38 



JOURNAL OF HORTICULTURE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. 



[ August 3, 1876. 



were established in the new soil. Water should also be applied 

 carefully at first, or until the fresh roots penetrate the new 

 soil. After this time, and if circumstances are favourable, the 

 plants will soon spindle for bloom. The sticks that are placed 

 to the strongest-growing sorts ought to stand 3 feet oat of the 

 soil ; the weaker sorts ought to have sticks from 2 feet to 

 30 inches in length. As the stalks increase in length they 

 should be tied to the sticks. Green fly is often troublesome, 

 and should be destroyed by being da3ted with snuff orPooley's 

 tobacco powder. This lively pest is best destroyed by fumi- 

 gating when the plants are in frames. It ought, however, to 

 be mentioned that a heavy dressing of tobacco smoke will 

 injure the newly formed leaves in early spring. The culture 

 of this fine flower is so simple that the above Bhort details 

 supply all that is necessary. During hot weather in May and 

 June syringing overhead once or twice a-day is desirable, and 

 the plants look much brighter for it, especially in the smoky 

 precincts of large towns. The Carnation and Picotee are well 

 adapted for cultivation in the smoky atmosphere of our large 

 towns and cities, which is an additional mark in their favour. 



I may as well add a list of the best sorts to cultivate, and 

 the beginner will find that a few of those best adapted for 

 exhibition are very shy to produce grass. Still some sorts that 

 are shy at Loxford are not so with Mr. Charles Turner of 

 Slough, or with growers in the north, and it will be of the most 

 service to name those with the best flowers. The beginner 

 will also find another source of disappointment in the fact 

 that one or more of his best pairs of flowers will be what is 

 termed " run." The Carnations will come minus the white, and 

 sometimes a pair will come both selfs. In this case there is 

 no way out of the difficulty but to purchase again. Many of 

 the fine old sorts of Carnations and Picotees are not now in 

 existence, and others are very scarce indeed. In recent years, 

 however, some very fine flowers have been introduced, and 

 they can easily be obtained in the trade. The best Carnations 

 are, Scarlet Bizarres: Admiral Curzon (Easom), Campanini 

 (Turner), Dreadnought (Daniels), Guardsman (Turner), Lord 

 Lewisham (Bunn), Lord Rancliffe (Holliday), Mercury (Hex- 

 tall), Mars (Hextall), Sir J. Paxton (Ely). Crimson Bizarres : 

 Albion's Pride (Headly), Colonel North (Kirtland), Eccentric 

 Jack (Wood), Isaac Wilkinson (Turner), Lord Raglan (Bowers), 

 Marshal Ney (Headly), Rainbow (Cartwright), Rifleman 

 (Wood). Pink and Purple Bizarres : Falconbridge (May), 

 James Taylor (Gibbons), Purity (Wood), Sarah Payne (Ward). 

 Purple Flakes : Ajax (Turner), Dr. Foster (Foster), Earl of 

 Wilton (Holland), Earl Stamford (Elliott), Juno (Baildon), 

 Mayor of Nottingham (Taylor), Premier (Milwood), True Blue 

 (Taylor). Scarlet Flakes : Annihilator (Jackson), Mr. Battersby 

 (Gibbons), Sportsman (Hedderly), Superb (Ingram). Rose 

 Flakes : James Merryweather (Wood), John Keet (Whitehead), 

 Flora's Garland (Brook), Lovely Ann (Ely), Mr. Hextall 

 (Turner), Rose of Stapleford (Headly), Samuel Newman 

 (Hooper), Sybil (Holmes). 



Picotees. — Red-edged : J. B. Bryant (Ingram), Leonora 

 (Fellows), Lord Valentia (Kirtland), Miss Small (Fellows), 

 Miss Turner (Taylor), Mrs. Bower (Bower), Mrs. Hornby 

 (Turner), Mrs. KeyneB (Fellows), Princess of Wales (Fellows), 

 Wm. Summers (Simonite). Purple-edged: Alliance (Fellows), 

 Chanticleer (Fellows), Cynthia (Turner), Ganymede (Simonite), 

 Mary (Simonite), Mrs. Little (Hooper), Mrs. May (Turner), 

 Mrs. Summers (Simonite), Norfolk Beauty (Fellows), Pieco 

 (Jackson). Rose and Scarlet-edged : Edith Dombrain (Turner), 

 Ethel (Fellows), Juliana (Turner), Lucy (Taylor), Miss Meeking 

 (Kirtland), Miss Williams (Norman), Mrs. AUcroft (Turner), 

 Mrs. Fordham (Turner), Obadiah (Kirtland), Parity (Payne). 



I have grown nearly all the above sorts, and can confidently 

 recommend every one of them. — J. Douglas. 



CABBAGES. 



The value of Cabbages and of a good breadth of them 

 throughout summer and autumn is known to every gardener. 

