450 



JOURNAL OF HORTICULTUEE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. 



[ November 28, 1865. 



STOVE. 

 This will require a very liberal ventilation now, increasing 

 fire-heat if necessary ; in order to accomplish it stiU apply 

 moisture to the air, although n a diminished degree, but with- 

 hold moisture entirely from the roots of deciduous Orchids, or 

 tho.ie sinking into a state of repose. Any late specimens, or 

 importations of Orchids making late growths, should have the 

 lightest situation in the house, and stiU receive a little moisture 

 at the roots occasionally ; hght, however, is the great desider- 

 atum in order to produce those secretions ou which alone 

 depends their power of passing through a long winter success- 

 fully. If there is any prospect of a scarcity of bloom next 

 May, a portion of the Achimenes and Gloxinias should be potted 

 at once and placed in a warm part of the stove, choosing such 

 as have been the longe.st at rest ; and a few Cierodendrons, 

 Allamandas, a plant of Echites splendens, and one of Dipladenia 

 crassiuoda, may also be started ; but unless plants of these with 

 well-ripened wood are at command, and that have been some 

 time at rest, there will be nothing gained by attempting to start 

 them into growth at present, for in most cases it is difficult at 

 this season to maintain a sufficiently warm temperature to 

 secure anything like free growth from these unless they have 

 been well prepared for an early start. Let Ixoras and all other 

 hard-wooded plants that have made sufficient growth be kept 

 rather dry at the root in order to check growth and induce a 

 tendency to foi-m bloom-buds, but do not let the soil in the 

 pots become so cli-y as to affect the foliage. 



PITS AND FHAME^. 



With the assistance of a garden-frame, and stable manure or 

 tan to furnish a gentle heat, Hyacinth.s may be had at Christ- 

 mas, and with a good stock of bulbs the display may be kept 

 up tm April or JXay. For early flowering the bulbs should be 

 planted in September, as advised at that time ; those to flower 

 in spring to be planted during the months of October, Novem- 

 ber, and December. It may be well to state that three bulbs 

 grown together in a six-inch pot (thirty-two's) produce a much 

 finer effect than single bulbs. The soil' used for potting should 

 be as rich as possible, such as one-half turfy loam and well 

 decomposed cow or horse manure, with a small" portion of clean 

 sand intermixed. If, however, this cannot be" obtained, then 

 the lightest and richest at command must be employed instead. 

 FiU the pots lightly with the prepared compost, and place the 

 bulb upon the surface, slightly pressing it into the soil. After 

 giving the newly-planted bulb's a liberal watering, set the pots 

 out of doors on a place where perfect drainage is secured, and 

 cover them with about a foot of old tan, ashes, sawdust, or 

 any other Hght material. After remaining there for a mouth 

 or five weeks the bulbs wUl be sufficiently rooted to render it 

 safe to_ remove them to a gentle bottom heat of about 55°, in- 

 troducing the pots in numbers proportionate to the demand at 

 intervals of about a fortnight. We would caution the amateur 

 when forcing the Hyacinth to be careful not to allow the roots 

 to penetrate into the fermenting material. A sitting-room 

 window forms a suitable situation for Hyacinths while in bloom, 

 and their beauty will be longer in fading there than in most 

 situations. In no instance shoiild they be removed from a close 

 atmosphere, or suddenly exposed in a sitting-room window, 

 until they have been previously hardened in a suitable temper- 

 ature to withstand cold drying currents. — W. Keane. 



DOINGS OF THE LAST ^^'EEK. 



_Wet and stormy up to Thursday. On Wetlnesday we were 

 visited with a hm-ricaue of wind, which snapped off the heads 

 of some Pine trees, and tore off a piece of zinc roofing from 

 a verandah, rendering it necessary to place heavy planks along 

 it, and to wedge every moveable sash about the place. We 

 escaped as respects glass with one or two broken squares ; 

 but without the wedging there would have been endless work 

 for the glazier. We recollect running out very early one morn- 

 ing, years ago, during a similar hurricane, which levelled many 

 of the finest trees, and being startled at seeing on the walk 

 something white, which proved to be a sash, which had been 

 carried by the wind some dozen of yards from the house to 

 which it belonged, and laid down so carefully that not a square 

 was broken. In a few minutes more the" house would have 

 been unroofed. Itwoirld have been of little use then to bewail 

 a catastrophe. Twice besides have sashes been more or less 

 moved from that house, but in no other instance without a fair 

 amount of breakage. Whenever winds are expected, there is 

 nothing like fastening and wedging. A person may then sleep 



comfortably. The winds will otherwise have done us a service 

 and an injury. Less sweeping and raising of leaves will be re- 

 quired, but then we lose the leaves that have been whisked off 

 miles away, and that to us, with great shortness of manure, is 

 a loss indeed. 



