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JOUBNAL OF HOBTIOULTUEE AND COTTAGE GAEDENEE. 



[ October 22, 1874. 



crowd the window too much, as it is much more pleasing to 

 grow a few plants well than to have bo many for the sake of 

 variety and do none well.— Thomas Eecord. 



DOINGS OF THE LAST AND PKESENT WEEKS. 



KITCHEN GAKDEN. 



Eemoving the stalks from the Asjiaragus beds, after cutting 

 them over close to the surface of the ground. They are carried 

 away carefully, so that the seeds do not fall on the ground, 

 where they are a considerable nuisance, as they vegetate freely 

 during the ensuing summer. The treatment of the beds here 

 is another characteristic of our soil and climate. Most persons 

 are aware of the usual method of growing Asparagus. The 

 most common is to plant in beds from i feet wide, and to allow 

 ouly about a foot distance between each plant. An alley 

 18 inches wide is allowed between the beds, and from this the 

 mould is thrown out on to the beds until the alleys are a foot or 

 more deep, as we have seen them this year. Our method is to 

 keep the beds level or nearly so throughout. This year we will 

 give a good dressing of rich manure over the surface of the 

 quarter, and, as there will be plenty of spare soil, a dressing of 

 this over it. The plants are 18 inches apart, and the rows 2 i'eet. 

 In our dry soil deep alleys dry the ground too much. 



Planting-out Lettuces. These and Cauliflowers were sown 

 with the autumn Onions. Better plants of each are obtained iu 

 this way than by sowing in small beds, where the plants are 

 frequently crowded together ; and if they are not planted-out 

 as soon as they are ready, they become weakly from over- 

 crowding. Being distributed thinly amongst the Onions they 

 do not suffer in this respect. We used to gi'ow the Brown Cos 

 for winter, as it is thought to be the hardiest ; but we have 

 never failed with the Paris White, and now grow the best type 

 of it, Hick's Hardy White, exclusively. If the ground had been 

 ready for the Cauliflower plants they also would be put out. 

 For the earliest crop the sooner the plants are out after the 

 middle of October the better. A second sowing should be put- 

 in early iu the same month to succeed them. A large quantity 

 of Gladiolus is grown in the kitchen garden, and as the ground 

 is made rich for them, it answers for Cauhflowers without ma- 

 nure ; merely digging the ground over, a little fine dry loam 

 is put on the place where the hand-lights are to stand in which 

 to plant-out the young plants. 



Bed Cabbages are also planted-out at this time. They are 

 sown also in the first or second week in September. This is 

 early enough in the neighbourhood of London ; in the north 

 and all cold districts it is better to sow two weeks earlier. We 

 saw a specimen of a Bed Cabbage grown in the south from 

 seeds sown about the middle of August; and instead of one 

 large compact heart as firm as a cannon ball, the plant had 

 broken into about a dozen small loose heads, and the entire 

 crop was the same. The seeds were blamed for this, but there 

 could be no doubt that the seeds were sown too early, which 

 induced a tendency to run to seed. 



Potatoes are being lifted and stored. The crop is good and 

 free from disease. This is not the case in Scotland. In some 

 districts from one-third to a half of the entire crop is bad ; and 

 the autumn rains having set in, there is little chance of getting 

 what is good stored in good condition. 



Eemoving the decaying leaves and weeds from Sea-kale beds. 

 This allows the sun and air to get at the crowns ; and by stirring 

 the surface the maturation of the plants is effected, and they are 

 thus in better condition for early forcing. 



PBUir AND FORCING HOUSES. 



Pines. — The fruiting plants are all in a house by themselves, 

 and can be treated to a drier atmosphere. The temperature is 

 lower than iu the houses where the plants are growing or ma- 

 turing for forcing early in the following season. We have tried 

 various methods to keep the fruit of Piues after it is ripe, and 

 have found none to answer so well as cutting the fruit before it is 

 quite ripe, and then placing them in a box in the fruit-room that 

 is not quite air-tight, but very nearly so. Here they wiU keep 

 longer than they will if the plants are allowed to remain iu the 

 house, or even if the whole plant is removed to a cooler house. 

 The crowns of Smooth-leaved Cayennes may be saved as the 

 fruit is used, aud potted in small pots, using a lighter compost. 

 As it is now late in the season, plunge the pots in a brisk 

 ^ottom heat, and do not water for a week at least after potting. 

 Hrhose intending to grow Pines, aud who require to keep-up a 

 'supply for the winter months, should grow the above-named 

 ^ort almost exclusively. Black Jamaica maybe better flavoured, 

 ^and Charlotte Rothschild may sometimes produce larger fruit, 

 ibut for general good qualities the Smooth-leaved Cayenne is 

 thetter than both sorts together. We do not maintain so much 

 as mospheric moisture now; all that is required is to damp the 

 in^ths and walls of the houses twice a-day in warm dry weather, 

 p^ai once ouly in dull weather. The evaporating-troughs are not 

 supplied with water after this time. 



