■i04 



JOURNAL Ob' HOlSTICULTUfiE AND COTTAGE OAliDENEB. 



[ Marsh 13, 1366. 



first cropj go on tbey do not meddlo much with the later crops. 

 Brussels Sprouts and Broccoli have been considerably pecked by 

 pheasants within the last few weeks. Where yam-: is made the 

 principal object near gardens, there will be no fair chance for 

 the garden unless pretty well all netted. Thousands and thou- 

 sands of small birds are encouraged by the food put down for 

 the pheasants, and these, with mice and rats encouraged by the 

 same means, will bo sure to visit the garden whenever they are 

 on short commons. With the exception of the matchless farm- 

 steading at Luton Hoo, there is scarcely the attempt in this 

 neighbourhood to keep stacks of grain from the depredations 

 of vermin. There is somethini; very soothing and refreshing 

 to the spirit in noticing the pretty spring (lowers as they peep 

 oat in the hedge-banks round corn fields ; but the horrid scent 

 li jia a corn stack too often scatters to the winds everything 

 approaching poetry and sentimentaUty. Derided as such feel- 

 ings may bo by the more utihtarian, life itself would be a hard, 

 miserable, dried-up affair without a dash of the imaginative 

 and the poetical. Without the sentimental, the natural, and 

 the beautiful connected with gardening, who would undergo j 

 the hard work with head and hands, and the continuous care, 

 and yet continuous disappointments and want of appreciation, 

 which the gardener often experiences ? Within the last three 

 months we have had a number of letters urging us to take up 

 the game question as connected with gardening ; but what 

 would be the use of it ? Why do those who suSer most not 

 tell where tlie shoe pinches ? It is a matter entirely for private 

 statement or individual representation. Wlien a gentleni a 

 sees his vegetables stripped, and his early I'l-iS cleared fr. .'i 

 end to end of a row by game, it requires no great amount oi 

 discemment to see that what the game eat and destroy cannot 

 yield a produce to appear at his table. The complaint of the 

 gardener is that no allowance is made for such depredators, and 

 that he is permitted to purchase neither wire nor other netting 

 to keep them away. This we fear in many cases is too true ; 

 but in time the evil wiU bring its own remedy. The whole 

 subject is more fitted for private expostidation than for public 

 comment ; but we hesitate not to say this much, that when a 

 garden is turned into a game preserve it will be rather difficult 

 to make it a preserve for anything else. 



Brought home some tree leaves, which will enable us to 

 plant a lot of Potatoes in an earth-pit, and sow Radishes, &o., 

 between the rows. Eadishes from the Carrot-bed have been 

 good for some time past. Will clear out an Asparagus-bed 

 under glass, and sow with Turnips and White Turnip-rooted 

 Badishes, aa the latter when young come ih well for cutting up. 

 Potatoes in pots are coming on nicely, which is so far good, as 

 we are behind with those in beds. Took up a lot of Jerusalem 

 Artichokes. For soups they may remain for years on the same 

 ground, but for a dish they are best planted every year, the 

 same as Potatoes. 



Sea-kale. — Turned out the Sea-kale that had been forced, 

 into an open shed, packed it with dry soil, and sprinkled a 

 little litter over the crowns, and will plant again when the 

 crowns are moving, and are thus hardened off. Pieces of roots, 

 obtained fi'om trenching the ground whence the roots to be 

 forced were taken, were cut into pieces from 6 inches in length, 

 and packed in .a similar way, and they plant best when the 

 buds are beginning to appear like small pin-heads at the upper 

 end, which is left just above the surface. These, though not 

 our usual plan, we will replant in the same ground from which 

 they were taken, after trenching, enriching with hotbed dung, 

 and making it light with burnt clay and rubbish. Took up 

 some more Sea-kale, and put it in the Mushroom-house ; this, 

 we hope, will be about the last if the weather become mild. 

 Covered some rows in the open ground with pots, and over 

 them a httle litter, just to keep the pots from frost, and in a 

 week or two will cover more. Common six or eight-inch jiots will 

 do for this purpose as, for aniunber of years, we have preferred 

 growing the plants in rows, instead of in bunches to suit large 

 pots ; the latter plan being, perhaps, the best where largo pots 

 are used for covering when forcing. The lifting the roots is 

 by far the most economical plan as respects material. When 

 we had not a Mushroom-house we used to make a cartload of 

 hot tree leaves, with a bottomless box and a lid placed over it, 

 and covered with litter, produce more cutting than wo could 

 have obtained from some waggonloads of fermenting material 

 placed over the roots out of doors. Then the kale could always 

 be examined easily and cut clean ; and before it was drawn so 

 long as to resemble whip-lashes. Nice stiff heads from 5 to 

 7 inches in length are what we like to see, and as white as 

 possible. 



