FebfiiBiy 28, 1S65. ] 



JOURNAL OP HORTICULTURE AND COTTAGE GARDENEE. 



1G9 



was some slight cracks and a leakage. I liad the cement, in 

 stripes about li inch broad, chipped clean away I'rom the 

 stonework where the cracks showed, and the places filled-in 

 again with a finer material formed of two parts cement 

 and one of finely-sifted gravel ; then a thick paint made of 

 ■cement and water only was worked over the whole interior 

 with a half-worn-out whitewash brush, and the tank now 

 holds water perfectly. Our scullery tank is much smaller 

 than the others which catch the principal sewage. When 

 all danger fi:om hard frosts is over, a Wai-ner's three-legged 

 pump with india-rubber hose, is placed near it for the season 

 (all our tanks are fitted with a wooden trap-door, sufficiently 

 large to allow a man to enter and clean the sediment out 

 firom the bottom), in order to pump the contents into the 

 sewage-waggon, to be afterwards drawn and emptied into the 

 large tank, and thus to add to the sewage in the latter the 

 oDy and fatty matter of dish-washings, which the potash 

 and soda soon render soluble in theWater. 



Now, in regard to a question of " Fruit-eatek," he in- 

 quires, "How may sewage be best applied so as to avoid 

 tie loss of temperatiure consequent on aU siu-face irrigation ? ' ' 

 I answer our family washing takes place once a-montb, and 

 the soapsuds are saved in a tub. As soon as the washing is 

 over, or, if that time is not suitable, on any other day that 

 will do, I cause the suds to be heated in the copper. I engage 

 my man for what I call a " long day " on those occasions, 

 and in the evening we set-to in earnest. Into one-third of 

 a waggon of the boiling suds two-thirds of a waggon of 

 sewage is pumped, which reduces the temperature of the 

 mixture to about 90°. That is the way and the heat at 

 which I usually apply it to the roots of fruit trees and 

 vegetables. For orchard-house trees and flowers in pots, I 

 bring the temperature up to 70'^, by either mixing hot water 

 with the sewage, or some of itself heated in a pan which 

 I keep for the purpose. 



"When I perceive indications of red spider or mildew on 

 the wall iruit trees, Roses, &c., I raise the temperature to 

 130', by adding boiling soap-suds, and syringe the leaves of 

 the trees forcibly both on their under and upper sides, to 

 the utter destruction of the insects or mildew. They cannot 

 exist in the overpowering ammoniacal liquid, lly man as he 

 draws the waggon for my convenience in syringing out of 

 it, although he is by no means over-sensitive as to smell, 

 often amuses me by the contortions of his prominent nasal 

 feature on these pai-ticular occasions. The packing of the 

 syringe requires to be renewed after being thrice subjected 

 to heat, and a few drops of sweet oil applied to the inner 

 BTJifiice before the syringings are begun, wiU keep the skin 

 of the hands unblistered. I cannot certainly recommend 

 this hot-sewage cure as being of xhe pleasantest, but one, or 

 at most two syringings, will thoroughly cleanse the trees of 

 filth, and unless the foliage were kept healthy and vigorous, 

 all the rest would be of little avail. 



In the evening of the nest day syringe the trees again 

 with clean water heated to 130°, that is as hot as the hands 

 can beaj it, and the young fruit and foliage will support it 

 very well, subdued by its passage through the air from the 

 nozzle of the syringe. As regards the ravages of the green, 

 brown, black, and blue iiies on fruit trees, the modern system 

 of pinching hinders the very existence of the aphis family. 



As sewage contains nothing like the proportion of phos- 

 phate of hme that is taken from the laud by' the different 

 crops, I have a special tub into which aU'the bones are 

 thrown after they are done within the kitchen. What oyster- 

 aheUs we may become possessed of during the year are also 

 tossed into the tub. At this time of year the \mited con- 

 tents are pounded on a tough flagstone with the back of a 

 heavy hatchet, and then passed through a sieve with a 

 quarter of inch mesh, all that will not pass through the 

 sieve is pounded over again tiU aU is sifted, and the bone 

 dust is scattered on the vegetable quarters along with the 

 other matters when the ground is being prepared. I intend 

 to sow some on the iruit-borders this spring, as soon as 

 the weather will allow me, and then point it in imme- 

 mately. Another tub we have contains the sweepings of 

 the chimneys, for soot and common salt are excellent applied 

 as a top-dressing to the soil in showery weather. The first 

 ai>ounds in ammonia, and the second given in moderate quan- • 

 titles promotes the decomposition of the organic matters in 

 we soil. We hare this winter burnt a great quantity of 



wood in the grates, and I have had the mere ashes sifted 

 from the cinders, and kept dry to apply as a top-dressing on 

 a piece of ground intended for Potatoes. 



