January 8, 1867. ] 



JODENAL OF HORTICULTURE AND COTTAGE GAKDENEB, 



BL 



the job ; but it is important that some one should have it as 

 a matter of duty to attend to, otherwise it may turn out that 

 what is the business of everybody may become tlie business of 

 nobody, until after much mischief is done. Perhap-s, too, the 

 appointing some one in particular to look after such a simple 

 matter is all the more important, as just in proportion to the 

 energy, fidelity, and industry a man brings to bear on his own 

 particular department, so in general will it be found that he is 

 extremely sensitive as to going at all out of that department 

 without clear and specific orders and defined arrangements. 



KITCHEN GAEDEN. 



Here the weather has pretty well brought all matters to a 

 stand, and rabbits and hares will give us little trouble with 

 some other things. We htve before had trouble with young 

 plantations of Cabbages, but now we shall have none with a 

 nice quarter planted in September. Not a single plant is left, 

 and Brussels Sprouts will ere long follow them if the four- 

 footed game are to have their way. These Cabbages had been 

 netted round, but nothing but high wire netting would have 

 kept the vermin out. Seeing how matters were going, we have 

 potted some hundreds of strong Cabbage plants, and set them iu 

 an orchard-house, resolving to plant them out in better times. 

 We did so with a line lot of Caulillowers last season, and 

 after all they were so cut off level with the ground b}' rats, 

 that to have Cauliflowers moderately early we were obliged 

 to force them on under glass lights. Wherever game and 

 rabbits are encouraged close to and in the garden, rats follow 

 as a matter of course, and they will increase do what yon will, 

 until they pretty well frighten people to go out at night from 

 the strength of their bauds, and their clearing everything that 

 is eatable before them, as we have reason to believe, from the 

 newspapers, they are already doing in some parts of the 

 country. All forced' vegetables are much the same as in pre- 

 vious weeks, and it is well to have a good stock iu such weather, 

 as it makes one more independent of out-door supply. 



FRUIT GiEDEN. 



The weather did not jiermit of much being done out of 

 doors, with the exception of wheeling to Gooseberries and Cur- 

 rants manure and the decomposed rubbish-heap, which will be 

 pointed iu when the weather changes. After the heavy snow 

 on Wednesday morning we took the opportunity of sinokinii 

 the orchard-houses with bruised Laurel leaves. The snow was 

 shaken o£f the Laurels with a rake, and a dozen armfuls of 

 the young shoots were obtained. The task was not one of the 

 most pleasant, bat then it did not last long, as the shoots and 

 leaves could be beaten and broken inside, and then there was 

 plenty of in-door work for the day. These houses are so open 

 that it would be a great trouble to smoke them with anything, 

 unless at such times as there was a good covering of snow on 

 the root. We need not give details as to making the small 

 fires and piling the half-bushels of bruised Laurel shoots and 

 leaves oa them, farther than this, that the great object is 

 to obtain all the smoke possible, to have it cool, and never to 

 allow a twig or a leaf to flare. The houses were filled with a 

 very dense smoke for at least six hours, and though we have no 

 faith in any kind of smoke destroying the eggs of insects, we 

 would not give much after such o continued smoking for any- 

 thing having the breath of life. Even a man could scarcely go 

 iu to look at the smouldering heap for a few minutes. We 

 forgot, we think, to answer the question put last year as to the 

 efiioacy of such smoking with Laurel leaves and shoots as con- 

 trasted with tobacco smoke if it could be cheaply obtained. 

 Well, if equally cheap, we would by far prefer tobacco of 

 home-growth or otherwise, and one of our correspondents lately 

 showed how that could be successfully and economically grown 

 iu shrubberies in fresh soil, and afford there, too, a nice 

 appearance ; but at present, not to speak of the law interfering 

 with private growth, there can be no comparison as respects 

 expense between tobacco and the Laurel leaves for smoking 

 for such purposes ; aud as prevention is better than cure, we 

 would always be inclined to resort to the plan under similar 

 circumstances. Through this and other precautions we have of 

 late years been troubled with few insects, with hardly one all last 

 season in these houses. We must not, however, make too sure, 

 and a little effort to secure freedom from insects now will be 

 much easier than killing them if they do appear at a critical 

 time. With snow-covered glass and all together we could scent 

 the pungent odour of the Laurels some hundreds of yards 

 from the houses. 



ORNAMENTAL DErAItTlTENT. 