 It appears, however, that the importance of an early crop of 

 this vegetable is not manifest to a majority of growers for 

 home consumption, especially those with small or cottage 

 gardens. Everyone of course grows Cabbages, but if I may 

 judge from the demand for plants in spring, they plant when 

 the crop is well nigh in, if cutting has not taken place in 

 most gardens of any pretension to the name. We have, it 

 is true, many owners of small or cottage gardens equally for- 

 ward with their crops as in the best-managed garden. Those 

 will bear me out in pointing to the importance of a batch of 



Cabbages to come in when the old Potatoes are running or 

 run out, and the new crop not in. Under the present general 

 practice of spring planting, the Cabbage crop is not of much 

 profit ere the Potato crop is plentiful and good. Were autumn 

 instead of spring planting practised, nice heads would be forth- 

 coming in a majority of seasons through May and June, and 

 the same plants will give a quantity of sprouts equally tender 

 and good and little later than spring-put-out plants. 



It is important that the most be made of every inch of 

 ground, and to none is this of more consequence than the 

 cultivators of small plots of ground. In fact it is becoming 

 an institution in gardens containing acres of ground to have a 

 sort-of-between crop : Peas sown between the rows of Spinach 

 or Radishes, both being off before the Pea haulm is of a 

 height to injure the latter ; and these are barely off before a 

 Celery trench is made and planted between each two rows of 

 Peas. The crop of Peas is made more difficult of gathering, 

 but the prospective value of the Celery crop makes its sur- 

 mounting comparatively easy. After the Celery I take Onions, 

 and after the Onions plant with Cabbages. 



I was at one time given to plant on warm borders the 

 earliest bed of Cabbages, selecting a dwarf variety, turning- 

 in quickly and hearting well, of which there is no better than 

 Veitch's Improved and Atkins's Matchless. St. John's Day 

 Cabbage is a very compact grower, and forms solid heads, 

 coming in early. It is also very hardy. I have, however, 

 abandoned planting on warm borders, an open situation being 

 found preferable ; but a position exposed to cutting winds 

 is not desirable, for considerable injury is often done to the 

 crop by the wind blowing the plants about. The best means 

 of preventing this is to sow thinly ; to prick-out, when the 

 plants have a rough leaf with another Bhowing, 3 inches 

 apart, and plant before the plants become gross or drawn ; 

 and if this be attended to they will have next to no leg, 

 with the leaves propping-up the plant all around. 



Now, I only make but one summer sowing, and this from 

 the 10th to the 15th of July, at least I only depend upon this 

 sowing with the succeeding sprouts to carry us through summer 

 to antumn ; but I sow again the first or second week in August, 

 generally 10th to 12th, and the plants are pricked-out in beds 

 in September or early October. At this time" the Red, of 

 which there 1b none better than the Dutch for pickling, is 

 sown, the plants being subsequently planted-out in March or 

 early April. The plants from the August sowing are useful 

 to meet a demand for plants in spring, everybody on most 

 estates having plots of ground, and a gardener has generally 

 pleasure in distributing a few plants. The antumn planting 

 of Cabbages from seed sown in July is regarded with suspieion 

 by many cottagers, the fear beiDg that the plants will "run." I 

 do not have any plants ran to seed, which may arise from the 

 plants being early planted, spindly plants never being good at 

 any time ; the plants mUBt be stout and Bturdy. I find that 

 if the planting be delayed, that the plants lose the lower 

 leaves, and every leaf lost is loss of so much heart. 



If hearting Cabbages be wanted all the summer through, the 

 August-sown planted in March or April will form an excellent 

 succession to the July-sown plants; but, as before stated, nice 

 hearted sprouts are just as good as Cabbages the size of half-a- 

 dozen sprouts, in fact are more esteemed. A good breadth of 

 Cabbages, be they only sprouts, are not despicable to fall back 

 upon in case of a scarcity of greens. I remove every third 

 row of Cabbages after catting, and sow, after well manuring, 

 late crops of Peas, leaving the two intervening rows of Cab- 

 bages for sprouts. The Peas and Cabbages will be off in 

 autumn in time for manuring and throwing up roughly for the 

 winter, and Potatoes may follow or any root crop. For a late 

 crop of Cabbages I sow the beginning of April, and plant when 

 fit to plant in Jane. They will give fine heads in late summer 

 and autumn until frost, for though slight frost may not injure 

 the crop, a severe one destroys it. I always manure the 

 ground, no matter what it may have been cropped with, so soon 

 as the ground is cleared, dig it well, and it is in a fitting state 

 for cropping at once. 



When planting the plants are sorutinised for club. H 

 any are found with a knob or excrescence on the stem it is 

 opened and the grub destroyed ; the plant is then as good as 

 any. A dressing of quicklime is given about the end of Sep- 

 tember to the beds planted early in the month. It is sprinkled 

 over plants and the whole of the surface, making the ground 

 quite white, and is good againBt slugs, and when fit the plants 

 are well earthed-up. A dressing of soot is also beneficial in 

 March or early April. When the heads are cut the leaves are 



