198 



JOUUNAL OF HORTICULTUKE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. 



( March 18, 1869. 



portion to the work done. We have seen fields ploughed only 

 once or twice for Turnips, and the seeds sown a rough way on 

 uncleaned land, but too often it would have been pretty well as 

 profitable to have left the fields a bare fallow. The other day 

 we saw a beautiful field of Turnips, mostly sown after the 

 change of weather in the last week of August, but the ground 

 had been stirred, and cleaned, and rolled, and stirred again 

 ever so often until it resembled a fine Onion bed rather than a 

 field. What with the mild winter, keeping the meadows growing 

 right on, and such crops of Turnips, many of our clever farmers 

 never knew a better season for supplying their stock of live 

 animals, notwithstanding all the dismal prophesyings of the 

 last Bummer. 



inriT GARDEN. 



Went on pruning and nailing in suitable weather, and keep- 

 ing the buds so far from the birds as recently detailed. Have 

 a nice heap of rough hay which we saved from the pleasure 

 grounds last summer, ready to sprinkle over (looseberry bushes 

 if we should have an extra severe night, which is still very 

 possible. We can well recollect having 20' below the freezing 

 point towards the end of March. As yet there has been no 

 frost to injnre them, though the bushes are becoming rather 

 green. Sometimes a little protection will make all the dif- 

 ference between a crop and no crop. In a severe night it 

 would be desirable to do the same with the forwardest Peas, 

 but we trust it will be unnecessary, as the smallest sprinkling 

 of such litter on them, or even laurel boughs, will bring our 

 neighbours the birds in shoals to see what it is all about. In 

 our experience they are not so curious about Gooseberries ; in 

 fact, trouble them but little after the green leaves begin to 

 appear. The leaves are yet too small to protect the incipient 

 fruit if frost does come. 



ORN'AMENTAl. DEPARTMENT. 



Roses are very forward. Those against fences and pruned 

 long ago have been protected with laurel bDughs. Except the 

 very hardiest, we have not yet pruned those out of doors in the 

 open ground. We shall be safer deferring it a little longer, and 

 then cut a good part of the forward shoots away, as if left the 

 Roses rarely come so nice from shoots that have been battered 

 with the cold winds and nipped with the frosts. In large 

 plants we generally cut back those forward shoots a halt or so 

 of their length, so as to get early blooms from them ; and 

 others we cut well back, leaving only a few buds at the base, 

 and these will come in for succession on the same plant. Tea 

 Roses planted out should have a little fern or an evergreen 

 bough over their heads. They are so sweet and beautiful as to 

 be well worthy of the protection of a wall. We live in hopes 

 of growing a nice collection in a cool house like an orchard 

 house ; there they would just be in their element. When 

 wanted early a hot-water pipe might go round the house, and 

 if the house was not very large a brick stove would do admirably. 

 For all such purposes, though an iron stove would do, we would 

 prefer brick, as the heat is more regular and kindly. 



Houses versus Pf(-.— Removed a second batch of Roses in 

 pots from a pit into a vinery at work. The Roses taken up 

 from an old rosery, and treated as previously described, potted 

 and plunged in a mild hotbed out of doors, are now showing 

 well ; but we have headed this paragraph for the purpose of 

 again recommending our readers who are halting between the 

 two opinions, as to having a pit or a small house, to decide if 

 possible on the latter, even if the expense at first should be a 

 little more, and it will not be so much more if you have a wall 

 already in existence against which you can place a lean-to. 

 Not only will you be able to walk among your plants, and 

 attend to all their wants under cover, but you will have the 

 satisfaction, especially if you have less or more of front glass, 

 to see your plants thrive better in winter and spring than they 

 will be likely to do in a pit as generally constructed, simply 

 from haying more air and more light. From the flatness of 

 the roof in pits a small portion of the direct rays of light reaches 

 the plant in winter. In a house if the roof be rather flat, if 

 there is front glass, there will bo more direct light in winter 

 and early spring, a matter of much consequence as respects 

 sturdy growth and early blooming. We, therefore, hke to start 

 Roses, &c., in a pit, but as the buds show they will open faster 

 and better in a house more roomy and with more light. 



The same may be said of early Pelargoniums. They will 

 bloom sooner and better in a house with more light. The 

 scarlets of all tints are very well for house and corridor decora- 

 tion, but they seldom stand well, or carry well as cut flowers. 

