April 10, 1866. ] 



JOURNAL OP HORTICULTURE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. 



277 



be eaten up, and when that is done tlie same process may be 

 repeated after mixing arsenic with the meal. Care must be 

 taken that no useful animal touch these lumps. We find that 

 mice will seldom touch this mixture, though, on the whole, 

 they are much more easily trapped and poisoned than rats. 



Sowed the main crop of Parsnips a week ago ; if the ground 

 had permitted would have liked them to have been in about 

 a month earlier. Sowed also the main crop of Onions in 

 good order, and a piece of Horn Carrots. Have been watch- 

 ing for a suitable time to put in the main crops of Carrots, 

 but the gi'ound is not yet so nice as we would like it to be. 

 We generally make two or three main sowings of Carrots ; the 

 later ones are sweeter for parlour use, though not so large as 

 the early ones. To have fine Can-ots the ground should not 

 only be deeply stirred, but the surface soil should be the 

 poorest, the richest being at the bottom, which will make them 

 run straight without shouldering, itc. 



A piece of Newington Kidney Beans in a pit has grown so 

 very strong, that we have had to remove some of the larger 

 leaves to give more room, light, and air to the numerous 

 swelling pods and clusters of bloom. In general this Beau 

 only requires about half the room of such kinds as the Robin's 

 Egg and the Cream-coloured. A row of Robin's Egg, in pots in 

 the front of the Peach-house, just in bloom must be removed 

 to another place, soon, or they will shade the Peach-house. A 

 lot in six-inch pots will succeed them ; some to be potted in 

 12-ineh pots, if we can find room for them, and others to be 

 planted out under glass protection, and covered when neces- 

 sary. We shall be glad when they are all out of the houses, 

 for, though clean enough now. a mi'ss in watering, &c., after 

 they have borne sometime will be apt to gi"e them company 

 which we would not like to see in the houses, and removing 

 plants after thrips or red spider is seen upon them is apt to 

 leave behind them some of these insects for future breeding. 

 A single pot of Kidney Beans well looked after in a vinery or 

 Peach-house maj' be used as testing plants at times for thrips 

 and red spider. If one appear on the Kidney Bean plant, not 

 only should it be carefully removed, but means should be 

 taken by watch and ward to see that the insects do not take 

 possession of the stationary residents of the house. 



FKUIT .\XD ORXAMENTAIi DEP.IRTMEXTS. 



In these, in which we have been busy regulating Peaches and 

 Vines, giving the best places for securing good flavour to fine 

 ripening Strawberries, doing a good deal of turfing, potting, 

 and propagitiug, the work with one exception has been so 

 much a repetition and continuance of what was alluded to last 

 week, that in compliance with several requests we will repeat,, 

 somewhat as stated long ago, our 



Simple Moilc of ilaoariint] Hotbeds for Cncumhcrs nnil Melons. 

 — This involves less labour than the old plan of planting in hills 

 and earthing-up gradually afterwards. We adopted the plan 

 at first from a scarcity of fermenting material, and the desire 

 to lessen labour afterwards. The same mode may be adopted 

 in its general features for a pit heated by dung, as well as for a 

 frame. At present, however, we shall confine our outlines to 

 frames, which are from 5i to G feet in width, 12 inches deep 

 in front, and 18 or 20 mches deep at back, at which size two- 

 hght boxes are easily moved, and which, managed as stated, are 

 quite deep enough for Cucumbers and ilelons. We have several 

 times stated, that we never work the bulk of the fermenting 

 material sweet enough for such beds, being content if we have 

 a covering of from 6 to 12 inches deep of sweet hot material 

 for the surface. For a substantial bed that is to be pretty 

 early and stand the most of the season, we shall suppose that 

 the bed is to be 3J feet in height at back, and .S feet in height 

 in front before the frame is set on it. We mark out the space 

 for the bed, which must be from 30 to 36 inches wider than 

 the frame, so that when the frame is set on, the bed shall be 

 from 1.5 to 18 inches wider than it at back and front. This 

 first seeming waste will prove ultimate economy and gain. 



