October 16, 1873. ] 



JOURNAL OF HORTICULTURE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. 



■297 



come in contact with the leaves when earthed-up. Take ad- 

 vantage of the present fine weather to earth-up Celery ; keep 

 the whole of the leaves together. Continue to prick-out Cauli- 

 flowers under hand-glasses and in frames. Any that are not fit 

 for use should be preserved in a cool place, or the leaves may be 

 wrapped round the head and the whole plant buried in light drj' 

 soil. Cucumbers in boxes should have a top-dressing of rich 

 soil occasionally. In gi'ving water at the root, let it be heated 

 to 80°. Fill-up and dress Serb beds for the winter. Dig-up a 

 portion of Horseradish for winter use ; clear away the leaves as 

 soon as decayed. Continue to take up the main crops of Pota- 

 toes, the weather being at present very favourable for the pur- 

 pose. Keep up a succession of Small Salads by sowing in boxes 

 and placing them in a forcing house. 



FRUIT G.VRDEX. 



Gather all kinds of Apples as soon as the stalks separate easily 

 from the branches ; but as some adhere very firmly, the best 

 criterion of fitness for gathering is to slice a frmt up the middle 

 and see if the seeds are approaching maturity. Care should be 

 taken to keep all late fruit from light and from air if it is desir- 

 able to keep it long. This should be particularly attended to in 

 the case of those fruits gathered before being sufficiently mature, 

 otherwi.se they will be disfigured by shrivelling, &c. The season 

 of any favourite Apple or Pear may be prolonged by gathering 

 at ditferent times, and by subjecting the first gathering to a 

 higher temperature, so as to promote the saccharine fermenta- 

 tion. Care should be taken that the increased temperature is 

 not attended with too dry an atmosphere, or the juices of the 

 fruit will be unnecessarily exhausted. The fruit cannot be [ 

 better dealt with at present than by placing them thinly on 

 open shelves. Look after Filberts and Walnuts, and see that 

 they neither become too moist nor get too much dried, as in 

 either case the kernel will be injured. Fruit trees of all kinds 

 should now be planted. After planting those againstwalla, nail- 

 iu the branches, so that they may not be broken by the wind. 

 Strawberries may yet be planted if the plants are strong. 

 Prone Gooseberry and Currant bushes. 



FLOWEB G.UtDEN. i 



Now that the frosts have rendered the flower garden shabby 

 for the season, the principal thing to attend to will be the storing ! 

 such plants as it is desirable to preserve for another season. I 

 am not an advocate for preserving many old plants, but there 

 are certain tribes which bloom all the better for being a year or 

 two old. Among these I class more particularly Scarlet Pelar- 

 goninms and shrubby Calceolarias, and of these I make it a rule 

 to keep all the plants I can find room for. Calceolarias are 

 generally potted in the smallest-sized pot that they can be put 

 into, and if convenient placed for a week or two in a close pit ; 

 bnt if not, they are at once placed under the greenhouse stage, 

 where they remain nntil turned into cold pits in the spring. 

 For Scarlet Pelargoniums provide a range of span-roofed pits 

 filled with tan, which at this season should receive suflicient 

 fresh material to excite a gentle fermentation in the mass. In 

 this tan the Pelargoniums are placed after being cut down, 

 stowing them as thickly as possible, and the pits are kept pretty 

 close until the plants liave made fresh leaves, after which they 

 are inured to the air and receive the same treatment as other 

 plants, taking care, of course, to secure them against frost 

 thron"hout the winter. In spring, about March, they are potted 

 and placed in heat until thej^ are well established, after which 

 they are hardened-oiT preparatory to being planted-out in May. 

 These plants will be excellent for dwarf beds, as they do not 

 grow so vigorously as young ones. Scarlet Pelargoniums may 

 also be preserved in boxes, securely packed in dry peat earth. 

 As the flower beds are cleared they should have a coating of leaf 

 mould, and then be dug-np and left rough, so as to receive the 

 benefit of frost ; or should the flower garden be near the dwell- 

 ing house, where it is constantly seen from the windows, the 

 beds may be filled with hardy evergreens kept in pots for the 

 purpose. Take-up Dahlias immediately the tops are destroyed 

 by frost, it does not benefit them in the slightest degree to let 

 them remain any longer in the ground. Where worms are 

 troublesome on lawns they should now bo destroyed with lime 

 water. 



OBEESUOUSE AND COSSERVATOBY. 



From this time till late in the spring some climbers in the 

 conserii'atory will require pruning and thinning-out. The whole 

 of them will require a little dressing now or soon, especially 

 when they obstruct the light. Where only one climber is 

 grown it must be pruned according to the time you want it to 

 be in flower next summer. The earlier they are wanted in 

 flower the sooner they must be pruned. One great advantage 

 in climbers of this nature is, that most of them flower on the 

 current year's growth like the Grape Vine. All such ought to 

 be very clo.^ely pruned at the final dressing. Some people are 

 afraid to cut off much wood, and their plants soon get disordered. 



