222 



JOUENAL OP HORTIODLTUEB AND COTTAGE GARDENER. 



[ March 18, 1875. 



Band. All this should be sifted fine and thoroughly well mixed 

 together with the hand. Each pot should now be filled up to 

 within half an inch of the rim, pressing the soil moderately firm ; 

 upon this add a layer of good silver sand. After preparing as 

 many pots as are likely to be required for the first batch of cut- 

 tings take them into the house and water the whole with a fine- 

 rosed watering pot, so that the soil may be moderately soalsed 

 without washing the sand off the surface. 



In putting in the cuttings, which may be about an inch apart, 

 it is a fact worthy of observation and practice that each cutting 

 should be thrust into the sand without previously making a hole 

 for it. This ensures the base of the cutting being placed firmly 

 in the soil, but in order to do this easily and without injury to 

 the cutting every pot must be again watered just as it is going 

 to be used, which renders the sand soft, and consequently the 

 cutting is easily thrust down into it. After the pot is filled with 

 cuttings it must once more receive a gentle watering sufficient 

 to float the sand, which when the water drains otit settles 

 closely round every cutting, fixing it firm. 



The after-treatment of these cuttings must not be forgotten, 

 for wherever they are placed they Bhould have the lights taken 

 off once a-day, generally in the morning, and allow them to dry 

 themselves. This should be done regularly, because it is a pre- 

 ventive against dampiug-off, which so frequently occurs among 

 such tender things as these. During the time they are rooting 

 they will grow considerably, but after that has taken place the 

 tops should be pinched-off, which will make another cutting, 

 and so the stock may be quicklyincreased. The rooted cuttings 

 thus treated will soon break into growth at each joint, when 

 no delay should take place in having them potted-off. 



I may here remark that the preparation of the cutting is very 

 simple. There is no need for it to be cut to a joint, provided it 

 is tlirust into the soil up to the first pair of leaves, when it will 

 soon throw out roots. Almost every kind of softwooded plant 

 may be propagated in the above way, and it enables so many 

 more cuttings to be taken from a plant, and a stock is thus 

 raised more expeditiously. 



The growth must be young and healthy, otherwise the system 

 will not be so successful. Hard wood seldom roots freely, let it 

 be propagated which way it may, neither is it so likely to make 

 a good plant at any time as a cutting from crisp young growth. 

 — Thomas Record. 



DOINGS OP THE LAST AND PRESENT WEEKS. 



KITCHEN OABnEN. 



Maech is proverbial for its changes. It came in boisterous 

 enough this year, with frost every night for the first week. On 

 the first day of the second week it was very mild, the wind 

 blowing gently from the south, and for two days more we had 

 western breezes. The wind then suddenly changed to the cold 

 quarter, and the night temperature, which had risen to 48° and 

 49°, as quickly fell to 2(1" ; yet the winds have been drying in 

 their nature, and gave us an opportunity to fork over the sur- 

 face of the ground wherever it had been lying as it was dug or 

 trenched in the autumn. Ran the hoe through autumn-planted 

 Cabbages. The ground had become hard and required to be 

 broken up to some depth, and for this purpose a swan-necked 

 draw-hoe is much better than the Dutch tool. We have tried 

 different sorts of Cabbages for this crop, and find the Dwarf 

 Early York to be the best. Enfield Market will give the largest 

 produce from a given space, but they are coarse-looking. Even 

 the farmers who grow for market plant large breadths of Early 

 York. 



Some Cauliflower plants in boxes will be planted out as soon 

 as the weather is favourable. The ground has been turned over 

 and is now quite dry on the surface, and will be in good condition 

 for the crop. Pricked out Onions from the rows where they had 

 been sown thickly iu autumn. The plants are put out in rows 

 about 9 inches apart and from 4 to C inches between the plants. 

 Autumn-sown Onions are seldom attacked by the maggot, and 

 this system should be adopted in gardens where the maggot is 

 troublesome. 



Sowed Brussels Sprouts on a piece of poor soil : this is one 

 of the most valuable of our winter vegetables, but the plants 

 often club with us when sown late, and early-sown plants are 

 more free from the maggot. Forked over the ground lightly 

 between rows of Peas in preference to hoeing. Planted out 

 Lettuce. A little seed of Hicks' Hardy White Cos had been 

 mixed with the autumn-sown Onion seed, and some of the plants 

 had been put out in the autumn. This year those planted last 

 season are a comparative failure, while the plants that were not 

 moved are in good condition. Sowed Celery in a warm border 

 out of doors. The soil was wet and unsuitable, but by placing 

 some fine dry loam on the surface an excellent seed bed was 

 obtained. Sowed more Radish seed also in a sheltered place ; 

 the first sowing in the ground vineries has been thinned out. 

 Any glass protection that can be placed over early vegetable 

 Beeds at this season is of great advantage to the crop. 



