November 8, 1S64. ] 



JOURNAL OP HORTICULTURE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. 



379 



COVENT GAEDEN MAHKET.— Notembeb 5. 



The market continues well supplied, and continental arrivals are heavy. 

 Pines are far from plentiful, and prices are maintained. Grapes are suffi- 

 cient for the demand, and include Dutch Hamburgh?, but being inferior to 

 home-grown fruit prices Tule lower. New Lemons from Messina begin to 

 arrive in quantity, and are of excellent quality ; Oranges of the new crop 

 are not yet coming in freely. Dessert Apples and Pears, both of the best 

 and inferior quality, are very abundant ; the former include Ribston, New- 

 town, Cox's Orange, and Golden Pippins, and King of the Pippins; the 

 latter, Crassane, Duchesse d'Angouleme, Marie Louise, Gtou Morceau, and 

 great quantifies of common Bergamots. Some ine specimens of foreign 

 Apples and Fears are now to be seen in the fruiterers' windows, consisting 

 of Uvedale's St, Germain, under the name of Belle Angevine, Catillac, 

 Glou Morceau, and Easter Beurre* Pears; and of Relnette du Canada and 

 White Calville Apples. 



FRUIT. 



s. d. s. d 



Apples £ sieve 1 to 2 



Apricots doz. 



Cherries lb. 



Chestnuts bush. It 20 



Currants. Red...$ sieve 



Black do. 



Figs doz. 



Filberts & Nuts 100 lbs. 60 80 



Cobs do. 70 80 



Gooseberries .. \ sieve 



Grapes, Hambnrghs lb. 1 6 5 



Muscats 3 7 



Lemons 100 5 12 



VEGETABLES, 



8. d. s. d 



Artichokes each 4 to 6 



Asparagus bundle 



Beans Broad \ sieve 



Kidney h sieve 3 4 



Beet, Red ... doz. 10 3 



Broccoli bundle 10 16 



Bru^selsSprouts \ sieve 2 6 3 6 



Cabbage doz. 10 2 



Capsicums 100 10 2 



Carrots bunch 5 8 



Cauliflower doz. 4 6 



Celery bundle 10 2 



Cucumbers each 6 10 



pickling' doz. 



Endive score 2 6 3 



Fennel bunch 3 



Garlic and Shallots, lb. 8 



Herbs „ bunch 3 



Melons each 



Mulberries .... punnet 



Nectarines - doz. 



Oranges 100 10 



Peaches doz. 



Pears (kitchen). ..bush. 



dessert doz. 



Pine Apples lb. 



Plums £ sieve 



Pomegranates each 



Quinces \ sieve 



Raspberries lb. 



Walnuts bush. 



Horseradish ... bundle 



Leeks bunch 



Lettuce score 



Mushrooms pottle 



Muatd. & Cress, punnet 



Onions bushel 



pickling quart 



Parsley ...doz. bunches 



Parsnips doz. 



Peas quart 



Potatoes bushel 



Radishes doz. bunches 



Savoys doz. 



Sea-kale basket 



Spinach sieve 



Tomatoes h sieve 



Turnips .bunch 



VegetableMarrows doz. 



ft 



d. 



ft. 



d 



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6 to 4 



















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10 







14 







4 







10 







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10 







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3 















9 







2 







7 











4 







6 



1 



6 



3 























14 







20 



e 



^ 



fl. 



.. 



d 



2 



6 to 5 



















3 



2 







4 







1 



6 



2 



6 







2 











2 







4 











6 







8 



4 







6 







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9 



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8 



8 



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TEADE CATALOGUES EECEIYED. 



William Barron, Elvaston Nurseries, Derby. — Select Cata- 

 logue of Ornamental Plants. 1S64^5. 



Smith & Simons, 34 and 35, Argyle Arcade, G-lasgow. — 

 Catalogue of Gladioli, fyc. 



James Veitch, Royal Erotic Nursery, King's Road, Chelsea, 

 London. — Descriptive Fruit Catalogue, 186-^-5. 



TO CORRESPONDENTS. 



*#* We request that no one "will write privately to the de- 

 partmental writers of the " Journal of Horticulture, 

 Cottage G-ardener, and Country Gentleman." By so 

 doing they are subjected to unjustifiable trouble and 

 expense. All communications should therefore be ad- 

 dressed solely to The Editors of the Journal of Horticul- 

 ture, ${c., 171, Fleet Street, London, E.G. 



