August 31, 1876. ] 



JOURNAL OF HORTICULTURE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. 



181 



in long succession. Their average length is from 10 to 12 

 inches, and when cooked they are tender and delicious in 

 flavour. We have gathered a good dish daily for the laBt five 

 weeks from a few rows, which in all would make about 30 yards, 

 and the Bupply is not exhausted yet. For market purposes it 

 would be the Bean before all others. Half an acre of it would 

 produce cartloads of pods. — N. 



LESSONS OF THE SEASONS.— No. 3. 



SPEING. 



With opening spring comes seed time, to meet and be in 

 readiness for which much previous care and forethought is 

 requisite. The treatment of garden borders and soil which is 

 exposed to the action of the weather has already been explained ; 

 let us now go a step beyond this, and see what can be done for 

 such orops as require some shelter and protection during the 

 period of vegetation and the earlier stages of growth in the 

 fickle, often severe, weather of spring. Early Horn Carrots, 

 Radishes, Celery, Lettuce, and other salading ; Cauliflower and 

 Brussels Sprouts among vegetables, with such herbs as Sweet 

 Basil and Marjoram, and the most delicate and tender annuals 

 among flowers — these are the things to which I would point 

 as being eminently worthy of our best care and attention. 

 Some of the crops to be brought-on as early as may be for a 

 kitchen supply, others to be in readiness for transplantation to 

 beds and borders as soon aB oan be done with safety, so as to 

 ensure strong growth and early flowers. 



To obtain our end every available auxiliary — glass-light, 

 hand-glass, and " protector " is brought into play, the best 

 kind being that which is portable, suitable for its position, and 

 offering no obstacle to the manipulation of the whole of the 

 plants, which should be well within reach from every side. I am 

 gradually accumulating a stock of very useful little span-roofed 

 frames speoially adapted to this purpose. They are 21 inches 

 wide, 8 feet long, 1 foot high in the centre, and 5 inches high 

 at the sides ; each frame has only six squares of glass — three 

 to each side, large panes of 24-oz. glass being found much 

 better than small thin glass. The ridge bar projects about 

 4 inches at each end for handles to lift and carry the frame by. 

 These frames, in addition to the important merit of cheapness, 

 possess the advantage of thorough efficiency. They are light, 

 yet very strong and durable ; and although they are made of a 

 suitable length to go across a certain border, they are also ap- 

 plicable to a variety of other useful purposes. 



To render one quite independent of the weather — or rather 

 to enable one to make use of the frames at any time — there 

 must be a supply of rich sweet soil kept ready at all times for 

 sowing or planting in, precisely such as is used for potting such 

 free-growing plants as Fuchsias in — moist yet not wet, so that 

 when handled it crumbles to pieces freely. For this purpose 

 there should be a soil lodge in every garden, of a proportionate 

 size to the requirements of the establishment, an annual supply 

 being stored therein just about the present time, before the 

 autumnal rains set in. The primary object in the building 

 and storing with soil of such a lodge is to have a Bure supply 

 for pot plants, a matter of the utmost importance at all seasons 

 of the year, but especially so in spring, when propagation and 

 repotting come pressing upon us with such rapidity as to make 

 the slightest hindrance a serious matter, not unlikely to have 

 an evil effect upon the results of an entire year. Preference is 

 usually given to a building closed on three sides, but with that 

 which is least exposed to rough weather left open, so as to 

 have the soil constantly subject to the sweetening influence of 

 fresh air. Not many kinds of soil are required. Our first 

 heap should be of light sweet turfy loam ; next comes a stack 

 of light upland fibrous peat, then another of very old black- 

 looking manure, then leaf soil as old as we can procure it, with 

 a substantial heap of white sharp gritty sand ; charcoal, finely 

 shattered brick, sphagnum, and broken crocks being kept in 

 the potting shed. — Edward Luckhubst. 



ROYAL ASCOT PEACH. 



We have received from Mr. Speed of the gardens, Chats- 

 worth, fruit of the Royal Ascot Peach, with the following 

 communication : — 



I send you fruit of the Royal Ascot Peach to give you some 

 idea of its lateness. We commenced gathering Prince Albert 

 Nectarine, which, by-the-by, is the earliest Nectarine I know, 

 on the 26th of June, and Elruge, Violette Hative, &c, the first 

 week in July, and we are now gathering the Royal Ascot Peach. 



