i873.] 



CALENDAR. 



433 



a wall, or into ridges made firm pre- 

 paratory for mushroom-growing. Pieces 

 of spawn, placed 6 or 8 inches apart 

 over the beds, and a covering of an 

 inch of soil, may give good supplies of 

 mushrooms for months to come. A 

 good covering of hay or litter is neces- 



sary as the season advances ; and the 

 same principle carried out with wooden 

 shutters placed over the covering ma- 

 terial to keep it dry, will give supplies 

 all through the winter. In market- 

 gardens scarcely any other method is 

 adopted. M. T. 



FOUCING DEPARTMENT. 



Pines. — Autumn and winter fruit- 

 ing plants swelling off their fruit in 

 various stages will require to be sup- 

 plied with water often enough and 

 in sufficient quantity to keep the soil 

 steadily moist but not over wet. Col- 

 our the water every time with guano, 

 or every alternate watering may be of 

 clear manure-water made of sheep's or 

 deer's dung with a little soot. Keep 

 up a good supply of moisture in the 

 atmosphere when the weather is bright, 

 and syringe lightly over and among the 

 leaves, but avoid wetting the crowns 

 much, or they will get large and un- 

 sightly. Give a good supply of air on 

 all favourable occasions, but always 

 shut up with a high moist temperature 

 in the afternoon, and start the fires 

 sufficiently early to prevent the night 

 temperature sinking below 75° at 10 

 P.M. ; it may fall to 70° in the morning. 

 A top-dressing of turfy loam and horse- 

 droppings will be beneficial to all Pines 

 swelling off fruit, first stripping off a 

 few leaves from the collars of the 

 yjlants. Let all fruit now colouring 

 have a free circulation of dry warm air, 

 and keep them comparatively dry at 

 the root, avoiding, however, the starv- 

 ing process, by which fine juicy Pines 

 are never produced. When more are 

 ripe at one time than are required, 

 remove a portion of them with their 

 pots and foliage entire to a dry fruit- 

 room, where they will keep for a long 

 time at this season. That portion of 

 the stock of Queens intended for early 

 fruiting next season will not now re- 

 quire so much water at the roots, parti- 

 cularly in the colder and more sunless 

 localities. All syringini: of these over- 

 head should be entirely discontinued, 

 and the atmosphere should be less moist. 

 The night temperature v/here fire-heat 

 is required should not now range over 

 65°. If these are induced to grow 

 under conditions the opposite of the 

 above, they will continue to grow and 

 be more likely to miss fruiting when 

 they are required to fruit. Those 



plants that are not so forward, and that 

 are intended for a succession to those 

 just referred to, may be encouraged to 

 grow more freely for a few weeks, or 

 until they have well filled their pots 

 with roots. Let them at the same 

 time be freely aired in fine days and 

 not kept over moist. The early part 

 of this season has in some localities 

 been too sunless and wet for getting 

 Pines intended for early starting to 

 make a good growth, and if the autumn 

 be fine, advantage should be taken of it 

 to get a sturdy well-matured growth. 

 All suckers on plants that have re- 

 cently yielded fruit should now be 

 potted for a succession batch of young 

 j)lants. Potted at this date, 6-inch 

 pots are large enough for wintering 

 Queens, unless, indeed, the suckers are 

 of extra size, when larger pots should 

 be used. In potting these, select a 

 rather light but very fibry soil, and mix 

 a little bone-meal and soot Tvdth it; a 

 6-inch pot full of each of these manures 

 to a barrowful of soil is enough. 

 Pot the suckers firmly, and plunge 

 them in a bottom-heat of 85° with a 

 night temperature of 70° until they 

 strike root, when 5° less of top and 

 bottom heat will be sufficient. Avoid 

 crowding these if they are to be win- 

 tered where plunged, and keep them 

 near the glass, free from drij:) and other- 

 wise dry. Should the weather be very 

 bright after they are potted, shade 

 them with some thin material for a 

 short time. Give air freely when they 

 begin to grow. 



Vines. — Keep all Vines from which 

 the fruit have been cut cool and airy, 

 unless, indeed, it be in the case of any 

 vigoroiasly growing Vines, the wood of 

 which may not be so far advanced in 

 ripeness as is desirable. In their case 

 keep a little heat in the pipes, and with 

 a free circulation of dry warm air 

 about them, they have yet good time 

 to ripen. Remove every attempt at 

 fresh lateral growth, which these and 

 all established Vines may show. Where 



