Maich 30, 1873. 1 



JOURNAL OF HOETICULTUEE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. 



243 



soot. " It is as valuable as guano, and should be earefuUy 

 saved at least twice a-year. You will find soot contains a 

 large amount of ammonia, and on this account it is very bene- 

 liuial to nearly all kinds of plants. Apply it to the soil about 

 the roots, and not to the leaves or stems ; or twelve quarts of 

 soot dissolved in a hogshead of water make an excellent licpid 

 manure." 



EXTRACTS FEOM AGBICULTUEAL RETURNS 



OP GREAT BRITAIN. 

 With respect to land used for orchards or for fruit trees of 

 any Uiud, the returns obtained in 187'2 differ to some extent 

 from those published for the previous yeai'. The addition to 

 the forms for the returns of 1872 of columns for market gar- 

 dens and nursery gardens, led to the discovery that land had 

 been wrongly described as orchards in 1871, and the returns 

 under this head in 1872 of 1.50,000 acres for England, 10,000 

 for Wales, and 3000 for Scotland may be considered as more 

 accurate than the acreage returned for the first time for orchards 

 in 1871. Acreage of Potatoes in Great Britain in 1868, 541,543 ; 

 in 1869, 585,311 ; in 1870, 587,661 ; in 1871, 627,691 ; in 1872, 

 564,088. Acreage of orchards, Ac, in England, 150,007 ; mar- 

 ket gardens, 32,'J37 ; nursery gardens, 8900; woods, 1,325,705. 

 Orchards, etc., in Wales, 10,080 ; market gardens, 850 ; nursery 

 gardens, 790; woods, 120,823. Orchards, &e., in Scotland, 

 3121 ; market gardens, 2417 ; nursery gardens, 2083 ; woods, 

 734,490. 



PLANT SHELTER. 



As spring approaches, and space in glass structures of all 

 lands daily increases m value, it is desirable that every means 

 of shelter and protection should be turned to advantage. In 

 hardly any garden estabUshment are there enough spare pits or 

 frames for all the exigencies of this busy season ; it foUows, 

 therefore, that most persons having the care of a garden have 

 to adopt or contrive certain rough-and-ready means of protect- 

 ing many plants that are not sufficiently hardy to bear full 

 exposure to the air. With this, as with many others of the 

 affau's of life, it is more frequently the man who labours under 

 the greatest disadvantages, and whose wits become sharpened 

 in doing battle with the difticulties he is called upon to en- 

 counter, who succeeds the best. 



Of the numerous appliances that may be included under the 

 categoiy of plant-protectors there are many admu'ably adapted 

 to the purpose. It is not, however, my purpose now to enter 

 upon a comparison of such things, valuable as they undoubt- 

 edly are, but rather to deal with such makeshifts as all 'are 

 more or less acquainted with. Among those wliich occur to 

 me as I write, I can remember nothing more useful than a few 

 spare glass Ughts, provided for no special purpose, but kept in 

 tstore as a sort of reserve force. No garden should be withou 

 some of these of a light useful size, so that they may be easUy 

 lifted about and removed from place to place as occasion may 

 require. Given the lights and a few rough planks, a handy 

 man will soon contrive a snug shelter for bedding plants, spent 

 bulbs, plants which, having been forced early, require rest, 

 and StrawbeiTy plants. Then, too, they may be made to play 

 an important part in forwarding early crops of Potatoes, 

 Carrots, Celery, Jjettuce, Radishes, Asparagus, Beans, and 

 Strawberries ; also in winter they will be found useful in shel- 

 tering Parsley, salading, and Spinach from frost and snow — 

 not, perhaps, so much for the sake of protection as for the 

 facility of keeping up a steady and constant supply for the 

 kitchen. 



Common hurdles or wooden frames form excellent screens 

 when closely thatched with straw, heather, rushes, reeds, or, 

 in fact, any material adapted for the exclusion of cold air or 

 cutting winds. Similar materials may also be used to form 

 sides instead of planks, or trenches of a depth proportionate 

 to the height of the plants answer very well, care being taken 

 to cover the bottom with ashes or rubble for the plants to 

 stand upon, in order that water may escape from the pots 

 freely, and to exclude worms. 



Turf is not often to be had, but there is nothing better to 

 make temporary pits with, especially when neatness is an 

 object of importance, as it should be in aU gardens. By cutting 

 the turves in square-edged pieces, the walls may be built with 

 as much accuracy as if of brick ; and after serving for such a 

 purpose the turf becomes so sweetened and mellowed, that 

 when chopped down with spades it is reduced to a very desir- 

 able soil for pot plants. 



