296 



JOURNAL OP HORTICULTURE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. 



I April 17, 1886. 



B0TI.ER8 (J. Wavfllf).~'Wo bftTO no donht that the boiler (sftddlc- 

 bftckeil). is A very guud oqo : but neither in tthiipo nor setting <lo we 8c>o 

 any diffcrcnro from thoBc usmdly cnipluyt'd, jxccpt in the two inctiil 

 plates thftt pass from tho boiU-r tbroui.'h the flue into the arched brick- 

 work. Snch boilers if set low fuou^h will biiru Any fuol that i^ pre- 

 sented to thoiu. Wu Arc doubtful if tbo metal plates aro of much advan- 

 tage. If anj-thing happened to the boUcr It would be more difficult to take 



it ODt. 



8a.lt to AKi'ARAcrsnEDs (,V. H.). — It is bcHt applied to the beds during; 

 the period of the ^rr^wth of tbo ABiinmRua— that i«, from March to S<.'p- 

 tomber. Wood ashes are chiefly valuable an a mnnuro for the salts thoy 

 contain, wliicb arc wnahcd out if the at^hcs are exposed to rain. TumipK, 

 Pots, Beous, and lawus are benefited by tbom if used at the rate of forty 

 buaheljB per acre. 



Flower-garden Pi^ntiko (Thin 0««).— Wo think your simple planting 

 will look well, but we would omit the Asters, as they will not keep on 

 with the others. 



Sowing I^t Berries (A Stih^criber).~-Tha leaf sent, wo think, is an 

 Aucnba leaf, nnd not a Laurel leaf. The berries of the Ivy will bo 

 shrunk or shrivelled by the middle of May, when they may ho sown at 

 onc«. Birds, &c., care little for them after the pulp is cone ; but unless 

 for eome particnlar purpose, why sow the needs at all, when cuttings a 

 foot long would root so soon In a moist Rhady place ? 



Vines (.1 Yoitng Gardener). — The Froc de la liuulaye, which you have, 

 ia the same as our Prolific Sweetwater, an unrly white variety, ripenintf 

 its fruit well in a cool viner}'. Its fruit sets more readily than that of the 

 old Sweetwater. Your Chasselas de Fontainbloaa is our Royal Muscadim>. 

 CccuMTiEn (A Constant Suhseriber). — For your own use, prow in your 

 hotbed the old Long Prickly. None excels itin prolificacy of good friiit. 

 Amateur's Forcing Pit iS. Oooch). — Yen plan is a very good one. and 

 a much finer and costlier affair than Mr. Attwood's, but fumishiuK you 

 with the fTTcat pleasure of doing everything inside, and in any woatlior. 

 Wo presume the ground is tfolid on which you build your fines, othei-wiso 

 wo would not have raised it, as the stems of the Cucumbers can easily 

 be taken up to the trellis, and a bed for various purposes is most easily 

 managed when the side walls are not too high against the person of the 

 operator. Now. for what wo think would easily improve your little house. 

 Wo approve of your two upright drain-pipes communicating with the 

 tank between the pipes, but we would hiive more of them to let the heat 

 into the atmosphere of the house without too much heating the ?oil. The 

 soil, also, at present seems to rest on the flues, as well as the slate cover- 

 ing of the tiink, and the roots that touch the flues will be apt to be in- 

 jured. A verj- simple plan would be tocovorthe flues likewise, 3 inches or 

 so above them, with slate or open rubble, allow the vapour from the tank 

 lo pass over the fiuew, and have a small drain-pipe — say 1 to 1^ incli in 

 diameter, with its open end fastened in this chamber, and the other end 

 Standing up close to the side wall — say one back and front every 4 feet — 

 and the upper end furnished with a plug, to let a moist heat into the at- 

 mosphere of the hon?e at will. This is merely a little matter, and if yon 

 adopt it, we shonld like to know with what result. Both you and Mr. 

 Attwood have dissipated the prevnUnt idea that Portland cement would 

 notstand dry heat. Mr. Robson used to have houses heated by round pipe- 

 fliiefi 60 formed of cement. 



Air A Tint's "Pit (Ardent Lover of FJoirers). — The amateur's pit, page 222, 

 Is, as yon observe, one chiefly for first economy and continued utility, 

 but, of course, like all mere pits, it does not afford the means for the pro- \ 

 prietor working inside. Your proposed little house, 6j feet high at hack. [ 

 and 4 feet in front, with a bed 3 feet wide, and a path 3 feet wide, will 

 enable you to walk comfortably at the back ; but if yo!i can either raise ! 

