August 23, 1861. ] 



JOURNAL OF HORTICULTURE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. 



143 









WEEKLY CALENDAR. 















Day 



< Of 



M'ntl 



Day 



Of 



Week. 



AUGUST 23—29, 1864. 



Average Temperature 

 near London. 



Rain in 



last 

 37 years. 



Sun 

 Rises. 



Sun. 

 Sets. 



Moon 

 Rises. 



Moon 

 Sets. 



Moon's 

 Age. 



Clock 



before 



Sun. 



Day of 

 Tear.. 









Day. 



Night. 



Mean. 



Days. 



m. h. 



m. h. 



m. h. 



m. h. 





m. b.. 





23 



Tu 



Black Brvonv flowers. 



7L9 



48.9 



60 4 



IS 



Oaf 3 



5af7 



55 9 



after. 



21 



2 19 



236 



24 



W 



St. Bartholomew. 



71.5 



47.9 



59.7 



16 



2 5 



2 T 



39 10 



44 1 



( 



2 4 



237 



. 25 



Th 



Wolfsbane flowers. 



71.5 



50.7 



91.1 



15 



3 5 



7 



27 11 



42; 2 



23 



1 4< 



236 



26 



F 



Prince Consort Born, 1820. 



72. S 



4S.5 



60.2 



11 



5 5 5S 6 



morn. 



30 3 



24 



1 SI 



239 



27 



S 



Beech turns yellow. 



73.9 



49.5 



61.2 



11 



7 5 



56 6 



24 



8 4 



25 



1 14 



240 



23 



Sox 



14 Sunday apter Trinity. 



73:0 



49.6 



61.3 



16 



8 5 



54 6 



22 1 



45 4 



26 



36 



241 



29 



11 



AKbcea frutex flowers. 



71.6 



4S.0 



59.8 



. 14 



10 5 



52 6 



24 2 



12 5 



27 



0. 3S 



24E 



From observations taken near London during the last thirty-seven years, the average day temperature of the -week 



is 72.3°, 



and its 



night 



temperature 



49.0°. The greatest heat was 89° 



on the 25th, 1S59; and the lowest cold, 32°, on the 29th, 1350 



. The 



greatest fall of rain wan 



1.32 inch. 















DEY WEATHEE AND WATERING. 



*B5«9K 



T has often been said 

 that a certain amount 

 of discontent is essen- 

 tial to happiness ; and 

 grumblers, even those 

 habitually so, often 

 enough live to a good 

 old age, carrying with 

 them the propensity they ac- 

 quired in their youth: grum- 

 bling, therefore, lite medicine, 

 may be regarded as very good 

 in its way, and may, doubtless, 

 In the various avocations of life 



be quite as necessary, 

 there is always something to grumble at if an object is 

 looked for, and too many of us are apt to hunt after one. 

 Gardeners complain in winter of its being too cold ; 

 by-and-by we find, perhaps, that the soil does not work 

 well, and we complain then that the winter has not been 

 cold enough ; while in summer contrarieties are alike 

 wished for and found fault with. At the present time 

 (August), we think we are suffering extremely from 

 want of water, while in all probability the crop of fruit 

 we may have next year may owe its origin in a great 

 measure to the dryness of the present period. Dry, 

 bright, sunny weather is at most times grateful to vege- 

 tation, certainly so to that which is established some 

 depth in the ground ; and when we consider that in such 

 is embraced a considerable portion of the vegetable king- 

 dom we must not be too hasty in finding fault. It may 

 be true that an equally good result would have followed 

 if more rain had fallen ; nevertheless, our ideas of what 

 constitutes perfection in such matters are yet far from 

 perfect. Let us, therefore, be thankful for the advantages 

 a dry summer brings with it, and try our best to obviate 

 some of the inconveniences arising from it in other 

 ways. 



