496 



JOURNAL OF HORTICULTURE AND COTTAGE GARDENEB. 



[ December 22, 1870. 



especially the sweet-scented subjects, as Lily of the Valley, 

 Sweet Briar, and Lilacs, aud do not forget to introduce a good 

 hatch of Boses, choosing the moat promising plants of Teas, 

 B-iurbons, and Hybrid Ferpetuals, which are the best kinds for 

 winter flowering. A gentle bottom heat will be of groat service 

 to these, also to most other plants subjected to heat, in order 

 to flower them as quickly as possible, and a moist state of the 

 atmosphere must be secured, admitting a little air freely at 

 every favourable opportunity, Dutch bulbs should be largely 

 used for forcing at this season, and when hardy shrubs are 

 forced for the decoration of tho c ■ msorvatory, these should be 

 brought into bloom as soon as circumstances admit. Some 

 persons, however, think that it is worse than waste of time 

 and space to force Buch common things as Bhododeudrons, 

 Az ileas, and other American plants, as, with equal care and no 

 more expense, much finer flowers may be had at this season 

 without forcing. All forcing plants intended for succession 

 should be under a temporary covering of some kind — an open 

 shed is as good a place as they can be put in, or under the 

 stages of a greenhouse. 



PITS AND FRAMES. 



Give plenty of air to Violets, Mignonette, and Intermediate 

 Stocks in frames or pits. Avoid watering as much aa possible ; 

 it is better to let the plants flag a little than to have the soil 

 too muDb. saturated at the roots. — W. Keane. 



DOINGS OF THE LAST WEEK. 



KITCHEN GARDEN. 



'Little has been done here excepting covering Celery in 

 r irosty nights, clearing breaks of old Cabbsge plants, and spread- 

 ing a little manure and material from the rubbish heap on the 

 bed, to encourage the s-prouts until the spiing, as they help to 

 keep us from going so often to the early Cabbage quarter. 

 Drew a little more earth to the strong early Cabbages, as it 

 keeps them firmer and more secure from frost. Put some old 

 sashes over a fine late bed of Badishes in an earth pit, to pro- 

 tect them from severe frost aud wet. The rains of late have 

 been so heavy that we have done but little on our heavy ground, 

 but when the weather was fair we collected a lot of tree leaves, 

 though we would rather have had tbern dry, but when dry 

 weather comes there will be groundwoik demanding attention. 

 Turned over manure beaj i intended for Mushroom-beds, for 

 which we must have tb" dung rather short and moist, saving 

 only a few horse droppii.ga for covering. 



There has beeu plpnty of work under cover in wet days — in 

 fact, our wettest da\a are generally our busiest days, and in- 

 door work is sometimes delayed too long that it may be done 

 -in such weather. 



Water. — The ponds in many places are filling very slowly, 

 ■except where there is a great command of surface water; as 

 the ground drains act but little owiDg to the moisture ab- 

 sorbed by the dry soil. Owing to our now having more piping 

 to buildings, our tanks in the garden are nearly full, and we 

 only wish we had three or four time3 the space for clean water 

 in reservoirs, as then we could look forward to the summer 

 without alarm. Such a season aa last ought to teae.b many a 

 lesson in dry districts. Good tanks and poDds now would soon 

 ray the expense of boree labour in carting during the summer. 

 We wish the water that haR run to waste of late, could be con- 

 verted into a little lake. Where this has been done in some 

 places, there is no standing still in summer, where formerly 

 tbere was a eouBtaut annoyance about water-carting. Draining 

 is all very well, but it would be a benefit in many places to 

 collect the water from drainage, instead of letting it off as it 

 came to the nearest outfall. Can anyone tell of a cheaper 

 mode of makiDg a fair-sized reservoir than puddling with clay ? 

 The worst of clay puddliDg is, that unless fringed with grass, 

 it is apt to crack in summer, when the water sinks, and then 

 away goes the water. Of course, nothing is better than bricks 

 and cement, but they are expensive. Even large tanks done 

 in the best way will always stand best, if the walls instead of 

 being perpendicular should be bevelled outwards from bottom 

 to top. From inferior cement and inferior workmanship many 

 tanks do not stand well — that is, do not hold water. The 

 finest brick ever burned is useless for such a purpose when 

 used as it comes from the kiln. 



FRTJIT GARDEN. 



The work lias been much the same as in previous weeks. 

 We would have done more outside work if we could. We placed 

 all the Strawberry plants under protection; during bad weather 



they were previously protected with litter. We shall soon 

 move some from frames into heated pits and houses. We 

 would have done so earlier, but oould not obtain runners early 

 last season. 



