76 



JOURNAL OF HOBTICULTUKE AND COTTAGE GAEDENER. 



[ Jannary 23, 1868. 



a good number of Coleworte, which we protected a little from 

 the frost, we have no occasion to hurry in the matter. The 

 frost has as yet done us no harm in the vegetable way. We 

 wish we could say the same of vermin, as mice and even rabbits 

 attacked our Endive and Lettuce under protection. We are 

 almost resolved in future to lift and protect no more Endive in 

 ■winter, under similar circumstances. A fine lot placed in an 

 earth pit, with old sashes over it, and covered with litter during 

 the severe frost, has had the hearts nipped out most unmerci- 

 fully, whilst much that was left where it grew with just a slight 

 protection, has not been touched at all by the marauders. We 

 have long found that whatever is taken extra care of, is more 

 valued by mice as well as birds. The very idea of protecting 

 makes them anxious to see and taste what is thus cared for. 

 As to sowing out of doors, our ground is as yet too wet. 



Parsnips. — We have just taken these up, as we wanted to put 

 the ground in order, and a fine crop they have turned out. It 

 may be fancy, but we always think that Parsnips are the better, 

 and keep the better, when not taken up too soon. On the 

 whole, we think the roots are more saccharine when used 

 after the New Year, if taken up in November ; but then we do 

 not think they are so juicy, or so rich in flavour. The 

 Parsnip, however, is one of those rich vegetables that, like 

 the Vegetable Marrow, we cannot partake of often, and there- 

 fore we would be glad to receive opinions whether there is any 

 valid reason, except its hardiness, for allowing it to stand in the 

 ground long after Carrots and other roots must be housed. 



We allude to this all the more, because very much may often 

 depend on very little things. A very clever farmer, who is very 

 fortunate with his Mangolds, and uses them largely for his stock, 

 takes great care to have them home dry, and built in triangular 

 heaps, and thatched, but so that they shall not heat much. Slight 

 heating, however, he considers of importance. Before Christ- 

 mas the heads were just shooting a httle, and there were little 

 roots, about one-eighth of an inch in length, coming in little 

 bundles here and there on the Mangolds, and he assured us 

 that after they came to be in this slightly moving state, the 

 cattle partook of them more eagerly, and throve much better 

 on them. The matter is suggestive. 



Varieijated Kale. — How is it that in many cases a prejudice 

 stOl exists against this beautiful vegetable, as tender when 

 cooked as it is beautiful ? Many grow the white and the red 

 variegated varieties, but chiefly that they may use it for gar- 

 nishing and di-essing. Cooks say it is neither " one thing nor 

 the other," looks sickly when cooked, and comes anything but 

 the right colour. Now, we dislike ourselves to see sickly yellow 

 Greens on the table, when they should be green, and when in 

 all softisb water a pinch of carbonate of soda, that will do good 

 rather than harm, will keep Greens quite as green as they need 

 be. A pinch of the same will secure a fine red or crimson- 

 coloured dish of these red variegated Borecoles, quite as good 

 to eat as the green ones after they are frosted and properly 

 cooked ; and but for prejudice, a red or a white dish of these 

 Greens might pass muster where the blanched Sea-kale is such 

 a general favourite. 



Spinach Beet. — This reminds us of another vegetable, and 

 a very profitable one, that great numbers of families never 

 use — namely, the Silver Beet. The leaves make an excellent 

 Spinach all the summer, and the broad white footstalks, when 

 separated from the leaves, and cooked when rather young, 

 make an excellent continuation of and substitute for Asparagus 

 and Sea-kale. 



We have kept on successions of Sea-kale, Rhubarb, Mush- 

 rooms, ttc, in the Mushroom house, and made a bed for sow- 

 ing Cucumbers. We would have made beds under glass for 

 Radishes, early Carrots, and Potatoes, but the weather pre- 

 vented our collecting leaves, and without them we could not do 

 much towards forwarding these crops. After February we 

 have had them early by merely covering with a frame, and 

 husbanding what sun heat there was. They are all the better, 

 however, of a little heat below them. A little bottom heat is 

 useful for almost everything that is wanted early. Were we near 

 a coalpit, where small coal is to be had almost for the taking- 

 away, we would have shallow well- exposed borders heated 

 beneath for many early vegetables that we are obliged to raise 

 now with cumbersome unsightly dung beds. The dung, how- 

 ever, makes up for much of the labour and unsightliness ; 

 what gardeners would do without it in close-cropped gardens 

 is more than we can tell, for even artificial manures will not 

 answer always, or for every purpose. 