 The florists' Pelargoniums are much more useful in that re- 

 spect. Alba mnltiflora, Dennis'j Alma, Elanchttleur, &c., are 



fine for this purpose in winter, and planted in small fi-inch 

 pots, and not cut down in the autumn, will be coming now 

 with but little extra heat. Lately we have not done much in 

 this way, and would be glad to be assieted to the names of a 

 few that bloom most freely in winter. Now with respect to 

 such as these, the temperature, &c., being the same, we find 

 they bloom much better in a roomy house than in a pit, and 

 we believe for the reasons specified. 



A good deal of the time during the week has been taken up 

 in fresh-arranging the plants, bedding plants, &c., in the 

 houses, getting all of the latter chiefly into the cold late 

 vinery, orchard house, &c A second vinery just breaking 

 was filled from the first vinery chiefly with these forced Pelar- 

 goniums, which seldom show their bloom long before it is 

 taken away, bringing them from the first vinery where the 

 temperature would be too high for them, as that will average 

 liO' at night until the bunches begin to open for bloom, when it 

 will be gradually raised. The first house being properly 

 cleaned, was filled thinly beneath the Vines with nice plants 

 of the Scarlet section, which will stand more heat without 

 being injured: these latter being brought from a pit where 

 they had a little bottom heat, after being shaken free of their 

 old soil and repotted. With a little weak manure water, such 

 plants kept thin will throw up huge trusses. Of course, before 

 the Vines cover the roof densely, such plants will be moved 

 to the conservatory, corridors, &c., after being duly hardened, 

 so as not to feel the change, a little matter that beginners are 

 apt to forget. Fine plants often suffer greatly from being 

 taken at once from a warm to a cold place, and would not 

 have suffered at all if the transition had been gradual, and a 

 few days intervening before it was completed. — R. F. 



COVENT GARDEN MARKET.— Maiioh 17. 



The arrivals generally have been more limited in ronsequence of the 

 present seasonable weather, which will have the effect of retarding the 

 over^Towtb of some crop^, and improve CabbaRes, Broccolis, &c. Good 

 Apples, both dessert and culinary sorts, are now in fair demand. Pears 

 are almost over for this season. 



FRUIT. 



Apples ^j sieve 



Apricots doz. 



Cherries lb. 



Chestnuts bush. 10 



Currants ^^ sieve 



Black do 



FiRS doz. 



Filberts lb. 



Cobs lb. 



Gooseberries . . quart 

 Grapes, Hothouse, .lb. 

 Lemons 100 



.\rticholies doz. 



Asparagus 100 



Beans, Kidney .. hd. 



Beet, Red dnz. 



Broccoli bundle 



Brus. Sprouts ^- sieve 



Cabbage doz. 



Capsicums 100 



Carrots bunch 



Cauliflower doz. 



Celery bundle 



Cucumbers each 



Endive doz. 



Fennel bunch 



Garlic lb. 



Herbs bunch 



Horseradish ..bundle 



Melons each 



Nect«rines doz. 



Oranees 100 



Peaches doz. 



Pears (dessert) . . doz. 



Pine Apples lb. 



Plums ^2 sieve 



Quinces doz. 



Raspberries lb. 



Strawberries oz. 



Walnuts bush. 



do 100 



Leeks bunch 



Lettuce score 



Mushrooms pottle 



Mustd.& Cress.punnet 



Onions bushel 



Parsley sieve 



Parsnips doz. 



Peas quart 18 



Potatoes bushel 



Kidney do. 



Radishes doz.bunches 



Rhubarb bundle 



Sea-kale basket 



Shallots lb. 



Spinach bushel 



Tomatoes doz. 



Turnips bunch 



TO CORRESPONDENTS. 



BuDDiNO Manetti Rose Stocks (.(. IM.-"I prefer budding Roses on 

 Manetti btocks to grafting them. The union is often more iutimate. 

 They should not be cut down when budded. They should be budded as 

 close to the ground as possible. It is best to scrape away the ground, and 

 bud the Rose close to the roots. If you desire to start the Rtse in the 

 same year as it is budded you must, when the bud has taken, cut the 

 Manetti stock down late in the year, to within 3 or 4 inches from the bud 

 inserted. It is better that it should remain dormant.— W. F. Radclyffe." 



Notice to Quit (A Couninj S^ihscrihrr).- -Whether a quarter's notice 

 given by a landlord to his tenant to quit a cottage is sufficient depends 

 upon circumstances of which we know nothing. Unless there are special 

 circumstances, or a written ngreement, half a year's notice is necessary. 

 We cannot name plants from leaves only. 



Toads (T. D.).— Your friend has been hoaxed. There are in England 

 quite enough of *' toads," both biped and quadruped, to render importing 

 them from Switzerland needless. 



AucuBA Fertilising (A Suhncribcr). — Althouffh a strong lens is men- 

 tioned by our correspondent as required to see clearly the parts when 



