34G 



JOUENAIi OF HORTICULTUKE AND COTTAGE GABDENEK. 



[ May 7, 1868. 



boxes, vases, and blanks in the beds and borders in June. — W. 

 Keane. 



DOINGS OF THE LAST WEEK. 



KITCHEN GARDEN. 



The rain and hail of April 27th, followed as it was even- 

 tually by milder weather, has given all vegetation an impetus. 

 The fields are putting on their summer livery, and the grass of 

 lawns and meadows is growing as if by magic. With plenty of 

 grass mowings we need never be at a loss tor a little bottom 

 heat, provided we keep that heat low enough down, or far 

 enough from the roots of the plant we thus wish to assist. The 

 fierce sun, and the drying winds of the three last days of the 

 week, necessitated additional watering, or some shelter for all 

 plants a little tender, or that had been newly turned out. A 

 little shelter often iinis more good than the watering pail, when 

 the ground about the roots is moist euough. A few evergreen 

 twigs to shade and shelter newly-turned-out Cauliflower plants, 

 &c., enable them to hold their own in such weather v.ith little 

 watering. We should never forget that the more we water the 

 ground at this early period, the more we cool it, unless we 

 manage to water with heated liquid, and that is no easy matter, 

 where much watering has to be done. 



Took the opportunity of hoeing well between the rows of 

 Onions and Parsnips, the Carrots not having come up eufii- 

 ciently as yet to enable us, as respects them, to go through that 

 operation. Besides cutting up all the little weeds, the breaking 

 up of the caked surface does good, more especially after the 

 ground has become warm enough, as the loose surface keeps 

 the ground cool beneath it, and the temperature of the soil 

 more equal, as it absorbs less heat during the day, and radiates 

 less heat into the free atmosphere at night. 



Sowed a border with Kidney Beans, not of the kinds that 

 we like best, but those we could obtain, as some of the best 

 sorts were not to be had this season. These, Scarlet Runners, 

 and Peas, slightly covered with red lead before sowing, have 

 not been touched by birds, slugs, or snails. The black-backed 

 yellow-bellied kind of the latter moUusk is very diflicult to 

 extirpate, as hardly anything will injure it, except what 

 would likewise injure the plants. Planted out a nice piece of 

 Dwarf Kiduey Beans from .5-inch pots, four beans in a pot, 

 without disturbing the ball, and will give these protection for a 

 few weeks. A box or two with seedlings will be turned out 

 separately in a ievf days, and these, too, will receive pro- 

 tection for a time at least, with a few evergreen branches. 

 As already intimated, a fierce sun is as injurious to such crops 

 when fresh turned out as a cold night. Contrary to our wish, 

 we have had to find space for a row in 12-inch pots on a shelf 

 in the late vinery — at least, for a time, for these plants seldom 

 show insects until they reach the bearing period ; but we had 

 an accident with two previous crops, which in a night deprived 

 us of good gatherings for a month or five weeks. Some rats 

 had found their way into the pit by making a hole in the wall 

 plate, and cut one sort as completely down as if a number of 

 sheep had trampled them. The sort so treated was the White 

 Canterbury, hardly a single leaf was left uncut and unmutilated. 

 We were congratulating ourselves that the rats had shown 

 some merciful consideration, as at first sight a fine lot of a 

 cieam-coloured beau just setting its pods, and with a dense 

 mass of flower-buds open and opening, seemed untouched, 

 but on opening the lights we found that though not a leaf 

 or stem had been touched, not a single flower bud or young 

 pod had been left. The intruders had mounted the stems, and 

 the little sticks, and cleared off every flower bud as neatly as if 

 it had been removed by small scissors, and all seemed as if 

 they had been eaten, for scarcely a bud was left on the ground. 

 By cutting the plants back we may obtaiu a second crop, but far 

 from equal to the first. The difference made in the treatment 

 of the two sorts is worth recording. But for the removal of 

 the flowers and young pods there was nothing in leaves or 

 stem to denote that this second lot of Beans had been visited 

 by such intruders. After much trouble we only succeeded in 

 trapping a young rat, for the Beans being grown over an open 

 bed of manure and leaves, even a good ferret could help us but 

 little. A rat will be hard driven, bowever, if he will consent 

 to remain in a place where a ferret has been. 



