134 



JODENAL OF HOBTICULTTJBE AND COTTAGE GAEDENEK. 



August 18, 1870. 



Broccoli and Winter Greens, watering the plants well first, letting 

 them stand a little in a pot of thinnish mud, planting them 

 ont in drills, and soaking each plant with sewage. We are 

 alluding to those planted with the dibber. Those pricked out 

 previously were carefully watered and lifted with balls. Those 

 dibbled out are looking better than could have been expected, 

 but they will grow slowly until we have duller and damper 

 weather. 



We find from several note3 that this season will force many 

 like ourselves to make arrangements for securing a larger water 

 supply in summer. In most districts plenty of water falls, if 

 part of it could only be secured for summer use. No doubt 

 draining has been serviceable to the land, but if nothing is 

 thought about except disposing of the water, we may make our 

 fields nest to barren from dryness if we have no stored-up 

 supply from the drainage. It is possible to carry a good prin- 

 ciple too far. One or two facts, or seeming facts, are worth 

 mentioning for consideration. 



The first is, that though all fine-pointed matter when fully 

 exposed to a clear sky becomes rapidly cooled, and therefore a 

 good condenser of vapour near it, yet it seems that even in 

 this respect there is a difference in the condensing power of 

 comparatively dried, inert points and the points of living sub- 

 stances. For instance, we have repeatedly noticed this season 

 that after a clear Btarry night the exposed places of our brownish 

 short-cropped lawns, and the larger benty grass on the quite-as- 

 brown park, would be so destitute of dew that the finest satin 

 slipper of a lady would not be damped ; in fact, so far as the 

 feeling of the hand went, no moisture whatever could be 

 detected, whilst in a few places where the grass, from some 

 peculiar circumstance, remained green, there you might have 

 washed your hands in dewdrops. It would not be fair from 

 such limited observation to deduce an inference, or we would 

 say that the inference would be that it is possible to make land 

 so dry that the grass on it may become so withered as to be un- 

 able to condense for itself .the fair amount of dew to which 

 otherwise it would have been entitled. As another fact bearing 

 on this subject, we may mention that this hot summer we have 

 frequently noticed that healthy, flourishing plants in flower 

 beds would be slightly dewed in the morning, whilst the short, 

 brownish lawn around them was perfectly dry. 



One other fact is worthy of consideration and observation. 

 The rains this summer have been something like deluges in 

 some places, and mere drizzles in others. We have frequently 

 seen the rains fall heavily only a few miles off, whilst we had 

 not enough to damp the mere surface. We do not here speak 

 so much from facts as a kind of belief from observation, that 

 there seems to be an attraction between a dampish soil and a 

 watery cloud ; so much so, that the cloud will sail past the dry 

 soil, and shed its resources on that which is damper. If there 

 should be any truth in such an inference, then extra draining 

 without husbanding may not only leave a scarcity of water, 

 but may prevent such drained land obtaining its due share oi 

 moisture from the clouds. In such a fitful season as this, as 

 respects moisture, it would be well worth observing and noting 

 whether highly-drained land or the reverse had received the 

 greater amount of rainfall. 



In the enthusiasm for improvement it is just possible to 

 make fields too large, and to leave too few trees standing. We 

 know of places quite changed in this respect. Where small 

 fields and meadows with hedgerow timber made the country 

 look like a forest from a distance, all is now open, and scarcely 

 a tree is to be found. We have no doubt that such districts 

 are now very different as respects moisture. Every tree not 

 only absorbs moisture, bnt it is a first-rate collector. When, 

 after clear nights, our brownish lawns were almost dust-dry, it 

 would not have been difficult to have collected barrowloads of 

 mud from beneath some large Ashe3 and Beeches. The time 

 may come, if such seasons as this continue, wheD, instead of 

 rooting out every tree from cultivated lands, such as hedge- 

 rows, we may be forced to plant again in order to obtain 

 moisture-distillers. The more pointed and healthy the foliage, 

 the more will be its condensing power. One morning, with the 

 brownish grass in the park almost quite dry, a large Beech 

 tree was sending quite a shower of sweet water to the ground 

 beneath, where it stood in little pools. 



