•JIM I 



JOURNAL OF HORTICULTURE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. 



[ March 17, 1870. 



mence su'ringiug the trees. This ought to be done thoroughly, 

 as in no other way can red spider be kept at a diatanoe. For 

 the first two or three weeks syringe once a-day — the morning 

 is the beat time — and as soon as the fruit has somewhat swelled 

 syringe night and morning, shutting up the house at four 

 o'clock in the afternoon. Peaches and Nectarines will bear a 

 considerable degree of heat, especially after stoning. When 

 the house is syringed at 4 p.m. and shut up, the temperature 

 may rise with sun heat to 90' or 95', and the trees seem to 

 like it. 



The first year of fruiting much cannot be expected from the 

 trees; from six to twelve fruit will be quite as many as ought 

 to be allowed to arrive at maturity. 



After the fruit has been gathered and the wood ripened, 

 which will be in October, the trees are again moved out of 

 doors. Previous to this, in fact as soon as the fruit are 

 gathered, the trees are Bhifted into larger-sized pots. Those 

 in 11-inch pots are shifted into 13-inch pots, and so on in 

 proportion. A 13-inch pot is the largest size used. I pot 

 them every second year, and have repeatedly reduced the ball 

 of roots when the trees have been in full leaf, potted again in 

 the same-sized pot, and have not observed any difference in 

 the crop of fruit in the following year. If the weather happens 

 to be dry and unfavourable at the time of potting, the house is 

 kept rather close, and the foliage as well as the house moist, 

 by syringiug three or four times during the day, until fresh 

 roots are formed, which will be in two or three days. 



An orchard house can be erected even more cheaply than 

 moat other gla3s structures, and none can be more useful or 

 interesting if the trees, plants, and flowers which are kept up 

 in succession are well managed. No doubt the trees are some- 

 times badly managed ; their culture is yet imperfectly under- 

 stood. E ven this year a contemporary journal warns ita readers 

 to avoid them, as Peach and Nectarine trees in pots are mere 

 toys, and of no practical value. Let the same amount of 

 attention be bestowed on them that there is on some other 

 plants in pots, as in all fairness there ought to be, before 

 people condemn them. The attention will be well rewarded, 

 not only by that which is good for food, but also by that which 

 is pleasant to the eye, and a source of interest and instruction 

 at all times. — J. Douglas. 



TANKS FOR BOTTOM HEAT. 



PERHir.5 my experience with tanks for bottom heat maybe 

 useful to some of your readers, as no one seems to have tried 

 the material of which mine is made. I do not wish to set my- 

 self up as giving advice in opposition to Mr. Pearson, as I quite 

 agree with him, that if you have hot-water pipes running 

 through your house, any description of bottom heat — i.e., 

 either dry or moist heat, can be had with far less trouble than 

 by having a tank. But, perhaps, many of our amateur friends, 

 like myself, may have only the "old-fashioned flue " in their 

 houses, and, when that is the case, of course there must be 

 some other means adopted to provide bottom heat for raising 

 tender seedlings, cuttings, &c. 



My first tanks were made of wood, but they only lasted a 

 few years, and were constantly annoying from their leaking 

 propensities, and, as Mr. Pearson Bays, " generally when most 

 inconvenient." However, having seen many cisterns and 

 baths made of slate, I resolved to try it for a tank ; and as 

 I only wanted a small one, I invented a cheap boiler on a 6mall 

 scale from a piece of 4-inch iron piping, by having both ends 

 closed with an iron plate and screwed in, and then 1-inch iron 

 pipes, about a foot long, fixed one at the end near the bottom, 

 and the other, with a bend in it, on the top side of the 4 inch 

 pipe, for the flow pipe. These were connected with the tank 

 by some 1 1-inch lead piping for the flow, and 1-inch piping 

 for the return pipe. My boiler is fixed across the furnace, the 

 fire passes under and behind, and then over the top, where it 

 divides and passes into a small flue on each side. Althongh 

 the apparatus must be eight or ten years old, I do not think it 

 has cost me above 5s., and I can heat the tank alone with a 

 very small fire. It has answered every purpose as regards the 

 propagation of softwooded plants and raising seedlings, or 

 starting such plants as Gloxinias, Achimenes, and Caladiums. 



The slate ia about 1.1 inch in thickness, the bottom projects 

 1} inch all round, and the sides beyond the ends, so that both 

 are let into grooves in the bottom, and the ends into the sides. 

