ttarfi'a i, L89L ] 
JOURNAL OF HORTICULTURE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. 
181 
Our market growers sow the common Chicory broadcast, rather 
thinly towards the end of March or the beginning of April, in the 
open ground. During the summer they sometimes sell the leaves 
•to the herborists. In October they take up the roots to start them 
jnto growth in cellars, and they continue doing so during Novem¬ 
ber, December, and even January. The roots are brought in, and 
after having cut o2 their leaves near the collar, they are made into 
'bundles measuring about 13 inches in diameter, taking care that 
all necks be at the same level. During that time the growers have 
prepared in a very dark cellar a layer of horse manure, 10 to 12 
inches deep no soil or compost is placed over that bed, but a first 
row of these large bundles is set on it in an upright position against 
the wall, then a second row against the first, a third against the 
second, and so on, leaving the least spare room possible. There 
remains usually only a small path in the cellar, just wide enough 
for the work. 
In twenty to twenty-two days the roots of these bundles will 
give us a crop of narrow leaves, 10 to 12 inches long, of a clean 
white colour. The bundles are then brought to the light, divided 
Into six to eight smaller ones, each containing some hundred roots 
with their leaves on, and are fastened with an osier. In that state 
they are brought to the market (under the name of Barbe de 
Capucin) from the end of October until the end of January, when 
it is replaced by the Lettuce.—E ug. Schaettel, Paris. 
Death of Mr. William Marsden. 
OxE of the oldest and most successful amateur Orchid growers 
of this district has passed away in the person of Mr. William 
Marsden of Bloomfield, near Bolton, at the ripe old age of eighty- 
four years. Mr. Marsden, with his Isrother James (who died some 
three years ago), belonged to a firm of brass founders in the town, 
and as neither married they lived together, their only hobby seemed 
to be the cultivation of Orchids. Retiring from business some 
twenty years ago they built the beautiful residence of Bloomfield, 
and made special preparation for a collection of Orchids, to the 
care of which they devoted the whole of their time, anyone 
interested in the cultivation of Orchids being always welcome to 
have a peep at the treasures stored in the houses of Bloomfield. 
I had the opportunity of looking through only a few weeks since, 
and the plants looked the picture of health and cleanliness, and 
reflected great credit to the gardener, Mr. J. Wicks, and his staff.— 
J. H., Bolton. 
A Warning. 
Under the head of “Jottings,” Mr. Lewis Castle, commenting 
on Mr. Young’s letter concerning the employment of leaves and 
other fermenting materials, wisely points out the principal objec¬ 
tion to the use of leaves in Orchid houses. The question of insects 
is a very important one, and may result in an endless amount of 
labour and annoyance through using these materials. If there are 
any woodlice on the place, my advice is. Do not use them. In 
leaves and such material woodlice increase so rapidly that they are 
capable of devouring nearly every plant they find. I have been 
contending with these pests for a whole season in two houses in 
which litter and leaves have been employed. An attempt had been 
made to exterminate them, but in a few months they were as 
numerous as ever. If growers want their Orchid spikes devoured 
and the tender roots destroyed, they cannot do better than place 
leaves in the houses. 
A few years ago there was a demand for leaves in Orchid houses, 
and those who urged their employment most strongly were, in some 
instances, the first to discontinue the practice. It looks to me much 
like going back to the days when these materials were used mainly 
for supplementing the heat. To prepare leaves in a suitable 
manner for placing in these structures, the wheeling in and out 
again entails a good deal of labour that cannot well be spared in 
many gardens if things can be well done without. If Orchids 
meed “ manurial assistance,” cannot it be applied by a less expensive 
method? I do not dispute that these plants can be stimulated, 
their appearance changed, and the size of their pseudc-bulbs in¬ 
creased ; but do these methods of culture add to the longevity of 
the plants ? Is it not possible to overgrow them, and thus shorten 
the length of their existence ? 
There is another matter worth consideration, and that is, all 
houses are not constructed in such a manner that leaves and other 
materials of a similar nature can be used without proving offensive. 
