432 



JOURNAL OF HORTICULTURE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. 



[ N'ovembei 21, 1865. 



COXTERTING A SUJnCER-HOUSE INTO A FERNERY (P. S.).— A'south front 



will answer, with the roof sloping towards the north. Whatever jrart of 

 the glass the sun's ravs fall upon between 9 a.m. and 4 p.m. from March 

 to October will require to be screened, or the Ferns under it will suffer. 

 IS you could so contrive that the Ferns wonid receive light without the 

 direct rays of the sun. the necessity for shading would be done away 

 with ; bnt in winter you would experience a loss of sun heat and light, 

 and at that season Ferns cannot have too much of either. We should 

 endeavour to make the house look as well externally as we could, and if 

 we found it necessary to shade we would do it. There is no objection to 

 a door in the east wall. 



Pkice of Grapes {A Poor Gentleman). — We are sorry that, from our 

 own experience, we cannot give more definite information as to the price 

 to be obtaiiied for Grapes in. September than that supplied at page 285. 

 On sending^ a quantity to Covent Garden to a salesman, much depends 

 on the i^tate of the market, and the demand for such things — as seems to 

 be instanced by your receiving only txZ. per lb. at one time and Is. at 

 another time. We think it would be well to try more than one salesman. 

 The best prices are generally obtained from salesmen when they take 

 the crop, and send for the produce as they particularly want it. We 

 sball be glad if some correspondent will give more definite, information 

 to this inquiry. Ton would obtain better prices if you ripened the 

 Grapes earlier. We would plant two Vines of the Royal Muscadine in 

 sncfa a small space as forms the roof of the hen-house, considering that 

 the place is shaded except at mid-day. 



Heating a Range of Pits (li. H. i.).~We do not think you will 

 succeed in heating your pits from the house, and just from dipping 

 down 2i feet under the pathway that separates the house from the pits. 

 Could you have carried the pipes across into the pits on a similar, or a 

 higher level, there would have been no difficulty. To succeed, by the 

 mode you have tried, two things are desirable, almost essential: first, the 

 top of the boiler must be on a lower level than the pipes that now come 

 under the pathway; and, secondly, the highest point of the pipes in the pit, 

 instead of being the same height as the level of the pipes in the house, should 

 at least be from 12 to 18 inches higher. The whole would be better if the 

 iighest point of the pipes iu the pit were jnst as much above the level of 

 the pipes in the house as they go under that level below the pathway, 

 and even then, as said above, the border must be lower than the lowest 

 pipe. If the boiler is low enough for the water to circulate beneath the 

 pathway, yoiu- easiest plan would be to heat house and pits separately at 

 once from the boiler. If you send us a section, showing the position of 

 the boiler, and pipes in the bous'e. and pipes in the pit, exactly as respects 

 height, we might be able more effectually to advise you. Even now, sup- 

 posing the boiler to be sunk low enough, yon had better rise at once in 

 the pits a little higher than the level of the pipes in the house, and place 

 yom- air-pipe or valve there, the open small pipe carried out of the house 

 t>eing better than c valve. Some time ago. we noticed the successful 

 working of two houses belonging to Mr. William Fells, nurseryman, of 

 the Market Place, Hitchin. The lower house was heated in the usual 

 way, and, from the end of that house, pipes were taken, with valve-con- 

 nections, and lowered under a pathway, and taken into the other house. 

 Bat, in this case, the pipes were fuHj^ 2 feet higher in the second bouse 

 than the first, and there was an open cistei'n at the highest point, and 

 the boiler was considerably below the lowest point of the pipes under the 

 pathway. 



Improving a Grass Field (Clericus). — Most likely your field would be 

 the better of being well drained ; at the same time dig up all those coarse 

 tufty pieces of grass which no animal will eat, and which, as you say, the 

 scythe will not cut. Give the land a good dressing of manure, or com- 

 post, as early in the winter as you can, and it will have time to mellow 

 do^m before spring, when it may be brush-harrowed, all stones picked 

 off, and then rolled. If there are any open ditches, let them be cleared 

 out, and the scom-ings, together with the tufts of coarse grass, carted to 

 a heap where they may rot; and the whole, if mixed with about one-sixth 

 of its bullv of quicklime, will form an excellent dressing for the ground 

 another year. If the grass is exceedingly poor, and a too large propor- 

 tion of it consists of this coarse grass, it would be better to have it 

 ploughed up, and put the land under tillage for two or three years. In 

 general, however, such pastures may be improved by the means recom- 

 mended above. A liberal allowance of manure is one of the best of re- 

 medies. Mowing for hay seldom improves the bottom, but pasturage by 

 sheep, on the contrary', is one of the best modes of doing so, cutting out, 

 at the same time, all thistles, dock?, and those crar^e tufty lumps of grass, 

 which are useless for all purposes. Mowing off the seed stems in August, 

 which is sometimes done for appearance, is of no benefit tothc grass, but 

 the contrary. A httle grass and clover seed sown over it in spring will 

 do good. 