We have sown little as yet in heat, except Cucumbers and 

 Celery. It is bad policy to sow many crops early, and not be 



able to find room for the plants. If they are not well treated, 

 or suffer from confinement, they would have done better if 

 sown a month later, when more room and attention could have 

 been given them. Celery comes on so slowly that to have it 

 early it requires to be sown thus soon. When we have sown 

 even in December we have not had a run head. In fact, the 

 running depends more on checks given to the roots than on 

 early sowing. What is sewn early grows very slowly ; for mere 

 general crops we have seen sowings in the end of March come 

 in as early as plants from seed sown in February. 



FKCIT GARDEN. 



Looked over Grapes now becoming thin. A few bunches 

 still hang in the orchard house, and would have been better, 

 but some robins during the severe frost found a hole big enough 

 for their little bodies. We are loth to meddle with them, for 

 they are generally so innocent of wrong-doing to us. 



Easpberries. — Took up and replanted a piece of Raspberries 

 that was a little the worse of wear. We had previously secured 

 a bearing plantation, so as to have no break in the supply. We 

 had the white-flowering, large white-rooted Convolvulus amongst 

 the old plantation, and it had become so plentiful among the 

 roots, that it beat us in summer to arrest its growth ; and when 

 once it was allowed to twine among the Raspberry stems it was 

 vain to hope to paralyse the roots, the smallest piece of which 

 will grow, and if not taken out of the ground it can only be 

 killed by incessantly cutting off every shoot that appears. 

 This is one of the most beautiful of our climbers in a wild 

 state, and one of the worst of weeds to eradicate. We made 

 sure that not a bit was left about the Raspberry roots, and 

 where these were tolerably large we planted them so as to take 

 a crop in the usual way ; and when the roots had to be divided 

 we planted and cut down, so that if they bear at all it will be 

 on the young shoots in the autumn, which they are likely to 

 do. They were pUulcd in ground well trenched and manured, 

 and mulched along the rows. The rows are 4 J feet apart, and 

 stakes are driven in, and long shoots or rods are tied along for 

 the canes to be fastened to. This plan is as good as any ; but 

 as Raspberry plantations, if annually manured, last a long 

 time, the best plan is to have a stout post at each end, and 

 small iron posts between, and connect them with strained wire 

 to fasten the canes to. At that width little will grow between 

 the rows of Raspberries. We often plant in spring a single 

 row of Cabbages that come in early in summer as the spring 

 ones begin to fail, and then they yield a fine lot «f sprouts in 

 winter. No plantation of Raspberries thus treated will yield 

 in proportion to a single row with plenty of room on each side, 

 and therefore single rows, like single rows of Peas, will ever 

 be the most profitable ; but when much is wanted single rows 

 round or in different parts of a garden, would be difficult to 

 protect from birds, and that may be done when the plantation 

 is all in one place. 



Stmu-beiries. — We have as yet done little with these, except 

 securing all in pots, and keeping a lot under glass, with just a 

 little heat below them to bring them on gradually. Some of 

 our friends are vexing themselves that the old leaves are be- 

 coming withered, spotted, and anything but pleasant to look 

 at. They need not trouble themselves on that account, for 

 as growth commences and the flower trusses begin to show, 

 fresh vigorous leaves will be produced. During winter we like 

 aU the old leaves to remain, as they act at least in the way of 

 protection ; but when we wish to start the plants for forcing we 

 twist off these old withered leaves, allowing only the smallest 

 and freshest in the centre to remain. For the same reason we 

 do not give the final dressing to rows and quarters out of doors 

 unto fresh growth is commencing, when the old withered 

 leaves are dressed-off and the surface mulching levelled, broken, 

 and made neat. Ground may now be put in readiness for 

 fresh plantations, bearing in mind that as it most likely will 

 be unbroken again tor two or three years, it wiU be advisable 

 to trench it well and enrich it with rotten dung ; and then if 

 there is a good bed of young plants pricked-out in rich soU last 

 autumn, these, if lifted with balls and planted carefully, will 

 often fruit better than if planted-out finally in the previous 

 autumn. All young plants do better when placed thickly, as it 

 were, in a nursery at first, as the one protects the other ; and 

 in such a nursery bed it is easier to attend to their wants than 

 when scattered over a quarter or a border. Putting the ground 

 in fine order for the well-established plants to grow in at once 

 in the spring is a consideration ; so that in stiff soils especially, 

 the first pricMng-out, say 5 or 6 inches apart, and then raising 

 again with balls, will be anything but labour lost. 



Orchard Houses. — Most of our Strawberry plants are in the 



