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JOTTENAl OF HOETICTTLTTTEE AND COTTAGE GABDENEE. 



[ October IS, ISSi. 



12 or 15 inches deep, and mixing decomposed turfy sandy 

 loam with the soil. The Banunculus-beds to be prepared 

 by taking out the old soil to the depth of 1 foot, putting in 

 about 6 inches of well-rotted cowdung at the bottom, and 

 then some good rich loam, mixed with a little of the cow- 

 dung, to 6 inches above the level of the surrounding surface, 

 the bed when finished sloping from the middle to the sides. 



GREENHOUSE AND CONSERVATORY. 



Hints from the thermometer should regulate the admis- 

 sion of air to these structures. Favourable weather should 

 be taken advantage of to the utmost extent, and in many 

 cases openings for air may be left all night. The careless 

 practice of opening the sashes at stated intervals to any 

 certain degree without reference to external circumstances, 

 must, throughout the season, be avoided. Keep the Azaleas 

 and Camellias regularly moist at the roots, never allowing 

 them to become too dry or too wet. Shift herbaceous Calceo- 

 larias and Cinerarias regularly. Give plenty of air to Heaths 

 and New Holland plants, and water very carefully; the same 

 with Orange and Lemon trees. Shift advancing Pelargo- 

 niums, and water freely at the root. Take pot Chrysanthe- 

 mums into the greenhouse and conservatory; water with 

 weak manure water occasionally. Shift Chinese Primroses, 

 and keep them in a right airy place. If any of the beautiful 

 tribe of TropEeolums, particularly tricolorurn or Jarratti, 

 which have flowered early in the season, start into growth, 

 they should not be checked, but allowed to grow slowly 

 through the winter ; but if there is no appearance of this, 

 which is best for their future success, their roots should be 

 kept inactive in a cool place, with the soil about them quite 

 dry, and they must be protected from mice. The necessity 

 of a store of the various kinds of soil for potting should 

 invite the precaution of securing a sufficient stock for winter 

 use under cover before the drenching rains of autumn have 

 rendered it unfit for use. 



PITS AND FJ2A3IES. 



The earliest opportunity should now be taken to remove 

 Auriculas, Carnations, Picotees, Pinks, Pansies, and all such 

 florists' flowers to their winter quarters. Cold dry frames, 

 raised upon a few bricks to give a circulation of air beneath 

 and among the plants, are the best situation for them. But 

 very little water should be given during the winter, only 

 sufficient to keep them from flagging. Additional air should 

 be admitted to the frames daily by tilting up the sashes in 

 favourable weather; the vacancies around the bottoms of the 

 frames to be filled up, and a moderate degree of protection 

 to be given in the most severe part of the winter. Indeed, 

 during a great portion of the winter no coverings will be 

 required, as the plants will bear to be frozen without injury 

 if the lights are covered with straw or litter to exclude the 

 sun's rays, when they will thaw gradually and slowly. The 

 frames to be looked over occasionally to see that the plants 

 do not suffer from drip from the lights, or from slugs, snails 

 or canker, — W. Keane, 



DOINGS OF THE LAST WEEE. 



KITCHEN" GARDEN. 



Much the same as in previous weeks. Weather still dry, 

 with parching east winds. Ban the Dutch hoe through 

 every bit of ground, to give an open surface, and cut up 

 every incipient weed. Pulled up all the Peas and Beans 

 done bearing. A piece of Dwarf Kidney Beans still very 

 good. Scarlet Runners, thanks to a little sewage water, are 

 still very fine, whilst in most cottage gardens hereabouts 

 they have done little good this season. But for the sewage 

 we would have been in the same position. Two years ago 

 we obtained a very superior Scarlet Eunner from Mr. Veifch 

 — the pods are larger and more thick and fleshy than those 

 of the ordinary kind. White Dutch Eunners and White 

 Scarlet Eunners are hardly worth growing in comparison 

 with the old scarlet-flowered and mottled-bean kind. Of 

 the White you obtain fine, large, long, smooth pods, but 

 even if gathered young they never seem to eat so crisp and 

 juicy as the Scarlet Eunners. For amount of yield of real 

 nourishing food there is no better friend to the cottage 

 gardener than the Scarlet Eunner. 



