220 



JOURNAL OF HORTICULTURE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. 



r September 13, 1865. 



the shoots. It should he a point to keep them as hardy as 

 possible by fully exposing them until they are placed in their 

 winter quarters. — W. Ke.«e. 



DOINGS OF THE LAST ^\^<:EK. 



A WEEK of glorious summer weather has made some of the 

 rather-behind-haud farmers smile at the impatience of those 

 that carted the valuable grain rather early. 'What an untold 

 blessing this last week's bright sun has been to the country ! 

 The heat, however, and the warm weather early in the season, 

 are bringing in all our fruit at once. Unless in the case of 

 those who shade, &c., there will be few October Peaches this 

 season, and some of the wall-fi-uit is ripening before it is 

 fully swelled. Several visitors have been complaining of the 

 same, and saying they will have Uttle out of doors, except 

 Apples and Pears, by the end of the month. But then we are 

 never satisfied ; there is always an if, or a but, that prevents us 

 acting out the cheerful pliilosophy that " sees the bright side 

 of all things.'' It the fruit is coming in aU at once, or rather 

 too quickly, the flower gardens have improved after the rains, 

 as if by magic, and though, perhaps, not so fresh-hke, are 

 now more full of bloom than they were in the third week of 

 July. 



Less than a fortnight ago the few gardeners we saw were 

 hanging their heads with the most woe-begone aspect, and the 

 ■wisest went about prophesying that September this year would 

 see nothing but wrecks of flower-beds. If there was even a 

 melancholy pleasure experienced, it was soon exhausted in 

 the half-hearty congratulations that were showered on those 

 whose employers had all betaken themselves to the north, to 

 the moors, deer-stalking and fishing, and who, therefore, 

 would see uothuig of the wrecks they had left behind them. 

 This very simple fact is not seldom forgotten. Some care 

 nothing about their summer flowers after the mi'ddle of August, 

 but cut and propagate, and lift without compunction. Even 

 as respects labour, the matter is very different, when every bed 

 must show its best until the frost comes. 



KITCHEN' GAKDEX. 



Trenched up part of the Onion ground, and planted out about 

 half the space we intend for the earhest spring and summer 

 Cabbages. 'We had a lot of rotting short grass mixed with 

 refuse from the potting-bench. rotting weeds, which had 

 not come to the seeding state. &c., which we dug in at the 

 bottom of the trench. The material would be too rank for any- 

 thing to gi-ow in, but it will be decayed and sweet enough by 

 the time the roots of the Cabbages reach it in the spring. The 

 soil needed no enriching on the surface, othei-wise we would 

 have given a little very rotten manui'e on the surface, to en- 

 courage the young plants. This rough dunging at the bottom 

 tells well on the Cabbage crop, which we generally allow to 

 stand aU the summer and the following winter, obtaining, 

 after the first large-sized heads, several successions of young 

 Cabbages until the stumps are pretty well decayed ; and" then 

 the groimd, as a general renovator, is treated for Celery, &c. 

 The rains having battered the gi-ound, ran the fork through 

 borders and quarters of Coleworts, Spinach, young Onions, 

 Lettuces. Caiiliflowers, Broccoh, and will follow with a Uttle 

 maniu-e water to all the grosser crops, as it will teU on them 

 very perceptibly in this sunny weather, and when the next 

 rain comes it will be nicely washed in. Turned the Onions 

 preparatory to taking them imder cover. We are so far sorry 

 to say that the rains and the heat have so sent the necks next 

 to out of sight, that it will he diflieult to string them this 

 season. They are in general best kept in strings, and they 

 occupy less room than when stored on shelves, &c. 'We have 

 fi-equently stated that hardly any amount of frost will injure 

 Onions if they are kept dry. 'We have never known them keep 

 better than when hung in open sheds. 



But for the smeU they leave behind them, we believe that 

 few vegetables are more conducive to the health of working 

 men, and therefore we always feel pleased to see a good bed of 

 Onions in a working man's garden. We have seen a labourer 

 shee off for his dinner from three to six huge Onions, and that 

 with an evident rehsh that the rich man rarely enjoys when 

 debating what he shall pai-take of among his costly clishes. 

