January 31, 1867. ] 



JOURNAL OF HORTICULTUBE AND COTTAGE GAEDENEB. 



91 



of the bark, in order to make sure of its reaching every hiding- 

 place of the enemy, and if a little cow-manure were worked up 

 in the composition, it would be useful in causing it to adhere 

 better. It is a tedious process to properly cover large, old 

 trees with this, but its effect in clearing them of insects will 

 repay the trouble, and an occasional coat to young trees will be 

 useful in keeping them clean. Where FUberts are brought 

 under the dominion of the knife and spade, which is by far the 

 best method of cultivating them, let all suckers be effectually 

 removed, and let some manure be forked in about the trees. 

 Shorten all the strong shoots of last year's growth, but do not 

 interfere with the small ones, as it is from these that the nuts 

 are principally produced. It is better to thin out the large 

 branches if they are crowded with wood. 



FLOWER GAEDEN. 



In the absence of frost, prune hardy Roses ; reduce the wood 

 according to the luxuriance of the tree, but take into considera- 

 tion its tribe and habit. Finish planting the hardy sorts, and 

 protect their roots. If the removal of evergreens has been neg- 

 lected, it may be performed during mild, moist days. Prepara- 

 tion should be made in the pinetum to receive any proposed ad- 

 dition to the collection. If the natural soil be indifferent, 

 trench it to the depth of 3 feet, and allow a diameter of 6 feet, 

 raising a mound 18 inches above the surface to receive the 

 plant ; a compost of turfy loam, decomposed vegetable matter, 

 and sand, may be advantageously employed. The late severe 

 frost will test the hardiness of our late importations of Conifer.'B. 



GREENHOUSE AND CONSEKVATOUT. 



The continuance of unfavourable weather will not allow of 

 any essential variation of temperature here. The precautions 

 previously recommended in regard to allowing exterior circum- 

 stances to govern in a measure the temperature within the 

 house may be insisted on. Should high winds prevail, little 

 air need be admitted. Few of our glass houses are so con- 

 structed as totally to exclude air ; aided by the pressure of 

 strong currents, it will be insinuated through every crack and 

 crevice, and the necessity for admitting it by other means 

 obviated. Cinerarias and Calceolarias will require a liberal 

 supply of water, and possibly increased pot-room. Pelargoniums 

 must be cautiously encouraged to activity. The soil intended 

 for greenhouse plants should be prepared and sweetened by 

 several turnings, and a sufficient supply for immediate use 

 should be stored in an open shed. Heaths have a beautiful 

 habit of growth, and where a tolerable collection is kept some 

 are in bloom every day in the year. If any free-growing variety 

 requires a larger pot, repot it by all means. Water with care, 

 give air freely. Be particularly cautious with fire at all seasons, 

 even when frost occurs it must be very moderate indeed. At 

 this season many species of Epacris, Pimelea, Correa, Polygala, 

 and Boronia are in great beauty. As they go out of flower cut 

 them back, clear them of their dead flowers, and place them in 

 the cold pit. Where Orange trees are gi-own to decorate the 

 flower garden in summer, care should be taken to prevent their 

 beginning to push previous to their removal to the open air, and 

 this more especially if the trees are wintered in a dark-roofed 

 house. Where such happens the young leaves have always a 

 thin flabby appearance, and soon turn brown after the plants 

 have been set out of doors ; whereas, if growth is prevented 

 until the trees are in the open air, the foliage will bear any 

 amount of sunshine and still look green and healthy. Fuchsias 

 are also a tribe of plants which must be looked to without 

 delay where fine specimens are required. Shake the old plants 

 out, reduce the roots, and repot them ; then introduce them 

 into the forcing-pit at a temperature of about 60', and as soon 

 as you can obtain cuttings an inch or two long strike these, and 

 grow the plants on as quickly as possible, remembering that if 

 you want large plants they must be grown to a considerable 

 size before they show bloom. For soil use light, tm-fy, sandy 

 loam, with turfy peat, half-decayed leaf mould, and some sand. 



STOVE. 



For the present place a few pots of the early-flowering 

 Gesnera zebriua in the resting comer to ripen off gradually 

 for early flowering again. Select a few Gloxinias and Achi- 

 menes in variety, shake them out, and pot the former in open 

 turfy loam, heath soil, coarse charcoal, and sharp sand well in- 

 corporated, and do not pot too firmly. The Achimenes tubers 

 should at first be placed in pans thickly, and potted singly as 

 they push, in leaf mould and light loam in a very coarse open 

 state, with a fourth of charcoal added. These two tribes of 

 plants delight in a moderate bottom heat, and should by all 

 means be started on bottom heat. See that no plant is suffer- 



ing from want of water. If the green fly prevaOs smoke oc- 

 casionally with tobacco, and see that no other kind of vermin 

 is encouraged. — W. Keane. 



