372 



JOURNAL OF HORTICULTURE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. 



[ November IS, 1866. 



allowed to become too large. Turnips for table should rarely 

 be so large as a common-sized fist. 



Swedish Turnips are the best for yielding blanched tops, 

 which make a nice dish for variety, and may be had wherever 

 there is a little heat and little or no light. Like Sea-kale, they 

 are best when cut short, say not more than inches in length. 



Heating Material. — For all such temporary hotbeds nothing 

 .i6 better than mowings and sweepings of leaves from the lawns 

 and pleasure grounds, especially if a little litter can be mixed 

 with them, and some half-rotten material can be placed over 

 all to keep down the steam, and dry earth does well in an 

 emergency. When such rough material is used, not merely 

 for linings but also for beds, it is as well to pile it together — 

 leaves, mowings, &c, so as to heat violently, which it will be 

 sure to do, in order to kill or drive away everything in the 

 snail, slug, and grub line, as otherwise plenty of these marauders 

 will take up their abode in the bed, and be apt to do much 

 injury. 



Tree Leaves may be collected in any condition, wet or dry, 

 when to be used for present purposes, and if they ferment un- 

 mixed with stable manure, we have never found a plant which 

 the gases from their fermentation would injure ; but when it is 

 desirable to keep these leaves to make the most of them for 

 future purposes, for giving out their heat by fermentation and 

 decomposition, then they cannot be stored too dry. If no large 

 open shed can be used for this purpose, they will keep very well 

 in a heap out of doors either in the conical or the oblong stack 

 form, pretty well trodden, and a little litter thrown on to pre- 

 vent the wind having its way with the outside leaves. When 

 once the outside becomes a little caked no rains or snows 

 will penetrate more than a few inches. When taken out for 

 use, if very dry the leaves may be easily sprinkled with water 

 to cause fermentation. We have taken dry leaves out of such 

 heaps as fresh nearly as when gathered, after being collected 

 for three years. Of course, if taken home damp they would 

 have caked, heated, and decomposed. Of all leaves Oak leaves 

 are the most lasting, and for heating-purposes therefore the 

 most valuable. In deep pits we have turned them up fresh at 

 the bottom after having lain there three years ; and when 

 broken up, and moistened if dry, they were as good as ever for 

 yielding a mild regular heat. Such facts are proofs positive 

 that even the substances most easily decomposed, and which 

 during the process of decomposition give out the desirable 

 heat, will not decompose when air and moisture cannot reach 

 them. 



Just as in the case of a tan-bed, in which a very strong 

 violent heat can be obtained by mixing old half-decayed tan with 

 that fresh from the tanyard, so a strong heat can be obtained 

 by mixing caked half -decayed leaves with fresh-collected ones ; 

 but a more genial lasting heat, and with less waste of materials, 

 will be obtained by keeping the new and the half-decayed 

 separate. In many cases it will be best to have the fresh at 

 the bottom and the older at the top. When a bed of leaves 

 fails to give enough of heat, the turning of the bed will, from 

 the admission of air, cause decomposition to commence afresh, 

 more especially if a little water is added if the material is dry. 

 These details, though of little moment to some, where ma- 

 terials are abundant, are of no small consequence to those who 

 must extract all the possible heat from decomposing sub- 

 stances before they are turned aside for rnanurhig-purposes, 

 too rotten to yield any heat from farther decomposition. 



Leaf mould is one of the most useful materials in a garden, 

 and is most useful when well aired after it has been reduced to 

 a fine mould, as ; reviously to that period it is often a good 

 lodging place for '.ifferent fungi, which by such means gain 

 access to and do much injury to the roots of plants. We have 

 known cases of Yine roots being much injured by rough 

 scarcely half-decomposed leaf mould, or rather, half-decayed 

 leaves, being mixed with the soil, and the fungi carried with 

 them spreading through the soil and attacking the roots. 



In stacking turf, even for future compost mould, we have 

 found some stacks next to useless by being penetrated with 

 masses of deleterious spawn before the soil was lit for use, and, 

 consequently, it could hardly be used for any purpose imtil it was 

 treated wuth hot lime and hot water, and turned so as to get at 

 the spawn, and then be aired and sweetened. A few pieces 

 of fungus spawn in a turf or two, when these turfs are built 

 up in a stack and kept dry, will very likely in the course of 

 twelve mouths spread through most of the stack : therefore in 

 taking up the turf a keen eye should be kept on any appear- 

 ance of spawn, and the turf-man should keep at a distance 

 from all fairy rings. 



