June 30, 1863. ] 



JOURNAL OF HORTICULTURE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. 



467 



Edging of Chamomile, Mint, Thyme, or 

 what not. 



E.irly Celery. 



Early Celery. 



Early Celery. 



Celery. 



Celery. 



Celery. 



Spinach, followed by Greens. 



Lettuce, followed by Greens. 



Lettuce, lollowed by Greens. 



Lottuce, followed by Greene. 



Lettuce, followed by Greens. 



Early Cauliflowers. 



Early Cauliflowers. 

 Early Cauliflowers. 



-Early Prolific Peas. 



-Sangster's No. 1. 



-Ditto. 



-Bishop's Longpod. 



-Scimitar. 



-Veitch's Perfection. 



-Ditto. 



-Flack's Victory. 



-Alliance. 



-Perfection. 



-Ditto. 



-Hair's Mammoth. 



-Prizetaker. 



-Bishop's Longpod. 



-Eclipse, 



Edging o( Parsley. % 

 18 feet J 



A friend tells me that he used to Bpend at least 3d. every 

 night, often more, on a friendly glass, and every Saturday night 

 over rather than under a shilling. By chance he took a house 

 ■with a bit of garden ground attached to it. He had now what 

 he never had before — something to employ his time. Well, he 

 accidentally fell in with an advertising sheet of The Cottage 

 Gardener, and nicely asked the gardener to lend him a copy. 

 He says he read all of it, and found what he wanted — what, 

 when, and how to sow and plant, in Mr. Keane's weekly calendar. 

 Unlike us gardeners, he did not wait until his employer bought 

 him a copy, but ordered one at once. The other side of the 

 picture is soon told. He spent his time and hard-earned money 

 in his garden, learnt to see more beauty in nature than the beer- 

 Bhop, and spent his evenings at home. 



It was uphill work for a time, weeds were troublesome, land 

 was poor ; but now, in his own words, " I am a member of the 

 Mechanics' Institute, have a few cocks and hens, a nice profitable 

 garden, a Fern-case made, on winter nights, and a little green- 

 house." For what ? " The money that used to go in drink." 

 And, he added after a piuse, " I have a few pounds in the post- 

 office saving's-bank." With this case before me, I will uphold 

 gardening to be a most profitable business. No matter what the 

 crop, I consider it can be cheaper grown than bought. Digression 

 upon digression must continue no longer, and I return to my 

 theme. 



One quart of early Peas will sow a row 15 yards long, and of 

 Marrows 20 yards long. It is a bad practice to allow Peas to 

 grow too thickly, but a good plan to sow thick rather than thin ; 

 for in one case it is an easy matter to thin, whilst in the other 

 the crop is lost. My advice is, Sow moderately thick in all 

 instances, and so be prepared for the enemies and adverse climate 

 that may thin the crop. Mildew, however, is engendered by 

 allowing the Peas to stand too thickly, and the yield is not so 

 good from thick as from those moderately thin. A small grub 

 very often attacks Peas in the pod ; but I am no entomologist, 

 and I only know that the sparrow is the best cure for it. A pod 

 that we think has nothing in it of a hurtful nature the sparrow 

 will open and take the grub out, and because he does this he 

 must be destroyed by the sparrow-club members ! Can any 

 entomologist throw light on the cause of old Peas being infested 

 by a small weevil, which completely destroys their vitality ? 

 and does the grub in the peapod change to the weevil that de- 

 stroys the Pea in its dry condition ? Information on this sub- 

 ject would, I think, be acceptable to more than one reader of 

 this Journal. Old Peas never ought to be sown ; they come up 

 weak, and are more liable to mildew and to be eaten by grubs 

 than new seeds. Steeping Peas in water before sowing we do 



not like, for no amount of steeping will cbubo them to vegetate 

 if sown in dry soil ; and, depend upon it, if the Pea seeds required 

 a morass to vegetate in we should find more of the Pea family 

 by the side of swamps than we do. A far better plan than 

 steeping Peas is to water the drills after the Peas are sown, and 

 then cover up, and no amount of drought will then prevent 

 those Peas from germinating. 



