June 16, 1863. ] 



JOURNAL OF HORTICULTURE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. 



427 



WEEKLY CALENDAR. 



Day Day 



of of 



M'nth Week. 



16 

 17 

 18 

 10 

 20 

 21 



Tu 

 W 

 Th 

 F 



s 



Son 



M 



JUNE 16-22, 1863. 



Frog flower flowers. 

 Twayblade flowers. 

 W. Cobbett died, 1S35. G. 

 A. MuntiEg born, 1606. B. 

 Qoeen Victoria Accession. 

 3 Sun. aft. Trin. Q. V. Proc. 

 Sun's declin. 23' 27 '. N. 



"Weather near London in 1662. 



Barometer. 



20.973—20.918 

 30.103—20.857 

 30.015-29.864 

 30.0S3— 20.012 

 29.806—29.807 

 29.817—29.051 

 29.712-29.667 



Thermom. 



Wind. 



degrees. 





73—40 



N.W. 



71-47 



W. 



65—41 



N. 



66-44 



S.W. 



61—44 



w. 



63—49 



s.w. 



78-41 



N.W. 



Rain in 

 Inches. 



.OS 

 .12 

 .03 

 .05 



.06 



Sun 

 Rises. 



in. h, 

 44 af 3 

 44 3 





Moon 



Sun 



Rises 



Sets. 



and Sets 



m. h. 



m. h. 



leaf 6 



sets 



17' 8 



58 a S 



17 8 



27 9 



IS 8 



53 9 



18 8 



16 10 



18 8 



36 10 



19 8 56 10 



Moon's 

 Age. 



Clock 



before Day of 

 Sun. Tear. 



m. s. 



15 



28 



41 



54 



1 7 

 1 20 

 1 33 



167 

 166 

 169 

 170 

 171 

 172 

 173 



Meteorology of the Week.— At Chiswick, from observations during the last thirty-six years, the average highest and lowest 

 temperatures of these daysare 72.8° and 49 9° respectively. The greatest 'heat, 93°, occurred on the 22nd, in 1846 ; and the lowest cold, 30", 

 on the 20th, in 1855. During the period 132 days were fine, and on 120 rain fell. 



SING THE WATEEING-POT. 



ERHAPS there is no implement 

 used in a garden requiring so 

 much judgment in its employ- 

 ment as a watering-pot, yet it 

 is very often put into the hands 

 of the lowest drudge, and to 

 him are entrusted the plants of 

 which he knows little more than 

 that he is set to water them, and 

 who usually regards profusion 

 as the test of merit, pouring as 

 much water into a thumb-pot 

 as he would give to the roots 

 of a Strawberry plant in the ground. That failures 

 often arise from this need not be wondered at, and the 

 much-hackneyed phrase of "Death in the pot" is too 

 often applicable to the water-pot as well as to that for 

 which the phrase was originally designed. It is, there- 

 fore, needless to offer any apology for bringing this sub- 

 ject before the readers of the Journal of Horticulture 

 at a season when the need for the water-pot is usually 

 most urgent, or, in other words, at a season when the 

 very existence of certain productions depends on its due 

 employment. 



Eirst of all I will take a survey of the general purposes 

 the water-pot is put to, and the prudence or imprudence 

 with which it is wielded. Practice, aided by a certain 

 amount of skill called cleverness, will enable most men to 

 accomplish all mechanical operations with more or less 

 precision and dexterity; the operation is purely mecha- 

 nical, and is often performed with unwavering certainty 

 while the mind of the operator is, perhaps, occupied with 

 something else. Now, simple as is the operation of pour- 

 ing water out of the spout, the operator ought never to 

 do it without well consider ing what he is about ; for 

 though the vital power with which plants are endowed 

 will enable them in many eases to overcome the evil 

 effects of an overdose of the precious fluid, a too frequent 

 repetition of this dose brings with it disease and ultimately 

 death. 



