Joly 18, 186S. ] 



JOURNAL OF HORTICULTURE AND COTTAGE ©ARIVENER. 



5ff 



that biivo recently bi'pn brouidit into the couservatciry will 

 reqtiirt attoution to prevunt thrir bfiun injured by daiii)) cluriu^ 

 floudy weatlier, and it will probably bo nuceMMiiry to use HliRht 

 fires oecasiojially (or thu luirpose of dryiji;^ tlio atmosphere of 

 tho house. Coi'iliime to carefully regulate the tjrowtU of the 

 twiners, but uvoiil tyiiin thorn too ulose, and allow them to Krow 

 according to their natural habits as nuudi as cueiuiistances will 

 admit. 



STOVIi. 



The plants that are inti'uded for the decoration of the con- 

 servatory in uutuniu sdiould now be earefnlly looked over, Hhift- 

 iug sucli as are likely to want more potrooni, with a view of 

 getting the pots weli tilled with roots before the plants are 

 requii'ed to bo in bloom. Keep, also, the shoots tied-out rather 

 thiuly and e.\pose the plants to as much .sunshine as they will 

 bear without scorching their fiiliage in order to keep them low 

 and bushy. Give clear weak manure water to young growing 

 specimens, and repot any that are intended to have another 

 shift this season, so as to have the pots well tilled with roots 

 before winter. JIaintain a moist growing atmosphere, and 

 syringe vigorously any plant at all infested with red spider. 

 Growing Orchids should be encoui-agcd with plenty of heat and 

 moisture while that can be done .safely. See that plants on 

 blocks and in baskets arcs properly supplied with moistiu'e at the 

 roots. To prevent any mistake in this matter caref idly examine 

 every plant at least once a-wcek, and immerse any fomid to be 

 dry in tepid water until the materiid about the roots shall have 

 become well soaked. Syringe lightly morning and evening, and 

 spriulde floors, &c., in order to keep the atmosphere thoroughly 

 moist. — W. Ke.vne. . i . 



'Il ■l'.|;,:,,'l M.i) -Ju i,^.i. 



DOIN'GS OF THE LAST WEEK. 



Os Saturday, tho 8th inst., we had a severe storm of thunder 

 and hail, which riddled a good many broad-leaved plants. AVe 

 notice it in order to record the fact, that large squares of 

 16-oz. glass were uucrackedand xuibroken, but we observed that 

 many of the hailstones rebounded fi'om the glass fully 3 feet 

 in height, and that the glass waved and bent considerably. 

 There would be less risk of bre;ikage with stouter glass, but 

 then it would bend and cui-ve less to the stroke of the hail- 

 stones. On Sunday, the 9th, we had some three and a half 

 lioursin the afternoon of continuous thunder and down-pourhig 

 rain, "which seems to have well so.aked the ground, and has 

 laid the best fields of Barley considerably, but several cattle 

 and sheep were killed. No ordinary spouting could accommodate 

 such down-pouiing, and, therefore, we received much less in 

 oiu- tanks than we expected. The heavy rains shot quite over 

 the spouts. There is now in this neighbourhood little UkeU- 

 hood of being so daned up as we were last season. Wednes- 

 day, the 12th, was a beautiful di-y day, and even the flowers 

 with a httle cleaning were opening freely to look as bright 

 gems over the now fine green of the foliage and lawns, but the 

 weather became wet again on Thursday, and if it continue the 

 very best flower-beds will have a wobegoue appearance. When 

 the beds are full of leaf and bloom at this season, it tries the 

 patience and equanimity of the gardener to find the results of 

 his skill and imwearied care, little better to look at by visitors 

 of the family than so many mounds of drowned mice. Who 

 will have the honour of being the first to cover an acre, or even 

 half an acre of the finest modern flower garden with glass, 

 so ventilated by leverage power that even the rains and dews 

 can be admitted at will, and rains and Ijoisterous winds also be 

 excluded at pleasure ? We venture to say that such a garden 

 would yield more continuous satisfaction than a dozen acres of 

 flower garden in our imcertain climate. Probably, however, 

 there may be a bewitching chanu in the very uncertainty of 

 being able to see such modern flower gardens at their best on a 

 certain day, just as there is, at least, some test to the depth of 

 that love which is not jiermitted to develope itself in the 

 smoothest of chamiels. Well, there is no accounting for tastes, 

 but we would be quite willing to make a present of our share 

 of the pleasm'e arising from the thorough uncertainty of having 

 a flower garden brilliant against a certain day, with the likeli- 

 hood of our changeable climate marring all our expectations. In 

 one thing we must rejoice, the beautiful luxmiance that is now 

 spreading over, the brown parched pastiu-es. 



KITCHEN- G.iBDEN. 



