December 7. 1371. 3 



JOUKNAL OF HORTICULTURE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. 



451 



bear out of doors the second season, and most likely the first season. 

 If the small Figs are not larger than the largest Peas, let them alone. If 

 larger than ilazagan Beans, and frost has access to them, the fruit will 

 drop. 



CHAiiBEB Over, oe Rubble Roukd and Oveb Pipes fob BoTTOii 

 Heat (rorfc).— We do not think there is mnch diflference in practice, but 

 we rather like the rubble best, and it is handiest and cheapest. Your 

 proposed plan of covering the rnbble with tiles (and if bedded in mortar 

 all the better), is good. We generally use fine washed gravel for the sur- 

 face. As to the pipes wasting and rusting where surrounded by rubble 

 there can be no doubt, and so they would do in a shut-in chamber that 

 you could not get at. How long they will stand the rusting process 

 without wearing out we cannot say, but we know that some pipes covered 

 over with rubble have been concealed and do their work after having 

 been imbedded close en tbirty years. Do you not think that five 

 4-inch pipes will be to3 much for a 5-feet bed ? How about top heat in 

 the house ? 



LoFTT Glazed House (A Subscriher). — "So doubt the house will be 

 warmer with a doub'e roof of glass. For Figs we should prefer the glass 

 clear, but a slight green tint will do no harm. Would a little more heat- 

 ing power not do as well as the double roof ? It is not easy to keep in all 

 the heat at the top of a lofty hou=e, but no doubt the double roof would 

 keep the inner one much warmer, and especially if the space between 

 them were nearly air-tight. We do not know of any powder that placed 

 in vessels of small size would absorb the extra moisture of your fruit 

 room. Quicklime will absorb a fourth of its own weight of moi'^ture, and 

 still remain a dry powder, but that would be useful chiefly for small 

 places. 



EoiLEB FOB YiNEEY (A Subscriber). — A common saddle-back boiler 

 ■will do more than you require, but for one house we do not think you 

 want any valves at all, though part of the pipes should be at the back 

 and part in front, as whfu you do not want much heat you wUl use 

 less firing. To do more justice to the roots of the Vines we should prefer 

 planting them, as the roots are to be inside, 18 to 24 inches from the 

 front wall, and have the under pipes a fewiuches from the wall. You 

 need not, as you suppose, lose anything of the lengtb of yonr roof by this 

 mo de of planting, as you can train the stems of the Vines to the front of 

 the \j.ouse before tiking them up the rafter. When your Vines cover the 

 roof, 3 feet apart, you will get no crop on the back wall. As you resolve 

 to plant there likewise, we would plant them close to the wall, and have 

 the pipes from 12 to iS inches from it. With the two sets of Vines, we 

 would plant in either case 6 feet apart, the back Vines to be trained down, 

 the front ones up. Unless yon are in a warm place you will not grow and 

 ripen Oranges well, if they are kept in an unheated Orange house. 



Heating a Small Lean-to [E^tterinr;), — The cheapest way of heating 

 such a house would be to have a small iron stove as often described, or, 

 better still, a brick stove, with the pipe going through the glass roof or 

 through the wall. It would behest to have a small flue passing beneath the 

 pathway. A tile at bottom, and two bricks on edge 5 inches apart, so as to 

 be covered with a 9 or 10-inch tile, would be amply sufficient if the tiles were 

 placed clo=e together at the joints. There is no neater nor better plan 

 than this for small houses. The top of the flu2 should be in the centre of 

 the pathway. You cannot heat a small place economically with hot water. 

 The smaller the place the greater the waste. 



IirpRoviNG A Pasture Field (D. C). — As you say the soil is shallow 

 and upon the gravel, we do not suppose it wants draining ; but if it does, 

 let it be drained at once. The grass being coarse and rough, we woul 1 run 

 a light harrow over it several times, which would tear-up mnch of the 

 moss and rough wiry gra?s. After doing this, give a dressing of manure 

 or compost of a bulky kind— for instance, road scrapings, the parings of 

 ditches, or soil of any kind, at the rate of from twenty to thirty one-horse 

 cartloads per acre. The sooner this can be done 'he better, in order that 

 frost may mellow any lumps that do not immediately pulverise. A good 

 brnshing in the spring will generally spread the mixture well, when the 

 stones may be picked off and the roller passed over. It is a g rod practice 

 to collect a large heap of rough earthy material in the summer and add 

 lome lime to it, which quickly decomposes the vegetable matter and 

 forms a good compost for grass land. For thin poor land like yours we 

 prefer such manure in large quantities to artificial manures, which are 

 necessarily limited in bulk, and are of little service excepting in the 

 season in which they are used. 



