318 



JOUBNAL OF HOKTICULTUKE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. 



[ October 24, 1867. 



are, dry and safe ; they will come on fast enough in spring. As 

 several times stated, we except Calceolarias, they will suffer 

 little from damp, unless it is excessive. 



lu keeping plants in such cool places, much will depend on 

 the dryness of the covering in severe weather. Like many more 

 we cannot practise what we recommend, but we know what 

 would be the easiest and cheapest way for protecting all such 

 plants in cold pits and frames. First, have a light waterproof 

 covering that will go over all the glass, and if the wall plates, 

 all the better. To sleep soundly we would use this every night 

 after the end of October, as it is very seldom there will be 

 dangerous frosts before that time. In mild weather we would 

 uncover, and give air early, and if a plant suffered from dry- 

 ness, we would lift it out and water it. This covering will make 

 all safe, if a sudden frost of a few degrees should come. When 

 a frost is likely to set in, we would cover the glass with calico 

 or other cloth, so as to keep the glass clean ; on that we would 

 place, according to the frost, from 3 to (i or more inches of dry 

 litter — rough hay is better than straw — and then place over 

 that the waterproof covering. Provided the walls were frost- 

 proof, we question if any frost we are likely to have would 

 penetrate C inches of dry hay, with a clean cloth below, and a 

 waterproof cloth above. The advantage of this plan is, that as 

 soon as the frost is gone, you can take your litter into a dry 

 place, and keep it ready for use ; and then, having served all the 

 winter, it will come in useful as a part of your hotbed manure. 

 We have seldom been able to carry all these precautions out, 

 but the mode is not only the best, but the cheapest in the end. 

 We have often saved well great numbers of plants with no- 

 thing but litter for protection, but do it as we would, the 

 labour was vastly increased. Now to " Discipulus," who 

 hates furnace work, but would not mind a little labour, we 

 advise the above mode. We will not enter into the plans for 

 taking off and putting on such covers. One of the simplest is 

 to have a cover the size of so many lights, from two to half a 

 dozen or more, with a neat pole — say 2 inches in diameter, 

 fastened to each end. These poles will enable you to roll up 

 the covers easily, and lay them down as easily, and the covers, 

 secured with a string to a staple in the centre of each light, 

 back and front, will be secure in wind, and rain, and storm. 

 As stated above, we would prefer using this waterproof covering 

 every night, and the other and the litter only when the weather 

 demanded it. The under cloth is only wanted for keeping the 

 glass clean. It may be dispensed with, if the labour is taken 

 to brush the remains of the dry htter from the glass, but such 

 cloth and such waterproofed covering will last many years if 

 not used for other purposes. 



Though pressed for time we must give advice to two corre- 

 spondents, as another week may be too late. First to " Anxious," 

 who has neglected taking cuttings of his Scarlet Pelargoniums, 

 but who is told he may succeed now by placing them in a dung 

 hotbed, or in a greenhouse where the temperature will range 

 from 40" to iry in winter, and asks how he must proceed. Well, 

 were we sure of a month of line weather, we would say, Take 

 off your cuttings as large as you can, remove almost all the 

 leaves except small ones, and place the cuttings in the hotbed. 

 As, however, the weather is uncertain, and the hotbed will be 

 sure to weaken the cuttings and render them more liable to 

 injury from changes, we would in your case make the cuttings 

 as above, leaving little except the small leaves at the point, 

 insert firmly and thickly in sandy loam, and place them at once 

 in the openest part of your greenhouse ; then, if watered just as 

 they require it, and withered leaves be taken off as they appear, 

 the most of these will stand and root well before the spring. 

 AH the succulent Scarlets will do best wheu thus treated ; and 

 in your case we would give no excitement by a hotbed, as the 

 losses will ultimately be greater. If you could command dry 

 heat as well, the bottom heat would have been an advantage, 

 not otherwise now. The case is different from that to which 

 we have alluded, in which the cuttings had been inserted some 

 time, and are yet not rooting so freely as desirable. 



The other correspondent has five beds of Scarlet Pelargo- 

 niums, but has taken ofi' no cuttings, has only the window of a 

 sitting-room, and a spare lumber-room with a window and no 

 fireplace. In your case you may take as many cuttings as 

 the window will hold, and place them thickly in pots, moving 

 them from the window in cold nights. Then, as soon as the 

 plants in the beds fade, or as soon as you cau, cut them down 

 to within 6 or 8 inches of the ground, remove every leaf, lift 

 the plants, and pack the roots firmly and thickly in soil in 

 boxes or large pots, water them, and when well drained move 

 them to your spare room ; all they will then want will be to be 



protected from frost in winter, and to be potted separately and 

 to have more Ught as they begin to grow in March or April. 

 — R. F. 



COVENT GARDEN MARKET.— October ii. 



