450 



JOURNAL OP HORTICULTURE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. C December 11, 1806. 



excluded. We mention this more particularly, as we do not 

 believe there is yet one gardener among thirty who can obtain 

 the means so to protect his outside borders in which the great 

 bulk of the roots are placed. 



Inside Borders. — A correspondent last week wonders these 

 are not more general for Peaches and Vines, and is sur- 

 prised they have never been recommended for Tines, as they 

 woidd render all outside covering of no consequence. They 

 have been alluded to and recommended many times in this 

 serial alone, but, perhaps, not so particularly and prominently 

 as they ought to have been. Where a good wide house is to be 

 devoted almost entirely to Vines, we can think of no better 

 plan, as the whole plant is so thoroughly under control, and 

 it would be an easy matter by cross air-drains to have a circu- 

 lation of heated air passing under the border without any 

 means of heating there ; but even without that the dry soil of 

 the house, when forcing commenced, would soon partake some- 

 what of the internal temperature, and that could be assisted 

 by watering with heated water — say at 7-5° or 80°. Even when 

 the border is chiefly outside, we have recommended, where 

 practicable, that the Vines be planted inside, and we can do so 

 from painful experience, knowing something of the annoyance 

 and disappointment of finding some of the best Vines almost 

 totally destroyed by mice and rats attacking their outside 

 stems and roots. We have had too many a fine bunch of 

 Grapes mangled by these marauders finding their way into the 

 house by the holes below the wall-plate. We recollect of a case 

 in which, after trapping and poisoning a lot, we felt we should 

 be worsted until we wrapped each stem in waterproof material, 

 packed the holes firmly with moss, and then daubed each 

 opening and all along below the wall-plate liberally with tar. 

 So long as that remains moist no mouse or rat will go near it, 

 but they will drive a shaft and try to find a way in underneath 

 it. They will rarely attempt to enter by arches, the crown of 

 which is from 6 to 9 inches below the wall-plate. Hence, for 

 security against all such vermin, it is better to plant inside 

 and let the roots go out, and it is better still to have a solid 

 wall and all the roots and stems inside, so that nothing shall 

 find its way into the house except through the openings for 

 ventilation. 



One reason why we have not more recommended inside 

 planting in the small, single greenhouse, vinery, and every- 

 thing, of the keen amateur, who, besides cramming his house 

 to repletion with plants in pots, wishes also to have Vines on 

 the rafters, is, that the house being almost always full of plants, 

 the dropping and splashing from the watering of these plants 

 is apt to bring the soil beneath the stages into a puddled, 

 unhealthy state, and mors especially when, owing to the num- 

 ber of plants in winter and spring, and the dense shade of 

 the Vines in summer, scarcely a ray of sunlight ever strikes 

 the surface of the inside soil, and thus one source of fertility is 

 withheld. We may be told that such inside shaded soil could 

 be no worse off than soil out of doors covered with flagstones, 

 tiles, pitched pebbles, &c, underneath which the roots of fruit 

 trees obtain ail that is necessary to make them continuously 

 •fertile ; but we do not think the cases are analogous, because 

 in the latter the fresh air of the atmosphere aud the heat from 

 the sun will penetrate to the roots, independently of such 

 covering. In a vinery, where sunlight can reach the soil inside, 

 owing to the plants beneath the Vines being set thinly, so as 

 not to present a thick shade between the soil and the sun, we 

 presume from what has passed under our experience and ob- 

 servation, that inside borders will be the best. When we have 

 an outside border, we prefer the surface to slope to the front 

 rather than to be level, not so much to throw off surface water, 

 as to command more of the heating rays of the sun in summer. 



We might soon go beyond our depth, by speaking of the 

 chemico-electrical effects of sunbeams, and after all do little 

 more than reveal our ignorance. Vet the simple conviction 

 remains, that light and sunbeams do that for our soils which 

 nothing else does in the same way. 