 These grooves are filled with dry red lead mixed with white lead 

 into a stiff paste, and every crevice made secure ; then screw 

 bolts are fixed through the sides about 4 inches from the top, 



outside the ends, from front to back, with waahers on to pre- 

 vent damage to the slate, and a screwed nut brings all up tight 

 and firm. The flow pipe is inserted in the end nearest the 

 boiler, 2 to 3 inches from the bottom, and 5 or 6 inches from 

 the front, and the return pipe about as near the back, and at 

 a rather lower level. 



To keep up the large slates on which the plunging material 

 ia placed, I fixed a wooden frame all round inside the tank at 

 the height I wished them to be, and a partition down the 

 middle, almost to the other end, to make the water flow the 

 full length of the tank before returning. 



The tank has never leaked but once, and that was owing to 

 a new stoker, and he put so much fire on that the layers of 

 slate near the flow pipe seemed quite to open, and the water 

 ran out almost in a stream. I raked out the fire and let it gra- 

 dually get cold, and I have never had any trouble with the 

 tank since. 



I generally use sea sand for plungiog in, as it is clean, and 

 does not harbour insects so much as many other materials do. 



My tank is only about C feet long by 2{ feet wide, by 9 inches 

 deep, but of course one can be made almost any depth, although 

 it is not often you meet with slabs above C or 7 feet long, yet 

 I have no doubt they could be made larger if ordered from the 

 quarries ; at any rate, there could be two or three tanks con- 

 nected together with pipes if needed. Any slater who can 

 make and fix a slate bath could procure such a tank, and I 

 think the charge is about Gd. per gallon on the cubic contents, 

 or he will make it at a stated price. 



I have often wondered that no one, if my memory serves 

 me rightly, has ever recommended slate for the construction of 

 tanks, as it 13 far cheaper, more durable, and less likely to leak 

 than either wood or cement-lined tanks, and iron ia expensive 

 and soon corrodes, unless a few good coats of red lead paint 

 are put upon it previous to use. — J. R. J. 



CULTURE OF SINGLE RUSSIAN VIOLETS. 



It ia well at thia season to give a thought to the winter that 

 is past, and to recall any failure in the supply of garden ne- 

 cessaiies which may have occurred, with a view to future 

 remedies. 



One of the best and most useful winter-flowering plants is 

 the single Russian Violet, its hardy nature enabling it to grow 

 and blossom through all the vicissitudes of our climate in 

 winter. Snow storms and frost may, and do give it a slight 

 check, but let the sun but obtain sufficient mastery to thaw 

 and disperse snow and frost, and the Violet buds spring np 

 from under the sheltering foliage, and give forth abundant 

 blossom and perfume. When the frost sets in, if there are 

 many flowers expanded, they will apparently pass through it 

 all unscathed, but on picking them it is found that their charm 

 is gone, the cold having robbed them of eveiy trace of perfume. 

 Such being the case, it is important that some suitable pro- 

 tection should be given to so valuable a flower ; I say it is im- 

 portant, but I may safely go further and observe that pro- 

 tection is a necessity, for so highly are the sweet flowers 

 esteemed that any failure in the supply ia quite certain to be 

 noticed. 



The mode of culture which enables me to keep up an abun- 

 dant and uninterrupted supply of these charming flowers from 

 October to March presents no new or striking feature ; but as 

 the results obtained are very satisfactory, it may prove useful 

 to those who have experienced any difficulty in keeping up a 

 full supply. That the simple method I am about to detail has 

 not been so generally adopted as it deserves, I have had proof 

 in more than one instance during the past winter. Calling 

 upon a friend in January, I found him depending for his supply 

 of Violets upon some Neapolitans in pots, and lamenting his 

 inability to meet the requirements of the family; a chat about, 

 the utility and culture of the single Russian variety, and a 

 promise of some plants, tended materially to relieve his anxiety 

 in regard to future failures. 



For the plants kept entirely in the open air, a border in a 

 warm sheltered position is selected ; the soil is stirred deeply, 

 and brought aa nearly as possible to the condition of a rich 

 sound loam, in the case of very light sandy soil by the ad- 

 dition of a quantity of rich manure and some loam if it can 

 be had, and on soil of a heavy, wet, or clayey texture by an 

 abundant admixture of sand and leaf mould. Towards tha 

 end of March, as the plants go out of bloom, stout young offsets 

 are taken off and planted in the prepared border a few inches 

 apart, in beds a yard wide, with alleys or paths a foot wide 



