jimo 16, uee. ] 



JOURNAL. OF nOBTICDLTDIffi AND COTTAGK OARDEKER. 



469 



lor honees, bat for these nothing answers better than a screen 

 •f white tiffany or other light textile material, fised with rings 

 inside daring the summer months. It will thus take off the 

 force o( the sun's rays, and will not make the houses too dark 

 in a dull day. The lessoning of evaporation from the foliage 

 by any such moans enables the plants to withstand hot weather 

 longer without watering. Four years ago we were obliged to 

 eOTer up many plants in a shady place ; but though we are 

 obliged to bo moderate in watering, still it would bo some 

 weeks before we should be reduced to such a strait as that, 

 and snoh summers otton do good in leading us to contrive how 

 to save water that otherwise would run to waste. With more 

 care in thus saving the water in large reservoirs, a force-pump 

 to raise the water to an elevated cistern, and connecting pipes 

 with onr tanks, we feel we could be almost as independent as 

 the gardener not far from a river, who had, nevertheless, most 

 of the water to carry. With a cistern high enough we could 

 use a hose at once. 



In sowing Carrots, Turnips, Beans, Lettuces, &c, in such 

 weather, we find it is a useful plan to draw the drills, water 

 them before sowing, cover in the usual way, and then slightly 

 litter the ground before the seeds are up, when the litter can 

 jba moved from the rows to prevent the young plants becoming 

 drawn and weakly. If such weather continue it is better to 

 depend for salads on Lettuces sown, rather than on those trans- 

 planted, and much watering is thus saved, as the sown plant 

 sends its roots deep and is nearly independent of watering even 

 in dry weather. In fact, but for scarcity of ground, we would 

 thronghout the summer prefer sowing all the Lettuce tribe 

 thinly. 



Far too often there is a scarcity of ground in the kitchen 

 garden, and huge unwieldy lawns that might in many cases be 

 better turned into park scenery. A gentleman is content to 

 receive, with many drawbacks, from £1 to £2 per acre for 

 his agricultural land, which, after cleaning and fallowing, 

 seldom produces more than one crop in the year, and yet he 

 expects numerous crops in the season from similar land 

 because it ie called a garden instead of a field. For our- 

 selves it was quite a change to see this summer a piece of 

 ridged-np bare ground on which Raspberries had grown, and 

 which were stubbed-up after a succession was secured. But 

 for pressing matters that ground would not have been idle, 

 and it is now cropped with Peas at wide intervals, with half a 

 dozen rows of Winter Greens, the most forward, between the 

 rows of Peas. 



Cropping. — When many crops are taken from the land, and 

 several are coming on at the same time, the produce individu- 

 ally will not be so good as when the land bears only one crop at 

 a time. For instance, it cannot be supposed that Broccoli 

 planted between rows of Peas or Potatoes will yield such mag- 

 nificent heads in spring as that which has had the ground 

 wholly to itself, and the plants have been no closer than 

 30 inches on the square from each other. Very good heads for 

 the table can bo had from the close rotation, and the varied 

 simnltaneons system of cropping; but that is not the plan to 

 have large individual heads that would require almost a basket 

 for each. 



