Jannary 13, 1871. ] 



JOURNAL OP HORTICULTUBE AND COTTAQE GABDENEE. 



S3 



stock of Gesneras, Gloxinias, Aohimenes, and other herbaceous 

 stove plants, may now be pluugod in bottom heat to start them 

 previously to potting. — W. Kease. 



DOINGS OF THE LAST WEEK 

 When writing on Saturdayweek the snow had all gone, and 

 it has disappeared egain on this the lith, after quite as sudden 

 a thaw ; but the frost during the week has done more iiijary 

 thau the more severe frost preceding it, as eveu a day or two 

 of mild wealher, after an attack of frost, makes the plants 

 more sensitive afterwards, and requires more care and con- 

 sideration on the part of the gardener. 



KITCHEN GAEDEN. 



Though we used litter and laurel branches when this week's 

 rost set in, we fear that some of our earliest Broccoli and our 

 earliest Cabbages have suffered considerably, even though we 

 took these means to keep the frost from them. Lettuces and 

 Endive of any size have also suffered a little, all plants from 

 the previous mildness of the weather being full of juices and 

 tender. We trust that when tho weather changes there will be 

 less injury than we imagine, but it will be prudent to sow some 

 Lettuce, Cabbage, and Cauhflovrer in a slight hotbed, or in 

 boxes in heated houses, so that any loss may soon be replaced. 

 As yet Brussels Sprouts and the different Borecoles have stood 

 well. The greater portion of our Sivoys were used, but a 

 number of heads of good size, though protected by the snow, 

 have been injured in the heart, and therefore will be of little 

 use. 



We are rather surprised that so many of our cottage gardeners 

 seem to have no relish for Borecoles, as Cottagers' Kale, Scotch 

 Cabbaging Kale, and Brussels Sprouts, as they stand the -winter 

 when Broccoli seems to have a hard fight for it. Vv'e hear 

 sad complaints amongst our cottager friends, who live in low 

 positions, as respects their Broccoli, which they will persist in 

 planting largely. True, a fine large Broccoli is a regular fill- 

 pot, and is something for a family to come and go on, but when 

 you cut the head it is all (hat you generally get, for we suppose, 

 on the same principle, few of our cottagers care about the 

 Sprouting Broccoli, which jields such un amount of pioiuce ; 

 whilst, on the other hand, with Brussels Sprouts and the Kales 

 it is cut and come again without end. When once the top is 

 gone — and what can be more sweet after the frost has just 

 molliiied them a little ?— there is no end to the shoots and 

 sprouts from the stems. Though for a definite purpose we are 

 fond of such Kales as the Scotch Cabbaging and Veitoh's Dwarf, 

 yet for a cottage garden we think there is little better than the 

 tall Scotch Kale, as the supply from the stems in the spring 

 months is nest to inexhaustible, and well cooked they are not 

 inferior to flavour to the best Broccoli. We so far join with 

 Dr. Johnson as to have a high regard for the Cauliflower, but 

 frequently we have found young Goleworts excel the most 

 compact CauUflower in delicacy of flavour. 



We shall not have written these few lines in vain, if thou- 

 sands more of our cottage gardeners be induced to grow more 

 of these hardy vegetables, which nothing but a winter close on 

 zero seems to kill. We fear that one reason why these hardy 

 vegetables do not occupy almost every part of a cottage garden 

 in winter is, that so frequently they are so badly cooked as to 

 be both unpleasant and unwholesome to the person who eats 

 them_. With all the good properties of our English housewives, 

 and in some respects we consider them unequalled, we fear 

 that, as respects simple cookery, the statements made by a 

 French refugee lady in the papers lately have too much truth 

 in them. We have not been much in the habit of going to 

 great dinners of late, but when we have gone to public, or at 

 least large dinners on public occasions, it has often surprised 

 us how difficult it was to get a well-cooked Potato ; and the 

 vegetables were so hard and yellow, that in the summer we 

 have been glad to fall back on a little salad, or a simple bit of 

 Lettuce, which the artistes in the vegetable department could 

 not spoil. It is, therefore, not to be wondered at, that our 

 simple lasses in the country do not know how to make the 

 most of the hardiest health-imparting vegetables. A few 

 lessons from the French lady, or any other lady, would be of 

 importance. We tear that in this frosty weather, serious illness 

 has been caused by cooking frozen vegetables before they have 

 been thoroughly thawed in cold water. In such a condition 

 they are nest to poison. We know that in some hard limy 

 waters it is not easy to boil vegetables jelly-soft without wast- 

 ing them, or to prevent them turning out of a dirty yellow 

 instead of a rich green ; but even in such water a pinch of 



carbonate of soda will make the vegetables retain their proper 

 colour, and the soda would do no harm to anyone. We like 

 greens to be served green. Others may have them as yellow as 

 they please. 