In perhaps the majority of the houses used for these plants leaves 
would present an untidy appearance, and would on this account be 
strongly objected to. In private gardens, at any rate, appearances 
must be considered, and I do not think the trade will long follow, 
even if they start, the practice that has been advised, simply 
because it will prove too costly.— Wm. Bardney. 
TOUCHED BY THE STEEL ; OR, THE SLAUGHTER 
OF THE INNOCENTS. 
We can only judge darkly as yet of the effects of a severe 
winter and the prospects of a late spring, so dense have been the 
fogs of the last few days, so chilling 
The envious sneaking frost 
That bites the first-born infants of the spring. 
After the snows left us and the long great frost broke up, now 
and again came a day of rare warmth and brightness, when one 
might work and plan, aye, and notice too, that so far things 
seemed healthy of late. Fruit trees were bristling with buds, bulbs 
breaking bravely upwards through the heavy but by no means very 
saturated earth ; patches of Snowdrops whiten the borders. Crocuses 
gleam in the grass. And the Rose trees. Teas as well as hybrids 
show only reasonable signs of rosy vitality, regarded as they are now 
with greater hope and interest, because a Chestnut tree which had 
too long shaded a corner of our small rosery and darkened our 
windows has at length been removed. 
Not all the aggressors had fallen, however ; one, a Lime tree, a 
favourite from associations as well as from its fragrance when in 
flower, was still too near the generous soil its roots were always 
seeking to share ; year after year throwing into the midst of our 
Rose beds dense masses of fine fibrous rootlets, making a drought 
wherever they went, and but little restrained by the frequent 
cutting-in of the leading fangs close to the beds. 
The war must be carried on nearer the camp on the other side 
of the walk. The grass edging was to be lifted, and all along the 
sides the offending roots were to be divided, say about a distance of 
12 feet from the nearest beds, leaving the Lime tree roots un¬ 
molested in the border to the length of G feet or more, where 
over them close up lO the trunk of the tree reposed in order and by 
name a small collection of Daffodils, dear as Daffodils are to those 
who care for them and watch for their first appearing. 
Easy to anticipate the sequel. Urgent business prevented my 
remaining to superintend the operation. My man was handy, intelli¬ 
gent, and light of foot ; he understood everything. My mission 
was meantime disappointing. I returned, but had I not something 
to lighten and refresh me ? I should be in time to help. All was 
over ; my man was standing at ease leaning on a rake, a basket of 
debris by him. The mould had been disturbed, chips were about, 
more had been taken off. It was quicker work to step on the 
border nearly close up to the tree, open the ground a little way, 
and then amputate the offending roots Alas ! and alas ! Who can 
tell how many unborn flowers may not have perished—how many 
innocents executed ? I gathered up the fragments with a heavy 
heart, the mischief was done all unintentionally. I shall not know 
for a while what is left. The Roses may be richer, but the 
Daffodils in many cases have been, I fear, done to death. How I 
shall miss them and mourn their fate can easily be understood.— 
A. M. B., Mid-Lincoln. 
REMOVING FLOWER BUDS OF PEACHES. 
A CAUTION. 
There is some danger of mischief following a too rigid 
adherence to rule in carrying out this practice. The principle on 
which it is based is sound, as everyone who has succeeded, in some 
degree at least, in the production of large blooms of any given 
plant fully understands, for the fewer the flowers left on a plant 
the larger, all things being equal, will be those remaining to 
develop. But in the case of Peaches there are, I venture to think, 
one or two circumstances which ought to be duly considered by 
cultivators before too hastily packing the whole of their eggs in so 
small a basket. 
The first point is partly theoretical. Growers with an intelli¬ 
gent grasp of the subject are so well assured of the bearing which 
the previous season’s treatment exerts on the current season’s pro¬ 
duction of normally healthy and perfect flowers that this forms a 
most important item in the successful management of Peach trees. 
No more young growth than will fill the place of exhausted 