Protection for Winter. — Some rough-and-ready material is 

 very useful for late Cauliflowers, Broccoli, roots of tender 

 plants, and throwing over mats and frames. Nothing is better 

 for such purposes than rough hay, and from some outlying 

 places in the pleasure grounds we used to collect and keep 

 some for this purpose. This season we have not saved more 



than will be required for Mushroom beds. There has been so 

 little hay in this neighbourhood that we know it will be of no 

 use going after such material to the farm. We know that 

 though corn crops on the whole are good, the straw is short, 

 and it will be wanted for feeding as well as littering purposes. 

 We have, therefore, secured ourselves, and will yet collect more 

 as a substitute. We obtain a certain amount of Btable dung, 

 chiefly litter with some droppings. We could make little use 

 of it in the ordinary way, as we could not command water 

 to moisten and work it. We had it. therefore, well shaken to 

 get droppings, &c, out of it, well dried, and built as we got 

 it into a stack, which we shall cope with itself, and with this 

 litter now well dried we feel we shall be tolerably independent 

 asjrespects protection for the winter. 



Turf Heaps. — Where the soil is not so dry as ours, now is 

 the best time of the year for making a heap. There is no 

 better plan than making such heaps in parallelograms of from 

 3J to 4 feet in width, raising them to a height of 4 or 5 feet, 

 and then drawing gradually in with a hipped roof in form like 

 the letter A. We used to cover the hip with turf, the grass 

 outside, fastened with wooden pins, to ensure dryness ; but we 

 find the outsides of the ridge soon become green, and that dry- 

 ness is sufficiently secured without any such trouble. When 

 the hip roof is formed we merely beat it on each side with a 

 spade. These heaps nicely piled should not be wider, or the 

 air will not play through the layers. The object of the heaps 

 is to have the soil thoroughly sweetened without wasting or 

 rotting the fibre. 



FRUIT GARDEN. 



Gathered quantities of Apricots, even when not quite ripe, to 

 save them from wasps. The wasps are not now so troublesome, 

 as we found and destroyed some large nests. A few cool nights 

 would be the best relief, though other means must be tried. 



General operations have been much the same as last week. 

 On the 13:h all trees fully exposed to the sun suffered much 

 from the heat and the wind, Peach trees even hanging their 

 leaves ; and if we have not a few dull days we must try if pos- 

 sible to help them at the roots. This season will try a good 

 many plans and systems. Shallow borders and bottomed with 

 concrete, slabs of stone or tiles cemented, were all the rage at 

 one time. It would be well to know in what kind of borders trees 

 have stood best this season where they could not be helped with 

 much water. We know that moisture in the form of vapour 

 will rise through firm substances, as we have seen a good deal 

 of moisture condensed under large bell-glasses set on a firm, 

 dry, gravel walk, and even on exposed stone pavement. Still, 

 we do not think that moisture in the form of vapour will 

 rise so freely through such tiles and stone flags as through the 

 more open general soil, and therefore some facts and observa- 

 tions in this respect would be valuable. Perhaps we may find 

 in the end that a deepish loam is no bad thing if by surface 

 mulching we can only encourage the roots to keep near the 

 surface. They would then be more independent of moisture 

 in dry seasons, and they would not be encouraged too deep and 

 become too luxuriant in moist seasons. Many of our Apples 

 are falling, and the general crop will be smaller than usual 

 unless rains come quickly. 



ORNAMENTAL DEBARMENT. 



Much the same as last week. Lawns needed nothing except 

 a switch with the daisy knife ; walks were put into good order ; 

 and potting and cutting-inserting were the chief work engaged 

 in. The flower beds have as yet stood well. — B. F. 



TRADE CATALOGUES RECEIVED. 



H. Cannell, Station Eoad, Woolwich. — Autumn Catalogue of 

 Fuclisias, Pelargoniums. Verbenas, &c. 



Sutton & Sons, Beading. — Cata'ogue of Bulbous Flower Hoots. 

 Plants, Seeds, &c. 



Child & Lorimer, 49, Darley Street, Bradford, and Bradford 

 Nurseries, Shipley. — Catalogue of Dutch Bulbs, d'C. 



Ferdinand Gloede, Beauvais (Oise), France. — List of New and 

 Splendid Straioberries. 



TO CORRESPONDENTS. 

 «»* We request that no one will write privately to any of the 

 correspondents of the " Journal of Horticulture, Cottage 

 Gardener, and Country Gentleman." By so doing they 

 are subjected to unjustifiable trouble and expense. All 

 communications should therefore be addressed solely to 

 The Editors of the Journal of Horticulture, dc, 171, Fleet 

 Street, London, E.C. 



