» 



JOUBNAL OP HOBTIOULTUBE AND COTTAGE GABDENEB. 



[ Jniy 80, uea 



gnch thing with my amateur Cuonmber-growiDg husband, it is 

 only beginning. A long slender stick is thrust down into the 

 pit, and I cannot tell you how many times a-day it is pulled 

 ont and felt at. This might not matter much, but then the 

 poor stick is always in fault. Sometimes it is much too hot. 

 * This will never do, cannot put plants in here, they will be 

 barned up in no time,' says Henry, or it is too cold. ' Worse 

 than doing nothing to expect plants to grow in this miserable 

 place.' So a period of great anxiety follows. He comes home 

 from his business in a state of great excitement, and goes off to 

 Ids Cucumber pit to see how it is getting on, before he makes 

 any inquiries about little Harry's whooping cough, and in the 

 mornings he rises hours before he otherwise would, to see if 

 all is right. He says it is to get an appetite for his breakfast. 

 He never thinks about his health at any other time of the 

 year. Sometimes to ease his mind he goes up and down other 

 places, to look into other peoples' Cucumber frames and pits. 

 I do not know how he feels when he sees long, smooth, dark 

 green Cucumbers ready for cutting, in beds made weeks after 

 onrs." 



" Yes, you seem to lose a great deal of time. Our man says 

 they are very ticklish things to manage. He would rather 

 grow anything else. So much depends upon the seasons." 



" Seasons do not influence us, we cannot comfort ourselves 

 that way," replied Mrs. Scott. " Henry often comes home 

 quite sure he has found out the mistake, and can remedy it ; 

 hut then the remedy cannot be applied at once. He must wait 

 nntil another season, and he can never remember one year how 

 it was he failed the year before. At last the pit is taken as it 

 is, and the plants put in. The oldest plants are chosen as 

 likely to bear fruit first. Long, slender things they are, unable 

 to support themselves, with large leaves a foot from each other, 

 and dry roots dangling from the hole of a small flower pot. Of 

 course, these plants do not always grow. Sometimes they put 

 forth a few small white roots, and then drop off all at once, as 

 if the exertion had been too much. Sometimes they make 

 plenty of leaves and stalks, and yellow flowers, but nothing 

 more. We have frequently three sets of Cucumber plants in a 

 season, and these cost generally from (id. to Is. each. Nor is 

 that the only expense we have, two new mats each year, for the 

 old ones are either lost or stolen during the winter. These 

 mats are spread over the lights, over these thick double canvas, 

 then lengths of boarding to keep down canvas and mats, for 

 fear the wind should blow them about. Ours you know is an 

 exposed position. When thus made up for the night, only this 

 takes place early in the day, it is impossible for a ray of 

 light, or a breath of air to penetrate. If these are necessary 

 for the growth of Cucumbers, as I think they are for most other 

 plants, then Henry must be trying some new system, working 

 out some Darwinian theory as to what Cucumbers will be when 

 grovpn under adverse circumstances. This wrapping-up for the 

 night usually takes place at half-past three. Then the poor 

 plants are left in breathless stillness and total darkness for 

 sixteen hours." 



" That is not much too early, Mrs. Scott, ours are done np 

 for the night at four." 



" Yes, but ours are sometimes done np at two, or even one. 

 I have watched Henry do it as I have taken off my bonnet after 

 •oming home from church, and we have a short service, and a 

 short walk, aud when I ventured to suggest the possibility of 

 their having too long a night, received the candid reply, ' Oh ! 

 I do not think it matters much, and I cannot be bothered to 

 turn out after dinner.' And when morning comes the boards 

 and the canvas are removed, but the mats remain to keep out 

 the sunshine, a little air is allowed to enter if the wind blows 

 from the right quarter, which it seldom does. I do not know 

 how other people grow their Cucumbers ; this is how Henry 

 manages his." 



