon the floor in one corner of the cellar or out-house, or, which is more tidy and more easily managed, in old casks or boxes. A layer of this dry sand being first made about an inch thick, then a layer of carrots, and then another layer of sand, so thick as to be an inch deep, over the carrots. This being repeated until the whole are stored away, the top should be covered about six inches deep with sand.

Another important consideration is the preparation of the carrots previously to thus storing them away ; and the first thing is to trim off all the small fibrous roots, and to rub off all the soil which may adhere to the carrots ; for the fibres are very liable to decay,

and the soil, much more than sand, promotes that decay. The tops of the carrots must be cut ofij and not only the leaves must be so removed, but also a slice of the root or carrot itself, sufficiently thick to remove the whole of the ring or collar from whence the leaves would spring if the root began to grow. This is a most effectual check to such growth, and the carrots being buried, do not wither, owing to evaporation from the wound, nor do they at all decay — for the surface of the wound dries over.

We have tried dry earth, coal ashes, sawdust, tan, and malt-dust, as storing stuff' for carrots and similar roots ; but none of them answer so perfectly as dry pit^sand. Sea-sand will not do, because the salt in it gathers moisture and promotes decay. Parsnips and beets must be treated, when stored, exactly as we have given directions for carrots. All of them should be drawn from the ground by the aid of a fork, and during dry weather ; and they should be dried for a day or two, by exposure to the air, before they are stored away. Those bruised or decayed should not be stored with those which are sound. Editor.

THE WEEK'S FRUIT-GARDENING.

Trained Trees. — Before addressing ourselves to the cottager, to whom, shortly, vie shall have some advice to offer, we will endeavour to furnish a few seasonable hints to the amateur as to the planting of fruit-trees on walls, or as trained espaliers ; observing, however, once for all, that although we more particularly address some of our observations to the amateur, and others to the cottager, yet that the practical directions and in- formation those observations contain are applicable alike to the gardening of both. The first consideration before planting is the soil; for unless this is of a whole- some character, clever selections of varieties will be of little avail. There are two extremes which should be at all times avoided in preparing the staple for fruit-trees: the one, when soils and subsoils are too retentive of moisture ; tlie other, when the staple of the soil is so sandy and weak, that the trees become exposed to sudden droughts. In the former case the trees become choked with mosses and lichens ; the points die prematurely, and the fruit is starved and stunted. We need scarcely urge that a premature breaking up of the constitution of the tree is tlie sure result. In the case of sandy, porous, and, of course, hungry soils, the young trees are many years old be- fore they attain any profitable size. Their growth is performed by instalments, as it were; and whether they make any at all, depends on the character of the months of April and May; for unless these be wet, the trees have little chance. The trees too speedily become hide-bound; and every summer, drought sub- jects the fruit to the chance of cracking, and of eating " dry."

Those about to plant, therefore, should beware of these extremes, and endeavour to correct the soil's texture. It is well known that clays may be made more open and fertile by means of sand; and sandy soils may be made more retentive of moisture by mix- ing with them clays or marl. These various soils, however, not being always at hand, expense becomes a consideration.

As correctors of sandy and hungry soils, we would suggest the following ; all of which, or any of them singly, will render such soils more fertile. The order in which they stand will indicate their beneficial quality. 1st. Marl; 2nd. Strong soil from headlands of fields; 3rd. Furrowings from low meadows ; 4th. Clay; 5th. Ditchings from adhesive soils ; 6th. Pond mud ; 7th. Spare turf and weeds ; 8th. Old and unctuous peat.

As correctors of adhesive or clayey soils, we suggest also in a similar order : — 1st. Sand of any kind ; 2nd. Ordinary sandy soil; 3rd. Old mortar, lime-rubbish, etc. ; 4th. Cinder ashes, fine ; 5th. Ditchings from loose soils; 6th. Loose turf and weeds; 7th. Ordinary vegetable matter.

There need be little trouble or expense attend mix- ing composts ; any, or all of them successively, may he scattered at intervals through the ordinary soil in the process of covering the roots at planting time. This is the most inexpensive and straightforward plan for ordinary cases ; but where a little expense is not heeded, good sound loamy turf is the best material of all others for fruit-trees in general : and we would advise the amateur to introduce portions of it about the roots of choice kinds of fruit-trees.

The Cottager's Fruit-garden. — The time ap- proaches in which cottagers must begin to make pre- parations for the produce of another year.

Pruning. — As a general policy, we would advise above all things the early pruning of all fruit-trees and shrubs. We suggest this for several strong reasons. In the first place, October and November find the cottager most at leisure to prosecute improvements. His summer cultivation is over ; his store roots are all secured, or soon will be ; and there is still a chance of working the soil, or of putting it under a winter's fallow.

By getting the pruning done immediately the leaves are fallen, or even before they are all down, the cottager will find a little leisure occasionally to deeply dig or trench and ridge some of his spare soil ; and this done.

THE COTTAGE GARDENER.

13

to be at liberty for the ordinary spring cropping. Spring, which brings a host of business peculiarly its own, should by no means be fettered by arrears of work which might have been cleared off during the past winter.

Arpi.E AND Pear. — In pruning ordinary espalier apple or pear-trees, care must be taken to preserve and continue leading shoots at proper distances, and in proper situations. Apple and pear leaders may be about a foot apart, but care should be taken, in the earlier training, that very irregular and overhanging shoots are pruned away, or they will prevent anj' successful cropping beneath the ti'ees — which we shall, in due time, prove can be accomplished without sacri- fice, by adhering to a few maxims.

The interior of the bush or tree must also be kept rather ope/i ; at least, the boughs should, from the first planting, be kept rather thinner here than at the outside of the ti-ee. After selecting, and looking well to these leaders, the next point is thinning out. In doing this, all cross-shoots must be removed — at least where crowded, and much of the past season growth cut away where becoming confused. In doing these things, however, the cottager need not proceed to so great an extreme as the amateur, who is aiming as much at symmetry and agreeable forms as produce. It must ever be borne in mind, that many of our apples and pears bear on the young wood ; and such, therefore, must be pruned with a light hand.

After thinning out the shoots, a little shortening of them must be attended to — at least whilst the tree is young, and in the course of formation. Neverthe- less, it must be remembered what is the object in \-iew. Shortening contributes nothing to the health of the tree — nothing to its fruit-bearing properties. It is, in fact, an adjunct of a dwarfing system, being an attempt to limit the ultimate size of trees, in order to prevent them, in gardens, from attaining an orch- ard size and character, which would, in time, by overshading the ground, totally prevent success with any course of cropping. Where trees grow tolerably- strong, nearly one-half in length of the young leaders may be pruned away in the earlier stages ; this course,

however, should be combined with a slight root- pruning.

In pruning bush fruit, it is necessary to thin more liberally ; however, it is proper to divide them into two classes, viz., those which bear chiefly on the annual shoots, and those which bear chiefly on spurs. In the former class, or bearers on the one- year-old shoots, we may place the

Gooseberry, Black Currant, and Raspberry : In the class of old wood, or bearers on spurs, the

Red Currant, and White Currant. In the first section, it is merely requisite to remove so much of the young spray as that the remaining shoots may be on an average about four inches apart.

In spur-pruning, that is to say, in pruning the red and white currant, leaders must be trained in a similar way as the young apple and pear trees; these will be permanent, and they will produce an annual crop of spray from their sides, which must be annually cut back, to within half an inch of its base. In the course of their growth, however, a chance of additional leaders will occasionally occur. Such, if well placed, may be allowed to remain, and receive in due comse the same treatment as those from which they sprang.

Hedge-row Fruit-trees. — We would direct the attention of the cottager to the great profit which is frequently derived in many parts of the kingdom from fruit-trees in the hedge-rows. We know of several examples within ten miles of us where the cottager very frequently pays his rent from the fruit-trees in his hedges. The cases we allude to are principally damsons ; many, however, grow the more compact kinds of apples, and without any material injury to the garden crops.

We shall, in due course, offer ad^ace how to carry out a system of the kind ; and endeavour to point out how it can be managed without injury to the hedge or adjacent crops. In the meantime we advise all who arc making new hedges, to introduce some trees with good stems. AMiere the trees are to be inserted, it otU be well to introduce some better soil. Any turfy matter will be useful.

THE WEEK'S FLOWER-GARDENING.

As the seasons roll round, every week brings its care and forethought to the prudent lover of flowers. Even at this comparatively dull season of the year the duties of the flower-gardener are almost as import- ant as at any time. Autumn reminds one forcibly of the end of a well-spent life ; we can not only look back with complacency and thankfulness, but forward with hope. So in gardening, we can remember with pleasure the beauties our skill and industry have brought to perfection : we can prepare a store of ob- jects, take care of them during the trying season of winter, and then look confidently forward to a rich and blooming reward through the months of the future spring and summer. Many are the objects that now demand our care.

Perennials. — This week we shall devote our attention to perennials, or flowering plants that last several years. They are a valuable class, inasmuch as they require but little care, and .supply us with flowers all the year, or at least all the floral year. If the garden is but poorly furnished with perennials, they may be procured at a moderate charge of any respectable general nui-seryman. This is a good time

to purchase them. The beautiful family of Phloxes stand pre-eminent in this class, producing their lovely blossoms nine months in the year. The routine of culture for this genus will suit nearly all hardy peren- nials. They are readily increased by division of the roots ; or where any particular species is scarce, cut- tings of the half-ripened flower-stems will strike in a cold frame in pots or under hand-glasses, with or without a little bottom heat ;* but where we can com- mand the heat, the plants are more quickly made, and consequently the use of bottom heat is preferable. As soon as the cuttings are struck, they may be potted off into pots, three inches diameter, in rich light soil, and kept through the winter in a cold frame, covered dming severe frost with mats. As soon as the wea- ther becomes more mild, the plants may be planted out into their places, and will bloom partially the first year, and strongly and finely the second. The large and almost equally beautiful genus, Penstemon, does not divide so readily as most others, and therefore must be propagated by cuttings, which may be put in about the month of May, in order to have strong

* Bottom-heat— hm applied to tb» roots, as by burying to its rim the pot iu a hot-bed.

THE COTTAGE GARDENER.

14

plants early in autumn. We shall return to this inte- resting subject again shortly

Amateuu's Flower-garden. — Having now arranged in good order your soils and tools, the next thing to attend to is to examine your stock of flower- roots, and if you do not possess a sufficient variety, now is a good time to procure the necessary addition. Read the foregoing paragraph — it will be useful to you. If your means are limited, purchase the cheapest and showiest kinds, and increase them freely.

BuLDs. — Now is especially the season to procure bulbs — such as the crocus, snowdrop, gladiolus, lilies, tulips, &c. All these, whether you have them by you or purchase them, should be examined, and the sound ones preserved and the bad ones thrown away. As soon as the frosts destroy the flowers of the season, the ground for bulbs and perennials should be pre- pared by an addition of compost or manure, to receive the bulbs : of which more anon.