Pfack Souses. — It may be as well to repeat the caution about 

 keeping the inside borders sufliciently moist. There is not much 



danger of too much wet if the drainage is good, but much injury 

 results from overdryness. If it is intended to have the fruit ripe 

 about the end of May the trees will be bare of leaves, so that 

 any pruning required may be done at once. The instructions 

 given during the growing season have been to thin-out all wood 

 not required for fruiting. The trees must now be loosened dowu 

 from the trellis, and the young wood be tied up in bundles to be 

 out of the way wheu the glass, woodwork, and wires are being 

 washed. The trees should also be washed with soapy water, 

 using a sponge. No injury will befal the buds if the shoots are 

 washed the right way — not against the buds. Brown scale is 

 prevalent in some places ; it is easily destroyed by washing itoS 

 with the sponge. The inside border is treated in the same way 

 as that recommended for Vines last week. 



We are often asked what are the best varieties of Peaches aud 

 Nectarines for forcing. Not more than three or four of each are 

 required, which makes the selection very difiicult indeed. Of 

 Peaches Early Rivers, Early York, Royal George, and Barring- 

 ton will give a good succession. Of Nectarines we would name 

 as the best four Hunt's Tawny (Rivers's Lord Napier may be 

 preferable, but it has not been sufficiently proved), Violette 

 Hiltive, Pine Apple, and Victoria. 



GREENHOUSE AND CONSERVATORY. 



The Taesonia Van-Volxeiiii ia a beautiful object at this season 

 of the year planted out in the conservatory border, aud trained 

 high overhead so that the flowering growths hang down for 

 many feet. Lapageria rosea and L. alba are now surpassingly 

 beautiful. What a glorious sight is the long corridor at the 

 Messrs. Veitch's nursery. King's Road, Chelsea, canopied with 

 both varieties intermingled! From one end to the other the 

 snow-white and rosy-crimsou bells are studded thickly, and 

 beautiful as stars in the Milky Way. Our own plants are also 

 loaded with flowers. The stronger the young growths thrown 

 up from the base of the plant are, the larger will be the clusters 

 of flowers. If a very strong growth is stopped at, say, 9 or 

 12 feet, flowers will be formed at the axils of the leaves for 

 about 2 feet down the stem. 



Mildew had appeared on some of the hardwooded plants, aud 

 the weather is very favourable at present for its rapid develop- 

 ment. Dusting with flowers of sulphur stopped its progress. 



It is always best to pot Liliums as soon as the stalks die down. 

 This was not done at that time, so that the early and late-flower- 

 ing varieties have been potted at the same time. In cases 

 where the pots are large, and a number of roots are grown in 

 one pot, the roots are separated from each other, aud nearly all 

 the mould is shaken from the roots ; the largest bulbs are then 

 planted in the centre of the pot, placing smaller roots round the 

 sides. A number of roots are also potted singly in 5 and 6-inch 

 pots ; these are very often more useful than larger plants for 

 working-in amongst other plants. The bulbs that were grown 

 in such small pots last season will not be disturbed much now. 

 The surface mould and all the roots that came from the base of 

 the flower stem are removed aud the plant repotted, this time in 

 7 or 8-inch pots. The best potting material is turfy loam four 

 parts, leaf mould one part, rotted manure one part, with some 

 sand added to the compost. Some persons add turfy peat, but 

 it is not necessary to do so. 



Azaleas are now shedding their leaves. It is necessary to 

 shake the plants occasionally aud to sweep them up to keep the 

 places tidy. Thinning the buds on the Camellias. With care 

 in watering the plants and ventilating the house none of them 

 wiU drop after this time, and the plants have usually three times 

 as many as they will bring to perfection. 



ELOWER GARDEN. 



The slight frost early iu the mouth cut down the Coleus Vcr- 

 schaffeltii. Nothing else was killed by it, but the dashing 

 rains and \vind have finished-up nearly all the beds for the 

 season. 



Lifted the Gladiolus roots. Although the spikes were not so 

 strong as usual, and the roots, as a consequence, of this are not 

 BO large, they are very sound aud well ripened, and the beds 

 contained fewer failures than usual. Some extensive growers 

 complain of many blank:; in their beds, but in nearly every in- 

 stance it will be found that overgrowing the plants is the reason. 

 Manure water applied in quantities may and does cause a very 

 strong gro-wth, but it is at the expense of the ultimate health of 

 the roots. The roots iu every case are cut from the stalks at 

 once and spread out in a dry place ; whenconvenient they are 

 cleaned and stored away in papers for the winter. — J. Douglas. 



TO CORRESPONDENTS. 



*,' All correspondence should be directed either to "The 

 Editors," or to " The Publisher." Letters addressed to 

 Mr. Johnson or Dr. Hogg often remain unopened unavoid- 

 ably. We request that no one will write privately to any 

 of onr correspondents, as doing so subjeots them to un- 

 justifiable trouble and expense. 



