JOURNAL OF HORTICULTURE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. 
February 2, 1882. ] 
99 
above the Peas, giving occasional dustings of dry wood ashes when 
the Peas are damp, will be sufficient to ward off their attacks as well 
as those of slugs. When the plants are sufficiently advanced a little 
soil must be drawn to them on both sides of the rows, and some 
short sticks placed in will prevent them being injured by winds. 
Make a sowing of early and second early Peas. William I. and First 
and Best should be sown along with the second early or main crop 
varieties, so that there may not be any break in the succession. 
Except for early crops open situations are the most suitable for 
Peas. Between the rows of Peas a single row of Bound or Summer 
Spinach may be had. Early Cabbage should have the soil drawn 
around the stems, hoeing-in the spaces between the plants. A good 
breadth of August-sown Cabbages should be planted, allowing a 
distance of 20 to 24 inches apart according to the variety and the 
size of heads desired. Plant Jerusalem Artichokes now, allowing 
2 feet between the rows and 18 inches between the plants ; select 
good round sets, and insert them 4 to G inches deep. If the soil be 
rich the rows may be 3 feet apart. 
Forcing Department .—Well ventilate frames containing Carrots 
and Radishes when the weather is favourable, thinning out early- 
sown crops to about 3 inches apart, making another sowing of these 
for succession in frames over fermenting beds covered with a few 
inches of light rich soil. Potatoes in pits and frames are growing 
vigorously; remove the lights when the air is mild. Sets of these 
prepared in boxes of leaf soil should be planted out when the 
shoots are about a couple of inches long, the fermenting beds being 
covered with 6 inches depth of light rich soil, inserting the sets 
about 4 inches deep 12 inches apart in rows 15 inches asunder. Any 
frames or pits may be utilised by preparing fermenting materials and 
soil for planting with prepared sets of Potatoes, which will afford a 
fuller supply of tubers in May than those earlier planted. French 
Beans at this season are best sown in pits filled with fermenting 
materials to about 18 inches from the glass, treading them firmly, 
and putting in about G inches of light rich soil, as the fermenting 
materials will settle and give space for the plants. Sow the seed 
in drills 15 to 18 inches apart. Osborn’s Forcing, Canadian Wonder, 
and Ne Plus Ultra are suitable varieties. Artificial heat must be 
employed to maintain a night temperature of 55° to 60°, and 5° to 10° 
more by day, and a similar rise by sun heat. Maintain the supply of 
green Mint by introducing fresh roots, also Tarragon, making fre¬ 
quent sowings of Mustard and Cress. Continue transferring fresh 
roots of Seakale and Rhubarb to the Mushroom house ; but where 
fermenting materials are available, and the stools can be covered 
with hurdles or pots, the results will be finer at this season than 
such as can be obtained by lifting the roots. Where Basil and 
Sweet Marjoram are required seed may now be sown in boxes or 
pans and placed in gentle heat. Celery for the principal early crop 
should be sown in pans placed in a hotbed; for this sowing San¬ 
dringham White and Leicester Red are suitable. The earlier-sown 
should be potted off singly in 3-inch pots and grown in a tem¬ 
perature of 60° to G5°. Sow also Tomato seed to obtain plants for 
fruiting in pots. Orangefield is still one of the most useful and prolific 
varieties, Criterion being good alike for pots or planting out, as also 
is Trentham Early Fillbasket. Plants from earlier-sown seed should 
be shifted as they fill the pots with roots. In all cases keep the 
plants near the glass so as to induce a sturdy early-fruiting habit ; 
the temperature must be 55° to G5°. Capsicums, where these are 
required in good time, should now be sown for an early supply of 
pods and treated similarly to Tomatoes. 
FRUIT HOUSES. 