Dahlias will now begin to fail, and when the tops are destroyed by frost, must be cut down and the roots immediately taken up to prevent too great an effusion of sap. Many methods of storing dahlias have been recommended : we think the following the best : — Take them up on a dry day, turn the roots upwards so that the sap or moisture may drain away, then in the evening place them in a dry place in the same position, and when they are perfectly dry cover them witli some short dry hay. Once a month examine them, and remove all decaying stems, adding fresli hay if the old has become damp or mouldy. The place wliere Dahlia roots are kept should be impervious to frost. In this way we have kept dahlias very well. Where there is space and time it is a good plan to have a store of young plants in pots, a few of each good kind. These can be put away in the pots, and are almost all sure to grow and make p.trong plants in the spiing.

Cottager's Flower-garden. — The cottager will at this season find some rather important things to attend to. He must think how to make his flower- beds gay next season. We shall therefore give him some instructions in propagating the following ar- ticles : — roses, honeysuckles, sweetbriars, jessamines, and cistuses. All these, except the sweetbriar, may be propagated by cuttings in the open ground.

Cuttings. — Choose a shady border, next a low wall or hedge, — the latter to be close clipped with the garden-shears. Let the soil be well dug and chopped small, and the surface raked very fine ; then pour some water upon it, and let it stand a day, to become moderately dry again. Let the cuttings then be jrepared, by cutting them with a sharp knife into engths about six inches long ; with your knife take off the leaves, all except the top ones. Cut the lower end of each cutting right across, close to the lowest bud. Expose the cuttings as little as possible to the Bun and air : they may be preserved fresh by having a little damp moss or hay at hand to cover them with as soon as they are prepared. Prepare only one kind at a time. As soon as a sufficient number are ready, open a trench with a small spade at the end of the border intended for the cuttings. Chop the side of the trench furthest from you sti-aight down just a suf- ficient depth to leave the topmost bud and leaf out of the soil ; then place the cuttings against this upright bank about three inches apart. When the row is filled with cuttings, with your spade put the soil against the cuttings, and with your foot tread it firmly to the cuttings. Take great care that the soil is quite close and firm around each cutting. Then fill up level with the top of the row of cuttings another

I

portion of soil, until there is a bank of earth six inches distant from the first row. Chop down the outemiost edge of the soil, so as to leave another upright bank to set the second row of cuttings against, and so pro- ceed from row to row, till you have filled the space set apart for this purpose. Most of the kinds of the above shrubs may be increased this way, excepting sweetbriars ; these may be raised by the seeds con- tained by the hips; but this subject we will reserve till next week.

FLORISTS' FLOWERS.

At this season of the year the objects of the flonst's care require constant watching to keep the plants healthy. Every thing about them ought to be clean, sweet, and in perfect order. The success next year depends greatly upon the minute care and constant unwearying attention bestowed during the changeable later months of the year. All plants under glass frames or cold pits must have air every day by propping up the lights in wet weather ; and the lights ought to be drawn ofi' on all fine days, and the plants fully exposed to the sun.

Frames. — We have spoken of frames and cold pits. Now the frames and pits necessary for florists' flowers depend entirely upon what stock is kept. A propa- gating pit is a necessary appendage, and a pit or a narrow span roofed house, with a walk down the centre, to grow roses in pots, is also a great acquisition. The best mode of heating both is by the tank system, which we need not describe, as that method is now generally known. A number of hand-lights for striking cuttings of pansies, roses, and pinks, are also indispensable. We mentionsd last week " Soils for Amateurs." Now, if the an.«iei(r must pay attention to providing the necessary soils, compost manures, &c., how much more necessary is it for the florist? He must provide this prepared food for his lovely family in large quantities of the best qualities, and take care that it is rightly mixed, to suit their several constitutions. Like the amateur, he must have loam, peat, or heath mould, leaf mould, manure, and sand.

Loam. — The word loam may be defined as the pure soil of the surface of the earth, containing no excess of sand, gravel, iron, or vegetable matter ; the colour a brownish yellow, porous or open, and moderately light. The best is procured from upland pastures, that have been under grass for a number of years. About four inches of the surface is the best. Some- times very good loam may be found near the sides of rivers, but this is too often mixed with the deposits from the water, and is frequently of too close a texture. A florist, however, will soon perceive whether the loam he can easily come at is fit for his purpose. If there is the least appearance of much oxide of iron in it, he must avoid it as he would the plague.* Having selected a loam of good quality, let it be carted home, and have an open situation for it, taking care to have a rather long and shallow heap, so that by turning it over four or five times a year, every part of it may in its turn be exposed to the full influence of the sun and air.

Peat, or Heath Mould. — This may be known at once from loam by its colour, being black and full of fine shining particles of pure white sand. The best is to be had from situations where the common heath grows best. Two or three inches of tlie upper surface is usually the best for floral purposes. The quantity

* Oxide of Iron may be popularly descrilied as the red rust of iron. It is really iron combined with oxygen, one of the chief constituents of the air we breathe.

THE COTTAGE GARDEXER.

15

required is about one-third of the loam directed to be provided. Tliis should also be kept in a situation exposed to tlie air and sun, and occasionally turned over, to bring it into a friable condition, ready for mixing.

Leaf, or Vegetable Mould. — This very desirable and almost indispensable ingredient, is, in many places, more difficult to obtain than either loam or peat. In country places, leaves can be collected either in woods or even by the sides of lanes under trees in abundance. And as leaf mould is such a treasure to the florist, no pains ought to be spared during the fall of the leaves to collect as many as possible. It is almost the best of all manures for the garden generally, but for plants in pots it is invaluable. It requires nearly two years to reduce it, by frequently turning over, so as to make it fit for the florist's purposes.

Manures. — A volume might be written upon the subject now before us. For floral purposes, however, two kinds are sufficient — rotten stable-dung and cow- dung. These two, properly prepared, in our opinion will grow every kind of florist's flower to great perfec- tion. We are aware some Avriters recommend night- soil, bullock's blood, pigeon's dung — nay, even sugar- baker's scum ! These are all however too hot and

stimulating for the delicate plants now under con- sideration.

Stable-dung. — The best preparation of this is by making it into hot-beds, which in a garden are always useful. In twelve months it will be rotten enough to mix with other materials to form the proper compost for tlie plants for which it is suitable.

Cow-dung requires a rather longer time to make it fit for use, as it does not ferment so easily as horse- dung. The best and readiest way to reduce it into a decayed state is by mixing it with loam : a layer of cow-dung, three or four inches thick, and a layer of loam the same thickness; and so on till the heap is about two feet thick. Allow this heap to remain quiet for two or three months, and then turn it over, repeat- ing this operation about every three months. In eighteen months it will be in a fine state for either potting or to enrich the beds of flowers that requiie a cool, rich compost.

Sand is a necessary article to open the composts. The best is the pure pit-sand, known by the name of " silver-sand;" but for most common purposes, river- sand answers very well. It requires, however, to be sifted through a fine sieve, to remove small stones and other extraneous matters. T. Appleby.

THE WEEK'S KITCHEN-GARDENING.

Angelica. — Sow a small quantity, if not done last month ; a quarter of an oimce of seed will be more than enough. Sow in drills a foot apart, and that quantity of seed will be sufficient for a bed five feet long by three feet wide. Any common soil in an open plot will do for the seed-bed. When the seedlings are about six inches high, let them be transplanted where they are to remain for use. The soil they then prefer is a moist one, such as the side of a ditch having a constant supply of water; but they will grow in almost any soil.

Angelica is a biennial, that is, it is a plant which is raised from seed one year, and ripens its seed and dies the next year. Its stems may be blanched and eaten like celery ; its young green shoots may be gathered in May, and candied, or preserved in sugar, for which purpose they are bought by confectioners ; its seeds, leaves, and root being very aromatic and stimulating, are sometimes used in medicine. Old medical practitioners thought so highly of its virtues, that they called it the angelic herb ; and hence its name. A piece kept under the tongue, or held to the nose, was believed to preserve the user from infection ; and the water in which it was sodden for a few hours was considered as highly cordial, and a promoter of perspiration. In Norway and Sweden the leaves and stalks are eaten, either uncooked as a salad, or boiled with meat or fish. Its seeds are used in tliose coun- tries to give a flavour to spirits.

Cabbages. — Plant to come into use during next spring, if not done as directed last week.

Cabbages, late sown, should be pricked out from their seed-beds. Plant them in rows, on a sloping dry bank, from three to six inches apart, according to their size.

Celery. — Earth up. It is the most common practice to do this about two or three inches at a time ; this, however, is a bad system, for every eartiiing-up in- creases the risk of thi soil getting into the heart of the plants, and thereby causing their decay ; but besides this danger, celery plants frequently earthed-up grow much more slowly than if allowed to attain a height

of eighteen or twenty-four inches before they are earthed-up at all, and after that are again allowed to grow so high as not to require more than another earthing before they are used at table. Celery becomes white, or blanched, in four or five weeks from the time of its being earthed-up.

Chives. — Plant. This small species of the onion- tribe is a native of England, and deserves to be much more cultivated ; indeed, no garden should be without it where the onion is in request. It is so hardy, that no winter destroys it in this country. The green tops may be cut and cut again throughout the year, \'ield- ing an unfailing supply of young onions. A single row of about eight yards long will be enough for a family. The edge of a bed is a good place. The soil should be rich and light. Insert six or eight of the little bulbs in a hole made with a dibble, not more than an inch deep, and the holes eiglit inches apart. They will require to be taken up at the end of two or tliree years, and a fresh plantation made in the same way. There will be many more bulbs than will be required for planting, and those not wanted may be washed and used as onions.

Nasturtium Berries. — Gather as they ripen. They should be very dry and hard before storing. Some will yet be found green and sufficiently tender for pickling. Some persons prefer their flavour to those of the caper berries ; but the best of all substitutes for these are the green berries of the elder.

Rosemary. — Plant. There are three varieties, the golden and the silvery-striped ; but the green is the hardiest, most aromatic, and usually cultivated. Rooted plants must be obtained, for slips or cuttings will not grow at this season. A light soil, well drained, and with some lime rubbish dug in as a manure, suits it host. (It is a very useful herb. Its flowers are employed in making Hungary-water, and its leaves in the manufacture of Eau de Cologne. Sprigs of it are a very good garnish for some dishes. Infused in water, and with the addition of a little sugar and acid to render it palatable, it is frequently used to make a drink for fevered patients. The old physicians

16

THE COTTAGE GARDENER.

adopted it in various modes for many diseases of the brain, over which it was considered to have such an influence that it was called Herb-memory. Shak- spere alludes to this when he makes Ophelia give Laertes a sprig of this plant " for remembrance.")