Blood as a Manube (.7. L.). — You may use blood for your Vine border 

 in two ways— either by mising it with eight parts of water and applying it 

 in a liquid state ; or, which is preferable, mix it with a quantity of spent 

 frame manure, and spread the mistore 3 inches deep over the surface of 

 the border. It would then be washed-in by the rains, or if necessary by 

 water applied from a water-pot, using a coarse spreader. Apply it when 

 the Vines are ic active growth. 



Vines fob an Eablt Vinert (Centurion). — The following will suit 

 you:— Three Black Hamburghs, one Muscat Hamburgh, one White Froa- 

 tignan, one Buckland Sweetwater. 



Pruning Young Vines [E. P.). — The canes should be cut back to three 

 good plump eyes above the length required to reach the rafter or wires, 

 or you will need 4-feet rods or canes to reach to within a foot of the glass, 

 and three eyes beyond that. Of these two will form side shoots, on which 

 yon may allow a bunch each, and one the leading shoot. The Vines 

 will be none the worse of bearing a bunch or two ; in fact, we have some 

 three -year- old Vines which in the second year were allowed to bear two, 

 and this year half a dozen bunches each, and they are neither weaker in 

 wood nor worse ripened than those that have not been permitted to bear. 

 The main pnint is not to allow too heavy a crop. The pot Vines will, of 

 course, render it less necessary to crop the permanent ones. The best 

 covering for a Vine border is glass, but wooden shutters answer well, and 

 80 do straw mats over a coating of litter. Sheet iron, as represented in 

 your sketch, will do to cover the heap of soil ; but why cover it ? 



SoUi OF Faggot Heap (J. A.). — If the faggot heap is reduced to powder 

 or soil, it is equal to leaf soil. It wUl not be peat, but decayed vegetable 

 matter. It is an excellent dressing for beds of American plants, and 

 ■useful for mixing with compost instead of leaf soil, but cannot be used 

 in place of peat. It should be freed of the pieces of wood or sticks by 

 sifting through a sieve. 



Protecting Broccoli (Idem). — Tying the lower leaves loosely over 

 the heads will not answer so well as laying down the plants, for in the 



former case only the head is protected, whilst it is the stem that is 

 mostly destroyed. Lay them by all means, and without delay, and do- 

 not bring the leaves over the heart until the head is forming. 



Storing Hotbed Materials (An Amateur). — Being short of horie 

 manure for hotbeds, it will be an excellent plan to store the materials in 

 a covered shed. Instead of throwing them in a heap, spread them out 

 thinly so as to keep them from heating. The large bed you have mate-up 

 of three parts leaves and one part horse manure will be usefal in Marcli 

 for mixing with fresh materials; indeed, just the thing to keep down 

 violent heating, and for giving' a steady, long-continued warmth. The 

 horse manure, in consequence of its drying, wUl need watering when it is- 

 made into a hotbed. 



Wintering Iresine Lindeni (Idem). — It would do better in a Cucum- 

 ber frame kept constantly warm with fresh linings than in a sunny 

 kitchen window, which has far too dry an atmosphere. The frame is just 

 suitable provided you can exclude frost, but to do so the Unings must be- 

 well kept-up in frosty weather, and the lights protected at night as well 

 as by day if the frost is severe. 



Wintering Geraniums in a Room (M^mV— Yours is the right plan of 

 wintering them — that is, to give them plenty of air, and so keep them as- 

 sturdy as possible. Putting them out of doors every fine mild day for a 

 couple of hours is quite right, and should be continued, only take care t& 

 protect them from cutting frosty currents. They will not be injured by 

 a temperature of 35^, but we should not allow the air to fall much below 

 40^ Jnst give enough water to keep them fresh, but no more. 



