October 24, 1867. ] 



JOURNAL OF HOKTIOULTUliE AND COTTAGE GABDENEK. 



817 



space inside should be above and not below the surrounding 

 ground ; aud, secondly, the rats, grass mice, and, if outside 

 the walls, even rabbits linding their way inside of such a 

 place, aud doing much mischief, especially when the r't is 

 covered over several days and nights during severe frosts. We 

 have never kept Lettuces, Endive, and even Caulillowers 

 better than in such pits, regularly covered with neatly-made 

 straw covers, held up with stakes during the day, the cover 

 resting on its north end, and beinglet down every night, affording 

 additional covering in frost ; but then wo had pet cats that knew 

 their business too well ever to allow a mouse, rat,. or rabbit, to 

 be seen twice near such pits. When tliese verra'n cannot be 

 excluded, we have proved in many seasons that they are less 

 likely to meddle with Kndive, and other crops grown on the 

 open or ridged border, than they are when such things are 

 placed, as we think, more securely iu a pit. The very snugness 

 we give them renders them more a tempting curiosity to be 

 found out and tested. 



CarrvLi. — Will finish taking up the first opportunity, for if 

 left longer in the ground they ore apt to make a second growth, 

 and are more likely to be attacked by worms. They should be 

 dried before being stacked in dry sand or ashes. Nothing is 

 worse for packing in than old tan or sawdust, whatever tho 

 kind of wood, and however dry it may be. It will be almost 

 sure to taint the roots, and what is worse, will be very likely, 

 from heating, to reduce them to a mass of rottenness. Some 

 correspondents tell us how well the sawdust answers, and hence 

 we give this caution. It is very cleanly to work amongst, 

 and we used it freciuently for a surfacing to hotbeds, for setting 

 or plunging pots with plants in, but we seldom use it now if 

 we can ovoid doing so, and for two reasons — first, because we 

 generally found numbers of nasty funguses that would cover 

 the pots if left a day or two ; and, secondly, because the saw- 

 dust was apt to cling to and so stop up the drainage-hole, as to 

 make tho pots water-logged. Once we saw a couple of tons of 

 Carrots, and fine ones they were, a mass of rottenness from 

 being packed in dry sawdust. When the holes in the bottoms 

 of the pots are secured, by setting large pots on two bricks, so 

 as to leave a space below the drainage-hole open, then sawdust 

 is a valuable assistant for giving a mild bottom heat to the 

 roots, and if obtained fresh it will maintain this heat for a long 

 time. 



Ciiciimbcrx. — Placed some plants in a pit to keep them on 

 through the winter if deemed desirable, and to ease them, put 

 a good lining round four lights in frames so as to keep them in 

 bearing in the meantime. The lining is foimed of long litter 

 and rather long grass from the part of tke lawn least seen. 

 Every barrowload of dung, every bit of grass, and all fallen 

 leaves have now to be made the most of to yield a little heat 

 before they are decomposed. 



FKt-IT depahtmf.xt. 



Before this is printed, our last Peaches will be gone, and we 

 shall have nothing left in the way of stone fruit except Coe's 

 Golden Drop Plums. These from an orchard-house are gene- 

 rally remarkable for richness of tlavour. We have not yet been 

 able to top-dress afresh any of our fruit trees in pots, but we 

 shall move them directly to crack any roots that have gone 

 beyond the pots. Of the two period for top dressing, autumn and 

 spring, we like the autumn best if we cun find time, but most 

 of ns can hardly ever overtake our work so as to do just 

 as we hke, and it requires not only hands but heads to do what 

 is most needful at the time, and do everything so as to have 

 no second doing, nothing in the way of undoing, and to do 

 work without in the doing making more work out of it ; simple 

 though it seems, this is no easy matter to accomplish at all 

 times in a garden, one job so naturally leading to another. 



For preparing for planting and transplanting, see last week's 

 notices. Last week wo congi-atnlated ourselves that tho rats, 

 though thieving our Pears, had not touched our Melons, but 

 they have made their way into a frame, holed the best aud 

 ripest of the fruit, and a little arsenic being sprinkled on the 

 gnawed parts, we believe they have paid dearly for their thiev- 

 ing, though that will not bring the Melons back for use. 



Or.XASIENrAL UEI'AUTMEXT. 



We are forwarding work as much as possible in order to 

 permit of some moving and transplanting of shrubs, ond this 

 is just ono of those kinds of work which often make other 

 work. For instance, when shrubs are moderately thick, tho 

 lawn need not be so exact as to level and fineness, but when 

 so many are moved as to leave a largo open space, the mere 

 turfing over the holes w^ill often be a worse than useless 

 task, involving much future labour, and making it necessary 



to mow always with the scythe instead of the machine, which 

 always does best when the grass is of a uniform level elope. 