Planted out some Seakale plants on rich and well-worked 

 ground. The old plants that have been forced may be used for 



this in addition to the seedling plants of last year, which were 

 too small for potting-up for forcing. Coal ashes placed over the 

 crowns is of some advantage to the plants. About the end of 

 this month or early iu April is a good time to sow the seeds of 

 Seakale. 



FRUIT AND FORCING HOUSES. 



Pineries. — But little can be added to the remarks in the num- 

 ber for March 4th. Plants that have ripe fruit or fruit that is 

 nearly ripe ought to be taken out of the house where the tempera- 

 ture is 7U° at night with a moist atmosphere, as in such a place 

 the fruit soon shows symptoms of decay. The most convenient 

 way is to cut the fruit, and remove it to a dry room where the 

 temperature does not vary much in the twenty-four hours. If 

 the fruit is not quite ripe, and is also sound when it is cut, it 

 win keep for a month after being cut from the plant. Those 

 plants that are furnished with suckers ought to remain in heat 

 until the suckers are large enough for planting out; they 

 grow more quickly on the parent plant than they do if they are 

 removed and potted in a small state. 



Those who grow only a very limited number of plants will 

 find it a good plan to plant the suckers just when they can be 

 obtained ; and when the plants have well filled the pots with 

 roots, though they must not become pot-bound, let them be 

 potted into the fruiting pots at once. We used to pot the plants 

 into 9-inch pots first, and then into the fruiting pots, thus 

 making two shifts ; after trying both ways it has been found that 

 the greatest advantages are in favour of the one-shift system. 

 We have some autumn and winter-struck plants of Smooth- 

 leaved Cayenne and Charlotte Rothschild that will be potted 

 as soon as possible. The compost which has been described in 

 previous numbers is mixed up and placed in the house for a day 

 or two to become warmed before using it. 



Dwarf Kidney Beans. — A succession of these can be kept up 

 by sowing a box thickly with them, and potting them off when 

 the seed leaves are fully developed. We have found them bear 

 most abundantly and continue the longest in bearing when four 

 or five plants are put into 7-inch pots. They are kept free from 

 insect pests by daily syringing, and the minimum temperature 

 is not less than CO '. It is marvellous the quantity of pods that 

 can he gathered from two or three dozen pots of the little New- 

 ington Wonder if none of the iJods are aUowed to become too 

 old. The soil should be four parts good turfy loam and one 

 part rotted manure. 



Strawberries. — The whole of the pots of Black Prince have 

 been removed from the forcing houses, to be succeeded by 

 Keens' Seedling. Some of the most extensive growers have 

 told us that their plants have not thrown-up so freely as usual. 

 Probably this was more owing to the unfavourable weather at 

 the time than to the fact that the crowns were not thoroughly 

 matured last autumn. We had an abundant crop of Black 

 Prince, though the fruit was not so large as usual. Keens' 

 Seedling is now in flower, and the abundance of well-developed 

 blossoms seems to ensure a good set. Alternate waterings with 

 weak liquid manure are very beneficial to the plants as soon as 

 the first young leaves are formed. 



MUSHROOM HOUSE. 



The details of work in this department are so much alike from 

 week to week that frequent remarks are only a repetition. The 

 spent manure from the beds is very useful for mulching newly- 

 planted trees, Roses, shrubs, &c., or it may be laid-up in a heap, 

 when it will be equally valuable for mulching all growing crops 

 during the summer mouths. None of the beds need be empty 

 at this time. But as soon as any of them are quite exhausted 

 fresh beds should be made up. Our own experience has been 

 in favour of mixing a portion of cow manure and a little flbry 

 loam with the horse droppings. Splendid large fleshy Mush- 

 rooms have been produced by mixing horse droppings, cow 

 manure, and loam in equal proportions. 



The most important matter in making-up Mushroom beds IB 

 the state of the material at the time. This must be thrown-up 

 in a heap sufficiently long to aUow of the rank steam being 

 thrown oil. If it is too wet it must be spread out on the floor 

 of an airy shed for a few days until the superfluous moisture 

 escapes. It the bed heats violently after being made up, this 

 will show that the material has not been well prepared. 



The quality of the spawn should not be doubtful, and expense 

 should not be spared to obtain the best in the market. The 

 bricks should be broken-up into pieces about the size of a 

 pigeon's egg, aud the bed may be spawned when the tempera- 

 ture has fallen to 80'. The surface of the bed should be pressed 

 down firmly, aud when in the course of a week after spawning 

 the dressing of loam is put over the bed, this must also be 

 beaten down firmly with the back of a spade. 



PLANT STOVE. 



The sun has now begun to act very powerfully upon the glass, 

 and it has been necessary to put up the shading, not as a fixture, 

 but to roll up iu dull weather, and to he used only in hot days. 

 A little sunshine in such cold weather as we are enjoying at 

 present will do good instead of harm. Again, some plants re- 

 g,mre all the sanshine they can get ; but as it is necessary to 