Much other work was of a routine character, sowing succes- 

 sion crops, pricking-out Celery and Cauliflowers, and watering 

 the same when needful. The fir:st-pricked-out Celery is now 

 strong and good, and had the help of glass at first, but for 

 three weeks or a month has merely some laurel boughs over it 



to break the force of the sun's rays in imitation of what it 

 would have had in its natural habitat, and its appearance 

 would indicate that this is the treatment it most prefers. At' 

 an early period Celery will stand still in bright sun. It much 

 likes a flickering shade. 



Potted-off Cucumbers for frames. Gherkins and Vegetable 

 Marrow for ridges, and attended to those bearing in pits and 

 frames as previously detailed, much watering being wanted in 

 such weather. The wind being keen and dry at times, we 

 preferred that the atmosphere over the beds should rise 5° or 

 10° higher in temperature instead of giving much air, but 

 that little was given early, so that the temperature rose gradu- 

 ally. In the bright days of Friday and Saturday the glass was 

 dulled with the slightest sprinkling of water, just coloured with 

 whitening. Some men can do this so nicely with the jet nozzle 

 of a syringe, regulated merely by the finger, that the glass will 

 be equally spattered, and not a single dot will be larger, and 

 most much smaller, than the head of a common pin. Many 

 lights can thus be gone over in a few minutes, and when the 

 squares of glass are large some such alight shading is often 

 of importance when such bright days succeed all at once a 

 period of dull sunless weather. In this dry, bright weather 

 we gave no front air to frames over hotbeds where a high tem- 

 perature was needed, except a little to Melons in bloom and 

 setting, as a little air right over them, however small the 

 amount, assists the setting process. 



PKUIT G.UIDEN. 



Mi'lom. — Rather a singular thing has happened here in a 

 five-light pit heated by hot water, and that for a number of 

 seasons consecutively. The plants in the three lights at the 

 west end generally do very fairly, but those in the two lights 

 at the east end, just as the secondary shoots come away freely 

 almost as uniformly lose their first larger leaves, whilst those 

 near the point will retain their natural healthy green colour. 

 Sometimes the leaves will have brown spots, sometimes the 

 brownness affects the edges of the leaves first, and gradually 

 covers and kills the leaf. Sometimes we cut off these browned 

 leaves along the stem for a length of a foot or 18 inches, bring 

 the stem round again to the centre, and allow the point to 

 grow outwards as a young plant. Sometimes we pull up the 

 plants thus affected, and plant fresh ones, and we may even 

 have to do this for a second time before we secure in these 

 two lights fresh and vigorous growth. The cause has been a 

 mystery to us, and remains so still. The pit is part of a range 

 heated by two 3-inch pipes in front for top heat, and two 3-inch 

 pipes in rubble below the bed for bottom heat. For this 

 period the heat is sufficient, and we may conclude there is 

 nothing in the heating, or why should the three western lights 

 be little or not at all afl'ected ? Then we supposed that there 

 might be some condensed deleterious vapour, but we used 

 no dung, and even in general left the thickness of a com- 

 mon tally between the sash and wall-plate at night. Then, 

 again, we surmised that the sun struck on the foliage when it 

 was damp, and that the leaves were thus scalded, and that at 

 least made ns anxious to have the foliage dry before the sun 

 reached it in force ; but between the east end of the pit and a 

 garden wall there is only the width of a walk, and therefore 

 the sun strikes the western lights of the pit a considerable time 

 before it gets over the wall to shine at aU strongly on these 

 two eastern ones. We have also examined the two sashes 

 carefully, and though the glass is very common fourths, still 

 we can perceive no difference between its quality and that 

 of the other lights where no such phenomenon occurs. Over 

 dung beds, and with sashes of the old-fashioned kind, and 

 glass so bad that the like could scarcely be had now as a 

 curiosity, we have witnessed no such appearance. We can 

 decide on neither cause nor cure ; for when we succeed at 

 length in obtaining healthy growth it is entirely owing to 

 perseverance, and we are as ignorant as ever of what enables 

 us to cause the healthy growth at last. For three or four 

 seasons the first plants in these two lights have suffered in a 

 similar manner. In the case of all other kinds of plants we 

 have observed no difference as to results beneath these two 

 lights and the other lights of the pit. It is only in Melons 

 that we have noted the difference. We may add that the 

 soil in the five-lights is the same, and when the roots were 

 examined there seemed nothing wrong with them. At pre- 

 sent the matter is as much a mystery to us as how to keep 

 away the Cucumber disease, or get rid of it when it comes. 

 When we were visited with it we neither knew how it 

 came or what took it away, or nearly so ; and the only 



