170 



JOURNAL OF HORTICULTURE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. 



[ March 3, 1870. 



decavo anil kept in a cool dry place until autumn, when they may 

 navetho offiieta removed and be potted. They will flower the second 

 year, but will not be nearly 80 good aB this year; indeed, we think it 

 moth better to plant thein oat in the borders and purchase fresh roots 

 for pot culture. 



SlLSAFY AND Scorzonera Culture (D. I).).— Sow about the middle of 

 \nril in (rood riob soil, bat not in newly manured ground, and have it 

 well and deeply dw, and the lumps broken and made tine. The rows may 

 ho 1 foot apart, and the plants thinned out to 6 mcbeB distance in mo 

 rows Birds arc very fond of the seeds, therefore scare tbem away, or 

 cove; with nets if the seeds are likely to bo taken. All the treatment 

 r.-ouirod is to hoc the ground between the rows, and keep clear of weeds. 

 In O-tobsr the roots should be taken up and stored in sr.nd like 

 Uarro s and Beetroot, in a cool place. A light 6 feet long and 3 I leet wide 

 will re., uire 16 superficial feet of glass, less the sr.shbars and top, bottom, 

 and side rails; but the laps of the squares make up for that, so ; hat it is 

 nsnal to measure over and include all woodwork in measuring glazing. 



Wallflowers in a Conservatory (A Ladu in Clt. ,;.irc i.-The seed 

 ou»bt to bo sown in March in pans, and be placed in a gentle teat until 

 the 1 plants are up ; then place these near the glass in a cold frame, and 

 when they become large enough to handle prick them off in an open 

 Situation in the open ground in good rich soil, shading and watering for a 

 time until established The plants should be taken up w.th balls and 

 potted in -f-inch pots early in July, and have the pots plunged in coal 

 ashes, shading from nri put sun u ntil established and in A ugust thej 'should 

 have 6-inch pots, and he placed in a warm situation, supplying them well 

 with water up to October, when they should be removed to a cool airy 

 hoi ' beplaced nearthe glass. They will bloom at the time required, 



the'forwardest r'.ants I.eiuzplsc. -1 in gentle heat, or in a house ^om which 

 frost is excluded, early in November. Yen will find full particu.ars of 

 the forcing o! Lily of the Valley for Christmas blocmmg m last volume 

 pace 498 No. 456, of this Journal. Of Violets we can add but little to what 

 has been stated in the late volumes, and we could not answer your ques- 

 tion without going through the whole of Violet cu.ture, which we shail do 

 at no distant date. Date stones or seed may be sown m sandy soil, and 

 be placed in a hotbed of not less than 85 r or 9) c ; in the course cf three 

 mouths they may germinate, and may be removed to the stove, and be 

 potted in a compost c: fandv rout and a little loam, and grown tDe same 

 as other Palms. See answerto another correspondent in No. 463, page 113. 

 Zonal Pelargoniums foe Winter Flowering (7<2;m).-Clipper, Pre- 

 sident Lincoln, and Scarlet Globe are good. See answer to another cor- 

 respondent, page 133 of the present volume. 



Tulips not Rooting (W.E.).— We are unable to account iortbetnlbs 

 not rooting, but think the bases of the bulbs have been gnawed or eaten 

 off by m : ce or otherwise injnred. We have known the bulbs go off alto- 

 gether, but vours seem to have grown, and how they could grow to a 

 blooming state without roots is to us inexplicable. 



Destroying Woodlice and Green Fly (Ntmee).— Sulphur will not 

 kill woodlice nor hellebore powder ; but you may trap a great many by 

 niacin" in a Email flower pot a boiled potato wrapped in a little hay, 

 layino'it on its side near their hauute, and in the morning shaking out 

 the woodlice into a bucket of boiling water. A number of such baits will 

 soon thin the woodlice. For green aphis on Cinerarias fumigate the 

 house with tobacco, or dust the plantB with tobacco powder. 



Liquid Manure foe Robes (Idem\— We advise liquid manure to be 

 given P.oses in pots when the buds show, and up to the flowers expanding. 

 The liquid manure ought not to be strong ; one peck of cowdung to twenty 

 gallons of water, or one ounce of guano to a gallon of water are good. 



