January U, 1865. ] 



JOURNAL OF HOKTICTTLTUEE AND COTTAGE GAKDENER. 



73 



a good-sized room, not crammed with furniture, and a good- 

 sized open fireplace to tlie chimney. It is hardly possible 

 to breathe an impure atmosphere in the latter circumstances, 

 it is ecai'cely possible to breathe a healthy one under the 

 first conditions. The non-ventilation and the free venti- 

 lation of such small places, we believe from experience to be 

 alike dangerous, and if any openings besides the chimney 

 are made or given for air, these openings, in winter at least, 

 should be covered with thicldsh gauze, that the fresh air 

 may be warmed before it reach the respii'atory organs. We 

 should here take a lesson from the old gardeners with 

 their early Cucumber-beds in winter. They would never 

 have slid down their sashes, and let the air enter all at 

 once. They tilted up the snsh very carefully, and hung a 

 piece of matting or gauze over the opening. No keen north- 

 easter was allowed to touch the leaves of their plants until 

 mollified by passing through the hot, moist air seeking an 

 outlet. 



There is hardly a possibility of convincing young people 

 of the importance of such little matters. Young men with 

 perspiration freely flowing from every pore, stripped of their 

 upper clothing, will come out of a hothouse without waist- 

 coat and coat, and stop out for half an hour, and will tell 

 you when remonstrated with, that it never hurts them a bit. 

 That may be quite true. Neither did we feel it at the time, 

 but many an aching rheumatism we have had since, as the 

 direct consequence and punishment for such imprudence, 

 and we would like to warn our young friends that law- 

 breaking and law-vindicating generally foUosv each other. 

 Just let them try and find out how many thus reckless of 

 heats and colds, have lived over forty and fifty years, and of 

 these again how few are there who from rheumatism and 

 other OIs have not had reason to regret their youthful 

 carelessness. The punishment for such carelessness may 

 not come for years, but it will be none the less certain and 

 severe at the last. 



We have also met with brethren, ripe in years and wis- 

 dom, who lived in small lean-to rooms behind the range of 

 hothouses, and though not liking the place made the most 

 of it, and were thankful that they themselves escaped with 

 so few illnesses, and that though obliged to crowd, they 

 were doubly grateful that their children as a wliole were 

 so healthy. The heads of the house from their hardy 

 bringing-up had been constitutionally seasoned, and the 

 young members of the family had all the strength and 

 buoyancy of youthful vitality, and we might be thought to 

 lift a warning voice in vain, but for the striking fact, that 

 of the seemingly healthy children thus reared, that wo can 

 bring back to our recollection few, few indeed of them, saw 

 their twenty-fifth birthday. The seeds of consumption and 

 other diseases were too surely sown in their young frames 

 in these dark, damp, shaded rooms. 



Though little from home for two years at least, it is gra- 

 tifying to find great changes for the better in this respect. 

 Of course few gardeners could expect such an elegant house 

 as that inhabited by our friend Mr. Kobsou, built for his 

 comfort by his kind employers, or such a house as at Tren- 

 tham, and numbers of other places ; but there is a vast de- 

 scent from such little palaces to such wretched lean-to's as 

 are sometimes yet to be met with, though often existing 

 •without the knowledge of the proprietor that things are at 

 all so bad. Between these two extremes there are many 

 mediums of comfort, and to the credit of the gentry and 

 aristocracy of England the time wiU soon come when the 

 last of these unhealthy places shall be used for something 

 else than human habitations. Let it be laid down as a rule 

 that every living-room to be healthy should have the chance 

 of the sun sending its rays through the windows at some 

 time of the day. 



PBEPAKING FOR POTTING. 