That water forms an important constituent of every 

 vegetable is well known and admitted ; and products of 

 rapid growth necessarily require much water, or they 

 fail in arriving at perfection. Most of the products of 

 the kitchen garden contain a large per-centage of water, 

 and to obtain this, the plant sends its roots out foraging 

 to a more distant locality if its ordinary domain be ex- 

 hausted ; but there is a distance beyond which the plant 

 fails to extend its roots, and a more diminutive growth 

 is the result. It is not, however, below the surface only 

 that the plant seeks for nourishment, the humidity of 

 the atmosphere and the night dews are alike grateful ; 

 and when these are less plentiful and there is less mois- 

 ture in the soil, the less robust class of vegetation un- 

 questionably suffers. Now, how to remedy this state of 

 things has been for years a problem to the gardening 

 world, but to say that it is solved in the present day 

 would be wrong ; for although something has been done, 

 and very often indeed overdone (observe, I lay parti- 

 cular stress on this word), the result is not in any case 

 No. 178.— Voi,, TO., New Series. 



so satisfactory as where Nature does the work in her 

 own- way. 



At the time at which I write (the middle of August), 

 the appearance of vegetation and that of the atmo- 

 sphere seem to point to a drier summer than we have 

 had for several years. June, it is true, was not remark- 

 ably dry, but it was not a wet month ; and the end of it, 

 as well as the whole of July, and August up to the 

 present time, has been exceedingly dry— so much so, 

 that many sources from which water is usually obtained 

 have failed completely ; the larger streams and rivulets 

 have rapidly subsided, and the smaller ones are, one 

 after the other, drying up entirely. In many places 

 where water would be an acceptable boon to vegetation 

 it can scarcely be had in sufficient quantity to meet the 

 everyday requirements of domestic use. Water, then, 

 being so scarce, it behoves us to make the most we can 

 of it ; and unfortunately, where it is administered arti- 

 ficially in the way of supplying moisture to the roots of 

 plants, it is often given in too great a quantity at one 

 time or the reverse. It rarely happens that anybody 

 watering a given plot of ground applies anything like 

 the quantity that Nature would supply in the shape of 

 rain ; besides which, the advantages which a good water- 

 ing gives are often lost from the soil being exposed to 

 the sun, when that caking and hardening of the surface 

 takes place which is alike injurious to vegetation and 

 unsightly to the eye. All newly-planted surfaces should 

 be covered, to prevent this caking and to retain the mois- 

 ture ; but it is my intention to advert rather to the 

 quality of the water used than to the treatment of the 

 soil after it has been applied. 



Whatever may be the class of plants to which it may 

 be necessary to give water, there cannot be a question, 

 that the moisture which Nature supplies in the shape of 

 rain is most beneficial in every respect : passing through 

 the air more or less rapidly, it absorbs certain gases, 

 which are evidently essential to the well-being of the 

 plants on which it falls, and the matters with which it is 

 charged are alike grateful to the foliage of the plant and 

 to its roots. " Next to rain is water of a similar kind 

 which has recently fallen and not been polluted by ad- 

 mixture with other substances, which rain water not 

 unusually is when the roof on which it falls or the vessel 

 receiving it presents anything which it can hold in 

 solution. I have known a newly made tank turn water 

 exceedingly hard and render it unfit for domestic use, 

 and, of course, unfit for the requirements of plants also ; 

 while sometimes the roofs of certain buildings contain 

 matters equally obnoxious. Mere soot arising from coals 

 is not by any means the worst substance with which it 

 comes in contact, although, except in certain cases, I am 

 not. aware of any good it does. Eoofs and tanks are not 

 the only causes of contamination in rain water, for some^ 

 times in ponds when formed in clay containing a per- 

 nicious substance,, this is imparted to the water. Clay is 

 not by any means of so pure and innoxious a nature as 

 is sometimes supposed ; neither is sand, for I have seen 

 a kind of coarse gritty substance that had nothing par- 

 No. 830,— Vol. XXXII., Old Seeies.J^; 



