JOURNAL OF HORTICULTURE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. 



[ December 26, 1S72. 



illegible or the ties decayed ; in either case immediate attention 

 is requisite. 



GREEXHOUSE AXD CONSERVATORY. 



Attend carefully to specimen hardwooded plants which it may 

 be necessary to 'winter in the conservatory. Many of these are 

 impatient of fire heat and a confined atmosphere ; use no more 

 artificial warmth, therefore, than is absolutely necessary, and 

 endeavour to counteract its drying effects either by means of 

 evaporating-pans or by sprinkling the borders, &c, in order to 

 prevent anything like a dry parched state of the atmosphere. 

 It is in many cases difficult to maintain a sufficiently moist 

 atmosphere without causing drip, as the moisture of the house 

 is condensed upon the glass, and unless provision is made 

 by means of inside gutters and pipes to catch the condensed 

 moisture and carry it off, it is nearly impossible during frosty 

 weather to preserve the beauty of the flowers for any length of 

 time ; and in cases where there is no provision made against 

 this kind of moisture falling upon the plants, the temperature 

 should be kept as low as may be consistent with safety, avoiding 

 moisture in the atmosphere as far as possible whenever the 

 glass is affected by frost. At the conclusion of the year I can 

 do no better than recommend that all matters connected with 

 the departing year which may by any means have taken the 

 character of arrears, be brought up as much as possible, in 

 order that the new campaign may be opened with vigour and 

 system. The period will shortly arrive for in-door work, and 

 and assuredly there is no lack of this in bad weather in estab- 

 lishments where plant-growing is followed up, and where good 

 gardening in general is carried out. The preparation of com- 

 posts for orchidaceous plants, the making and renewal of labels, 

 preparation of sticks, stakes, trellises, and the thorough cleaning 

 of all garden pots or tubs, together with the preparation of 

 draining materials, will now require attention. 



STOVE. 



If there is any prospect of a scarcity of bloom next May, a 

 portion of the Achimenes and Gloxinias should be repotted at 

 once and placed in a warm part of the stove, choosing such as 

 have been the longest at rest ; and a few Clerodendrons, AUa- 

 mandas, a plant or two of Echites splendens, and Dipladenia 

 crassinoda, may also be started for the same purpose. 



COLD PITS. 



Plants in cold pits, when they have been excluded from light 

 and air for a few days, must not be too suddenly uncovered ; 

 on the contrary, they should be very gradually inured to ex- 

 posure. Take advantage, however, of mild days to give air 

 freely, and keep the plants very sparingly supplied with water 

 at the root, so as to prevent the production of weak sappy 

 wood. Look frequently over anything subject to the attacks of 

 mildew ; apply sulphur the moment this pest makes its appear- 

 ance, and see that everything is perfectly free from insects ; 

 also look over the plants carefully, and remove dead and decay- 

 ing leaves, which, when left, only encourage damp and mildew. 

 See that the frames are well banked-up, so as to be proof against 

 any ordinary frost, and do not neglect covering up securely at 

 night. — W. Eeaxe. 



DOINGS OF THE LAST WEEK. 



Wet and drizzle continuously, making most out-door work 

 unpleasant, except ridging-up and digging when at all favour- 

 able. Draining was proceeded with, also pruning. 



Charring Twigs and Small Branches. — For this purpose 

 we must reiterate what we stated a short time ago, that, to 

 get the most char from such materials, we find it the best 

 plan to use no covering, except some damp weeds or damp'litter. 

 We let the small prunings, &c, burn just sufficiently to char 

 through, and then pull out with a hoe and extinguish the char 

 with water, spread it out a little while, and then pile it into a 

 heap whilst it has just sufficient heat left to dry itself, but not 

 to ignite. When dryish it is sifted into diffarent sizes, the 

 finest dust coming in well as a valuable antiseptic for covering 

 the surface of the soil among small seedlings, boxes of cuttings, 

 &c. The rest comes in very useful for mixing for pot plants 

 ■ — quite as useful as if we used the best and largest pieces of 

 charcoal broken down to the requisite size. 



Ashes and Char. — From want of room — instead of making the 

 refuse from the kitchen garden and flower-beds the basis of a 

 huge rubbish heap, the heat from decaying Geraniums and Cal- 

 ceolarias being sufficient to destroy most seeds of weeds, and 

 throwing their nutritive properties into the thin coating of soil, 

 which prevented the escape of what was at all valuable — we 

 burned the whole up, and on turning it over find we have 

 some cartloads of white ashes mixed with others black, and 

 charred; and these, when cooled, put into a heap, and kept dry, 

 will be very useful for many purposes, and the ashes, too, will act 

 as a manure. But for the above necessity, however, we are con- 

 vinced that we obtained far more rich manure from the slow 

 and careful decomposition of all such rubbish, and more especi- 

 ally when sprinklings of salt and lime were at times added to 

 the heap. 



KITCHEN GARDEN. 



