60 



JOUENAL OF HORTIOULTUBE AND COTTAGE GAKDfil^ER. 



[ Januai7 21, 1875» 



Avoid overcropping:, which you are likoly to have with two shoots to a apnr. 

 It is better to allow fruit upon only one than upon both. The extra foliaf<a 

 will do more good than harm, only it dooa not cause crowding'. 



SuccDLENTS.—" Having a desire to see other amateur growers of succu- 

 lents come forward at the exhibitions this season, Mr. Peacock has deter- 

 mined not to compete during the year. — J. Crouchkr, Qanhner to J. T. 

 Peacock, Esq." 



CaowN Imperials and other Bulds in Greenhouse (TT. H. S.). — The 

 Crown Imperials will flower in potfl, they being kept in the open ground until 

 they appear above ground, but with protection in severe weather; or you may 

 place them in a cool, light, and airy position in the greenhonse at once, 

 watering them as required, moderately at first, increasing the supply with 

 the growth, top-dressing them with rich compost when thev show for flower. 

 We should have prefen-ed planting thom in the open birder to growing in 

 pots, and would do so yet, affording them a good deep sandy soil, and cover- 

 ing about 3 inches deep. The bulbs of the Crown Imperials ought to have 

 been covered with an inch of soil, and been that depth from the soil over 

 them to the rim left free to allow for top-dressing. The other bulbs should 

 be removed to the greenhouse. AraarylUs would not be destroyed by too low 

 potting, but they ought not to be potted deeper than with the neck of the 

 bulbs covered with soil, the neck being left clear and just level with the rim 

 of the pots: It is sufficient if the soil be kept moist when they are at rest, 

 and in February or March they should have the benefit of bottom heat for a 

 time to insure rooting and free growth. There is no book specially treating 

 on the cuItivatiDU of bulbs; but they are treated of in the "Cottage Gar- 

 deners's Dictionary " under their several names. Your Strawberries in pots 

 we should iutroduce to the greenhouse the beginning of February, placing 

 them on shelves near the glass, and where they will have abundance of air 

 and light. 



pRu.-^iNG- OOD Apple Trees— Fowls' DuNa for Vines (J. C. W.).— The 

 best time to prune old Apple trees in an orchard is in eaily winter so soon as 

 all the leaves are fallen, and through the winter in mild weather up to March. 

 Early winter pruning is preferAbla to late spring, therefore have them 

 pruned at once, but only in mild weather, ceasing therefrom if severe frost 

 prevails. FowU' dung is a good aud powerful manure, and will answer for 

 Vines, but it must only ba applied in about one-third the quantity of farm- 

 yard or stable manure, applying to the surface, and pointing-in with a fork, 

 but not so deep as to disturb the roots. 



Artificial JIanure (D. W. TF".}.— Your fresh land would be best dressed 

 with phospho guano ; and being poor, 3 cwt. per acre would not be too heavy a 

 dressing, applying it broadcast over the whole of the surface after sowing 

 the seeds or planting the Potatoes and before covering them up. 



Blace Corrants for Damp Situation {Iilem).—Thej will succeed better 

 than anything else ; and though it does not get sun in summer more than 

 four or five hours a-day, they would ripen, but be, of course, later than 

 those in a warmer position. The Rituation would be too much shaded for 

 Plum trees, and the Black Currants would ba more likely to pay without them. 

 The best kind of Black Currant is Lee's Prolific, and next to it Black Naples. 



PnusiNO Evergreen and Deciduous Sfirubs (M. N. 0.).— Now iu mild 

 weatherupto when they commence swelling the buds is the best time to prune 

 deciduous shrubs; before the swelling of the buds pruning ought to he com- 

 pleted, aud it may be done in mild weather after the loaves fall through the 

 winter until the buds swell. Evergreen shrubs are best pruned at the close 

 of Mai'ch, or early in April when they are beginning to grow, it being best 

 done in mild weather and showeiy. 