" Then do you never have any fruit, Mrs. Scott ? " 



" Yes, we have sometimes two or three small bitter things, 

 and a basketful of Gherkins our cook will not pickle, because 

 she says ' they are all outside.' Yet Henry will have it that 

 he does not always fail, he counts back to a period of glorious 

 success, when he cut a Cucumber 2 feet long, and as thick as 

 his arm. But then the said Cucumber was full of seeds, and 

 hollow, and within its yellow green rind contained only a 

 narrow ring, about the third of an inch, of eatable fruit, and the 

 little there was had an unpleasant flavour. And spite of its 

 success, it was rather an unfortunate Cucumber, for it burst 

 the glass tube it was grown in to keep it straight, and was re- 

 moved from it only by doing damage to its appearance. It had 

 been entered for some great show, and was intended to take a ' 



first prize, but its very presence in such a mutilated condition 

 was not to be thought of. And there was very little pleasure in 

 the using of it, the seeds were so large and thick and plump, 

 Henry was quite sure every one of them would have grown', 

 and to this day he regrets not presenting it to some seedsman 

 for that purpose. So you see Cucumber-growing with us ig 

 not only a great failure, but a great expense. Yet in such a 

 light my worthy husband will not regard it, he ever asserts that 

 when all things are considered, theie is a large balance left in 

 favour of Cucumber-growing. One thing is certain, aU the 

 troubles are forgotten during tha winter, and he starts anew 

 each spring with the hope of success. If it ever come I think 

 it will be by chance." — Made. 



MUSHROOMS FAILING IN HOT "WEATHER. 



I HAVE been very much annoyed and puzzled after having 

 every prospect of a good crop of Mushrooms, to find that they 

 are all rotting and becoming full of insects when about the 

 size of a shilling. I send you two. Will you let me know 

 what course I should adopt to cure them? — J. E. P. 



[Your Mushrooms are infested with grubs of different kinds, 

 and this is a common infliction in such vfeather, when you 

 cannot give them a cool airy position. The tendency is in- 

 creased if rank manure is used. We used to be troubled with 

 them in a house ; but have never been annoyed since we grew 

 Mushrooms in an open shady shed in the hot summer months. 

 A cool house or a cellar is equally good. Most likely if this 

 weather lasts the evil will remain, and therefore what we re- 

 commend is just a chance to miss or hit. In our ease the 

 remedy in one instance prevented us having another Mushroom ; 

 in two other instances we had a fair crop of sound Mushrooms : 

 so you can choose whether you will run the risk or not. 



We proceeded as follows : — We cleared the bed of all Mush- 

 rooms with a hair broom, made small holes with a pointed 

 stick, say one-eighth of an inch in diameter, at every 3 inches, 

 and 1 inch deep, and then watered to that depth fully with water 

 at 200°. In half an hour we left a smooth surface with a clean 

 spade. In the two cases we had Mushrooms in a fortnight ; 

 in one case we never had one.] 



THE SEASON IN NORFOLK. 



Of our garden crops some are quite dead, others are struggling 

 for existence. Scarlet Runners and other Beans requiring to be 

 kept alive by frequent waterings. Of Peaches and Nectarines 

 the forced crops were good, and the flavour was pronounced to 

 be very very fine. Of Grapes, the crops in the first and second 

 houses were very good, and of more than average sweetness 

 and flavour. Grapes in the Muscat house, now nearly ripe, 

 are above the average for size of berry and flavour, and two 

 late Hamburgh houses promise well. Many perennial and 

 biennial flowers have died. Bedding plants, which have been 

 kept constantly watered, are looking tolerably well ; but as it 

 is impossible to water everything, many hundreds of bedding 

 plants and annuals in borders are either nearly or quite dead, 

 and such a continuance of cold spring water seems to be 

 of but little use. The grass around the mansion we water 

 once a-week, and then it seems barely to exist, owing to the 

 great heat, excessive evaporation, and almost entire absence of 

 dew. 



The heat has been very great, the thermometer standing 

 in the open, and shaded from the sun, having registered 

 several times 95°, 98°, and on July 16th, 101°, and this day 

 (July 21), 99°. 



The amount of rain which fell from April 20th to July 20th 

 was only 0.88 inch, and from April 1st to July 20th the whole 

 amount was only 3.87 inches. In the corresponding period of 

 last year it was 8.78 inches. Thunder we have heard but very 

 seldom. We have now no appearance of rain, the wind being 

 cbanpeable, but generally north, with a low night temperature. 

 — J. P., Gankncr to Sir Wm. Ffolkts, Hillington Hall, Lynn, 

 Norfolk, 



NEW BOOKS. 



SorPLEMEKi TO Johnson's Cottage Gaedeneks' Dictionaet. 



London : Bell & Daldy. 



This supplement contains the species and varieties worthy 



of culture introduced between the date of the publication of the 



first edition of the Dictionary, and the oommencement of the 



