March 17, 1870. 1 



JOURNAL OF HORTICULTURE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. 



a little spaco between them, so that the air should pass freely 

 through the mass. We happened to have these tiles beside ns, 

 and made cylindrical they are very cheap, and a few of them 

 come in useful for many purposes. Of course, building such 

 material in a regular stack requires more time and labour than 

 throwing it into a rough heap, but then there are these more 

 than countervailing advantages — the grass is sure to decay ; 

 the bulk will be aired, sweetened, and mellowed, without being 

 gTeatly decomposed ; without much shed room you may al- 

 most always command dry soil for potting and other purposes ; 

 and where room is scarce, you can thus pile up a large quan- 

 tity in little space. — R. F. 



METEOROLOGICAL OBSERVATIONS 

 In the Suburbs of London for the week ending March 15th. 



9.— Overcast; cloudy; densely overcast. 

 10. — Cloudy ; fine ; densely clouded. 

 11. — Densely overcast throughout. 

 12. — Densely overcast; cloudy; overcast. 

 18.— Snow, densely overcast ; fine ; densely overcast. 

 14.— Sharp frost ; cloudy but fine ; clear and frosty. 

 15.— Fine, overcast ; very fine ; clear at night. 



TRADE CATALOGUES RECEIVED. 



James Dickson & Sons, 102, Eastgate Street, and Newton Nurseries, 

 Chester. — Catalogue of Farm Seeds. 



F. & A. Dickson & Sons, 106, Eastgate Street, and Upton Nurse- 

 ries, Chester. — List of New and Select Farm Seeds. 



TO CORRESPONDENTS. 



9§T Many complaints having reached us as to the difficulty and delay 

 in procuring this Journal on the day of pvlAication, we repeat a 

 notice in the first column of our adec -Using pages, showing how 

 its delivery can be promptly and punctually secured. Being pub 

 lished in time for transmission by the Thursday morning mails, 

 The Journal of Horticulture should, with but few exceptions, 

 be delivered on the same day in all parts of tJte country. If there 

 is any delay, let our readers apply to the nearest railway book- 

 stall, and by laying their subscriptions in advance their copies 

 will be regularly supplied. If country booksellers cannot obtain 

 tlte Journal in time, we shall be obliged by their communicating 

 tliefact to our Publisher. 

 Books (A. G. F.).— We know of no book applicable to arboriculture on 

 the banks of the River Plate. 



Cow Urine (J. H.)— Gypsum or green vitriol in the proportion of 

 7 lbs. to every ten gallons will fix the ammonia in the urine ; but if it is 

 poured on to the soil and dug in at once, the earth will retain the ammonia. 

 There is no special publication on the subject, but if yon enclose four 

 postage stamps with your direction, and order " Manures for the Many," 

 you will have it sent post free. It contains something on the subject." 



Seeds (7. AT.).— We cannot name plants from their seeds. You will see 

 what is said to another correspondent about Camellias. 



Forming a Holly Hedge under Trees (O. Flodd).— Though Holly 

 grows well under trees, it will not form a good hedge in such a position if 

 Quicks will not thrive. From now to May is a good time to plant Hollies, 

 but this ought to be done before they begin to grow, and for young 

 Hollies we consider the next six weeks, and from the middle of Septem- 

 ber to November, the best times for planting. Plants about a yard high, 

 with every alternate plant about 15 inches high, and bushy, will make a 

 good hedge, and no cutting will bo required except at the sides until they 

 are as high as required, say 4 feet. Hollies like a good loamy soil, light 

 rather than heavy, the subsoil being free of stagnant water. A good 

 dressing of well-rotted manure at planting and annually will encourage 

 their growth, and copious supplies of wator will be required if the sum- 

 mer should prove dry. The plants should be planted 1 foot apart 



Cutting Yew Hedges (^4. B. C.).— If the hedges have been neglected, 

 and require close cutting-in, this should be done early in April ; but if 

 they have been regularly cut, any irregularities of growth may be re- 

 moved now, and the general cutting left until the growth is complete in 

 the end of July or beginning of August, and then they should be cut so 

 as to have a trim appearance. If much cutting- in is needed, it may be 

 done to any extent in April, giving a run over with the shears in July or 

 August, so as to remove any irregular growths. Doing this will make all 

 neat for the season. 



Cemented Water Tanks {Idem).— We do not know of anything that 

 may be mixed with cement to deprive it of the lime it gives off, whereby 



water is rendered hard and unpalatable. Good Portland cement, if 

 allowed to become thoroughly dried and hard before the water is let in, 

 does not cause either hardness or unpalatablencss in the water. 



Asparagus Seed Sowino [Q. Q.).— We know nothing ©f the Asparagus 

 you name beyond what is stated in the advertisements. We think it 

 would be best to sow the seed out of doors in April. Of sowing in heat, 

 pricking off, hardening ofi', and planting oat we have no experience, but 

 do not see why, with care, it should not answer. 



Chinese Primroses in a Cold Frame [Idem),— These plants will not 

 stand the winter in a cold frame. They will not endure frost, or, if frost 

 eould be kept from them, they are too impatient of the close and damp 

 atmosphere to which they would be subjected in winter to do well in a 

 cold frame. A light a'ry position in a greenhouse is necessary. 



Planting under the Shade op a Cherry. Tree (E, Scott), — We 

 should plant Berberis Darwinii. 



Nectarine Shedding its Blossoms (J. C. W.).~ We remain of the 

 opinion we expressed last week. The tree, we think, does not ripen its 

 young wood. The cause you must find out. It may be planted too 

 deeply, the aspect may be bad, it may not have sufficient air, &c. 



