June 8, 1871. ] 



JOUBNAL OP HORTICULTDKE AND COTTAGE GAKDENEE. 



407 



furnishing the flower garden, but we would be later still if we 

 had less to do. 



KITCHEN GAEDEN. 



In the kitchen garden nothing has suffered except the Dwarf 

 Kidney Beans we referred to, and they decayed in the ground 

 from want of heat. Potatoes never looked better, and we hope no 

 such June frost will injure them as we reeolieot onee coming on 

 the 20th of the month. Peas in all stages look well, and winter 

 vegetables are strong, but we wish we could only find ground for 

 them. Cabbages will not be much behind after all, the first 

 gatherings proving very good, and the spring-raised ones are 

 coming on well, thanks to several applications of house sewage. 



House Sewage. — It would be well if our cottagers and ama- 

 teurs could thoroughly see, that the most effective mode of ad- 

 ministering such liquid is to present it to the roots of growing 

 plants, especially of all the Cabbage tribe. In ordinary weather 

 after June, Cabbages and Cauliflowers will rarely have too 

 much. Of course, it should not be over-strong, but for all 

 such purposes we generally use ours as it runs from the 

 mansion, scuUery, pantry, laundry, cfec. Soapsuds are a valu- 

 able fertiliser. Our transplanted early Peas seemed to be at a 

 standstill ; the pods did not advance after forming, and refused 

 to bulge-out as we wanted them to do. A touch-up with the 

 fork and a fair watering at the roots, set them swelling at once. 

 But for scarcity of pure water, we should never for years 

 have found out the value of house sewage. It is best to have 

 it clear, and this can easily be attained by having a good-sized 

 cesspool across the drain which conveys it to the tank or reser- 

 voir. All sediment would lodge there and be cleared-out when 

 the cesspool was about half full. 



Vigorous growth after all is the best security against ihe 

 attacks of vermin and insects, either under or above the soil. 

 We have seen many a pailful of rich dish-washings, and many 

 a tubtul of suds slushed out to produce offensive exhalations in 

 a hole or ditch, that rightly applied would have soon doubled 

 the size of Cabbages, Lettuces, and Cauliflowers. We are 

 more convinced every day that the most easily-procured fer- 

 tilisers are still among the best, and we often grieve to find that 

 they are worse than neglected, just because they can be ob- 

 tained at little or no cost. 



Cold as it has been, the previous hot days have made the 

 httle weeds show in their myriad strength. Taken before they 

 reach half an inch in height, a slight scuffle vrith a Dutch hoe, 

 and sun and wind, soon send them out of sight. We often 

 wonder what a strange store for seeds every old kitchen garden 

 is. Knock up every weed that shows itself, and only turn the 

 ground over again a few inches in depth, and ere long a fresh 

 green carpet of weeds will show itself. To keep a place, there- 

 fore, as respects weeds, with anything like ease, the weeds 

 must be cut up when young, and none should be allowed to 

 seed. Those who encourage winged seeds to mature them- 

 selves, as Thistles, Dandelions, Groundsel, &c., ought to be 

 brought under the ban of legal enactments. We never saw 

 more of Thistle down and Dandelions than last summer, and we 

 find that on a part of our lawn a good crop of young Dandelions 

 is coming up. We find that Watson's lawn sand soon blackens 

 the leaves, shrivels them up, and causes them to disappear. A 

 larger dose kills the roots. Fortunately, owing to the dryness 

 of the lawn and ground, the bulk of such winged seeds were 

 wafted away and caught in trees, hedges, &c., to be parched 

 and dried. But it is very dift'erent when they light on, and 

 have the choice to twist and get into a damp lawn or loose 

 ground. We onee, owing entirely to such lodgment, had nearly 

 half an acre of old lawn covered with young plants of the Sow 

 Thistle, where no such intruders had been seen before for 

 many years. We recollected of some clouds of downy seeds 

 careering past in the previous summer. It is not uncommon 

 to notice fields of corn and Turnips carefully hoed-, and yet 

 some neighbouring hedgebanks furnished with enough of 

 winged seeds to spread over some hundreds of fields. The 

 cutting-up of all weeds when young is also of advantage in 

 keeping the surface of the soil open instead of hard and baked. 

 The first condition is always desirable when rapid growth is 

 wanted. When we want a plant to bloom and seed as soon as 

 possible, the reverse conditions may be resorted to. The heavy 

 rains at times tended to harden and consolidate the surface soil. 