A careless handling of the water-pot is, therefore, to 

 be deprecated ; but there are other evils as well, for 

 some very grave errors are fallen into from the lack of 

 proper knowledge on the part of those who perform the 

 duty of watering, and as this class is unfortunately a 

 numerous one, let us lay the matter before them and 

 point out the mistakes which are made. 



Having said that indiscretion in watering does more 

 harm than carelessness, we have only to look to the effect 

 produced. Look at a poor cottager who plants his 

 Broccoli on ground that has been cropped with Potatoes, 

 and which in a dry season appears completely destitute of 

 moisture. To remedy this it is not unusual to witness 

 the water-pot or its substitute delivering water in great 

 excess at the place where the plants are intended to be 

 planted ; perhaps a couple of quarts or more are poured 

 in at one place, sufficient to thoroughly wet the cloddy 

 No. 1] 6.— Vol. IV., New Series, 



dry ground to the full depth or more that the dibber 

 has to go, and while it is newly wetted the plant is put 

 in, and the wet soil around it is pressed and kneaded as 

 much with the dibber as it well can be, the few fibres of 

 the plant being in fact completely sealed up, and sur- 

 rounded by a substance not unlike grafting-clay. Perhaps 

 an additional watering is given at the same time ; but if 

 dry weather continues the wetted spot becomes drier by 

 evaporation, and also by the adjoining ground absorbing 

 a part of its moisture, and in drying the soil recedes from 

 the plant, leaving an air-hole somewhat less than that 

 made by the dibber, but quite large enough to admit air 

 down to the extreme tips of the roots, which have had no 

 chance to take possession of the case-hardened ground. 

 To remedy this the cottager, or inexperienced person, 

 gives another deluge of water — very probably cold, hard, 

 spring water, unfit in every sense for such a purpose. 

 This drenching is repeated until the plant either suc- 

 cumbs, or, if its constitution survive the ordeal and it is ' 

 enabled to take a feeble hold of the ground, its doing so 

 is attributed to the assiduous waterings it has received. 

 That no greater delusion can exist is rendered evident by 

 comparing the final issue with results from plants dif- 

 ferently treated as will be shown. 



By way of example I will suppose the plant so treated 

 to have been a Broccoli or some other plant of that kind, 

 and very likely before planting it had been drawn from a 

 bed where it had grown amongst many others, and where, 

 consequently, the ground was dry with the exhausting 

 crop upon it. Assuming the plant to have been simply 

 pulled up, most of its fibres or, at all events, the points 

 of them will have been broken off, and the plant reduced 

 to the condition of little better than a cutting, as the 

 elongated underground stem is scarcely a root in the 

 usual acceptation of the term. Now, as a cutting, what 

 chance has it to succeed by being dropped into a dibble- 

 hole, and placed there in the alternating mediums of dry 

 air and cold spring water ? for the shrinking and contract- 

 ing of the ground when dry, and its swelling again when 

 wet, subject the plant to these changing conditions. 

 Such is a case in which it may truly be said that " Death 

 is in the pot." 



Let us take another view of the operation, and see 

 what can be done to secure a contrary state of circum- 

 stances. The plan is simple enough, and in many cases 

 is attended with much less trouble than the other, and 

 the result is more satisfactory, one or two conditions 

 only being necessary to insure its absolute success. It 

 is this : Instead of making the ground wet, and planting 

 when it is so, try the reverse plan, and plant when the 

 soil is dry ; for if the soil be crumbly there will be no 

 need of the watering-pot until the plant is in its place, 

 and one good watering then will usually suffice. The fine 

 dry earth being supposed to fill in all the interstices 

 between and around the roots, and that without the 

 kneading, which consolidates the ground in the ease first 

 particularised into something like grafting-clay, and 

 assuming the root of the plant to be some 6 or 8 inches 

 deep, and the ground after it is planted to be wetted that 

 No. 768.— Vol. XXIX., Old Series. 