Do not let it be supposed that we advocate large walled-in 

 gardens as a rule, for in many cases they are as much a mis- 

 take as large pleasure grounds with insuthcient labour to keep 

 them well, believing as we do, that ten poles of a lawn that 

 cannot be improved, will bo more satisfactory than ten acres 

 that have merely a semblance of keeping. On the other hand, 

 we know several places where the kitchen garden is too small, 

 where fruit and vegetables, and plenty of them for a large 

 establishment are expected from something like an acre of 

 ground. Now, in such cases, it is necessary either that the 

 garden outside the walls should be enlarged, or that the root 

 and other rough crops should be grown in the field, and the 

 garden thus relieved of such continuous cropping. In some of 

 these places we have known a free succession of gardeners, able, 

 intelligent men : and the employers, kind-hearted and con- 

 siderate, would much rather they had remained, were satisfied 

 with their conduct, and would in several cases have held out 

 extra remuneration for them to remain, knowing well that if 

 there are advantages at times in changing, there is more likely, 

 for a time, at least, to be disadvantages, as it will be some 

 time before a new man gets acquainted with the place, and 

 with the peculiar wishes of the family and establishment. It 

 is very pleasant to hear a gentleman say, " I am so sorry that 

 Mr. A would leave me. He was such a good, industrious, 

 faithful servant ; bat I hope he will get on well wherever he 



settles. I shall always esteem him, &c." Now, the secret of 

 leaving, to our knowledge, in a number of such oases, was the 

 smallness of the garden. The gardener saw that with the 

 same ground the demands every year were increasing, and he 

 felt that the time would come when inability to meet the grow- 

 ing demand might lead to disappointment ; and as hints as to 

 increased room, or growing some of the crops in the field passed 

 unheeded, he preferred leaving instead of encountering any 

 unpleapautness from such a cause. In tho whole of such cases 

 it would have been easy to have taken from a field or park out- 

 side the walls the ground that would have been necessary, sur- 

 rounding it with a Privet hedge, a wire fence, or a picturesque 

 bank of Laurels, i-c. ; or to have made arrangements that beyond 

 the earlier crops the bulk of the root crops should have been 

 grown in a field, and so grown they are generally sweeter and 

 better than when cultivated long in an old kitchen garden. A 

 huge walled garden may be a huge mistake. A very small 

 kitchen garden may also be a mistake, and fruitful of dif- 

 appointment and unpleasantness. 



ir.UIT GARDEN. 



Air-ifii-infi. — To lessen the necessity of so much watering, we 

 afforded little front air, but gave it at night and early in the 

 morning. We are not yet fully convinced, in general, how 

 gradually a house rises in temperature with air early given, 

 and with the heated air outside partially shut out. A Pen- 

 insular officer, who, bold among the bold, had also a keen sense 

 of the comfortable, told us how after a hot march in Spain, he 

 cooled his wine by hanging the bottle in a worsted stocking 

 full in the sun, and had a lad to stand by and keep the stocking 

 moist. The evaporation from the stocking cooled the bottle. 

 He also contended that the true plan for keeping rooms cool in 

 summer, was to keep the heated air of the day from entering. 

 After the evening and earl^- morning the windows were kepi 

 close and shaded. -\ glass corridor was likewise kept shut, 

 the doors and windows of rooms connected with it also shut 

 and shaded, and though outside the temperature was melting, 

 that of the rooms resembled the coolness of the passages of an 

 ice house. This furnished proofs on a large scale of what we 

 have several times alluded to, that confined air is one of the 

 best non-conductors of heat. Could the corridor have been air- 

 proof, the coolness of the rooms in summer and their warmth in 

 winter would have been more thoroughly secured. 



We could not carry out such an idea iu our glass houses 

 without double glass ; but even for the saving of water we 

 gave less air than we otherwise would have done, and we 

 observed no ill eft'ects until about the middle of the week we 

 noticed some leaves of Peaches coloured by the attacks of red 

 npiiler in the orchard house, though previously quite free from 

 it, notwithstanding the heat and our unwillingness to syringe, 

 as we otherwise would have done freely, on account of the water 

 not being quite to our mind. We syringed with soot water, 

 followed with weak clear soft-soap water next day, and then 

 we did what we should have done a month ago — daubed the 

 open places of the wall with a paint of sulphur and soft soap. 

 We have examined a number of the leaves to-day with a glass, 

 and though finding some dead, we found none alive. We shall, 

 therefore, use clear soot water in syringing, and syringe a little 

 more than we have done ; but the sulphur fumes given off by 

 the wall where daubed iu a clear sun will be one of the best 

 means for settling those there, and keeping other spiders from 

 trespassing. How suddenly such vexations come ! A couple 

 of days previously we could not see a discoloured leaf. We 

 are sorry to say that the red spider seems bent on attacking 

 Dwarf Kidney Beans out of doors. Some of these we pulled 

 up and burned, as they were near trees that might soon be 

 affected. Such scorching weather is just the delight of this 

 insect. Weak soap water and clear soot water do much to 

 keep it away. Damping the floors has not kept it quite out of 

 the orchard house, and now the insect must be overcome, or 

 farewell to fine-flavoured fruit. 



OKNAMF.NTAI. OErAHTMENT. 



Much the same as last week. Used little water in beds for a 

 week, only when plants were suffering. As a rule they are 

 doing well, and rooting freely, only needing a drizzling cloudy 

 day or two to give them a chance to push out their dormant 

 energies. 



We have many plants, as Antirrhinums, Everlastings, and 

 even Sweet Peas, to plant out; and they must go out and be 

 watered if we have no rain, though we would have preferred 

 the ground to have been damper and cooler before turning them 

 out. 



Now is a good time to mark all Finks, if the pipings or cnt- 



