March -21, 1867. ) 



JOURNAL OP HORTICULTURE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. 



215 



painted green, blue, &a., for those who like them, but we would 

 rather, when a single stick is neces3ai7, have one as incon- 

 spicuous as possible. The white sticks made from double laths 

 so commonly in use arc to us only endurable when age has 

 made them modestly brown. We, therefore, like better sticks 

 with the varied coloured inconspicuous bark of the Hazel, the 

 Cherry, the Apple, the Pear, and even the slender shoots of the 

 Currant. Prunings in the garden will, therefore, supply at 

 little cost a large number of little sticks from a quarter to half 

 an inch in diameter, and from 12 to IS inches long. A piece of 

 undergrowth being cut down in a wood; before it was faggoted 

 up we selected many bundles from the size spoken of above, 

 up to those 1 or 2 inches in diameter, and of various lengths, 

 and the bundles of the smallest sizes were prepared in the 

 stormy days. This is much more easily done now than when 

 the shoots had laid longer, as the side spray was easier cut 

 ■with the knife, and the pointing more easily effected. In 

 pointing such sticks from the smallest size up to those aboiit 

 the thickness of a fjngcr cur plan is to make only two cuts with 

 a sharp knife, the first removing half the thickness of the 

 shoot, and the next leaving less than the quarter thickness for 

 the point. These small sticks when thus done, or rather as it 

 is done, are laid in sizes, straightened first if they want it, and 

 then tied in bundles to keep them straight, and if wanted soon 

 are placed over the furnaces to dry all vitality out of them 

 before using them in pots. This drying is necessary in many 

 cases, otherwise the sticks would root in pots, if the latter were 

 in a good heat. Fuchsias grown out of doors on the stool 

 system make neat little sticks, but they must either be well 

 frosted, which leaves the bark ragged, or they must be well 

 dried before using, or every shoot, if in a warm place, will 

 root in the pot where it was only intended for a support. Some 

 years ago we could have had a plantation of young Apple 

 bushes from sticks thus rooted, though they would not have 

 rooted if planted out of doors. 



KITCHEN GARDEN. 



From what has been stated, little has been done in the open 

 garden, and the severe weather only induced us to put more 

 Sea-kale in the JIushroom-house than we intended, and it a 

 change do not take place soon, we may also be induced to take 

 up a piece more Asparagus. Our last piece under glass is just 

 peeping through the soil, and we did not wish to take up more 

 if we could help it. In some of the worst days we did not 

 uncover Potatoes. Radishes, itc, as there being but little or no 

 heat below tbem they would not sustain any injury if they had 

 a nigbt of twenty-four or even of forty-eight hours. We could 

 not thus use Cucumbers in dung-beds, though one snowy day 

 we merely uncovered a small ])ortion of the lights, as the heat 

 ■with long-continued darkness would be apt to draw the plants, 

 and make them tender .and impatient of the sun. Even thoiigh 

 uncovered almost every day, they had been used to such dull 

 weather that we were obliged to shade a little during the 

 brightest part of the Saturday. It is best to do with little or 

 no shading, but when the changes are sudden from dulness to 

 brightness, a little shading will enable the plants, as it were, 

 time to gather up their energies to meet the force of the sun- 

 beams. A great point will be gained if, when this shading is 

 attended to, it remain not a minute more than is necessary. 

 Do what we will we cannot give to a plant that which it re- 

 ceives from the sunbeam. Shading rightly given often remains 

 on not for minutes but for hours after it is not wanted. Owing 

 to this simple matter cuttings that would strike well in a cer- 

 tain time do not strike in double the time, but become weak 

 and elongated upwards from an excess of shading. This has 

 led us with many common plants at this season, or indeed at 

 any season, not to shade cuttings at all, but to neutralise a 

 bright sun by keeping the cuttings at a greater distance from 

 the glass, and checking evaporation by a slight jet of water 

 from the syringe. 



