278 
JOURNAL OF HORTICULTURE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. 
[ April 2, 1885. 
state of the weather, keeping the temperature through the day at 75° to 
85° from sun heat, closing at 85° to 90°, and if the temperature rise to 95° 
it wi'l help to swell the fruit quickly to a good size. There must not 
be any delay in getting the supports fixed to the fruit when they are 
becoming heavy, pieces of board about an eighth of an inch thick and 0 or 
7 inches square, supported by four pieces of wire from the trellis in a 
sloping position, are serviceable. Maintain a good moisture by syring¬ 
ing the foliage freely twice a day when the weather is bright, and 
keep the evaporation troughs filled with liquid manure, or damp the 
floors with it a short time after closing. In succession houses and pits 
maintain a rather warm and dry atmosphere when the fruit is setting, 
impregnating the blossom daily in the warmest part of the day, and stop 
the shoots at the same time one joint beyond the fruit. Keep the shoots 
rather thin, and ventilate freely whenever the weather is favourable, but 
be careful to avoid cold draughts and a sudden depression of the tempera¬ 
ture. See to the lining of dung frames. Water carefully and always 
with tepid water, keeping the foliage fairly thin, and the shoots stopped 
a joint or two beyond the fruit. Add some fresh soil to the hillocks as the 
roots protrude. Afford good night covering over the lights. 
Cucumbers. —In order to have straight fruits crop lightly and place 
them in glasses. Presuming the plants to he making vigorous growth, 
the soil and allotted space being filled with roots, afford tepid diluted liquid 
manure and maintain a moist atmosphere. Stopping, thinning, and tying 
the shoots being frequently attended to, with the ventilation and other 
cultural requirements, the results will be satisfactory accordingly. Syringe 
at closing time, and damp available surfaces two or three times a dav. 
Ventilate from 75°, keep through the day at that temperature artificially, 
and S0° to 90° with sun heat, closing between 85° and 90°, running up to 
95° with plenty of atmospheric moisture, and allow the temperature to 
fall through the night to 65°, or on very cold nights to G0°. 
THE FLOWER GARDEN AND PLEASURE GROUND. 
Mossy Lawns. —Since the introduction of mowing machines mossy 
lawns have become very general. The scythes and brooms used to check 
the moss, but the mowing machines only skim the surface and do nothing 
to counteract the spread of the moss. Want of manure, bad drainage, 
and frequent rollings with the mowing machines are all calculated to 
encourage moss, and unless something is done to obviate this difficulty the 
lawns will gradually become worse. The most complete remedy is to 
strip off the turf, break up and relevel the surface soil, placing over this 
a layer of ashes of any kind about 2 inches deep, next a thin surfacing of 
good fresh soil, and on this relay the turf. Another plan is to frequently 
stir the surface of the turf with sharp iron rakes, working in plenty of the 
best ashes procurable, or, failing this, plenty of soot and road grit. This 
will remove much of the moss, and the fertilisers will encourage the 
growth of the grass. If the latter is at all thin, sow a renovating mixture 
of lawn grass seeds as supplied by the principal seedsmen, this being done 
in showery weather any time in April. A little fine soil may be distributed 
over the surface, both*to hide the seeds and to hasten germination. Roll 
the ground after the seeds are sown, cut the grass with the scythe when it 
has become fairly strong, and then give another good rolling. Subse¬ 
quently the mowing machines will keep it in good order. 
Herbaceous Borders. —Now the various hardy button-rooted plants 
are well through the ground no time should be lost in putting these 
borders into good order. The least that can be done is to fork in a good 
dressing of partially decayed manure, as without this assistance many of 
the kinds soon exhaust the ground, and will not do well in consequence. 
Strong clumps of herbaceous Phloxes, Pyrethrums, Asters, Japanese 
Anemones, Potentillas, Tradescantias, Hemerocallis, Irises, Delphiniums, 
Spiraeas, and other plants that are now pushing up numbers of young 
shoots, will, in most cases, be greatly improved by lifting, dividing, and 
replanting. If returned to their former positions the ground should be 
freely manured and deeply stirred, as there is little danger of any of them 
getting too much manure or leaf soil. Either the plunging fork or a 
spade should be used for splitting up the strong clumps, and in replanting 
see that all are put in deep enough, and the ground about them made 
tolerably firm. All will be benefited by a mulching with short half- 
decayed manure. 
Gladioli. —A trial should be given in every garden to this grand class 
of plants. The succeed much better in some gardens than in others, 
hut those that can afford to purchase fresh corms every season, and 
they are by no means dear, may rely upon having a good display, while 
in some cases where they do well the stock may be preserved and re¬ 
planted with every prospect of success. They delight in freely manured, 
deeply dug, and well-worked land, and if a little fresh turfy loam can be 
added at planting time so much the better. April is a good month to 
plant the principal portion of the corms, and if planted at fortnightly 
intervals a good succession of flower spikes are secured. They should be 
planted about 2 inches below the surface, and it is advisable to surround 
the corms with sharp sand prior to earthing. Any that are started in pots 
in order to secure a few early spikes should be planted out before they 
experience any check, care being taken to protect them from late frosts. 