A TEMroiiAKY Pit, for pricking therein small let- tuces and cauliflower plants, may be formed in a sheltered dry open corner. It may be made of turfs, sods of earth, clay, loose bricks, or rough slabs of wood. During severe weather in the winter it may be covered over with straw or other mats, fern, or boughs of evergreens.

Dead Lkaves, rake up and stove for manure as fast as the)' fall, for if left upon the ground among the crops, they afford shelter for slugs and other vermin, — destroyers of lettuce, cabbage, spinach, and other winter-standing crops.

Hoe, or stir with a fork, the surface of the ground among growing crops whenever the weather is dry and favourable for the operation. The surface cannot be loosened too often at any season of the year.

Vacant Ground, trench and throw up into rough ridges, to allow the air and frosts to penetrate the soil thoroughly.

Slugs and Snails may now most successfully be enticed and destroyed, by placing here and there upon the beds little heaps of fresh brewer's grains. If these heaps are visited about nine in the evening, the slugs will be found thronging upon them, and may be destroyed by dusting them over with quick-lime. The heaps must be renewed for two or three successive evenings ; and if visited in the same manner, a most effectual clearance will be made.

J. Barnes.

MISCELLANEOUS INFORMATION.

OUR OLD GARDENERS.

[We promised a con-espondcnt, in our last week's paper, to furnish some particulars of Thomas Hill, and we regret tliat our information is so scanty. The search for this information, however, has led us to the conclusion, that, among the works of "our old gardeners," there are scraps of information which will induce us, under this title, occasionally to give some similar notices of those ancient knights of the spade, j

Thomas Hill, Hyll, or Hvlle (for :n his printed works, according to the custom of that age, there is not much uniformity in the spelling), appears to have been a native of the metropolis — or, at all events, he was here long resident; for, from the title-pages of his works during half a century, the adjunct of "Londoner" is never absent. He appears to have been a hacknied compiler of hooks, and to have written as the publisher required — on astronomy, arithmetic, bee?, dreams, physiognomy, gardening, and divinitv. I believe him to be the Dr. Hill who, finally becoming a convert to the religion of Rome, passed the last years of his life on the Continent, and is briefly noticed by Wood amongst the learned of Oxford. He died at the commencement of the seven- teenth century.

The absurdities of his horticultural writings need alone be noticed here ; and first among those writings may be quoted, " A Briefe Treatyse of Garden- inge ; teaching the apt dressing, sowing, and setting of Gardens, with the remedies against such beastes, wormes, flyes, &c., that commonlye annoye Gardens : encreased by me the second tyme." This edition was printed in a small octo-decimo volume in 1563. Various editions were subsequently published, and some of these with this addition to the title-page : "To whiche is added much necessarie matter, and a number of secretes, with the phisicke helps belonging to eche herbe, &c." The edition of 1579, which is now before us, mentions nothing about gardening in its title-page, which merely sets forth that it is "A profitable instruction of the perfite ordering of Bees — To which is annexed a proper Treatise of Dearth and Plentie meete for husbandmen to know, &c." But in his preface Hill says, " I have joyned this little treatise unto my booke of Gardening, for that most men do joyne them both togither."

The work is comprised in ninet)-two pages, and it is not until the seveiity-seventli that he touches upon Gardening. Of the previous seventy-six pages, I have no other observation to juake than that he says, " When the first of Januarie beginncth on the Wed- nesday, then shall the winter he warm and calme ; the spring wette. and disposed to sicknesse ; the summer

hotte, and the harvest unprofitable. Yet plentie of oyle and wines."

Mr. Hill's horticultural treatise begins with "The Booke of the Arte or Craft of Planting and Grafling;" and, of his genuine knowledge of his subject, a fair judgment may he formed from his stating, ihat, if the small end of the graft be inserted into tlie stock, the "fruite shal have no core;" and that, if an apple graft be inserted in a stock of elm or alder, " it shal beare red apples." These were things of certainty — the " Londoner " had no doubt about the matter!

To make a pear-tree fruitful, it was to have a brisk dose of physic : " Bore a hole into its stem," says Mr. Hill, "and put in some Scammony ; " and, in grammar equal to the truth imparted, he adds, and it shall bear "muche more plentifuller."

He is not altogether bad in his recommendations, for he in a degree forestalled Mr. Forsyth, by recom- mending clay plaisters to all wounds o\ trees ; but this better information does not prevail long, for he speedily proceeds to recommend planting when the moon is in Taurus; and in sowing pepins and ker- nels, that the end which was next the root be so placed as to point to the north-east ! With the ex- ception of some erroneous directions for sowing roses, the work is confined to fruit-trees, and chiefly con- cerns their grafting.

The work of 1563 is altogether different, and enters move fully into the proper situation and ordering of a garden — partly, he says, from his own experience ; and he refers to a smaller and earlier edition of the work. But it is chiefly, or rather, almost entirely a compilation from the old Roman writers — Varro, Cato, and Palladius.

It contains figures of mazes, to be constructed of lavender-cotton, and enumerates, as inhabitants of the kitchen-garden, " spynach, borage, endive, blete, lettis, orache or arage, betes, coolewottes, cresses, parcelye, sperage (asparagus), malowes, savery, alisander, an- nise, cummine, colyander, mustarde, ceruyl, dyll, rue, charvil, saverye, isop (hyssop), mynt, tyme, origanny, lekes, onions, coucumbers, gourdes or melons, garlicke, beanes, radyshe, maijoram, purslane, pene-royal, artichocke, and pasnepe."

THE COTTAGE GARDENER. COTTAGE AND ALLOTMENT GARDENING.

17

(No. 2.) BY THE EDITOR.

Manuring. — We are all accustomed to confound the words "muck" and "manure," as if there were no other manure than the dung of animals. This is a great error. One of the best of all manures is ground bones ; and every one who has lived on the sea-coast— in Essex, Devonshu-e, Cornwall, and else- where—knows that sea-weed and fish are there very extensively used as manures, and that they cause very great crops to be produced. But, more than this, every cottager knows that rotten wood— the bottom of an old wood-stack, for example,— is a capital manure ; and if he tries, he will find that leaves, weeds, the refuse and slops from the house, all kept, and added day by day as occurring, in one heap,— m a corner of the garden far away from the cottage,— wdl make, as a cottager generally calls it, " capital stuff for the o-arden " In fact, no dead animal or vegetable mat- ters, bones, soap-suds, etc., should be thrown away— for it is saved if put upon the muck-heap. It often happens, too, that a good deal of weedy, grassy clods can be pared off the banks about a garden. Ihese shouldbe collected into a heap and charred— not burnt to ashes. To effect this, pile the clods over a small bundle of dry sticks, and set these alight, leaving a small hole to admit air to the fire ; and as the ftre burns through to near the sides of the pile, heap on Ireshclods, so as to keep the fire smouldering. By this means you will have what is good manure--roasted or charred turf and earth ; but if you allow the flames to burst through, vou will have nothing but ashes, which, compared with the charred, are almost worth- less This roasted turf and earth is, indeed, a very excellent manure. Mr. Barnes, gardener to Lady RoUe, who could have any manure he might msh prefers it to any other. But although this is so. and Mr. Barnes is quite right, yet the cottager cannot get enou-'h of it. He must save every household retuse, too Tbuthe must do more— he must let his children gather the horse-droppings from the road, even it he has a pig besides, and can have its manure for his garden. You cannot have a good crop without you give it manure, and plenty of it too.

Before leaving the subject of charred refuse as a manure, we will give one out of many results arising from its use— forgone fact is more minded than twenty assertions, and most men think as the gardener who once enquired of us, " Is that a has-been, or is it only a mav-be "> " Now, the use of charred rubbish is a has-been ;" it has been tried all over England, and is found to be a most excellent manure. " It is suit- able " says Air. Barnes, " for the culture of every kind of plant, whether it be grown on the farm or in the garden, in the hot-house, green-house conserva- tory! or open border,"— and here is one of his proofs ; " A piece of ground that was cropped with cole- worts last autumn (1S43) was cleared early and the refuse ti-enched in during the winter. Ninety-five feet in length, and ten feet in width, was planted with small onions on the 14 th of February, which onions had been sown the second week of September m the previous autumn. They were planted in rows one foot apart, and six inches from plant to plant,— with the intention of drawing every alternate one tor use through the summer— but the whole nine rows did not git entirely thinned. The following is the weight when ripe for storing on the 1st of August :

" Five rows grown where 41bs. of bone-dust to each row had been so^vn in a drill drawn three inches deep

and filled up, and the onions planted over it, produced 420 lbs. weight of onions — each row yielding from 82 to SSlbs. .c_-,

" The other four rows had applied to them, of fresh dry charred refuse and ashes, made from the garden rubbish-heap, two common buckets full— weight, 141bs. They produced 366lbs. of onions, the rows weighing respectively 99, 89, 95, and 83 lbs ; the last row being injured by a row of red cabbage growing near.

" Many of the foregoing onions, which were a mix- ture of the Globe, Deptford, and Reading, measured in circumference from 14 to 16i inches, and weighed as many ounces. I weighed twelve together, that turned the scale at 121b. 9oz. I can only fancy what a wonderfiU sa-sang and benefit it would be to the country, to char the refuse of old tan, chips, saw- dust, ditch scourings containing sods, weeds, rushes, and refuse. By keeping the surface of the earth well stu-red, no crops appear to suffer by drought that are manured by charrings, but continue in the most vigorous health throughout the season, never suffering materially by either drought or moisture."

On spring-sown onions and on turnips, Mr. Barnes finds charred or carbonized vegetable refuse equally beneficial. Three rows, each 95 feet long, of the white globe onion, manured with bone-dust, weighed 2511bs. ; whilst three similar rows of the same variety, and grown under precisely similar circumstances, but manured with charrings, weighed 289 lbs.

PRUNING.

Pruning is the art of cutting the branches of a plant so as to obtain the best and greatest amount of the produce desired from it, and with the least possible injury to the plant. This is perhaps the most accurate definition that can be given ; but we are not intending to enter largely into the subject, and only give this definition that we may observe, at this pruning season, that to act up to it in pruning trees, the knife em- ployed cannot be too sharp, for to cause to them " the least possible injm-y," tlie cuts ought to be as smooth as can be, and in proportion to the smoothness of their surfaces will be the readiness with which they heal. A cut smoothly made, without any tearing of the bark, and properly near to, but not close to a bud, wiU often heal over in a few weeks. The annexed is the best example we can offer, and if the pruner keeps this in his memory he cannot have a better pattern.

There is here a sufficient slope to throw off moisture from the cut surface, and away from the bud; and there is enough of bark (half an inch) above the bud to prevent the sap vessels of the bud being injured, and to enable the extra vigour, always observable in their vicinity, to be exercised in secreting matter for healing over the wound.

