224 



JOUENAL OP HOBTICULTUEE AND COTTAGE GAEDENEE. 



[ September IP, 18G6. 



the house should be carefully looked over before the general 

 collection is introduced, and thoroughly cleansed by hand-wash- 

 ing whenever the scale is detected. Orange trees particularly 

 require this attention. Whatever pruning or training is re- 

 quired by climbing plants, the same opportunity of completing 

 it should be used. Stands should be cleaned, and all necessary 

 repairs at once effected. As the plants from without are 

 brought in let the pots be carefully cleaned of moss and all 

 impurities, the drainage looked to, and each plant scrupulously 

 freed from insects, dead leaves, and all unnecessary ligatures. 

 Pay attention now to Chrysanthemums. They must not be 

 stopped later than this to have fine heads of bloom. A little 

 liquid manure will assist them ; let it be applied twice a- week 

 if your desire is fine plants with large blooms. Dwarf plants 

 of these may be secured by layering the tips of the stems now 

 into small pots ; they will soon root, and may then be cut off 

 and shifted if necessary into large pots. Some prefer raising 

 them from cuttings, but either plan will do. They are some- 

 times put three or four in a pot. The sooner potting bulbs for 

 forcing is accomplished the better. The chief business is to 

 have the root well established before growth commences, other- 

 wise it is impossible to produce an early and strong bloom. 

 Most of the failures we meet with are chargeable to the omission 

 of this most important point, and the fault has not unfre- 

 quently been charged most unjustly on the bulbs. Use a soil 

 composed principally of a mellow loam, with the addition of 

 old cowdung and leaf soil, and a sprinkling of sharp sand. 

 Secure good drainage. Hyacinths should stand about one-third 

 out of the soil, Tulips should be just covered, and the Crocuses 

 may be buried about an inch, taking care that the soil is in a 

 mellow state — neither wet nor dry. Shake the pots slightly, 

 in order to prevent the bulbs settling too low, but do not by 

 any means press the soil. They succeed by far the best in a 

 cold frame, and it is most desirable that they should receive no 

 moisture beyond what the soil contains until the pots are 

 somewhat filled with roots. Those who have not the conve- 

 nience of a frame may plunge them in cinder ashes in some 

 sheltered spot, taking care to raise them above the ground level 

 for fear of water lodging. Take care that there is a free pas- 

 sage for the rain, and let them be covered with 6 inches of old 

 tan, sawdust if not too new, or ashes. For growing Hyacinths 

 in glasses the bulbs, after being kept for a few days in damp 

 sand, should be placed in their water-glasses. At first the 

 water should barely touch the base of the bulbs, and the glasses 

 should be kept in a dark place until the roots have attained 

 the length of an inch, which will prevent their becoming 

 top-heavy ; and the roots being in advance of the leaves will 

 preserve the plant balanced erect. The bloom will also be 

 finer, as the roots will be in a state to nourish the leaves before 

 these are prematurely advanced. A piece of charcoal put into 

 each glass will assist in giving nourishment to the plant, and 

 also prevent putridity in the water. 



STOVE. 



Where there is but one house for the accommodation of 

 tropical plants considerable care and attention are necessary to 

 properly manage these at this season, as some, having com- 

 pleted their season's growth, require to be kept rather cool and 

 dry, while others in free growth require to be encouraged with 

 warmth and moisture. If there is no convenience for removing 

 to a cooler house such things as have made their growth, these 

 should be placed together at one end of the stove, keeping 

 them sparingly supplied with water at the root, and giving air 

 rather freely, which will generally serve to prevent any attempt 

 at a second growth ; and those requiring to be kept warm and 

 moist should also be placed together at the opposite end of the 

 house, where very little air should be given, using every care 

 to keep the atmosphere about them moist, &c. — W. Keaxe. 



DOINGS OF THE LAST WEEK. 

 We have had another week of wet, windy weather, though 

 a risi»g barometer on Wednesday morning gave some hopes of 

 a change for the better. At times the rains were too heavy for 

 any work out of doors being done advantageously. At other 

 times farm men could cut the corn crops, and turn over what 

 had been cut by the scythe, to prevent anything like growth, 

 and but little of this has taken place, thanks to the coolness 

 that accompanied the rain, and the breezes and winds that 

 kept the air in motion. Notwithstanding the floods in some 

 parts of the country, there is very much to be grateful for. 

