30 



JOURNAL OF HORTICULTUEE AND COTTAGE GARDENEB. 



[ January 8, 1867~ 



cases it would bo well to bind liaybands round the stems of 

 valuable trees. Cover cboice bulbs sufficiently to prevent the 

 frost injuring them, and also the roots of Fuchsias and other 

 half-hardy plants. Roses must have additional coverings to 

 the roots, such as litter, moss, leaves, sawdust, or rotten tan, 

 and the tops must be protected with straw, fern, hoy, laurel, 

 spruce, or broom boughs, in fact, anything of that kind, and 

 the drier the materials are used the better. The same remarks 

 apply to creepers on walls. Over these mats may also bo 

 fastened, for although coverings are not required to be firm, the 

 mats are useful in keeping the other materials drj' and clean. 

 Now is an opportune period to make and colour the plan of the 

 flower garden, if not already done. Make it the beau ideal of 

 what a flower garden might and should be, and so ascertain the 

 quantity and quality of the plants requisite ; then determine, 

 in spite of diiiiculties, to carry the plan out, and a surprising 

 amount of success is certain to follow. 



FRUIT GAr,rjE>:. 

 Prune espalier .4pples and Pears, and fork up ground about 

 them in frosty weather, to disturb and destroy insects. In the 

 orchard thin out cross and crowded branches from Apple, Pear, 

 and Quince trees, it is a great mistake to have too much wood. 

 Scrape off moss and lichen from the stems, and if time will 

 serve, dress both these and espalier trees with a mixture of 

 quicklime and blue clay mixed to the consistence of thick 

 paint ; if this is well done there will be no need to scrape 

 them for some years. 



GREEXHOUSE AND CONSEEVATOKT. 



Take advantage of bad weather to wash up and arrange the 

 stock of dirty pots, to paint any tubs or baskets, wires, &c., out 

 of use. Prepare labels of various sizes, and forked sticks for 

 pegging down plants in the flower garden. Look over the stores, 

 and provide whatever may be required tor the season's use. The 

 princijial work in these houses will consist in keeping them and 

 their inmates scrupulously clean. The conservatory should 

 now be gay with Camellias and forced plants, which will take 

 the place of the Chrysanthemums now over. Keep up a regular 

 succession of plants to bloom in spring, by bringing forward 

 the stock of forcing plants as wanted. Roses, both dwarf and 

 standards. Honeysuckles, hj-brid Rhododendrons, and Azaleas, 

 with a host of other things, will enable yen, in addition to the 

 usual occupants of the houses, to make a brilliant shov.- through- 

 out the spring. Hyacinths, Narcissus, Tulips, Lily of the 

 Valley, and other plants of the above class, must be duly for- 

 warded as wanted. Hardwooded plants will require a dry, pure 

 atmosphere to guard against mildew and damp. The surfacing 

 of many plants that are not likely to require shifting can he 

 performed. Great caution is required in the application of 

 heat, as it would have an injurious tendency for the future to 

 cause excitement at the present time amongst any tribes of 

 plants that are required to bloom in their natural season. A 

 day temperature of 55° will be quite sufficient here at present ; 

 if this cannot be maintained without strong fires, be c'ontent 

 with 45°, and moderate tires, remembering that with this low 

 temperature a very small circulation of the air will suffice. A 

 high degree of heat would both hurry the beautiful Camellias 

 and other choice flowers past their best, and create a neces- 

 sity for the application of more atmospheric moisture, which, 

 unless a warm ?'oof is secured by covering, must end in drip, to 

 the great prejudice of the delicate blossoms. 



COLD FEAMES. 



As long as the temperature here can be maintained from 32° 

 to 35°, little harm will ensue by keejiing them covered. Our 

 practice is to tilt the hack and front alternately whenever the 

 glass rises to 32° out of doors. By these means the accumu- 

 lating damp is dispelled, and the plants receive as much light 

 as will prevent etiolation. Take care that the roof is well 

 protected ; the best way is to put a mat on the glass, then a coat 

 of clean straw, and then another mat. — W. Keake. 



DOINGS OP THE LAST WEEK. 



■" A FEW hints have come our way to the effect, " Beware of 

 prophesying about the weather," merely because we mentioned 

 frost as being likely to occur between Christmas and the new 

 year. We never do assume to foretel what is to come, but our 

 guesswork has not been so far wrong after all, as the new- 

 year's morning brought a sharp frost with it, which would have 

 been sharper still but for a fall of snow diuing the previous 

 night. 