BRITTON ABBOT; OR, WHAT CAN BE DONE.

Two miles from Tadcaster, on the left hand side of the road to York, there stood in the year 1804, and, perhaps, it is standing there still, a beautiful little cottage with a garden, which unfailingly attracted the eye of the traveller. The slip of land, exactly a rood, was inclosed by a cut quick-hedge, and within it were

18

THE COTTAGE GARDENER.

the cottage, fifteen apple-trees, one green-gage, three winesour plum-trees, two apricot-trees, and several bushes of the currant and gooseberry. Three hives of bees also were there. Neatness and good order strikingly characterized the whole.

Now the proprietor of this well-managed plot was a labourer, named Britton Abbot, and he was then sixty-seven years' old, and Jiis wife numbered nearly the same number of years. They had been married forty-five of that number, and had reared six children, who, at the time of which we are writing, were living and thriving in the world. One was the wife of a car- penter at Yoi-k; another occupied a little farm at Sheffield ; the third married a labourer, who had built himself a cottage at Tadcaster, and wanted nothing, as Britton Abbot observed, " but a bit of ground for a garden."

Britton Abbot's history offers warning as well as encouragement, for it illustrates the tnitli that a labourer should look to his plot of ground for help to live, and not for entire support. He was th.rifty from boyhood, and by the time he was twenty-two, even without the aid of a savings bank (for savings banks were then uisknown), had contrived to accumulate forty pounds. On this little capital he man-ied, and took a small farm of thirty pounds a year rental. In two years he gave it up, for he had lost upon it nearly all liis savings ; but he was not conquered, or even disheartened, and he had learned wisdom. He was still convinced of the value of a plot of ground to the labourer, but he did not seek for so much as he did before.

He asked 'Squire Fairfax to let him have a little bit of ground by the road-side, telling the 'squire witli honest confidence, that if he would grant hmi the boon, " he would show him the fashions on it." Tlie 'squire complied with his request, and when he ob- served the good skill and industry tliiit Abbot bestowed npon the little inclosure, he allowed him to have it rent-free. Abbot's reply deserves to be remembered — " Niiw, sir, you have a pleasure in seeing my cottage and garden neat ; and why should not other 'squires have the same pleasure in seeing the cottages and gardens neat about them? The poor would then be happy, and would love them and the place where they lived ; but now every nook is to be let to the great farmers."

Abbot was now a thriving man. He was a good workman, in constant employ, and so had his week's wages regularly ; lived rent-free ; and from his garden obtained annually forty bushels of potatoes, besides other vegetables; his fruit sold on the average for £3 or £4 ; his wife had occasional work ; spun at her leisure ; and looked after the house and garden. " To be sure," said Abbot, " I have a grand character in all this country;" and if every labourer had the same steady habits, he might have a character equally " grand," and be equally happy and equally prosper- ous ; " happy in his own industry and good manage- ment ; in the beauty and comfort of his cottage, and in the extreme fertility of his garden."* — G.

IlARJJY PLANTS LATELY MADE KNOWN, AND WORTH CULTIVATING.

TouENi.i AsiATicA is uot quite hardy, for, like the

scarlet pelargonium (geranium), it requires to be

housed diu-ing the winter ; yet, like that, it is good for

planting out in the flower-borders, over the surface of

• Minutes of Board of ^V^riculture.

which it spreads, and its deep blue flowers are highly ornamental. Its generic name, Torenia, is in com- memoration of Olof Toreen, a Swedish traveller and naturalist; and its specific name, Asiatica, informs us that it is a native of Asia, for it is found in almost every part of southern India. It is easily propagated by cuttings planted in light soil, and placed under a hand-glass in a hot-bed. It may be increased also by dividing the roots. It is not improbable, also, that tlie branches will root in the borders if pegged down at a joint and covered with earth. The plants are benefited by being manured with a mixture of peat and leaf-mould. — (Paxton, etc.)

HINTS FROM OUR CONTEMPORARIES.

Tulips. — Mr. Groom, of Clapham Rise, near Lon- don, is one of the most successful, and most extensive cultivators of this flower. His tulip-bed is fifty yards long, and four feet three inches broad, containing two thousand bulbs. His pet tulip is Victoria Regina (Queen Victoria). Its form is perfect; and its ground or prevailing colour snowy white, with the feathering and flame rosy purple. It is a second-row flower, and its price five guineas. — {Midland Florist).

[The featlicring of a tulip is a dark edge round the petals or flower-leaves. The flame is a dark, pointed spot, in the shape of a candle-flame, in the centre of each petal. Tulips, according to tlie height to which their flower-stems grow, are called 1st, 2nd, 3rd, and H\\-row flowers. The shortest are put next the edge of the bed, and are called, first-row flowers. The tallest, in the middle of the bed, are the fourth-row flowers].

White Rust of Cabbages. — No season has ever been more productive of disease to plants than has the last wet, cold summer. Among the diseases that have attacked them, none have been either so fatal or so general as the rust. This is a disease occasioned by the growth upon them of very small fungi (mush- rooms), and it has destroyed many crops of wheat, grapes, and cabbages. The rust of the cabbage is oc- casioned by a little fungus called Cystoptis (albugo) cnndidus (tt'liite cystopus). When a cabbage is severely attacked by it, its leaves and every other part thicken and become distorted, owing to the roots of the fungus penetrating and breaking through the sap-vessels of the cabbage. — {Hart. Society's Journal, iii. 265.)

[If only one or two cabbages are thus attacked, the best remedy will be to pull them up and burn them, to prevent the fungus shedding its seeds on other cab- bages. If many are attacked, we recommend the soil about their roots to be sprinkled with salt, an ounce around each cabbage, and to dust its leaves early in the morning, whilst the dew is upon it, with quick lime.]

Melons in the open Air.- — Mr. Williams of Pit- maston, has for some years past been trying to give increased hardiness to the melon ; and with this view made use every year of the seed matured in the open air during the preceding summer. The plants have, in consequence, become so hardy, that in the two last seasons they grew, and the fruit set as well as a com- mon gourd. ''The whole contrivance for presenting the plant to the solar influence in the most advan- tageous way, and at the same time giving a little warmth to the roots, does not cost more than a few shillings."

He adds, " I have already cut fifteen melons, and my gardener tells me there are upwards of thirty-five

THE COTTAGE GARDENER

19

that will ripen before the plants are killed by the cold."

The open-air bed is raised on the ground-level, on a base 24 feet in length, and SJ feet in width. The back is of brick-work (against a south wall or paling, therefore, would do), 3 feet 3 inches high; the ends are also of brick-work, aud slope from the above height at back, to the level of the ground at the front. The bed is composed of weeds, bean-stalks, old tan, garden rubbish, and litter of any kind, made com- pact ; and finally, about 9 inches of only common garden-soil, in which the melons are planted. When finished, it presents a uniformly inclined plane, facing the south ; but Mr. Williams thinks he should prefer an aspect a little to the south-east.

As the soil is raised a little higher than the back, to allow for sinking, the slope forms an angle with the ground-line of about 23°. Nine plants raised singly in pots were planted out on this slope, and, till some- what established, they require to be protected by hand-glasses ; flat tiles are then laid over the surface of the bed. The shoots or vines of the melons are neither stopped nor thinned ; in short, with the ex- ception of merely pegging them down, tliere is nothing at all done to them. Instead of tiles being employed, as above, slates were formerly used ; but these became at times so excessively heated by the sun's rays, that the plants suffered from being subjected to the conse- quent vicissitude of so great a heat in the day, alter- nately with the cold to which they were e.xposed at night. Tiles, on the contrary, do not absorb heat so rapidly, but they retain it longer.

The situation of the melon-bed is not particularly sheltered ; there is a hedge on the north side, at the distance of 15 feet from the back of the melon-bed, but it is not high. Two feet behind the hedge there is, however, some tall elm-trees, and at some distance there is a row of the same kind of trees, which afford shelter from the west winds. The mode in which the plants are reared is an important point : they are raised with as little heat as possible, and are all along accustomed to plenty of air. Mr. Williams remarks that, " when melon-plants are raised for the purpose of being planted on a bed of the above description in the open air, the pots in ■which the seeds are sown should never be plunged in a warm dung or tan-bed ; for when plants so treated are removed into the com- mon ground, if the weather proves cold and wet, their leaves turn yellow, and they afterwards become sickly, and continue so a long time." — {Ibid. 273).

Sound Philosophy. — At the last meeting of the " Farnley Tyas Society, for the Encouragement of Spade Husbandry," John Nowell, Esq. made these observations, deserving of circulation throughout the length and breadth of the land : — " Allow me to cau- tion the more sanguine part of the operatives not to delude themselves with the notion that the rood of land is everything, and that the industry and care required in its cultivation, is nothing. A rood of land will not support a working man — but it will help him. It will require, most assuredly, all his care and all his attention, while waiting for his usual employ, in a time of good trade, to keep up the cultivation of his garden. And should the working man neither neg- lect his handicraft employment nor his land, in favour- able seasons a most certain issue will be the result.* He cannot well starve before Christmas. Manufactures and agriculture ought to be handmaids to each other. They will flourish, or they will decay together ; and

* Mr. Nowell was especially addressing the Yorkshire weavers, but the lesson is applicable to all districts, whether manufacturing or agricultural.

far be it from our wish to elevate or to depress one at the expense of the other. Rather be it our desire to establish a closer bond of union between them. Let the master manufacturer surround his manufactory with rood-gardens. He will thus secure the steadiest and the best workmen, and attach them to his service; and he cannot but rejoice to see his dependents happy in the possession of their little winter store, and under his daily observation, to mark their improvement in the duties of husband, father, and subject. Give your neighbour a ' stake in the hedge,' and in defending his own slender stake against intruders, he will neces- sarily defend your larger 'stake.'" — {Labourer's Friend.)

