Jane 5, 1866. ] 



JOUENAL OP HOKTICULTDRE AND COTTAGE GARDENEB. 



423 



of the sun from the tubers near the surface. A Potato at 

 all greened, however useful for other purposes, is of email 

 account when cooked. Hoed well between the earliest out of 

 doors, and will earth-up or not earth-up afterwards, accord- 

 ing as the tubers are apt to come or not to come to the sm-- 

 face. When planted in nice friable soil from fi to 8 inches 

 deep, earthing-up in general may be dispensed with. North 

 borders, or the north side of sloping banks, will now be useful 

 for Turnips, Radishes, and Lettuces, and a little Endive may 

 be sown for those who like it early. Most people will care 

 nothing about it so long as they can obtain good Lettuces ; 

 and these, too, always seem best in hot weather. 



Cucumbi'i-s. — The parching weather has brought the green 

 fly into our frames, and to this result no doubt a coolness at 

 the roots has also contributed. We have, therefore, used to- 

 bacco paper for smoking them, and applied a lining to the 

 front of the beds, and merely backed up against the boards 

 behind. We intended giving this lining two or three weeks 

 ago, but could not get at it, but we believe a little more heat to 

 these shallow bods would have done much towards keeping the 

 fly away, and here, as in most things, prevention is better than 

 cure. We seldom use such linings for throwing heat into the 

 bed at so early a period ; but this season our beds were made 

 much more shallow than usual, and a cold bottom with such 

 a bright sun does not suit Cucumbers or Melons at this season. 

 Took off cuttings of desirable kinds, and from plants quite 

 clean, as these cuttings will fruit earher than seedlings, and will 

 do very well for summer and autumn work. We do not like 

 plants from cuttings for standing the winter. Seedlings seem 

 to have more stamina for contending with the dark days. 

 Plants for ridges. Gherkins, Vegetable Marrows, &c,, we have 

 turned into rather large pots, under protection, as the place in- 

 . tended for them is not yet ready. We have never had them 

 better than on a bank sloping to the south, and without any 

 thing like a hotbed beneath them ; but the soil was turned 

 over after every sunny d.iy, so as to turn the hottest soil down, 

 and the plants were planted out in this heated, aired soil, in 

 the first or second week in June. 



FKCIT GARDEN. 



Strawben'ics. — Hoed the Strawberry ground pretty deeply 

 with the Dutch hoe, not only to destroy weeds, however small, 

 but to fill all cracks and fissures produced by the di-y heat in 

 Btiffish loamy soils. Followed with a good watering of house 

 sewage, which will be farther washed in by the first rains. 

 Noticed that previously to the watering the pollen dust was 

 becoming poor and scanty, and setting was taking place but 

 slowly ; but after the watering the footstalks looked up more 

 boldly. To enjoy a Strawberry it should be picked clean with 

 clean hands, and be touched only by the stalk. To keep the 

 fruit clean nothing is better than clean wheaten straw laid 

 along each side of the row. Grass, if at all long, answers very 

 well. We often use common litter from the stables, from which 

 most of the di-oppings have been shaken. This, it applied early 

 enough, will, in general, be washed clean by the rains before 

 the fruit ripens. Spent hops and fresh tan are also good for 

 the purpose, as it is but seldom that the tan is so fine as to rest 

 on the fruit, and both hops and tan are generally disagreeable 

 to slugs, snails, &c. Failing these, boards laid along the sides 

 of the rows are very good — better than tiles or slates ; and fail- 

 ing all such conveniences, if the plants are in rows, a string of 

 small cord stretched on each side and twisted round a stick 

 every 6 feet or so, will answer very well for keeping the fruit 

 from the earth. 



Some years ago we noticed a basket of nice Strawberries ex- 

 posed thinly to be dried in the sun. They had been mud- 

 encrusted by a thunder shower, had been washed in a pail, and 

 were then prepaiiig for the table. They looked better than 

 could have been expected, but who could have eaten them with 

 satisfaction if the treatment they liad passed through had 

 been known ? In fact, the general system adopted for send- 

 ing Strawberries to table wants a complete overhauling. It 

 matters not how carefully the gardener may pick them by the 

 stalk, not touching a berry with his hands, however clean they 

 may be, instead of being sent in a basket, or just turned 

 over on an elegant dish — and they never look better than when 

 so done — they must be built into cones and pyramids and 

 miniature-shaped haystacks, each berry being taken once or 

 twice between the fingers to get it into the proper shape and 

 form, making sure of a good deal of handling and touching, as 

 if absolutely necessary preliminaries to the future eating and 

 digesting. The time will come when those who grow and 



gather fruit will also dish it and send it to table. A word to 

 the wise ought to be enough. Lately wo tried to show that 

 the grower of fruit should be the gatherer, directly, or by his 

 assistants, and stated good reasons why ; but the good rule is, 

 perhaps, more broken than observed, causing unpleasantness 

 to many and benefit to none. 



