Augnst 6, 1868. ] 



JOURNAL OF HORTIOULTOBE AND COTTAGE GABDENER. 



99 



lessen them. It will bo a satisfaction, however, even if we 

 partially fail, to feel thut we did wlmt we could. It is all a 

 mistake, and something worse, to make the feason an exouse for 

 onr owu want of foretbongbt or cousidetation. Wo may rest 

 assured that the drought and heat will soon be forgotten by 

 employers as a siiilicieut reason for obtaiuiug but little from 

 their gardens. 



Whilst on this matter of expectations, we will just allude 

 to another side of the matter, brought prominently before our 

 notice by some half-a-dozen of writers complaiuiug that whilst 

 the employer gives orders for certain work to be done at 

 eertain times, and in a prescribed manner, if the results 

 are not to his miud, he blames the gardener as the cause of the 

 failure. Now, the matter here lies in a very small space. The 

 master has the rif;ht to have everything done in his garden at 

 the time and in the way he wishes. Ho may wish a tree to be 

 planted witl> the branches in the ground, and the roots in the 

 air, and the workman if wise will do the work as desired. If a 

 gardener is employed it v;ould be his duty quietly to say of that 

 and many other such proposed schemes, that he did not think 

 they would answer, but there his duty in the matter ends, and 

 if he does as desired his responsibility likewise ends. This is 

 just, however, the place where the grievances of our corre- 

 spondents culminate. It would appear that in their several 

 oases the employer is so much his own gardener that he takes 

 on all chief occasions the responsibility of ordering not only 

 operations, but th« time and mode of performing them, takes 

 as a consequence not only the responsibility and credit of success, 

 but diverts the responsibilii;y of failure on the incompetence of 

 his gardener. Now, this is not fair. We can hardly expect every 

 possessor of a garden to be as noble-minded as the great Duke 

 of Bedford, who, when he would have a plantation of trees 

 thinned against the opinion of his gardener, had a large placard 

 put np, that every passer by might see that the Duke and not 

 the gardener was responsible for the result. The results proved 

 that the Duke's opinion was the better and the sounder of the 

 two ; but if it had proved the reverse, the principle involved 

 was the same — namely, that the responsibility of ordering must 

 be connected with the responsibility of results. We cannot 

 at present enter on all the grievances brought before us, but will 

 just allude to two as more apposite than the others at present 



One tells us, " That he has for some time been a convert to 

 the ideas on watering lately propounded, and would have liked 

 to have used what little liquid he could command in greater 

 quantities at a time, and then leave well alone, but that his 

 employer will insist on having the beds slightly sprinkled every 

 afternoon or evening, and then he is grumbled at because every 

 succeeding hot day finds the plants looking more wretched than 

 on the preceding day." Now, onr own candid opinion is, that 

 in such weather it is quite possible to sprinkle plants until 

 they entirely disappear. 



Another tells us that he could get no rest from his employers, 

 but was forced to turn out his bedding plants in the month of 

 April and the beginning of May, and now Ihere is continnal 

 (^rambling because the plants, from the first chill, have never 

 overtaken the plants of a neighbour that were not turned out 

 until the end of Miy. Now in such a season as this has 

 proved, we would have liked as well if our plants had been out 

 earlier, so as to have been better established before the hot 

 weather set in ; but even these, planted in the last days of May 

 and the first days of June, have stood remarkably well, and in 

 our changeable climate, wherever much is to be done north of 

 London, we would not care about planting out tender subjects 

 before from the 18th to the 2-5th of May, and Colcus and 

 Iresine we would not trust until the middle of June. We have 

 proved that somewhat late planting is generally associated 

 with a quick healthy tilling of the beds. We have bedded-out 

 in the beginning of April, but unless under orders would never 

 think of doing so again, and then would free our-elves from 

 all responsibility as to the plants thriving. One night's sharp 

 frost might kill the whole, or make the plants unsightly for 

 most of the season ; and it is only fair that those who insist on 

 Buoh work being done prematurely, as well as on the diibbling 

 system of watering, shonld be responsible for failures as well 

 as successes. 



We turn from these random remarks about responsibility, 

 to say that if this heat continue we fear much for autumn 

 Peas. As yet we have them tolerably fair ; but we bepin to think 

 the heat will be too much for the late ones, even if water can 

 be given them — that, unlike natural watering, giving none of 

 the shelter of the cloud and the humid atmosphere. We have 

 often enough been told of the fine green Peas gathered in the 



open air at Naples on ChriKtmas-day ; but it would be interest- 

 ing to know how such vegetables are obtained in the warmest 

 parts of Italy and the south of France in July in such seasons 

 as this. 