DOINGS OF THE LAST WEEK. 



Anuisi'incnts on the Ice. — Cleaning and brushing ponds from 

 snow for skating and other amusements formed a small 

 portion of the work done. Like the rest of the community, 

 our attention has been directed to the sad and fatal accidents 

 that have taken place by the breaking of the ice this season, 

 and as all contributions of experience may be useful in avoid- 

 ing such evils for the future, we will merely mention a few of 

 the results of a rather extended observation. 



1st, Ice formed thinly on the surface of water, and consider- 

 ably increased in thickness by the gradual melting and fre ezing 

 of snow over the surface, is never so strong in proportion to ite 

 thickness as ice formed from water only. 



2nd, When it is necessary to cut holes in ice, it should be at 

 the farthest point possible from the place that curhng, skating, 

 and sliding are carried on. 



3rd, W'e should object to cutting round the sides of ice, over 

 deep water especially, as in its case we never knew an in- 

 stance of ice rising, and leaving a space for air between itself 

 and the water, although we have bored holes on purpose some 

 scores of times ; but in water so shallow as from 8 to 12 inches 

 in depth, in severe frosts we have often found the ice rise in 

 the centre considerably above the water, and especially if the 

 reservoir was rather small. This we believed was partly owing 

 to the resistance offered by the sides of the banks to the ex- 

 pansion of the ice. Such ice not resting on the water would 

 not bear the weight that ice in contact with water would do, 

 but, so far as we recollect, we know of no instance in which 

 this rising took place in water from 3 to 6 or more feet in 

 depth. We frequently have a rather sharp frost dirring the 

 night, after a drizzling afternoon, and next morning many ruts 

 on the road will present small planes of ice, even though there 

 is no water left beneath them ; but the ice in such cases is 

 more brittle than that which is supported by water, and this 

 slight circumstance confirms our observations on ice over large 

 and deep reservoirs of water. 



4th, When ice is to be treated for the amusement and the 

 healthy exercise it wiU afford, the reservoir will be the most 

 useful, and the most quickly frozen over, in proportion to its 

 open exposure and shallowness — say from 12 to 18 inches in 

 depth. This would not be a sufficient depth for water used 

 for ornamental purposes, keeping waterfowl, &c., as well as for 

 amusement ; but in all public waters used for these two pur- 

 poses, and where there are the means of letting off the water, 

 the depth should be from 2i feet at the sides to 4J feet in the 

 centre, where there should be a culvert, marked by posts, 2 feet 

 deeper still ; the whole bottom to be macadamised, or con- 

 creted ; the mud when it has collected to be cleared away by the 

 culvert ; and then if the most venturesome receive a good 

 drenching at times, there will be Uttle likelihood of any loss of 

 life. 



KITCHEN GABDEN. 



Here the most of the work has been attending to vegetables 

 under protection, as Lettuces, Radishes, Endive, Asparagus, 

 Sea-kale, Rhubarb, and Mushrooms, and trenching up some 

 ground that had a little littery dung spread over it, as every- 

 where else was too hard for even a pick to enter. There 

 was only a day or two in which such work could be done, as 

 after the snow it would have been unsuitable, for turning in 

 gi-ound a little crusted at the surface is very different from 

 turning snow down to the bottom of a trench. It would require 

 more than a midsummer's sun to restore such ground to a 

 genial warmth. 



FECIT CAEDEN. 



The weather being dry, we did much pruning in the orchard, 

 opening the centre of trees and shortening the tops to bring 

 the fruit more within reach. Treated differently a few trees of 

 soft Codlin Apples, and, therefore, of no great value in the 

 kitchen garden, meaning to remove them some day, and at 

 present, to prevent theu' doing injury to the undercrops, pruned 

 oft' the lower drooping branches. These trees generally pro- 

 duce heavily, but their fruit is but little cared for when more 

 firm Apples can be obtained for sauce, pies, or puddings. The 

 snow being light and dry, a good opportunity was presented, 

 not only for pruning, but for carrying away all the cuttings 

 whilst the ground was hard, and thus we have obtained a good 