House for Figs {Horace).~ln north Kent you will not succeed with Figs 

 in the open ground as bushes. They would, however, succeed against a 

 south wall with protection in winter for the branches and shoots. Every ' 

 way a house would be the preferable thing to have, keeping the bushes in 

 pots, increasing the size of the pots with the growth of the trees, and having 

 the pots half plunged in the borders. Ultimately your two dozen bushes 

 will require a good-sized house, as they will require to bo, when they are in 

 14-inch to 18-inch pots, 4 feet 6 inches apart, and as much side and head- 

 room. This will give you 52-feet length of house for two dozen trees, and 

 13 feet iu width, having a walk up the centre 2 feet fi inches wide, and a 

 border on each side of the walk 4 feet 6 inches wide. The side walls may be 

 2 feet high above ground, aud of glass 2 feet 6 inches, which will give the 

 height of the sides 4 feet 6 inches ; aud in the centre over the walk the house 

 may be 9 feot from the floor to the ridge. A spau-roofed house, with the ends 

 north and south. To make certain of two crjp^ in a season it would be well 

 to have the h'>use heated by two 4-inch hot-water pipes along both sides aud 

 one end. Half the length of house would be sufficient for the trees for a 

 couple of years. 



CnEURY Trees not Fruiting {A Sithscribcr).— Your soil is too light; for 

 the kind of Cherries you name, but you might do much to check their 

 growth by making the soil firm after giving a dressing of lime to the surface, 

 and poiutiug it m with a fork. A bushel of lime per rod {3Q\ square yards) 

 will bo ample, aud then make the soil very firm. Keep the shoots close- 

 stopped through the summer, and manure by the surface, giving the trees a 

 thorough watering when they are going out of flower. They will, we think, 

 give you fruit; but if they do not in a year or two, root-prune, and make the 

 soil about them very firm. 



Substitute for Grafting Clay (Idem).— We do not know of any sub- 

 stitute for clay but grafting- was, which is made in various ways ; but we give 

 two formulae, one requiring to be applied warm— viz., Burgundy pitch, 1 lb. ; 

 black pitch, 4 ozs. ; yellow wax, 2 ozs. ; rosin, 2ozs. ; mutton auet, 2 drachms, 

 melting in an earthenware pot over a slow fire, and applied warm to the 

 grafted part, but not so hot as to injure the bark of the stock and scion it 

 comes into contact with. The following may be used cold : — Yellow wax, 1 lb. ; 

 turpentine, lib.; Burgundy pitch, Sozs. ; mutton auet, 4 ozs. Melt all to- 

 gether and mix thoroughly, leaving to cool, when tho mass may be formed 

 into email balls and used as required. 



Iron Filings for Jointing Hot-water Pipes (S. 3. W.).—Tdi^ the 



filings with strong vinegar, making thorouglily moist, forming a sort of salve; 



or add sal ammoniac 1 oz. to 2\ Ib-i. of the iron filings, and half an ounce of 



flowers of sulphur. In either ca^ie the piping should not ba used until tho 



ron cement has become perfectly firm. 



Apricot, Cherry, and Plum Trres Pruning (A Constant Reader).— 

 The fruit of these is produced upon spurs principally, and the young shoots 

 also fruit; but after the first year of the young shoots you will have to rely 

 upon spars for fruit of the Cherry and Plum, and mainly upon spurs of the 

 Apricjt, though the youug shoots of the Apricot will fruit fro3ly, aal sh:>uH 

 be laid-iu betweou the main branches, but not so as to crowd th^m. They 



may be laid-in 3 or 4 inches apart. The main branches or shoots ought iat 

 all the trees named to bo 1-foot distance apart, and trained fan-shape; each 

 shoot or branch intended to produce spm'S be taken Etrai!,'ht, and at such an 

 angle that, when it is half the length it has to traverse, it will be 1 foot dis- 

 tant from the branch it originates. The long shoots we should not shorten, 

 they being intended for branches, and the trees are properly furnished. H 

 the trees are not furnished the shoots must be cut back to give you the 

 requisite shoots, otherwise we should not shorten them, but train-in their 

 full length. The side shoots of the Cherry and Plum should be cut-in to 

 about an inch, or two eyes of their base, and the twiggy side shoots of the 

 Apricots laid-in between the main branches, and not shortened ; but any fore- 

 right or front shoots are to be cut-in to two eyes. Any short stubby shoots 

 of not more than an inch or so long should not be shortened, but left their 

 fu ll length; they are spurs, and will be clusters of fruit buds, with a wood 

 bud at their points. We should not advise the lifting Peach and Nectarine 

 trees which are now fruiting, although producing vigorous shoots 6 feet long. 

 Leave well alone; only remove their points, say a third, the length of the 

 shoots, and train-in from them bearing shoots at 1-foot distance apart. 