Protectixg Cherry Tree Fruit Etjds from Birds (C. C. £.).— Black 

 worsted strung from point to point of the branches, so as to have the 

 appearance of a net with two-inch meshes spread over the trees, we find 

 effectual in preventing the attacks of sparrows and other bh-ds. A com- 

 position of soot, sulphur, cowdung, and soft soap will not injure the buds, 

 if the soft soap be not used in a greater proportion than S ozs. to the 

 gallon. 



Cost of a Vixery (IT. C. IT.).— Tuless on the orchard-house plan, 

 having no moveable sashes, you will not, even ha\ing the back wail 

 already ther-e, put up such a house, 50 feet by 15 feet, for £35. With 

 seventeen Vines ui) the rafters in such a house, we advise having nothing 

 at all planted against the back wall, but a shelf or two might be placed 

 there, the highest for Strawberries, the lower on^ for Beans, &c. We 

 cannot say in how many years the crop of Grapes cut in June would 

 repay the outlay, that would be regulated by many circumstances, but, if 

 the house cost so little in erecting, we should imagine in the third and 

 ourth years after planting, provided all wont on favourably. 



Naiies of Fruit (U. J. N.). — The Apple is Franklin's Golden Pippin. 

 Pears: 1. Beurre Diel ; 2, quite rotten; 4, Easter Beurre ; 5, Belle aprea 

 Noel ; 6, Baronne de ilello ; 7, Glou Morceau ; S, Jean de Witte. (L. P. C). 

 — 1, Scarlet Nonpareil ; 2, Golden Winter Pearmain ; 3, Braddick's Non- 

 pareil. {A Stthvcrihcr, Pitincij). — Pears : 1. Marie Louise; 2, Swan's Egg; 

 3, Vicar of Winkfield ; 4. Beurre Diel. Apples : 1, Kerry Pippin ; 2, Winter 

 Greening ; 4, Pearson's Plate. (W. Meredith).—!, Jean de Witte : 2, Glou 

 Morceau ; 3, Ivnight's Monarch ; 4, Beurrt- d'Aremberg ; 5. Passe Colmar. 



Navies of Plants {B. Waites). — A very good form, of Polystiehum 

 angulare multifidum, if permanent; but others equally good are known 

 to be inconstant. iL.W.^ a Subscriber of Many Years). — 1, Gymnogramma 

 ochr.icea ; 2, G. calomelanos ; 3, Nepbrodiiun molle ; 4, Blechnum corcova 

 dense ; 5, Pteris longifolia ; 6, Platyloma flexuosum ; 7. Atbyrium Filix- 

 f(Emina; S, Polystiehum angulare, young — probably ; 9. Cheilanthes hirta. 

 (H. B.). — 1, Adiantum assimile; 2, Lastrea dilatuta colli na ; 3, Microlepi- 

 trichosticha. (W.H. M.), — Cystopteris dentata. [P. H. G.).— Your tree is 

 the Hornbeam. 



JCETEOROLOGIC^Uj observations in the Subm-bs of London for the Week endins November IStli. 



POULTRY, BEE, and HOUSEHOLD CHRONICLE. 



GAME JUDGING AT BIRMINGHAM. 



As " JcsiiTiA," ■when referring to the Birmingham arrange- 

 ments in his present dispute with your correspondents " Old 

 Cochin " and " An Exhibitor,"' seems so scrupulously desirous 

 that all remarks should be enthely limited to the judging of 

 Game fowls at the Bii-mingham Show, any reasonable explana- 

 tion of the following well-known facts would remove those fixed 

 impressions, that even until this vei^yhoiir so generally prevail 

 among, not " one or two," but many scores of exhibitors re- 

 specting (to use the words of " Justitia" himself), "A certain 

 peculiar notoriety obtained in Binningham in the Game depart- 

 ment." 



Can " JcsTiTiA," who professes to have this subject so per- 

 fectly under his own command, therefore explain for the benefit 

 of those less informed, how it was that the Game fowls exhi- 

 bited at Birmingham two years back by a gentleman as his own 

 Game fowls, after being awarded the prizes were recognised by 



one of the Game Arbitrators there as being his own identified 

 property, and consequently " disquaUfied ?" Also, how it oc- 

 curred that these particular pens of fowls were afterwards 

 pubhcly advertised for sale by the individual who at first ex- 

 hibited them, and that this offer of sale was made subsequently 

 to their being actually sold and dehvered up, quite indepen- 

 dently of both the Ai-bitrator and original exhibitor? This 

 was done by a third person, who, ali the time of payment, gave 

 a stamped receipt in his own name to the purchaser of the dis- 

 puted pens, which vmerring document still remains in existence. 

 A satisfactory solution by " Justitia " of this at present 

 somewhat compUcated enigma, would release from doubt the 

 minds of very many others of yom- readers besides — CocKsrur,. 



CXLH^ AND OTHER POULTRY SHOWS. 



I H.u> intended writing a few words on Mr. Heath's reply to 



" WiLTSHiKE Eectoe," and the " Tukkjst Peisoxees." I feai 



now I am somewhat late. All of us are well assured that 



in " WiLTSHiKE Eectok's " remarks he intends no possible 