The fruit I have sent you is rather smaller than usual, owing 

 to a very heavy crop. It is a good setter, and has a strong 

 constitution. The flowers are large, and I have enclosed you 

 leaves that you may see the glands. Planted in a late house 

 it would doubtless be later than any other Peach and much 

 better quality than such as Walburton Admirable, Salway, 

 or Barrington. 



WATERING. 



In dry seasons like the present there is always a great deal 

 said and written in the horticultural journals about watering, 

 and 1 am inclined to think that more than half of it is nonsense. 

 " Peas should have abundance of water, fruit trees should have 

 abundance of water, French Beans ditto," and so on all through 

 the kitchen garden, flower garden, and orchard. Now, it is 

 quite certain that three parte of the people to whom such 

 advice is given have not the slightest idea of what an abun- 

 dance of water to a thirsty plant is, and I cannot imagine that 

 the practical experience of the writers of such articles can 

 be quite perfect, or they would be a little more careful in 

 giving their advice. I do not hesitate to say that there is more 

 harm done by watering as frequently practised in the present- 

 day in the case of outdoor plantB not in pots than there is 

 good. It is utterly impossible, if it were necessary, to apply 

 water in sufficient quantity to do any good to all the plants to 

 whioh we are recommended to apply it in Buch a season as the 

 present, and I will attempt to show that it is frequently un- 

 necessary to apply it at all. 



First, let us think what is a sufficient quantity of water to 

 apply to thirsty ground when it becomes absolutely neoessary 

 to apply it. It is of no use to measure the rainfall of a district 

 for this, for water as applied from the clouds is very different 

 to artificial application. When it rains there is little or no 

 evaporation going on, but when we water outdoor plants arti- 

 ficially the evaporation is often so great that the atmosphere 

 takes up the greater part of the water without its entering the 

 plants at all. Then there is the thirsty ground adjoining that 

 for which the water was intended, which often takes a great 

 deal, so that probably only a very small proportion enters 

 the system of the plants ; and just imagine the amount of 

 leaf-surface of a good-sized tree (it certainly would not take a 

 very large one to have a quarter of an acre of evaporating 

 surface), exposed to an atmosphere nearly as thirsty as a red- 

 hot brick. 



In our houses we have the atmosphere partly under control,, 

 and after some years of experience we find out the quantity 

 of water necessary for any given indoor fruit border, so that 

 we can tell unskilled men, if we can only trust to their honesty, 

 exactly how much water to apply. The borders of my principal 

 vineries may be taken as an example. They are heavier than 

 Vine borders usually are, being composed of nothing but loam 

 and a few half-inch bones, and are nearly 3 feet deep, con- 

 sequently they do not require so much water as they would if 

 shallow and more porouB ; but for all that the quantity I con- 

 sider necessary for one application is about forty gallons to 

 the square yard as far as the roots extend. This lasts them, 

 about three weeks, or sometimes a month, according to the 

 state of the outside atmosphere. This be it remembered is 

 indoors, in one of the most perfect houses it has been my lot 

 to see, where we have to a considerable extent control over the 

 atmosphere ; and if this quantity is necessary there, I main- 

 tain that a fourth of the quantity applied to soil full of the 

 roots of a tree outdoors iB worBe than useless, unleBS means 

 are taken to prevent it going off rapidly into the atmosphere. 

 Many vegetables and flowering plants, of course, do not root 

 so deeply, and therefore do not require bo large a proportion 

 of water at one time ; but it is not often that these are given 

 a sufficiency, and I should not have to travel far to find 

 instances of plants killed this season by watering, which would 

 have survived if no water had been applied. 



How deep is the prejudice against watering Peas and some 

 other kitchen-garden crops amongst workmen ! What kitchen- 

 garden labourer cannot tell of crops spoiled by watering ? Such- 

 deep-rooted and wide-spread prejudices are seldom without 

 some reason, and the reason for this one is that nobody waters 

 half sufficiently when they do water, and thereby do a great- 

 deal more harm than good. 



Deep-rooting crops should not be watered so soon as the 

 surfaoe becomes dry. A dry surface if kept loose is very effec- 

 tive in retaining moisture below, and to wet that surface for 

 2 or 3 inches down, as is often done with the water-pot, is to 