"We also request that correspondents will not mix up on the 

 same sheet questions relating to Gardening and those 

 on Poultry and Bee subjects, if they expect to get them 

 answered promptly and conveniently, bub write them 

 on separate communications. Also never to send more 

 than two or three questions at once. 



N.B. — Many questions must remain unanswered until next 

 week. 



Six Choice Plums ( W. K. 5.).— Green Gage, Reine Claude "Violette, 

 Coe's Golden Drop, Transparent Gage, Kirke's, and Reine Claude de Bavay. 



Vine-border ( IF. D. P.). — Under the circumstances your predecessor 

 did quite right in making the drain, but it would have acted better if it had 

 been 2 or 3 feet deeper, so as to have been below the depth of the border. 

 Wo approve of all you propose, but if on chalk you think the firm bottom 

 necessary, we would concrete it by mixing lime and gravel with the chalk, 

 and then rolling it firm when wet, and on that we would place fully a foot 

 of lumps beneath the soil. 



Large Crops op Peaches. — We are informed that the whole length of 

 the wall, producing the crop mentioned at p. 349, is 153 feet, by 10 feet 

 high. Of the eight trees, three occupy 63 feet and the remaining five 90 feet. 

 The produce of the former, respectively, is thus shown :— No. 1 (23 feet 

 width), 350 Peaches; 2 (20 leet width), 400; 3 (20 feet width), 400; other 

 five trees (18 feet each), 1350— in all, 2500 Peaches. 



Coatikg for Hot-watbb Pipes (C. K.).— Before laying the pipes w 

 coat them with black paint, composed of lampblack and boiled linseed o 

 sufficient to be of the consistency of thin paint. This is applied with a 

 brush, working it in well so that every part of the iron may be covered, 

 and it is allowed to become thoroughly dry before the pipes are fixed or 

 jointed together. When the boiler is first set to work and the pipes as hot 

 as they can be made, we give another coat with the same composition as 

 thick as it can be put on, as it becomes much thinner when applied to the 

 pipes. The oil paint applied on a hot surface finds the bottom of the un- 

 even surface of the iron, and the heat being kept up until the paint is dry, it 

 will last a long time without the iron rusting. We have it good at the end 

 of ten years, and when it gives way we repaint the pipes as before whilst hot. 

 Applying the paint to the pipes whilst hot creates an intolerable smell, and 

 is not good for vegetation. The painting should therefore be done when 

 the house is unoccupied with plants, and air being gives the operator will be 

 enabled to paint the pipes while hot, otherwise it is pernicious to breathe the 

 atmosphere. If the pipes are not painted whilst hot, the paint ia apt to peel 

 off, but by heating the pipes are made thoroughly dry, and the paint runs to the 

 very bottom of every hole and crevice; besides, though there ia a strong 

 smell it is gone all at once. This is our mode of painting pipes in cool dry 

 houses— as stoves and greenhouses. We have another for pipes in moist 

 houses, it is the beat for any description of iron exposed to wet, and we only 

 name the preceding, as it is a practice we followed successfully before we 

 were aware of the latter, which is to coat the pipes whilst hot with genuine 

 red lead paint. This is the best coating for ironwork of any description 

 that we have tried, and we therefore recommend it in preference to black 

 paint, or any paint that has nothing anti-corrosive in it except oil. Two 

 years ago we removed about 400 feet of four-inch hot- water piping that had 

 been down thirty years, and exteriorly they were as good as when put down, 

 and this with a good "coat of white lead paint. They had not been painted, 

 during that period. Whether white lead years ago wa3 different from that 

 which is now sold we cannot say, but it is certain that it will not at the 

 present day preserve hot-water pipes from rust for half that period. Red 

 lead paint, then, is what we recommend, and it should be put on whilst the 

 pipes are hot, or they ought to be heated immediately afterwards and kept 

 hot until dry. all plants being taken out of the house. Coating with gas tar 

 is death to all vegetation if the pipes ever become hot. and the "blacking " 

 of the foundryman is worse than useless, it is deceiving. For iron in or 

 out of water, nothing is better for cheapness and efficiency than three good 

 coats in the former cass, and two in the latter. 



