312 



JOUEXAL CF nOKTICTJLTCKE AXD COTTAGE GAKDEKEK. 



[ April IS, ;SM. 



about 105 feet wide. During irinter the shelves, floor, anM 

 temporary stage beneath the trellis were filled with bed- 

 ding plants. These were removed, and plants needing 

 a little heat introduced, and now these are being removed 

 to make way for others. At present, besides these tem- 

 porary occupants, there are four row of Strawberries the 

 full length of the liouse, some ripening, others swelling, 

 and some in bloom ; and with all these varieties there has 

 been no necessity for using even a puil of tobacco. The 

 Cucumbers, the other night, and a few pots of Verbenas 

 that had a little fly, are as yet the only plants, since last 

 autumn, that have ever been smoked. Though this is the 

 case, we are none the less obliged to BIr. Rivers, and to his 

 mention again of the quassia water. We recommend it 

 especially to ladies, for using to Koses, &e., with a brush 

 with a longisU handle, as it is so cleanly, and a little practice 

 will prevent any dropping on their gloves or garments. 



But for being behind with our work, we should have tres- 

 passed on Mr. Kivers to see his Apricots in pots, as with 

 them we have as yet done little, and would like to have a 

 fair start. As stated several times, we have no objection 

 whatever to the pot system, except the watering, when 

 water is scarce. AVe believe we are only beginniug that 

 system, and that the time will come when much smaller 

 plants and pots will be used, in order that the plants in full 

 bearing may stand in ornamental vases on the dining-table, 

 when, of course, pots will be used to suit the vases. The 

 taking such plants to the table with the pots mossed or tied 

 round with ornamental paper, will ever be miserable at- 

 tempts at refined taste. 



2. Birds. — 'We have tried white worsted and black worsted, 

 ■white, black, and red cotton, and, like windmills and guys, 

 they all do good for a time ; but then the birds soon become 

 used to them. We have seen the roguish torn tit, and the 

 impudent sparrow, if the thread was strong enough, sitting 

 on it and swinging backwards and forwards in high glee, like 

 a parrot on its swing perch. However, all these means, 

 though not giving security with us, act as preventives, and 

 notwithstanding all our outci-y, if now let alone we will be 

 pretty well for the small fruit. The Gooseberries are now 

 so green as to be very nearly out of danger. Our opinion is, 

 that we have had more benefit this season from syringing 

 the bushes with a mixture of cowdung. soot, and lime, so as 

 to make the buds unsavory. When that is mixed thin in a 

 tub, and the operator puts on an old sack, or a mat tied 

 round him, and uses the nozzle end of an old syringe, re- 

 gulating the discharge with his hand, he will go over a 

 great breadth in a short time. However, we advise all 

 those who may abhor such work, to try the thread method, 

 ■which will be effectual as a deterrent until the birds be- 

 come used to it. Since the fine weather set in, the birds 

 have troubled us but little. If they would be content with 

 their share, anything and everything, and any mode of 

 frightening them, are better than killing them, as no doubt 

 they do us good, when they neither pilfer buds nor fruit, 

 and there is something quite out of character in the report 

 of guns amid the quiet that should be associated with the 

 garden. 



3. Boilers and tlielf Posillnn. — .A.s coming in our way. we 

 may state that boilers should be set quite free of the place 

 to be heated by them, and so that they can be examined with- 

 out interfering with the chimney that takes off the products 

 of combustion. When houses, or a series of pits are to be 

 heated, and the fire is intended to play not only on the 

 inside but over the whole of the outside of the boiler, it is 

 often deemed economical to thrust a part, if not the whole, 

 of the boiler thus to be covered over inside of the houses or 

 pits to be heated. It would often be truer economy to have 

 such a boiler wholly outside, and so that the whole could 

 be easily examined without interfering with the house, 

 chimney, <tc. Wo have n. boiler so placed, fully one-half 

 inside of a pit, the boiler heating three nits. About three 

 years ago, after working some fifteen years, one of the sides 



— that farthest from the chimney, and next the flue gave 



way. To ren«h it we wore forci^d to open tlic flue outside, 

 and also to sacrifice the crop in the first division of the pit, 

 80 as to get down to the boiler. We then, as we detailed, 

 sqaeezed in an iron plate, which has stood ever since. Last 

 ■week the other side gave way, the water pouring out about 

 ♦ho n«„f,„ „f n,„ .:,!„ xhis side we were anxious to reach 



the centre of the side. 



