196 



JOUBEAX OF HOBTICELTTEE AXD COTTAGE GABDEXEE. 



L September 6, lSSi. 



or rniried for tlie season. Keep everything as clean and 

 neat as possible, removing decayed leaves and flowers, &c, 

 immediately they are perceived. 



PITS AND FRAMES. 



If previous directions have been attended to, the propaga- 

 tion of next season's bedding stock will by this time be well 

 advanced, and where, from the pressure of other work or any 

 cause, this is not the case, every possible dispatch must be 

 used while the weather is favourable for such work. Con- 

 tinue to put in cuttings of new and scarce plants. A close 

 frame without artificial heat will answer to keep them in 

 at present. W. Keaxe. 



DOIXGS OP THE LAST TTEEE. 



KITCHEN GARDEN". 



Behoved the dried-up haulm of Peas and Beans, unless 

 where we wished them to remain as a shade to undercrops. 

 We have had a skiff of a shower or two on Wednesday 

 which refreshed the foliage, but did nothing to moisten the 

 ground. We have trenehed-up a piece where Peas had been 

 grown, and though stiff soil we found it very dry for 18 inches 

 in depth. We have turned out lots of winter stuff with 

 balls, giving a little sewage water round each plant, and 

 then firming well and covering with the dry earth. They 

 will have the chance of rains, and must be watered when we 

 can obtain it. It is difficult to make people attend to these 

 little matters even as respects planting. The above mode ] 

 costs a little more trouble than putting the plants in in the I 

 usual way, and then soaking them well from the surface, ' 

 but a pint of water would do more good in the one case than j 

 three pints in the other. In the first case, the moisture is 

 retained immediately about the roots and the soil is not 

 cooled by evaporation. In the second case, the plants are | 

 checked by a diminished temperature, and the water you I 

 give soon mounts up into the arid atmosphere. Planted 

 Lettuces, Endive, &c, in a similar way. Pricked out the 

 most forward Cabbages for the winter that they may be 

 lifted and turned out with balls as soon as the ground is 

 ready. Watered a succession-sowing in the seed-leaf, 

 strewed them with ashes, and shaded to keep out the heat. 

 We are glad we planted a lot of Lettuces close to the foot 

 of the north side of a walk They are succeeding those 

 under the shade of Apple trees. Enable as we have been 

 to water, none but sown Lettuces could stand any time in 

 the open garden. 



Baised and spread out a portion of the Oman crop — a 

 good crop notwithstanding the drought. We hear much 

 said about housing them securely. If kept dry they will 

 stand any amount of cold. We have never seen them keep 

 better than when tied up in strings and hung up in an open 

 shed. Xo frost seemed to injure them so long as they were 

 kept dry ; but if rain or snow blew in on them and melted, 

 and a sudden frost came, they were apt to be a little injured. 

 We often wish we could use them with impunity, but the 

 use of one will taint all our wearing apparel for a week. We 

 have known several very strong old men who attributed 

 their strength after they had seen seventy years and done 

 much hard work, to the free use of Onions. We have seen 

 some of these men slice off raw, with the greatest gusto, some 

 three or four large Onions along with their bread and cold 

 pork for dinner, and declare it was a dinner fit for a Prince. 

 As for that, we have no doubt that the hungry ploughboy 

 who, swinging on a gate, slices off his cold bacon and bread, 

 whilst his team axe having their lunch, eats with a relish 

 that the rich man rarely enjoys when partaking of the most 

 richly-seasoned dishes. We have long been convinced that 

 a good hot raw Onion is a capital thing for labourers who 

 work out of doors, and who rarely have a good hot dinner. 

 Good people should think of that before they show that 

 they are annoyed by the Onion odour which generally ac- 

 companies their use. We have known cottagers troubled 

 as to where they could house their Onions. Let them be 

 assured that all that is wanted is to keep them dry, then 

 no frost will injure them. 