The mention of Cucumbers reminds us of a discussion some 

 time ago, on the comparative merits of hot-water pits or houses, 

 and dung-frames or pits. Our opinion i», that each may be 

 preferable to the other .according to circumstances. For winter 

 work we prefer, as giving least trouble, a lean-to house with a 

 steep roof, or a span-roofed house. In either case with plenty 

 of heat at command, the plants would do well from the 

 abundance of hght they would receive. In frames am! pits 

 with a flat roof, the great drawback is the want of direct light 

 in the dull months of the year. At such a time with plenty of 

 manure, a frame is rather better than a fixed flat pit, because 

 you can raise your frame so as to take off the flatness of the 

 glass. For winter work it is always an advantage to be able to 



go inside and do the necessary work, though there ia much 

 truth in what our elder brethren say, that iiot water does away 

 with the attention that was requisite to secure Cucumbers in 

 beds and frames heated by dung in winter. After Christmas 

 is past, and the frame or pit is so narrow that all the work has 

 to be done from the outside ; then but from the additional at- 

 tention there H but little to prefer between hot water and 

 dung heat, provided there is plenty of the latter to do all that 

 is wanted. In the latter case there is no ( r.pense for fuel, and 

 the manure is useful for the garden when no longer capable of 

 affording heat. Some of the greatest r.lmirera of hot water 

 for everything are beginning to see that ihey would have been 

 wiser to have kept some of their hotbeds, and thus have secured 

 a supply of manure for the garden, instead of all the manure 

 going to the park and the farm. 



Banked-up our frames with litter, fastened small spouts in 

 front to prevent the rains dripping from the sashes and passing 

 into the bed, a matter of importance for keeping in the heat, 

 and covered all round with a layer of laurel boughs. One ad- 

 vantage of having a bed or a pit partially sunk is, that the 

 sides are less exposed. The position, however, must be dry. 



Peas. — It is only right we should state here in the way of a 

 caution, that in one of the snowy days when the roofs of the 

 orchard-houses were covered with snow, merely as a pre- 

 cautionary measure, we smoked the house well again with 

 bruised laurel leaves. This did no harm to anything, though 

 there were Deutzias. Dielytras, Cauliflower, Lettuces, etc., in the 

 houses, except the Peas, which were planted out lately. They • 

 were, no doubt, a little tender. The upper leaf or two hung as 

 if frosted, and if we had not noticed the appearance before 

 there was much frost, we should have blamed the frost for it. 

 The centre of the shoot, or the axis of growth, is all right, the 

 lower leaves are scarcely if at all affected, and we believe in a 

 few days there will be little sign of anything wrong, but we 

 mention this that those who have Peas in a house may be 

 careful in this respect. We mentioned the other week, that 

 they will not stand even when in an advanced state to be 

 syringed with liquids, which can be thrown against Peach 

 trees in the same house with impunity. In a house, at' any 

 r.ate, our experience leads to the conclusion tkat no liquid except 

 clean water should go over their foliage. 



FKUIT DEPARTMENT. 



Strawberries. — Some weeks ago we mentioned seeing httle of 

 the green fly on Strawberry plants for years, but it has appeared 

 on the plants in the Peaeh-house just when in bloom, and not 

 one is to be seen on the Peach tree'-. On a snowy day the 

 Peach-house was smoked with a little tobacco, find bruised 

 Laurel leavr;s above it. twice or thrice during the day, leaving 

 the fumigating-pots only half an hour at a time. We never 

 think of smoking during the day, unles.; in such exceptional 

 circumstances. The fly was pretty well destroyed, and nothing 

 else in the least injured, not even some young Peas in the 

 house ; but, then, the smoking was not so strong, and only for 

 a short period at a time. We have had young Peas injured by 

 tobacco smoke and burned tobacco paper when the plants in 

 the house were young before transplanting. The prussic acid 

 in the cool smoke had just been enough for them in the orchard- 

 house, and had we thought it would have affected a single leaf 

 we would have let the smoking alone, or covered the Peas with 

 something until the smoke had gone. 



As hinted at last week, the snow threatening to be severe, 

 we shook some litter over the Apricot trees and Peach trees, 

 the former one mass of fruit-buds, and fastened some Laurel 

 boughs over the litter, which will remain on until the weather 

 changes. Some Pears on bush pyramids had their blossom- 

 buds very forward, and we tried some Laurel boughs round 

 them, but we soon saw the remedy was worse than the evil ; for 

 the Laurels formed such a hiding-place, that in a few hours 

 hundreds of buds were lying on the ground, as tomtits and 

 bullfinches could work unseen. The buds, however, looked 

 so much affected in consequence of being alternately soaked 

 and frosted, that in the severe frost of Saturday morning we 

 sprinkled a little litter over the trees before the sun touched 

 them ; serving, also, the most forward of the Gooseberries in 

 the same way. With the precautions previously adverted to, 

 and the noise of the gun now and then, we have as yet suffered 

 much less than last year in having the buds of bushes and 

 trees destroyed by birds. Gooseberries, especially, have as yet 

 been little touched, but are getting very forward in places, and 

 a little litter may save the fruit. 



ORNAMENTAL DEPARTMENT. 



Some of the work here has been already alluded to. In a 



