January 22, 1885. ] 
JOURNAL OF HORTICULTURE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. 
65 
enumerated it is right to add that the plants were kept out of doors as 
long as possible, being stood inside the greenhouse if a frost seemed 
probable, and turned out again when there was no fear of danger from 
this cause,—H. A. Rolt, Wimbledon Horticultural Society. 
LIST OF VEGETABLES. 
In reply to “B. J. B.,” I will give a list of vegetables similar to the 
one I used for this year’s supply, as I have already had mine in for the 
year. 
Beans. —Broad, Seville, Broad Windsor, and Johnson’s Wonderful; 
Dwarf—Osborn’s Forcing, Sion House, Negro, and Canadian Wonder, 
Runners—Champion Scarlet, and Mont d’Or Butter Bean. 
Broccoli. —Walcheren, Veitch’s Self-protecting Autumn, Snow’s White, 
Osborn’s White, Cooliug’s Matchless, Backhouse’s White, Sutton’s Late 
Queen, and Purple Sprouting. 
Beet. —Pragnell’s Exhibition, Egyptian, Nutting’s Dwarf, and Hender¬ 
son’s Pine Apple. 
Brussels Sprouts. —The Aighurth. 
Kale. —Dwarf Curled Scotch, Buda, and Labrador; this for the first 
time. 
Cabbage. —Wyatt’s Offenham, Ellam’s Dwarf, Improved Nonpareil, 
Red, and Couve Tronchuda. 
Savoys. —Green Curled and Drumhead. 
Cauliflower. —Sutton’s King, Early London, and Autumn Giant. 
Carrot. —French Horn, for forcing ; Long Surrey. 
Cucumber. —Telegraph. 
Celery. —If the character given is genuine of Henderson’s White 
Plume no other variety will equal it; Sutton’s White Gem, and Major 
Clarke’s Red. 
Endive. —Picpus and Improved Round-leaved Batavian. 
Lecli. —Musselburgh. 
Lettuce. —Cabbage, Paris Market Cos, Paris White, and Moor Park. 
Melon. —Blenheim Orange and High Cross Hybrid. 
Onion. —Improved Reading, Deptford, and The Queen. 
Parsnip .—The Student. 
Peas. — Sutton’s Ringleader, Advancer, Dr. Maclean, Walker’s Per¬ 
petual Bearer, Ne Plus Ultra, and Veitch’s Perfection. 
Spinach .—New Longstanding. 
Radish. —Wood’s Frame and Mixed. 
Turnip .—Munich, Early Snowball, and Veitch’s Red Globe. 
Tomato, —Hathaway’s Excelsior. 
Vegetable Marrow. —Moore’s Cream. 
These are all my standard varieties. I always add some new varieties 
of each vegetable as trials, but it is very rare that they surpass the old 
tried sorts. It will be seen that the varieties I have named are mostly old 
and cheap, the latter being a consideration in most gardens.—J. L. B. 
CULTIVATION OF MIMULUS IN POTS. 
For conservatory decoration during the early spring months there are 
few plants that equal the Mimulus tigrinus, either as regards the gorgeous 
colouring and abundant production of its flowers, or the ease with which 
it can be cultivated in pots. The present time will be found suitable to 
commence operations to obtain plants for the conservatory during April 
and May, either by seeds or by cuttings. The seed—of which a good 
strain should he secured—may be sown in shallow well-drained pans, 
filled to within an inch of the rims with equal part of loam, leaf mould, 
and sand. The soil should receive a good watering previous to sowing, as 
otherwise, owing to the smallness of the seed, it will be washed down into 
the soil and much of it lost. After sowing the pans may be covered with 
a slip of glass and placed in the coolest part of the propagating house. 
Care must be taken to remove the glass as soon a3 the seedlings appear, 
or the condensed moisture from the glass will cause them to damp off. 
W r hen large enough to handle they should be pricked off into pans or 
boxes containing a light compost, afterwards transferring them into 
5-inch pots, placing four to five plants in a pot, using a good proportion of 
leaf mould or old hotbed manure with the loam for potting. They 
should then be taken into the greenhouse and placed on a shelf close to 
the glass, where, if well supplied with water and occasional doses of 
liquid manure, they will make rapid progress. As soon as the pots are 
filled with roots shift the plants into 7-inch pots, using a similar compost, 
to which a little artificial manure may be added. Some neat stakes must 
be supplied to support the stems, and in due time they will reward the 
cultivator with a profusion of their handsome blossoms. 
Although this is the only way in the first instance to obtain a stock, the 
best mode is to afterwards obtain the plants by cuttings, selecting and 
marking those seedlings of sufficient merit. When taken from the con¬ 
servatory carefully remove the worthless ones from the pots ; those 
remaining may be cut down and placed in a shady position outside, 
where they can remain until the end of the autumn, when they should be 
yafforded the protection of a cold frame, which will induce a good quantit 
of shoots to proceed from the underground stems. These should be taken 
off early in the year and inserted four and five in a 5-inch pot filled with 
light soil, in which they will root readily if placed in a shady part of the 
greenhouse, when large enough shifting into 7-inch their flowering pots, 
treating them the same as advised for seedlings. 
