388 
ROUTINE OF COTTAGE GARDENING. 
and it should also be a rule to keep the 
branches — except perhaps the leading ones, 
where any particular plan of training is 
adopted — frequently stopped ; this would tend 
to check over luxuriance, and favour the pro- 
duction of flowers. Though comparative rest 
and drought has been recommended as a 
general feature of winter management, yet 
there are exceptions to this rule ; thus, for 
instance, when it is desired to change the 
period for blooming, the period of growth 
may be varied accordingly, and when very 
early flowers are desired, the plants must be 
in an active state during winter ; this most 
of the species readily submit to. And even 
where the winter is, as is natural, appropriated 
as a resting period, the evergreen nature of 
the plants must be borne in mind, and mois- 
ture must not be so far withheld as to cause 
them to shed their foliage ; a moderate state 
of dryness is what is required. In the more 
active growing period, when the branches 
require training, it is found that training 
downwards or backwards is beneficial in 
promoting a flowering condition : this simple 
point is worth bearing in mind. 
The leaves of all the species are exceedingly 
liable to suffer from the attacks of a minute 
insect, called by gardeners the red spider, a 
species of acarus or mite (Acarus Telarius). 
When the plants are subjected to a dry 
atmosphere the leaves soon become infested 
with these insects, which spread 'rapidly, and 
do material injury by eating the under side, 
which causes them to become spotted and 
sickly-looking, to the disfigurement of the 
plants, whose beauty is much enhanced by 
the deep green of their foliage when in a vigor- 
ous state. The best remedy for these is to 
prevent them ; and they will not make their ap- 
pearance nor establish themselves if a moist 
atmosphere is maintained, and the plants are 
kept well syringed : to remove them, syring- 
ing with water mixed with sulphur vivum, and 
dusting the under side of the leaves with this 
when they are damp, should be resorted to. 
ROUTINE OF COTTAGE GARDENING, 
BY JAMES GRIGOR. 
The first grand requisite is for every man 
to have a liquid manure tank fixed at a con- 
venient distance from his dwelling. It is by 
no means necessary to go to the expense of 
brickwork and cement, an excellent substitute 
being found in pipes, hogsheads, beer-barrels, 
tubs, &c, according to the number of a man's 
family. Those tanks should be sunk into the 
soil, the hole in which they are set being well 
lined with soft clay, afterwards pressed tightly 
down about the sides. It is not necessary that 
a man should have a piggery or a cow-house 
in order to fill such tanks, for it has been found 
that the liquid collected in bed-rooms, &c, is 
preferable to any other. 
"Well, thus provided, we shall suppose the 
labouring man to start with an allotment at 
Michaelmas. If he kept a cow, the first thing 
he would do would be to dig a portion of the 
land for rye, or rye and vetches together, for 
of all things this is the most useful crop as 
spring feed. The vetches would be succeeded 
by turnips sown during the latter part of 
May. If potatoes had just been removed 
from the land, the first thing to be done is to 
spread upon it well-rotted manure, and if the 
land is loose and dry, a coating of marl and 
clay is found to answer well in hardening it 
so as to cause it to bear up the straw. Wheat 
dislikes fresh manure, and if the land could 
be enriched sufficiently at the time of laying 
down the previous crop, it would be better 
not to give it any. If part of the land should 
be clover ley, it should in like manner be dug 
up for wheat, carefully freeing it from all 
noxious weeds. The best manure for this 
sort of crop is mould well saturated with 
liquid. The wheat should be either drilled 
with a hoe or dibbled at the rate of six inches 
every way from each seed. A peck of seed 
will plant an acre ; and it will be found to 
tiller so that it will completely cover the 
soil and produce large and heavy ears. 
During the month of October, early York 
cabbages should be planted, to be succeeded 
by kidney beans sown in June ; and if the 
lines of cabbages are not very close to each 
other, the beans may be inserted during April 
and May whilst yet the cabbages are on the 
ground. In the latter case, liquid manure 
should be applied to the beans during moist 
weather ; and in a fortnight afterwards they 
will assume a healthy green colour. Another 
plan is to plant early Yorks so that each 
plant may occupy about a square yard, thus 
leaving a sufficient space for intruding as 
many rows of Scotch cabbages during May as 
there are, at present, rows of the former. By 
the time the Yorks come to maturity and are 
removed, the others have plenty of space left 
for their future growth. 
The cottager's work for November con- 
sists chiefly in pulling up and storing car- 
rots, mangold-wurtzel, collecting and turning 
over manure heaps, planting cabbages and 
wheat, (if not done in the previous month,) 
spreading liquid manure over lucerne and 
digging between the drills, planting a few 
turnips for seed, turning up soil for the 
winter to operate upon, &c, sowing peas, 
