iU 



JOUBNAL OF HOBTICULTCBE AKD COTTAGE GABDENEB. 



r April 17, laat. 



character of the bird, and resolved that he should meet with 

 enongh of nastiness before ho reached our Peas. We sowed and 

 covered as formerly, placed the branches along the rows, then 

 stretched a stout string about a foot above the rows, fastened 

 pieces of paper and rag to the string, smeared the string, paper, 

 (tc, with tar, and shook some tar, with a brush, over the 

 branches, scattering a little on the ground along the rows, the 

 tar being heated over one of the furnaces to make it shake easily 

 from the brush. This will smell strong, and keep rather soft and 

 liquid for a considerable time at this season, and if we find it 

 necessan.- we can run the brush again along the stii- •. By 

 the time the Peas are up the httle tar ou the ground \mU have 

 become rather dry and comparatively scentless, and will not at 

 all affect their growth under such circumstances. The next 

 morning at half-past four o'clock there were the pheasants 

 at their old feeding-ground, chuckling defiance, just as if from 

 wall or tree they had seen the fresh seed put in the ground. 

 It was very amusing to see them strut and stare, march and 

 run up and down and round these rows of Peas and Beans, not 

 able to nurse their wrath, but giWng free vent to their indigna- 

 tion, as, what with the filthy string above the row and the 

 spattered branches and ground immediately over it, they coiJd 

 not find a comfortable spot on which to employ either bill or 

 claws. During the whole time not a single hole in the rows has 

 been made, and so disgusted did the birds seem on account of 

 being foiled that they almost left off their attentions to a quarter 

 of Broccoli near at hand, where they were not only reducing 

 the leaves into threads, but had pecked the heads in the centre. 

 As tar is cheap enough, something Uke Id. a-gallon at most gas- 

 works, and as heating it will cause it to go a good way, it may 

 be useful for keeping off more enemies to the gardener than 

 pheasants. 



Would like to give more air to Peas in pots in the orchard- 

 house, which would cause them to swell and set faster ; but in 

 these stormy days we like to bring the one orchard-house on 

 by giving much less air, and this, so far, makes the haulm of 

 the Peas grow more strongly than we care about. That row in 

 pots will yield a fine lot of gathering, and standing as the plants 

 do close to the back wall, they are much stronger and earher 

 than those planted-out nearer the front, where they do not 

 receive quite bo much sun heat. 



Sea-ka!e. — Trenched and enriched some ground for planting- 

 out the roots taken up to be forced. The crowns will be all 

 planted by themselves, and the pieces of roots without Inids, 

 from fi to 8 inches long, will also be planted by themselves. 

 These seldom make such good plants as young plants a year or 

 two years from the seed, and they do not do so well from" forced 

 plants as those pieces of roots that are taken up from the open 

 air. All the roots forced, except the latest ones put in, have 

 been standing in dry earth in a shed, so as to harden them off 

 well before placing them in the open ground. We shall git 

 what wo want in a week or ten days in the open ground. Here 

 we have an example that litter keeps heat out as well as keeps 

 heat in. We covered some time ago a couple of rows with 

 common pots, filling up the hole in the bottom, and merely 

 covered the pots with litter to protect them and make ail 

 dark ; but though a few plants are coming ou nicely, as a rule 

 this piece covered up is not so forward as other rows fully ex- 

 posed to the weather. The warmish rains and a httle sun 

 have rendered the exposed ground warmer than that merely 

 covered with pots and htter. Of course if there had been auv 

 heat in the htter it would have been different. Being deficient 

 of pots we have covered a couple of rows with old wooden 

 hurdles. Pots some 10 inches in height were set along the 

 sides of the rows, on which the hurdles with some branches 

 drawn through them were placed ; the spaces at the sides along 

 the pots on which the hurdles rested were packed firmly with 

 litter to keep the light out ; and some Htter and rough hay were 

 throvra over the hurdles for a similar purpose. The hurdles 

 can be easily held up on one side to cut the Sea-kale as wanted. 

 Plenty of Sea-kale enables the gardener to keep the table well 

 supplied in winter. That which is to be forced should not be 

 cut too late in spring. 



Ehubarb will now come fast enough out of doors to dispense 

 with forcing. It is generally plentiful in the markets in this 

 neighbourhood, brought from the south of the island, a fort- 

 night or three weeks before we can have it in the open ground 

 here. Roots, taken up for forcing, when divided and planted- 

 out, will generally be fit for raising again after they have had 

 two summers to grow. Now is a good time to sow, either at 

 once in Ught land, or under protection, and then to be planted- 

 »nt ia the case of heavier and later soils. 



rnCIT OARDEK. 



