Notes a7id Gleanings. loi 



reach the bottom, and the whole is charred, smoke and vapor issuing freely from 

 these holes : but, if ever as much air is admitted as to cause the materials to 

 flare and flame, then the charring is exchanged for burning ; and, instead of val- 

 uable charred material, you will have a much less bulky and much less valuable 

 material in the shape of ashes. When charring, therefore, is attempted, the heap 

 must not be long left from the time of lighting the fire to that of removing the 

 charcoal. A slight neglect — the opening of a rent or vent in the covering, so 

 as to create flame inside — will soon, as respects charring, render all the labor, 

 abortive. When I practised much of this sort of rubbish-charring, the earth 

 and weeds used in covering were afterwards burned up in the weed-heap. 



By these three modes, almost every thing cast out from a garden can be made 

 the most of for useful purposes. — R. Fish, in Cottage Gardener. 



Dwarf Banan.\ {Musa Cavendishii) is the most tractable of the family, as 

 well for fruiting as for growing. Procure a sucker, say in March, as it will then 

 have the summer before it. Supposing the sucker to be three or four inches in 

 height, pot it in a middling-sized pot, say a sixteen or twenty-four, in a compost 

 of peat, loam, and sand, well draining the pot, and potting rather lightly. Do 

 not give much water till the roots have reached the sides of the pot, when the 

 plant should be watered freely. Let it remain in the same pot, and in an ordi- 

 nary stove temperature, for six or eight weeks ; by which time, if all go well, it 

 will be a good strong plant of two or three feet in height, with well-developed 

 foliage. 



The plant is then ready for the fruiting-pot, the size of which, with me, is three 

 feet in diameter at the top, and about two feet deep. The pot should be placed 

 where it is intended to grow the plant, and drained with six inches deep of 

 oyster-shells, charcoal, and crushed bones. Placing the young plant upon the 

 drainage without disturbing the ball more than can be avoided, fill in at the sides 

 of the fruiting-pot with strong yellow loam and rotten tan ; which compost is most 

 suitable for fruiting. The plant will now be ready to be pushed along, and should 

 receive rather hberal doses of liquid manure twice a week, — say four gallons 

 each time, and the same quantity of clear water in the week as well. This treat- 

 ment, and a temperature of about 80°, not shading more than can be avoided, 

 should, by September, produce a plant eight or ten feet in height ; and, with its 

 beautiful foliage, it will have a very good appearance in the stove, for which it is 

 an excellent centre plant. By keeping it dry for a week or two at this time, it will 

 throw up its flower-spike, which is a beautiful object ; and, as it continues to grow, 

 the rows of fruit will appear overlaying each other. When the first row of fruit 

 is half developed, the watering should be recommenced as freely as ever ; and, 

 with ordinary success, there will be by Christmas a bunch of fruit as long as the 

 arm, or thereabouts, and weighing eighteen or twenty-four poimds, which should 

 be ripe about the end of February, or beginning of March, making a very unique 

 addition to the dessert. 



Rhubarb Forcing. — A warm, dark cellar will answer admirably for forcing 

 rhubarb. The temperature should be not less than 50°. Put roots there in 



