168 



JOURNAL OF HORTICULTURE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. 



I March 8, 1870. 



so covered for a fortnight more. The thaw set in with a 

 slight drizzle, which consolidated rather than melted the snow. 

 The warmer air had but little effect on the surface of this glass- 

 like iced snow, but in a very short time, though not averaging 

 above 38°, it penetrated to the whole of the covering and glass 

 beneath the snow, and melted the snow itself from beneath, 

 leaving a cake of ice on the surface for days after the thaw had 

 obtained the mastery beneath it. This was just one instance 

 out of many that warm air will find its way where cold air 

 could be kept oat. 



Pits ami Frames. — We would like to say a few words to 

 several correspondents who want a little advice about pits and 

 frames, that they may be able to act on it this month. 



" A " is to make a brick pit, 6 feet wide, 4i feet deep at back, 

 and 3j feet in front, half of the height to be under the ground 

 level. He wishes to grow Cucumbers and Melons in summer, 

 with a little dung for bottom heat, no other heat, and keep 

 bedding plants above the old bed in winter. For summer work 

 there will not be room for more than 2 feet of dung on the 

 level, and it would be of little use turning out the plants before 

 the end of May, even though the glass was covered at night. 

 We have kept plants in such a bed with protection in winter, 

 but it is peculiarly liable to damp. It would be much better, 

 in building the pit, to leave a ledge of brick — say 2 inches wide, 

 all round inside at 2J feet from the bottom, so that you could 

 lay boards across from side to side for receiving all the dwarfer 

 plants after the soil and dung were removed. With careful 

 watering, plants could be better kept on the boards with air 

 beneath them, than set on ashes, &c, on the top of the soil of 

 a bed. 



In answer to " B," we would say that going down to secure 

 warmth where no artificial heat is given is generally a mistake, 

 as, though more warmth is thus secured, there is more liability 

 to damping and the spread of fungus in winter. 



" C " says he can have a pit 2 feet above the ground at the 

 back and 14 inches in front ; width not much more than 5 feet. 

 He only wants to keep cuttings and low and small plants, and 

 wishes to know how much he should sink. We say none at 

 all. We would make the inside as hard as we could with con- 

 crete, and would like to finish with a washing of cement to 

 keep damp from rising, and the inside surface we should prefer 

 to be 2 or 3 inches above the surrounding level. We would 

 have a small hole in the wall at every 2 or 3 feet to let moisture 

 out, especially in summer, for with careful watering there would 

 be none to come out in winter. 



" D " is in great straits because he can obtain no bricks, but 

 he can have Larch or Scotch Fir boards 2 inches thick if he will 

 have them sawn. Well, we would not grumble in such a case. 

 If well, or even if roughly put together, the boards would be as 

 serviceable as a brick pit, and the putter of them up would 

 have to live long to see the end of them. In such a case we 

 would have a raised platform of concrete, with the ground 

 sloping from it ou both sides, and we would give the bottom of 

 the boards resting on the concrete a good coat of pitch. If we 

 didnot pitch we would anticorrosion-paintthe inside when well 

 seasoned ; and if we did not wish to use the place for some 

 months in summer we would tar the outside when well sea- 

 soned, but by no means when the wood was green. We should 

 feel ourselves as secure with these boards as with a brick wall. 

 We met once with a case where there were plenty of thinnings 

 of young Larch trees, and where even sawing might be an 

 object. These young trees, about 3i inches in diinieter, were 

 cut into the requisite lengths, a small trench taken out, the 

 pieces put in wide end and narrow end alternately, and a some- 

 what thick rail put along the top for a wall plate; the plan 

 answered very well as a neat makeshift, and admirably for 

 Hardening-off bedding plants in spring. The Larch thinnings 

 would have lasted better and looked better if peeled. A double 

 row of such stakes, with moss and sawdust stuffed between 

 them, would make a good pit where it would not be worth while 

 to use the thinnings for rails or small props. 



" E " finds he cannot have paint, finds his plants damp 

 much in his pits and frames, and wishes to know if he could 

 not use tar for paint inside and on the ground, to keep the 

 damp from rising. No, not by any means inside of a place 

 where plants are kept until every scent of the tar has gone. 

 Did we intend to have a frame or a pit above ground next 

 autumn, then we would have no hesitation in making a raised 

 platform now some inches above the surrounding level, and 

 making the ascent of moisture next to impossible by a coating 

 of tar and gravel, as, if that stood exposed during summer, it 

 would be deprived of its noxious taint before being wanted in 



winter, and the same might be said as to painting with tar in- 

 side. But even as respects the latter we have some doubt, as 

 when heat iB applied, as even a strong heat from the sun, it is 

 long before tar becomes insensible to it. We should have no 

 hesitation in using pitch, as that is comparatively inodorous. 