A.v Interesting Scene. Profit on Labourers' Allot- ments.— On Thursday, the 21st of May, the allotment tenants of Andrew Johnstone, Esq., of Halesworth, had their audit. There were thirty tenants holding one-quarter of an acre each, four old men one-eighth of an acre, and ten boys each occupying one rod, as a reward of atte:idance and good behaviour at the Even- ing Adult-school. The tenants assembled at seven p.m., in the Infant School-room, which was decorated with boughs, etc., and with inscriptions neatly printed by the boys, such as " God speed the spade," " Long live the kind giver," " Honour the Lord with the first fruits of your allotments," etc. The principal orna- ment of the room was a display, on a long table, of specimens of the produce, which was pronounced by the best judges to he highlj- creditable. Among them ' were excellent wheat, fine potatoes of various sorts, beans, peas, very large and straight carrots, orange beet, turnips, and cabbages, with Jerusalem artichokes, and many other vegetables. One tenant furnished some excellent fiovvers raised from seed, which he sells at a good profit. The rents were all paid ; after which Mr. Johnstone addressed some useful remarks to his tenants ; first on their moral and religious conduct, the education of their children, etc., and then on the ma- nagement of their ground; after this he called for the account of profit and loss, and to each of the four tenants who exhibited the most produce and furnished well-kept accounts, he presented a good gardening tool, to which a fifth was added by the kindness of a tradesman in the town, as a token of his approbation of the show. The following are the results of some of the accounts :

(1) £ *. Produce ... 6 9 Rent and outlay 3 12	d. 1 7	(3) £ s. Produce . . . 5 13 Rent and outlay 2 3 Profit . . 3 10 (4) Produce . . . 6 14 Rent and outlay 3 0	d. 2 1
Profit . . 2 16 (2) Produce ...(,(> Rent and outlay 3 1	6 9 7	1 10 0

Profit ..352

Profit . . 3 14 10

The boys were next addressed ; and the result of their efforts proved one of the most interesting features of the evening. It appeared that ten boys had been allowed one rod of land, for which they were to pay sixpence rent. The account of the produce was as follows :

1

6

7

8

9

10

To the boys who had gained the most, and thereby

20

THE COTTAGE GARDENER.

proved that they had done the best, prizes of garden tools were given, and their smiling countenances showed their satisfaction when Mr. Johnstone an- nounced that an increase would be afforded to the boys' allotments. The landlord then proceeded to read a portion of Scripture, and tlie Doxology was sung ; after which, good meat pies, smoking hot, were distri- buted to each tenant, including the boys, and all retired highly satisfied. — ( The Labourers' Friend.)

AuTu.MN-PLANTiNG POTATOES. — A Writer in the Gar- dener's Chronicle relates a series of experiments in which the potatoes planted in last November, and at intervals up to February, were uniformly good, planted in an old garden ; but as uniformly diseased when planted in February, and at intervals until the end of April, upon a soil rather lieavier.

THE TULIP AND THE MYRTLE.

'T WAS on the border of a stream

A gaily painted Tulip stood ; And gilded by the morning beam,

Survey'd her beauties in the flood.

And sure, more lovely to behold Might nothing meet the wistful eye,

Than crimson fading into gold In streaks of fairer symmetry.

The beauteous flower, with pride elate ;

Ah me ! that pride with beauty dwells ! Vainly affects superior state,

And thus in empty fancy swells.

" 0 lustre of unrivall'd bloom. Fair painting of a hand Divine !

Superior far to mortal doom,

The hues of Heaven alone are mine.

" Away! ye worthless, formless race, Ye weeds that boast the name of flowers;

No more my native bed disgrace, Unmeet for tribes so mean as yours.

" Shall the bright daughter of the sun Associate with the shnibs of earth ?

Ye slaves, your sovereign's presence shun, Respect her beauties and her birth !

" And thou, dull, sullen evergreen,

Shalt thou my shining sphere invade ? —

My noon-day beauties beam unseen, Obscured beneath thy dusky shade."

" Deluded flower!" the Myrtle cries, ■' Shall we thy moment's bloom adore?

The meanest shrub that you despise. The meanest flower has merit more.

" That daisy, in its simple bloom. Shall last along the clianging year ;

Blush on the snow of winter's gloom, .\nd bid the smiling spring appear.

" The violet that, those banks beneath. Hides from thy scorn its modest head,

Shall fill the air with fragrant breath. When thou art in thy dusty bed.

" Even I, who boast no golden shade. Am of no shining tints possess'd

When low thy lucid form is laid,

Shall bloom on many a lovely breast.

" And he, whose kind and fostering care To thee, to me, our beings gave,

Shall near his breast my flowers wear. And walk regardless o'er thy grave.

" Deluded flower ! the friendly screen That hides thee from the noontide ray.

And mocks thy passion to be seen. Prolongs the transitory day.

" But kindly deeds with scorn repaid, No more by virtue need be done, —

I now withdraw my dusky shade. And yield thee to thy darling sun."

Fierce on the flower the scorching beam With all its weight of glory, fell ;

The flower exulting caught the gleam. And lent his leaves a bolder swell.

Expanded by the searching fire,

The curling leaves the breast disclosed ;

The mantling bloom was painted higher, And every latent charm exposed.

But when the sun was sliding low, And evening came, with dews so cold ;

The wanton beauty ceased to blow, And sought her bending leaves to fold.

Those leaves, alas ! no more would close, — Relax'd, exhausted, siekenhig, pale;

They left her to a parent's woes. And fled before the rising gale.

Dr. Langhoine.

TO CORRESPONDENTS.

H. White. — Tlie quicAest mode of softening oM putty is bypassing over it repeatedly an iron, heated ne,irly to rednes::. If the putty is so very old and hard as not to be thus softened, the softening may be effected more slowly by keeping upon it, for a few hours, rags wetted with 3 strong solution of caustic potash.

W. S. — We are of opinion that there is such a variety of the grape as the Red Hamburgh, and we will state our reasons for so thinking next week.

A Friend (Hackney) will perceive from our first Number, as well as the present, that we have strictly excluded all the objectionable Advertisements alluded to.

THE COTTAGE GARDENER.

21

WEEKI.V CALENDAR.

Im Id	w D	OCTOBER 19—25, 1848.	Plants dedicated to each day.	Sun Rises.	Sun Sets.	Moon R. and Sets.	Moon's Age.	Clock aft. Sun.	Day of Year.
19 Th.	Elder leaves fall.	Tall Coreopsis or Tick-	33 a 6	57 a 4	11 15	C	15 0	293
20 F.	Walnut leafless.	Yellow Sultan, [seed	35	55	morn.	23	15 10	294
21 S.	Sun's declination, 10'=' 51' S.	Hairy Silphium.	37	53	0 21	24	15 20	295
22 Sun.	IS SCND.IY AFTER TrINITY.	3-leaved Silphium.	39	51	1 29	25	15 28	296
|23| M	Privet ben-ies ripe.	Rushy Starwort.	40	49	2 35	26	15 37	297
'21 Tu.	Golden Plover arrives.	Wavy Starwort.	42	47	3 40	27	15 44	298
To W	Crispin.	Fleabane-like Stanvort.	44	45	4 44	28	15 51	299

St. CaispiiT, together Tvith St. Crispian, were adopted by shoe- makers to be their tutelary saints, because these two brothers, and martyrs of the Christian faith, had learned their handicraft to avoid the necessity of being burdensome to the early converts to whom they preached. They were beheaded at Soissons, about the year 308. The shoemakers at the principal towns of Scotland assemble annually and choose a king upon this day.

Phenomena op the Season.— In the calendar above we have noticed the customary events of the week in the vegetable world. Among animals, we may observe that this is the period of migration

Insects.— The Angle-shades Moth {Phlngophora meticulosa) is so called from the various shades of

with many birds who are only our periodical visitors. Either during last week or the beginning of this, the swallow has departed; and, in a few days after, they make their appearance on the coast of Africa. The niffhfingale leaves us about a week earlier, and speedily after- wards is heard in the thickest woods of Lower Egypt. On the other hand, the woodcock and sjiipe now return to us from Sweden, and other northern countries, where they pass their summer life. The cross-bill also visits us occasionally, and near Oldbury, in Gloucester- shire, has sometimes come before the apples have been all gathered — in which case this bird makes sad havoc with that hope of our western orchardists.

	IS41.	1842.	1843.	1844.	1845.	1846.	1847.
19	Fine.	Fine.	Fine.	Cloudy.	Cloudy.	Fine.	Fine.
•20	Fine.	Fine.	Cloudy.	Fine.	Fine.	Fine.	Fine.
21	Fine.	Fine.	Showery.	Cloudy.	Fine.	Rain.	Rain.
22	Hazy.	Rain.	Cloudy.	Rain.	Cloudy.	Cloudy.	Fine.
23 : Rain.	Rain.	Fine.	Cloudy.	Fine.	Fine.	Rain.
24 Cloudy.	Rain.	Cloudy.	Rain.	Fine.	Fine.	Showeiy.
25 Cloudy.	Rain.	Cloudy.	Rain.	Cloudy.	Cloudy.	Fine.

tribes, and : spots on the

brown which mottle the edges of the upper wings, and form a purplish triangled mark in the centre of those wings. This is one of the handsomest of the evening mollis, and also one of the larger, for it is two inches across the expanded wings. It makes its appearance at intervals, from the end of May until the close of October. Its upper wings are wliile; tinged with pink, clouded with olive-brown, and marked and edyed as above noticed. The hinder margins of those wings are irregularly notched. The under wings, at their tips, are also a pinky white, having in their centre a gray, crescent-like mark, and also two or three slight lines of the same colour. The horns (antennae) are long and slender, and the whole body variously tufted with hairs. Its caterpillars feed upon our cabbage

i few others of our culinary vegetables. They are usually green, but sometimes brownish ; they have a row of oblong white

back, and a white line on each side.

On more than one occasion we have heard gardeners differ in opinion as to whether there are two distinct varieties of the Hamburgh grape — the black and the red. The question has again been brought to our notice by a correspondent, who justly observes that " amateurs may be excused for doubting, since even first-rate authorities differ in their statements as to the identity or non-identity of the grape or grapes in question."

In the "Catalogue of Fruits" published by the London Horticultural Society — an authority to which we are always predisposed to bow — the Black and Red Hamburgh are said to be the same variety ; and the characteristics are thus epitomised : — " Bunch, large ; colour, black ; berry, roundish ; skin, thick ; flavour, sweet ; quality, first-rate." That this is an accurate description of the black Hamburgh is beyond dispute : it is the description given long previously by Miller, Speechley, and Forsyth ; hut then all these authorities also agree in describing the Red Hamburgh, which they say was sometimes called the Gibraltar grape, as a distinct variety. In this decision they are sustained by later authorities, of whom we need quote no others than Loudon and George Lindley. Loudon (Encyclop. of Gardening, p. 753,) says the red Ham-

burgh was also called Warner's, or Hampton Court grape, and that it is " reckoned the best of Ham- burghs." Mr. Lindley, in his work edited by Dr. Lindley {Guide to the Orchard), is still more explicit. He says, " The berries of tliis (the red Hamburgh) are of a dark red or purple colour, with a thin skin and a juicy, delicate flesh. The size and figure of both the bunch and the berry are very much like the black Hamburgh, except the latter being less oval, and growing more loosely on the bimches. When the berries of the red Hamburgh are imperfectly ripened, they are of a pale brown colour, which occasions it to be called the brown Hamburgh ; but, if perfectly matured, it is by many considered to be the richest and best-flavom-ed of the two. The leaves of this in the autumn become mottled with green, purple, and yellow ; those of the black Hamburgh are mottled with green and yellow only. They were both brought into this country by Mr. Warner, of Rotherhithe. The oldest vine of this kind known in England is that at Valen- tine's House, near Ilford, in Essex. Mr. Gilpin (Fo- rest Scenery, i. 153,) says it was planted a cutting in 1758, and is the parent of the well-known Hamburgh vine now growing at Hampton Court."

