May 14, 1885. ] 
JOURNAL OF HORTICULTURE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. 
403 
Ivirk, and the Banks o’Doon, he has worthily mounted his wares, fitting 
them for a place in the library, the surgery, or the workshop ; while 
those that are uncased are equally suited for rougher usage in factories 
and tool houses. We heartily recommend them. 
- The Darlington Rose Show will be held at Southend, Darling¬ 
ton, on Saturday, July 25th inst. 
- We are glad to learn that Mr. W. Warhurst, horticultural 
builder and hot-water engineer, has so far recovered from a serious afflic¬ 
tion of a year’s duration as to be able to resume his business, which 
henceforth will be conducted at 15, Paulton Gardens, Chelsea, in conjunction 
with Mr. Holliday, the well-known wire-worker, the lease of 33, Highgate 
Road, Mr. Warhurst’s old place of business, having expired. 
- Trenching Ground. —Mr. Iggulden desires us to find room for 
the following extract from a letter received from a friend who has spent 
many years in the neighbourhood of Richmond, Surrey. He writes :— 
“ There is no trenching done in any of the market gardens about here, 
and I find on inquiry there is none done about Feltham and Bedfont— 
both great places for market work. The soil is very light with a gravelly 
subsoil. They work their ground what we term like a hotbed, a cartload 
of fresh steaming manure going where we would put two barrowload*. 
It is ploughed in where there are no trees.” Mr. Iggulden thus “claims 
Surrey and Middlesex, in addition to Essex and Burleigh,” as his sup¬ 
porters on this subject. 
- Thoughts on Current Topics.— “ A Thinker ” writes :—“ I find 
I made a rather peculiar mistake last week. Just previously to penning 
my notes on page 371, I had been reading an excellent article by Mr. 
Bardney on Liliums in a previous volume, and his name having 
thereby been impressed on my mind it was inadvertently used in the place 
of “ Scientia.” I here offer a spontaneous apology to Mr. Bardney, as I 
cannot think a gardener so practical as he is would like to be identified 
with the method advocated by an individual, however scientific, of pulling 
off the roots of plants to make them grow.” 
- The first of a trio of exhibitions of the Royal Horticultural 
and Agricultural Society of Antwerp, arranged to be held at intervals 
in connection with the Great International Exhibition of General Products, 
was held on the 10th-12th inst. in the old Flemish city. The display of 
Orchids was the most extensive ever seen in Belgium ; Azaleas were mag¬ 
nificent, Palms and other plants excellent, and altogether a bright and 
beautiful show was produced, which will be referred to more fully in a 
future issue. 
- At the ordinary meeting of the Royal Meteorological 
Society, at 25, Great George Street, Westminster, on Wednesday, the 
20th instant, at 7 p.m., the following papers will be read :—“ The 
Temperature Zones of the Earth in Connection with its Biological Con¬ 
ditions,” by Dr. W. Koppen, Hon.Mem.R.Met.Soc. ; “ Velocities of 
Winds and their Measurement,” by Lieut.-Col. H. S. Knight, F.R.Met. 
Soc , F.R.A.S.; “ Note on Mr. C. Harding’s Paper on Wmd Velocities,” 
by Dr. W. Koppen, Hon.Mem.R.Met.Soc ; “Note on a Peculiar Form 
of Auroral Cloud Seen in Northamptonshire, March 1st, 1885,” by Rev. 
James Davis, communicated by the President. 
- A committee has been formed for collecting funds for present¬ 
ing a Testimonial to Mr. E. R. Cutler for the great services he has 
rendered as Secretary to the Gardeners’ Royal Benevolent Institution 
during a period of forty-four years. This second testimonial shows 
emphatically the high esteem in which Mr. Cutler is held by supporters 
of this excellent institution. 
- Mr. Joseph Mallender sends the following Summary of 
Meteorological Observations at Hodsock Priory, Worksop, 
Notts., for April 1885 :—Mean temperature of month, 45 3 ; maximum 
on the 21st, 71T0° ; minimum on the 4th, 20 7° ; maximum in sun on the 
21st, 126*7°. The warmest day was the 21st; the coldest day the 4th. 
Mean temperature of the air at 9 a.m., 46 8. Mean temperature of the 
soil 1 foot deep, 45 5°; below 32° on eight nights in the shade, and 13° on 
the grass. Total duration of sunshine in month, 124 hours, or 30 per cent, 
of possible. The brightest day was the 17th. We had 11*3 hours, or 
81 per cent., and nine sunless days. Total rainfall, 1*89. Maximum fall 
in 24 hours on the 6th, 0*50. Rain fell on fifteen days. The first sixteen 
days were cold, but the rest of the month has been rather warmer than 
the average. The mean is 1*3° higher than last year, but below the two 
previous ones. Range of temperature, both mean and extreme, large* 
The minimum is the lowest in April in ten years, and the maximum has 
only been O’ 1° higher in the same period. Sunshine more than last year, 
but less than the three previous years. Rainfall about the average. 