We finished with the Fig house, and hope we have settled 

 the bug that visited us there for the first time ; at leaBt, every 

 bit of wood and brickwork was pretty well examined, and treated 

 with water as near the boiling point as possible before lime- 

 washing, painting, &o. We have been told that burning sul- 

 phur fumes will settle it, bnt then the fumes will kill vege- 

 tation of every kind that is growing, and can only be used 

 where the wood of deciduous plants is thoroughly ripened, and 

 there is no chance, from openings in divisions between houses, 

 for the fumes to go from an empty house to one where plants 

 are growing. Pruned and cleared a second vinery preparatory 

 to filling it with plants. 



We have had several inquiries as to tho use of 

 Brick Pits in Forcing Houses, and using fermenting material 

 for starting ViueB and Peaches. Where convenient, such pits 

 inside a house are very useful, In the early part of the season 

 they might be UBed aa hotbeds,' covered with glass, whilst the 

 general atmosphere of the house was kept comparatively cool. 

 When that was no longer desirable the glass, &c, might be 

 removed, and then how well would the bed come in for plung- 

 ing pots that would require a little bottom heat ! When that 

 was not wanted, and the bed might sink too low, a sparred 

 table or trellis placed over it would be the place on which to 

 set plants thinly, to suit ihe shaded roof. Wnen none of these 

 uses are required, and Vines and Peaches are to be forced, 

 then these pits filled with fermenting material will be one of 

 the best modes for softening and breaking the buds. When 

 rank dung is used for this purpose, then no evergreen plant 

 and no deciduous plant, unless when in a state of rest, ought 

 to be in the house. It is safest to have no plants at all in the 

 house. For Peaches we should not like to use stable manure 

 fresh until it had been thrown into a heap for eight days, aDd 

 thus lost its rankest steam. For Vines with moderately- 

 ripened wood such care even is not required. Litter and 

 droppings may be brought at once from the stables, and, how- 

 ever rank the' steam, it will do no harm to the Vines if not too 

 near them, but will destroy every kind of insect, as the strong 

 ammoniacal fumes will penetrate every hole and cranny, and 

 the moisture will soften and swell the buds. In using sweet 

 fermenting manure there will be no danger to anything that 

 stands heat : hence a heap of tree leaves in a house is useful 

 and safe. Turn them as you will, the steam from them will 

 be sweet and safe. We have used stable dung fresh in a large 

 house in such quantities that for a fortnight one could scarcely 

 walk through the house, and the confined stesm prevented one 

 seeing far before him. No insect could live in such an atmo- 

 sphere. The great thing with such mounds of dung was, by 

 frequent turning, to get it perfectly sweet, though hot, before 

 the buds swelled to breaking; after that, rank steam would be 

 very injurious. The gases that escape from sweet decomposing 

 manure are a great help to healthy, vigorous growth. Those 

 from stable mauiire are more powerful than those from leaves, 

 but a large Lean of the latter and also of tan are harmless as 

 to the gases tbey throw off. By forking over such heaps we 

 have often filled a house with the richest steam when we 

 wanted to do so. Forced to use every available place under 

 glass almost constantly, we could not use feimenting material 

 now, but none the less are we convinced of tho importance of 

 a hotbed in a house as a great help in early forcing. 



OTiNAMENTAD DEPARTMENT. 



The Christmas Jiose.— How interesting even among tho snow 

 does the Helleborue niger look, though anylhing but. sinking 

 as a rough herbaceous plant when not in bloom. Even the 

 Holl'borus fecHdus, with its fine foliage, would be no bad object 

 in a sub-tropical garden. We are glad that H. niger, which 

 yields its laige flowers so early, is becoming more popular, ao 

 we may judge from the care taken of every bit by a neighbour- 

 ing nurseryman in summer, so as to have good saleable plants 

 before winter. There were several things that attracted our 

 attention in the some nursery, such as the collections of fine 

 old herbaceous plants and spring-flowering plants, tellmg us 

 that the days are coming when we shall have mixed herbaceous 

 borders again, and plenty of spring-flowering plants to fill our 

 flower beds, with the addition of bulbs. Even as respects 

 bulbs, we see proofs that ere long we may not be quite so de- 

 pendent on our friends in the Low Countries, not, perhaps, so 

 much in what our friend called his Calitornian gold field— a 

 large space of Winter Aconite, from which DumberleBS roots of 