Proceeded with planting out Winter Greens as we could get 

 gromid cleared for them. Planted more Cauliflower, Lettuce, 

 &c., these being always indispensable. Staked late Peas, the 



medium crops being richly flavoured after' the rain. In some 

 hot days gave the slightest shading to (.'iicaniheru to keep them 

 sweet, hi such weather us we have lately hod, CucuuiberK, 

 fuUy oxposed out of doors, or even with air on under glass, are 

 apt to bo a little bitter, tliough in some seuMons where they 

 had unobstructed sunliglit they were always crisp lUid sweet. 

 The bitterness, we consider, is not ho much owing to unob- 

 strncteil sun as to the tiercu siui and dryness combined. In 

 many cases the comphvints of Cueuraber-oaters arise from 

 having thu fruit sent to them when it is too large and old. 

 If sent in the young state there would be fewer complaints. 

 The mistake has arisen from country societies too generally 

 patnmising length and size. Some time, ago wo heard au 

 exhibitor very wroth because his Cucumbers, were passed by. 

 The judge, tii silence him, took hold of the Cucumber by one 

 end, and the other end at once jiretty well joined it, the body 

 of the Cucumber making a beautiful are of a circle. There 

 was no reply to tins question, " how long sucli specimens h.-id 

 been cut and kept in the cellar." The person who would 

 venture to eat such Cucumbers, after a due allowance of salt, 

 viuegar, oil, and even young Onions, might as well have pre- 

 sented so much leather to the organs of digestion. Even 

 Cucumber-eatei-s would bo wise if, after attending to all the usual 

 preliminai'ies, they sent such huge specimens of growth to be 

 duly digested in the; rubbish-heap, or followed the receipt of 

 Dr. Johnson, and pitched them out of the window. Cucumbers 

 grown in frames will now also bo better of a little bottom heat 

 from linings. A strong sun heat and a cold wet soil will be 

 next to certain to make the fruit hard and bitter, and to mili- 

 tate against healthy luxuriance. We are short of material for 

 this purpose, but anything that will keep cold out and send a 

 little heat in, as a mixture of short grass and litter, will be of 

 use, and will add to the future manure-heap. 



Tomatoes. — Mulched, and fastened these against fences, walls, 

 &0. They do pretty well, if well thinned, on sloping banks. 

 They are but little used in this country in the green state as 

 salads ; but they are largely used in this way in America. 

 Some time ago, an Euglishman who became, as he said, a 

 thorough Yaaikee told us that when green and small. Toma- 

 toes made an excellent ingrecUent in salads, along with gi-een 

 Ca))sicums, Cucumbers, .tc, and ended with telling us that 

 " You old-country folk do not know how to use the blessings 

 that Providence gives yon." ".i s jui. -v.h .mi 



Jliishiuums. — Earthed up a piece of the bed .Jn>;»hea..',iiThfe 

 first part is now coming in. Will clear the house as soon as 

 jiossible, as the decayed dung wiU do when riddled for 

 mulching the remainder of tlie flower-beds. When cleaned 

 out, we will smoke well with burning sidphur and a httle 

 turpentine to kill all insects, and woodlice in particular. We 

 generally in this lean-to house to the noi-th, get on very well 

 during the winter— but as the warmth of the end of spring 

 comes, so do the shoals of woodlice \-isit us ; though we trap 

 and kill mjTiads, we can never clear the place of them entirely 

 until we take away the beds and burn sulphur as stated above, 

 with all crevices shut up. It would never do to adopt such a 

 system with the beds in bearing. Sulphur, as well as lime, is 

 a great enemy to the vrhole, or nearly the whole of the fungus 

 family. We" believe we get the woodlice intruders in spring 

 from talring them in with the dung for the beds, and in old 

 gardens it is scarcely possible to find a place completely free 

 from them. They nuiltiply also very fast in a warm place. In 

 some cases we have seen inyilads of them when they seemed to 

 care nothing for anything' but warmth and drv-nesa, never 

 touching a Mushroom at all. In other cases we have known 

 them assail every Mushroom that came when not much larger 

 than pin heads, and in other cases we have found them roost- 

 ing and eating among the laminje of a large specimen, like 

 bees clustering among their combs. One advantage of beds in 

 open sheds, or even out of doors in siunmer, is that there is 

 little temptation for such intruders to go there. AVarmth and 

 dryness are what they chiefly like— so much so, that one 

 wholesale way of getting rid of them, is to water the surface of 

 a bed, and place a httle (b-y hay along the back and fi-ont. la 

 a few hoirrs every one of the woodlice wiU liave taken refuge 

 under the thin liixer of hay, and boiling water poiu-ed on with 

 one hand whilst the hay is" gently hfted with the other, will 

 make short work of them ; and as death must be next to 

 instantaneous, there can be no great charge of cruelty, when 

 once we have resolved to destroy if we can. We often think 

 that the whole practice of snaring and trapping larger animals 

 well deserves legislative consideration. The amount of torture 

 thus inflicted is next to incalculable, and has a tendency to 