There are three things from which it is highly necessary to 

 guard plants requiring such protection — frost, heavy rain, and 

 cold cutting winds. A sloping covering will serve to prevent 

 injury from rain, but it is the action of wind which is especially 

 hurtfid, and is yet fre(iuently less guarded against than other 

 evUs. The keen March winds, as they sweep over the land, 

 search every cre\-ice, UteraUy cutting Uke a knife wherever 

 they penetrate, and many instances might be adduced of valu- 

 able plants suffering the loss of foUage from this cause. It is 

 very necessaiy, therefore, to use every precaution that no 

 loophole is left by which this insidious enemy may enter, espe- 

 cially upon the east and north sides. 



Hedges of Thuja Wan-eana, Box, Holly, Thujopsis boreaUs, 

 Yew, or Privet form admirable compact screens to check and 

 break the force of high and cutting winds. This should be 

 especially remembered in laying out new gardens, for such 

 shelter, valuable as it is at all tunes, is doubly so in winter 

 and spring. — Edwaed Lcckuukst. 



NEW BOOK. 



Handy Book of Fruit Culture niuUr Glass. By David 



Thomson. Edinburgh: Blackwood A- Son. 



With the exception of old John Abererombie and Walter 

 Nicol, two stout old Scotch gardeners of the last century, we 

 do not remember the name of any other of the numerous 

 writers on gardening who have produced a book on forcing. 

 Separate and specific treatises on the Cucumber, the Melon, 

 the Pine- Apple, and the Vine are frequent, but a comprehensive 

 treatment of the subject of forcing is reserved to these old 

 worthies in the past, and to another of oiu- northern brethi'en 

 not less worthy of the present day. 



It is satisfactory to see work done by those who are com- 

 petent for the task they undertake. This competency can 

 only be acqmred by practice, and if any person has had the 

 practice necessary to make him proficient in his art, it is the 

 author of the work before us. To commend the work it is 

 not needful, for Mr. Thomson is so well known as a gardener 

 of the highest order, and a writer at once simple, succinct, 

 and inteUigible, that our readers may rest assured that nothing 

 will escape from his pen that is not for the benefit of those 

 for whom it is intended. 



Tliis treatise on fruit culture under glass is not so compre- 

 hensive as its title implies. In these days of cheap glass there 

 are many more fruits now grown under its shelter than Mr. 

 Thomson has treated of. The Cherry, for instance, he omits, 

 but those of which he has written, which are the Pine-Apple, 

 the Grape Vme, the Peach and Nectarine, the Fig, the Melon, 

 the Strawberry, and the Cucumber, are handled in such a way 

 as to leave nothing to be deshed. 



It is not only the culture of the fruits which has engaged 

 the author's attention, but such subjects as the insects to 

 whose attacks they are liable, and the packing of fruit for 

 transmission, are not omitted. The following extract may be 

 useful : — 



"Packing Grapes.— The packiug of Grapes to be sent long 

 distances by rail and other conveyances requires to be carefully 

 managed. There are many ways of packing them. I have seen 

 each bunch laid on a thick stiiT sheet of paper, and folded up 

 sufficiently tight to prevent the bunch from moving about m 

 the paper. They are then packed closely in boxes sufficiently 

 deep to admit a layer of paper-shavings under and over them, 

 so that when the lid of the box is fastened down each parcel 

 was held securely in its place. The stiffness of the paper is 

 supposed to come in contact with the bunch at fewer points 

 than when wrapped-up in more flexible paper, and on that ac- 

 count to better preserve the bloom. There is, however, at the 

 same time, room left for the oscillation of those berries not m 

 immediate contact with the paper, and tliis is objectionable. In 

 sending Grapes to a distance I liave never adopted this mode of 

 packing, but have either wrapped each bunch in a slieet of fine 

 tissue paper, and packed them on a firm bed of paper-shavings 

 as close as they would lie, with just sufficient waddmg between 

 each to fiU up the irregularities of the outUne of the bunches. 

 When the bos is thus tiUed, a sheet of wadding is spread re- 

 gularly over the bunches, and over all a layer of paper-shavings ; 

 so that when the Ud is shut down they are subject to as much 

 pressure as prevents their moving. -A.t other times, when only 

 sending a few bunches in one compartment of a box, I have 

 spread a sheet of paper over the shavings in the bottom of the 

 box, and laid all the bunches as nicely fitted mto each other as 

 possible on it, then put another sheet of tissue-paper over them, 

 then some cotton wadding, finishing off with a layer of paper- 

 shavings, la. this way I have always found them go quite 



