1C4 



JOUKNAL OF HOBTICULTUEK AND COTTAGE GAKDENER. 



t Febraary 19, 1874. 



eldest Eon acts as my foreman. He has a common thermo- 

 meter outside his bedroom window, and with our great house 

 frost is very ticklish, and he has to be constantly watching 

 that it does not freeze while we have no fires on. When I get 

 one of Mr. Bryson's instruments outside his window, and say 

 it is set to begin ringing at 36" or 38°, so as to give time to get 

 up steam before the temperature falls to 32°, he can rest at 

 ease, for the bell never leaves off ringing tUl the temperature 

 rises above what the instrument is set for, or until it is thrown 

 out of gear. — W. T. 



INFLUENCE OF THE DWELLING. 



In reply to a correspondent, " A Dorset Incumbent," we can 

 say, from long experience, we never knew a happy cottage 

 home that was an untidy one, and that we fully agree with 

 the Rev. Brooke Lambert who recently wrote : — " Your first 

 endeavour should be to make the people take a pride in their 

 surroundings, in clean floors, tidy walls, and bright windows. 

 Don't forget those great educators of men — flowers. And iu 

 encouraging them to grow flowers, discourage them from the 

 delicate hothouse plants, and the Hoses which will not bear 

 smoke; and press on them Musks, Creeping Jenny, ornamental 

 Grass, Fuchsias, and that beautiful window green the Nettle 

 Geranium. And then try and make them see that life is not 

 so hopeless if only they will try and save. Tell them that so 

 long as they spend all their earnings in drink, and lay by 

 nothing for the future, you cannot help them. But if they 

 will only try they will always find a friend ready to help. As 

 you go on at your work you will begin to feel a respect for 

 them, which will make you shrink from offering them money, 

 as you would shrink from offering it to one in your own class 

 of life, and your relations are yet such that iu the case of 

 great need you can go to them as to a friend and say, ' Don't 

 be ashamed to borrow of me.' And as you see them struggle 

 you learn the difficulties of their case, learn how harshly you 

 judged them when you set them down as all belonging to one 

 degraded class. You will find instances of kindness which 

 make your eyeballs sore, of heroism which make you wish that 

 you could in your own sphere go and do likewise." 



Then for " the straggling, neglected Vine " our Dorset cor- 

 respondent specifies, we agree with bim that making staples of 



Osier twigs and thrusting them under the tUes or slates is 

 liable to loosen them, but there is a mode of training the Vine 

 shoots over the roof without using such staples, and it was 

 thus described many years since in one of Mr. Loudon's works : 

 — " By following the undermentioned simple method the Vine 

 may be trained easily on slating and tiling. In the winter 

 pruning take pieces of tin G or 7 inches in length, the refuse 

 of the tin-workers' shops will do, and at convenient distances 

 turn them over the shoot intended to remain, and thrust part of 

 the two ends {a a) between the tiles or slates. The weight of 

 the incumbent tile or slate will be sufficient to keep the shoot 

 in its place so as not to be disturbed by winds. 



If " A Dorset Incdmbent " induces his cottage parishioners 

 to cultivate potted plants in their windows, and Grape Vines 

 on their roofs, he will have gone far towards effecting his good 

 purpose — " making his parishioners more home-loving." 



The Season in the South of Ireland. — I am sure that you will 

 be surprised to hear the sort of a season we are having here in 

 the south of Ireland. I have Pear trees (standards) in the 

 open air in full flower, and my Apricot trees against a south 

 wall are covered with a mass of bloom. Peas sown on the 

 ICth of December are 3 inches high ; Beans sown the same date 



4 inches high. The Cherry wall is easterly, and the trees are 

 showing their flowers. — Wii-liam Ryan, Gardener to Mr. Early, 

 of Dononghmore, Knocklofty, Clonmel. 



WINTER BROCCOLI. 



