464 



JOURNAL OF HOBTICULTtJKE AND COTTAGE GABDENEB. 



[ December 19, 1867. 



ham Lake ice may make a tumbler of water in the hot summer 

 a delicious luxury, but it would be a very different affair if the 

 ice had been taken from a dirty horse or farm pond, well 

 coloured with liquid manure of all kinds. 



Such ice would be good enough for freezing, and in many 

 places such is the only ice that can be collected. Our own ex- 

 perience would lead us to the conclusion, that ice from muddy 

 water does not keep so long as that from clean water, and in 

 either case the ice that is collected when a thaw has commenced, 

 as on Wednesday, does not keep so well as when housed with a 

 keen frosty air, and one reason of that is, that if great care is 

 not exercised at the landing place, it is almost impossible to 

 avoid taking up mud and some decomposed vegetable matter 

 with the ice, and every bit of such mud, or even a bit of rotten 

 stick, from the air contained about and in it, helps to make the 

 ice decay faster than otherwise it would do. 



We have so repeatedly drawn attention to the principles nnd 

 the practice of ice keeping in different circumstances, that it is 

 quite unnecessary to say more than this to meet several in- 

 quiries, that unless for mere convenience, we would not think 

 of making a great hole for this purpose, if it would be more 

 convenient to have a double-walled house chiefly on the surface ; 

 and various modes of doing this in regular buildings, and in 

 makeshifts, have been given in previous volumes. The house 

 which we generally use is one of the old-fashioned egg-shaped 

 wells with a long passage to it, and with but a single brick wall, 

 and a fine lot of ice was left in it, though the well was not quite 

 filled last year. For some years the ice melted away at the 

 Bides, leaving a hard wide pillar in the centre, and though we 

 knew the reasons of this extra melting, we could not manage 

 to attempt to remedy it until the last spring, and then we only 

 did half of the necessary work, and we shall allude to this, as 

 it may be interesting to others. 



No doubt when this ice-well was made the top had been 

 securely covered with a due thickness of earth, but as it stands 

 in a favourite cover for game, and where provender is always 

 placed for their feeding, in the course of years rabbits, &c.. 

 had scratched away the earth from the top, and they and the 

 rats attracted by the provender had so burrowed around it that 

 the groimd became like a honeycomb of runs, which admitted 

 the air all round the brickwork of the upper part of the sides 

 of the well. In spring these holes were filled, the ground 

 rammed, and from 18 to 24 inches of soil, also well rammed, 

 placed over the top, bringing it in a slope considerably beyond 

 the ice-well, and this has kept the well dry, and few holes 

 have been made except on one side, and it is on that side that 

 there has been a melting away of the ice this season, though 

 not so much as there used to be. What we intended to do but 

 could net manage, after the earth was beaten firmly in spring 

 and a smooth surface obtained, was to cover it all over with 

 coal tar, and beat into it an inch of gravel. Then we feel sure 

 that neither rabbit nor rat would have found an entrance, and 

 we have little doubt that the same quantity of ice would have 

 lasted nearly double the time. 



It may here be worth while stating, that though ice keeps 

 remarkaiily well in nicely-covered stacks out of doors, it will 

 not do so if rabbits and rats are to have their runs all through 

 it, as then it will soon melt, and we know that these heaps 

 have had to be discontinued, because where pheasants were 

 regularly fed rats would become almost as abundant, en- 

 couraged no doubt by the plentifulness of the food. In many 

 places such a stack will only do justice to the skill and care of 

 the builder, when means are taken to keep all such vermin 

 out ; and the worst of it is, that a fence which they could 

 neither pass through nor climb, would soon cost as much as a 

 brick or a stone building. We have seen rats run up upright 

 wire netting as easily as they would scamper over level ground. 

 and, in fact, we know of no kind of fence that will keep them 

 out if they are resolved to enter. One thing baffles them — 

 namely, an upright plate of tin or sheet iron from 1 foot to 

 18 inches in depth, or a coping of the same extending hori- 

 zontally beyond the post or fence for a width of from G to 

 9 inches. We once saw a rat run up a stout post stuck in the 

 ground, more than a dozen times, and turn away baffled, 

 that post being one of others that supported a bottom frame- 

 work for a Wheat-stack, and what triumphed over all his per- 

 severing energy was merely a plate of tin fastened to the top 

 of the post and extending beyond it 4 or 5 inches. As Wheat 

 is generally even more valuable than ice, we could not help 

 wishing that by such a simple plan hordes of rats might be 

 deprived of the pleasure of doing almost as they liked with 

 stacks bnilt on the ground. 



