Doocmbor 18, 186S. ] 



JOURNAL OF HORTICULTUUE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. 



487 



commonly imiiyined ; for what red prof-resa cun bo made in 

 the night ? The paitR in the course of development may be 

 lengthened, but of what advantage would that be ? I imagine 

 that night covornings are of more importiinco than has been 

 commonly imiifjinod. With those a lower tcmporaturo may be 

 permitted ; radiation being so well guarded against, no surplus 

 amount of heat need be kept up to meet those sudden depres- 

 sions, which must occur in very severe weather to uncovered 

 roofs. 



STOVE. 



Some of the early-ripened tall Cacti may now he introduced 

 cither here or in the forcing-pit, and receive a liberal watering 

 to commence with. If, however, the blossom-buds are not 

 well matured it is of little use forcing them. Do not encourage 

 any fresh growths among the plants at this season, rather aim 

 at that kind of routine management which will serve to con- 

 solidate the growth already made, and to develope the blossoms 

 of the late-flowering things in a proper way. 



FOBCING-PIT. 



This is a capital period at which to introduce a considerable 

 bulk of things for genuine forcing-purposes. Khododendrons, 

 Belgian Azaleas, Persian Lilacs, iUoss and Provence Roses, 

 Sweetbriars, Honeysuckles, Kahuias, Daphnes, Rhodoras, the 

 more advanced Hyacinths, Narcissus, Tulips, &c., may now be 

 fairly started. A sweet bottom heat of H()° maximum and an 

 atmospheric temperature of C.5' will be necessary, wliatover the 

 structure. One thing may here be observed, and that is, that 

 it is vain to introduce anything unless properly set for bloom ; 

 this points to the necessity of a special summer's training as 

 long since suggested in this calendar. The great secret of 

 success, if the heat is wholly composed of fermenting materials, 

 is to keep down accumulating damp and mouldiness by an 

 almost constant ventilation, increasin"^ the hnings in order to 

 raise the necessary temperature. Those who are fortunate 

 enough to possess a pit heated by means of hot water will, of 

 course, pursue a somewhat different course. 



PITS AKI> FKAMES. 



Look well to those containing stores for next summer, and 

 have BufiBcient ])rotccting materia! always in readiness with 

 which to cover them whenever the weather is unfavourable. — 

 \V. Keaue. 



DOINGS OF THE LAST W'EEK. 

 The drizzling foggy weather still continuing has prevented 

 us varying much our usual operations. In tlie 



KITCHEN GAIIDEN 



managed to clean up where most unsightly from fallen leaves, 

 clearing all the principal walks of them, and of any weeds that 

 made their appearance. Threw a little wood ashes, burnt earth, 

 and lime on young Lettuces, Sec, to keep slugs from them. 

 Must wait for the stirring-up the surface of the ground, and 

 eartbing-up Cabbages until the ground is drier. Sowed Radishes 

 of the long-rooted kinds in such a slight hotbed as was alluded 

 to last week, sowing them in rows alternately with Lettuces, 

 which come in useful for spring planting. Filled one light of 

 such a bed with Asparaffus, and will follow with another light 

 in a fortnight or three weeks. When well packed, as described 

 last year, one light holds a great many plants. After packing 

 them a surfacing was given of an iuch or so of sandy leaf mould, 

 and washed into oveiy cavity by means of a good watering. 

 One inch of leaf mould was put over all, and if the heat is 

 all right — mild, and not too strong, and the buds begin to push, 

 then some 3 inches more will be put over that. The object 

 is to have the Asparagus tender, and a good part of the top 

 sent to table green ; if afforded too much heat, and then too 

 much air, it will become bard and stringy. Grown thus on a 

 common hotbed it will need Uttle more watering beyond that 

 given as above, though, of course, the roots must not be dry. 

 Nothing is easier to force if too much heat is not given. We 

 have forced it like Sea-kale — in the dark, and then cut it and 

 stood it upon damp moss in a warmish light place, such as a 

 sitting-room window, until it acquired the desirable green tint. 

 In reply to " Emily," we would say that it will come well in a 

 email warm greenhouse, where the temperature ranges from 

 45° to 50', packed firmly even in her sh.allow boxes, if the buds 

 are covered from 1 to Ij inch, but, of course, placed near the 

 heating apparatus ; it will require frequent watering, with 

 water about fiO° in temperature, and a little of any sort of 

 manure in the water will be of advantage. 