 With boards well seasoned, limewash coloured to suit, tends 

 to preserve them. Bear in mind, however, that everything 

 you coat a board with, if the board is not dry and seasoned, 

 will only hasten its decay. We once noticed a lot of gates 

 made at the same time, and of similar material. Some were 

 never painted, and could sport a few lichens as drapery in 

 fifteen years, but beneath the mossy exterior were quite sound, 

 whilst many of those painted at once when green were rotten 

 before they were twelve year3 old. 



" F." is in great perplexity whether to have a pit or a small 

 lean-to house, as he has a wall 10 feet high. Why should he 

 be perplexed ? A lean-to house under such circumstances, 

 with a fixed roof, would cost much less than a pit with move- 

 able sashes, and then with a little stove of brick or iron, he can 

 keep out frost and damp without mats or litter, and whenever 

 disposed, and especially in bad weather, he can walk inside 

 and give what treatment is necessary to his favourites. The 

 very quantity of air contained in, and light admitted into 

 snch a house, renders the management easier and more agree- 

 able. See answers to correspondents, pages 113 and 114. 



FECIT GABDEN. 



Proceeded with pruning, and in the case of bush trees, 

 whitening after pruning, the birds going more to a pruned 

 tree than an nnpruned one. We are just waiting for an oppor- 

 tunity of fresh surfacing and watering orchard house trees, 

 at least partially, but we should like the water to be a little 



| warmer. We have had a few fine days for Peaches, and 

 Strawberry plants in bloom, or coming in. We have had only 



j one drawback as respects Strawberries this season as yet, and 

 that is the number of plants that have had their crowns 

 nipped out by mice, and especially grass mice, which are be- 

 coming alarmingly abundant. No bait or trap seems to be of 



| any use, and they seem to care nothing for green food when 

 laid down for them. Small snares in their runs might answer, 

 but snares, though small, would be objectionable. Where they 

 become so numerous as to be troublesome in pleasure grounds, 

 we have little faith in getting rid of them except by encouraging 

 some colonies of owls, as their natural enemies, or allowing 

 cats to have unmolested nocturnal rambles. The number of 

 mice that a few barn owls will nip up would never be believed 

 by any who had not examined their nests, &c, but a score of 

 Watertons, however versed in the natural history of the owl, 

 would never convince a gamekeeper that the owl was not one 

 of his worst enemies, and therefore to be destroyed without 

 mercy. It is true that our boyish recollections force us to own 

 that at times the owl will pounce on a young bird, but those 

 the gamekeeper cares about, are generally when small under 

 the protection of the parent bird at night, and it is rarely that 

 the owl goes abroad during the day, while there can be no doubt 

 that mice, when to be had, form the bulk of his food. We could 

 not say as much for cats at large. If any of our numerous 

 readers can tell how to get rid of these grass mice, he will 

 confer a great benefit on many. 



OEX.UIEOTAL nEPAETMEHT. 



We have suffered also in this department. The Czar and 

 the Neapolitan Violet under glass have been monopolised by 

 the teeth of mice. Scarcely a flower-bud of any size has been 

 left ; and though blooms have been dissected, and spread all 

 over the ground, little if anything of the buds seems to have 

 been eaten, so that the destruction has been for mischief, unless 

 the mice obtain something sweet in the scent. They seem 

 to get in when tho places are open, and take themselves off, or 

 hide themselves, when they do the mischief. In this case we 

 mean to water with something unpleasant, even though the 

 aroma of the flowers should suffer at first in consequence. 



Tulips coming through the ground need protection from cold 

 searching winds, and the spring planting of Ranunculuses and 

 Anemones should be proceeded with as soon as the weather 

 will permit. Pinks and Carnations need looking over ; our. 

 greatest enemies are mice. For Calceolarias, etc., in cold 

 pits, give all the air possible now to keep them sturdy. Water- 

 ing must ke eirefally given to all plants where no artificial 

 heat is afforded. We are delaying thinning bedding plants, as 

 at present we are so scarce of room. In a week or two we may 

 expect more settled weather, and then orchard houses and 

 earth pits must come in as our helps. We potted what we could 

 of Pelargoniums, See., and commenced with Fuchsias, in tho 



