192 



JOURNAL OF HORTICULTURE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. 



[ September 6, 1S64. 



they are, sir." " "What ! those little beds with five plants 

 only to each ?" " Yes, sir." " And how long have they 

 "been planted ?" " About five weeks." " But there is no 

 bloom, and some of the beds are not half filled !" " Only 

 five plants of each kind allowed, sir." There was the Roi 

 d'ltalie, pretty little Lady Cowper, and coquettish Waltham 

 Pet, a Velvet Cushion, my old friend Lord Palmers ton, and 

 defiant Stella. " But how bad you do look all of you ! 

 What's the matter ?" No answer came ; but when I 

 returned home my ghost, a little after dark, whispered con- 

 solation, "Never mind, you have got the thin end of the 

 wedge in."— P. W. Adet, The CeU. 



beans, take two parts of horse-droppings and one of malt 

 dust, and place an inch or two of the mixture on the surface 

 of the soil, and renew it when the fruit is half grown. 

 When the malt dust is mixed with manure it should be used 

 at once, as if it remains in a heap it quickly ferments, and 

 produces a very disagreeable smelL 



[The above is in answer to the queries of a correspondent 

 whose letter has been mislaid.] 



HEATING A GREENHOUSE. 



I have a greenhouse 24 feet long, 12 feet wide, span-roof, 

 running from south to north. I am about to erect a Cu- 

 cumber and propagating-house 12 feet square, to join my 

 greenhouse at the north end, and I shall be obliged if you 

 will answer the following questions about heating it. 



1st. "Will a conical boiler without brickwork answer the 

 same purpose as a saddle boiler ? 



2nd. Will a round four-inch pipe answer the same pur- 

 pose as an open one for bottom heat ? 



3rd. Will a flow and return pipe almost in the centre of 

 my greenhouse be sufficient to keep the frost out ? The 

 above to work from the Cucumber-house. — W. P. W., 

 Norfolk. 



[1. The conical boiler without brickwork will answer the j 

 same purpose as respects heating as a saddle-back with : 

 brickwork, perhaps more so ; but in a Cucumber-house, if 

 the boiler is inside of the house, it would be desirable to 

 have the feeding aperture and ash-pit door outside, for 

 reasons lately given in answers to correspondents. If the 

 boiler is to be fed inside great care must be used in lighting 

 and clearing away ashes. As respects the latter, if suffi- j 

 ciently wetted there need be no difficulty. If the boiler t 

 stands outside of the house there will be loss of heat from 

 its sides, but this might be prevented in a great measure by 

 a wooden case slipped over it, at say 9 or 12 inches distance, 

 the inside of the case being made of a white colour by paint- 

 ing or lime wash. 



2. The round four-inch pipe will answer the same purpose 

 for bottom heat as an open one ; and if the heat is drier than 

 you like, you can easily make it as moist as desirable, either 

 by evaporating-pans, or throwing water among the clinkers, 

 See., in which the pipes are packed. 



3. A flow and return pipe along the centre of the green- 

 house will be effectual in keeping out frost just in proportion 

 to the height of the house and the surface of glass exposed. 

 If the ridge is above 8 or 9 feet from the floor, the sides of 

 the house would scarcely be safe in severe frost, unless 

 means were taken to secure a brisk motion of the internal 

 air. As the pipes are to come from the Cucumber-house at 

 the north end of the span, we would prefer you taking a pipe 

 all round except at that end, placing the pipe not more than 

 15 inches from the side walls. If the house is lofty, and 

 you have glass at the sides as well as the roof, this would 

 be barely sufficient to keep out severe frost. But for the 

 first expense we would advise more piping, as fuel is saved, 

 and the health of the plants better secured, by never having 

 the pipes very hot.— R. P.] 



EEPOTTING PEACH TEEES. 

