March 21, 1865.] 



JOURNAL OF HORTICXJLTURH AND COTTAGE O-ARDEyER. 



237 



the ground was in very good condition for anything. The 

 Peae were sown in rows 10 feet apart, and three rows of 

 Potatoes were planted between each two rows of Peas, the 

 Potatoes being 3 feet &om the Peas, and then the Potato 

 rows 2 feet from each other. Some rows of early Peas were 

 sown to prove so far what is said of them. As yet, for earli- 

 ness and cropping combined, Sangeter's No. 1 is our fa- 

 vourite. When well treated its produce is wonderful. At 

 the outsides we have sown the Tall Marrow, Jeyes' Con- 

 queror or Ne Plus Ultra, the shorter, more compact, Veitch's 

 Perfection, and the much smaller sort, but a good bearer 

 and very rich flavoured, Harrison's Perfection. Of Potatoes 

 the sorts were Early Frame, Ash-leaved, Early May, Early 

 Shaw, &c. The Potatoes were in fine order for going out ; 

 but they would have been better had we had the convenience 

 of wide shelves or shallow bins for storing them on until 

 wanted for planting. A friend was boasting lately of what 

 a fine sort of early Potato he had. He would astonish some 

 of us old stagers, that he would. He had harvested them 

 in a little baiTel, and placed them in a snug warm place all 

 the winter. On going to the ban'el the other day he could 

 not take a Potato out ; they had grown into one impene- 

 trable lump, so that to make anything of them he was obliged 

 to knock the little barrel to pieces, and then the aspect of 

 the strong long shoots was pitiable to behold. Kept cool 

 and thin the Potato would have had plump shoots about an 

 inch or less in length, and would have been a storehouse of 

 vigour to support the shoot out of doors when the soil was 

 warm enough to encoixrage it to lengthen. 



Other vegetables much the same as in previous weeks. 

 We found some stools of Se«-i-ale, very strong last season, 

 on which the crown seemed to have rotted. In most cases 

 shoote were breaking fi-om beneath, but we do not like them 

 so well as the strong prominent buds. We attribute this 

 to want of protection during the very changeable weather of 

 the winter — frost, snow, thaw, sleet, rain, succeeding each 

 other in rapid succession ; not but that Sea-kale is hardy 

 enough in general, but the larger the tops above ground 

 the more liable are they to the giving way of the crowns. 

 A nice mound of ashes over the crowns, or even a little 

 mound of dry earth in the autumn, would have saved this 

 trifling miscarriage. We wOl shortly sow seeds under pro- 

 tection and transplant, as this will save them from the fly, 

 which is apt to seize them when sown out of doors. Such 

 seedlings well treated wOl do to force next season, and will 

 be strong in the second season. Bits of the roots will also 

 grow freely, but we prefer crowns with sis or eight-inch 

 stems to them or young seedlings. 



PBUIT GARDEN. 



Merely a repetition of previous weeks, with the exception 

 of the birds that have attacked within eight days the buds of 

 every fruit tree comeatable. Busting, painting, dredging, &o., 

 with nasty stuff and even netting seemed unavailing. As 

 soon as the fruit-buds of Gooseberries, Currants, Pears, &c., 

 swell and expand, out the heart goes, and often so quickly 

 IS a row done that you cannot see the depredators. Our 

 kitchen and fruit garden is bounded by stables, bushes of 

 the pleasure ground, and farmyard, all right enough but for 

 these terrible marauders, and even they are often useful 

 except at the bud and fruit time. It is certainly dishearten- 

 ing when, after pruning, nipping, and fore-shortening in 

 summer, you have nice little trees bristling with fruit-buds, 

 and you find suddenly four-fifths of the best buds ren- 

 dered useless and only a few small ones left. One evening, 

 without getting leave exactly, a few of the garden lads bat- 

 folded some hundred dozen of sparrows and other birds 

 from a few shrubs in the pleasure ground. Without de- 

 siring them any harm we do wish that those who advocate 

 the use of these birds at all times and all seasona had a 

 portion of our supply. In many places, where from covers 

 all round, and where schoolboys must not peer into a hedge 

 after a nest, fr-uit gardens out of doors will soon be unpro- 

 ductive if not securely netted all over before the buds of the 

 fr'uit trees begin to swell. 



ORNAMENTAL DEPAKTMENT. 