But for the weather we should be thinking of putting Peas 

 and Beans, and oven a few Potatoes into the ground. We must 

 forward them under a little protection. We were so far glad 

 that we had a store of Sea-Uale, Ehnbarb, and Asparagus up 

 as we could raise none during the week, the ground was so 

 excessively hard ; trenching and digging therefore were quite 

 out of the question. These winter vegetables forced, along 

 with Mushrooms, help us very much in the winter season, when 

 we have less variety out of doors. Their goodness very much 

 depends on their texture. 



Mushroom House — We have made our first bed in our reno- 

 vated house, rather late as it happens. The bed was made chiefly 

 of long litter, with a mixture Of droppings, as they came from the 

 stable, turned over and watered until it became about half as 

 much decomposed as the old gardeners would have required for 

 a Cucumber bed. It will soon be flt for spawning, when an 

 inch or two of droppings will be added on the turtace. A littlo 

 dry turfy soil was added to help to consolidate it. Eefoie 

 commencing, the ceiling was run over with a thin coat of oil 

 and anticorrosion paint to prevent condensed moisture resting, 

 there, and as all the platforms are of wood well seasoned, 

 which, with the exception of the spars for the bottom of the 

 beds, we shall expect to last at least twenty years, we had the 

 whole, with the exception of the spars, coated three times with 

 anticorrosion paint to keep the damp out. If the wood haii 

 not been so thoroughly dried and well seasoned, we should 

 have preferred retaining it in its natural state, but nicely 

 planed. We are quite sure that under some circumstances 

 wood will last longer unpainted than painted. Painting green 

 unseasoned wood is one of the beet means of securing premature- 

 decay from dry rot and internal fermentalion. 



Something would be gained in this direction if the t-impl© 

 fact were more acted upon, that wood will last longer when 

 always dry or always damp than when frequently exposed tc- 

 extremes of wetness and dryness : hence it is next to incal- 

 culable how long sound piles of wood will remain sound when 

 kept several feet below water-level. A good oak post will 

 rernain sound for many years when kept in a pretty equable state 

 as respects moisture under ground — much longer than the bulk 

 of the post above ground, subject to greater alternaticns of heat 

 and cold, dryness and wet, and the wasting influence of the air 

 on each crack and crauny. But the greatest and (he most 

 rapid decay takes place close to the surface of the ground, be- 

 cause there the greatest extremes of dryness and wet are the 

 most frequently experienced. 



We have hinted above that we had our Mushroom house 

 repaired, and not too soon, as on a cold snowy morning during 

 the week we lost the old thatched roof of the old shed from 

 which we have obtained large quantities of Mushrooms. We 

 fear the beds bearing will have been greatly injured. The roof 

 was picturesque enough in its worn-out mossy condition, and 

 we felt sorry to lose it, and all the more, as we cannot be sure 

 as to how. It is just possible that there might have been a 

 live cinder in freah soot placed there the night previously, but; 

 if so, nothing was seen until morning, and then, wet as the 

 outside of the roof was, it was soon in a smouldering state frora 

 end to end. It is also possible a spark from a tobacco-pipe in 

 dry litter might be the cause. We can never be too careful in 

 little matters. We should not like to interfere with the lovers 

 of " the weed," but we do know that many smokers are exces- 

 sively careless of Inciters and sparks from their pipes. When 

 we have it on good authority that men will be heedless enough 

 of consequences to smoke even in a powder manufactoi-y, we 

 need not be so much surprised that there will be smoke amongst 

 combusti'ole materials in farms and gardens. All such care-_ 

 lessness is very reprehensible, and we have no doubt disastrous 

 consequences frequently ensue. There are right times and 

 right places for doing most things. There are men who seena 

 to have a pleasure in doing a thing just because it is forbidden 

 to be done : hence the zest with which a stolen pipe, as it were, 

 is smoked because the time and place are strictly forbidden. 

 These stolen pipes are the dangerous pipes. There is often 

 gross selfish injustice in such practices. We have travelled in 

 railways much less of late, but now, since for the accommoda- 

 tion of smokers there are smoking carriages, why should 

 almost every carriage be tainted with tobacco, to the discomfort 

 of those who detest it, whilst the smoking carriages are seldom 

 filled ? When we went to the great show at Oxford our clothes 