Fowls Scratching Beds (An Amateur).— Nothing that we know will 

 keep fowls from scratching beyond putt ingtkem in boots, which is ruinous 

 to them. Salt would not prevent their scratching, or, if it would, it would 

 be injurious to the plants if aprlied in quantity. Wire netting, we think, 

 will be the only mode of keeping them from the beds. 



Clearing Asparagus Eeds (Idem).— Early this month you may clear 

 the bed of the loose litter and fork the surface neatly, making it fine, but 

 not going so deep as to injure the roots or crowns, and you may then give 

 a dressing of 1 to li lb. of salt per square yard. 



8owtng Melons (Idem).— You will gain nothing by sowing the seed 

 early in March, growing in brisk teat, shifting into large pots, and 

 planting out in June ; for the plants will no doubt become stcnted and 

 make but poor progress after planting out. We should sow early in April. 

 and by growing on you will have strong plants for planting out in June. 



Protecting Peach Trees (B.P.).— A double thickness of garden net- 

 ting, say three-quarter-inch mesh, is good protection for Peach and 

 Apricot blossom, but not equal to Beech branches with the leaves on. 

 We should use both— i e., the netting permanently at night and on cold 

 davs until danger from frost is past, removing it by day in mild bright 

 weather, and have the Beech branches in readiness in case of severe 

 frcst It would not do the treeB good to give them an engine-washing 

 •with soapsuds after the trees are nailed if the buds have begun to swell, 

 but on the contrary it would injure the buds, especially if the soapsuds 

 are 'from a laundry ; snch hold soda in solution very often in no limited 

 quantity. You can have " Bee-keeping " from our ofiice post free for five 

 postage stamps. 



Camellias Unhealthy (J. A. r.).— You can do nothing with unhealthy 

 plants that are potbound but repot them. That we advise to be d me as 

 soon as the flowering is over, removing all the old soil and washing the 

 roots clean. Pot in a compost of turf taken from a pasture where the 

 soil is a light sandy loam, and pared off not more than 1} inch thick. 

 Tear it in pieces with the hand, and make it rather small, using it in its 

 fresh 'ougu state, being c ireful in potting, and making a firm surface with 

 the finer portions of soil. Drain the pots well, and you need not use 

 potB lar'-er than sufficient to hold the roots comfortably. Shade from 

 bright sun for a time, and keep moist, and in a temperature of 50 .o 5j 

 at night, being careful to keep the soil moist, and when the plants are 

 growing' freely copious supplies of water will be required. 



Books— Conservatory Floor (DeVa).— We know of no specific work 

 on Palms but only the hardiest would do well in a common conser- 

 vator say with an average temperature of from 45 to 50". Most tropica 

 Palms require a higher temperature. For the management of store and 

 greenhouse plants we recommend Keane's " In-door Gardening, which 

 you can have from our office fur twenty stamps. As the conservatory is 

 to be on the first floor, we hardly know what would be best ti make a 



waterproof flooring for receiving Minton tiles; I but on « goun^floor 

 wo would have suggested concreting, and then a lsjer cf Portlana or 

 Rom n .cement. Toe tile merchants would be good advisers. Large 

 S«,™ wooden boxen sunk in the floor woull do wel for growing 

 p, „,: and other decorative plants, but the soil could only bo kept .healthy 

 and sweot by the bottoms being drained so as to preye nt all s tagnant 

 water 7/ithout this the watering could not be done too carefully, and 

 vou could not easily know what condition the lower strata would be in. 

 On the ground floor we would prefer brick pits to wooden bans. We 

 may nit mention that for a small conservatory on the hrst floor, sup 

 ported on wood, the floor might be made wi terproof by be. ng well 

 covered with pitch, acd then the tiles set in sand and cement. A boiler 

 ■„ . ,iire attention only once in twenty-four hours, would fe«n«e«obe 

 of goSe-conical, self-feeding, or otherwise-then with plenty of fuel 

 ana a full command cf the damper and air, combustion may be active or 

 rnereiy the fire kept in. We could not honestly recommend any such 

 , ,e it would always be attended with u 



Xsumnliot ° of mor? fuel than was generally necessary, and therefore 

 objeSSnableon the score of economy. We have known large furnaces 

 ?hat might have been managed even for forcing for the time stated .a 

 rrrcat ease as respects stoking, but a vaBt loss as respects fuel. Some 

 time' roc W€ • pass7d 1 one such furnace to a boiler in the evening, the ashpit 

 door shut, the furnace door open, and the damper well in, and a hre 

 seemingly large enough to have done the work for two or three days. 