 The best time for potting Peach trees is as soon as the fruit 

 is gathered — i. e., if the roots are in a healthy condition and 

 growing in suitable soil, in which case do not disturb the 

 old ball, but merely use a larger-sized pot, and make the 

 fresh soil pretty solid with a blunt stick. If the roots are 

 not in a good state defer the potting till the tree shows 

 signs of shedding its foliage, then shake the roots free from 

 the old earth, and repot the plants in more suitable soil. 

 Never repot all your trees in one year, as there is always a 

 slight risk of losing the crop of fruit the year following. 

 Peaches appear to bear better when the pots are filled with 

 roots. Potted early, the risk is very small, as the trees at once 

 make fresh roots. After the fruit is set, and as big as horse 



FOUR DEGEEES OF FROST, AUGUST 2Sth. 



Such is a fact ! In the morning everything out of doors 

 had the appearance of a winter's morning. Many plants 

 were frozen hard and stiff. The Dahlias are black and 

 quite done for. Dwarf Kidney Beans and Scarlet Runners 

 are very much cut up, but not quite killed. The Perilla has 

 suffered much, and Love-lies-bleeding is very much injured. 

 The Perilla is certainly the tenderest of our bedding plants, 

 as ours was very much disfigured by the frost we had here 

 on the 1st of June — viz., 4°. The wind has been north 

 for some days past. 



On the 24th the thermometer was down to freezing-point, 

 and on the 25th 4° below it, on the 26th 1° below. It is 

 now, about 7 p.m., the 27th, and there is every appearance 

 of a sharp frost to night. 



Has any weather prophet foretold this frost, or the weather 

 in general of the past summer ? Everything here is suffer- 

 ing, especially the pastures, for want of rain. We have 

 been obliged to water thousands of Rhododendrons to keep 

 them alive, or many must have died. I am told that Pota- 

 toes that were healthy and green before the frost are now 

 black and laying down flat. I never saw nor heard of such 

 a frost in the month of August before.— Heney Cooiibs, 

 The Gardens, Chetwynd Pari:, Newport, Shropshire. 



P.S. — I have waited till this morning's post to report 

 upon the nighf s frost, and I find the thermometer indicates 

 4°. Last night I covered our Azaleas to protect them, as 

 they showed the effects of the previous frost at the points 

 of the shoots. — H. C, August 27th. 



On the morning of the 25th, the thermometer in the 

 neighbourhood of London indicated 2° below freezing ; and 

 at Malton, in Yorkshire, we learn from the Times that there 

 was ice the thickness of paper on three mornings of the 

 same week, and that Dahlias were frost-bitten in low 

 situations. 



LESSONS TAUGHT BY THE PRESENT DRY 



SEASON. 



Pkom the present dry season may be drawn some useful 

 lessons, and the value of these will be greatly enhanced if 

 they are carefully noted now and acted upon judiciously 

 hereafter. 



I am the more desirous to draw the attention of your 

 readers to this subject, because I have noticed in various 

 places some of the finest displays this season that the eye 

 could rest upon, although this is a year of marked and 

 unusual dryness. This, then, must be one useful lesson 

 which will serve to teach us that, in spite of a scorching sun 

 by day and a frosty air at night, there are ways and means 

 to secure a floral display. 



We shall gain another point by considering how this is 

 brought about, and it is chiefly by a good supply of water 

 about twice a-week — not a mere dribbling from the rose of 

 a water-pot, or a gentle bath from the hydropult, but a 

 thorough wetting through the soil to at least the depth of 

 6 or S inches. How this is to be accomplished may be 

 learned at Kew or Hampton Court. There the beds are not 

 raised, but, on the contrary, instead of sloping from the 

 centre to the outside, they rather slope to the centre, but 

 only just sufficiently to secure every drop of water which 

 falls i pon the bed from being wasted. I am aware that an 

 objection can be raised to this form of a bed in a retentive 

 soil should a wet season set in, but this is to be immediately 

 overruled by what ought to be a general practice — namely, 

 deep trenching, the effect of which has never been so clearly 

 demonstrated as in the present season. 