These rains by softening the ground gave us a good chance 

 for thinning all our earlier Parsnip, Carrot, and Onion crops 

 — the thinning is so much more easily done, and then a good 

 scnfile between the rows leaves all neat. We generally lay the 

 Onion thinnings in a shady place, thickly in rows, we might 

 almost say bundles, and thus they keep nicely, and are useful 



for many purposes, one of which, if they be allowed to ripen, is 

 yielding small Onions, often much in demand. Carrots it very 

 small are of no use, but even if less than the little finger, if put 

 out thickly in rows in a shady place, with a little fine sandy 

 soil about them, they continue very crisp and sweet for a long 

 time, and come in useful for dish-dressing and soups. Such 

 thinnings give a great relief, and make a small piece of Carrots 

 allowed to grow to their full size, go much further. Now, or 

 about the middle of the month, is a good time to sow a late 

 crop of Carrots. Young Carrots not thicker than one's thumb 

 have a sweetness and richness to which the finest old Carrots 

 can lay no claim. The young ones, too, are rarely spotted 

 with the marks of vermin. 



Onions. — Those planted out in spring from a bed sown in 

 September seem as if they would be very good this season. 

 They are rather better than those left unlifted where sown. 

 We have had the latter quite as good as the former when we 

 have taken the trouble to go along the rows, say about April,, 

 and move away the earth from the base of the bulb almost as 

 far as to the first layer of roots. We might be in error, 

 but we thought we discovered years ago that one principal cause 

 of gouty " lords and ladies " among spring-sown Onions was 

 sowing the seed too deeply. The chief secret for getting good 

 bulbs from transplanted Onions is to fasten the roots firmly 

 in the ground, but to have the base of the bulb not below but 

 resting on the surface of the ground. When dry weather suc- 

 ceeded planting we have sometimes run a little fine earth close 

 to the plants on each aide, partly to keep them upright and 

 partly to prevent moisture escaping so freely ; but as soon as 

 the Onions held up their heads and were growing freely, it was 

 always found to be good policy to remove this covering from 

 the bulb. " One who has a eight to Gedmele " because his 

 transplanted Onions threaten to be nothing but long necks, 

 may find here a bint to suit him. It may turn out to be good 

 policy to expose the base of the plant more. 



Earthing-iip Potatoes.— This we did to most of ours, not 

 because we think it of importance in general, but because we 

 believe it helps to keep the roots moist in dry seasons such as 

 we have lately had. Our earthed-up Potatoes last season, other 

 circumstances being equal, were by far the best as respects 

 produce and size of tubers. 



Seed sowing in dry ground in summer. To make sure of 

 the seedlings, be the seeds those of a Pea or a Turnip, we ad- 

 vise red-leading them before sowing. Then, to avoid all shad- 

 ing and surface-watering, we prefer sowing in drills, water- 

 ing the drills before sowing, and then covering all over with 

 the dry soil ; for very small seeds, using a little riddled soil. 

 The same plan may be followed in bed-sowing, only the bed 

 must be watered all over, and after the seed is sown dry soil 

 should be sprinkled over it ; this takes more trouble and 

 labour. The moisture at the seeds causes them to swell and 

 germinate, and the seedlings come up healthy and strong 

 through the dry covering. The dry surface keeps the moisture 

 in, and so far keeps heat in too, as there is none of the cold 

 which is apt to be produced by evaporation from a moist sur- 

 face. When such a mode is adopted httle or no watering is 

 needed afterwards, and the dry surfacing is a better shade than 

 mats or netting. 



FEUIT GAKDEU. 



We have said quite enough about Strawberries of late. Some 

 web caterpillars have appeared on Pear trees, and these were 

 removed at once to prevent their spreading. Some dwarf 

 Cherry trees have had their leaves well holed from the last hail. 

 Our Gooseberries are plentiful where we gave but little or no 

 pruning. Unless we could have protected the buds from birds 

 it would have been of little use to prune them. The honeydew 

 has appeared to a large extent on some Currant trees against 

 walls, but has not shown yet on bush trees in the open garden. 

 A good many little shoots on a few Apple trees where there is 

 plenty of fruit have been blighted and withered up as if a fire- 

 blast had passed over them. A few Pear twigs are similarly 

 affected. In general the crops will be fair. 



Could we have found time we would have pinched out the 

 points of spur young shoots before now. This greatly tends to 

 cause fruit buds to cluster at their base. In all bush and 

 pyramidal trees the great point is to have myriads of fruit buds. 

 It is an easier matter to thin out hundreds of fruit than to fix 

 one on where none is to be found. Suitable Etrength is most 

 easily supplied by surface-dressing. We have come to the con- 

 clusion that with shallow surface-planting, summer-nipping 

 and regulating young shoots, and surface-mulching, we may 

 almost dispense with root-pruning — a very nice process with 