 your wall or sink tho pit to make the back wall 7 feet in height, it will be 

 still better. Your new house for propagating Cucumbers, &c,, will stand 

 at right angles with yonr present potting-shed nnd greenhouse. In your I 

 cose we would place the flow-flue nnd return-flue beneath your bed, so as 1 

 to have no obstruction in your path. If the wall of the flue next the path | 

 is made of brick-on-bed, yon could continue the wall of your bed al)ove I 

 it. For giving you moist as well as dry heat, see the plan suggested to 

 Mr. Gooch, in making a tank between the two flues. You conld do po I 

 easily by placing your two flues a little nearer eoch other. With such a I 

 contrivance you could always command dry and moist heat, and if the [ 

 bottom of your bed were covered with &late, abont 4 inches from the flue, 

 you would always have plenty of bottom h^at ; and if yon had drain-pipes 

 set on end. one end open into the chamber, and the other end open above 

 the soil or plunging material, and that eud furnished with a plug, you 

 could let heat np as you liked. Even on the proposed arrangemeut of 

 your section, without tank or anything of that kind, you could always 

 obtain plenty of heat for the atmosjihere of the house, by having a 

 wooden brick made like a plug, every 4 feet, to place in the side wall of 

 the chamberneit the path, which youcould pull outor put in at pleasure. 

 Some mode of having a tank, however, would bo uBeful. Yon could easily 

 heat your two houses from the same shed, but we think you would do it 

 most economically by two small fireplaces, ns the greenhouse would need 

 little fire except in frost. If your iron boiler is sufficient, there is no diffi- 

 culty in joining the one-inch, which you now have, to three-inch pipes. 

 Tho bcKt way is by sockets to fit the three-inch pipes, nnd with inch 

 holes in the socket to receive the one-inch pipes. The simplest mode 

 where there is little pressure, is to insert a plug of wood in the three- 

 inch pipe, and take the one-inch pipe through it secured by white lead. 

 This will not impede circulation. We agree with yon, that hot water is 

 the best mode of heating ; but we contend that for heating a small place 

 tho flue is tho more economicaL We. therefore, have given such pro- 

 minence to the pit of Mr. Attwood. The grafting will do very well if 

 scion and stock are joined on one side. That is one of the quickest 

 and best modes of grafting. 



HoDRS OF Employment (M Suhseriher). — It is common when a 

 man has a particular charge in a garden, when he has his Snnday out. 

 to see that all ia right before he goes, give suitable directions as to air, 

 &hade, &c., to the man left in charge, and see that all is right when be 

 returns home. If he feels on interest in what is committed to his rare, 

 he will do all this without any specific agreement. Were he compelled to 

 stay at home to see another man do the necessary work, ha would have 

 no rest or change on the Sunday. It ia always best to have a clear under- 

 Standing, and not to trust even to the use or cuBt^>m. We have known 

 cases of foremen who scarcely ever had a Sunday to themselves; but it 

 told badly on all concerued. 



Fi.rn Heating iJ. Pn/or).— Yon Bun»ri«o us by stating that in n honso 

 '^0 feet by I'J feet, and heated by Kouio M feut of tlur, M inchen doopt 

 and 7 inches wide, you cannot have a high>T temperature in a frosW 

 night than 35". though liigb enough for a vinery when you go to bod. tf 

 yttti consult a coal merchant be will tell you that ttomo (-*uaU will cake 

 even in a common fireplace, and go uut if thu poker is not urted, and 

 that others will fall as they bum, and need no touching until they are 

 burned out. The latter would suit you best. With the goful draught in 

 your fiuo wo would bum anything in it, and trouble our3elvi.» very little 

 about the kind of fuel. Such a bngtb of fine ought tn retain the heat a 

 lung time, even after the fire is ouL Wet cinders luid a-hes should be 

 used for banking up at night, but to prevent e^kin;;. and the firo going 

 out. you must lessen or prevent air passing through the bars from tbo 

 ash-pit door, as that is the chief cause of tbo fire going out and learing 

 a cake of unburued coal above ; and if even that do not auitwer, Toa 

 must widen your furnnee 6 inches witliout using mure bnrs fi.r tho flro- 

 grating. Mr. Fish recollects a case in point. He, and another young man, 

 had to attend to tho fires (d a stove in tho evening, and tbo foreman 

 attended to them at other times. During his comrade's week of firing 

 there was always grumbling that the fires were out in the morning, 

 though the heat was gencrallv about the mark. He rakeJ the bars bt-furo 

 putting on the fuel for tho nigKt. HaWngmadcsureof theheritMr.F.putted 

 down the live fuel on the bars before putting on the fresh coul. with its 

 covering of ashes, and there was always plenty of fire in tbo miming, 

 with a good clinker for the foremau to draw out. It wan one ()f the cases 

 in whicli doing the less was attended with tho desired result. The patting 

 tbo live fuel on the bars prevented the air passing through tbom, and 

 combustion was much more slow. We think that such a mode, and 

 keeping tho ash-pit door close at night, will help to keep the fire in ; but, 

 even now, with 2 feet in depth of fuel, and all burned out, we can scarcely 

 reconcile how the fine should become so cold during the night. 