I take this opportunity to describe my method (see 

 No. IG-t) of working the ground for Potatoes, and culinary 

 vegetables. It is best to divide the ground into three pai'te. 

 The sediment from the tanks is cleared out once a-year, 

 about this time, and mixed with road-scrapings in a large 

 opening dug out in a back yard, adding what I call my 

 muck-pie — that is, the refuse from the garden, and all th« 

 sweepings, excepting tree leaves, that collect from time to 

 time about a small house and grounds in the country. 



Early in autumn^ the sooner the better, the above is 

 wheeled to the piece to which it is to be applied, the third 

 of the ground that was occupied with the first and second 

 early Potatoes, and the early Cauliflowers and BroccoHfl. 

 This patch undergoes a thorough trenching, and the mix- 

 ture is weU worked into the body of the soil, and once 

 in three years is sufficient. The other two divisions are 

 bastard or half-trenched as soon as possible after the Brus- 

 sels Sprouts, Winter Broccoli, and the Turnips from the 

 ridges are successively cleared away. Just before Potato 

 planting, in March, I cause dry mortar rubbish to be spread 

 over the compartment .which was thorough-trenched, the 

 autumn before last ; and quicklime fresh from the kiln, at 

 the rate of seventy bushels per acre, to be slaked upon it, is 

 spread over the surface, and immediately pointed in on the 

 thii'd division, or that which I mentioned first, to act on 

 inert organic matters, which, if not subjected to the action 

 cf the quick lime, would remain in an inactive state probably 

 for years. This spring to the second compartment I intend 

 to apply sifted wood ashes, and on the tliird piece soot and 

 salt, by way of a change. I have also a fourth part of the 

 garden devoted to Strawberry, Onion, and "flying-crop 

 culture," which, at least, in regard to the Strawberries, is 

 made to undergo a three-course system, and where the 

 spent Cucumber-bed and sewage prove their handyworb. — ■ 

 Upwakds a:nd Onwakds. 



LONGING FOE SPEING. 



Shakspeaee makes Bolingbroke exclaim — 

 *' O, "who can hold a fire in his haud. 

 By thinking on ihe frosty Caucasus? 

 Or Tvallow naked in DecL-mber s snow. 

 By thinking on f.intastic sumnior's heat? " 



And although the power of imagination be to a degree 

 transposing, yet none, I suppose, would gainsay the great 

 bard's decision on this point of its impotence to change one 

 season to another, or to make us feel warm while we are 

 shivering with cold. Yet, stiU, how thoroughly we relish in 

 thought the opposite to that which we possess — ^how we live 

 and enjoy by anticipation ! 



To make this clearer by example- I never enjoy "Thom- 

 son's Summer" so much as in winter. Let me have the 

 book before me when the frost is on the pane — how I relish 

 this hot picture — 



"'Tis raging noon ; and, vertical, the sun 

 Darts on the head direct his forceful rays. 

 O'er Heavfcn and earth, far as the ranging eye 

 Can siveep, a dazzling deluge reigns ; " 



Or, again : 



" The rage intense 

 Of hrazen-v.\ulted skies and iron iields." 



Perhaps this delight of the mind in the opposite to that 

 possessed by the body is the reason, or is one reason why 

 books abounding with descriptions of rural scenes and 

 pleasures have been most frequently written while their 

 authors resided in towns ; yea, in the great city itself, and 

 even within its prisons. For instance : Bloomfield wrote his 

 '■Farmer's Boy" in a London attic; then by the power of 

 imagination he beheld, and, doubtless, himsetf enjoyed wdth 

 keen relish — 



" Stop'd in her song, perchance the starting thrush 

 Shook a white shower from the Black Thorn bush, 

 Where dew-drops thick as early blossoms hucfc. 

 And trembled while the minstrel sweetly ating." 

 Was there ever, I would ask, a more delicious rural picture 

 seen and penned, when the author's eyes fell on nothing 

 more fascinating than the common-place furnishings of a 

 jom-neyman-eobbler's stall ? 