On a day comparatively dry, and on a ridged bank after the 

 Cauliflowers were cut, we turned the soil over and planted with 

 Potatoes fully 2 feet apart from row to row, and then planted a 

 row of stout Lettuces between every two rows of Potatoes. In 

 favourable seasons such Potatoes will tuber early, and yet, if at 

 all fortunate, the Lettuces will be out of the way before the 

 Potatoes require the room. We have been in the habit of pull- 

 ing the earth over the tops of such Potatoes when they appeared 

 early in cold weather, or shaking a little dry litter over them at 

 night, and allowing it to remain on in a cold, day, but removing 

 it carefully when the weather was fine. We have also had 

 Potatoes out of doors earlier than these by cutting out beds for 

 Celery, 4J to 5 feet in width, a little deeper than usual, say 

 fully 2 feet. On that we placed nearly a foot of hot dung and 

 leaves, then a few inches of rather dry soil, and planted the 

 Potatoes in rows across, with about 4 inches of s8il over them. 

 Radishes were sown in single rows between the rows of Potatoes, 

 and thatched hurdles or mats covered the beds at night and in 

 cold mornings. 



Sadishes may now be sown on warm borders between Pota- 

 toes, by themselves, or with Early Horn Carrots as a main 

 crop. We have not yet made beds for frames for Carrots and 

 Potatoes, and we never think that for such a purpose we lose 

 much by delaying until the new year has come in. Of all pro- 

 fitable things, hardly anything is more so than a small two-light 

 box of Early Horn or Dutch Carrot. If not too much thinned, 

 the drawings are wonderful. Thinning for use may commence 

 when the Carrots are as large as a good-sized finger, though 

 they are better when the top is as large as one's thumb. Even 

 at the smaller size the Carrots are very sweet, and, contrary to 

 most things, though the young plants must not be choked, still 

 the multitudinous gatherings will depend much on not thinning 

 severely until the thinnings are of use. 



Cauliflowers, young plants. Those . standing out of doors 

 had become so soaked that we felt a little alarmed as to what a 

 keen frost would do, and as they were small stubby plants, we 

 filled the space of several lights in a cold pit, and after pricking 

 them out some 3 or 4 inches apart, we covered the surface with 

 dry sand and charred refuse, and will give plenty of air back 

 and front, but will not slide or pull off the sashes whilst the 

 wet and drizzle last. An hour of bright sun in mild weather 

 should be taken advantage of by pulling the lights off all things 

 in cold pits and frames ; but in such weather there must be 

 constant watching, as five or ten minutes of a sharp shower 

 would do more harm than the free sun would do good. Damp 

 in such a season must be avoided as much as possible. 



Cucumbers. — Against our will we pulled out five lights of 

 Cucumbers from a pit that had done good service for the best 

 part of a twelvemonth. In one case we have met with a dis- 

 appointment, and that, too, from seed saved on the place, but 

 we fear not so carefully marked as it ought to have been. We 

 had fine strong plants in 12-inch pots, but as they showed fruit 

 freely we found the most of them would be quite unsuited to 

 our purpose, and at a late period we struck cuttings of the sort 

 desired (The Volunteer), and therefore the plants are yet but 

 small. Cuttings have this advantage, that they fruit earlier and 

 more abundantly at first, but they do not generally continue to 

 bear for a season like seedlings. Those in the small narrow pit 

 will be put in pots in a day or two, as described last season. We 

 believe that by thus planting in pots we get more fruit and much 

 smaller foliage — a matter of no moment in a large roomy Cu- 

 cumber house, but of importance in a small, narrow, lean-to 

 pit. As a precaution, all the walls, woodwork, glass, &c, were 

 well syringed and scrubbed with water close on the boiling 

 point; walls white-limed and sulphured, and simple wire trel- 

 lising run over with the paint brush. Such little precautions 

 often save much future trouble. 



FRUIT DEPARTMENT. 



As soon as drier we shall proceed with ont-door work, as 

 pruning, nailing, planting, &c. All forcing must be gone about 

 very gradually when there is so little sun to neutralise the 

 tendency to drawing in heat in such dull weather. We should 

 have had lots of Strawberries in frames, <Src, with just a little 

 heat below them to bring them on gradually. Much heat at 

 the bottom of the pot will do more to encourage the formation 

 of large leaves than of strong trusses of bloom. Those who 

 have had little experience would act wisely by setting the 

 bottoms of the pots in'such mild heat on boards, slates, or tiles, 

 so as to prevent rooting through as much as possible. It will 

 also in such cases be easier to err on the side of too much 

 moisture rather than dryness. 



ORNAMENTAL DEPART.VENT. 



Watering. — We alluded to this last week, but one important 

 matter was omitted — the temperature of the water for pot 

 plants. Some people err from using the water too warm ; for 

 instance, using water at from 65° to 70° for plants growing in a 

 temperature of from 45° to 50°. Such watering is apt to produce 

 weakness of growth, and the sudden changes at the roots do 

 harm. Some, again, err as much on the other side, such as 