Tainted Water. — We are obliged to "D. H." for his recom- 

 mendation of charcoal (see page 449). We had frequently nsed 

 it for small quantities of water, but never thought of it in the 

 present case. We will add that a little charcoal put into 

 Hyacinth glasses wUl keep the water longer sweet, and be of 

 benefit besides. 



Protection. — We should be very sorry if in our desire last 

 week to lessen labour to amateurs, we should lead them to be 

 over confident and less careful. " An Anxious LEiBNEn " 

 tells us he is afraid to leave his plants in cold pits, covered, 

 and without air day after day, even in severe weather, and an 

 experienced person tells him he will be sure to ruin all his 

 plants. He would like to see whether we practise what we ad- 

 vise, and as he cannot do that conveniently, would we tell him 

 what day we removed our covering last week ? Here let us re- 

 state that such continued exclusion from light in cold, stormy 

 weather, will only be safe, when the plants shut up are in an 

 atmosphere too cold to encourage growth. We forget now how 

 many days our plants, &c., in cold frames and pits were shut 

 up, but apprehensive of sharp frost coming on Saturday the 

 7th, and not wishing to have much or anything to do in that 

 way on Sunday, we gently turned and broke the surface of 

 the litter on such places, without removing it at all, and 

 threw a little more all over, as much as we thought would keep 

 out from l(f to 15° below the freezing point. Between Tuesd&y 

 night and Wednesday morning the wind changed, and the thaw 

 came graduaUy. On Wednesday we were engaged with the ice 

 cart, and were content for one day to let well alone. On Thurs- 

 day the 12th, we partially uncovered to let in a little light, and 

 in some cases, as Cinerarias, where the leaves seemed damp, 

 we gave a little air. On the 13th we had everything uncovered 

 wholly, and first gave air, and then as the day was fair, and there 

 was a little dry wind, we drew off the sashes altogether for several 

 hours, in order that the plants might be well dried, and thus be 

 prepared for another covering up if a week or a fortnight or 

 more of severe weather should come. Not a single subject 

 suffered from the covering up, and the saving of labour when 

 tbat has to be done with a great number of lights, is very great. 

 We might have uncovered altogether on the Wednesday or 

 Thursday, but after shutting up we tbink it safest to give fuU 

 light by degrees. We suffered nothing from frost entering, 

 and but little from rats, which found their way into several 

 places, but at this time they did not meddle even with a lot of 

 Cauliflowers with good heads, though they did a little injury by 

 covering some small flowering plants over with the soil from 

 the holes and runs they made. 



Besides exposing by taking off the sashes, we drew a pointed 

 stick between the thick rows of Calceolaria cuttings in a cold 

 pit. Hardly one in thousands showed a sign of sickness, from 

 shutting up, but they were as fresh and green as the day they 

 were inserted, and though the tops had begun to move there 

 was scarcely any movement downwards in the way of rooting. 

 That will be all time enough. AVe shall be better pleased if 

 they root after the New Year than before it, and for this 

 among other reasons, that they will stand rougher treatment 

 before rooting than afterwards. Another reason is, that when 

 planted so thickly as ours, each cutting having only a space of 

 l; to IJ inch, if they rooted early we would be obliged to thin 

 and transplant earlier than we should have time and room for 

 doing. Let " Dis.^proiNTEn," who fears his healthy cuttings 

 will never root in the cold frame, throw his doubt to the wind. 

 They will root all in good time. They will strike last enough 

 if he give them a little bottom heat, as he thinks of doing, but 

 they will be none the better of it at planting-out time, and, 

 again, after they begin growing in heat, they will want more 

 attention to light and air giving, as there must be no conti- 

 nuous covering up in frosty weather then. 



In frosty mornings and days did a good deal of wheeling. 

 Proceeded with cleaning, charring and burning rubbish, weeds, 

 d-c. No better time could be had for collecting BoUs, and placing 

 all earthenware pots under cover, or at least protecting them 

 from rain and frost. Cleaned and rolled part of the pleasure 

 grounds, and did what we could to catch and to drive away 

 moles, which are threatening to be troublesome. We succeeded 

 for a long time in keeping them out of our premises by daub- 

 ing tar in their runs, but they have come in such numbers of 

 late that we must trap, as, though we have no great repugnance 

 to seeing mole-heaps on land, or even, now and then, on pas- 

 tures, as the heaps make excellent top-dressings, we do not 

 hke to see them on fine-dressed lawns. 



Much against our will, we have been obliged to stop the 

 doings of tomtits, bullfinches, and other birds.— B. F. 