The young plants raised from the border, and planted out 

 under frames, have set freely and are sweUiug fruit fast. We 

 have now removed two out of the four rows in the Peach-house, 

 and will take out another in ten days. Oa two or three of the 

 plants removed there were traces of red spider, so that they 

 were not moved at all too soon. The fruit has swelled very 

 fast under glass lately, even without any artificial heat. With- 

 out bright sun the mere glass covering accelerates the ripening 

 but little. The pit in which British Queens are ripening and 

 swelling had a good washing against the back and end walls 

 with sulphur and lime, and a little soot to tone down the 

 colour. 



In the orchard-house observed some fly on two or three 

 small plants, and had them carefully washed with quassia 

 water. The trees have had rather heavy syringings every after- 

 noon in this hot weather, and to save watering we shall top- 

 dress all the pots with a rough mixture of mushroom dung 

 fi-om an old bed, and fresher horse-droppings that have lain 

 and heated long enough to kill the oats that might be in 

 them. Those materials had a little soot and lime mixed with 

 them before being used for top-dressing the pots. The water 

 question alone would make us seriously think of giving up 

 fruit-tree culture in pots. Thinned a lot of the Peach trees of 

 fruit, which comes in for tarts, etc., but no use can be made of 

 Nectarines in the kitchen when in such a young state. In the 

 Peach-house watered the Strawbei-ries, and frequently twice 

 a-day ; in fact, watering and syringing have been our chief 

 work of late, merely to keep things from going back with 

 us. Syringed all the trees freely night and morning, except 

 where the fruit was ripening. The house being about 50 feet in 

 length, would be too long for a single comfortable establishment, 

 as too many fruit would be apt to come in at a time. Our 

 heating-pipes are badly placed, but they answer well in this 

 respect, as the fruit near them comes in first, and long before 

 those on the back wall, so that out of this house we have 

 gathered for from ten to fourteen weeks. In general, however, 

 smaller houses, or a range with divisions, are most suitable for 

 moderate establishments. In addition to the syringing we 

 gave the borders inside and outside a good watering with 

 drainings from the farmyard manure. Though rather ad- 

 mirers of house sewage for common crops, we dislike to employ 

 it much in close places under glass. A good watering when 

 the fruit is swelling fast helps it very much, but it is as well not 

 to soak all the groimd occupied by the roots at once. We 

 watered our border at three times, with an interval of from four 

 to six days between each watering. Owing to this precaution 

 we rarely have a fruit thrown off, even though self-preservation 

 would often tempt the trees to do so, when very heavy ci'ops are 

 left. 



Vineries. — Went over them in a dull morning and evening, 

 nipping out a few more berries, and reducing laterals in the 

 earliest house, which will succeed the Uttle pit now nearly 

 over ; regulating shoots in the late vinery, and bringing the 

 bunches coming into bloom down more into the house, and 

 away from the glass to which they have a tendency to rise. 

 Gave the earliest of these houses a Uttle warmed water, the 

 border being still covered with old sashes, and bedding plants 

 beneath them. Gave the late vinery border a watering from a 

 cistern in the open air, where the water had become warmed by 

 several days' sun, a peck of superphosphate having been 

 previously scattered over the border. In the earliest house, 

 the Sweetwater Grapes were beginning to become transparent ; 

 we will now leave a little air on all night, say half an inch in two 

 or three sashes at the top of the house. By-and-by we shall 

 treat the second house in the same way. The late cool vinery 

 we are now keeping the closest and the warmest, and will con- 

 tinue to do so until the fruit be set. Those at the top of the 

 house are beginning to set freely. No moisture will bo given 

 except that from the watering of plants and the syriugLng of 

 the pathways. Even in setting in such simny weather, it is 

 well not to have the atmosphere too dry, as it binds the capsule 

 too tightly round the parts of fructification. A good tempe- 

 rature, w"ith an atmosphere moist enough, will also help to 

 draw out the bunch, so that the berries shall not be so densely 

 clustered together. We often think that if many Vines had 

 more of the habit of the Muscat, what a fine time we should 



