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JOURNAL OP HORTICULTURE AND COTTAQE GARDENER. 



[ December 29, 1879. 



with water in a frosty day or night, such a mass of blocks 

 would keep better than the finest pounded 1-inch or 2-inoh- 

 thiek ice from onr ponds. In a moderate-sized house or heap, 

 we would be more particular in having enough pounded to 

 pack the larger pieces than in having all pounded small. 



Protection. — Many vegetables and plants have been covered- 

 np several days and nights since the froat came. The great 

 point in these cases is to make sure that in such darkness from 

 covering there shall be no excitement to mere prolongation 

 from heat. Although we had been in the habit of allowing 

 young Cauliflower plants under hand-lights to become slightly 

 frozen before covering them up, as far as we recollect, Mr. 

 Errington was the first to recommend the practice in writing. 

 The principle is a very important one when continuous pro- 

 tection is given, and in severe weather that continuous pro- 

 tection is better for the plants every way than exposing them 

 to sunshine by day and great colds at night. As above stated, 

 the great point is to be sure that there is no growth. 



Several times we have had such thiDgs as Calceolaria cuttings 

 shut out from light and air for a month in severe weather, but 

 then we made sure that the air enclosed ranged from 33° to 37°, 

 or thereabouts. There will be little growth or elongation until 

 you pass 40°. On uncovering such plants, Cauliflower plants, 

 &c, after the thaw came, and even then uncovering gradually, 

 the plants looked as fresh after a month of night as they would 

 have done after the usual night of fifteen or Bixteen hours. 

 This simple matter rightly understood would often lessen labour. 

 Many cold pits and frames are uncovered and covered every 

 day in severe weather, although they would be bettor if left for 

 a time covered up, but only in such weather, and provided they 

 were cool enough to afford no incentive to growth. 



We have lately had appeals made to onr sympathies, on 

 behalf of gardeners who have to contend with a next-to-un- 

 broken frost of several months in the counties in which they 

 live. With every wish to oblige, we felt that in such a case we 

 must pretty well keep our sympathies for ourselves and our 

 confreres nearer home. In such a case, with coverings for the 

 roofs, or double glass, in winter especially, we think we could 

 keep tender plants safe and yet not parch them up with fire 

 heat ; and in the case of plants that merely needed protection 

 from frost, we would first let them be near the freezing point, 

 and then keep them so by protection, and trouble ourselves but 

 little with frequent uncovering. Gardening under such cir- 

 cumstances is a much easier affair than with us, where the 

 weather is often so variable that in thirty hours we may have 

 the thermometer at 20° below freezing point and 20" above it. 

 It is not bo much the cold, but the sudden variations in tem- 

 perature, and alternations from wet to dry, that try plants and 

 gardeners so much in this country, and make so many of us 

 old and rheumatic before our time. 



A thinking shrewd man in such weather as this, where there 

 are heated glass houses would soon save the best part of his 

 wages in fuel alone. To use a common expression of the day, 

 there are as respects furnaces stokers and stokers, the one as 

 distinguished for saving as the other is for wasting. 



On this we do not enlarge, as it has lately received some 

 attention ; but we would like to notioe one thing in the way of 

 protection, alluded to, we think, last year, but perhaps not yet 

 sufficiently noticed so as to enable us to see the benevolenoe of 

 the Supreme even in such a simple matter as the greater pene- 

 trative power of warm air over that of cold air. Thus, with the 

 temperature from 5° to 20° below the freezing point, it is no 

 difficult matter, with a mat and a little litter frequently turned, 

 to keep the frost out of a oold pit ; but only let your tempera- 

 ture outside rise to 10° or 15° above the freezing point, and 

 how soon will that rise in temperature find its way through all 

 your covering ! We presume the same principles of radiation 

 and conduction aot in both cases, but we have often been struck 

 with the great difference in results. It would seem we are 

 more able to keep out cold than to keep out heat, though by 

 oolour, &c, we can do a good deal as respeots the latter. 



Two hints we must here give to the inexperienced. First, 

 when a change of weather takes place from cold to warm, do 

 not at once expose plants that have been kept some time in 

 darkness to the fall blaze of a bright sun. Better remove the 

 covering by degrees, and give at first a subdued light. Then, 

 in the second place, use similar precautions in all cases where 

 the frost, even in a limited degree, has found an entrance. Let 

 the warmer air find its way in, and thaw gradually, before you 

 remove the covering audits attendant darkness; then admit 

 light, not all at once, but by degrees if the sun is bright. A 

 number of years ago we could afford to make an experiment 



with a lot of Calceolaria cuttings in a cold pit in January. 

