December 5, 1878. ] 
JOURNAL OF HORTICULTURE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. 
435 
again the following season. As the planting proceeds have some light com™ 
post ready, sifted through a coarse sieve, and fill up the holes with it. When 
so covered the bulbs are sure to be at the right depth; then rake the bed 
very lightly. 
ADDRESS (B. Roberts)—We are unable to furnish you with any address 
such as you require. If you have a boy whom you wish to be a gardener, 
your first step should be to obtain employment for him in a garden in your 
district. A small garden is as good as a large one for the first year or two. 
CUCUMBERS UNHEALTHY (Constant Subscriber).—As you appear to have 
given careful and good attention to the plants we can only account for the 
rusting of the foliage by the possible overheating of the pipes. A deficiency 
of piping is the source of many failures of plants and crops in houses where 
a high temperature has to be maintained, and is also expensive by the great 
consumption of fuel that is inevitable under such circumstances. Even if 
the pipes in your case Lave not been overheated, we should gradually reduce 
the temperature of the house about 5°—7.e., haying 65° instead of 70° as the 
minimum. 
POMPON CHRYSANTHEMUMS (X. XY. X.).—Out of so many good varieti:s 
itis not easy to select “ the best yellow, best white, best rose or lilac, and best 
red for affording a large supply of cut flowers,” but the following are good : 
yellow—St. Michael, or Golden Circle ; white—Mdlle. Marthé ; rose or lilac— 
Lilac Cedo Nulli, or Duruflet ; red—Bob, or Maroon Model. 
CYCLAMENS NOT FLOWERING (J. Walsh)—The temperature—40° to 45°— 
is too low. For the plants to grow and flower freely they require a tempera- 
ture of not less than 50°, and preferably 55°. One of the most healthy 
aud fine collections we have scen this year is in Messrs. Sutton & Sons’ 
nursery at Reading. The plants are kept near the glass ina temperature 
seldom below 60°, and are copiously watered. They are splendid, some of 
them being 18 inches in diameter, and laden with fine flowers, and yet the 
plants were only raised from seed sown in September of last year. 
ZONAL PELARGONIUMS (J. D., Oxon).—Vesuvius and its white and salmon 
Sports are all excellent for winter flowering. You will find cultural notes in 
another column. 
CUCUMBERS UNHEALTHY (Gardener).—The soil is much too light and 
too fine to promote strong healthy growth. Obtain some very rough, rich, 
turfy soil, warm it, remove carefully as much of the present soil as you can 
without injuring the roots, and you will have stronger roots, better growth, 
and no maggots and insects such as infest the present compost. 
RENOVATION OF EXHAUSTED VINES (7. Byrne).—Cut out the old rods, 
shorten the young canes half way, or rather in proportion to strength. Take 
only a moderate crop of fruit next year, and if you have not already done 
so, lose no time in applying a heavy surfacing of rich farmyard manure to 
the border. Allow plenty of freedom to the young growth, and see that it 
ds not overcrowded and is kept clean and healthy. 
SURFACE-DRESSING A VINE BORDER (7. C.).—If the border is of an 
ayerage depth of 2 feet, the excellent compost you describe would do most 
good if added along the front of the border by way of making it wider, 
placing upon the surface a heavy dressing of rich manure, and repeat the 
dressing annually. You are quite right to encov e afree strong growth 
in the Vines, and should regard pinching as a necessary evil, only to be put 
in practice to keep the growth within bounds so as to avoid overcrowding. 
CAMELLIA BUDS DROPPING (J. G. S.)— Plants looking exceedingly 
healthy and with the pots thoroughly drained may shed the flower buds 
Trom one or two causes, and these are repeated saturation of the soil by 
heayy rain if the plants are placed out of doors in summer causing many of 
the roots to die, and a want of water after the setting of the buds. Turna 
few plants carefully out of the pots, and if you find plenty of healthy roots 
depend upon it the centres of the balls areor hare been so dry that an 
ordinary watering would do no good. Take, therefore, each plant and im- 
merse it in a tub of water, and if air bubbles rise abundantly and for some 
time, then no doubt drought in the centre of the ball is the source of the 
mischief, and each plant should remain in the water till the bubbles cease 
wising. 
LARGE DESSERT GOOSEBERRIES (4. B. C.).— Red: Companion and 
Speedwell. Wile: King of Trumps and Patience. Green: Green Overall 
and Lofty. Yellow: Leader and Goldfinder. 
GLADIOLUSES IN Pors (Jdem).—For soil mix equal quantities of loam 
and old manure, and about half the quantity of leaf soil, and the same of 
Silyer sand. Employ 7-inch pots drained thoroughly. Divide the bulbs 
into three lots, potting the first at Christmas, the second in February, and 
the third in March, in order to secure a succession of bloom. Plunge the 
pots in ashes in a frame, and when the growth appears place them on a shelf 
ina light airy position in a greenhouse. Attend carefully to watering, and 
give liquid manure regularly when growth is active. Remove them to a 
cold pit in April, giving air freely on all warm days. 