Out of doors we have done but little, as we had to collect 

 a good quantity of tree leaves, which would have been done 

 at once after the last pheasant-shooting, but for the snow 

 and rains which rendered such work unsuitable ; leaves col- 



lected wet being both difficult to carry any distance, and 

 to preserve even for a short time for heating purposes, as 

 they cannot be kept from decomposing, whilst dry leaves can 

 always be made to ferment by the addition of a little water. 

 Shrubby and herbaceous Calceolarias designed to flower 

 early in pots, should now have their last shift using rich, 

 rather light, sandy soU, but pressed firmly together, and as 

 soon as the roots run into the new material, strength of 

 bloom may be given by manure waterings. Pelargoniums 

 intended for early flowering should now be tied-out, and if 

 the leaves are too close thin them a little so that the light 

 shall play nicely upon them, and for this purpose set the 

 chief plants sufficiently thin. Much may be done in this 

 way even in a house which is crammed, by setting smaller 

 plants between the larger ones ; or by elevating the latter 

 on inverted flower-pots. Manui-e water as a rule should 

 not be given until the flower-trusses are formed, after that 

 the strength added will tell more upon them than on the 

 foliage. Cinerarias, Primulas, Camellias, and even forced 

 flowers coming into bloom will be the better of manure 

 water but not given strong. Lily of the Valley, and all 

 bulbs relish it as soon as the flower-spike appears. Azaleas 

 to bloom late should be removed to a north aspect and kept 

 cool ; and, as said the other week, Liliums, Tritonias, Ixias, 

 Sparaxis, &c., should be watered and shifted as they require 

 it, as soon as growth commences. We would, however, refer 

 to other weeks as to many plants ; and here only state, that 

 if dull weather continue Neapolitan and other Violets in beds 

 may be better of a slight dredging of sulphur and pounded 

 charcoal, a little dry sandy soil being worked in among the 

 plants to dry and improve the atmosphere of the enclosed 

 pit or frame. Leaving such matters we will, to please 

 several inquirers, advert to two modes of practice which 

 have engaged our attention and time considerably during 

 the week, and which relate to 



Planting Geraniuyns in Turves instead of pots. First. "Our 

 Geraniums, &c., stuck thickly in pots and boxes in the 

 autumn, now want more room, and we have neither room 

 enough, nor pots enough, to pot them singly. We fear to 

 plant them out in an intermediate-bed as you do, and lift 

 again after the middle of May for the flower-bed. How 

 would it do to give the plants a little soil and wrap them in 

 little bundles of moss, rough cocoa-nut fibre, &c. ? " Toler- 

 ably well, but after considerable experience with all such 

 modes, we think the timid cannot use anything better as a 

 substitute for pots, than pieces of fibry turf. Thus, suppose, 

 from the side of a road or an old pasture, you can take some 

 turf 2; inches thick, and in breadths of 1 foot. We place 

 that turf where it will be gently dried a little and warmed, 

 and we prepare, a little warmed, light, sandy soil, consist- 

 ing of loam, sand, and very sweet old leaf mould. Then 

 for stoutish plants of rooted cuttings, with a sharp knife 

 we cut our turves longitudinally and transversely into pieces 

 of 4 inches square, for less plants 3 inches square, and so 

 on ; and a clever handy lad will scoop out a round centre 

 piece from each of these square turves nearly as quickly 

 as he would crock a pot ; just leaving a bit aU round the 

 side and not going quite through to the grass of the turf. 

 A little of the nice mellow, heated soil is placed in the hole, 

 the roots put in over it, a little more soil put over the 

 roots and firmed as in a pot, then carried in sieves to their 

 position, and watered with water from which the chill has 

 been taken off. Now, as to the position. For quick work 

 — that is, making small plants large ones, and to have the 

 turf-pots bristling with roots all over, the best plan is to 

 set these turf-pots on a little leaf mould over a hotbed, 

 however slight, as that will increase the rapidity of the 

 rooting and the growing ; but in that case the turves must 

 be lifted as soon as the roots come through them, and 

 transferred to light soil in a cold pit, &c. If left long the 

 roots would run through the bed, and the plants could not 

 be safely turned. If taken in time to the earth-pit and 

 the trench, the roots will progress more slowly, and when 

 planting time comes, they will hang like a wig round their 

 centres of turf When planted turf and all together, they 

 will run away into the well-au-ed soil, and thrive better than 

 if they had come out of a pot with the ball unbroken. This 

 is a good plan for all plants with straggling roots that wiU 

 not lift well out of an earth-bed, as Manglesii Geraniums 

 Heliotropes, &c. 



