174 POT-POURRI FROM A SURREY GARDEN 



are the two that no one should be without. They grow 

 most easily from cuttings every year, though we keep the 

 tuberous roots of S. patens, as we do Dahlias, from year 

 to year. There are other Salvias quite worth growing, 

 but none I know so good as these two. Things are keep- 

 ing on well in the kitchen garden with the wet and the 

 absence of frost. We have still some excellent late-sown 

 French Beans. As a rule gardeners stint the slightly 

 uncertain crop of French Beans by not sowing them in 

 succession, depending for the kitchen supply on the 

 Scarlet Runners, which are not nearly so delicate, and 

 have not half the flavour of the true French Beans. Late 

 Peas completely beat us. We have never had them but 

 once ; they damp off. This must be, I should think, from 

 the western aspect of the garden. I will try sowing them 

 the first week in June next year in an open field we have, 

 exposed to the full sun and wind, to see if in that position 

 they will do better. 



September 30th. We have tried for the first time just 

 lately the baby chickens, which were a fashionable and 

 expensive luxury last season in London. Eoast them 

 as you roast a quail, or they can be boiled and served 

 cold with a covering of delicate white Mayonnaise 

 sauce. They should be killed when five or six weeks old, 

 cooked the same day, and each person should have one. 

 This sounds very extravagant, but a chicken the day of 

 its birth is not worth much more than the price of an egg, 

 and feeding them six weeks is no great expense. I can 

 strongly recommend anyone who keeps poultry to try 

 them, as we found them very delicate and tender. 



For those who keep pigeons and want to kill them off 

 which, of course, must be done I do not advise you to roast 

 them and place them on the menu as ' Bordeaux pigeons ' 

 (which a friend of mine did, to the indignation of her sons), 

 but to cook them as they do ptarmigan in Norway : 



