December i5, 1866. ] 



JOUKNAL. OF UOimCULTUHE AND COTTAOE GAKDENEK. 



48'J 



any time when moisture is applied to them. When wanted 

 to be kept dry and as little heated as possible, the leaves eannot 

 be trodden too firmly, whether exposed or under a roof. When 

 collected damp the sooner they are used the better, as if not 

 placed very thinly they are sure to heat and decompose, and it 

 is as well to have the use of the heat as it comes. No other 

 fermenting material needs less preparation. We never knew 

 the most tender plant suffer from the vapours and gases given 

 off by the decomposition of even fresh-collected tree leaves. 

 Nothing will quite take the place of rotten tree leaves in the 

 shape of leaf mould. Even when used for the manuring of the 

 kitchen garden the crops will be sweeter, though not so heavy 

 as those to which farmyard manure lias been applied. 



We shall stir the surface soil among all young crops as soon 

 as the ground is a little drier; but for this and forcing vege- 

 tables we must refer to previous Numbers. 



Put a barrowload of Swedisli Turnips into tho Mushroom- 

 house, as the tops when blanched yellow may be useful, and 

 very desirable, if we should have severe frost a few weeks 

 hence ; the blanching of the fresh tops just leaves enough of the 

 Turnip-top flavour, and takes away the rankness. Some good 

 judges have piouounced them better than Sea-kale, but they 

 are best from December to February, after that they are apt to 

 have too much stem in proportion to the leaves. 



Mushroom-house. — So much having been said on this, and in 

 answer to inquiries, we notice it just to show that at times we i 

 may do with advantage what on the whole we do not consider j 

 the best. Our bed in the open shed covered with litter is still , 

 doing well. The first piece in the Mushroom-house is just 

 showing a few whitish spots like the heads of pins, the first 

 symptoms of what we may expect in eight days or a fortnight. 

 The second piece has been earthed-down for a short time, and 

 we wanted a third piece, as these shallow beds, averaging a foot 

 thick, cannot be expected to bear very long. We find we have no*. J 

 enough of materials by 3 or more inches for the third piece, and ' 

 they are quite damp enough. We have some droppings mixed 

 with a good deal of litter lying in an open shed, and that material, 

 though fresh, is also too wet, and as we have no hopes of its dry- 

 ing if spread out in this damp weather, we have thrown it toge- 

 ther into a heap, where it will soon heat and ferment itself dry. 

 If it were even too wet to do so, we would cut up with a bill 

 two or three barrowloads of rather dry litter, into pieces of about 

 4 inches in length, and mix it with the wet manure; but ours will 

 do without that, though we frequently resort to that plan rather i 

 than have our material too wet, or too much decomposed in the 

 partly-drying process. Now, let it be clearly understood, that 

 we throw this material into aheap, conical or otherwise, solely \ 

 for the purpose of having it sufficiently dried, and well knowing ; 

 that the heat thus produced and given off will take away into I 

 the air some of the most valuable properties of the manure for 

 producing good Mushrooms ; but we make the compromise, j 

 though well aware that the less horse-droppings, <t r c, lose by I 

 decomposition before being made into a bed, the better it wiil 

 he for the Mushrooms, provided the Mushroom-bed nevei be- 

 comes too hot — say never above 95° to 100°, and never is above 

 from 75° to 80" after the insertion of the spawn. As an en- 

 couragement to amateurs with little material at command, we 

 may mention that we have never seen finer beds than those 

 that had been made with almost fresh materials, adding merely 

 from half an inch to an inch depth at a time, and beating every 

 layer. No great heat was ever thus produced ; a regular mild 

 temperature was a long time maintained, and the Mushrooms 

 were fed with the best of the manure, which had not suffered from 

 its most valuable constituents being driven off by additional 

 heat or drying before being placed in the bed. We would wish 

 it to be clearly understood, that when we throw such material 

 into a heap as above, it is that we may obtain comparative 

 dryness, even at the loss of fertilising properties. 



FRUIT GARDEN. 