The great object has been to keep cold pits and frames 

 secure by covering, and in houses just to keep plants safe, and 



at the lowest temperature compatible with safety ; and this re- 

 quired the smallest amount of air to be given, and also pre- 

 vented the waste of heat in raising into vapour the amount of 

 moisture that would have been required in a higher tempera- 

 ture. Until now, damp and excessive vapour in the atmo- 

 sphere have had to he guarded against, and no great amount o£ 

 vapour will have to be added to the atmosphere of houses kept 

 in a cool state, say from 45" to 5o° — at least not much more 

 vapour will be required than can be given by damping the 

 floors and stages of the house, unless the outside thermometer 

 should be much more than 10° below the freezing point. Much 

 also will depend on the state of tho atmosphere, as a glass 

 house will often be more cooled in a temperature of 5" below- 

 freezing, v/ith a brisk wind, than it will be when the out- 

 side is 10° below freezing, but with not even a zephyr moving. 

 In protecting we threw a little straw over some pits suppliec5 

 with a little heat inside, but in all other cases we were glad of 

 the heavy fall of snow. It will protect many vegetables from 

 the cold, and it w-ill make cold pits and frames more secure. 

 As we know that the temperature inside is low enough, so as to 

 arrest growth, we will not take away the snow or expose the 

 glass so long as this weather is likely to last, aud the keen 

 frost along with the snow, even with a low barometer, would 

 lead us to expect some days longer of it. 



So long as this stormy weather lasts the keeping the houses 

 safe, with no waste of fuel, must ever be a first consideration. 

 If the damper is not used, heating by hot water must always 

 bo expensive, and for small single houses much more so 

 than flues or stoves. We have been amused by the details 

 given by " JIacd " about lighting a stove, and could corroborate- 

 them with instances of those who ought to have known better. 

 Looked at from " JIaud's " stand-point, the whole article is ad- 

 mirable ; looked at, as we think unnecessarily, by bringing in 

 the gardener's stand-point, there are several allusions that may 

 receive hereafter a little healthy criticism. But as to the fire, 

 we have had many smart young men beaten with a furnace, that, 

 besides heating a boiler, went through a long tortuous flue in 

 the back wall of the house. When this furnace fire was 

 lighted after long periods of damp weather, there was no 

 chance of making it draw if a soot-door, near the end of the 

 flue, was not taken out and a small brisk fire put in the flue 

 there. We recollect seeing four clever fellows once, almost as 

 black as chimney-sweeps, hut with bright lines down their 

 cheeks where the water was brought liberally from their eyes 

 by the acrid, sour smoke. We had seen the smoke pouring 

 out of the shed in which the stokehole was placed instead of 

 coming out at the chimney-top, and had heard the men called 

 in, one after another, to consult, as smoke-doctors, in the great 

 emergency, as to how to make the smoke go up instead of out 

 on them,''and all without avail. Well, everything had been 

 done correctly, a little dry litter and dry wood had been used 

 for lighting, the furnace door had been shut, and the ashpit 

 door had been opened that the air might reach the fire through 

 the bars, and yet out poured the smoke by the crevices of the 

 furnace door, open ashpit door and all — and why ? because no 

 one had thought of the damper, which was full in near the 

 furnace, aud when jjulled out smoke aud flame shot up like a 

 sky-rocket. We congi-atulate " Mavd " on having such close- 

 fitting furnace and ashpit doors. They are the first essentials 

 to economical heating by boilers ; and the second essential is 

 the due regidation of the damper — that is, the dumper shoul(i 

 be pulled out on lighting the tire, at least for half its length, 

 and then whenever the fire becomes bright aud the heat is 

 well up, shove the damper in to its full length, and afterwards 

 draw it out just a little to give a little draught. There seems 

 to be so much difficulty in this simple matter, even among 

 professionals, who, by having the damper out at all unseason- 

 able times, send the heat from tons of coals up the chimney, 

 that we have come to the conclusion, that in all heating of 

 small and moderate-sized houses by boilers, it would simplify 

 matters to pull the damper out partly when lighting the fire, 

 and after the fire was established to send the damper at all 

 times right across the flue, but to have a hole in the centre of 

 the damper about 1 inch in diameter, or two or three holes 

 that would come to as much, which would be sufficient for 

 draught, and yet send much heat back again on the boiler. — K. F. 



TRADE CATALOGUE KECEWED. 



William Paul, Waltham Cross, London, N. — Select list of 

 Vegetable, Flower, and Agricultural Seeds, Seed Potatoes, dc. 



