210 



JOUKNAL OF HORTICULTURE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. 



[ March 12, 1868. 



well supplied with water until the prowth is complete. When the leaves 

 turn yellow, it may be planted out in the open border. It is quite hardy. 

 Guernsey and Belladonna Lilies not Flowering {G. G.)-— We are 

 unable to account for the Guernsey and Belladonna Lilies not flowering, 

 nnless it be owing to their having been kept in a vinery, which would not, 

 from the shade, be a place calculated to securo the fuU maturation of the 

 growth, upon which their flowering mainly depends. We would advise 

 your keeping the plants constantly upon a light shelf in the greenhouse, 

 placing the pots in pans full of wet sand. The sand should not at any 

 time be allowed to become dry, not even in summer, when the plants are 

 dormant, but at that time the latter need not be watered at the surface. 

 Do not repot them, but keep them in the same pots until the drainage 

 becomes defective, or they split the pots. 



Peaches for Forcing (Idem).— Four good Peaches for forcing are: 

 GrossG Mignonne, Bellegarde, Eoyal George, and Noblesse 



Plum Trees Blossojung, but not Fruiting (N. CluipcD.—V^e should 

 conclude that your trees have been planted in badly-prepared ground 

 in the first instance, and that the roots are now in ground so hard 

 that it does not admit of the rain entering it freely. Your taking out a 

 trench some years ago and tilling it with clay rammed hard, would only 

 tend to make the ground impervious to rain. We would advise you to 

 dig round the trees trenches for holding water, to make holes 2 feet 

 deep with a crowbar, at every foot distance, and then fill the trenches with 

 water, and keep them full for a time. Three or four waterings of this 

 kind will be sufficient. The trenches need not exceed 6 inches in depth. 

 When the water has subsided you may level the ground, and mulch 

 round the tree with an inch or two thick of cow dung. This should be 

 done now. 



Trop.eolcm Jarratti not Flowering (7J''m\— We can only conclude 

 that your plant in the vinery is not placed near enough the glass, and has 

 not a light and airy situation. Aflbrd it this, and it should flower freely. 



Zinc Labels (G. S.).— We do not know of any better means of prevent- 

 ing zinc labels from corroding or tarnishing than painting them with 

 white lead, giving two thin coats, and allowing the first to dry thoroughly 

 befoio the nest coat is given, and then to give a coat of stifl" or thick 

 paint. Before this becomes dry, write upon the labels the name with a 

 joiner's pencil, and the writing will be impressed in the paint on the 

 label, and will be as enduring as the paint. Wooden labels are quite as 

 durable as zinc, but are more conspicuous. 



Paper Covers for Flower Pots (I. I. 17.).— The paper envelopes for 

 flower pots are sold in the Middle Row, Covent Garden Market. 



Variegated Japanese Honeysuckle Flowering (/(i^-m).— The varie- 

 gated Japanese Honeysuckle (Lonicera anreo-reticulata) has flowered in 

 England. As far as we are aware the first notice of its having done so 

 appeared in page 471. Vol. X., New Series, where it is described as glow- 

 ing at The Laurels, Taunton, on the south wall of a greenhouse, and as 

 being very sweet. It is quite hardy, and will succeed in the open ground ; 

 we having employed it extensively as an edging to beds, and for centres 

 to fiower beds, training it in the form of a pyramid. Though it grows 

 freely against a wall with an east or we&t aspect, we think a wall with a 

 south aspect essential for its flowering. 



Removing Weeds from Ornamental Water (Mem).— Your mode of 

 fixing the scythes is correct. All you want is a rope fastened at each end 

 of the blades, and not between them, as shown in your sketch at b. You 

 will thus require four ropes instead of two, and by pulling at two in the 

 direction you wish the weeds cut, the machine will be prevented from 

 turning over by the ropes being held by persons from behind, and 

 moving as those at the other ropes draw the implement forward. It can 

 then be drawn backwards and forwards until the weeds have been cut, 

 and this may be repeated as often as required. This is not a bad method 

 of keeping down weeds, but ducks, swans, and other waterfowl do so more 

 effectually, and are ornamental as well. 



C(Elogyne cristata (Jn Orc/iid-Grot/'cr).— You may cultivate it either 

 in a pot or on a block ; we should prefer the former, and by pursuing the 

 treatment named at page 90 of Vol. iv., to which you ailude. we have 

 every hope of your succeeding. You will do well to cut away the blocxn 

 buds now appearing, making sure that they are such before doing so. 

 You should place the plant on the block, put a little fibrous peat between 

 the roots and the block, then cover the roots lightly with sphagnum ; 

 behind the moss sprinkle a little fibrous peat, and then secure firmly 

 with copper wire. The block for the size of plant you describe may be 

 1 foot long and 8 or 9 inches in breadth. You may about midsummer, if 

 the plant be in vigorous growth, water with weak liquid manure. The 

 wrinkles on the bulbs are due to exhaustion of some sort ; probably the 

 plant has been kept very dry before the growths were mature. It is 

 seldom owing to the flowering. 



