34C 



JOUBNAL OF HOETICULTUBB AND COTTAGE GAUDENEB. 



[ October i>, 1888. 



are now fully open after the bright Bnn of Thursday. The dnll 

 days of Friday and Saturday have made the beds look duller 

 than thfy otherwife would do. A fact is here worth mention- 

 ing. Scarlet Pelargoniums cloBO to our own door, protected 

 with walls quite clo.'e to them, have suffered more than those 

 in the open lawn, with a raiher free exposure to the wind ; and 

 another fact is, that in the^e exposed beds the eonth side is 

 the best, the very place where the sun would beat first on the 

 frost-hardened foliage. On the north tile of the beds tbe 

 foliage is nearly as fine after the nipping, but the fl iwer trusses 

 are almost gone; on the south side many of tbe trasses of 

 bloom are wonderfully full and bright. Mnoh, bo doubt, is 

 owing to the comparative dryness of tho soil, but the sunny 

 side being the beet after such a sunny morning, is not what is 

 generally expected after a severe froEt ; hut here in every case 

 the south side is the best, which we can hardly account for in 

 connection with previous conclusions fjunded on observation. 

 Calceolaria?, though st.fl, scon recovered. In tbe afternoon 

 following the frost we took til a great many cuttings, and 

 placed them under cover, fearing wo might have a repetition, 

 but tho wind changed, and we had mildness instead of frost, 

 and now we cai go to the plants and tike off thousands of fine 

 cuttings that do not show a trace of the frosty night. 



EITCHEN OABDKN. 



Celery. — We do not nsually earth-up our late Celery until the 

 end of tho month ; but as the sun has now little power in 

 causing the Celery to evaporate moiiture, and as the frost 

 might injure it a little, we gave a little earthing-tip to the 

 whole, except the last planted, and as we were anxious to keep 

 it clean, we used a little sifted coal ashes and cool burned 

 earth and ashes round tho plants by means previously adverted 

 to, and then pressed tho well-pulverised earth olo?e to the 

 ashes. This is more necessary in our somewhat stiff soil, and 

 especially when the Celery U grown in beds, as we generally 

 do, from three to five plants across — a plan that on tbe whole 

 saves much space and labour. If ws had plenty of litter, as 

 stubble, &a., we would never enrth-t;p t ?o high as respects late 

 Celery, but pack up with material of this kind, as it blanches 

 the plants very well, keeps the frost out, and if rounded over 

 a bed, when onco the surface is flattened and crusted, it throws 

 off the heaviest rains. We have several times recommended 

 highly, and not in the least too highly, the Dwarf Incrra parable 

 White, but a red sort sent to us for "trial by Jfr. Welch, of tbe 

 Palace Gardens, Armagh, has also proved remarkuUy good, 

 blanching more quickly than reds generally do, being very firm 

 and sweet, and as yet le.-s marked on the outsides by enemies 

 than the white is. We shall be glad to find it stands wet and 

 frost well ; at present it seems a good variety. 



Mushrooms. — We have spawned and e&rthed-np two pieces 

 in our Mushroom house, shallow beds on shelves. We should 

 like one to show its produce in about a month, having as yet 

 a good supply in tho outside sheds, as lately adverted to ; but 

 thoDgh the first of these pieces in the house kept all right as 

 tested by tbe trial-stick, we find within a few days that the 

 bed has become colder to the hand than it ought to'tie with the 

 spawn working freely, which always prcduc s a litlle heat of 

 itself ; and as wo did not find it convenient to cover 'ho bed, 

 nor to heat the house at present, we put a dozen b.-irrowloads 

 of droppings, &c., on the space leieath. This will scon make 

 the bed as hot as we wish it to be, and bring in the Mushrooms 

 as e.rly as we want them. We attribute the bed's becoming a 

 little too cold to the mixing rather too much fibrous loam with 

 the dung ; bat the dung was rather open and rough, and we 

 used tho lo.tm to make it firmer, and to prevent its heating so 

 violently as it would otherwi.=e have done, as the more vio- 

 lently the manure is heated, the more will its nourishing proper- 

 tics be driven off. In our sheds more covering was placed on 

 the beds after the frost. A Mushroom house is very useful, 

 and for other purposes besides Mushrooms, but simple plans 

 answer as well as the more complex and elaborate ; and after 

 trying many modes, and being successful with them all, at least 

 fairly so, we must say we never had better Mashroom." t!in on 

 ridges out of doors. Of courte in winter they had to bo kept 

 warm by covering, and in summer they had to be kept conl by 

 covering, and having that covering rather damp, instead of diyr 

 as in winter; but then there was considerable labour in cover- 

 ing and uncovering, much more than where there wcs tbe ad- 

 vantage of a house or even a shed roof to keep snow and rain 

 from tbe beds. 