THE COTTAGE GARDENER.

We coincide with those who think the red Ham- burgh a variety distinct from the black Hamburgh, and we ground our opinion not upon that of the first importer of them both, nor upon the opinions of the excellent authorities we have quoted, but upon the experience gained by cultivating a red Hamburgh vine for two years in a greenhouse under our own exclusive care. This experience teaches us, that if the grapes are prematurely ripened — that is, ripened before they have attained to the size of which they are capable of attaining — if they are exposed to an excess of light by an over thinning-away of the leaves, then the fruit of the red Hamburgh may be made to approach nearly, but never exactly to resemble, that of the Black Hamburgh. On the other hand, if a due quantity of leaves are left, and, by an abundant ad- mission of air, the fruit is allowed gradually to attain the full size it woidd naturally attain before the ripen- ing process begins, then the red Hamburgh cannot be mistaken for the black Hamburgh. The berries are too mucli of a purplish red in colour, too thin of skin, too tender fleshed, and too far departing from complete roundness. That the grapes in the green- house we have mentioned are not ill-grown, we have the testimony of the judges at the Hampshire Horti- cultural Show in November last — for they awarded

to it the first prize for " Red Hamburgh Grapes, grown without heat ; " and we hope to run a good race for the same prize in the November now approaching.

Tlie decision of this question, as to the non-identity of the two varieties, is of some interest to gardeners ; for we are satisfied that a prize has often been lost because the judges have thought the grapes deficient in colour as black Hamburghs, when being, in truth, red Hamburghs, they could not have been brought to equal their competitors in depth of colour.

To our next Number will be added another depart- ment— " The Week's Greenhouse and Window- Gardening." A sufficient guarantee for its excel- lence is that it will be furnished by Mr. D. Beaton, Gardener to Sir W. Middleton, Bart., at Shrubland Park. We are induced to add this department be- cause our large sale justifies our giving weekly twelve pages instead of eight, as originally intended.

We have to apologise to our readers for the inser- tion of the Poetry at the end of our last Number. It was placed there for no other reason than that part of the copy intended for insertion had been mislaid during the unavoidable absence of the Editor from London.

THE WEEK'S FRUIT-GAKDENING.

Arrangement of Fruit-trees in the Garden of the Amateur. — Having in our last thrown out sug- gestions, founded on a very long and extensive prac- tice, for the most ready mode of correcting the staple of soils for fruit-trees, we now proceed to offer some advice about the disposal of them in the amateur's garden. We must tnus divide this portion of the matter, for the cottager will of course need special advice on this head, although he, too, may occasionally take a hint from the amateur's practice.

Aspect of Garden. — In proceeding with this sub- ject, we will suppose the case of a new garden in an eligible situation. A sloping surface is always consi- dered an advantage, provided the slope is very mode- rate, and inclines to any of the points from south-east to south-west ; other inclinations or aspects are much inferior.

Shelter. — The walls or other boundaries being built, the next matter is, to seek extra protection, if possible, by means of planting ; indeed, this may be accounted the first step of the two. We do not by any means advocate the planting large trees close to the garden-wall ; this is a most erroneous course of proceeding. In the first place, they prevent the training of some very useful fruits on the outside of the garden-wall ; and, in the second place, protection- trees or shrubs thus situated do serious injury to the fruit-trees in the interior of the garden, when their boughs have grown so as to overhang the wall. How- ever, the amateur is not unfrequently situated near to other buildings ; and in such cases, severe limitation of room precludes the possibility of selecting a proper site. There is no real necessity for a continuous belt ; a good group of trees at the northwestern side, and another ranging from north to east, will suffice, pro-

vided the kinds are well selected. The Scotch fir, the holly, and the spruce fir, if moist soil, are particularly eligible as evergreens ; and the beech is bj' far the best deciduous tree to intermix with them. Tlie latter retains its leaves for a greater length of time than most forest trees. The beech, however, requires that some of its side-shoots he occasionally pruned in, or the consequence will be, that the beech will overgrow and ruin the other trees, its companions. In new plantations of this kind a few of the more rapid- growing poplars may be introduced, to be removed after the beech and firs get up ; they produce a more speedy eff'ect than any of the others.

Planting and under Crops. — We come now to the disposal of the interior area. There are two dis- tinct modes of procedure, either of which may be observed as a guiding principle in this affair. The one, so to plan it as not to crop the fruit-borders ; the other, to include a course of such cropping.

We would advise the former mode : we are, how- ever, willing to admit that it will make a week or so difference in the earliness of the peas, cauliflowers, lettuces, etc. ; which to some jiersons are an important consideration. We will now deal with the ordinary mode, that is to say, of cropping in combination with fruit culture : but in a future paper we will show how the other mode may be rendered both more econo- I mical and more certain in its results as regards fruit- culture.

Borders and Walks. — A border of ten feet is amply sufficient next the wall ; next to that border a walk of at least four feet width, and adjoining this walk another border, with an alley behind it, separating it from the quarters of the earden. The border last named should be at the least six feet wide ; this, carried

THE COTTAGE GARDENER.

23

all round the garden, we hold to he the most eligible mode by far where cropping must be carried out.

Aspects. — ^We may now briefly advert to the dif- ferent aspects. The south wall, or rather southern aspects, should he reserved for the apricot, the peach, the nectarine, and the vine, anywhere south of the midland countries ; but north of them, the vine must be omitted ; if any attempt be made to grow it, the side of a house facing any point from south-east to south-west, provided there is a fireplace behind, will he the most eligible situation. The apricot, however, in the northern countries, is by far the most profitable crop for a warm gable of this kind. We know many cottagers who make great profits by means of an apricot thus situated. Their mode of management we will advert to in due course, under the head " Cottage Gardening." In the northern countries, some of the very superior Flemish pears, such as the Winter Nelis, will deserve a place on a southern aspect. On the eastern aspect may be placed the principal of the trained plums and pears; and on the western, pears and cherries. On the north aspects, the Morello cherry will be found a most valuahle fruit; and by providing nets of a proper mesh to exclude the smallest of the birds, this fruit may be kept with ease until the middle or end of October. Two-thirds of the north aspect may be occupied with this cherry, whilst the remainder may receive a greengage plum, an Orleans, and even the Duke cherry, which makes a fine late dessert fruit in this aspect. Ere long we will speak of the espalier-borders of the amateur. We must now advert to cottage-gardening.

Cottage Fruit-gardening, — In our last we sug- gested the utility of getting forward with all work connected with planting, etc. We may now hint to the cottager the propriety of collecting turfy matters from the lanes, road-sides, or commons ; even the scourings of ditches are of much use ; for whatever the subsoil may be, the settlings are very nutritious

when made into compost, not only for fruit-trees, but for garden-dressings.

Turf-Manure. — The cottager should learn well that, above all other matters, turf of any kind is more valuable than people commonly imagine. Where the garden soil is hungry, chopped sod, or turf from soils of a clayey character, are the Very best manures that can be put into the holes for his fruit-trees: such furnish not only permanent nourishment during the droughts of summer, when the growth of fruit-trees on sandy or hungry soils frequently becomes stag- nated, and then of course they are doubly liable to the attack of insects ; the fruits also crack, or become encrusted with fungous matter; and hence the fre- quent complaints about fruits keeping badly.

Any surplus turfy material, if more than wanted, may be piled up in a corner of the garden, as a reserve stock; and as at this period much coai-se herbage, weeds, etc., can be collected, we would advise a thorough trimming of weeds and other vege- table matters wherever they can be got ; these may be spread, layer for layer, with the turfy material. If the cottager can procure lime, we particularly advise a good sprinkling of this article between every layer, especially amongst the weeds and over the ditchings. This will tend to mellow and crumble down these raw matters by the next year.

Planting. — This is the very best period in the year for planting fruit-trees ; and in our next we will offer a list of such as are truly profitable for the cottager ; in the mean time we advise him to consider about hedge-row fruits, as adverted to in our last.

Gooseberries and Currants. — The hush-fruit may now be removed forthwith, if necessary. Gooseberries and red and white cun-ants like a deep and rather loose soil, containing a good deal of any rotten vege- tables. Black currants Uke a damp soil, and a liberal depth likewise. R. Errington.

THE WEEK'S FLOWER-GARDENING.

General Flower-garden. — The season is now fast approaching when we may expect severe weather, therefore every preparation to meet it must be dili- gently attended to, so that all the stock of plants to supply the garden with flowers next year may he in safe quarters during winter.

Winter Shelters. — Verbenas, petunias, bedding out calceolarias, Oenotheras, phlox drummondii, ana- gallis, dwarf and tall lobelias, should all now be either in frames or pits, ready to be covered when the frost sets in. They are best preserved thickly set either in pots about six inches diameter, or in wide pans. They will require plenty of air in fine weather, and all decaying leaves to be carefully and constantly re- moved. As little water as possible must be given to them, indeed only just sufficient to keep them from ' actual flagging.

Double Violets, to force, should now be put into their proper situation. A gentle hotbed made of leaves, and covered with a two or three-light frame, according to the wants of the family, is a good method to produce plenty of flowers during winter. The plants we suppose to have been prepared, by being planted out singly in a rather shady border during the preceding summer, and will now be nice stocky plants. Lift them up with a garden trowel with as much earth adhering to their roots as possible. The heat of the bed being moderated, and the material,

whether leaves or dung, being covered with four inches of leaf-mould and loam in equal parts, place the plants upon it thickly all over the bed ; give them a gentle watering, and shut them up and shade them on sunny days for a fortnight, giving air night and day in all mild weather. As soon as the plants are fairlj- esta- blished, give them the benefit of the sun and light freely, with abundance of air. Their lovely sweet flowers will soon reward you amply for your trouble.

Lily of the Valley. — The much-admired lily of the valley is also well worthy of similar pains being bestowed upon it. It may be managed easily as fol- lows : — Plant them thickly on a north or west border, and when they have run together in a mass, choose the strongest plants, and, taking these up in large patches, place them upon a similar bed as above- mentioned for the violet : they will flower freely and early with the same management. If required in pots to ornament the hall or drawing-room, they may be put into pots five inches diameter, choosing those with the strongest buds, putting five or six in a pot, and let the pots be plunged up to their rims on the bed, this being covered about eight inches deep either with light earth, old tan, or sawdust, or even coal- ashes, whichever may be most convenient.