Before quitting Peas in small gardens I should like to say a 

 few words on another cause that hinders cottagers from growing 

 Peas even in the country — the difficulty in procuring pea-sticks. 

 Although noblemen and gentlemen are liberal in providing allot- 

 ment gardens for their poor tenants, I muBt say they are very 

 niggardly — at least their servants are — over a few pea-sticks. 

 I have seen thousands of cords of brushwood lying rotting in 

 the woods, and known every applicant to be denied taking a few 

 by the steward who had control over them. I am firmly per- 

 suaded that if our worthy landowners were aware that a few 

 pea-Bticks would contribute to the happiness of the cottager they 

 would as freely give them as they do their customary Christmas 

 gifts. We do not ask leave for people to go when they pleaBe 

 into game-covers disturbing the game, but that they may be 

 allowed to take a few when the woodman plies his axe. 



I speak from experience on this subject ; for the firBt Peas 

 that I ever grew were when I was a lad at home. Very good 

 were they, as everything won with difficulty is. My father could 

 not spare the land — he wanted it for something else ; hares and 

 rabbits would eat them, and the land would not grow them. 

 But I set my mind on having them, and I remember my grand- 

 father giving me sixpence to buy a pint of "Poor Man's Profit." 

 I went to York, a distance of seven miles, and asked a nursery- 

 man (Mr. Clarkson, who lived in Fulford Road), to Bupply me 

 with the famous Poor Man's Profit. He gave me a pint of Blue 

 Prussian for 3d., and I went home and sowed them that night. 

 An old gardener told me to dig-out a trench, and put some 

 manure in as I would for Potatoes, cover with a little soil, and 

 then sow the Peas upon it. In nine days my Peas were up — 

 April-fools-day- — and as soot was placed round some Cabbages 

 near, I put some round my Peas. No snail or hare touched 

 them ; and hearing some farmers telling what a famous thing 

 guano was for making crops grow, I thought I would try it. 

 My father had a few bags of the best Peruvian, and I just " for- 

 got" to give a Potato-row its due share. This was sprinkled 

 over the Peas, a smart Bhower afterwards saved the back of the 

 purloiner, and in a few dajs my Peas were 6 inches high. They 

 wanted Bticking, but where were the sticks ? In a plantation 

 adjoining were fir-branches enough to stick an acre ; but the 

 keeper would not give me any. Every branch and twig had a 

 pheasant's nest under it ! A farmer at last gave me leave to cut 

 some willow branches out of his trees. Slasher in hand, I had 

 the branches quick, dressed, put in, and before I had done I 

 fancied the tendrils had begun to twist round them, and the 

 Peas had grown "ever so much." What a fine row and fine 

 bloom had I! And, best of all, that very year my mother's 

 birthday fell on a Sunday (July 11th), when we had a famous 

 boil, and shall I say a treat ? No, not one, nor two, but nine 

 pecks from a nine-yard row! Thus I learnt to grow Peas on a 

 small scale, and knowing some of the difficulties under which 

 cottagers labour, I have endeavoured to pave the way for their 

 removal. I shall not be so particular about, the other two classee, 

 as it is expected many of those know considerably more than 

 myself. Suffice it to say I noted how to grow them in a twelve- 

 acre field, have sown them in a gentleman's kitchen garden by 

 the half-acre and one-eighth of an acre. — G. A. 

 (To be continued.) 



EIBSTON PIPPIN TREES CANKERING. 



In No. 115, one of your. correspondents asks if Apple trees of 

 this excellent sort can be cultivated without that terrible disease, 

 canker. I reply, Yes. My Ribston Pippin and Nonpareil Apple 

 trees, two sorts notoriously addicted to canker, are growing and 

 doing well, without a spot of canker upon them. 'They were 

 planted seven years ago where they now stand, in a heavy, cold, 

 wet soil, purposely selected, and the only peculiar culture they 

 have received has been taking them up every alternate year in 

 November, cutting-off closely any roots inclined to perpendicular 

 growth, and carefully replanting, spreading all the young roots 

 so as to lie near the surface, and giving to each tree two shovelfuls 

 of manure spread on the surface round the Btem. Aa a dry 



