Ootoier 5, 1871. ] 



JOURNAL OP HOETICULTUBE AND COTTAGE GAEDENEE. 



265 



among the thousands of large corymbs of bloom, have gathered 

 half a dozen that were perfect and would appear ornamental in 

 glasses and vases. 



This reminds ns how useful for merely looting at, and for 

 cutting purposes, it would be to have a garden on the grouping 

 system under glass, however much smaller ic should be. Pro- 

 tected from the heaviest of these rains and the keen winds, these 

 beds of ours would have been as bright as they were eight or 

 ten days ago. Had we to carry out such a design we would 

 have all the sashes in the roof pivot-hung, so that the rain 

 should be permitted to enter or be shut out at pleasure. We 

 may here remark that to our knowledge gardeners are very 

 often blamed most wrongfully for not having this and that 

 done, when they are powerless, from want of means, to do 

 what their own judgment shows them the importance of doing. 

 After all, even now it is only in comparatively few places that 

 gardeners have the opportunity to carry out their ideas of 

 what they know to be right. In the majority of cases they 

 must do what they can, and get as much as possible from the 

 smallest possible outlay. The great standing grievance, and 

 one that helps, too, to damp enthusiasm, is simply this — that 

 people who generously spend a pound expect as great things 

 as their neighbours have who spend from twenty to a hundred 

 pounds on the same objects. In a glass-covered flower garden 

 the masses of perfect bloom, being protected from the i ain, would 

 have been splendid for weeks, and if the plants were protected 

 from frost by hot-water pipes they would be spltndid through- 

 out the winter months. 



If masses of bloom are to be great objects we here foreshadow 

 what may be effected in the future. With light hollow iron 

 columns and fixed roofs, unless where necesaaiily moveable, 

 there is a grand opening for genius and enthusiasm in this 

 direction ; and the effects would be. far more startling, and at 

 the same time more gratifying, than in wandering through 

 mixed conservatories arranged upon the present system. There 

 are few who have witnessed the glare of bedding plants, toned 

 down by the subtropical fine foliage that Mr. Gibson has done 

 BO much to make fashionable, that did not regret that the 

 interest and beauty were so short-lived. Who that has influ- 

 ence to bear will help to give a people's low-roofed conservatory 

 in Hyde Park, and thus enable Mr. Gibson to show the thou- 

 sands and millions what may be done with fine colours and fine 

 foliage in the winter and spring, as well as in the summer and 

 autumn months ? We ourselves tried this subtropical attrac- 

 tion years before it came out so strongly at Eattersea, and we 

 would have continued, only the winds here tore our fine foliage 

 to pieces. Few things would delight us more than to have the 

 opportunity of seeing large conservatoi-it?3 in our public gardens 

 and parks, where our fellow workers might see at all seasons the 

 brightest of flowers and the most beautiful of foliage. 



KITCHEN GAEDEN. 



The rains that for the present have made such wrecks in the 

 flower garden saved all watering in this department, have done 

 good to pastures and Turnips, and have only been a drawback 

 where valuable corn still remains in the fields. With the ex- 

 ception of looking after fresh-planted Cabbages, Lettuces, (fee, 

 all work here has been at a standstill, chiefly on the principle 

 that, owing to the ground and pathways being so wet, it was 

 difficult to do work without making work. Slugs and snails 

 were the chief enemies to be guarded against in the case of 

 young plants, and dusting round, not on, them with powdered 

 lime and soot, putting fresh Lettuce and Cabbage leaves on the 

 ground, and examining them frequently, were the chief pre- 

 ventives employed, and hitherto with success, as few plants 

 have been interfered with. 



Even Cabbages after a heavy crop of Onions, say if planted 

 m September, and intended to produce heavily in the season of 

 1872, and to April and May, 1873, are all the better of having 

 some rather rank rough material turned into the bottom of the 

 trench. Ground that has been fairly treated for Onions ought 

 to be in the beat possible condition for Cabbages when well 

 dug, pulverised, rolled, and planted, and for early produce the 

 plants do as well as in the treuched-up ground ; but for long 

 continuous bearing on the old stools, we have always found the 

 trenched-up part, with rough manure at the bottom, produced 

 the longest. 



Generally we treat a piece on each plan. The Cabbage 

 thus left long on the ground is generally such a robber, that 

 Celery, for which a good quantity of manure has been added, 

 is one of its best successors. On removing such long-standing 

 plantations of Cabbages in May, we have not only found the 

 whole ground interlaced with roots, but they were found in • 



great fleshy bundles at the bottom of the trenches, where the 

 rather rough dressing had long become decayed and sweet 

 before the roots of the Cabbages had gone deep enough to 

 reach it. 