Virions (A You.no G<2ri!riirr).-When you failed with your Mushrooms 

 it was most lit lv from not keening them warm enough and recent re- 

 marks ™ covering in "Doings of the Last Week" might be of service 

 to you It is evident that the failure was not owing to the Mushroom 

 spa 7 ™ not running in the dung, as the dung seemed to I be, , and s ui s so 

 full of it If you wish to save the Mushroom spawn, select that the 

 lM.!vt run with threads like fine silk, and store it in a dry, airy, cool place. 

 Weare °We doubtful whether your Cucumber bed did not prclueU. 

 iSusnroorn spawn from its own dung and whether or "f • ™ f"^ 

 see how vou had good gatherings of Mushrooms from it , but we tnmi. 

 you were y fortunatIin getting a rood fresh crop of Cucumbers afterwards 

 from Taking that dung full of Mushroom spawn and mixing itwitJ a the 



STwloads oi old Mushroom dung, which we put in compos t to-day 

 for Cucumbers, on carefully examining every spadeful . KB ead out we 

 Picked out about hall a peck, which we would think sm.be for going m 

 onnther Mushroom bed tut which we should not have liked to put in an 

 eKlyCnctSnberbed ' We have had fine gatherings of Mushrooms from 

 old CnSer and Melon beds, and for a quickly-gathered crop little 

 mTurVwasTone to fhe Cucumbers ; hut when the Cucumbers were con- 

 tinued until the Mushroom spawn began to take possession of the soil, 

 we always judged that then the roots of the Cucumbers suffered. As 

 stated above, foo may keep the best spawn. We cannot name ptents 

 from bfts of llaves. Most of the catalogues, when price is not named, 

 will be sent if you forward a stamp for postage. 



Purple Constants Grape (W. HM—The berries of Purple Con- 

 stantia Grape should be of the same size, or nearly so, as those of the 

 Roval Muscadine being three-quarters of an inch in diameter, the Black 

 Hamburgh be tag fallvl inch. If small in size they make up in quantity, 

 and Tim by us preferred to large berries. We have not found the seeds 

 larger than in other Grapes. 



Nateow Vine Eorder (Cfcarnwood).-Tho inside border of 3, 1 eot . wdl 

 on^e sufficient if from 24 to 30 inches deep and well drained below, 

 and if vou can give rich top-dressings every year, and if the length of 

 roof is not very great, say 11 or 12 feet. We have had heavy crops from 

 Vines with no wider border, but they had some rich compost on the sur- 

 face evTrv season If yon do not force the Vines, you could easily let 

 hem go outside'bv lining some fair soil beneath the walk. Three or 

 4 iJcnefs of gravel ever ttJ soil would be ample, and the roots would 

 run nicely beneath it. 



Strawberries in Pots (TT. Jlfi!l»).-The easiest ™y to manage the 

 Oscar Strawberry plants now well rooted in 4- inch P° '-J?* 1 " 6 ' ^ 

 are 9 ^ving SorTw.'S? tt%t£^&ttttS£Z 

 SSSH» .arg^bou^=fi,» 



pots were filled with roots. The first mode is likely to be most sue 

 cessfal. _ . „ . , 



Heatikg a Small Gbeshhodbe (J. II. G.).-Darmg the past, few 



coU? have a small flue in your pit, and one under the floor, t o act nd s- 

 pendently of each other, as has several times been described of late 

 aid were we to enter into all the details, we should only be saying the 

 same thing over again. However, if you tell us exictly what you want, 

 and we can do more, we will do so willingly. 



Testing Boilers at Paris (Anchor Iron Works).- We cannot give you 

 any information. Yon had better write to the Secretary. 



Incrustation in Bollef.s and Hot-water Pipes (P. Boriow).- Sal 

 ammoniac is not injurious to the iron. One ounce to every sixty gallons 

 is the proportion used for preventing the incrustation. 



Briar Rose Stocks-Pea Supporters (r. -If. W.).-Yon might .bud the 

 Briars in the summer. The twine you enclose is not thick enough for 