Aitparagui. — Unless particularly wanted, we shall take up no 

 more roots to force this season, as for several years we have 

 taken up more than the usual quantity. Where fermenting 

 material can be had, one of the best plans after this time is to 

 have beds surrounded with open brickwork, so as to force them 

 from linings every other year — that is, grow a bed one season 

 without cutting any, and the next season cut all as it comes, 

 until Asparagus may be had from the open ground. The sum- 

 mer growth, and then the next season's growtli uncropped, if 

 the bod is well enriched at the surface, and manure waterings, 

 with a dusting of salt, given in summer, ought to make the cat- 

 ting good every alternate year. Even when a bed is taken up 

 to force, if it can be spared the previous spring without cutting 

 from it, the roots will be in better order for forcing in winter. 

 When we used to have more fermenting material, we had some 

 narrow beds, with a deepish trench between them, and tlio trench 

 was filled with leaves and warm dung, and the buds were 

 roughly covered with some old sashes, resting on pins or pots. 

 It was necessary to top-dress such beds when gathered from, 

 and remove the dung from the trenches to prevent the roots 

 running too much in it, which would have injured the crowns, 

 when the trenches were deepened in spring, for accelerating the 

 crop. All such methods may be tried for forwarding crops, but 

 for forcing early nothing beats taking the roots up and packing 

 them in a bed above a mild heat from fermenting material. In 

 that case, of course, the roots are fit only for the rubbish-heap, 

 when all the heads or shoots are gathered. 



iUib^irooHts.— Spawned a few yards of a bed, being short of 

 materials to make it larger. The first pieces in the Mushroom- 

 house are now over, the last bearing heav-ily. These shallow 

 beds seldom continue to produce very long. We still obtain a 

 few Mushrooms now and then from the open shed, where the 

 bed is covered with rough hay and litter. The dung from the 

 first beds in the shed, being nice and dry, has come in for mixing 

 with tibry loam for Kidney Beans in pots, &c. Old Mushroom- 

 dung, when exhausted for Mushrooms, comes in for mixing with 

 soil for many purposes in potting. Besides the enriching ma- 

 terial stUl left, it keeps the soil healthy and open. For top- 

 dressing vegetables and fruits it is also useful, and when flossy 

 and rough it greatly lessens evaporation £i-om the surface. 



Planted a frame with strong Cucumber plants, and arranged 

 vigorous plants in a pit ; also removed from a pit to a frame a 

 lot of Melon plants to keep them growing on in pots, as we can 

 as yet find no room for them where heat can be applied to suit 

 thera. Pricked out lots of Lettuces, Cauliflowers, &c., where a 

 little protection can be given them, to be afterwards trans- 

 planted into the open ground when larger and stronger plants. 

 Our winter-protected Lettuces ai-e now nearly over, and there- 

 fore will Uft with good balls some of the strongest plants that 

 have stood the winter, and plant either in open spaces in the 

 orchard-house, or between rows of Potatoes imder glass. 



FliUIT GAIIDEN. 



Pruned, tied, and nailed when suitable ; thinned, topped, and 

 secured Kaspbei-rj' canes. We are afraid to give a final prun- 

 ing to Gooseberries and Currants until we see how the birds 

 leave the bushes. 



Urchard-himsc. — The buds in the orchard-house are now 

 swelling, and a number showing the pink colour. On Wednes- 

 day, and on similar bright sunny days, thi'cw water whitened 

 with whitening over Ihe glass, just to spatter it a little and 

 prevent the sun heating the back wall so much. If the buds 

 can be kept from opening for a few days longer they will be all 

 tho safer if a sharp frost come. We do not expect that we 

 shall have it very severe, and therefore we have removed all 

 the stubble and litter that covered the pots of fruit trees in the 

 house, and forked the surface soil for 2 or 3 inches deep, which 

 enabled us to see where it was driest. Placed a surface-dress- 

 ing of hot dung all over, and watered when necessary, having 

 watered now in the course of three weeks two-thirds of the 

 ground monopolised by the roots. After watering threw a 

 surfacing of nice fibrous loam over all, which will give a clean 

 neat appearance for the summer. Kept the house rather close 

 for a day or two after placing in it Peas in pots from the 

 Peach-house. 



Filled four lights of a frame with Strawberry-pots, with just 

 the mildest heat from some tree leaves beneath them. We 

 have been obhged to move such i)ots several times and to 

 several places during the season, owing to mice, and in some 

 casus rats, attacking the buds, eating them right through. 

 Watered the pots in Peach-house and elsewhere in bloom, 

 setting, and swelling, with manure water and clear water 