Vines from Last Autcmn's Cuttinob FRCiTrNo (5.).— Vinos, cnt- 

 tings last autumn, rooted in iTanuary, and showing a good appearance 

 of fruit now, axe not at all common. We have seen and done such 

 tilings as experiments, by taking long pieces of the severed stems, or 

 shoots, of a Vino, and causing the lower part to root before the sap moved 

 much in the part above ground ; but the result in general was not equal 

 by any means to that obtained from Vines treated in the usual way. 

 Perhaps wo do not quite imderstand your statement. 



Hard Water for Plants (IT. H.).— The water of which you sent us a 

 sample is bard, and probably from containing much lime and magnesia, 

 kept suspended in it by carbonic acid gas. You can render it fit for 

 watering conservatory plants by exposing it for a considerable time to 

 sun aiicl air, or adding to it a little soda, such as is used by washer- 

 women, or potash. By exposure to the atmosphere and heating it at the 

 same tinie.'thc softening — that is, the depositing from it of the calcareous 

 salts, would be hastened. You will see what Mr. Robson says to-day 

 about water. We knew one very successful gardener who always mixed 

 peat soil with the water he intended for his American and Heath plants, 

 some hours before using it. 



HouBi-E VioLF,TS BECOMING SiNOLE (Pro»per(i). — The Violets you 

 planted last siiring as double-flowered were certainly single at the time, 

 tbouifh you did not know it. It is rare that double flowers become single, 

 but it is not unusual for single to become double- flowering. 



Heating by Hot Air (A Corutant Header, Stockport). —Heated air, 

 pure, free from smoke, will answer all the purposes you want, if the dry- 

 ness is sufficiently neutralised. We believe you may carry out your plan 

 if you superintend the working yourself, but we should be doubtful if 

 the working were left to others. Besides, we much doubt if the air from 

 the retort will heat 100 feet nf such piping, and also doubt if it would be 

 sufficient to beat the different houses. We also fear that unless you haTC 

 a chamber round the retort, tho sheet-iron pipes will last but a short 

 time, and the having three of these pipes, one two-inch and one 

 four-inch inside of an eight-inch pipe, makes it rather intricate. ^Vhat 

 is chiefly in your favour is the gradual rise in the 100 feet. We must Bay 

 that we are doubtful of the successful heating of so many places by such 

 means, one large place is so different. 



Washing Vines— Prfn inc. (B. it IT.).— The best time for washing 



Vines is immediately after they are pruned, and the best timo to do this 



I is immediately the leaves turn yellow and fall. No better mode for 



I doing this exists than to remove merely the loose bark witli the fingers, 



1 and then scrub the stems with soap and water, and then wiien dry danb 



them all over with a paint made of water, sulphur, and clay. If the 



' stems are well washed twice with soap and water, the clay daubing may 



be dispensed with. Its chief nse is to imprison any of:g^ of insects that 



may be left. As your Vines will now be budding, you must give up all 



ide.a of such washing for this season, and the best plan you can adopt is 



to mix a good deal of sulphur with the limewash you use for washing the 



walls, &c.. of your greenhouse. As respects the Vine on which you have 



left two shoots, and one of which you would rather have cut back, do not 



think of cutting it now, and resorting to any mode to prevent bleeding, 



but just wait until the buds have pushed to an inch or more in length, 



nnd then simply rub off with your fingers all the buds above that near 



the base which you wish to leave. The rubbing oflTwill not bo attended 



with bleeding. Cutting off the buds will cause bleeding. 



Cyclamen not Growing {R F. Wheelm.— The jwts of C. coum and 

 C. europteum should be plunged in ashes in a cold frame, and be kept 

 there with the soil moist imtil tho foliage decay. C. persicnm should be 

 kept in the greenhouse nntil June, and then be placed out of doors, 

 returning it in-doi^rs in September. i>y which time it will be pushing new 

 growths, and may then be repotted. C. coum may bo potted in the end 

 of August or earlv in September, and C. europmum will then bo showing 

 for bloom. It is ^srdy, and may bo planted out on rockwork. coTOring 

 the corm 3 or 4 inches with light friable soil. If it have a position shaded 

 from tho midday sun all the better. It is not unusual for Cyclamens to 

 grow indifferently the first year, in consequence of their being deprived 

 of their roots by taking them out of the ground, but they recover in a 

 year or two. 



RosKS FOR Pot Crr.TtmE th flREENnocsE {Idem\ — Tea-?cented — 

 Dovoniensis, Gloirede Dijon, BarilletDeschampB, Safrano. and Niphctoe. 

 Noisette— Miss Gray, Polonie Bourdin, Celine Forestier. and Triomphe 

 de Rennes. Bourbon— Baron Gunella. Emotion, Rcveil, and Souvenir de 

 Malmaieon. China — Madame Br^on. Triomphe de Gnnd, Arcbduc 

 Charles, Mrs. Bosanquet, Henri Cisq(.and Infidilit^s de Lisetto. 