Decayed Sawdust for Flower Beds {J.K.).—ll reduced to "mould" 

 it will answer well; but if it contains any woody matter, be likely to en- 

 gender fungus, and in this case woull be objectionable as a top-dressing. 



Berberidopsis corallina for Wall {Idem).— It is a very pretty sub- 

 scandent shrub with coral-like red flowers, evergreen, and is suitable for a 

 wall, but requires one with a south or south-west aspect. Lobelia .'ipeciosa 

 will suit as an edging to yellow Pansy. 



Transplanting Rose Trees (Bffrarcd).— Take them up as soon as you 

 cau, and carefully preserving as much root as practicable; and as they are 

 taken up cover the roots with mats to protect them from drying, and care- 

 fully pack the roots in dry straw, and secure with mats outsida. They 

 should have the heads neatly tied together — the plants, in fact, secured by 

 mats iu reasonable-sized bundles, and they should be carefully planted, the 

 ground having been trenched and liberally manured. Pruning should be 

 defened until the beginning of March. Secure them against winds by suit- 

 able stakes and tying, watering at planting if the weather be dry, and in dry 

 weather after growth syringing or watering overhead in the evening, so as to 

 secure free growth. They should ba pruned rather more severely than had 

 they not been removed. 



Navies of Fruits [Pierson). — The Pear is BeuiTe Ranee. 



Names of Plants {J. A.). — It is impossible to identify plants from foliage 

 only, it takes much time to do so even when flowers are with the loaves. 



POULTET, BEE, AlTD HGEOIf OHEONIOLE, 



POULTRY EXPERIENCES IN 1874. 



It may not be uninterestinf; to the readers of your Journal to 

 hear the year's experiences of a poultry-keeper on a very small 

 scale, and it may also be the means of encouraging others^ to 

 attempt what is certainly a profitable as well as an amusing 

 occupation. I have had built at the end of a long narrow 

 kitchen garden a small poultry shed, which is entirely roofed- 

 in, and a roosting and laying-house made according to the 

 directions of the "Practical Poultry- Keeper." The yard ia 

 about 16 by 11 feet, and the house about B feet square, and in 

 this space I have kept a cock and from eight to ten hens, and 

 reared twenty-two chickens. The sort I keep are Light Brahmas, 

 which I have found exceedingly satisfactory in every respect, 

 being very hardy, and constant layers. I have had in the year 

 996 eggs, with five hens on an average laying at the same time, 

 and tbe following is my table of profit and loss : — Expenses 

 during the year for food and carpenter's work to the shed, &o., 

 £7. Receipts, including value of stock, ill lis., leaving a 

 balance of £1 12s. as profit, and a supply for the table of rich 

 eggs aud first-rate chickens for eating. 



1 have bought the food entirely and of the very best quality, 

 giving barleymeal and bran in the morning, wheat at nigbt, and 

 kitchen scraps with abundance of green food in the day. Tho 

 young chickens were fed on Scotch oatmeal and bread soaked 

 in milk mixed with fine chopped grass. 



I have kept a Cochin hen and one or two Barndoor as well as 

 Brahmas, so I have had opportunities of testing the superiority 

 of the latter sort. I have found them far less broody than the 

 Cochin, while they make quite as good mothers and lay a great 

 many more eggs in the year than the Barndoor, and, while 1 lost 

 two pullets of the latter sort, I reared every Brahma I had. 

 They are also very handsome, and I was able to sell several 

 sittings in the spring at Oi?. an egg. I may add that I attend to 

 them entirely myself, cleaning out the roosting house every 

 morning, and I always let them have plenty of dry earth or lime 

 riddlings as a dust bath, and pulverised oyster shells to peck 

 when they like. They seem always perfectly happy though 

 kept in close confinement. — h.. H. Martin', Evesham. 



THE barb. 



A FINE Barb ia a rare bird. The majority of the specimens 

 we see are of the coarse coarsely, and with the Barb vulgarity 

 is ruinous ; for a large bird with a common wattled head (such 

 as we see) is too suggestive of a Carrier with its beak razeed. 

 It is a variety we would like to admire, but finding it impossible 

 to obtain the very few fine birds met with in our travels, we 

 have allowed the fancy for them to sleep until the present time, 

 and nothing but an extra specimen (of our style) will induce us 