 A gentleman lately told us he almost envied the ploughboy 

 discussing his lunch of bread and Onion and next to imcooked 

 bacon as he swung on the field gate. " I am so often shut up, 

 immersed in business, that I cannot take exercise enough to 



get an appetite ; or I go out for a day's shooting, and come 

 home too fatigued and hungrv to enjoy an.vthing." Ah ! there 

 is a vast deal more of the equality of enjoyment in the diiTerent 

 classes of society than is generally supposed. The law of com- 

 pensation, which will pervade all classes, is a mcjst beneficial 

 one. Ulie ploughboy on the gate eats with a charming reUsh, 

 because he eats just when he needs it, and when nature is 

 satisfied he eats not a bit more. There is nothing in the bread 

 and the Onion, or the bread and next-to-raw bacon, to tempt 

 him to indulge, or to excite a false appetite. 



Thinned Tomato leaves, exposing the fruit to the sun, and 

 backed up some frames of Cucumbers ; gathered the most of 

 the small ones for pickling. Gherkins, &c. Thinned out a 

 few leaves of "S'egetable MaiTOw to give them a little more 

 Ught. 'When cooked, about the size of two hen's eggs put end 

 to end, this is one of the most dehcious vegetables. For our- 

 selves it is generally too rich to be used above once a-year. 

 We see them growing often in the poor mau's garden ; but 

 they and the larger Gourds are generally allowed to grow on 

 and ripen, and then they are hung up and used for soups, and 

 for puddings, along with Apples, &c. Allow us to advise him 

 to cook a lot when they are young, and then the plants will 

 ripen qtiite as manj-. 'Wlea of the young size above stated 

 let them be washed clean, and then plunged in boiling water 

 and boiled imtil, on trying with a fork, the points of the fork 

 go freely into them, and then they will be done. Much of 

 the dehcacy will consist in keeping the water outside of the 

 fruit. 'When boiled soft Uft carefully on a plate, poiu' ofi' any 

 water that may come with them, cut each fruit open in halves, 

 remove the soft centre, and then on the rest of the fruit dust 

 a httle pepper and salt, and with a very little fresh butter 

 or dripping, you have a dish fit for a prince. 



FEriT GARDEN. 



Much the same as in pre^ous weeks. As already stated we 

 suspect that much fine wall-fruit this season will have to be made 

 into jams, jelhes, preserves, and tarts, as it has come so soon 

 in. Thinned and shortened the shoots of Apples and Pears 

 as we got at them. WiUiams' Bon Chretien Pears have been 

 very fine, and, with a little management, that delicious Pear 

 may be had good for a long time by vei-y frequently picldng 

 the most forward first, and that also in a heavy crop, helps the 

 more backward, and causes them to swell better. From a single 

 tree we have frequently had this fine Pear for six weeks, when 

 by one or two gatherings we should not have had it much more 

 than six days. We find birds are beginning to pick many 

 Pears that are yet pretty well as hard as stones, and as for flies 

 we never knew them so numerous. The hot weather early in 

 summer seemed to bring them out in myriads, they are even 

 more troublesome than the earwigs. Bottles with sour beer 

 and sugar will settle a good many of them, hut the double hand- 

 glass is as good a trap as any, with a plate of decayed fruit and 

 fermenting liquid in the lower one, and a hole in the top to let 

 them fly up and enter the upper one. Bushels of flies and 

 wasps m,ay thus be trapped. Wasps are now coming, though 

 rather weak on the wing ; we saw none during all the rainy 

 time, and we presume many died then. The honey bee this 

 season has attacked fruit, especially the smaller fniit, without 

 mercy ; we have seen half a dozen on a single Gooseberry. 

 Plums have been a wonderfvil crop, but many of them are 

 ripening early. Many trees would have been better of a good 

 thinning. Such loads one year are apt to be followed by a thin 

 crop the following year. Strawberi-y plants in pots have been 

 well watered and exposed fully to the sun. A little soot was 

 dusted on the stu'face of the soil in the pots, alike to enrich 

 it, and to keep out worms. Watered Figs and late Vine-border, 

 the latter most likely for the last time. 



ORSAJrESIAIi EEPAETITENT. 



Here, in addition to potting, regulating chmber.s to give 

 more hght, and preparing plants for being placed under pro- 

 tection, the chief work has been propagating Geraniums for 

 next sirmmer's display in the flower gai-den. We would have 

 done it a few weeks earher if we could have foxrud time, but 

 there are cases in which cleanliness, good order, and fine con- 

 dition of the beds, must for the time obtain the first considera- 

 tion. The neatness and good keeping, even of a part, required 

 a great deal more time and laboirr than usual, owing to the 

 warm rains, and the veiy hot weather succeeding. The grass 

 grew with such rapidity as to be beyond the reach of our 

 single-man mowing machines, for with such machines there is 

 nothing gained by cutting when the glass is long. Under 

 such circumstances we never met with grass worse to mow with 