Mushrooms. — There has been enough about these lately ; but 

 we are reminded of them here by " Maud's " pleasing article at 

 page 328, and she, we have no doubt, would be successful in 

 growing them as well as in eating them ; but we would urge the 

 growing them all the more because there is danger in partaking 

 of the things called Mushrooms which are too often used for 

 cooking, and especially for ketchup. The boiling and the 

 spices lessen the danger in the latter case ; but even then the 

 danger will be less in proportion to the less quantity that is 

 used. We have had to supply Mushrooms to those who would 

 on no account have eaten them if they had known we had sent 

 a single Mushroom for the table from a field or pasture, and 

 there can be no question that those cultivated in beds are the 

 safest, and can be had small or large, thick or thin. 



A second reason is to chronicle the fact, that the bed that 

 was rather hot, alluded to lately, was soon rendered all right 

 by the slight covering of turfy soil lightly beaten, which thus 

 kept out the air and arrested active decomposition. Thut piece, 

 the first in the Mushroom-house, has now been spawned, and 

 earthed, and beaten down, the surface being rendered smooth by 

 watering and drawing a clean spade firmly over it. A third 

 reason is to state that in the next bed (formed of sweetened litter 

 and a coating of horse -droppings, altogether about a foot thick) 

 owing to the dung and droppings being too wet, though there 

 was plenty of heat, the top part, from the heat and moisture 

 rising, became much too hot for thrusting the spawn into it. If 

 we had been in a hurry we would have wrapped each piece o£ 

 spawn in a handful of short dry litter, and inserted it with the 

 moist dung round it as soon as the heat was correct, as alluded 

 to the other week ; but as we were in no hurry wc preferred 

 improving the texture of the bed by cutting some dry litter 

 short with a billhook, and mixing it with the top, which was 

 rather damp. Straw cut with a chaff-cutter would have been 

 better, the straw being cut into two-inch lengths or so ; but 

 the billhook and a block soon did our work with the driest 

 litter. This has given us the desired texture as to dryness ; 

 but the turning, by the admission of air, gave more heat than 

 we wanted, and this, too, after beating down, has received a 

 slight surfacing of soil, as we have no wish to have our shallow 

 beds exhausted by decomposition before the spawn runs in 

 them. 



Mushroom Sjpawn. — Examined the heap of spawn-bricks 

 alluded to lately, and added some more covering to increase 

 the heat, which ranged from 00° to 70°, when it would have 

 been better at from 80° to 85°. Making spawn should be 

 understood ; but when wanted in small quantities it is more 

 economical to purchase from a respectable tradesman. 



Dug and trenched ground as it became at liberty. 



FEUIT GARDEN. 



Much the same as in previous weeks, having a good deal of 

 work in cleaning glass stages, washing pots before housing 

 them, &c. 



ORNAMENTAL DEPARTMENT. 



Carriage Roads. — Cleaned carriage roads, which, from seeds 

 scattered from the pastures, were becoming green at the sides, 

 though cleaned not more than five or six weeks ago. The 

 centre wanted nothing more than a hard sweep to remove 

 droppings, and thus make all fresh and clean ; but even 

 though the day was dry and sunny, as on Tuesday, hoeing and 

 raking the felt of green young grass at the sides would have 

 been tedious, and but of temporary use, as most of the grass 

 in wet weather would have taken root again. As from the 

 late wet weather the sides of these roads for 15 inches, as far 

 as the grass and weeds extended, was rather soft, we turned 

 it over with the spade in shallow spits about 1.J or 2 inches in 

 depth, which at once turned the green felt out of eight, and 

 with the assistance of the back of a rake left a brown sandy 

 surface in its place, and there was nothing to take away. 

 When a piece of ground, especially in autumn, becomes green 

 with small weeds, this shallow turning-over is one of the best 

 means for giving a clean fresh surface. The idea we are apt to 

 form of a place is considerably modified by the condition of the 

 approaches, and whatever its width, an effort should be made 

 to have the outline of gravel clear and distinct throughout. 



Lawns. — MowiDg and machining as opportunity offered, as if 

 the grass is short and smooth before much frost, it will look 

 greener and nicer all the winter through. 



Now is a good time for pruning and transplanting evergreens' 

 making cuttings of Laurels, fie., and laying fresh turf. What 

 is laid now in fine days will have little chance of giving rheu- 

 matism to the layers, and it will be so established during winter 

 thai it will need no watering next summer. Few people can 