Amateur's Flower-garden. — The amateur's stock of flowering plants should have the same care as directed in the preceding paragraphs. We suppose

24

THE COTTAGE GARDENER.

you to have a cold frame, a pit, and a few hand- liglits. These should now be well filled with the before- mentioned plants, viz., verbenas, etc. In your pit you might, 63- being well covered during severe frost, preserve many half-hardy plants that you will find useful in the spring. We mean such plants as scarlet geraniums, fuchsias, the more tender China and tea- scented roses, heliotropes, etc. If you have time and leisure we see no reason why you should not even have a few hyacinths, narcissuses, crocuses, and van hout tulips, under a frame, to flower, a month or two before the season out of doors. Should you determine to try a few, procure the necessary quantity imme- diately. Pot them, the hyacinth and polyanthus narcissus singly, the others four in each pot ; plimge the pots in old tan or coal-ashes, on a bed in an open part of the garden for a month or six weeks, to induce them to form roots previously to placing them in the frame. Examine them from time to time, till j'ou perceive the buds breaking through the earth in the pots. When jou find this is the case, remove them into the frames, giving air in fine weather, and protecting them by thick covering of mats and straw in severe weather. Your reward will be the having those fragrant flowers for your window much earlier than in the open air.

RosEs. — This is a good season also to look over your stock of roses. If your collection is not first- rate, we would advise you to lose no time in renewing them. The principle should never be lost sight of in all branches of horticulture and floriculture, that a good kind of any thing under culture is as easily grown as an indiiferent one, besides being more pro- fitable and pleasant. Our advice then is — of roses have the best ; and in order that you may do so, below is a list of forty sorts, good and distinct, selected from the catalogues of one of the most eminent growers :

]. Summer Roses, flowering in May and June.

Provence — Unique.

Moss — Alice Servi, Celina, Comptesse de Noe, White Bath.

Damasl- — Madame Hardy.

White — Le Seduisante, Sophie de Mavoilly.

French — Boule de Nanteuil, Latour d'Auvergne.

Hybrid Provence — Emmerance, La Volupte, Prin- cess Clementine.

Hybrids, various — ChenedoUe, Coup d'Hebe, Wil- liam Jesse.

2. Autumn Roses, flowering from July to October.

Damask, perpetual — Mogadon

Hybrid, perpetual — La Reine, Baronne Prevost, Duchess of Sutherland, Lady Alice Peel, Louis Buo- naparte, Madame Laffay, Mrs. Elliot, Geant des Batailles.

Bourbon — Armosa, Coup d'Hebe, George Cuvier, Madame Nevard, Queen, Somnet, Souvenir de Malmaison.

Noisettes — Aim6e Vibert.

China — Cramoise Superieure, Madame Brecon, Mrs. Bosanquet, Compte de Paris, Eliza Sauvage.

Tea-scented — Nephethos, Safranot.

The old roses need not be thrown away. Take them up, trim their roots and branches, and plant them in a row in some retired part of the garden : they will make good stocks to bud with better kinds. We shall, at the proper season, describe the method of budding them.

CuRvsANTHEMUMS will HOW, in the southern coun- ties, be showing flower. The only care they require

will be to continue tying them safely to strong stakes, to prevent the autumn winds blowing tliera about. As they are gross feeders, watering with liquid manure will cause them to flower finely. Spreading a coat- ing of rotten manure round the stems will assist them much.

Prlnikg. — At this season of the year there is not much work for the knife in the amateur garden. In the shrubbery, straggling shoots of both deciduous and evergreen slirubs may be shortened in, to make the bushes more compact. All unripe shoots of the com- mon lam-el had better be cut oflT, as the frost would onl)- destroy them. All dead flower-stems, of course, must be removed as they occur, and late flowering perennials, now chiefly of the aster tribe, be kept well tied up.

The Cottager's Flower-garden. — We have a good deal of anxiety respecting this part of oiu labours. We earnestly press upon our labouring friends the neces- sity of losing no time in their flower-gardening opera- tions, even at this season of the year. Every hour's work now will in the spring be found to have been providently bestowed. Enter yom- garden with a deter- mination to excel, or at least to equal, any labourer's garden in the countrj-. We will not insult your com- mon sense by telling you every week to keep your flower-beds clear of weeds, to have your walks cleanly swept from leaves or litter at all times : these opera- tions, we trust, you need not be reminded of. Hedges, or edgings, you will at all times keep neatly clipped and in good repair. Even where the management of the crops is not so good as it might be, yet, if the garden be clean, neat, and orderly, it will show that your heart is in your garden, and you only want the proper knowledge (which we shall endeavour to give you) to make you a really good gardener, as far as your means and opportimities afford.

BiEKNiALs. — Now is 3. good time to transplant bien- nial flowers (plants of two years' dm'ation), such as wallflowers, sweet-^villiams, Canterbui-y-bells, Bromp- ton and queen stocks, etc., into their final situation, where they are to flower. These, if they have been rightly managed, will be nice short bushy plants. By rightly managed, we mean that they were sown early in June, transplanted when two or three inches high, in beds six inches between each plant; and if they grew too fast, lifted out of the ground once, or even twice, to induce dwarf bushy growth. In this state of growth they are far more likely to stand our winters uninjured, than if they are long-stalked, drawn-up things, made tender by being left too thick in the seed-bed.

Edgings for Beds and Walks. — ^No gardens seem finished without edgings. The best in most respects is dwarf-box : it is the easiest kept, reqiures renewing the most seldom, and, if kept low by constantly clip- ping at the proper times, is the neatest of all edging. Yet there is an objection — it harbours slugs; and to a cottager is expensive to purchase. Cuttings of this varietj' of box will grow, and we would hope any gentleman would allow his gardener to give to his industrious poor neighbour a batch of the cUppings of his box-edging. Slugs may be destroyed by frequently watering with Hme-water, which is easily made by throwing into any vessel a lump or two of unslaked lime, and, when the water is clear, watering the box- edgings, and wherever you think the slugs are secreted. Edgings of thrift are very neat, but require frequently renewing, and are, like the box-edgings, harbours for slugs. Slates, or thin boards, or even pebbles, may be used as edgings. Any of these are much better than no edgings at all.

THE COTTAGE GARDENER.

23

Roses for the Cottager. — Every cottage garden should have a few roses in it. The great question is, how is the poor man to procure them ? We recom- mended last week the striking of them hy cuttings. If, however, the cottager can spare a few shillings, it will be money well laid out, as, independent of his own pleasure, he may soon make his money hy the sale of the flowers. We subjoin a small list of such kinds as will, at least some of them, flower all the year, and the prices of the sorts we recommend are moderate :

Summer Moses.

Provence — Unique. Moss — Common, Crimson. Damask — Leda. White— Bluih Hip. French — Adele Pre vest. Enchantress. Hybrid Provence — Globe White, Duchesse d'Orleans, Beauty of BHliand.

Autumn Roses.

Damask perpetual — Mogador.

Hybrid perpetual— CaRio^e, Comte de Paris, Lady Fordwick, Duchess of Sutherland, Louis Buonaparte. Bourbon — Annosa.

China — Crimson superieure, Mrs. Bosanquet. Tea-scented — Nina.

FLORISTS' FLOWERS.

All our remarks and instructions under this head are intended both for amateurs and cottage garden- ers ; therefore we trust oiu- readers, of both classes, will consider this part of our labours as much addressed to them as to our more experienced brethren. In- deed, to the regular florist we can scarcely hope that our remarks ^vill extend to more than weekly remem- brances. We ^vrite, not for those who know and

understand their business, but to the forgetful and less-informed, — and to those we trust our instructions will not be altogether in vain.

Auricula and Polyanthus. — This week we will pay attention more especially to the auricula and polyanthus. We trust those beauteous flowers are, as we before remarked, in their winter quarters. The best situation for them is in a cold frame or pit. Set them upon a stratum of coal ashes, two or three inches thick — or, when expense is no object, upon a stage of boards slightly raised. The plants ought to he within six inches of the glass. Careful attention is required to two points — gi^dng air, and watering ; very little, if any, is required of the latter. If the weather is dry, and a good deal of sunshine occurs, a little water win be required : this should be applied in the morn- ing, to allow the surface of the soil in the pots to become dry before night. A fine sunny morning, therefore, should be chosen to water these plants. Of air, abundance should be given. On all fine days, the lights should be drawn entirely off; but should there be the least appearance of rain, let the frames be closed instantly, gi^'ing air then either at the back, by propping up the Hght, or by propping up the lights in the centre of each side — so as to allow a full current I of air to the plants. Constant search must be made for slugs, woodlice, and other destructive insects. The auriculas are not so subject to insects inhabiting their leaves as the polyanthuses are. The latter flower is often attacked most injuriously by the red spider. The ravages of this insect are most destructive when they are numerous. To destroy them, mix two pounds of flowers of sulphur amongst soap-water, made by dissolving one pound of soap to five gallons of water, and apply it in a tepid or lukewarm state to every leaf, and especially to its under side. This mixture will not only destroy the living insect it touches, but, as long as it lasts on the leaves, will prevent the at- tacks of other red spiders. T. Appleby.

THE WEEK'S KITCHEN-GARDENING.

Brussels Sprouts. — We may best answer here the inquiry of our correspondent (M. A. J.) hy stating that when this vegetable is about eighteen inches high, its top should be cut for table use. By the top being thus removed, the production of sprouts along the stem is promoted. The sprouts should be cut for boiling when as compact as, and about the size of, a walnut.

Beans. — For early production next spring a planta- tion of broad beans may be now inserted. A south border, deeply dug, and without any manure added, is the best situation. Marshall's early dwarf prolific is the best kind to plant for this crop ; but the early Mazagan and early Lisbon are almost as early in yielding a gathering, and they are cheaper at the seedsman's, as well as more productive. These three varieties attain a height of about four feet if left to themselves ; but as they should be topped when about three feet high, and as the rows should run north and south, the rows need not be more than two feet and a half from each other. Dig enough ground for one row, and then insert the beans two inches deep and four inches apart : by thus putting in one row at a time, the ground need not be trampled on, and the looser the soil is about the crops that have to stand through the winter, the better. Although^ we give these directions for now planting the earliest bean crops, yet we advise the planting not to be made until the commencement of the year, and then with some

kind of shelter; the beans being inserted thick for the purpose of transplanting. One pint of beans wiU be enough for any number of rows not exceeding in length altogether S4 feet.