 They were all frozen a little before sufficient covering could be 

 given. On the change of the weather one light was uncovered 

 at once, before the plants were thawed inside ; that light gave 

 us few plants for the flower garden. The others were not un- 

 covered for two days after the thaw commenced, and then were 

 slightly Bhaded for a couple of days more ; and though the little 

 plants were pretty stiff with the frost, not one of them failed 

 afterwards, and though shut up from three to four weeks, they 

 looked, after the above precautions, just as if they had never 

 felt the cold, and never had more than a night of the usual 

 length. 



But for the space occupied we might have said something of 

 firing, but that and other general matters have been pretty 

 well attended to of late. Meanwhile, in all heated houses, let 

 us say to the inexperienced, that it is safer to let the thermo- 

 meter fall 5° or 10°, provided that is within safety-point, than 

 to have a high temperature from fire heat in such severe 

 weather. Then, again, provided a little air is given at the 

 apex early, so as to prevent drip from the glass, it is better to 

 give very little air, so as to necessitate less fire heat. Avoid 

 the extremes of fire heat and sun heat meeting together. 

 Lastly, use no more water than is absolutely necessary. A 

 plant will sometimes flag, not so much from dryness at the 

 roots as from a sudden change from dull to bright weather, 

 and a slight shading or dewing of the foliage would often be 

 better than watering at the root. If keen dry frost should 

 continue, a slight sprinkling of the stages and floors of plant 

 houses will often be better than watering or even sprinkling 

 the plants themselves. The wetter the soil in a pot the cooler 

 will it become by evaporation and radiation. — R. F. 



TRADE CATALOGUES RECEIVED. 



J. Carter, Drmnett, & Beale, 237 and 23S, High Holborn, London, 

 W.C. — Carter's Gardeners' and Farmers' Vade-Mecum. 



J. Veitch it Sons, Royal Exotic Nnrsery, Chelsea, London, S.W. 

 Catalogue of Garden and Flower Seeds for 1871. 



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 doing so they 

 are subjected to unjustifiable troubls and expense. All 

 communications should therefore be addressed solely te 

 The Editors of the Journal of Horticulture, &c, 171, Fleet 

 Street, London, E.C. 

 We also request that correspondents will not mix up on the 

 same sheet questions relating to Gardening and those on 

 Poultry and Bee subjects, if they expect to get them an- 

 swered promptly and conveniently, but write them on 

 separate communications. Also never lo send more than 

 two or three questions at once. 

 N.B. — Many questions must remain onanswsred until next 

 week. 

 Conifer Seeds.— B. B. W. thinks it would be to the advantage of seeds- 

 man to advertise seeds of Conifers, as many, like himself, are desirous of 

 purchasing them. 



Pricing A Pomegranate (Subscriber).— Against a sonth wall it is 

 difficult to secure flowering from the trim apperance that is usually 

 required. Thin out the old wood, and leave the small twiggy well-npenea 

 Bhoots, which must be encouraged or there "ill be few flowers. Grafted 

 plants are to be preferred to those not worked, as they do not grow so 

 vigorously, but flower muctt more freely and longer. 



Rhus Cotincs Pruning and Propagation (Idem).— The only pruning 

 required is to thin out the shoots whe, e very much crowded, an. J . to shorten 

 the irregular growths, so as to form a more compact head. There is but 

 little necessity to prune to induce flowering, as it is very free-flowering 

 in a welt-drained warm soil and situation. It is propagated by seeds, and 

 bv layers, which root freely if made in spring and detached in the autumn. 

 Cuttings of the ripened shoots strike if inserted in sandy soil in a shel- 

 tered place ; it may also be increased by cutting the roots into lengths 

 of 6 or 6 inches, and plaoing them about an inch deep in the soil. 



Small Melon (Idem).— Queen Anne's Pocket is the smallest, and per- 

 haps the handsomest Melon, but is of little use. Paradise Gem is a fine 

 new sort, scarlet-fleshed, and is a fit companion of Pine Apple Gem, green- 

 fleshed, an early and productive kind. Scarlet Gem is handsome and 

 good ; but for flavour perhaps no Melon can compete with the old Egyptian, 

 wbich, however, is not handsome. 



Hbauing Maiden Peach Trees (Amateur).— For fan-training the trees 

 ought not to have the lowest eves started ; then cut them back to five or 

 six eyes if these are close together, or if distant, to three. As yourt-ees 

 have started the lowest eyes, you have no alternative but to head above 

 the second tier of shoots, shortening the lowest side shoots or laterals 

 to four, and the two highest to two eyes each. If, however, the side 

 shoots are wide apart, then head above the first two, and shorten those to 

 two eyes, as shown in your sketch by the bars. There is no advantage m 



