108 



JOURNAL OF HORTICULTURE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. 



[ August 11, 1870. 



abundance of sulphur mixed with it. No one need be afraid 

 of using any amount on cool surfaces. The repairing and 

 cleaning of flues will, of course, suggest itself, and the exami- 

 nation of boilers or other apparatus, where suspicion may rest, 

 should be proceeded with forthwith. The end of August or 

 early part of September is the most eligible time in the whole 

 year to procure and carefully store loam and other materials 

 necessary for special purposes during the next year. A good 

 loam should be uniform in colour, rather tenacious, containing 

 a fair proportion of fine and sharp sand, and somewhat unctuous 

 when squeezed between the fingers. It should not, however, 

 cake together too much on pressure. The more grass or other 

 rank herbage it contains the better. It should be dug in a 

 dry state, for if handled when wet its porosity, and conse- 

 quently its power of transmitting moisture and air, will be in a 

 considerable degree impaired. When removed to the compost 

 yard it should be piled up in narrow ridges about 4 feet wide at 

 the base, and as high as possible. If carefully placed the ridge 

 will exclude much rain ; it is, however, an excellent plan to place 

 thatched portable hurdles against it, these may be removed in 

 fine and settled weather for the purpose of air-giving. When 

 it has been in the compost yard for a few months it will be 

 found in excellent order for use, in fact, what gardeners term 

 mellow. From the compost yard it should be removed to the 

 potting shed in moderate quantities at a time, for if it lie too 

 long there it becomes dry, and in this state it is not proper for 

 compost. By the use of the thatched hurdles there need be no 

 particular hurry in housing it ; in doing this it should be cut 

 down with a perpendicular face, and cleared thoroughly, in 

 order that so precious a material may not be needlessly wasted. 

 Give every attention to flowers for a late display. Everything 

 intended for this purpose should be thoroughly established ia 

 the pot. Late shifting will never do here. 



STOVE. 



Take every means in due time to harden, or rather ripen, the 

 growths already made. Give air very freely at all times, more 

 especially when the atmosphere is warm, but shut up abund- 

 ance of solar heat with a good amount of atmospheric moisture 

 betimes in the afternoon. — W. Keane. 



DOINGS OF THE LAST WEEK. 



KITCHEN GARDEN. 



The weather and the ground are so dry that planting-out is 

 not to be thought of, except where water of some sort can be 

 given. The sun on the 5th and 6th was as fierce and cloudless 

 as ever. The amount of vapour raised must ere long give us 

 clouds, and for these we shall be thankful. The dews in the 

 morning have been our safety. The stems and leaves of plants 

 were so filled and refreshed that they stood the sun pretty well. 

 Water is now so scarce in this neighbourhood that it will be a 

 great blessing if we be not visited with low fevers, &c, as in 

 many cases working people can hardly find the means to secure 

 cleanliness. 



We sowed Turnips, Radishes, and Cauliflowers, and took up 

 some forward Onions, to be followed by Cabbages ; we also 

 planted out winter stuff where we could give a little water at 

 the roots. As to surface watering, that would be worse than 

 useless. Plants well established will pump up moisture for 

 themselves if left unwatered ; puddle the surface, and you do 

 little good, and for the time you deprive them of the supply 

 from beneath. No common watering given at the surface in 

 soil so dry as ours would have much chance of reaching the 

 bulk of the roots. In different circumstances the treatment 

 may be different. 



At present, in these drying days our chief resources are 

 mulching and shading. The breaking the surface of the mulch- 

 ing is next to giving a [fresh layer. Our Celery beds would 

 have been dried up but for shading, The Celery, as a ditch 

 plant, likes a little shade in summer, even in ordinary seasons, 

 and much more when it can have only a minimum of water 

 in a season like this. What has often surprised us is the 

 quickness with which a moderate mulching disappears. The 

 earth, the air, and the roots together soon make short work 

 of it. Where we could not well mulch, the surface of the soil 

 has been frequently stirred with a Dutch hoe. As one proof 

 of dryness, we may Btate that the walks in the pleasure ground 

 have had scarcely a weed all the season, and we could only 

 switoh them to freshen them now and then. We have never 

 had wet enough since March to consolidate them with a roller, 



and without a certain amount of moisture beneath it is of little 

 use to pass a roller over them. 



FRUIT GARDEN. 



