Jane 27, 1879. ] 



JOURNAL OF HOBTICULTURE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. 



52() 



performed witli particular care, as previously directed, and 

 suitable places should be chosen for them to stand comfort- 

 ably, so as to well-establish themselves again both at the 

 roots and in the branches. Watch their growth daily, stopping, 

 watering, syringing, and shading them ; there will then be 

 but little reason to fear that the labour tins well bestowed 

 will be unrewarded in securing healthy plants with abundance 

 of bloom for the succeeding year. 



STOVE. 



Many of the basket Orchids will soon be protruding their 

 roots through the moss or soil, and a little additional fibrous 

 peat or moss should be added in duo time. When dull weather 

 jirevails, lay by the syringe for a day or two, and increase both 

 the amount of atmospheric moisture and of air. Keep the 

 foliage clear of insects. Pot Achimenes and Gloxinias for late 

 flowering, and bring forward those showing bloom. 



PITS AND FRAMES. 



Amidst the turmoil of general gardening, a steady and un- 

 tiring eye must be kept on propagation of all kinds during the 

 summer months, for it must be remembered that it is a much 

 less costly process at this period with regai'd to ordinary stock 

 than at any other, provided wood in a proper state can be 

 obtained. The back of a wall with a northern aspect can be 

 made available at thi« time for striking many plants. Care 

 ]nust be taken, nevertheless, to provide against the drenching 

 rains of a wet .July by placing the cuttings whether in pots or 

 in the open soil much above the ground level. Many of the 

 Ericas will succeed in such a situation covered with glasses, 

 together with a host of pot plants. Let cuttings of all soft- 

 wooded and quick-growing plants be selected of a somewhat 

 firm character, and those from hardw oded plants in a rather 

 young state and beginning to turn somewhat brown at the 

 base. — W. Keaxk. 



DOINGS OF THE LAST "WEEK. 



The end of the week has given us a refreshing shower, and 

 we feel the relief of the more temperate weather, after being 

 something like roasted with several days of next-to-a-tropical 

 temperature, all the more enervating after the cold and com- 

 paratively sunless season through which we have passed. 

 Light clothing became the order of the day, and these glorious 

 days of sun did much to empty the shelves of clothiers that 

 had something light and thin to dispose of. 



One thing in om- limited observation rather surprised us, 

 that many who wished for coolness seemed to imagine that 

 coolness was chiefly identical with thinness and flimsiness of 

 texture. They had not learned the simple fact that comfort 

 as respects temperature greatly depends on colour, and that, 

 therefore, in hot sunny weather the Ughter and whiter-coloured 

 our garments are the more comfortable we shall be. In fact, 

 but f'jr mere prejudice, light-coloured garments ought to be the 

 most prevalent at all times, being the coolest in hot weather 

 and the warmest in cold weather. " Oh, we must have some 

 dark warm colours for winter," is nothing but a delusion. We 

 are foolish enough when we dress-itp to put on a darkish coat, 

 because we have not the resolve to be singular in such a simple 

 thing. Just think of a poor fellow with a black coat pretty 

 well parboiled during the last week, and of the same black coat 

 radiating as fast as possible every bit of heat from his body in a 

 cold frosty day in December. For mere house-wearing black is 

 all very well in winter, especially if we get near a fire, so that 

 the black shall absm'b more heat than it radiates. 



Not ages ago we saw a man pretty well distracted from work- 

 ing in a small place with an open red-tiled roof, vigorously 

 washing the roof wil!i a thickish paint of soot and water, " as 

 the darker the colo ir," said he, " the cooler it must be." Mr. 

 Sun soon told him a different tale. His neighbour, who had 

 been dipping into the Cottage Gakdener, covered his tiles 

 with a thick sprinkling of limewash, and he felt in June as 

 comfortable inside as if it had been the first days of joyous 

 though shifty .\pril. 



Just generalise upon the one principle involved in these 

 simple facts, and the mystei-ies of colour' as respects tempera- 

 ture will stand revealed as an open letter. There are many 

 cases in gardening where it is advisable that the heat from the 

 8un should be absorbed by a dark surface. There are also 

 many instances in which it is advisable that the heat should 

 be reflected from a light surface. Thus, a black wall will be 

 warmer in a bright sunny day than a light-coloured one, biit 

 it will also be colder at night from free radiation. A white 



wall wOl make the atmosphere near it warmer in a sunny day, 

 but the wall, unless on the mere surface, will not get so warm, 

 and conseipiently there will be less heat radiated at night. 

