470 



JOURNAL OF HORTICULTURE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. 



f December 5, 1865. 



Flower Border— Tank Covers (Calcaria).—Vve are hardly in a posi- i 

 tion to criticise your beaiitiful panel border, as some years ago we had 

 one exactly the same, and the plautinp was also much the same. The I 

 only remark we consider it necessary to make is on the importance of 

 having the Geraniums in the diamonds low, so as to be rather under the 

 Verbena and the Calceolaria, and some of those mentioned we are not 

 sufficiently acquainted with. Christine would do, and alternate beds of 

 that and Tom Thumb, or Little David, would be charming. With the 

 height of the diamonds all right, the sloping border will be beautiful. 

 Slate is the best covering for tanks. Where little weight is to be placed 

 on them, the slate as used for houses, and even fiat tiles as used for roofs, 

 ■would do very well. A very cheap cover is thus made : — Place pieces of 

 wood along or across, say 1 inch thick and 3 inches wide, and have open- 

 ings between from 2.^ to 3 inches. Stuff all these openings with pieces of 

 tile, brickbats, furnace clinlters, &c., place a little pebbly gravel over that, 

 covering all, and sand or ashes to plunge in. The cheapest tank for 

 heating-pm-poscs would be one of wood, say 4 inches deep ; and, when 

 thus covered, the heat comes up through the clinker spaces. Coverinc; 

 with slate would be better, even if thin. We have also covered with 

 zinc and plate iron. 



Heatikg from a Kitchen Fire (T.). — Your boiler apparently consists 

 of a block of metal at the back of the kitchen grate, 14 inches long, 

 9 inches deep, and 3 inches wide, and in this block there are three 

 openings or perforations that you call the water-way, forming at one end 

 the flow, and at the other the return pipe, and these water-ways are con- 

 nected together by the most acute angles possible. We are in doubt as 

 to the capacity of the water-ways, which yon say is a pint. Do you menu 

 that a pint of water fills the whole of these three water-ways ? If so, your 

 water-ways must be exceedingly smnll openings in the block of metal, 

 and quite insufficient to keep up juiythjug like circulation in the pipes 

 of a house '64 by 13 feet. We can imagine a block of metal so perforated 

 with connected water-ways, each on the level, and connected together 

 with rounded joints, semicircular, and not with these acute angle 

 junctions, and holding a gallon or two of watei", acting moderately well ; 

 but we should not expect such a contiivance to answer so well as the 

 commonest small kitchen boiler. In such a case as yours, and with such 

 a house to heat, the simplest boiler would act better than such a block of 

 metal, where, if the metal become very hot, the water in small spaces 

 has a chance of being turned into steam. Then the common boiler 

 could be so set as to leave a smaU space undei-neath for the heat to 

 play upon, and then at night the fire could be collected round it, and an 

 iron plate placed in front of it. You may succeed with your present 

 arrangement, though we see nnlhing of an improvement in it. Where is 

 your supply-cistern ? How about an air-pipe ? Or do you take yom* pipes 

 in the house from the level of the boiler? 



Books on Orchids and Ferns (E. A. G.). — You can have, free by post 

 from our office for thirty-two postage stamps, " The Orchid Manual,'' and 

 for sixty-four stamps " The Fern Manual." They contain the informa- 

 tion you need. 



Book {T. T.). — The dictionary you mention is out of piint. 



Vises in Pots (J. Rohson).— If you wish your short-jointed Vines in 

 10-inch pots to fruit fully in the conservatory next season, we would not 

 repot them, but keep them as they are all the winter with merely the pot 

 protected from frost, and the head too, if the weather is severe. Then in 

 March we would set the pot into a drained saucer with some rich soil in 

 it, top-dress witli rich compost, and allow the plants to breal; naturally 

 without any bottom heat. If you will be satisfied with little fruit next 

 season, but wish the same pots to continue bearing several years, then 

 we would advise shifting the plants now into 14 or IH-inch p^ts, just 

 easing the fibres outside the ball, and then plunging the pots over the 

 head in a bottom heat of fi-om 70^^ to 75^, which can be easily secured in 

 an open shed or other place, by a little litter and fermenting tree leaves, 

 &c., the tops remaining exposed, except in severe weather. If the roots 

 reach the sides of the pot before Mai-ch, it will be better to conl the pot 

 giadually, and not give bottom heit then, as you propose. Prune back, 

 as you propose, before the sap begins to run. Pot Vines, to bear con- 

 tinuously, must not be heavily cropped in any one year — say four 

 bunches are about a medium. 