In dull wet days had all the garden pots thoroughly 

 scrubbed with warm water. In general we like pure water 

 best. In the spring when filling the same pot over and 

 over again, we are not particular with the outside ; but we 

 never like to see a pot used twice without washing the 

 inside. Of course, when the plant is likely to remain some 

 time in the pot, the outside should also be thoroughly 

 cleaned, as nothing looks more woe-begone than a pot 

 covered with greasy slime outside, even if the plant in it 

 should be pretty fan- as to its appearance. AH pots, too, at 



this time are best under cover, as the alternations of frost 

 and thaw, and rain and snow, are apt to crack them when 

 exposed. When properly washed we never make any dif- 

 ference between old and new pots, only when new ones are 

 used for the first time for a particular pui-pose, it is a good 

 plan to soak them for ten minutes and then dry them again 

 before using. If this is not done, the pot for some time is 

 apt to rob the ball inside of its moisture. This moisture- 

 stealing is moderated by first soaking the pots. No pots 

 should be used until they are dry, as if fiLled when wet, the 

 ball will not come out so clean afterwards. Using wet pots 

 is as bad a practice as digging stifi^ soil in a wet day. 



GE'^TING SOILS UNDER COVUB. 



This should be neglected by none of our young gardening 

 friends who aim at success. The soU should be well aired 

 and dried, for the potting-time fast coming on us. The fine, 

 crisp, aired soil often makes all the difference between 

 success and failure. It will be a great advantage, too, if 

 soil is so far warmed as to be rather warmer than the soil 

 in the pot, the plant in which is to have more room. We 

 have known window gardeners whose great success was 

 partly owing to shifting their plants in February and March 

 in soil that had previously been nicely warmed and aired in 

 a box placed on the hearthstone of the kitchen. We have 

 seen their neighbours faU of sviccess because they used cold 

 claggy soU in March, even though they watered immediately 

 afterwards with water at 80". This was freezing and next 

 to parboiling by turns, and then giving a plant that required 

 a nice open soil the surroundings of a marsh plant. Hardly 

 any treatment afterwards will make that soil kind and com- 

 fortable to young plants. 



Having skipped particulars this week, we will conclude 

 with two words of advice to our good friends the window 

 gardeners. Avoid all diecks and sudden extremes. The above 

 cold, claggy soil would be a sudden check to the young 

 rootlets of the plant you shifted. If the plant was taken 

 from the window of a sitting-room, and thus shifted, and 

 then left with others to stand in some cold shed or outhouse 

 until you have a few more done that you might take them 

 all in at once, ten to one the whole of the points of the 

 roots are killed, and the plant must begin and make a fresh 

 effort, and most likely the first teaching in the way of ex- 

 perience will be shoals of insects attacking the crippled 

 plant. If you must take a plant or two from the room to 

 give them more pot room, keep them out as short a time as 

 possible. They want a greater stimulus to growth imme- 

 diately after potting than before ; therefore, every minute 

 they remain in a colder place is just so far injurious to them. 

 Hence the importance of thekindly aired, warmed soU. Hence, 

 too, the importance of watering the plant with water about 

 70° some time — say an hour or two at least before shifting 

 it into a larger pot. If the fresh soil is neither wet nor 

 dry, and placed pretty firmly round the ball, it wiU want 

 little water except just at the side of the ball, before the 

 fresh roots are running freely into it. Flooding with water 

 at this season is attended with two disadvantages. First, 

 It saturates and makes a marsh of the fresh soil unoccupied 

 by roots, and then the rapid evaporation in a warm living- 

 room cools the soil round the roots. For one plant that is 

 lost from dryness in winter, dozens are ruined from over- 

 watering. Secondly, Keep leaves, stems, as well as pots 

 and saucers clean. A dry, soft brush to remove dust, and 

 then a soft sponge to use with soft water about 65° or 70", 

 are the simplest and best modes for cleaning both upper 

 and under sides of the leaves, and the stems. If plants are 

 not inconveniently large, place a cloth over the top of the 

 pot, place your hand firmly on it, and then turn the top of 

 the plant, and swinge it weU in a tub of clean water. Where 

 the plants are large and the leaves small, it is often better 

 to syringe the plant well, run the fingers through the upper 

 and lower sides of the leaves, and then syringe well again 

 with clean water. Such extra care on your part will be re- 

 warded by healthy foUage, and freedom from insects. — E. F. 



TEADE CATALOGUES EECEIVED. 

 E. Parker, Exotic Nursery, Tooting, Surrey. — Catalogue of 

 Agncultural, Flower, and Vegetaiile Seeds, Fruit Trees, New 

 Plants, ^e. 