Nothing could have looked better than Boveral long rows of 

 Scarlet Ivunners ; but though these were mulched over the 

 roots wo found that the spikes of bloom were, instead of setting 

 the pods, dropping the blooms nearly as fast as they opened. 

 Looking on these as one of onr best assistants for getting 

 through the summer and autumn, we had them well drenched 

 with sewage after stirring the ground, &vA then covered along 

 each row with about 1 foot deep of dry litter. This has 

 stopped the dropping of the flowers considerably, and furnished 

 hopes for a good succession of gatherings ; but yet there is a 

 want of rich juiciness in the pods in use, very different from 

 what they appear in a moist season. 



Lettuce has been very good, and we shall have plenty for a 

 little longer, but during the last two or three weeks young 

 plants refuse to grow, and even when we can give a little water 

 they come on so slowly, owing to the heat and dry atmosphere, 

 that, resolved to have young growth if no other, we have 

 cut-over a lot of strong plants that were showing their flower 

 stems, and as the roots were well established we shall have 

 lots of young offsets from thtse cut-over stools, until the- 

 weather permits us to have crisp Lettuces in the usual way. 



Most of the complaints of failures with Mushrooms, such as 

 young firm heads refusing to grow, and others that are larger 

 going ofi and being infested with larvie, are owing to the heat. 

 The Mushroom does best when the temperature of the air is 

 little above 60°, and then a cool moist atmosphere, whenever 

 and however obtained, is one of the essentials to success. In 

 one shed thatched with straw, open on one side, and shaded by 

 largo trees, we have not been troubled with these evils. The 

 sprinkling of walls and pathways will do much to moderate a 

 high temperature. Out of doors we have secured this low 

 temperature and a humid atmosphere round the Mushrooms 

 by sprinkling the bed with old hay not good enough for cattle, 

 and keeping that hay frequently syringed with water. 



FKUIT DEPAKTMENT. 



Apples and Pears, with not enough of rain drops to damp 

 the foliage, have swelled freely of late, and in most cases the 

 foliage is good. Eispberries have given us little more than the 

 first good gatherings ; the ground then became too dry to swell 

 the succeeding crops, and the watering we could give could not 

 benefit them. Red Gooseberries, which we used to keep late, are 

 looking as if they needed to be picked, and even bushes in a 

 border on the north side of a wall are looking distressed and 

 want what we cannot give them. Orchard houses have needed 

 an endless amount of watering to bring to maturity the heavy 

 crops in pots and otherwise. We have used sewage at the roots 

 for these trees, and against the wall freely, and with no injury, 

 but our great want at present is clean water for syringing. We 

 keep the surface of the ground wetter because we cannot throw 

 much water on the foliage. In fact, water not quite clear does 

 as much harm as good. Had we a good store even of water 

 a little muddy, we would make a rough filter for ourselves by 

 means of a barrel, but that at present is hardly worth doing 

 until the supply is larger. Planted out Melons for a late crop, 

 and thinned the wood of Fig trees to give a, better chance to 

 the second crop. 



OKNASIENT.VL DEPARTMENT. 



Some of our best flower beds are rather disfigured by the 

 attacks of the fly on nice edgings of variegated Arabis, white 

 and yellow. We never had them injured by fly before. They 

 will look dirty and dull until fresh leaves are formed. As yet 

 we never had Brilliant scarlet Pelargonium better, and with 

 just a little water once in ten days; but fine rows look as if 

 they would suffer from a dowupouring, and then some days 

 would elapse btfore the flowering was as dense again, as, though 

 healthy, the plants have made little growth for the last month. 

 To what was said in recent numbers about florists' Pelargo- 

 niums, Cinerarias, Primulas, Balsams, Cockscombs, &c., we 

 will merely add some remarks as to savinp the seed of the best 

 kinds of large-flowering herbaceous Calceolarias. As " Ak 

 Old Sdbscp.ieer" is anxious to keep his old plants, so as 

 to secure the kinds, we advise him to give up all thoughts of 

 saving his plants, which he has now in 8-inch pots. We 

 would proceed thus : — Take these pots to the shady north side 

 of a fence, cut down the plants a few inches from their bottom 

 —that is. a little above the rim of the pot; clean the stumps 

 and leaves left, take away the surface soil, put in as high 

 as the rim of pot light rich sandy soil, as sandy loam and leaf 