Plants so obtained are by far the most satisfactory, for however care¬ 
fully the seed may have been saved there is always a certain per-centage 
of inferior varieties in a large batch of seedlings, but by selecting only 
those of good size and substance with brilliant and effective colouring a 
good collection may he formed. The chief point in their cultivation is 
to grow them strongly without a check early in the season, keeping them 
well supplied with water, the lack of which will induce an attack of 
green fly, that if not promptly checked will cripple the foliage and deprive 
the plant of its vigour. 
Seedlings may be raised later in the season for planting out in cool 
shaded spots during the summer, and from which frequently a good 
variety may be obtained to add to the collection in pots.—C., Dorset. 
TRENCHING GROUND. 
I have been a reader of your paper for many years, long before it 
was The Journal of Horticulture, when your able correspondents Mr. 
Keene and Mr. Robert Fish used to advise what should be done in the 
garden, and if my memory serves me truly they always advised deep 
digging and often trenching. These men in their day were looked upon 
as good and practical. Even noble Donald Beaton advised the same 
practice—viz., deep trenching. These men have passed away and others 
have risen to fill their places; still, we regard them as thoroughly 
practical m the profession they followed. I am persuaded it is good to 
trench ground as often as time can be spared to do so. Thoroughly stirring 
the subsoil is, in my opinion, the best way to improve any ground for the 
cultivation of crops, and I have some knowledge of the benefit derived from 
good cultivation during my practice. 
Take as an example a piece of ground that has been cropped for, 
say, twenty years. It is dug the depth of the spade or fork. The top 
soil has improved very much since I have had the charge of this ground, 
but at the distance of a foot below the surface is a very heavy clay soil. 
This ground has worked well, and it has certainly produced crops fairly 
well. But in dry hot weather the plants droop, while on another plot 
near by they are unaffected, and indeed appear to enjoy the heat of the 
hottest sun. How is this ? The only difference between these plots of 
ground is in the cultivation of the ground. This soil was first of all 
made workable, and being naturally heavy I put anything in the way of road 
scrapings with manure, digging it on the flat first, and afterwards placing 
it in ridges to get it thoroughly pulverised. In three years we had a good 
soil. I am speaking now of all the ground. One portion was then 
bastard trenched in this way. A trench was formed 3 feet wide, and 
down to the hard subsoil; the soil was wheeled to the other side, where 
the plot was to be finished. Next the bottom soil was forked up as 
deeply as possible with a steel fork. When well broken a good layer of 
manure was applied, and over the dung a sprinkling of coal ashes ; then 
another trench was formed just in the same way and the same size as 
the first, putting the top spit at the top again, finishing roughly. 
This is how the good piece of ground has been managed for many 
years. My plan is very simple, but it is practical I think, and, more than 
this, it does not require a top-dressing in hot weather. Keep the hoe 
going, and that is all that is wanted to have all healthy, even in the 
hottest seasons. 
I most certainly approve of deep cultivation and trenching ground. I 
am surprised Mr. Iggulden does not think it necessary to trench ground, 
for by his own writings he says he has never lived where trenching 
has been done. He evidently has another lesson to learn, and a most 
important one too in the way of cultivating. But in all good feeling to 
Mr. Iggulden, let me advise him to try trenching ground, not bringing 
up the stiff heavy clay or stones to the surface until the ground has been 
trenched several timest If he tries the system I feel convinced he will 
see its advantage.—H. Cakebread, Rayners. 
Mb. Iggulden is a very generous man ; most men of real ability 
are. It is only the know-everything sort of people who cannot brook 
opposition to the views they entertain on certain subjects ; nor do we find 
that fault-finders as a rule show better work either in the press or the 
garden than is displayed by those on whom they bestow their attention. 
Mr. Iggulden is far from being one of that class. What he has done in 
the cultivation of vegetables entitles him to a place in the dozen best 
kitchen gardeners in the country, while in his endeavours to teach usefully 
as on page 29 he sets an example that others, including myself, 
might follow with advantage. When he “ makes a blunder ” he says so, 
and it is perfectly clear he does not object to be told of his mistakes when 
they are pointed out to him in a respectful manner, and with the object of 
enabling his teachings to be better understood. 
I will now endeavour to point out, from my point of view, the little 
mistake he made in his almost general condemnation of trenching land 
on page 521 last volume. I say almost general, because there were 
qualifying sentences, but these were of such a parenthetical nature that 
they could have little force with the majority of readers ; and the 
rejoinders that have already been published show that the prevailing tone 
of hi3 communication was accepted as denunciatory of the practice of 
deep cultivation that has in instances innumerable contributed so 
enormously to the productiveness of the soil. 
The mistake to which I shall refer is not of a kind to which any reflec¬ 
tion attaches, but is solely that of assailing a great principle on insufficient 
grounds. It is embodied in his own words :—“ Strange to say, I have 
never worked in a garden the soil of which was naturally light, nor has 
trenching been much resorted to with one exception, and in this case 
much more harm than good resulted from it.” “Never” having had 
anything to do with “ light soil,” and only “ one example” of trenching 
as a guide 1 There is the weakness of a case on which was founded an 
article which was practically illimitable. Had your correspondent limited 
his remarks to land like that which he describes as “ haying been culti- 