From Celery we removed the shading of branches, and we 

 are surprised how well, on the whole, it has done without 

 watering — not a great deal behind some good Celery we 

 lately saw that had been soaked once a-week. We cleaned 



all that had been put out — pretty well enough for our use — 

 by removing every bit of sucker, and then placing a little 

 earth close to the stem. We are behind our usual time in 

 earthing-up, and have only done a part of one bed. Our 

 kind, the White Incomparable, if each head is tied after 

 clearing away the suckers, needs but little earthing-up. We 

 have a small bed, thick together, weE blanched for soups, 

 and for an occasional bit of cheese : but good heads win need 

 something like three weeks. But for scarcity of water we 

 would have had it in the beginning of this month, or much 

 earHer. We have jnst managed to give our four large beds 

 a fair watering with sewage, keeping it off the leaves, and ' 

 will foEow with about am inch of fine soil to keep the 

 moisture in. It will soon fly off through the foliage, how- 

 ever, and that will necessitate shading, if the heavens do 

 not give us a good watering. We will plant out a little 

 more with good balls so soon as dripping weather comes. 

 For want of wet, though we gave a little water to the drills 

 before sowing, we seem to wait a long time for Spinach and 

 Turnips coming up. 



So weather could be better for hoeing, to keep the surface 

 open, and to kill aU sorts of weeds. We use the words " aU 

 sorts" advisedly; for, if not all, the greater portion of the 

 worst weeds — those worst to conquer — may be thoroughly 

 eradicated by a persistent use of the Dutch hoe. " At them, 

 always at them I" however, must be the motto. Keep this 

 motto in view, and many weeds whose roots are difficult to 

 eradicate will succumb, the roots decaying when the top is 

 prevented giving them the benefit of any reciprocal action. 

 We have proved repeatedly that Settles may be destroyed, 

 not by digging up their roots, but by eontinuaUy cutting off 

 the tops when not more than an inch or two in height. 



There can be no worse weed to destroy than the large 

 white-flowering Bindweed, that soon threads the ground 

 with its cart-rope-like underground stems, and the smallest 

 portion of which will grow. We once had a corner thoroughly 

 overgrown with it. Take up a spadeful of earth, and there 

 would be fully habf a spadeful of these roots, eaEed here by 

 a term anything but pleasant to ears poEte. We let it 

 alone for a bit, then used a scythe over it, removed what was 

 cut to the burning-heap, placed a foot of short grass over 

 aE, and let it remain six weeks. On digging it up in the 

 winter not a root was visible, though openings in the soil, of 

 the size of tobacco-pipe stalks, told clearly where they had 

 been. There were some Eoses and other plants round this 

 corner, and there enough was left for a future stock. 



The above was a summary way of eradicating this trouble- 

 some customer, which from occupying a foot would soon if 

 left alone occupy a whole garden. We have several times 

 proved that this intruder can be equally successfully dis- 

 posed off, if there is constant war between it and the Dutch 

 hoe — that is, if it is cut, and cut, and cut again as soon as 

 it puts out a modest shoot of from 1 to 2 inches in length. 

 This cutting continuaEy at the top seems thoroughly to 

 paralyse and kill the large roots, fuE of vitahty as they 

 otherwise are. 



We lately saw a fine old garden in this neighbourhood, 

 and not a vestige of this weed to be seen anywhere in its 

 seven acres. We knew that for years the garden was overrun 

 with it, for it had been pretty weE left to take care of itself, 

 as aE the keeping it had was merely a pretence, owing to a 

 deficiency of labour power, though the man who super- 

 intended it wrought so hard from "early morn to dewy 

 eve," that when one shook hands with him you might weE 

 fancy you held a rough iron file in yours. Well, we are 

 gUtd to see that the fine old place looks' now as if it meant 

 to take its right position ; but among aE the improvements 

 wrought by the present superintendent, nothing pleased us 

 more than the seeming absence of this pest, which threatened 

 to monopoEse the whole place. The good man and accom- 

 plished gardener did not mind teUing us as a secret how he 

 conquered this enemy, forgetting, no doubt, our inability to 

 keep anything of the sort ; and the pith of the secret, and 

 consequent remedy, was just this — keep cutting it up with 

 the hoe whenever it shows itseE above ground; if the 

 weather is sunny aE the better. This quite corresponds 

 with what we, too, have experienced, and numbers may be 

 thankful to know that this pest, the Convolvulus sepium of 

 WiEdenow, we beEeve, and the Calystegia sepium of other 

 authors, may be quite destroyed, and by a less troublesome 