Cress (Water). — No crop repays the cottager for cultivation more than this, if he has a stream running down a ditch enclosing his garden. This ditch may always be so widened, and the water regulated by a dam at the lowest end, so that the water shall he con- stantly three or four inches deep. Now is the time for planting them, and we take the following directions from the Bon Jardinier. The bottom of the ditch must be beaten quite firm and smooth by the aid of a rammer and the back of the spade. If the bottom of the ditch is not sufliciently moist, a small body of water must be allowed to enter to soften it. The cresses are then to be taken and divided into small sets or cuttings, with roots attached to them ; and these thrown over the bottom of the trench at the distance of three or four inches from each other. The cress soon attaches itself to the damp earth ; in three or four days the shoots straighten and begin to strike root. At the end of five or six days, a slight dressing of well decomposed cow-dung is to be spread over all the plants, and this pressed down by means of a heavy board, to which a long handle is obliquely fixed. The water is then to be raised to the depth of two or three inches, and never higher. The ditch must thus be replanted an-

26

THE COTTAGE GARDENER.

nually, and fuinislies twelve crops during the season. In the summer the cresses may be gathered every fif- teen or twenty days, but less frequently during win- ter, care being taken that at each gathering at least a third part of. the bed is left untouched, so that neither the roots maybe exhausted, nor the succeeding gather- ing delayed. After every cutting, a little decayed cow-dung should be spread over the naked plants, and beaten down by means ol the rammer above mentioned. After the water-cresses have been thus treated for a twelvemonth, the manure forms a tolerably thick layer at the oettom of the ditch, and tends to raise its level. To restore it to its original level, all the refuse sliould be thrown out upon the borders, forming for them a very fertilizing manure. Cress-grounds should always be at a distance from frees, on account of the leaves, which otherwise drive amongst the plants, and require iiiucli time to pick out. There are two weeds which, even in the cleanest cress-grounds, can scarcely be kept under : these are the duck-weed and pond-weed {Zaii- nichellia palustrh), which both multiply so quickly, that unless carefully rooted out. they do great injury to the cresses. The pond-weed may be kept under by careful hand-weeding, and the duck-weed by raising the water, so as to make it float above the cress-plants, when it may be skimmed otf.

The cultivation of this very wholesome vegetable, and which is so palatable an accompaniment to our meals, is believed to have been first attempted in 180S by Mr. Bradb\iry, a market-gardener, at Northfleet, Springhead, near Gravesend; but since then its culti- vation lias spread to Rickmansw.nth, Bayswater, Ux- bridge, and other places. From thence, and from more distant places near to a railway station, vast quantities of water-cresses are daily sent to the Lon- don market. The cultivaturs near London consider there are three varieties : — 1. The large brown-leaved, which is the best flavoured, and will grow in deeper water than the other two. 2. The small brown- leaved, which is the hardiest. 3. The green-leaved, which, as it roots the most readily, is the most easily cultivated.

CucuMEEus, to produce their fruit early iu Febru- ary, may be now sown in a hot-bed ; but we must warn our readers that they require more care and attention than any other crop forced by the gardener. They will, therefore, count the cost and trouble before they begin, and balance these against the worth of the inicertain crop. We will commence by giving full directions for the preparation of the hot -bed made of st.ible-dung, of which that made by the best-fed horses is to be preferred. It should be about ten days from the stalls, and without too large a proportion of litter. After being thrown into a heap, of conic form, for five or six days, it must be so turned over, that the inner parts are brought to the outside, the clots well separated with tire fork, the heap formed conical as before, and left for an equal number of days. By this time and treatment the dung in general acquires a sufficient and steady heat ; if, however, it is very dry and fresh, it must be moderately moistened, and left for five or six days more. At the time of forming the heap, as well as at every turning, water should be applied if its substance appears at all dry, as a regular state of moisture is of first importance to the obtaining a favourable fermentation. It should remain until the straw in general assumes a dark brown colour, and then be immediately formed into the bed. Leaves or tan may be mixed with advantage, as heat is thereby generated during a greater length of time. In cold, wet. or boisterous weather, the heaps should be cov- ered to a moderate depth with litter.

Place the bed entirely free from the overshadowing of trees, buildings, &c., and having an aspect rather a point eastward of the south. A reed fence, surround- ing it on all sides, prevents any reverberation of the wind ; an evil which is caused by paling or other solid inclosure. This must be ten feet high to the northward or back part, of a similar height at the sides, hut in front only six. The wicket, or gate, must be of sufiicient width to admit a loaded wheel- barrow. Fruit may be forced slightly by being trained within it on the southern aspect, for which purpose the fence on that side must be of brick or wood.

To prevent unnecessary labour, this inclosure should be formed as near to the stable as possible. For the reception of tlie bed, a pit is often dug, six inches deep, if the soil be wet, or eighteen inches or more if dry. In a dry soil and climate this cannot be productive of injury ; otherwise it often chills the bed : at the same time it is to be observed, that it is unproductive of benefit, further than that the bed not being so high is easier of access, but gives much additional trouble, both at the time of founding and afterwards, when linings are to be applied.

The place for the bed being determined, a stake should be driven upright at the four corners as a guide for its rectangular construction. The dun^ must be thoroughly mixed just before it is used, and as carefully separated and spread regularly with the fork, as the bed is formed with it. It is beneficially settled down in every part alike by beating with the fork as the work proceeds, rather than by treading ; for if too much compressed, a high degree of heat is raised, but is soon spent : a contrary effect is often caused if the dung is trod to a still greater excess; namely, that no heat at all is produced.

The longest or littery part of the dung should be laid at the bottom of the bed, and the finer fragments of the dung upon the top. If it is not regularly and moderately moist throughout, it should be sprinkled over with water. As the surface on which the bed is founded is usually horizontal, so is the dung laid perfectly parallel with it. Mr. Knight recommends it, on the contrary, to be equally inclined with its foundation, that it may associate well with the form, which he recommends for ft-ames.

The breadlh of a bed must always be five feet, and in the depth of winter four and a half feet high when firmly settled ; to form it of this size, about twelve barrow-loads of dung are required to a light.

To prevent the sudden changes of temperature in the external air affecting the heat of the bed, coat the sides of the bed with sand, coal-ashes, or earth, to a thickness of two feet.

As the heat declines, linings, oi-, as they might be properly called, coatings, of hot fermenting dung laid from eighteen to twenty-four inches thick, in proportion to the coldness of the season, etc., all round the bed to the whole of its height ; and if the bed is founded in a trench, one equally deep must be dug for the coating, it being of importance to renew the heat as much as pos- sible throughout its whole mass ; if, after a while, the tem- perature again declines, the old coating must be taken away, and a similar one of hot dung applied in its place. As the spring advances, the warmth of the sun will compensate for the decline of that of the bed ; but as the nights are generally yet cold, either a moderate coating, about nine or ten inches thick, is required, or the mowings of grass, or even litter, may be laid round the .sides with advantage.

The depth of earth, as well as the time and manner of its application, vary considerably ; it should never be put on until four or five days after the bed is

THE COTTAGE GARDENER.

formed : before it is applied, tlie edges of the bed should be raised full eight inches higher than the middle, as from the additional weight of the frame they are sure to sink more and quicker, thereby often causing the earth to crack and injure the roots of the plants.

The roots of plants being liable to injury (root-burn- ing) from an excessive heat in the bed, several plans have been devised to prevent this effect. If the plants in pots are plunged in the earth of the bed, they may be raised an inch or two from the bottom of the holes they are inserted in by means of a brick. But a still more effectual mode is to place them Avithin other pots, rather larger than themselves; a space filled with air being thus interposed between the roots and the source of heat, an effectual security is obtained. To prevent the same injury occurring when the plants are in the earth of the bed, a moderate layer of cow- dung laid between the eartli and the fermenting mass, is an efficient precaution, and is much preferable to a similarly-placed layer of turf, which interrupts too much the full benefit of the heat. A plan recom- mended by Bradley is well worthy of notice. A woven hm'dle, somewhat larger than the frame, being placed upon the dung, on this the woodwork of the frame can rest, and the earth is laid within it ; thus the whole can be moved together without disturbance. This would especially be of advantage when tanners' bark is em- ployed, which requires occasional stirring to renew its hear, in case of emergency, when time cannot be allowed for the bed becoming regular in its heat, before the plants are put in. Besides these precautions, vacancies should be left in the mould, and holes bored with a thick pole into the bed, which must be filled up with hay or dung when the danger is passed.

For ascertaining the internal temperature of the bed, the thermometer is the only certain guide, as it also is for judging of the temperature of the air within the frame. The mode of introducing it into the body of the bed, is to have the thermometer inclosed in a wooden case, of the size and form of an ordinary dib- ble, which is to be lined with baize, and fitted with a cap of tinned iron, to exclude the exterior tempera- ture. The end which enters the earth is shod with copper full of holes. In conjunction with the thermo- meter, trying sticks may be employed for occasional observation ; these are smooth laths of wood, about

two feet in length, thrust into different parts of the bed, which being drawn out and grasped quickly, afford a rough estimate of the heat of the bed.

The small extent of the frame, and the rapid spoil- ing of the air within it by dung's fumes, render its frequent renewal necessary. To effect this, tlie com- mon practice is to raise the glasses in proportionate heights, according to the state of the air; and to prevent any injury arising when necessarily admitted during inclement weather, mats are hung over the opening ; but notwithstanding these precautions, the supply of air can seldom be regular ; hence, and from siidden chills, the plants are often checked, and some- times essentially injured. It may be remarked here, that raw, foggy days, if anything, are more unfavour- able than those that are frosty for the admission of air. A complete remedy for all these difficulties is afforded by a plan, which succeeds on the principle that wann air ascends, and simply consists of a pipe passed through the body of the bed, and one end communicating with the outside air, the other open- ing into the frame, at one of the top corners of which a hole must be made ; the heated air of the frame will constantly be issuing from this hole, and its place supplied by the air which rises through the pipe. A pipe of lead may be used, about two or three inches in diameter, bent nearly at a right angle and each limb being tliree feet long, one of these to be placed horizontally, as the bed is forming, with its mouth extending into the open air, that of the other end opening into the fr-ame. A cap should be fitted to the first, and by a slit on its under side, the quantity of air admitted can be regulated. — Modern Gardener's Dictionary.

We must defer our directions for attending to the seedlings until next week.

Herbs — plant, such as fennel, mint, pennyroyal, sage, savory, tansy, tarragon, and thyme. Two or three plants of each will be enough for a small family, and every housewife knows their great value, not only to give a relish to her cookery, but in making teas for the sick members of a household. No particular directions need he given for their cultivation, for the rooted plants, which must now be obtained, grow- very readily. We need only observe that in a light, well-dvained, and not over-rich soil, they all have the highest flavour.

MISCELLANEOUS INFORMATION.

MRS. DAVIS GILBERT; OR, WHAT WE CAN DO FOR OTHERS.

BY CUTHBERT W. JOHNSON, ESQ., r.R.S.

The late Mrs. Davis Gilbert, of Eastbourne, was ever a warm and consistent friend of cottage gardens. She was well aware that on the best produce being pro- cured from its garden, much of the comforts of a