Pruning Roses— New Varieties (A Subscriber, Leamington).— The 

 preference given to pruning Roses in March, rather than previously, is 

 chiefly owing to the fear of frost injuring the dormant bud. Roses can 

 be partly pruned previous to the winter, by thinning-out all weak wood, 

 which ought to be altogether removed, and in the caso of Roses on the 

 Manetti, removing any wood more than three years old wherever there is 

 younger and more vigorous wood starting from the base. Standards, 

 when used for garden decoration, require a rather different method of 

 pruning than when required for cut blooms, and in order to produce a 

 symmetrical head, some of the wood, which would otherwise produce the 

 finest blooms, has to be sacrificed. On warm and dry soils, and where 

 the climate can be depended upon, winter pruning will insure earlier 

 blooms, but it is difficult to lay down a golden rule as to pruning, as 

 every amateur ought to judge as far as possible from the knowledge 

 of his own locality; it is better, in general, to pruno too late than too 

 early. The following are the best recent additions to our Roses, intro- 

 duced, mostly, since 1865. There are a few of them, as Miss Ingram, 

 Edouard Morren, Henry Ledechaux, not fully proved yet, but they may be 

 for the most part depended upon :— Hybrid Perpetual: Abel Grand, 

 Alfred Colomb, Antoine Ducher, Annie Wood, Cltmence Raoux, Duke of 

 Edinburgh, Edouard Morren, Elie Morel, Franrois Treyve, Henry Lede- 

 chaux, Horace Vernet, Julie Touvais, La Duchesse dc Moray, La France, 

 Madame la Baronne de Rothschild, Madame Creyton, Mdlle. Marie Rady, 

 Marguerite Dombrain, Marguerite do St. Amand, Mario Baumann, Miss 

 Ingram, Monsieur Noman, Princess Mary of Cambridge, Pierre Notting, 

 Reine du Midi, Thorin, and Xavier Olibo. Bourbon: Michel Bonnet. 

 Noisette : Marechal Niel. Teas ; Adrienne Christophle, La Boule d'Or, 

 Marie Sisley, Monsieur Furtado, and Reine du Portugal, 



Pruning Manetti Rose Stocks (J. H. D.).— " If your Manetti stocks 

 are planted deeply, take them up carefully and shallow-plant them, and 

 bud on the main stock as near to the roots as you can. Do not cut down 

 the stocks, nor bud on the twigs. You may bud at any time, early or late, 

 when the hark of the stock will run. Six inches from stock to stock, and 

 from 18 inches to 2 feet from row to row, are the proper distances for a 

 plantation. The nearer the plants are together, the more likely is the 

 plantation to succeed. The plants will support each other, and need 

 less water than when they are far apart. Water your stocks well a day 

 or two before budding, as the bark will part more freely. If your stocks 

 are planted deeply you must, in |case you do not replant them at a less 

 depth, scrape away the earth, and bad as low as you can,— W. F. RAD* 

 clyffe." 



Cucumber Culture (E. E. D.},— If you do not wish to have Cucum- 

 bers until June, or Melons in August or September, yon may dispense 

 with linings. The pit at present has open spaces at the back and front 

 for linings to the centre bed or pit proper, and it can bo filled with dung 

 at the end of January, or early in February, and this will afford heat for 

 the plants for three weaks, when the spaces must be filled with hot dung 

 so as to maintain the proper temperature for the plants; if these 

 linings be renewed from time to time you can have Cucumbers in May, 

 and Melons early in July. If we understand you aright we anticipate 

 you expect, by closing the pigeon-holes and confining the heat to the 

 central bed, to have a result equal to that which you would have with the 

 linings. If so, you are mistaken, for by confining the heat you obtain a 

 slight increase of temperature no doubt at the commencement, but do 

 not add to its continuance, as the heat from dung will in a month have 

 so declined as to be too low for Cucumbers and Melons, hence the neces- 

 sity of linings to maintain the proper heat. The pits will answer with 

 linings for growing Cucumbers, &c, from the beginning of April, the 

 heat of the bed giving them a start, and after that dependance must be 

 placed on sun heat more than the heat of the bed. 



Bottom Heat for a Cucumber Pit (A Young Gardener).— Oi your 

 two plans, we think the better is placing slabs across the pit, so as to form 

 a chamber. This would answer, only we do not see how you are to have 

 top heat, and with two pipes in the chamber you would have too great a 

 bottom heat, but no top heat. We should therefore have openings in the 

 slabs at 1 foot from the front, two in each light, and they should be cir- 

 cular, about 2$ inches in diameter, and over each aperture place a drain 

 pipe on end. A pipe a foot long, with a 3-inch bore, will suit. On the 

 slabs you may place brickbats, or any kind of loose, open material, for 

 drainage, bringing it so high, and with the reqnisite incline, that you 

 will have 2 feet from it to the glass — namely, 10 inches for soil, and a 

 space of 14 inches from the soil to the glass. Dung is wholly unneces- 

 sary, and to fill with dung would render the bottom heat from the pipes 

 useless. By wood plugs to each of the pipes, you may regulate the top 

 heat to a nicety. 



Bowling Green Making (J. H.).— The most common form is that of a 

 square moderately extended ; but seme are made oblong, others circular, 

 though, to suit the general plan or figure of the ground, they may be of 

 any other form. The surface of the green should be perfectly level, 

 not rising at all in the centre, and as high, at least, as the general level 

 of the adjoining ground, so that it may be always preserved from stagnant 

 moisture. The surface should be levelled in tbe most exact manner, and 

 laid with the finest grass turf that can be procured from a close pasture, 

 common, or down. The extent and proper levels are then set out with 