Dahlias. —Young plants of these kept to a single stem invariably prove 
more satisfactory than if strong old roots are planted. The cuttings from 
the old roots started in heat strike best when short and taken off with a 
heel, hut they may be cut to a joint and rooted, providing the stems are 
not hollow. The cuttings must he dibbled in thinly in thumb pot'’, and 
placed in a not over-moist bottom heat, a little air be given when close 
propagating frames or glasses are used in order to prevent damping, 
When struck they should be gradually exposed to light and hardened, 
receiving a shift into 5-inch or 6-inch pots before they are badly root- 
hound. Fine strong plants may thus be secured by bedding-out time. 
If there is no convenience for striking the cuttings the old roots can be 
started in a cool house or frame, and before they are far advanced be 
freely cut up and potted off singly into 6-inch pots, but in no case is it 
advisable to grow more than one stem to a plant. Seedlings may 
either be pricked off in boxes about 4 inches apart each way, or be 
placed singly into 4-inch pots. Any fairly rich soil suits Dahlias. 
Tuberous Begonias. —Seedlings of these, as soon as they have formed 
tiny bulbs, to be pricked off 1| inch apart in boxes or pans, well- 
drained, and filled with soil consisting of equal parts of fine loam, and 
either peat or good leaf soil, with silver sand freely added. They 
should be kept in heat, shaded from bright sunshine, and encouraged 
to grow strongly. Before they become crowded they may be transferred 
to larger boxes filled with good soil, from which they will transplant 
at bedding-out time. The old tubers are best started in boxes of good 
sandy soil placed in a rather cool houso or frame. They are less liable 
to receive a check when started and transplanted from boxes rather 
than pots. In their case starvation not unfrequsntly means ruination. 
Golden Pyrethrum. —A box, or boxes, ought now to he sown with 
this, or if it can be spared a frame and a slight hotbed may well be given 
up to it, no pricking-out in this case being necessary. Small plants are 
best for carpet bedding, and the variety P. aureum selaginoides should 
be preferred, this not being so liable to run to seed during the first 
season. 
Annuals. —It is yet too early to sow the quick-growing kinds, but the 
Phlox Drummondii, being a slow grower and fairly hardy, should now be 
sown. The small seedlings, sown in pans, pots, or boxes, of Lobelias, 
Cinerarias, Pentstemons, Antirrhinums, Centaureas, Chamepeuce, Ac., 
ought to be slightly hardened preparatory to pricking off, or otherwise 
they are liable to damp off. No time should be lost in sowing Mig¬ 
nonette and Sweet Peas in the open ground, and if a few seeds are sown 
in 4-inch pots and srood in a warm house or frame, hardening off the 
plants and planting out before they become root-bound, a considerable 
gain will be effected. 
THE CRISIS IN BEE-KEEPING. 
It is now the time wlien those who, from reading the 
varied articles and experiences in this Journal, or from the 
knowledge gained from other sources of the great benefits 
derived from a wise and economic system of bee-keeping, are 
desirous of this year becoming students in the art, are pre¬ 
paring the appliances necessary for successfully carrying out 
that plan of action—either super-ekeing or nadiring, swarm¬ 
ing or non-swarming, which to them seems most suitable. 
It is now, therefore, more than ever necessary to give a few 
words of advice to all such, lest being misled by the grandilo¬ 
quent language of the masters of the science constantly re¬ 
curring in the Bee Journal , they spend a sum of money 
totally incompatible with any increased good result thereon 
compared with an expenditure of much less magnitude. For 
the cottager and for that class of country residents who spend 
all day from home, leaving nobody who is capable of giving 
attention to the varied details of management, the plan so 
often—invariably it might almost be said—advocated in the 
Bee Journal, is sure to lead to failure and great disappoint¬ 
ment. To read, indeed, in that Journal it appears that the 
primary outlay is very much greater than generally repre¬ 
sented. To-day, for instance, a catalogue of hive furniture 
and appliances came to the writer, and although the prices 
are quite, as things go, reasonable, it would be a very easy 
matter to spend £10 on the “ necessary appliances to bee 
cultureand all these are advocated in the Bee Journal. 
Now let a man of the class to whom this advice is specially 
tendered ask himself if he has time in the honey season to 
extract from his combs their honey every few days; if he 
can afford to give 15s. to 30s. for a hive, the same for an ex¬ 
tractor, 3s. a pound for foundation, Is. 6d. each for section 
crates, 7s. 6d. each for Ligurian queens, and like sums, 
which, though not at all unreasonably high, are still too high 
for the man with no capital to invest to purchase. The re¬ 
turn of honey from these goods may be as great as from the 
straw hive managed on a simple principle, but it has yet to 
be proved that it is in the hands of the ordinary bee-master 
greater than the amount of equally good and saleable honey 
BEE-KEEPER. 
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