December 4, 1866. ] 



JOURNAL OF HORTICULTURE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. 



iM 



with old sashes in October, bavo yielded some good gatherings, 

 which camo in useful for shooting-parties as late as the 27th. 

 The small pods still showing will not have sun heat enough 

 to swell, so we shall turn the plants out to afford room for 

 other tilings, such as Endive. Plants from seeds sown in pots 

 out of doors in the beginning of October - , and placed in a pit 

 where there was heat as the nights became too cold, are now 

 producing. Potted a lot for succession, turning them out of 

 four-ir :to eight and ten-inch pots, and sowed a lot 



more in four and five-inch pots, to be transferred afterwards to 

 larger pots. The chief object fur not sowing in the pro.l 

 pot9 at once is the much less room these small pots take up 

 at first, and when such pots can be spared, we prefer sowing in 

 pots to sowing in shallow boxes and transplanting afterwards, 

 as the plants suffer less check when turned out of the small 

 pots. With a little add . however, the plants do very 



well when transplanted fro; i the soil 



should be well aired and warmed before receiving the young 

 plants. Where room is no great object, it takes much less 

 labour to sow the seeds in a bed at once, 2 feet from the glass, 

 or in pots whore the plants are intended to produce their crop. 

 Where the most is to be made of little room, the transplanting 

 system must be resorted to. We have done very well with suc- 

 cessions in a six-light pit, where we i;rew nothing else for the 

 time, by eowing first three lights in r >ws 2 feet apart, and in 

 about tiireeweeks sowingthe other three lighl As soon as the 

 first sowing was C inches in height, the plants were earthed up 

 a little, leaving a shallow furrow between the rows. When the 

 plants were in bloom, and setting their fruit, or pods rather, 

 another sowing was made in the furrow, and covered with leaf 

 mould ; and by the time the first crop was nearly off and cleaved 

 away, the second crop was earthed up, and the furrow left for 

 another sowing, and thus four or a good, 



regular supply. For this mode it is J that there 



should be the means of commanding a regular bottom heat, 

 and a dry heat for the atmosphere of the pit, which can be 

 made into a moist heat as desirable. Under such treatment 

 the free use of the syringe .ed soot water in 



sunny days, constitute a great safi thrips and red 



spider, both of which are apt to attack Kidney Beans when in 

 a dry heat. Soot water may also be put into the evaporating- 

 pans, and the walls may be whitened with lime and sulphur, 

 and a dash of soot if they should otherwise be too white and 

 glaring. 



Gave plenty of air to Radish nliflower in 



head and young plants, and to As; hrough, and 



placed a number of Potatoes in sma. .oot in the 



Mn=hroom-house and other places, to prepare them for pots or 

 for beds. 



Took the whole of the clearings from flower-beds to make a 

 bottom for several frames, placed leaves and mowings from ] 

 pleasure grounds on the top of them, and covered all with half- 

 decayed grass and litter that had formed beds for cuttings, lay- ; 