Fruit blossom very abundant and late. Queen wasps very plentiful. 
HOT-WATER PIPES. 
The form of joint used by Messrs. Foster & Pearson may be very good. 
I have never seen them, and therefore shall not attempt to pass any 
opinion upon them. If I understand the joint rightly from the drawing 
on page 316 sufficient room is left for the expansion of the pipes, and no 
expansion valve would be needed on pipes fitted with the joints in question. 
Perhaps your correspondents will state if this really is the case ? I hinted 
that sediment settling about the face of the valve might prevent them 
holding back water, and I agree with Messrs. Foster & Pearson on this 
point; but valves that are worked two or three times daily fail to do this 
after they have been after a time, but sediment after all may be the cause 
of the mischief. Joints do not burst without a cause, and the case alluded 
to by your correspondent is not sufficient evidence for condemning the use 
of iron filings. Surely when the pipes were not in use they could not burst 
from the expansion of the metal had not the mischief been previously 
done, or was not the breakdown due to other causes 1 
I fail to see in the communication named the hint alluded to by 
“ Thinker ” that many pipes fail because they are not worked. Messrs. 
Foster & Pearson allude to valves failing from this cause, and “ Thinker ” 
applies it to the pipes. Perhaps he will think about this ; and, as he has 
proved such to be the case, state why they fail because they are not 
worked. I can understand pipes bursting if left during winter full of 
water and allowed to become frozen. It is a good plan to run out the 
water when the pipes are not in use if practicable, but this cannot always 
be done.— Wm. Bardney. 
SOOT WATER. 
As a cheap and easily made reliable fertiliser this is of great value. 
It may be used with much advantage wherever plants are grown in pots. 
There is no kind of plant it does not benefit, and it may be given to those 
which produce fruit, flowers, or fine foliage. It has the virtue better than 
any other fertiliser of clearing worms from the soil in pots, and this is a 
great gain in itself. No kind of worm will remain in the soil which 
receives a supply of soot water occasionally, and it causes foliage, fruit, 
and flowers to assume a much darker colour than they do when it is not 
used. It imparts extra vigour, and may be used all the year round. 
Ferns are especially benefited by it, and the fronds assume a deep green 
colour under its influence. Strawberries in pots, Pines, Vines, Pelar¬ 
goniums, Fuchsias, and indeed all plants improve in texture and 
appearance from its use. It may be use! to expel worms before the pots 
are full of roots, but as a general fertiliser it should not be much employed 
until the roots have taken to the soil freely. It is not wanted until 
then. 
Many have much difficulty in getting the soot to mix with the water, 
but this is easily enough managed. Any ordinary old bag should be 
taken ; half fill it with soot, put a biick or large stone inside, tie up the 
mouth, and put it into the tank or barrel with the water. In a short time 
the water will have penetrated through every particle of the soot any 
converted it into a pulp. The water is then in excellent condition for 
use. It may, however, be too strong for giving to the plants as it is, but 
a quantity of it may be lifted and put into the pans with clear water, the 
strength to apply it being a matter which can only be determined by the 
cultivator.—J. Muir, Margam. 
USEFUL CROPS. 
Celery and Celery Trenches. —In small gardens, or say 
where only two or three rows are planted, these may be disposed 
in different spots without any great inconvenience or the appear¬ 
ance of disorder. Where, however, a much larger number of 
rows of plants must be grown a more systematic arrangement 
is necessary, and a variety of schemes more or less economical is 
the result. In some gardens the principal portion of the Pea 
crops and the Celery trenches are worked together, apparently 
with the best of results- The rows of Peas are necessarily dis¬ 
posed at wide intervals, or say not much less than 6 feet apart, 
and as a consequence the dwarfer sorts especially derive much 
benefit from the abundance of light they naturally receive. 
Then the partial shade afforded by the Peas to the Celery, when 
the latter is first planted, proves most beneficial, though it must 
be admitted that it is quite possible to unduly shade and thereby 
weaken the Celery. Some cut their trenches before the Peas are 
sown, the soil thrown out on to the manured and deeply dug 
central spaces adding materially to the depth of extra fertile 
soil. I may perhaps appear slightly inconsistent in commending 
a deep root run for Peas, but when the rows are thus disposed at 
wide intervals there is less danger of too much haulm being 
formed. 
Many delay digging the Celery trenches till after the Peas 
are staked, for the simple reason that the latter work can be 