Besides moving the slight covering on a Vine border, placing 

 some warm leaves next the soil, and the old covering on the 

 top, and giving abundance of air to Strawberries in pits and 

 frames, the chief work has been pruning and nailing, and 

 treating a row of low bush Pear and Apple trees much as was 

 described lately for Gooseberries — namely, washing them all 

 over with thin lime whitewash applied through the nozzle of 

 an old syringe. The Plums first done, and after deluges of 

 rain, have still kept the most of this whitening on them, and as 

 yet no birds have seemed to touch them, though previously 

 Gooseberries and dwarf Cherry trees that will be a picture if 

 let alone, were being stripped. It was very distressing to look 

 below the Pear trees, last season, for with every contrivance 



we were nearly conquered, and this lime-washing when mixed 

 with soot, &c, the birds seemed to care but little about. We 

 think tho white colour deters them at present. The other 

 evening, just before roosting-time, we counted on a small Thorn 

 tree whose top stood above the Laurels, more than three hundred 

 small birds. Tomtits and bullfinches are our worst enemies 

 now. We do not know how far the bullfinch may at any time 

 deserve to be considered a friend to the gardener ; but it goes 

 against the grain to destroy such pretty birds, and if any one 

 could devise a plan for keeping it from tho gardens in the 

 bud season, he would confer a lasting benefit. There can be 

 no question that the tomtit is a good friend in summer, and 

 in return for that we would not so much mind his picking 

 a hole in some of the finest Pears and Apples ; but the clear- 

 ing off the whole fruit-buds of a tree is a different affair, and a 

 dozen or a score will soon clear a garden, as if they eat any of 

 the buds at all, it must be an iufinitesimally small portion, for 

 thousands of buds gathered up by us did not seem as if they 

 had a nip taken out of them, but were merely picked out and 

 thrown down. 



ORNAMENTAL DEPARTMENT. 



The mild weather furnished a good opportunity for giving 

 all the air possible to rather hardy plants, and changing the at- 

 mosphere of warm greenhouses and warm stoves, by giving air, 

 and to allow of that being done a brisk fire would be desirable 

 during the day. On such a day as Wednesday, with its cheer- 

 ful sun, frames, pits, and houses that had to be defended from 

 damp, had all the lights possible removed that the plants 

 beneath might receive the full benefit of the sun to harden 

 their tissues more, wherever that could be done without in- 

 jury. Such hardening by all the light possible is the best pre- 

 paration for severe frosty, snowy, or dull weather if it come. 



As several times advised, wherever there is danger from 

 damp, and it is resolved to keep bedding plants in cold frames 

 and pits, it is best to dispense with everything in the way 

 of an old hotbed, litter, and moist fermenting materials ; to 

 have a raised platform several inches above the surrounding 

 ground level, to have the ground sloping outwards from the 

 frame or pit, to spread over it a coating of tar in summer to a 

 width of at least 4 feet, and then to cover with gravel, placing 

 the finest at the surface, and roll. This will insure all moisture 

 being thrown off for this width, and secure moderate dryness 

 for the bottom of the bed inside, if watering and air-giving are 

 carefully attended to. In damp weather air should be given 

 back and front, by tilting the sashes a little up, which will 

 prevent a sudden shower or drizzle wetting the plants. Excess 

 of wet and damp are the great evils to be guarded against in 

 such circumstances from November to March. Hence, if 

 there is room in forcing-houses, when the trees are at rest for 

 a few months in winter, it often saves labour to take the plants 

 there in the most gloomy months, and where, though kept cool, 

 they can have a little fire heat to keep the air in motion in 

 cold and damp weather. They must be taken out, however, 

 before they are weakened by heat. The larger the house the 

 better will the plants thrive, if from nothing else, owing to the 

 greater quantity of light they will have in the dark days, and 

 the greater body of air by which they are surrounded. Even 

 in such houses we find that lots of young plants want looking 

 over to pick off leaves even slightly damped, to stir the surface 

 soil, and see that, as respects moisture at the roots, the plants 

 are neither too wet nor too dry, bearing always in mind that 

 plants just kept healthy and rather dry than otherwise, will 

 suffer much less in sudden changes of weather than those 

 having their tissues charged with moisture. 



The other morning presented a fine example of the import- 

 ance of having glass roofs, &c, of a different pitch in winter 

 from that which would be found best in summer, so as some- 

 what to convince those that otherwise would have continued 

 to argue that the difference of roofs could make no difference 

 to the plants beneath them. The early sun appeared through 

 a field of crimson and gold, and the rich-coloured rays were 

 thrown with great brilliancy on the upright sashes of the con- 

 servatory and verandahs, striking them almost perpendicularly, 

 whilst not a single roof besides, flat or steep, showed a trace of 

 the rich-coloured light. To have produced the same beautiful 

 phenomenon, even on our steepest roof, the sun would have had 

 to shine for several hours longer. 



Ventilation. — We have spoken of this being given liberally 

 in the mild weather. If we should have a change before 

 another week, and if there is no means of heating the air 

 before it is admitted, then in all houses where a high tempe- 

 rature is to be maintained in cold weather, it will be safest to 



