December 29, 1870. ] 



JOUENAL OF ' HORTICULTURE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. 



517 



deavour to prevent the roots from penetrating the fermenting 

 material. 



FORCING PIT. 



Succession plants and bulbs should be introduced and treated 

 as previously directed. A weak solution of tepid manure 

 water applied to almost every plant when showing flower will 

 be found beneficial. Moderate fumigations with tobacco should 

 be applied occasionally to keep the enemy at a respectful dis- 

 tance, prevention being better than cure. 



COLD PITS. 



Where the stock of bedding plants has to be wintered in 

 structures of this description, the present will be found a try- 

 ing time, and the utmost vigilance and care will be required to 

 preserve the plants from harm. Apply sufficient covering to 

 the glass, and also to the walls of the pits or frames to ward 

 off the effects of the most severe frost, and embrace every 

 chance of admitting air and removing decaying leaves, in order 

 to prevent damp and mildew. Plants when covered up for 

 several days should not be suddenly exposed to bright sun- 

 shine, but should be partially shaded for a few hours, admit- 

 ting air in the meantime if the state of the atmosphere will 

 permit.— W. Ej;ane. 



DOINGS OF THE LAST WEEK. 



"What fine suitable weather for this Christmas eve, with the 

 roads like iron and the air some 20° below freezing point ! 

 How suitable, indeed, for all who have a comfortable home to 

 go to, a nice blazing fire to sit round, and plenty of eatables 

 and drinkables to keep out the cold ! We are none the less 

 thankful and grateful for the blessings and comforts we possess 

 in our humble homestead ; we none the less wish for all 

 readers and friends (and one term might well do instead of two, 

 as our readers are mostly our friends) a merry Christmas and 

 a happy New Year, though we cannot help thinking on the 

 wretehednessand misery now experienced by two great nations 

 on the Continent, who are doing their best to injure and de- 

 stroy each other. And coming close to our own doors, we can- 

 not but think of the scanty supplies in many a household, 

 owing to the want and the scarcity of employment at this cold 

 season of the year. To every man with a spice of independ- 

 ence in his nature no greater boon can be given than the oppor- 

 tunity to labour, and thus support those near and dear to him. 

 The making and finding work for a few weeks now would, in 

 many districts, be the beBt of all charity, because there is no 

 test like work for discriminating between the claims of those 

 who may solicit our help. Some of ns who think we have 

 seen a little in our time are, nevertheless, often deceived. 

 Well, it is better to trust a hundred times and be deceived than 

 to have the wrapped-up selfish spirit, "never to trust at all." 

 For all able-bodied claimants on our sympathy there is no test 

 like the labour test. The shuffling, scheming idler will soon 

 slip away ; the honest, worthy man will be glad to continue 

 and do his best. 



The work of the week has chiefly resolved itself into the 

 following :— Collecting and carting leaves, wheeling the rubbish 

 heap on the kitchen garden, forming new rubbish heaps, turn- 

 ing over soil, digging and trenching when the weather would 

 permit, and using a little litter for protecting Celery, Radishes, 

 Lettuces, Cauliflowers &c, in cold earth pits. 



Planting was prooeeded with until the frost arrested us. It 

 may be done_on a sunny day, even if there has been a sharp 

 frost, but it is always unadvisable to plant in frosty weather 

 when the roots must be for any considerable time exposed to 

 the froBt. We have known large failures take place from this 

 cause alone, even when the ground was not so hard as to pre- 

 vent its working well. When planting on a large scale for 

 'forest or covert, the trees are often allowed to lie on the surface 

 a little time before planting, and though that does no harm in 

 a mild dull day, the roots are easily injured, if not destroyed, 

 when exposed for a short time to a dry frosty air. This is a 

 very different thing from the roots being partly placed in soil 

 frozen in the natural way; as that takes place gradually, the 

 roots are secured from the air, and have access at the "same 

 time to the storehouse of heat in the earth beneath them. 

 This, which applies to common planting, applies still more 

 thoroughly to the planting of shrubs and fruit trees with or 

 without balls of earth. The roots Bhould never be exposed to 

 a frosty air. In planting, if the plants are valuable and of 

 some size, too much care cannot be taken in spreading out the 

 roots, and packing them in layers. AYhen fmall plants are to 

 be turned out in numbers, no better plan can be adopted than 



giving the operator a stout pouch or apron to hold the plants, 

 so that each may be only a short time exposed at the roots before 

 the earth is fastened firmly round them. 