from the outside ; but then there was the chimney at that 

 side, and then a four-inch return-pipe stood right in our 

 way. Wo could easily have reached it from the inside of 

 the pit by removing earth, clinkers, and brickwork ; but 

 then we knew that our Cucumbers in liearing, and Vines in 

 bloom, would be destroyed, or much injured. We therefore 

 gave up the idea of plating the side of the boiler, as we 

 could not reach it without breaking a hole inside ; and as 

 pulling out the boiler was not to be thought of, with so 

 many tender things in the three pits depending on it, we 

 merely cleaned out the flue on that side, damped it well, 

 and filled it as high with wet bricks and Portland cement as 

 went considerably above the leakage in the boiler. These 

 bricks had to be shoved along and fastened and levelled 

 with a long-handled spatula, the bricks .and cement being 

 squeezed up to the side of the boiler. As iar as we recollect, 

 we used about three courses of brick-on-bed. Tbis still left 

 a good ijortion of the side of the boiler exposed. As a tem- 

 porary measure it has answered admirably, the rapid leakage 

 being quite stopped, though of course the fire will not have 

 quite the same effect on the outside of the boiler. We 

 would have had little faith in the cement if the heated air 

 passed below it, but it may stand a long time with the 

 heated air passing above it. When the heat of summer 

 comes, means must bo used for setting a fresh boiler. The 

 want of a boiler in such weather as we had a fortnight ago 

 would have been ruinous, and any tomporar3' tinkering to 

 insure its working was an object to be aimed at. After 

 emptying the boiler, all the bricking, &c., was done in a few 

 hours. Our object in thus relating the misadventure is 

 simply to state our conviction that, if the boiler had stood 

 in the stoke-hole, and not mostly in the pit, we could have 

 uncovered its side, and jammed against it a piece of plate- 

 iron covered with red lead, in much less time, and we would 

 have had more faith in the iron than in the bricks and 

 cement. We could not get at the side without destroying 

 the Cucumbers in the pit. 



Though, as a matter of caution, and to show that some- 

 thing may be done in an extremity, we tlnis mention about 

 this boiler, we do not wish it to bo inferred that we are 

 always in trouble about boilers. In a quarter of a century 

 we have certainly replaced one, and we have tinkered this 

 pit one, whicli should be replaced this summer. There are 

 old boilers here, old when they came under our care, and 

 likely to continue in working order, as far as we can judge, 

 so that however old-fashioned they are, they so far answer 

 the purpose. Such misadventures as the above, too, whilst 

 they do nothing to disprove the economy of the large single- 

 boiler theory, show the importance of having another boiler 

 to act in a case of emergency. Imagine a single boiler 

 that alone heats some dozen forcing-houses and plant-houses, 

 giving way in such weather as we had in 1S60 and 1S61 ! 

 We m.ay also mention, that without any great leaning to the 

 material of boilers, most of the failures we have met with 

 and known, took place with wrought-iron boilers. 



ORNAMENTAL DEPAKTMEN'T. 



Much the same as last week, cutting edges, rolling, 

 digging, pruning, .and potting, inserting cuttings, and turn- 

 ing out great quantities of bedding plants into temporary 

 beds, where they cin be protected until after the middle of 

 May. On nothing as yet have we discovered an insect. The 

 word protected, above noticed, must be kept in mind, for we 

 cannot expect this weather to last, and there may yet be 

 cold winds and sharp frosts before the 20th of May. Some 

 are already complaining that their plants have been much 

 injured by the strong sun ; but all sudden changes must be 

 avoided or neutralised. Plants are just like children, they 

 seem to know and show gratitude to those who love them, 

 and enter into all their little wants .and wishes. There may 

 be the strictest attention and duty so called, but these will 

 never insure the growths and results of kind affectionate 

 interest. — R. F. 



TRADE CATALOGUES ]lECEn''ED. 

 .1. Scott, Merriott Xiirseries, Crowkerne, Somersetshire. — 

 Descriptive Catalogue of Hedding Plants. 

 Hutler & McCulloch, Covent Garden Market, Ijondon. — 

 ' Price List of Agricultural Seeds. March, 1865. 