Variegated Hydrangea Cot-tings (M. F).— The best time to strike these 

 is after the shoots have grown from 4 to 6 inches long, and have become a 

 little hardened. This, under ordinary treatment, is in June, when the points 

 may be taken off with three joints and a growing point, cut transversely 

 below the lowest joint, the leaves there and at the joint above removed, 

 and the cuttings inserted in sand a little below the second joint. They will 

 strike either in heat or in a shady part of the greenhouse. Cuttings of the 

 young growing points taken now will root freely if the pots are plunged in 

 a mild hotbed. 



Stove Plants with Yellow Flowers— Evergreens for Smoky Locali- 

 ties {Constant Reader). — Atlamandacathartica, grandiflora, neriifolia. and 

 Schottt ; lmpatiens Jerdonias which has yellow iu the flowers; Hibiscus 

 lutea plena ; Strelitzia reginas ; and Hexacentris lutea. The most suitable 

 shrubs are Rhododendrons of sorts, Aucuba japonica, and Hollies. Of 

 smaller shrubs the very pretty Pernettya mucronata, Andromeda noribunda, 

 Heaths, Kalmias, Ledums, and Berberis Darwicii. Most annuals do well; 

 and of biennials or plants treated as such, the Wallflower is pre-eminent 

 for spring, and Canterbury Bells for early Bummer; and Sweet Williams 

 are invaluable. To give you full information on all that relates to the man- 

 agement of smoky gardens, would take more space and time than we 

 can at present devote to it; but we hope to treat of the subject fully in an 

 early Number. 



Vines not Thriving (York). — We think there is something pernicious 

 in the soil, and that the border is quite rich enough. The indifferent colour- 

 ing of the berries would indicate that the border is a little too rich rather 

 than that it is not sufficiently so; or the unthriving state may be caused 

 through an insufficiency of air, and the Vines carrying too heavy a crop. 

 The reason of the soil being obnoxious to the roots is, that it is strong 

 dark soil. It ought to have been sound light-coloured loam, the top spit of 

 a pasture beiug be3L To it were added one cartload of rotten manure to 

 every four of soil ; a cartload of brick and lime rubbish from an old building 

 to every three of soil would have been better especially with dark strong , 

 soil. The crushed bones are good, and that was all we would have enriched 

 the border with at the time of making, for the rotten manure could not 

 retain its fertilising properties longer than a couple of years and then they 

 are gone, and a close soap-like mass, in which Vine-roots do not like to run, 

 is left behind. We presume the border is drained with rough stones to the 

 depth of a foot, and that there is a drain along the border, and having an 

 outlet, to take away the superfluous water. This being the case, and you 

 being satisfied that the border is not a clOBe, wet, soapy mass, but free and 

 open, we would cover the outside border now with a few inches of litter to 

 protect any roots that may be near the surface, and in February or March 

 we would spread over the inside border 3 inches of partially decomposed 

 short manure, and any nutriment the latter contains will be washed down to 

 the roots with the waterings. We would also place from 6 to 9 inches of 

 littery manure on the outside border at the same time, and any enriching 

 matter which it may contain will be washed down to the roots by the rains 

 that occur between then and June, when the litter may be removed, but 

 the covering on the inside must be allowed to remain. This, if the border is 

 not rich enough will do much to give the berries size, thinning them well 

 when smaller rather than larger than Peas being another essential to obtain- 

 ing large berries. Taking a moderate rather than a large crop, will do 

 much towards securing proper colouring if accompanied by free air daily, 

 and a little at night when the berries are colouring. On the other hand, if 

 the border is wet and close, and the roots running badly in consequence of 

 its not being drained, we can only recommend you to take up the Vines 

 and make a fresh border, but you must draw yonr own conclusions as to that, 

 as we can only form an opinion from the data furnished. 



Widening Vine-bobder (Moonshine). — Yon may add another yard to the 

 Vine-border now. It will not injure but improve the succeeding crop. By 

 all means place the Strawberries for forcing on the shelves in the cool 

 vinery, especially if they are to be forced early. You may stack them out- 

 side if you do not want to force them much, but they will ripen their buds 

 much better in the cold vinery. 