What we have Btated of mulching applies equally to fruit 

 trees. Applied when the ground is warmed, besides excluding 

 drought, its tendency is to entice the roots near the surface, 

 and thus encourage fertility rather than over-luxuriance. Wa 

 have gathered Joanneting and Red-streak Apples, but though 

 clear fruit, they are small. With more moisture, the quantity 

 as well as quality would have been good. As a great saving of 

 water, we have mulched our fruit trees in pots with horse 

 droppings previously allowed to heat. This is the third time 

 this summer, and though each time mulched rather heavily, 

 the mulching had all, or nearly all, disappeared before we re- 

 peated the dressing. As a saving to watering it is most 

 effectual. To help us still more, though not looking so parti- 

 cularly neat, we mulched a good part of the floor. We did this 

 all the more as the only water we could give was rather strong, 

 and we were afraid to use it largely. We shall not here enter 

 into the manurial question, though we feel convinced that even 

 in this respect the roots get the benefit of the mulching. There 

 is no question that it often saves the top of a plant when other- 

 wise it would be dried up. 



All at once, though scarcely seeing any wasps for the season, 

 we have been attacked by myriads. Hives of bees have also 

 made free with the best Gooseberries. The wasps threatened 

 to make such a clearance of rather hard, though fine fruit of 

 the late Florence Cherries, that we gathered them in self- 

 defence. We shall have to use gauze, &a., to keep them from 

 our best fruit in houses. Fine Peaches may be secured by 

 means of a very thin layer of wadding, the paper side next the 

 fruit, and the woolly side out. The wool baffles the wasps, as 

 their legs become entangled in it. It is well to catch wasps early, 

 but this year we hardly saw any all the season, and these 

 were captured. Until within a few days we thought we were 

 to be free of them for the season. They and ants, we fear, will 

 speck the best Apricots. As to the ants, we should manage 

 them if we could give soot and lime water, allowed to stand 

 until as clear as brandy, and if a little guano were dissolved in 

 it all the better, if the liquor were clear, as that would increase 

 the smell of ammonia, which ants dislike. Well washing the 

 trees from the top downwards would dislodge the ants and 

 bring them to the ground; then a sprinkling of guano at the 

 foot of the wall will generally succeed io making them decamp. 

 If the ants are all brought to the ground, the most effectual 

 means for preventing them going up again is to paint a cordon 

 at the foot of the wall with tar and oil, say 2 or 3 inches wide. 

 So long as the tar is moist and keeps its scent they will not 

 pass it. A piece of wadding dipped in tar may be tied round 

 the stem of the tree, and that will take away that ladder from 

 them. Proceeded with potting Strawberries as detailed last 

 week, and would have done more but for the scarcity of water. 

 Many rather large plants must be given up, and smaller ones 

 substituted. Many things have received less air and more 

 shade than usual, in order to save the watering-pot. 



ORNAMENTAL DEPARTMENT. 



As yet the flower beds stand better than the Cabbages do, 

 but the latter had no mulchiog except their own leaves. A few 

 Calceolarias have succumbed, but not so many as to make 

 vacancies. Nothing but the heavy dews in our case could have 

 saved them. 



Most of the Verbenas have succeeded well ; that which has 

 done worst — that is, Btood the dryness worst with us, is the 

 Maonetti, called also Imperatice Josephine. Both as a broad 

 edging and as a carpeting for beds it is just alive, but furnishing 

 fewer of its pretty striped heads of flowers. Among the Ver- 

 benas, it seems to be aa sensitive to dryness as ihe Black Prince 

 Strawberry is among Strawberries. With a few showers and 

 dull days this little favourite would still be fine. Another old 

 favourite of ours, and which also used to be a favourite for 

 groundwork with Mr. Robson— the little lilac Verbena pul- 

 chella — has thriven remarkably well, blooming profusely, and 

 looking as fresh as a Mesembryanthemum. This fine old sort 

 is not grown so generally as it ought to be. Its soft lilac- 

 bluish colour gives a pleasant relief to more gaudy flowers. 

 When fairly planted it generally looks after itself, running 

 along the ground and rooting as it goes, without troubling one 

 with pegging down. In fact, for the generality of plants, to 

 save labour, we scarcely peg down anything ; we would rather 

 fasten and keep seoure by twigs which the branches would 

 cover, and depend for symmetry on the natural heights of the 

 plants. Many a fine group is destroyed as respects symmetry 



