ISi 



JOUBNAL OF HOKTICULTUEE AST) COTTAGE GAEDENEB. 



[ March 9, 1871. 



came, let us hope we shall see something of April showers, for 

 in this district water is anything but abundant, and thoughtful 

 people are beginning in earnest to see the importance of not 

 allowing the rains that fall on buildings to run to waste as 

 formerly. 



Suck a season as this presents us with a vivid contrast as to 

 the labours and cares of the farmer and the gardener. The 

 farmer, when ho has all his main seed crops traasferred to the 

 soil, can take a little repose ; but, even in such fine weather as 

 this, the gardener can sow only a small part of what he must 

 have as produce during the season. With him, except as re- 

 gards root crops, the question is less how to bring a number of 

 crops to maturity than to have a number of succession crops, 

 fit to be consumed in a juicy, succulent state, and therefore, 

 however anxious, he can take but comparatively little advan- 

 tage of the fine weather, so far as sowing is concerned. 



KITCHEN GARDEN. 



We have sown Parsnips, and a portion of Onions and Car- 

 rots, and will sow more Onions in the course of a week, as well 

 as more Carrots at intervals of several weeks. For giving 

 satisfaction with rich crisp Carrots, it is advisable to sow fre- 

 quently until the middle and end of May, and even later. The 

 worm seldom attacks Carrots whilst they are young, and even 

 if they are not so large, they are very sweet and nice from late 

 sowings, and suit admirably for being cooked whole. Parsnip 

 being a very hardy seed can scarcely be sown too soon, if the 

 ground is mellow, dry, and nicely pulverised. Beetroot, Salsafy, 

 and Scorzonera we defer sowing for a few weeks longer, as there 

 is a risk of their showing a seed stem when sown early. F(fx 

 all these root crops the ground should be well moved by trench- 

 ing, ridging, and re-ridging if it is stiff ; and to obtain fine, 

 straight, clean roots, the manure given to such ground should 

 be placed at the bottom of the trench to entice the roots 

 downwards, and hence the surface soil should be poor rather 

 than rich. With such care, even in old rich kitchen gardens, 

 fine roots can be obtained by having these crops following 

 a rather exhausting crop of the Cabbage tribe or Peas. We 

 have sometimes had such roots after Celery, but whether the 

 Celery was in rows or beds, the dung of the trenches, however 

 equally distributed, was apt, from getting mingled with the 

 surface staple, to encourage surface-rooting too much, and 

 hence we are liable to have forked, branched, and crooked roots 

 instead of clear, handsome, straight ones. 



In all old gardens, with a superabundance of organic matter 

 in the shape of manure, and which is apt to become sour and 

 inert, nothing will be of such service as a dressing of quicklime 

 incorporated with the soil. Even chalk in stifi soils will often 

 be of great service as a lightener and regulator of moisture, but 

 it will not act as a solvent like quicklime. In some cases it is 

 quite surprising how a coating of an inch of lime will render a 

 stiff soil porous and easily pulverised. It adds little or nothing, 

 however, in the way of fertility to poor hungry soils, but even 

 in them it acts beneficially by making them more retentive of 

 moisture, whilst in stiff heavy ground the extra moisture, 

 through its influence, passes ofi more freely. The most striking 

 effect of a lime dressing is to be found on soil that may be 

 said, from frequent cropping and manuring, to have become 

 dung-eick ; on such ground the effect is often very striking. 

 With such a dressing the crops of Potatoes obtained in old 

 kitchen gardens are often wonderful: hence lime acts most 

 effectively on peat-mossy lani3, rendering the inert astringent 

 vegetable matter soluble. On such ground we have seen ex- 

 traordinary crops of Carrots. 



We planted a good breadth of early Potatoes, placing them 

 about 6 inches deep, as then, in common seasons, it is a 

 matter of little importance whether they are earthed up or not. 

 Last summer we wished we had earthed all ours up, as those 

 earthed-up felt the efiects of the dryness least, and ripened a 

 heavy crop of fine tubers early. Those not earthed did not yield 

 such fine tubers, the drought sooner reached the roots. In an 

 ordinary favourable season we have found that Potatoes planted 

 from 6 to more inches in depth yielded quite as good, and in 

 some cases heavier crops than those that were earthed-up. 

 Last season was so exceptional in its dryness that it is hardly 

 appropriate to draw conclusions from it, except in the way of 

 warning. 



Plenty of air was given in the fine days to Potatoes, Badishes, 

 Carrots, Lettuces, &c., in frames. Planted out a piece of early 

 Potatoes in an earth pit, with hot leaves and manure beneath 

 them, and some old sashes and other protection over them. 