STOVE . 



From October to May the principal watering in the stove 

 should be done before noon, and to the middle or end of January 

 the house should be kept as dry as possible; a slight syringing. 



however, will be useful to keep the foliage clean from dust, itc. 

 A sunny morning is the best time to water overhead, and once 

 in ten days will be often enough. All plants that require prun- 

 ing or thinning-out before the next growing season should be 

 dressed at once to give more room for the rest. Clerodendrons, 

 Vincas, and other fast-growing plants, which require large pots 

 in summer, should never be wintered in these large pots; turn 

 them out, shake all the soil from them, and place them iu as 

 small pots as you can get their roots into, but do not prune the 

 latter much at this time. 



PITS AND FRAMES. 



-VU plants iu this department should be got in order for winter 

 as quickly as possible. Those that are well established may be 

 placed in their winter quarters at once, giving the most valuable 

 ones the best places, but those which are not well rooted may be 

 kept in heat a few weeks longer, for though Theory may say, 

 " Keep them as quiet as possible," Practice, which is a much 

 better guide, says, " Keep them growing until they are thoroughly 

 established, imless you wish to consign them prematurely to 

 the rubbish heap." — W. Keane. 



DOINGS OF THE LAST WKEK. 



Since writing last week's doings a change has taken place iu 

 the weather — a heavy rain on Wednesday, followed on Thurs- 

 day morning by a sharp frost 4' below the freezing point. Of 

 course all tender subjects have suffered very considerably, and 

 the beauty of the flower garden is over for this season. 



KITCHEN GjARDEN. 



On all dry and gravelly soils there is considerable difficulty 

 in obtaining good Cabbages, Savoys, Brussels Sprouts, &c., and 

 more difficulty still with Cauliflowers and Broccoli. In our 

 light soil we have given up the latter altogether. Of Cauliflowers 

 we make one sowing in the autumn and another early in spring. 

 The autumn sowing is now ready to go out under the hand-lights, 

 but the ground is not yet ready. They do well on the Gladiolus 

 gi'ound, no manure being required. As soon as the Gladioli are 

 lifted the ground is simply forked over, and the lights put on ; 

 they are 22 inches square, and each hand-light contains four 

 plants ; of course a few more are planted under each light to be 

 thinned-out and planted iu the open ground in March. 



Planted Lettuce in a dry south border. We have reduced our 

 stock of varieties to one only. We used to sow the Brown 

 Dutch Cabbage Lettuce for planting iu autumn to stand the 

 winter with the Paris and Brown Cos ; but the Cabbage Lettuce 

 were never used when the Cos vaiielies were to be had, and the 

 White Cos were preferred to the Brown. After trying many 

 varieties new and old, we have selected Hicks' Hardy White 

 Cos as being the best. It is simply a selected strain of the Paris 

 Cos, and is very like a white Cos which has been grown by 

 some of the cottagers in this neighbourhood for twenty or thirty 

 years. We select a dry day, and a time when the plants are dry, 

 to earth-up Celery ; do not attempt to do it unless it is dry, as the 

 plants are very liable to decay with us even under favourable 

 circumstances. 



The wet coming on Wednesday last prevented our finishing 

 gathering Pears and Apples. The fruit of some sorts seemed to 

 have a firm hold, although the pips had become brown. The 

 old Nonpareil and Scarlet Nonpareil hang on the longest, the 

 first named more so than the second. While the foliage is on 

 the trees and the fruit hangs firmly it must continue to swell ; 

 but on the other hand, if it is allowed to hang late, frosts, high 

 winds, and rain do much damage ; and the fruit does not keep 

 so well if it is gathered after being exposed to much rain. The 

 largest proportion of our Apple trees are worked upon the Para- 

 dise stock, and Pears on the Quince, and they bear abundantly 

 with summer pruning or pinching, so that it is not necessary to 

 lift any of them to induce fruitfulness. If this was necessary 

 it would be done at once, so that the trees would become esta- 

 blished before winter. When the trees had been only two or 

 three years planted we removed them by taking out a deep 

 trench at one end of the border where they were planted, aud 

 trenching the border from one end to the other, removing tho 

 trees as the ground was trenched. The object in doing this was 

 to work the ground well, and mix-in with the staple some clayey 

 loam, in order to improve the character of the light soil. Where 

 old trees had grown, before the young ones are planted it is 

 highly desirable to work-in some turfy loam amongst the roots ; 

 or if this is not to be obtained, the top spit from any cultivated 

 field would be beneficial to the trees. If the trees are planted 

 in a new garden which has not previously grown fruit trees, 

 this would not be necessary. All that would be required would 

 bo to dig a trench round the tree at a greater or less distance 

 as the tree is large or small, dig well down under the roots, so 

 that a spade can be readily thrust underneath the ball and the 

 tree heaved over partially on one side ; then throw it over in an 

 opposite direction, so that any tap roots can be cut through. 



FRUIT AND FORCINQ HOUSES. 



Many good growers of Piiw Abides keep up a high tempera- 