\Mien the bed hasbeen neatly made, and raised by the roughest 

 and rankest of the hot fermenting material for 2 feet in height, 

 6 inches of sweetish hot material are placed all over it, and then 

 the bed is continued upwards, back and front, but leaving an 

 open trench of .30 inches in width in thi middle, keeping the 

 best and sweetest dung next that trench, and the roughest and 

 rankest to the outside of the bed. When the above height is 

 reached, 3J feet at back, and 3 feet in front, the frame is set 

 carefully on, and each side of the trench in the bed is well 

 beaten back and front, and a board or slab put down on each 

 side to keep the earth that will be put in the trench from the 

 dung. This trench wiU be about 30 inches wide, rather more 



at the top, and from 15 to 18 inches deep. The glass is kept 

 close for a few days until the heat has risen kindly. Then the 

 trench is filled with suitable soil, the top of the soil being 

 vei-y little above the bottom of the sides of the frame. Some 

 soil is firmly beaten round the sides of the frame inside, to 

 prevent steam entering, and a couple of inches or so of soil is 

 placed on the bed, between the boards of the trench and the 

 sides of the frame, and this covering, if even the upper layer 

 of dung, &c., is pretty sweet, will keep all noxious steam down. 



By this plan the following, among other advantages, are 

 secured : — 



1st, Not much more than a third of the soil which would be 

 wanted if the whole width of the bed were filled, need be used. 



2ud, All the soil necessary is put in at once in the centre of 

 the bed, where good-sized plants are at once inserted, and can 

 be trained to back and front without opening the lights for 

 fresh earthings-np, often of cold soil ; and we avoid the neces- 

 sary moving of the plants and exposure to cold draughts, often 

 foUowed by hosts of insects, requiring much fumigation with 

 tobacco to eradicate them. Sudden changes in temperature 

 under such circumstances are often the jnost fruitful sources of 

 an abundant supply of insects. 



3rd, If the sides of the frame are well secured, it will need 

 no moving afterwards, if the soil is 12 or 13 inches from the 

 glass at front and 18 inches at back, for the frame will sink as 

 the bed sinks. 



4th, The soil being placed as it were in the middle of the 

 bed, there will be no dangerof an excessive, burning bottom heat 

 to injm-e the roots, whilst the soil wiU be nicely and quickly 

 heated from below and from the sides. 



.5th, The width of the bed permits of a lining being placed 

 round the box to give a nice healthy atmospheric heat, without 

 undiJy increasing the heat at the roots. 



6th, Such box-beds have been kept in good order from March 



to the end of September merely by topping up round the 



' frames with litter and grass, and placing wattled hurdles or 



leafy branches of trees roimd the sides of the bed to keep the 



j air and wind from them. 



; 7th, and lastly for the present, such a trench of confined 

 j earth will render Melons and Cucumbers less luxuriant and 

 j more fruitful than if the roots revelled in the whole width of 

 I the bed. 



The one exception alluded to had reference to 



Caladiiims. — These, as last year, were plunged in a nice mild 

 hotbed of dung and leaves. We noticed for some time many of 

 the leaves more pale than they ought to have been, but did 

 not sufficiently examine them to find the cause, as the tempe- 

 rature, &c., seemed all right. Onr young man on taking some 

 out and narrowly examining them, found lots of the stems en- 

 crusted with a small green fly, myriads on myriads of them. 

 They were carefully smoked, and next day were thoroughly 

 syringed with warmish water, and lest any insects should linger 

 in the soil the surface soil was removed, and a fresh surfacing 

 given where fresh potting was not resorted to, and already the 

 leaves are coming of their right and healthy colour. We have 

 as j'et been so free of insects this season that we never thought 

 of the Caladiums being infested. If they had stood in a house 

 we could scarcely have missed seeing them ; but in a pit, with- 

 out examining them carefully, we could only look at the top 

 sm'face of the leaves. We have no recollection of seeing Cala- 

 diums so infested before. The fly seemed a kind that was veiy 

 easily settled ; but the vast number would soon have spoiled 

 any plants. 



Lumhatio. — We have known but little of the horrors of lum- 

 bago smce we tried this simple remedy — viz., wearing a band 

 of brown paper round the loins. We v,'ill here say nothing as 

 to how the gentle, almost constant, friction produces the desired 

 result ; but to every gardener who is a sufferer from this 

 trouble, we would say " Try the remedy." — E. F. 



TRADE CAT.VLOGUE RECERT5D. 



Louis Van Houtte, Ghent, Belgium. — Catalogue dc Planter 

 de Serrcs, et de Flein Air. 



CO\^NT GARDEN MARKET.— Aran. 7, 



The demnnd anil supply are now well balanced. Grapes Jind forced 

 Strawberries are both very good, and of both there is a fair sapply. 

 Dessert Pears now oonsist almost exclusively of Ea&ter Beurre. Out- 

 door vegetables of various kinds are abundant ; and consigumeits of 