BrsiNESs is still iiiiimportnnt, and very little cliange has taken plnce, 

 the demand beinf^ steady for all pood descriptions of produce both En^'lisb 

 and Foreign. The Potato trade has, however, been much stimulated by 

 additional reports of disease and light crops, the advance being from 8 to 

 10 shillings per ton. 



PnUIT. 



Apples J sieve 



Apricots doz 



Cherries lb. 



Chestnuta bush. 



Currants i sieve 



Black do. 



Figs doz. 



Filberts lb. 



Cobs lb. 



Gooseberries . . quart 

 Grapes, Hothouse, .lb. 

 Lemons 100 



Artichokes doz. 



Asparagus bundle 



Beans, Kidney, ^ sieve 



ScarletRun.4 sieve 



Beet, Red doz. 



Broccoli bundle 



Brus. Sprouts i sieve 



Cabbaq;e doz. 



Capsicums 100 



Carrots bunch 



Cauliflower doz. 



Celery bundle 



Cucumbers each 



pickling .... doz. 



Endive doz. 



Fennel bunch 



Garlic lb. 



Herbs bunch 



Horseradish .. bundle 



B. d. B. 



1 Otol 

 

 



8 



12 



Melons each 3 



Nectarines doz. 



Oranges 100 8 



Peaches doz. 8 



Pears (dessert) ..doz. 2 



Pino Apples lb. 4 



PUims ft sieve 4 



d. H. d 



ntoc n 







14 



15 

 3 







Quinces doz. 



Raspborrips lb. 9 



Strawberries lb. 



Walnuts bush. 10 Vi 



do per 100 1 1 C 



6 















VEGETABLES, 

 s. d. s. d I 



2 to 4 , Leeks bunch 



0! Lettuce . per score 



8 6' Mushrooms pottle 



2 6 3 Mustd.& Cress, punnet 

 "0 8 Onions .... per bushel 



6 Parsley per sieve 



6 Parsnips doz. 



6 Peas per quart 



Potatoes bushel 



8 Kidney do. 



Radishes doz. bunches 



6 

 2 



8 



8 



















4 



Rhubarb bundle 



Savoys doz. 



Sea-kale basket 



Shallots lb. 



Spinach bushel 



Tomatoes per doz. 



Turnips bunch 



Vegetable Marrows, dz. 



TO CORRESPONDENTS. 



*•• We request that no one will write privately to the depart- 

 mental writers of the ''Journal of Horticulture, Cottage 

 Gardener, ami Country Gentleman." By so doing they 

 are suhjected to unjustifiable trouble and expense. All 

 communications should therefore be addressed solely to 

 The Editors of the Journal of Horticulture, d'C.j 171, Fleet 

 Street, London, E.C» 

 We also request that correspondents will not mis up on the 

 same sheet questions relating to Gardening and those on 

 Poultry and Bee subjects, if they expect to get them an- 

 swered promptly and conveniently, but write them on 

 separate commuuications. Also never to send more than 

 two or three questions at once- 

 N.B. — Many questions must remain unanswered until next 

 week. 

 Books (W. M. G.).— The " Jard'n Fruitier du Museum " is a periodical 

 publication appearing at no fixed dates. It is quite a work of art, and 

 the figures are faithfully dra%\Ti ond coloured. There are already eighty- 

 eight numbers published at 5 francs (equal to 5i. here). We do not know 

 that Mr- Leroy's book is published; we think not. [A Constant Reader), 

 — " The Pine Apple Manual " will suit you. You can have it free by post 

 from our office if you enclose 2i. &(!. in postage stamps. {Alfred P.). — 

 The book ynn mention can be had of Messrs. Lovell, Reeve & Co. (Al2)ha, 

 lliiisJip). — " The Garden Manual" may suit you. You can have it free 

 by post from oui- office if you enclose twenty postage stamps with your 

 dddress. 



Ground Vinehies (I'/if).— If the article appeared recently we think it 

 must have been in No. 810 or 312, New Series ; but the principle nf these 

 structures was explained in No. 633, Old Series, and Nos. 28 and 29, New 

 Scries, besides which there are many other articles on the subject, which 

 may have appeared in your missing copies. 



Grapes (3Iontico}a). — Chasselas Napoleon is not a Muscat, but rather 

 of the Muscadine flavour, and it ripens in the same house as Black Ham- 

 burgh and Royal Muscadine. Olivette Noire is a long olivoid Grape 

 of the shape and appearance of the Morocco, but far inferior in fla- 

 vour to that variety. It requires, as you appear to know, a high tempe- 

 rature to ripL'U it, aud does very well in Languedoc and Provence, where 

 it ripens in the open air ; but it is not of sufficient merit to occupy space 

 in a vinery in this country. 



Strawberries and Raspberries (G. S.).— We have had no experience 

 of either Wilson's Albany Strawberry or of the Philadelphia Raspberry. 

 From what we know of other American Strawberries and Raspberries 

 cultivated in thi.'i country we should not anticipate any great Gsccllenco. 

 Perry and Cider.— " H. W." wishes for the name of some manufac- 

 turer of these. 