Transplanting Cham.erops humilis (Try).— We should take out a 

 trench all round the plant 10 feet high with a boleS feet in circumference, 

 not going nearer the stem than 3 feet, and go dovra as deeply as the roots. 

 This done, with forks remove all the soil from the surface, and that part- 

 ing freely from the roots, plying the forks inwards towards the stem. 

 In this way remove all the loose soil ; but when you come to where the 

 roots and soil are very closely matted, do not attempt to remove the 

 latter, but work under the ball from all points, and introduce under it 

 two planks of suflicient strength to support the weight of the tree and 

 ball. These should go completely under the ball, and extend twice the 

 distance taken up by the hill. Two 12-feet planks. 11 inches by 3, will be 

 required, and they should bo placed under the ball so that "each shall 

 bear an equal proportion of the weight. To maintain them at the proper 

 distance, pieces of timber may be placed across, close to the ball, on 

 opposite sides of tho tree, and the ball and tree made secure to them 

 with ropes, having previously covered the roots or ball with mats, and 

 otherwise taken every precaution to prevent the injurious eS"ect3 of 

 dry air and sun upon the roots. The part of the stem to which the ropes 

 are attached should be protected with mats wrapped round it. You may 

 then place handspikes crosswise to the planks, three on each side of the 

 tree and, tying them to the upper side of the planks, put three men to 

 each handspike, or, in case of necessity, four to six. By these means 

 the tree maybe raised and taken where required, or placed on a low 

 truck and drawn by horses. Early nest month will be a good time to 

 perform the operation. Your mode of proceeding after planting appears 

 sound, and will, no doubt, prove successful. 



Sowing Seeds of Ricinus, Zea japonica, and other Ornamental- 

 foliaged Plants (York), — You should sow the seeds at once on a hot- 

 bed, and grow the plants in heat. Prick them oflf when large enough, or 

 pot-oflT, and shift into larger pots as those first used become filled with 

 roots. When the plants are of a good size harden them well off before 

 planting out, which in your locality should not be done until the begin- 

 ning or middJe of June. 



Painting Hurdles (H. 7*.).— Nothing is so disagreeable for coating 

 iron hurdles with as gas tar. We had many hundreds of yards of iroii 

 fencing, such as you describe, that had been daubed repeatedly with gas 

 tar, and had become quite ofi'ensive. We had them taken up carefully 

 and piled one above the other, putting some bricks under the bottom 

 hurdles to keep them from the ground, and placed all round them a 

 quantity of brushwood, which being set on fire burned the tar off. We 

 then gave two coats of lead-coloured paint, made of white lead, lamp 

 black, and linseed oil, and then, refixing the hurdles, finished off with 

 two coats of green paint. 



LiLiUM AURATtnu (F. D.).— The bulbs of this, sold at Mr. Stevens's 

 rooms, on the 6th inst., brought from 9d. to 5s. each, according to quality. 

 For Gladiolus Brenchleyensis the prices were merely nominal. 



Names of Plants (J. S.).— Helleborus viridis, or Green Hellebore. (B. 

 Eemp). — We cannot name plants from descriptions of them. 



METEOROLOGICAL OBSERVATIONS in the Suburbs of London for the week endin? March 10th. 



POULTRY, BEE, and HOUSEHOLD CHRONICLE. 



PROFIT.VBLE rOULTRY-KEEPING. 



Not only is there a tide in the affairs of men, but we believe 

 there is one in poultry. Like the banner that formed or forms 

 the subject of a contest, it rises, faUs, is now to the fore, sinks, 

 and when apparently gone rises higher, and with a better sur- 

 rounding than ever. The poultry pursuit was of sufficient 

 importance at one time to be called a " mania." This is no 

 mean distinction. A mania takes hold of the public and the 

 public money. That which costs nothing is unworthy of the 

 name, and no notice is taken of it. If a man has a few 

 thousands per year, and some glaring eccentricities, he will 



soon find near relatives so anxious about his welfare, that they 

 will get learned men of the law and of physic to ascertain 

 whether the patient should not have his property managed for 

 him. But in every town and village there are men notoriously 

 of unsound mind, who have been playthings for idle fellowB 

 and childi-en all their lives. No one cares for them. There is 

 something akin to this in the results of these manias : a man 

 who fails for a hundred thousand has more admirers, and is 

 more looked up to than the plodder who pays in full all his 

 life. No one failed for large sums during the poultry mania, 

 but there were numbers of discontented, and plenty of people 

 who called it " a bubble." It was neither one nor the other. 

 It was not a mania, for at the end of twenty years the pursuit 

 is now, perhaps, on a firmer basis than ever. It is not a bubble, 

 for it has long passed the age of such things. There are not 