 In all such cases it is by far the best plan to well beat all such 

 holes, take off the whole turf, level the ground properly, and 

 lay the turf down again. One advantage of doing such work 

 now is, that after a beating and rolling the turf will look 

 after itself, which it often will not do if turfing is deferred to 

 the spring. Much of the dispatch and the perfection of the 

 work depends on taking the turf up, so that it shall be uniform 

 in size, and especially in thickness, as that will dispense with 

 much of the troublesome operation of packing in laying the 

 turf. 



W^e have been watching all the week until Saturday for the 

 grass being dry enough to machine it near the mansion, and 

 only succeeded on Saturday afternoon. With the exception of 

 a few tree leaves, especially Chestnut and Elm, the flower 

 garden is still beautiful, though a few of the Scarlet Pelargo- 

 nium-beds have been sadly drenched with the rains ; never- 

 theless, a few hours' sun wrought wonders. 



Much time has been taken up in putting in Calceolaria 

 cuttings in the pit as described last week, and also in moving 

 many plants from cold pits, and pits where we could give only 

 a Utile protection, to places where they would be more safe. 

 For instance, we had the trees in the Peach-house pruned, tho 

 glass, woodwork, walls, trellis, and trees washed with hot water, 

 then with soap water, and the trees run over with the same 

 with brushes, and afterwards shghtly painted with a weak 

 solution of (lishurst compound and a little lime in it, as the 

 white colour helps to keep the buds backward. The wooden 

 treUis and the walls were painted with limewash, toned down 

 to a darker colour by mixing with it blue black powder, gene- 

 rally at the rate of from 2 to 3 ozs. to a pail. This does away 

 with the scorching reflection of light and heat from a bright 

 white surface. The lime was fresh before it was reduced to a 

 sort of lime putty to make it soft for the brush. We have never 

 seen a better example of white lime-washing, for the day 

 after the wall was washed we could not whiten our fingers 

 in the least by drawing them firmly along the wall. So 

 far as anything coming oif was concerned, it was as firm as 

 paint — a result of importance, and only to be attained by 

 having fresh lime and a clean-washeJ wall to put it on. We 

 covered the floor of this house with boxes of hcddinr/ Fclargo- 

 niums, mostly of the variegated kinds, and the shelves used 

 for Strawberries were filled chiefly with J't-rbenas, thickly set and 

 struck in -JS-sized pots. Then, as Melon and Cucumber frames 

 gave us more room, we moved numbers of the more exposed 

 plants into these temporarily until better established, and we 

 had another house made ready to place them in for the worst 

 months of the winter. A few subjects were just sending their 

 roots out, and others not much more than swelling at their 

 base, and the most tender of these we moved to a pit, where, 

 by means of grass and Utter beneath, we could give them a 

 little bottom heat, and by means of a pipe in front a little dry 

 heat in cold, wet weather ; in a few weeks they will be estab- 

 Ushed. Others we gave a little bottom heat to in frames, 

 taking out the soil and about '.i inches of the surface dung, 

 mixing the other up with grass, litter, and leaves, being careful 

 to elevate tho bed more at the back, and then we replaced the 

 rotten Jung on the surface, put on the frame, placed a barrow 

 load of dry ashes in each light, and plunged the pots of cut- 

 tings. With this help they will be secure in a few weeks. All 

 such pots, if at all dry, were watered when out, so as to take 

 as little damp into the new place as possible. For a continu- 

 ance, the damp that will come from the rough fermenting ma- 

 terial beneath would be injurious ; but the heat it gives will 

 be invaluable in the present case, and the dry ashes on the 

 surface are also a good security. 



Young plants in boxes, pots, pans, itc, now well rooted, and 

 that cannot be taken into houses where there is fire heat, 

 should hove nothing in the way of bottom heat. Ihey wiU be 

 much better in abed where the bottom is above the surrounding 

 giound level, than in an old hotbed of any kind, and provided 

 the leaves do not actually flag, aU such cuttings should be kept 

 as di-y as they safely con be, and be rendered hardy by as much 

 exposure as possible, but keeping them from the slightest rains, 

 and even from mists. 



To succeed with Verbenas, Pelargoniums, &c., in a cold pit, 

 or cold frame, it is essential that the plants be rooted by the 

 middle of October, and that from that time as much dryness as 

 the pl.ints will stand must be a main consideration. Growth 

 during the winter months in such circumstances should be 

 avoided, and the chief object should be to keep them as they 