 ing aside the more rotten part on the surface, to go for manuring 

 the ground the first frosty morning, and then filled the beds 

 with Strawberry ■■' ■ * The place where these frames 



stand had been beds for Carrots, Radishes, Cucumbers, Pota- 

 toes, &c, and served many purposes of that kind in spring and 

 summer. With the exception of a little fresh litter and leaves, 

 the beds were formed chiefly of half-decayed materials, and they 

 were too decayed in the autumn to be of much use for cuttings i 

 that would be the better of a little heat, and, therefore, what 

 was on the beds was allowed to remain, and for the cuttings 

 fresh Blight beds were made a yard or so in front of them, con- 

 sisting chiefly of a mixture of long grass and litter, and half- 

 rotten leaf mould, with ashes for the top ; and the frames being 

 lifted on, a good place was secured for late cuttings. These, 

 as detailed the other week, have now been housed, and the 

 frames are at liberty. The beds made last spring, being well 

 decomposed, were wheeled on the ground for Strawberries 

 during the first frost which we had, and on their site the 

 clearings from decayed and frosted flower-beds were used as 

 a bottom, leaves and mowings from pleasure grounds placed 

 above them, and as the leave; are dry and loose, for the 

 purpose of consolidating them, the surface of the beds used 

 for cuttings is placed aside for wheeling at the first favour- 

 able opportunity. The grass and litter that formed the base 

 of the temporary beds are forked on the top of the new 

 beds at the back, and when well shaken, will, especially with a 

 sprinkling of coal ashes, form a nice bottom for setting the 

 Strawberry plants in pots on, merely to give them a little start 



before taking them into the houses. It would not be safe to 

 plunge the pots, as such a mixture in damp weather may at 

 more violently than would suit the Strawberries ; but with the 

 pots set merely on the top, the heat can be regulated to a 

 nicety by the air afforded. Had we the shelves oi the houses 

 in which we intend to force at liberty, we might with less 

 future labour as respects moving, fill these shelves at once, but 

 they are not at liberty ; and if the Strawberry-pots were on the 

 shelves they would require more labour in watering than wiU 

 be necessary in frames, where they will need very little for a 

 month to come. 



Before placing the Strawberry-pots in the frames the pots 

 were washed, the Larger and somewhat spotted leaves twisted 

 carefully off, the surface of the soil pricked over with a pointed 

 slick, a little of it turned off, and a rich fresh surfacing 

 given. If a pot was dry it was watered before the surfacing, 

 bo that all afterwards should tell their condition as to dryness. 

 We would not have entered into such details had not several 

 correspondents requested us to give full particulars wherever 

 . and from what we have stated it may be seen — 



First, that for some purposes frames are more useful than 

 pits. Some of our two-light boxes haveafresh place or a fresh 

 bed to stand on at least six times in a twelvemonth. You can- 

 not move a ] on can move the sashes. The moving 

 of a frame simply set on four bricks enables yon to have air 

 all round, and through the inside of your box when that ia 

 desirable. Frames intended to be moved should not be over- 

 deep, and consequently heavy. From 13 I hes deep at 

 the Lack, and from 'J to 12 inches at the front, are good aizes 

 for moving. 



Secondly, it is often important, when a piece of ground is 

 set apart for frames to stand on, if there are beds beneath 

 them, to have the ground wide enough for two sets of beds. 

 By this means, when the earliest beds on the north side can 

 do without protection, or only with that of a few branches, the 

 frame and sashes may be removed to another bed in front. 

 Then, as in the present case, when the one set of beds is 

 thoroughly decayed and removed, what is only partially wasted 

 in the later bed may form a component part of the new beds, 

 and being close at hand, can be so used without the trouble of 

 bringing it from a distance. 



Thirdly, it may be seen that everything that will ierment 

 and give out heat in the process of decomposition may be used 

 for hotbeds, especially where great heat is not wanted. We 

 could obtain so few leaves at present, that, but for the clearing3 

 from flower-beds, we could not have formed a bed for these two 

 or three frames to stand upon so as to obtain any heat, even 

 with the assistance of the bottoms of the slight beds made in 

 autumn. Now there will be as much as will be necessary, and 

 we must have our early beds in the back row, as the place 

 where the temporary beds stood in autumn would be too much 

 shaded for winter and spring. Now, the rough materials of 

 these beds are rendered perfectly safe by the covering of sweet 

 decayed materials at the surface. Such rough beginnings also 

 constitute a sort of nucleus for less or more of hotbeds for 

 the season — for instance, now they will do what is wanted for 

 Strawberries. If the heat be not enough we can add a few 

 leaves, and plunge or part plunge the pots, guarding always 

 against too much heat. There would also be enough for early 

 crops of Radishes, and for Turnips if wanted early. If, en re- 

 moving the Strawberries, we wanted the beds for Asparagus or 

 Potatoes, we would most likely fork the beds over, and add a 

 couple of barrowloads of fresh fermenting material to a light. 

 If, when they were gone, we wished to have long Cucumbers 

 and Melons, we would take off the soil, turn the bed again, 

 and add a little more fermenting material. For growing ridge 

 Cucumbers and Vegetable Marrows these would want nothing 

 more than to be planted in the soil that suited Radishes, Car- 

 rots, and early Potatoes, either with the help of the sashes at 

 first, or a little additional protection if the frames were moved 

 to some other place. According to the amount of turnings, 

 and the work done by and the heat obtained from the bed, 

 would it be thoroughly rotten by the autumn, or a good por- 

 tion of it would be only so far decayed as to come into use 

 for mixing and surfacing in another year. 



We have found it of great advantage to have such a founda- 

 tion as that referred to made for a line of beds, and should 

 have felt more independent if we could have had double or 

 treble the amount of rough material. We have heard numerous 

 complaints and repinings from the proprietors and the 

 managers of little places, as to what could be done with the 

 litter and droppings from one horse, or two at a time, whilst 