We have sometimes been in the habit of associating the 



Scarlet Eunner with the degree of refinement and civilisa- 

 tion arrived at by the working classes. We can recollect 

 when, in Scotland, the Scarlet Eunner was merely seen 

 amongst the working people as a flower trained up by the 

 side of a window. In cottage gardens you could scarcely 

 meet with any vegetable but Curly Greens, Cabbage, and 

 Potatoes. Cauliflower was considered to be aping the 

 aristocracy. The cooling Lettuce on a hot summer day, 

 the nutritious Dwarf Kidney Bean and Scarlet Eunner, were 

 wholly discarded ; and on our last visit to Scotland, though 

 there were improvements in cottage gardens, the homely 

 natives might well have taken a lesson from their English- 

 neighbours, who would have secured a far greater variety, 

 and more nutritive qualities of food, from the same sized 

 garden. The Scotch peasantry, who, perhaps, value them- 

 selves quite enough on their hardy habits, their inde- 

 pendence of character, and their respect to the outward- 

 moralities, might well learn something from their southern 

 neighbours as respects the useful, the healthful, and the 

 refined. The very variety of food at a peasant's table 

 expands alike his desires, his mind, and his heart, and tends 

 to raise him in the scale of civilisation. The man with so- 

 few wants that nature alone will supply them, whatever- 

 peculiar excellencies he possesses, can, as a man, be little- 

 better than a barbarian. Hind, we say nothing against the. 

 man — quite the reverse — who, well aware of the benefits and. 

 the pleasures from variety of food, voluntarily deprives, 

 himself of that gratification, in order that, by his self- 

 denial and self-effort, he may attain a desired object. There 

 is no occasion, however, for him to try to make the world 

 believe that fine Grapes are as sour as Crabs, merely because 

 his means or his purposes deny him the gratification of 

 eating them. The Great Creator, in his goodness, pre- 

 sented us with wonderful variety of the useful and the 

 beautiful, that we might thankfully and temperately enjoy 

 them all. The man who is contented with the least tempting 

 viands, when his means would command the more nutritive 

 and enticing, can only secure our respect when we know the 

 means thus saved are devoted to a noble purpose — such as 

 helping those less prosperous than himself. We certainly 

 shall be glad to know what progress is making in cottage 

 gardening in Scotland, especially as to the variety of vege- 

 tables cultivated. We clearly recollect that, in a large 

 village, or rather town, north of the Forth, there was only 

 one man who knew how to grow and how to treat a Lettuce.. 

 A greater attention to home comforts, even as respects the 

 table, would do nothing to undermine the taste for intel- 

 lectual studies ; but it might help to give us less of the 

 rough and the uncouth in association with the advancement 

 of intellect. 



Pricked out more Lettuce, watered Cauliflower and young. 

 Cabbages, took up Carrots and Beet, and hunted for slugs,, 

 grubs, and caterpillars. Examined Potatoes. All in the. 

 ground should now be taken up, and those wanted for the. 

 new year should now be planted, with glass ready to put 

 over them. Planted a piece of a pit with Dwarf Kidney 

 Beans, where we can give a little heat ; and cut the young 

 fruit from young plants of Cucumbers, which we wish to 

 produce a few in the beginning of winter, as of late we have 

 given up growing them all the winter through. We would 

 here state, however, in answer to a correspondent, that 

 what was said lately of winter Cucumbers was just the 

 result of our own practice. Had we nice plants coming on 

 now, that we wished to bear plentifully about Christmas, 

 and the new year and onwards, we would scarcely allow a 

 fruit to swell before the middle of December. 



FRUIT GARDEN. 



Were we disposed to do anything in the way of trans- 

 planting, lifting, and planting, or even root-pruning, the 

 dryness would deter us. In opening a ditch 30 inches deep 

 for a fence in a meadow, the ground at that depth seemed 

 quite dry and flaky. No pressure afforded any signs of 

 moisture, and the lowest of it, when squeezed hard by the 

 hand, could not be firmed together. Planting in such soil, 

 without abundance of water, is out of the question; but 

 preparations may be made, and in places where there is no 

 such dryness, transplanting, root-pruning, ic, may now be 

 proceeded with, as soon as the fruit is gathered. In planting 

 young trees, and when they are to be moved only short 

 distances, they will go on all the better, and make fresh. 