Caulifmcer. — The young plants pricked out in squares for 

 hand-lightB bad the bottoms of the hand-lights put over them, 

 and as they were in bad order the holes were fiUed-np with 



slates and tiles firmly fixed against them. In severe nights a 

 few evergreen twigs will be laid across. The tops that seemed 

 as if they had been riddled bythjt must lay abide until we 

 have a wet day to clean and reglaze them, A wet day is cot 

 liusiest day ; there is uu want of in. door work for such days. 

 We must try and prick out a framtful of plants, and place 

 others in a sheltered position. We have succeeded well witli 

 plants placed singly in small pots, and repotted and planted- 

 oot in finely-pulverised soil in March and April, but generally 

 we have done as well with plants prickcd-uut 3 or 4 inches 

 apart and lifted with balls. In pricking. out, though tlie soil be 

 pretty rich, the plants will do better and be saved fmm many 

 enemies, if they haveasurfnoing of rough sand on the giotuad. 

 Ciicrimhfr Bid'. — These require bankiiig-up to keep tbem on. 

 We rather reluctantly pullei the plants out of a twn-ligbtbox, 

 as we wanted the space fur another purpose. Wo mention 

 this, however, chiefly on account of a ceitaiu fact — namely, 

 that there was a fine mai^t bottom heat in th^it bed, tboagh it 

 had not been touched since it was made up in March, and then, 

 be it remarked, it was made up chiefly tf gicen dung as it 

 came from tho stables, suitably moistened and mingled so as 

 to keep np a loner, gradual fermentation, and the bed was then 

 surfaced with older sweet dung and tree leaves. The Bnrfaoing 

 and tbe soil kept down all deleterious vapiur.-', whilst tho heat 

 was allowed full play to ri-e, which it has doi.e legularly all 

 these mouths. We have seen manure turLtd tni bweetened 

 to such a degree, and built so firmly together, that not a breatk 

 of air could peiietrato into it to support decomposition, and 

 thus after a violent heat the flume, as it were, expired, either 

 because there was nothing to burn, or no air could reach the 

 material to make it burn, and it vent cut like a cicdio uuder an 

 extinguisher. The making of a hotbed to last, as practiced by 

 some of our old gardeners, who looked on so mony turnings 

 aad sweetenings as so much waste labour, is pretty well lost 

 amid the improved sy.'^tems of heating. Nevertbelebs, let it be 

 borne in mind, that old dung hotbeds are not the worst means 

 of securing those results wLiih prevent even cooks having the 

 chance to grumble. We know cases where theie is abundance 

 of fire and water, but a little dung can scarcely be had for pro- 

 ducing fine, close, crisp Cauliflowers. 



FKUIT OASnEK. 



We had gathered almost all our fruit before the frost, as a 

 few nights had been so cUse to, and even below the freezing- 

 point. The leaves cf the trees were rather green and floiuish- 

 ing for the season. Never did one night produce euch a change 

 as was effected on many trees. The crisp green leaves on one 

 evening were brown before thu next, looking as if a tcorcbing 

 fire had been placed beneath each tree. The men said the 

 leaves looked as if they bad been burned, and rusernbled the 

 foliage of some Che.stnut trees, which, being near the ground, 

 were affected by tbe heat f ain onr burning and charring heaps 

 of rubbish. The dry heat fiom the fire end the dry air from 

 tho frost had acted much the same — namely, deprived the 

 fidiage of its moisture. Some time ago, when treating on ven- 

 tilation in winter, and venturing on tho remark, that allowing 

 great blasts of cold frosty air to enter a ho'house would have 

 nearly the same iStsat on lender plants as sending among tbem 

 dry, very hot air from a f:irnace, we had several letters sent to 

 us, the purport of which vtas to tell us we had t"kcn leave of 

 our senses. "Why, you might as well tell us that a tropical 

 sun and an arctic winter would in any case produce similar re- 

 sults." Well, our best answer is to refer to the appearance of 

 many hardy fruit trees rn the morning of the frost. The man 

 who noticed snob a marked parching-up effect from frost, and 

 then admitted cold frosty air fieely omong tender plants, baa 

 profiled but little by the faculties of observaticn with which he 

 has been endowed. It is pleasant to note tbe proofs of progress 

 about us ; but that progress wonid be all the more certain if 

 our younger gardeners, the hope of the future, and iu some 

 respects the slay cf tho present, would not be above the habit 

 of attending to little tbicg^i and little facts, and from these 

 drawing practical inferences. The shrivelling up cf a green 

 leaf by a trifling frost, making it like a piece of half-bnmt 

 linen, may well give a lesson that though fresh air is de,°irable, 

 tbe air, if dry and cold, should not com% in contact with a tender 

 plant in a house before being considerably moistened and 

 warmed. 



Peach House. — Wanting room to house numbers of bedding 

 plants for a few months, we have had the glass of this honse 

 washed with soap and water, all the remaining leaves rtmoved, 

 and tbe trees and woodwork well syringed with soap water as 

 warm as it could be applied, nsing a cloth on the syringe to 