Peaches and Nectarines .—The fruit in the earliest house is now 
swelling freely, hence syringing the trees must not be neglected in 
the morning and afternoon of fine days, but in dull weather damping 
the borders will be preferable. Fruits that have been properly im¬ 
pregnated will swell rapidly to the size of small marbles, whilst those 
that are defective in that respect will advance very slowly, and 
should be removed gradually, leaving about twice the quantity of 
the larger-sized fruits as will be required for the crop to allow of 
further thinning. In thinning the fruit remove those on the under 
side or at the back of the trellis. Disbudding must be carefully 
attended to, removing a few of the foreright or other shoots not re¬ 
quired at a time so as not to give any great check to the roots. If 
aphides appear fumigate moderately on two consecutive calm even¬ 
ings, having the foliage dry. The night temperature should be con¬ 
tinued at 55° or G0° if the weather be mild, advancing to 70° or 75° 
from sun heat, ventilating freely over 65°, being careful in ventilating 
in frosty weather, for cold draughts give a check to the tender foliage 
and young fruit, and it is better to allow the temperature to rise a 
little higher than to open the ventilators too much to reduce it. In 
watering the inside borders weak liquid manure will assist the fruit 
in swelling. 
Pines .—In order to have ripe Pine Apples at all seasons suc- 
cessional plants must be started at various times during the year. 
About this time it will be desirable to supplement the batch of 
autumn-potted suckers by a selection from the plants that have been 
wintered in 7 or 8-inch pots. Select the most vigorous and best 
rooted, shifting them into the fruiting-size pots, keeping them well 
down in the pots to admit of a copious supply of water when needed, 
firmly ramming the soil round the balls, which in a bottom heat of 
85° at the base of the pots will speedily be occupied with roots. The 
plants that remain after this selection is made should be reserved 
until the spring potting time, when they should be shaken out and 
be subjected to the same course of treatment as those which will 
then be started. Continue the treatment advised in our last calendar 
for plants which have recently started into fruit, taking care that 
the heat at the base of the pots does not exceed 90° to 95°. If the 
plants are in a satisfactory state at the roots they will indicate it by 
producing good suckers, especially Queens. If too large a number 
of these be retained it is prejudicial alike to the fruit and future 
stock, hence as soon as the suckers are large enough the growth of 
all except one to each plant, which should be left for stock, must be 
removed. When leaves are employed for making Pine beds they 
should be collected and stacked, as the time is at hand when they 
will be required. 
PLANT HOUSES. 
Stove .—There is nothing like a long season of growth for the Alla- 
mandas, hence all the varieties that have been kept dry at the roots 
and rested through the winter should at once be cut back, half the 
old soil being removed ; repot them in good turfy loam, and at once 
secure them to the trellis, as if this be not done before growth com¬ 
mences there is danger of breaking the shoots. Bougainvillea glabra 
should at once be started, removing a portion of the old soil from 
such as are already large enough, returning them to the same size 
pot, employing good turfy loam enriched with well-decomposed 
manure. Plants of Clerodendron Balfourianum that have been quite 
dry at the roots should be well soaked in tepid water, but shaking 
out or cutting in the branches will not be needed. Plants which it 
is desirable to increase in size must be at once shifted into larger 
pots without disturbing the roots more than in removing the crocks. 
Ixoras, Francisceas, and others of an evergreen character should, 
if they require more root room, be now potted, not reducing the roots, 
merely removing the crocks and loosening the sides of the ball, and 
removing any surface or other soil not occupied with roots. Ihe soil 
employed in potting must always be warm and pot firmly. For 
hardwooded stove plants all peat is preferable to a mixture of loam 
and peat. 
Alocasias should be potted in a mixture of two parts fibrous peat, a 
similar proportion of chopped shagnum, and one part each of old dry 
manure, crocks, and charcoal, with a sprinkling of sand, providing f 
extra drainage, as during growth copious supplies of water are re¬ 
quired. A. macrorhiza variegata is very effective and should be 
grown in fibrous loam, with a fourth of well-decomposed manure 
and a sprinkling of sand. Marantas, though of little value for de¬ 
corative purposes as they soon become disfigured in a cold or dry 
atmosphere, yet are great ornaments in the stove. They should be 
potted in peat and loam with a sixth of sand and a smaller pro¬ 
portion of crocks and charcoal, draining well, and not overpotting, 
as when so treated the soil becomes sour and the plants do not 
thrive. 