 Owing to these changes of weather, even in cottage gardens 



most of the Potatoes have long lost their foliage, and in many 

 cases are now greatly affected with the disease, which might not 

 have been so bad, if the I'otatoes had been taken up earlier ; 

 but in the long days of harvest, the labourer can do little for 

 his own garden. 



In the garden the work out of doors has chiefly been confined 

 to mowing, and a little planting when the days are at all favour- 

 able, as planting when the ground is soaked is anything but 

 well-timed labour. All work which the workman cannot do 

 with some feeling of pleasure and satisfaction to himself, will 

 be found in the end to be anything but economical. 



KITCHEN GARDEN. 



The chief work has been protecting young Cauliflowers, 

 Lettuces, &c, from slugs and snails, pricking out Cabbages, 

 and planting out lots of Endive and Lettuces, some of which 

 will be raised again. We would plant in beds now, to be 

 covered with glass afterwards, if we could find the room. A 

 piece of Pea ground will soon be dug down, and that will come 

 in for Endive and Lettuce. Slugs and snails threaten to be 

 troublesome this wet weather, and worst of all they are rarely 

 seen even in the early morning. A nice piece of Beetroot 

 was stumped into or rather out of the ground by rabbits and 

 hares, and we were forced to sow in a bed and transplant, 

 which for one advantage will secure nice little tubers, as many 

 persons object to large ones. 



We have rather enjoyed the remarks of some correspondents 

 on our telling about being so troubled with hares, rabbits, rats, 

 pheasants, and myriads of birds, but except in the case of 

 Peas, of which the birds did leave us rather scarce, we were 

 not entirely beaten though obliged to use more labour. If it 

 could be any consolation for us to find brethren in misfortune, 

 it would be that the Eoyal Horticultural Society, with all suit- 

 able appliances at command, lost the first-trial Peas by slugs 

 and snails, and next to lost the second sowing by mildew. 

 Both evils have been rather prevalent this season ; but what- 

 ever it may be to some it is no pleasure to us to find others 

 suffering more than ourselves, though the comparative scarcity 

 of fine-flavoured Peas this autumn should be said less about 

 when many places have none at all. Our greatest enemies 

 amongst Peas, far worse than even the thieving sparrows, are 

 rats, which mount the sticks, cut off the pods, and either carry 

 them off, or rip them up on the ground. For good reasons 

 we do not use the gun, the most effectual settler for the rascals ; 

 poisoning we are rather afraid of, and trapping seems to thin 

 them but little. A rat razzia takes plaoe now and then in the 

 vicinity, but if we did not know to the contrary, we should 

 have expected from the little decrease in the numbers that the 

 rat-catchers had acted on the system pursued by Mr. Waterton 

 in his young days — cut off the tails to count for pence, and let 

 the owners of the tails go free to secure the continuance of the 

 breed. 



Celery.— Will wait for the first fine, dry day, to clear the 

 suckers from a piece, tie it, and earth it up almost as much as 

 we want it earthed up. The tying up helps alike the blanching 

 and rising of the centre before any earthing is given, and the 

 delay in the earthing, and avoiding the bit-by-bit earthing-up, 

 is one of the best securities against running or bolting. We 

 find that now most of our gardening writers and makers of 

 calendars of operations are adopting this idea, though formerly 

 nothing was more commonly met with than " Give a little 

 more earthing-up to the Celery. Give little at a time and 

 often." We advise to the contrary, that up to the end of warm 

 weather in autumn, it is best to give earth seldom, and a good 

 deal at a time. In fact, for all early Celery, if from tying the 

 centre of the plant is well up. we would make the first earthing 

 the only and final one. The reasons have been several times 

 stated, and they are proved to be sound, from the rare oc- 

 currence of a bolted head among our early Celery-beds. As 

 an index to the season, we may mention that our Celery- 

 beds have only been twice watered, and hence we could not 

 from the rains give them assistance with something stronger 

 than water. 



Cucumbers. — Took occasion in a somewhat dry day to bank 

 round frames, &c, with litter and short grass, a mixture which 

 is always sure to make a strong and rather continuous heat. 

 Care must be taken that there be no holes in the frames, and 

 that the sashes be not shoved down to let the steam in from 

 such linings. 



Kidney Beans.— Gathered Scarlet Eunners and Dwarf Kidney 

 Beans rather closely, picking off and throwing away, or using 

 for pigs' meat, those pods becoming too large, as every pod! 

 with seed swelling in it will exhaust the plants more than a 