 Sowed Badishes between, as they will be ready to be off before 

 the Potatoes shoot many inches. Our most forward Potatoes 



were planted in 9-inch pots, and placed in front of the Peach 

 house until they were rather in the way and began to give 

 signs of drawing a little, when they were removed to an earth 

 pit, the pots being plunged an inch or two over the rims in a 

 bed of old and new leaves that just yielded a mild heat, whilst 

 the tops were protected with old sashes. These are tubering 

 very nicely, and, as a general rule, early gatherings may be 

 obtained more easily from pots than from Potatoes planted out 

 in frames and pits. 



We have a strong regard for hox frames covered with sashes ; 

 they can be so easily moved, and turned to so many purposes, 

 and when used for early Badishes, Carrots, and even Potatoes, 

 they can be moved ofl as the spring advances, a more modest 

 protection given, and the frames and glass used for other crops 

 needing more heat. The brick pit cannot be moved. You 

 may, in the same way as just stated, use the glass lights, but 

 nothing more. Whilst loving the old frames in which even from 

 early Cucumbers and Melons we have seen almost as great 

 results obtained as by the best mode of heating by hot water — 

 upon the whole, wherever there is game encouraged near the 

 garden, and that game is fed when necessary, we should like 

 entirely to substitute pits for frames, as mice and rats cannot 

 so easily enter by the brick, and, if the wall-plates are sound, 

 can hardly enter at all, except when the sashes are open. At 

 one time when the wall-plates of even pits were worn tut, it 

 was not uncommon to find in the morning two or three runs 

 made through the plate, and much mischief done by cutting 

 things down in mere wantonness. When pits are resolved 

 upon, it will be a great advantage to have them together, and 

 in all cases where fuel is easily obtained, to furnish them with 

 piping sufBcient to keep out frost, as the fuel will rarely cost 

 so much as covering, labour, and the breakage likely to be in- 

 curred. One evil, however, is very likely to ensue, and that 

 is, if there is no hotbed of dung formed, the gardener may 

 wish and wish over and over again for manure when he really 

 wants it. 



The Effects of the Winter. — We had a slight tour on business 

 the other day, and where all vegetables as a rule were a week 

 or ten days earlier than here, and, if such a thing could be 

 possible, the wreck was more general ; but in a few cottage 

 gardens we found the Cabbages have stood, and in each case 

 the plants were smaller and younger than ours. As already 

 stated, our crops withstood the severest frost uninjured, but 

 the damp, and fog, and comparative warmth between the two 

 frosts did the injury. We were not aware that the temperature 

 had been so low in this neighbourhood. Mr. John Fells, of 

 Hitchen, told ua that on one night with him the thermometer 

 fell below zero of Fahrenheit for a couple of hours or so, 

 and then it rose, and to that low temperature he traced the 

 destruction among some of his finest shrubs. We forget now 

 the hours of the night in which it was coldest with him, 

 but we did not notice it so cold here at any time, and part of 

 the mystery may have been that we did not notice the thermo- 

 meter during these hours. We think, however, from all we 

 have heard that the temperature varied much in different dis- 

 tricts, and that in some cases it was the coldest in dry light 

 soils, where we should have supposed it to be the warmest. 

 On such light lands Laurustinus, Cupressus Lambertiana, &e., 

 have been killed to the ground, whilst here they exhibit no 

 trace of injury. In one place we saw the common Laurel as if 

 the shoots had been exposed to a blast from a furnace, whilst 

 here they are as green as if no frost had touched them. Sin- 

 gularly enough, in some places where shrubs have thus suffered 

 the Cabbages have suffered far less than eurs. Our expecta- 

 tions are so far realised, that in the light-land market gardens 

 about Sandy and Biggleswade the young Cabbage plants have 

 stood comparatively uninjured, and all the better the smaller 

 the plants were. As remarked some time ago, the thoughtful 

 gardener must use every means to bring up his leeway, as 

 when the fine weather in May comes on the frost and its 

 disasters will be apt to be forgotten. 



FEUIT OAKDEN. 



We have not yet limewashed any of our dwarf fruit trees, 

 but we fear we shall have to do so, as though the short hard- 

 billed birds are less numerous than last year, they have made 

 their mark on some of the most forward buds. Potted off 

 Melon and Cucumber plants a second time, as we have no place 

 ready for them as yet, and little is lost by having strong plants 

 when turned out. A few Cucumbers are still to be had from 

 some old plants in a small pit, and the young plants in large 

 pots will soon take their place. No weather could be more 

 favourable to them after the dull weeks and months. In all 