Last season we made some remarks on planting by the dibber, 

 and showed how the one oblique stroke did the planting, and 

 far better than a dozen small strokes. For small plants nothing 

 in general beats the dibber, but as we live we learn ; and in 

 some cases, as planting thousands of seedling Gorse for covers, 

 we think in many cases, instead of digging and dibbling, the 

 plants will do better if a deep slit be made by the spade thrust 

 down, then moved from side to side in the firmish soil, the 

 roots spread their full length in the opening, and then firmed 

 by treading. We know that severe frost has no effect on such 

 afterwards in comparison with small plants carefully dibbled. 

 We have often had the latter loosened and next to thrown out 

 of the ground by a severe frost. 



Although repeating ourselves, we may remark there is 

 nothing more difficult to get attended to by men taken on 

 merely to give employment in planting than this— never to 

 plant a shrub or tree more deeply than it stood before. Nature 

 has clearly pointed out the exact place whence the stem should 

 rise and the roots descend, and thousands of failures, as' 

 deaths and a languishing existence, take place every season, 

 eimply because that part of a plant that Nature intended to 

 be exposed to the air is sunk down and covered with soil. It 

 is so easy to do this, and the trees look so much firmer in con- 

 sequence, that all but experienced planters will be sure to 

 commit the error, unless at first carefully superintended. 

 Thousands and thousands of trees die from this cause alone, 

 and the proprietor hardly ever thinks of this as a cause of 

 failure, partly because of the benevolent belief that any man 

 who can wield a spade on an emergency can Burely plant a 

 tree well enough. We cannot say what the experience of 

 others is in this respect, but in different parts of the country 

 we have found it very diffioult to get this simple matter at- 

 tended to. 



This is less to be wondered at when thousands who have 

 little gardens have never acquired the knowledge how to ueo 

 a dibber properly. Only last spring we saw some hundreds 

 of Cabbage plants hanging their heads most dolefully. They 

 were waitiDg for the rains and winds to plant them. A push 

 from the point of the boot would have brought them up. They 

 were what old gardeners would have called " hanged outright." 

 Apparently they had all received half a dozen strokes with the 

 dibber, and yet the plants were loose. Two good strokes and 

 one small one are all that are needed in dibber-planting. 

 There is the one perpendicular Btroke with the dibber to make 

 the hole for the roots, then the dibber, say from 1 to 2 or 

 more inches from the first hole, is thrust in obliquely, so that 

 the point comes to the bottom of the first hole, and then is 

 quickly brought with the intervening earth to the perpendicular. 

 The plant is fixed as in a blacksmith's vice, so that you will 

 more easily break it than pull it up. These two strokes do the 

 planting. A third stroke with the point of the dibber across 

 the last hole, partly to fill it, makes the job more workmanlike. 

 But a great point would be gained if the dibblers comprehended 

 the simple fact that the two strokes alluded to, and not a 

 number, make successful planting. 



Ice Collecting. — We never had a better chance, and being 

 rather short of cart power, most likely we shall recommence 

 on Monday, as the weather seems likely to continue frosty, 

 and we shall make holiday at another time. Last year we had 

 to content ourselves with ice we did not like, and in our single 

 house had a good store left after a very free use. The ice we 

 have had now is very clear, from rain water in ponds. All ice 

 on the top of water coloured from manure yards Bhould be 

 avoided, if possible. Dirty ice always looks badly, and when 

 used for delicate purposes is apt to leave a taint behind it. 

 The purer and clearer the water the better the ice, and the 

 more free it is from weeds, Bticks, &c, the better, as they only 

 help to hasten its melting. 



As far as our own practice is concerned, we are not so par- 

 ticular in pounding the ice as we uBed to be, provided we can 

 obtain enough of small ice to pack the larger pieces. Leaving 

 cavities of air between large pieces is to be avoided, and mora 

 especially if the air should not be below freezing point when 

 filling the ice house, as then every suoh body of warm air Bhut 

 in would act as a waster and melter. In very small houses 

 the well-pounding will be essential to success.. From some 

 few experiments made we are rather convinced tjlat if we could 

 obtain ice in regular large blocks, as from abroad, and built 

 these blocks in a regular mass, and cemented them together 