Protecting Peas (Idem).— When your newly-sown Peas are up, placa 

 some short sticks to tbem. Spruce branches without the leaves are the- 

 best thing you could use. In very severe weather yon may employ full- 

 foliaged spruce branches, but they must be removed whenever the tem- 

 perature is above freezing. 



Preparing Bones for Garden Use (Ledbury). — Sulphuric acid partly 

 dissolves and partly crumbles the bones to which it is applied The 

 process is fully detailed in " ilanurea for the Many," which you can 

 have free by post from our office, if you enclose five pos'^age stamps with, 

 your address. Bones so treated may be applied to Vine borders. 



Insects (B. d- S.\ — The specimens of chrysalids sent as injurious to 

 " Lettuce seed while yet in the pod," were all smashed in the post, but 

 they are the immature states of a two-winged fly (Anthomyia lactucarum, 

 Bouche)y very closely resembling the common house fly. We can suggest- 

 no other mode of preventing their attacks than that of covering the heads 

 of the plants with fine gauze bags. — I. O. W. 



Names of Fbuits (D. R. K. B. M.).—1, Norfolk Beefing ; 2. Winter 

 Greening; 3, Feam's Pippin. The Potato is Lapstone. (Alek Broicn). — 

 7, Svkehouse Russet; 8. Surrey Flat Cap; 9, Golden Snob; 11, Margil. 

 i (J. 'Roxcland). —Your Apple is the Cobham. [Jno. Green)— %, Dae d& 

 Brabant Pear; 4, Belledge Pippin Apple; 5, Pearson's Plate Apple. Wa 

 do not recognise the other two. 



Names of Plants (Sam or ram).— 2, Nephrodium molle; 3, Adiantum 

 hispidnlum; 4, A- fulvum ; 5, Asplenium attenuatam ; 6, A. lineatum, 

 var. ; T.Doryopteris pedata; 8, Asplenium flaccidum ; 9, Probably Dipla- 

 zium japonicum ; 10, Asplenium flibelliforme; 11, Polypodium aureum. 

 (J. W. L,). — 1, Leucopogon Richei ; 2, Not recognised ; 3, Nerine pulchella ;, 

 4, Santolina pectinata. Santolina i3 a hardy border plant, but you are 

 quite right in keeping Nos. 1 and 3 in the greenhouse. (C). — The Fern is 

 Cyrtomium falcatum, from Japan. The Conifer next week. fChas. 

 Bennett).—!, Gymnogramma, apparently G. Laucheana, but possibly one 

 of the varieties'ot G. chrysophyila ; 2, Microlepia novjE-zelandi£e ; 3, Adi- 

 antum Capill us- Veneris ; 4, Cheilanthes lendigera. 



POTILTRY, B3E, AND PIGEON CHRONICLE. 



MOULTING FOWLS. 



The moulting season is the most critical period of the year for 

 old fowls ; and yet in ninety-nine cases out of a hundred there 

 is less care taken then than in the spring, when everything is in 

 their f-Tour. The idea seems to be, that now the yoimg stock 

 is out of harm's way, they can all shift for themselves. 



Some have much more ditficulty in moulting than others^ 

 Spanish are a long time naked. All the non-sitters feather 

 more slowly than the others. It may bt; because they lay a. 

 greater number of eggs, and that the production of them causes, 

 more exhaustion of the system than the twenty-one days -of the 

 sitters. Certain it is, however, that moulting is an effort, and 

 taxes the bird so much, that at such a time any old weakness or 

 partially cured disease is sure to show itself again. Thus where 

 roup has existed in a poultry yard, it always re- appears at moult- 

 ing time. 



Perhaps many readers have neyer considered the great drain 

 upon the system of the fowl during this change of covering. Xot 

 only have the regular flesh-forming, life-giving processes of 

 Nature to be f^llfilled, but an entire new coat of feathers has alsa 

 to be manufactured. These feathers consist not of flesh and 

 bleed alone, but of component parts of animal and mineral sub- 

 stances. These substances are assimilated from the food, and 

 unless birds can obtain such food as contains the necessary quaU- 

 ties, the work drags, is prolonged, .and the poor fowl droops 

 and grows thinner in the vain endeavour to fulfU Nature's re- 

 quirements, without the proper means to work with. I doubt 

 if one person in twenty has ever given this a thonght, and yet 

 it is of the utmost importance to thorough and complete success 

 in raising first-class stock. 