Nectarines Withering {Inquirer). — As the tree is so healthy, the 

 withering, or rather the shrivelling, of the fruit just before attaining 

 matui-ity, wc should attribute to the heavy crop, the extreme heat, and, 

 perhaps, a temporary deficiency of water. Some tender Nectarines ex- 

 posed to the full sunshine would have been helped in such heat by a 

 slight shade. Very probably if you had taken a fourth or a third less of a 

 crop you would have betn more successful. We are glad you preserved 

 them. When nearly full grown and swelled. Nectarines make a good 

 presei-vc. When gi-een and hard, we know of no real use to which they 

 can be i,umcd. 



What is a Profession? iB.. E. P.).— Johnson defines it, "A calling; 

 vocation; known employment ;" consequently, employments of "a gar* 

 dener and cook " come within the definition. Formerly Divinity, Law, 

 Arms, and Physic were those vocations to which the term "iirofession" 

 was confined, but this was an arbitrary distinction. 



Management of Greenhousk and Stove [A Subscriber). — "In-door 

 Gardening " will suit yon exactly. You can have it, free by post, from our 

 office for twenty postage stamps. 



Varieties of Verbena Velvet Cushion (A. S. S.). — Apply to Messrs. 

 E. G. Henderson & Son. Wellington Nursei^, Wellington Road, St. 

 John's Wood, London, N.W. 



Names of Fruit {W. Matthews). — 2, Winter Codlin; 8, Selwood's 

 Reinette; 4, Veiny Pippin. (G. S.). — 1, Passe Colmar; 2, St. Lczin; 

 3, Easter BeuiTc ; G, Norfolk Bearer. 



Names of Plants (A Kerry Subscriber). ~1, Fontinalis antipyretica; 

 2, Polyti-ichum undulatum ; 3, Hypnum curvatum ; 4 and f>, Sphagnum 

 acutifolium ; G, Hj^pnum ruscifoiium ; 7, Dicranuni adiantoidos ; 9, Bar- 

 tramia fontana; 8, not a Moss but Lycopodium sc-lago. (A*., Alrcs/ord). — 

 1, Columnca? (crushed) ; 2,Thyrsacanthus rutilans. (A. H.}. — A variety of 

 Quercus ilex. ( W. H. Hitchcock). — Not Physostigma ; send again when in 

 flewer. 



METEOKOLOGICAL OBSERVATIONS in the Subm-bs of London for the Week ending December '2nd. 



POULTRY, BEE, and HOUSEHOLD CHRONICLE- 



RAILWAY CARKLAGE. 



Perhaps, of all friends, those with " a grievance '' are those 

 that we esteem the least. The grievance may be real, or it may 

 exist only in the imagination of the victim, and, perhaps, the 

 latter is the more hopeless of the two. Still, it has often struck 

 me that railway directors having friends afflicted with the poultry 

 mania, must find that some of them have " a gi'ievance." I 

 believe it to be no fiction, and therefore capable of cui'e under 

 proper remedies. Can we apply them ? The railway authori- 

 ties might easily do so, and I think they would be benefited 

 by the result. I presume that the greater the traffic on a line, 

 the more likely is that line to pay a respectable dividend. There 

 aje some speculations, indeed, that collapse the more quickly 

 in proportion to the largeness of their transactions, just the 

 same as the danger of a soap-bubble's bursting is in proportion 

 to its size and its coidcur de rose comple^don. Can it be that 

 some of the railway companies are afraid of this '.' Possibly, 

 ■were it necessary to put on fresh engines and trains for the con- 

 veyance of some hundred hampers. This, however, we know 

 to be imnecessary. Extra trains may be put on, not, however, 

 for the conveyance of hampers, but of passengers ; and the 



outside world have generally imagined that these excursion 

 trains paid satisfactorily ; perhaps this is a myth, perhaps it is 

 after all simply a charitable idea on the part of the directors ; 

 if the latter, wo poultry-fanciers simply say. Extend your 

 charity, and receive, as you will desei-re, our gratitude. 



Beheving, however, that the increase of traffic on any given 

 line is considered a sign of corresponding success, we may ask, 

 Why do railway authorities snub poultry-fanciers, who certainly 

 have contributed not a little to this increase ? AVhat can be 

 their object ? Is it possible that the old Latin proverb applies to 

 their case, and that " those whom the gods desire to destroy 

 they first render insane ? " Certainly the original shareholders 

 in some of these companies, who, with anxious hearts have 

 watched the present quotations becoming " small by degrees 

 and beautifully less," must consider the sanity of their direc- 

 tors, in adopting measures that serve to lessen the revenue, 

 somev.'hat doubtful ! Do poulti-y shows add to the revenue of 

 railways ? There can be no question that they do. There is 

 the carriage of the birds, the increased passsenger traffic in 

 consequence solely of the show. Is it not, then, evidence of 

 doubtful sanity that railway authorities do not foster poultry 

 shows ? We could believe that money offered as a cup by a 

 railway on which a show was being held, would be money well 

 invested. Poultry-fanciers do not ask for this ; they say, We 

 send a number of packages by your line, we have ah-eady paid 