Ice. — Bat for the snow on Wednesday morning, which covered 

 the ice on our ponds somewhat deeply, and thus prevented the 

 thickening of the ice, so as to give it strength for the ice-hoot, 

 we would have secured some on that day. We propose when the 

 snow falls less heavily, and it the frost continue quite as severe 

 as it is this (Wednesday) morning, to break holes in the ice and 

 jet water over the snow-covering, which will thus by another 

 morning give us a good thickness of ice, and enable the men 

 to secure it from deep ponds without danger. 



We cannot say that the last season has taught us any lessons 

 about ice farther than have been communicated in former years, 

 except this, that snow that had been collected, and with no 

 great weight of ice above it, when dug out was not so firm as we 

 used to have it, and though it answered quite as well for the 

 butler's purposes as ice, it did not suit the housekeeper so well 

 for pastry and icing. On the whole, we consider ice better 

 than snow, when it can be had. Both do exceedingly well when 

 mixed, and especially when there is enough of moisture, either 

 naturally or communicated, to run all into a solid mass, not an 

 interstice being left for air. Ice itself will keep better when so 

 pounded together. All our previous experience with snow alone 

 would point to the importance, not only of pounding it to- 

 gether well, but it the snow is at all dry, using a httle water 

 to make it go closer together. Last season we did not use 

 much labour with it, as we expected to put in a heavy weight 

 of ice over it, which would have done the compressing process 

 for us. As it was deemed unadvisable to do so, the snow-ice 

 came out less firm and compressed than usual. When snow 

 is thoroughly compressed, there is little difference between 

 it and ice. When not well pounded, it will be too loose for 

 freezing-mixtures, creams, &c., though very good for cooUng- 

 purposes. 



Sifee2nnri Walla was a hopeless task. So long as the snow, 

 though deep, was light, a broom could make a pathway quickly, 

 but in half an hour there were 3 or 4 inches more snow. When 

 the snow becomes deep, there is nothing better for walks and 

 roads than simple snow-ploughs, such as a triangle formed of 

 three stout pieces of wood 4 feet long, 1 foot deep, and from 11 to 

 2 inches thick for walks, with a handle to hold by at the base, 

 and a ring and chain in front for another man or two to pull 

 by, according to the depth of the snow. For roads, the pieces 

 of wood should be stronger and deejDer, and if the base be 

 G feet, the two sides should be 7 feet, and be well braced be- 

 tween to hold men or heavy weights if the snow is heavy. Such 

 a simple machine, with handles like a plough, and one or more 

 horses put to in front, would soon clear a great space of road. 

 When the snow is deep, 5 feet in width at the base would bo- 

 enor.gh, and when once an opening is made, the space may be 

 made wide enough by holding the plough sideways along each 

 side of the opening, and thus sending the snow farther back- 

 each way. Except in deep cuttings, and large snow-wreaths, 

 men can do but little with shovels in comparison with what can. 

 be quickly effected by such a simple plough. 



Gutters and Leads oi large houses should be examined, especi- 

 ally when frost precedes snow, as in that ease, if a few leaves 

 should collect in the cesspools for the water-pipes, the moisture 

 contained about them may be frozen over hard, and if a sud- 

 den thaw come, and there is much snow on the roof, there will be 

 no outlet for the water, the gutters and the leads will be flooded, 

 and the water will pass through the roof and the ceilings of 

 the rooms. We aro apt to forget at times how much more 

 quickly snow will disappear from a steep roof, even at an aver- 

 age temperature of from 35° to 40°, than ice will become 

 melted that has been formed in the cesspool of a pipe. We 

 have known cases where generally-intelligent people would not 

 acknowledge this simple matter until they consented to put a 

 pound of ice into a ]iound of water, even at 40', and to wait 

 until the ice melted. This simple e.xperimcnt, too, and testing 

 the temperature of the water in the melting process, would 

 give an idea of the amount of caloric that was parted with 

 before water could become ice, and the amount that must again 

 become absorbed before the ice could be changed into water. 

 At any rate, we can recollect of fully half a score of cases in 

 which, owing to the slow melting of ice, and the unwilhngness 

 to incur the trouble and the expense of sending a man to the 

 roof of the house to see if all the water-courses were clear, 

 what would have been obviated by even less than a day's 

 wages has involved a loss, in damage to ceOings, papering, 

 and furniture, of scores of pounds, and in one or two eases 

 himdreds would have been nearer the mark. This is a matter 

 generally attended to by the carpenter, bricklayer, or gardener, 

 and very often by the last. There is nothing very desiiable in 