 Where the highest temperature near a wall is required from 

 heat from the sun we must use light colours ; when we want 

 the wall itself and the things fastened to it to be as hot as 

 possible from sun heat, then we must use dark colours. As 

 in the matter of clothing, so also as respects temperature in 

 gardening, the best absorbers are the best radiators. For ex- 

 tremes of temperature, therefore, dark colours are best ; for 

 the most uniform temperatures light colours are best. In our 

 climate, where during the day a high temperature not quite 

 close to the object grown, but around it, is often a matter of 

 importance, it would often be desirable to have white fences 

 instead of dark brown or black ones, so that heat and light 

 should not be so much absorbed as reflected and sent back 

 into the surrounding air. In shading, damping, d-c, in the 

 few tropical days through which we have passed these matters 

 are not unworthy of importance. One thing we have long 

 felt — namely, the importance of a high temperature during 

 the day rather than a more equal temperature at night, aud a 

 good deal of this might be wrought out by colouring could we 

 apply ourselves to it. 



Sitrf(ici'-!<tirrinfl. — Among vegetables and flower-beds never 

 was this work more needful, especially on heavy ground. Thv 

 rains had battered our soil considerably, and the tropical sun 

 had made the surface crack, even where there was plenty of 

 moisture beneath. We managed by means of the Dutch hoe 

 to get over the most of flower-beds and vegetable rows before 

 the refreshiug showers of the evening of the 21st, for as yet 

 we have had nothing of the deluges that have occurred in other 

 parts of the country. Partly, no doubt, too, owing to our 

 elevated position we have not lost a square of glass from hail 

 for thirty years. In the worst hailstorm we had we put the 

 thorough drenching and pelting we had against the delightful 

 s'ght of seeing 20 by 12-iuch of 16-oz. glass rising and faUiug 

 to the hailstones. Though an advocate for good glass, we 

 have doubts it 21 and 25-oz. glass would have done so. They 

 would not so easily have rebound 3d, an 1 therefore would have 

 been cracked and broken. 



kitchen gakden. 



As anticipated. Cauliflowers have come in only too fast, but 

 were never more tender aud rich, thanks to sewage before 

 the rains. Though reluctantly, we must now begin and let 

 the Asparagus go. The returns this season have been immense 

 from plants grown on the quarters as rows. There is, however, 

 an advantage in the bed system where there is plenty of room, 

 as the alleys came in for other things. lu watering Cauli- 

 flowers we did not forget our foi'wardest Peas ; and as our 

 Cauliflowers were raised on beds, after watering we mulched 

 Cauliflowers and Peas and Beans hberally with short grass. 

 If grass is kept short there is httle chance of weeds, and such 

 green mulching is very nourishing, as well as good for keeping 

 out the force of the sun's rays. We will salt our Asparagus as 

 soon as we can get some, aud if we could get it on before the 

 shoots get too strong, we would mulch with the very short 

 grass from the machine. Many of us are even yet not aware 

 of the nourishing properties of such material. We are just 

 now passing through a transition state, otherwise we would 

 have paid more attention to our rubbish and compost heaps, 

 and for the first especially, one of the best and most fertilising 

 components we have found to be laj'ers of short grass suffi- 

 cient to keep the whole heap iu a state of fermentation, hot 

 enough to destroy weeds aud seeds of weeds, though the latter 

 is not so easily done. Next to an unlimited supply of manure 

 is a well-managed omnium gatherum of a ruJihhh lifa/i. When 

 we had little manure we found this most valuable for hea%T 

 continuous cropping. A Httle salt and lime added to the heap 

 makes it more valuable ; but the great thing is to keep all 

 decaying vegetable matter covered over with a surfacing of 

 earth, however thin. After all there is no such cheap deo- 

 doriser as di-y earth, aud every valuable gas that escapes in 

 the processes of decomposition is absorbed by it. AH the rago 

 now is about draining and flushing, so as to get rid of the same 

 manuring agents that we purchase at a high price. The 

 time may soon come when the utilising of such materials may 

 be the highest consideration ; and then we do think that the 

 dry-earth system, as to the treatment of the most valuable of 

 all manures, will become more important than as to the hows 

 and the whys of getting rid of it most easily. Nothing is 

 more insalubrious than a putrefying mass close to a cottage 

 door or window. Remove it to a fair distance and keep cover- 