KITCHEN OAEDEN. 



Here outside nothing whatever was done. As soon as the 

 weather is quiet and dry we shall move the ground on the sur- 

 face among all young crops, as it is now battered firm and hard 

 by the driving rains. TJJe loose surface will do much to keep 

 out the intensity of the frost, if it come. Carrots, Beet, &c., in 

 sheds were also examined, and a piece of a Mushi'oom-bed was 

 spawned and left. The bed was shallow, and the heat on the 

 decline, though rather too hot 3 or 4 inches from the surface to 

 suit the welfare of the spawn. The spawn, therefore, was 

 placed pretty near the surface, so as to be cooler, and as the 

 heat declines we shall place another inch of droppings on the 

 surface, beat firm, and then, if in a day or two the heat be all 

 right, we shall earth and beat it down. From the damp weather, 

 and the damp from the manure, the house altogether became 

 too damp, and we put a Uttle fire heat on, and gave air to 

 secure a drier atmosphere. They are well off who have now 

 enough of shed room to spread out the materials for Mushroom- 

 beds, before making them up into beds, but when this cannot 

 be done, and yet succession-beds must be made, some of the 

 modes which we have previously mentioned must be resorted 

 to to counteract the extra dampness. Examined the Sea-kale 

 and Rhubarb to see that the heat was not too strong for them. 



I-EUIT G.VnDEN. 



Examined fruit in fruit-room, removing the spotted and 

 decaying, and gave a little extra air on a dry day to sweeten 

 and dry the place. A httle air eonstantlj' in mild weather is 

 best, but so given that mice and rats cannot enter. These 

 vermin are threatening to be very annoying. We believe that 

 where game and rabbits, and especially the latter, are strictly 

 preserved, rats will multiply. Their perseverance is most 

 astonishing. If in some places a thorough rat battue does 

 not take place they will become as impudent as in the moor- 

 lands of Braemar, where, it is reported, men have had to rim 

 for tlieir lives, and where nothing eatable escapes them. We 

 mean to tar the first one we catch alive, and send him off to 

 strike terror into the hearts of his companions and cause them 

 to shift their quarters. We only once saw a migration of rats. 

 It was on a moonlight night, and in the most direct track from 

 one large farmyard to another. There were scores if not hun- 

 dreds of them. In the case of bulbs potted for forcing we 

 were obliged to cover every pot with an inverted pot, and a 

 piece of brick over the hole. Those not covered in this way, 

 though surrounded and covered with chopped furze, were turned 

 out and partly eaten by mice, and very likely rats, the very 

 first night. Trapping and destroying seem to make little dif- 

 ference as to the supply. The gardener's valuable assistant, 

 the cat, has nearly disappeared from gardens. So long as cats 

 are playful kittens they are pretty safe ; but by the time they 

 are able to mouse and rat they get trapped and shot, even close 

 to their own domicile. 



The weather being so unsuitable for out-door work, the chief 

 employment has been in the Peach-house and vineries. Prun- 

 ing the trees ; washing with soap and water trees, glass, and 

 woodwork, syringing well into everj- hole and corner with water 

 about 150° ; scraping off an inch or more of the surface soil ; 

 forking up, and replacing with fresh loam, a little soot, and 

 dry Mushroom-dung from an old bed ; painting the trees 

 with a mixture of sulphur, clay, and soot ; and tying them 

 after washing down the walls with hot water, and then white- 

 washing these with fresh hme toned down with some black 

 and sulphur. The sulphur and black were wi-ought up into a 

 thickish paste before being added to the whitewash. The 

 addition of a little blue or lampblack takes off the bright white 

 appearance which the lime would give — too bright to suit some 

 plants if the sun shines brightly and its rays are reflected from 

 the walls. The mixing of about a pound of sulphur in about 

 a gallon and a half of limewash will cause slight sulphur exha- 

 lations to be given off for some time whenever there is sun- 

 shine. We will secure this longer in the season by painting a 

 couple of feet or so at the top of the wall in a couple of months 

 with sulphur paint, made by beating up the sulphur into a 

 paste, and adding enough of strong softsoap water to make the 

 paint. This will give out strong fumes for some time, and 

 wiU hurt nothing if air be given before very bright sunshine. 

 No insects like such treatment, and in the case of all insects it 

 is better to keep them away than to kill or drive them away 