We have as yet only planted out part of our Cabbages, and 

 we shall follow in a week or two with the whole, as we did not 

 sow so early this season, for the disaster of last winter in killing 

 the most of our fine strong plants has impressed us with the im- 

 portance of its being better to be a week or two later than to 

 have a promising crop destroyed. We surmounted the disaster 

 pretty well, and had Cabbages not so much later than usual, 

 but at the additional trouble and labour of sowing in heat, 

 pricking out under glass, and getting nice stubby plants, that 

 lifted with balls, to grow with great rapidity in the prepared 

 soil. We wjuld, however, rather avoid all such additional 

 labour, and one means of doing so is to sow a fortnight later, 

 and plant out younger though stubby plants. 



When the ground cannot at once be prepared, it is well to- 

 prick out the plants 3 or 4 inches apart, that they may be more 

 stubby before being planted. This will be an improvement, 

 whether the plants be put in with a dibber or a trowel. Many 

 cottagers would save themselves much trouble and anxiety by 

 resorting to this pricking-out process. When ihey plant out 

 poor, puny, drawn-up plants from a thick seed-bed, the plants 

 are at once subjected to many casualties from which they 

 would be comparatively free if they had been more sturdy from 

 exposure, though not higher when planted out. 



Another means of securing sturdy growth in the autumn,, 

 and the first part of the winter, is to plant in ground com- 

 paratively poor and firm on the surface. The latter can be 

 secured by rolling when dry before planting, as anjthing like 

 caking can be prevented by a scufile with the Dutch hoe after- 

 wards. Sometimes when the Onion ground has been rather 

 too rich we have drawn drills, and placed some light soil mixed 

 with lime rubbish along the rows, which encouraged abundant 

 and free rooting of the Cabbage plants, but which kept the 

 plant on the whole stubby and healthy in winter, and more 

 able to encounter frost and sunshine, and all variations of 

 weather. When the warm days of spring had come, the de- 

 scending roots getting into richer soil, gave succulence anij 

 richness to the leaves and the tender hearts. We have always 

 been rather shy of planting early, except a small piece to come 

 in first. Last winter ought to act as a warning. Few Cabbages 

 at all forward escaped in this locality, and the loss to the cot- 

 tage gardener who could not force on young plants was truly 

 great, as fine, crisp, solid Cabbages are regular fill-dishes for a 

 family. 



Caterpillars on Vegetables. — With the exception of a bed ol 

 Savoys that were pricked out for future transplanting, which 

 had little left on them but the main stems and midribs of the 

 leaves, we have sufiered little or nothing from caterpillars, 

 though they have been very destructive in the neighbourhood,, 

 and especially in the case of Savoys and Brussels Sprouts. We 

 believe that our freedom from these pests is partly owing to the 

 comparatively limited number of white buttei flies that made 

 their appearance, and to the zest with which they were hunted 

 down by a young lady and gentleman some seven and five years 

 of age, using neat branches of spruce and small hooped bags 

 of Nottingham netting fastened to a stick. We have endless 

 inquiries on this subject. 



The first is. How best to keep away or destroy the caterpillars- 

 before they do the damage. Tiae catching the butterfly before 

 it deposits its myriads of eggs is the best preventive. When we 

 had little boys in the garden we used to give them some hours 

 of this work in the brightest hours when the butterflies ap- 

 peared. When the caterpillars are established on the under 

 sides of the leaves, dusting the plants on the under side with- 

 powdered quicklime by itself or mixed with a little soot, soon 

 settles them. A more cleanly mode, and economical as respects 

 the lime, is to put a shovelful of such quicklime in a barrel of 

 water, stir it well, and when settled and clear syringe repeat- 

 edly the under sides of the leaves. The acridity of the lime 

 water soon settles all that it touches. Cottagers, who could 

 not get lime readily, might use soot in fine powder or mixed up 

 with water like the lime, but in four or five times the quantity, 

 applying it, like the lime water, when comparatively clear. It 

 is dilBcult to get such water as clear as brandy unless you can 

 add a little quicklime to it. Then the liquid is better for the 

 purpose than when only one of the materials is used. 



The second question is, What to do with such riddled plants, 

 even after they are strong and have taken firm hold. Some, 

 even at this late season, have cleared out the plants, and put in 



