460 THE GARDENER. [Oct. 



to results : of most of the kinds not a plant was lost ; of the earlier 

 varieties about half went. As a matter of course, the heads were 

 about half the size they would have been had they not been lifted 

 and the winter proved an open one ; but in a winter like last, the 

 system was very advantageous. As to time of lifting, my plan 

 was to choose just sufficient time to allow the plants to make a 

 few fresh roots without starting them into top growth before the 

 winter set in. Early in October suits our climate ; others may want 

 to do the work earlier. The plants must be quite lifted. In a neigh- 

 bouring garden where the plants were merely turned over, very little 

 difference was made in the amount of top than if they had not been 

 touched. 



Peas. — My opinion of Stratagem Peas was exactly like that given in 

 last month's ' Gardener.' I do not think, taking the crop as a whole, 

 that we could get our seed out of it again. But I saw it near Liver- 

 pool, in the garden under the care of Mr Bardney, and there it was 

 really fine. What becomes of all the new Peas, by the way 1 I try 

 some of the new ones every year, and still continue to depend on old 

 sorts. While writing of Peas, I may say I think very highly.indeed of 

 Early Sunrise, a sort distributed this year for the first time. It was 

 our earliest Pea here, coming in even before plants raised in heat and 

 planted out under protection till established. William the First I can- 

 not depend on now, so many rogues have got mixed up with the real 

 Simon Pure. I find Princess Eoyal a most profitable second early Pea ; 

 so is Champion of England, but it requires high cultivation. For 

 flavour and general usefulness as a late Pea, nothing has yet come up 

 to Ne Plus Ultra. I always get the finest Peas off the preceding 

 year's Celery trenches. I never manure the ground for Peas ; they are 

 fond of potash, and fresh manure as commonly used is of no use for 

 Peas — at least such is my experience. 



Lettuce. — I find Hick's Hardy Cos Lettuce the Lettuce par excel- 

 lence for our soil. We have it summer, autumn, winter, and spring, 

 and find no other sort to compare with it. 



Celery. — Celery has been a continual plague to me for the last year 

 or two. Big Celery has been wanted, and in growing big sorts I have 

 miserably failed, as the plants would go in for seed-production some 

 months before their time. I once had a pinch of Sulham Prize Pink 

 to try, and thought highly of it. This year I have it and Major 

 Clarke's Solid Red, a kind which never fails, though not large, for the 

 main supply. The former is the finest I have ever yet had, — large, 

 strong, and healthy, and only one plant in 1200 run to seed. In my 

 endeavours to reach large Celery I have tried various ways of prepar- 

 ing the soil in the trenches, and find nothing better than this : Prepare 

 a mixture of half mushroom-dung and half cow-manure, fresh loam if it 

 can be had, one barrow-load each of soot and burnt-wood ashes to ten 

 of the dung, and some chemical manure rich in phosphates ; this is 