A press of other matter has prevented us getting on with 

 naihng as we wished. In the outside border of the Ute vinery 

 which is now breaking and growing fast, independently of oar 

 efforts to keep the ]'infs back, we removed the httle stubble 

 from the border, and scraped off and wheeled away all the black 

 surface soil, chiefly decayed dung, wliich had been left on all 

 the winter. Then shghtly forked the border, as the roots were 

 near the stu'face, and gave a top-dressing of fibry loam, with 

 a fair dressing of lime and soot, and covered with a couple of 

 inches of horseduug, chiefly droppings. Wo expected to have 

 renewed a portion of this, and other borders, but conld not get 

 at them, nor yet the material in time. Voting Vines planted 

 the other year, intending to take them up again, are coming 

 on very strong, eo that for this season or more they will take 

 no harm. It is no such easy matter to procure the necessary 

 material for a Vine-border, when made as it ought to be, and 

 though wonders are often seen without drainage or border- 

 making, as at Messrs. Lane's, at Berkhampstead, still it would 

 not do to depend on such modes when the gardener can do better. 

 As a general rule, in all cold, stitT soils, in addition to cross and 

 front drains, we should like the most of the border to be above 

 the ground level, and in addition to concreting the bottom, we 

 would like a foot of rubble between the concrete and the soil, 

 and rough material for this purpose is vei-y scarce in scime 

 neighbourhoods. We have done nothing but give a httle top- 

 dressing to our old borders for many years, with a pinch of 

 superphosphate or guano at times, the superphosphate being 

 the safest to use ; but such dressings we look upon as just 

 serving a temporary purpose. 



For various reasons, we generaUy used to tie the Tines of 

 this late vinery horizontally along the front of the house, and 

 we think they not only broke very regularly, but broke a week 

 or so later, which we were rather anxious to secure, as the 

 house bemg crammed with a number of bedding and other 

 plants, tier above tier, as soon as the (jrapes were cut, we 

 wished to use hardly any fire in this house, except when the 

 bunches approached the blooming period. As the sun was 

 becoming strong by that time, the chief help in fine weather was 

 derived from sun heat, as the house could be kept pretty close 

 after all the hardier plants were removed. For two or three 

 seasons, instead of bringing the Vines down to the front of the 

 house, and tying them lengthwise there, each rod when pruned 

 and washed was suspended at from '20 to 24 or more inches 

 from the glass, and they have uniformly broken very regularly ; 

 but, as stated above, rather earlier than when tied along the front 

 pretty close to the glass. This might be owing to the two circum- 

 stances, that the Vines close to the front air were in the coldest 

 part of the house, and we could make them cooler still by 

 whitewashing the glass roof immediately above them. For 

 early forcing we think the Vines break more regularly when 

 placed horizontally, or lengthwise jilong the front of the house. 

 The late vinerj- above referred to has scarcely ever had a dash 

 from the syringe, except one good washing immediately after 

 the fruit has set. During spring, if for no other reason, it would 

 not have been ailvisable to have used the s\-ringe on account of 

 the plants growing in the house, some of which do not Uke to 

 have the sun on them whilst the leaves are wet or moist. Pelar- 

 goniums, for instance, should scarcely ever have wet foliage 

 presented to the sun's rays. 



In earlier vineries proceeded much the same as in previous 

 weeks, stopping, tying, and regulating shoots, and drawing the 

 hand over bunches of Muscat and Sweetwater in bloom. Tied 

 roughly Fig shoots in low pit-house, thinned and stopped. Tied 

 Peach shoots in the Peach-house, and left the best-placed fnut. 

 Disbudded in the first orchard-house, or rather removed the fore- 

 right shoots, and took away and stopped a great many more, 

 not making the trees too bare, however, at first. The fruit 

 has set excessively thickly. No buds dropped from this house, 

 but if more than half of them had fallen there would have 

 still been more than enough to give plenty of thinning as they 

 grow. The bloom has hung a very long time this season. In 

 our early Peach-house we never knew the bloom last such a 

 short time. There was an imusual day's sun shortly after the 

 flowers were open, and in a few days the bloom began to fall ; 

 but the fruit set very well notwithstanding, but nothing was re- 

 quired in the way of thinning in comparison to what will be 

 wanted in the orchard-bouse. 



The Vines planted-out in the orchard-bonse are jnst moving, 

 the most forward buds being from a quarter to half an inch in 

 length, and just as in vineries and Peach-houses, unless where 

 care is taken to keep them late, they will incline to come earlier 