 Kidney Beam, in bearing, gave a good deal of air to them, ' 



syringed them overhead when there was a little sun, and will 

 put some sulphur in the evaporating-pans, to make sure, though 

 as yet there is no appearance of thrijis or anything else, which 

 we partly attribute to the walls being dashed with lime and Bul- 

 pluir. Potted a lot more that had been sown thickly in boxes 

 to save room. A good plan is to sow in small pots, and then 

 turn out into large ones. We would rather sow in eight and ten- 

 inch pots at once, only they take up a good deal of room at 

 Tirst. It is for the making the most of every bit under glass 

 that we do not sow in drills in beds at once. Kidney Beans 

 arc diflicult to grow in winter without tire heat in some shape 

 or other, as to have them in perfection thej- need an atmo- 

 sphere not saturated with moisture, and a temperature ranging 

 from 50' to 05". 



Cucumbers. — We had some nice jdauts, but from being un- 

 able to give them heat, owing to alterations, we are doubtful if 

 they wiU do much good in the ])it, which was prepared too late 

 for them. Young plants are going on nicely, and will most 

 likely beat the older ones. Some people like these all the year 

 round, others would rather never see them from November to 

 May, and then a Cucumber gives a relish. Wc have kept them 

 in common frames all the winter, but that was when we had 

 jjlenty of tljc tussocky grass referred to last week. The frames 

 which we used for th.at purpose were deep, fully 18 inches in 

 front, and from 36 to 42 inches behind. This gave plenty of room 

 for introducing a rough trellis of wood and wire 15 inches from 

 the glass, and though wood is one of our worst conductors of 

 heat, yet it does conduct, and from keeping these frames banked 

 up right to the lop with the grass, dung, and leaves, we could 

 command in general plenty of heat, and dry heat too, the 

 boards inside, from the heat outside, being warm and dry. 

 Except for the regularity of the heat, flat pits heated by hot 

 water are little better for winter work than these frames. Both 

 admit too little light in the dark season of the year, and, there- 

 fore, more elevated ho'.ises, with plenty of heating power, are 

 better for Cucumbers in winter. They are also less likely to 

 be bitter than when grown in Hat frames and pits. We have 

 cut from frames and pits in winter nice-looking young Cucum- 

 bers, and we would scarcely have believed it to he true, if we 

 had not tasted them. In some cases you might as well have 

 taken so much soot in your mouth. The worst of it was, that 

 there was no outward sign by which you could distinguish the 

 mild, sweet ones from the bitter ones, except cutting them and 

 tasting them. We have tasted some half a dozen, and found 

 them all right, and perhaps the seventh or the eighth would be 

 as bitter as bitter could be. We have never noticed anything 

 of the sort in Cucumber-houses that had plenty of light and 

 heat — say width 8 feet, height in front 3 feet, height at back 

 9 or 10 feet, and Cucuinbers trained — say 15 inches from the 

 sloping glass roof. Span-houses would even be better than 

 lean-to's, if there was plenty of heating power. One word more 

 as to \vinter Cucumbers. There are three complaints lying 

 before us, to the effect, that Cucumbers that bore well, heavily, 

 in the end of October and November, are now showing signs of 

 giving over, when they were especially wanted at Christmas, 

 and in January, and the dark dull weather is assigned as 

 being the chief cause of failure. Wo believe there is something 

 in that, but the heavy cropping is the chief cause. Plants in- 

 tended to bear heavily right on to Christmas, should not be 

 expected to do much more. If the same autumn plants are to 

 continue on until spring, then they should be sparingly cropped 

 until near Christmas. Wlien man}' are wanted about this 

 season, another set of strong plants should be Icept on, that 

 have been allowed to bear scarcely any fruit, to take the run- 

 ning after Christmas. Scores of times we have seen plants 

 loaded with fruit in November, and the first part of December, 

 but it was rarely they were worth their keep after Christmas. 

 The vital energies of the plants are often thus exhausted, and 

 no coaxing, or pruning, or freeing them from fruit, will ulti- 

 mately benefit them. 



3Iushiooms. — Just one memorandum as to the Mushroom- 

 house. We are still having small gatherings from the bed in 

 the open shed, and the firt-t little bed in the Mushroom-house 

 is coming rather faster than we like, owing to rather much 

 heat and steam. The bed in question is on a shelf-bed, and 

 below it on the ground, which may be made into another bed, 

 is a lot of fermenting material undergoing a due preparation. 

 The heat from this made the house rather warm ; but worse 

 than this, it threw up a good deal of steam in the shape of 

 vapour, which was condensed against the slojiing roof and 

 dropped upon the bed, making the siuface too wet. We re- 

 medied the extra heat by giving plenty of air ; dissipated the 