Except when very wet, no better weather could be found for 

 making fresh borders, planting fruit trees, priming, and nailing, 

 as respects which see previous numbers. Since pruning and 

 tying our Gooseberry bushes together, and syringing them with 

 lime whitewash, we have seen no signs of the birds meddling 

 with them. We used to wash with a composition, adding clay, 

 cowdung. and soot to the lime, and certainly the trees were not 

 so glaring to the eye as when done with lime alone ; but we 

 think the lime stands better than the mixture, and the white 

 look of the trees may act as a repellent. The trees have had 

 nearly forty-eight hours rain, sometimes very heavy, and a 



good portion of the lime still clings firmly on. We believe 

 hardly a trace would yet have been washed off if we had had the 

 lime fresher. Ours is merely chalk lime, and has been slackened 

 a long time, and, therefore, is not like that fresh burned. We 

 mix it with water to resemble thin whitewash, and then as the 

 quickest way squirt it on the bushes and trees with an old 

 syringe that is supplied not with a rose, but a single nozzle jet, 

 and the point of the thumb or finger regulates the discharge. 

 When the lime is fresh the fingers should be protected with an 

 old glove, or a thumb-coverer, for if at all up to his work, the 

 labourer need not let his face or clothes be marked. A new be- 

 ginner, however, had better use an old sack or overall until he 

 become used to it, for if the lime is fresher and stronger than 

 ours, the drops that light on clothes would be apt to take away 

 the colour of the cloth. 



Other matters, as cleaning, potting, &c, much the same as 

 in previous weeks, and we shall allude to them more in detail 

 presently. — R. P. 



COVENT GARDEN MARKET.— December 8. 



There is a slight improvement in the amount of business doing, but 

 as we are so well supplied it is scarcely felt, and many articles have to 

 be carried forward to another dny. There is n steady trade for good 

 descriptions of Potatoes at last week's advance. 



FRUIT. 



d. s. d 

 Apples A sieve 2 Oto 3 



Apricots doz. 



Cherries lb. 





 



Chestnuts bush. 10 18 



Currants A sieve 



Black '. . do. 



Fi-^3 doz. 



Filberts lb. 



Cobs lb. 6 



Gooseberries . . quart 



Grapes, Hothouse.. lb. 2 



Lemons lud 



10 

 VEGETABLES. 



Melona each 



Nectarines doz. 



Oranges 100 



Peaches doz. 



Pears (dessert) . . doz. 



kitchen doz. 



Pine Apples lb. 



Plums £ sieve 



Quinces doz. 



Raspberries ll>. 



Strawberries lb. 



Artichokes each 



Asparagus bundlo 



Beans, Broad. . bushel 



ScarletRun.4 sieve 



Beet, Red doz. 



Broccoli bundle 



Brus. Sprouts i sieve 



Cabbage dn~. 



Capsicums 100 



Carrots bunch 



Cauliflower doz. 



Celery bundle 



Cucumbers each 



pickling doz. 



Endive doz. 



Fennel bunch 



Garlic lb. 



Herbs bunch 



Horseradish . . bundle 



S. d. s. 

 OtoO 





 





 2 



1 



2 



1 



2 

 4 





 



1 



9 







2 



| Leeks bunch 



Lettuce per score 



Mushrooms pottle 



Mustd.& Cress, punnet 



Onions per bushel 



ti Parsley . . doz. bunches 



, Parsnips doz. 



Peas per quart 



Potatoes bushel 



G Kidney do. 



Radishes doz. bunches 



Rhubarb bundle 



Savoys doz. 



Sca-ualo basket 



Shallots lb. 



Spinach bushel 



Tomatoes. . . . per doz. 



Turnips bunch 



I Vegetable Marrows dz. 



TRADE CATALOGUES RECEIVED. 



Thomas Sampson, Yeovil, Somerset. — General Catalogue of 

 Nursery Stock. 



Smith & Simons, 1, Buchanan Street, Glasgow. — Descriptive 

 Catalogue of Hybrid Gladioli. 



TO CORRESPONDENTS. 



•«* We request that no one will write privately to the depart- 

 mental writers of the "Journal of Horticulture, Cottage 

 Gardener, and Country Gentleman." By so doing they 

 are subjected to unjustifiable trouble and expense. All 

 communications should therefore be addressed solely to 

 The Editors of the Journal of Horticulture, dr., 171, Fleet 

 Street, London, E.C. 



We also request that correspondents will not mix up on the 

 same sheet questions relating to Gardening and those on 

 Poultry and Bee subjects, if they expect to get them an- 

 swered promptly and conveniently, but write them on 

 separate communications. Also never to send more than 

 two or three questions at once. 

 Queen Anne's Pocket Melon. — We have no seeds left of tbis Melon, 



and shall have no further supply. A correspondent asks for " King 



Charles's Pocket Melon," which he grew many years since. We never 

 j heard of it. 