NAMES OF PLANTS (4. C.).—2, Lithospermum fruticosum; 3, Ruscus 
Hypoglossum ; 4, Andromeda salicifolia; 5, Too much shrivelled for identi- 
fication ; 6, Escallonia montevidense. (JV. Jones).—1, Euonymus japonicus 
aureo-variegatus ; 2, E. latifolius variegatus; 3, Phillyrea latifolia; 4 is an 
Tlex, and 5 an Acanthus, but we cannot determine the species from the 
scraps sent. (Chrysunthemum).—It is Beauté du Nord, described in My. 
Turner’s catalogue in 1858 as a large reflexed flower, and before a separate 
section was formed for Japanese varieties. Well-grown flowers would now 
be exhibited in the Japanese class, but medium blooms could not be ex- 
cluded from a stand of reflexed flowers. It is of the same form as Triomphe 
-du Nord, but darker in colour. 
THE HOME FARM: 
POULTRY, PIGEON, AND BEE CHRONICLE. 
SHEEP FOR THE HOME FARM. 
(Continued from page 415.) 
THE merits of the Southdown sheep must be next considered, 
for they may not only be kept for the purpose of furnishing 
mutton of good quality for use at the mansion, but for profit in 
connection with the stock of the home farm as well. In all 
moderate-sized farms they will have to be purchased instead of 
being reared, as mutton of full age (that is from four-year-old 
sheep) is most esteemed by the epicure, and sheep are usually 
killed and sold at two years old. Particular management is 
necessary to produce mutton of full age, otherwise the joints 
will be found to be rather too heavy for ordinary family consump- 
tion. Now to hold sheep on from lambs for three years will 
necessitate their being kept in the poorest of the park or pas- 
tures, so as to keep them healthy yet in only stock condition, 
They will not need anything beyond the produce of the grass 
land in summer and_hay in the winter. When kept in this way 
they will grow slowly and be of moderate weight. The flock 
may be drawn from say a score at a time and put on to good food 
on the arable land, or in winter to be fed in the house or shed, as 
under cover they are found to thrive faster and make more meat 
for the food consumed than when fed in the open fields, eating 
one-fifth less food and making one-third more mutton during the 
period of feeding. 
House feeding need only be resorted to in the event of the 
sheep being required for use within a given time. The South- 
downs being fast feeders will generally become sufficiently fat 
after twelve weeks’ feeding for home consumption. When, how- 
eyer, they are required to be fed and fattened in the summer 
months they should be taken ont of the park pasture and placed 
upon the arable land, receiving green food, the earliest being rye, 
to be folded off or cut up and put in cages if it is a full crop, and 
at the same time having mangolds cut and mixed with about 
a quarter of a pound of linseed cake, and the same quantity of 
bean or barley meal, for each sheep. After the rye is all used 
then the trifolium will be ready to be treated and managed the 
same as the rye, mangolds and meal being continued. The clover 
or yetches will then be ready, after vetches the second crop of 
clover, and thus continue the same mode of feeding until the root 
crops are ready, all of which should be cut and mixed with cake 
and meal, early turnips first, or cabbages, whichever may be fit 
at the earliest period. The Thousand-headed cabbages come in 
early when early planted. After these succeed white Belgian 
carrots, and then Swedes, which will last until the rye is again 
ready, the mangold crop being reserved for the feeding of cattle, 
and used in conjunction with green fodder crops as before stated. 
This will complete the rotation of feeding and fattening for the 
year, except that we have omitted to state hay will be necessary 
whilst the animals are being fed upon roots in the winter months, 
the quantity to be as much as they will eat without waste. We 
must not forget to have a lump of rock salt so placed that the 
animals can haye access to it at alltimes. In order to keep upa 
constant supply of sheep fit to kill, it will be necessary to add 
ten sheep at a time to the fatting lot draughted from the stock or 
poor sheep, so that the number of fatting sheep should not be less 
than twenty or any other number which the requirements of the 
establishment may necessitate to insure a regular supply. In 
this way any breed of sheep of light weights adapted to the 
neighbourhood in which the home farm may be situated can be 
fed, so as to supply the highest quality of mutton. 
Another mode by which old mutton can be obtained is by 
purchase of full-mouthed ewes of the Southdown breed. These 
of the smallest size can be obtained in stock condition at the 
Lewes summer fair, as well as some other fairs in Sussex, where 
these ewes are sold as off-going stock from the chalk hills of the 
county. They are usually purchased to breed from by the 
farmers on the vale farms, and as these ewes are poor when they ~ 
are purchased they may be put into the park or pastures, and 
eradually improyed in condition, without cake or corn until 
Michaelmas. They may then be put to root-feeding, and be 
treated as before stated for fatting the same as the wether 
sheep, and they will furnish mutton of full flayour at either four 
or five years of age as required, the difference only being that 
the meat will be rather drier and without ‘the quality in some 
other respects of wether mutton of full age. 