Broccoli, during the winter, is a rather precarious crop in 

 some situations — so much so that if we were to plant a quarter 

 of it we should probably be disappointed of a supply. There 

 are gardens where Broccoli is almost a certainty, and, on the 

 other hand, not a few in which after November it is the excep- 

 tion. Perhaps no vegetable degenerates more unless great 

 care is taken in selection, and with early kinds there is a 

 positive difficulty in saving the seed true. This must be 

 apparent to all on considering what we get for early varieties 

 such as the White Cape, Grange's Autumn, Penzance, Adams's 

 and too often Snow's Winter White. After the great care in 

 sowing, planting, protecting, Ac, not unfrequently we have 

 heads the size of a button Mushroom, or a big bunch of white 

 or purplish green sprouts. 



Broccoh culture in cold, wet situations, unless there be a 

 few of the late hardy varieties, is frequently a failure. Where 

 there is plenty of spare ground space can be allowed such pre- 

 carious crops without much loss, but it is not so where every 

 inch is absolutely required to supply the wants of the estab- 

 lishment. It is not new sorts that we want, but a more careful 

 selection and saving of those we already have, and I fear that 

 the worthless mixtures often sold are caused, in a great mea- 

 sure, by saving the seed of more than one variety in the 

 same garden or field. Indeed, if within a few fields of each 

 other, different varieties of Broccoli are sure to be cross- 

 impregnated by bees or other insects. We need not, how- 

 ever, search long to find that Broccoli can be kept true and 

 without degeneration. See what is done at Penzance and in 

 its neighbourhood. Who has not seen the Cornish Broccoli 

 and not wondered at its size and snowy whiteness ? Yet it has 

 been grown in that county for years without change of seed 

 or soil. 



If, again, we wanted proof that every Broccoli can be kept 

 pure, we have it in the best strains of Snow's Winter White. 

 I had almost given up the idea of growing Broccoli, so unfa- 

 vourable is this locaUty — cold, wet, heavy soil, with a super- 

 abundance of atmospheric moisture, a night or two in which 

 the thermometer falls 10° or more below freezing, and then 

 comes a drizzling rain. But here is the point : It is not alto- 

 gether the locality, but the worthless seed we have sent us. 

 I have this year been gratified with row after row of Snow's 

 Winter Broccoli, and every plant formed a head the size of a 

 breakfast-cup or thereabouts, and that at a season when, of 

 all others, a really good vegetable is highly appreciated — viz.^ 

 on and after Christmas, and Broccoli above all vegetables is 

 welcomed then. I have not been one week without Cauli- 

 flowers or Broccolis since the beginning of June, and now we 

 are just commencing with another valuable Broccoli — viz., 

 Veitch's Spring White. This, with one or two others, wiU 

 carry us on to within a week or two of early CauUflowers. This 

 is a very late garden, or probably we should have Cauliflower 

 before the last Broccoli was cut, as we have before now. — 

 John Taylor, Maesgu-tiniie. 



PEACH FORCING. 



I notice in page llfi a letter on the above topic from my 

 worthy friend Mr. Taylor, and beg for a short space in reply. 



I understand Mr. Taylor to say that Peach houses, shut up 

 at the beginning of December and kept at 45° to 50°, will now 

 (first week of February), be in full flower. My first Peaches 

 were shut up on the 10th of December, and I enclose you a 

 shoot with the fruit attached, so that you may judge for your- 

 self. I may remark, when I begin to force Peaches or any- 

 thing else, I like to force in the proper sense of the word. I 

 maintain that Peaches will set better at 55° to 60° than at 

 45° or 50°. 



The general treatment our Peaches have received is of the 

 simplest kind — merely to keep the house at 50 until the flower 

 can be seen to show the colour, raise the temperature to 55° 

 until the flower is fully developed, then keep steady at between 

 55 and GO \ The paths and borders have been duly syringed 

 daily whilst setting, and the trees syringed every day before 

 they came into flower. Now, respecting fertilising the blos- 

 soms, I may say that I have practised it for years, and with 



