* Angnst 25, 1887. ] 
JOURNAL OF HORTICULTURE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. 
171 
ground then rolled. A firm soil suits them at all times, some of our best 
bulbs this season weighed 20 ozs. 
Spring Cabbage. —The young plants do not grow quickly. Where 
rain is still deficient they should be watered thoroughly now, and 
again when necessary. Where seed was sown early and the plants are 
now 3 inches or 4 inches high, water them well in the seed bed, then 
draw the largest of them and plant in a good piece of ground. The 
rows should be 2 feet apart, and IS inches from plant to plant suits 
most varieties. We hear of many winter greens having failed this 
season, and by planting the largest of the Cabbage plants, now many of 
them may become ready for cutting by December should the autumn and 
early winter prove wet and mild. If dry weather succeeds planting 
give water copiously until they are established. 
Late Turnips. —We are still dissatisfiel with our crops, have 
therefore sown again this week, and we would advise all who have any 
prospect of being deficient of this important crop to do the same. 
Tomatoes. —The majority of our indoor plants have been cleared 
out, as those in the open air arc ripening fruit freely, and our supply 
from them until frost comes is insured ; but the dry weather with the 
weight of fruit is very trying to them, and large quantities of liquid 
manure are requisite for their support. They are not growing very 
freely now, and require little pruning, but where the growths are 
luxuriant they should be pinched closely. 
Kidney Beans in Frames. —It is now too late to sow Kidney 
Beans in the open ground, but as there are many empty frames in gardens 
at the present time, a quantity of Ne Plus Ultra, or some other dwarf 
sort, should be sown in them. If they contain soil from which Carrots 
have been cleared, or any other vegetable, it may not be necessary to 
add more soil, but level it down, clear it of weeds, then open up drills 
15 inches apart and 3 inches deep, and sow the seed in them thinly. 
Give water if nec ssary, and do not put on the lights until frost or a 
low temperature threatens to injure them. These Beans will fruit much 
later than any in the open, as the lights can easily be drawn over them 
at night in October or November, and all who grow their latest Kidney 
Beans in frames will find them a most valuable crop. 
Late Celery. —As a rule spring Celery is planted too early. There 
is plenty of it ready now, and the winter stocks are well forward, but no 
one can expect to have good Celery next spring where it is almost full 
sized now. The best way of securing late Celery is to plant rows of it 
about this time, allow it to remain unearthed until winter to keen it 
hardy, and it will turn out fine and firm in the spring months. The 
best spring Celery we ever had was planted on the level ground on a 
south border. We placed some bracken between the rows in winter, 
and earthed the plants up in February by placing old leaf soil between 
them, and the produce was excellent. 
Old Crops. —Many crops are now becoming old and past use. The 
second early Cauliflowers are almost over. Peas, excepting the late 
ones, are withered up. Dwarf Kidney Beans have become too old on 
the early rows, and many things may be cleared off, but this is not 
always done promptly. It is no uncommon occurrence for crops which 
were over in August to be left until September or October before clear¬ 
ing them off ; this is very unprofitable, as old crops of the kind indi¬ 
cated are absolutely worthless, yet exhaust the land. The better way 
is to clear them off as soon as they are too old for use, and their place 
may always be filled with some kind of young crop. 
FRUIT FORCING. 
Pines. —Suckers from the summer-fruiting plants will soon be ready 
to repot. It is well to divide the plants into two batches ; one, the 
strongest plants, should be shifted into their fruiting pots as soon as 
ready, employing 10 or 11-inch pots according to kind, affording them a 
position near the glass in a light airy house, keeping them gradually 
growing through the winter. The plants so treated will be readily ex¬ 
cited into fruit next May or J une, and will afford a good supply in late 
summer or early autumn. The other plants, suckers from the summer 
fruiters, not large enough to shift into fruiting pots, winter in the 
7 or 8-inch pots, transferring them to the fruiting pots as soon as ready 
in the spring, which, with suckers of Smooth-leaved Cayenne that were 
started last March, will provide a successional supply of fruit through 
the winter months. 
A re-arrangement of the plants should now be made in order to 
separate the fruiting from the non-fruiting plants, as many of those that 
were started from suckers of last summer’s fruiters will have fruit swell¬ 
ing off. Those plants not fruiting will have completed the growth, and 
should have air very liberally for the next six weeks, when the tempera¬ 
ture exceeds 80°, maintaining the bottom heat steadily at 80° ; and all 
plants well established— i.e., well rooted, should have a bottom heat of 
80° to 85°, but recently potted plants, or those not having roots well 
established in the fresh compost, maintain at 90°. 
Plants swelling off the fruit should have moderate atmospheric mois¬ 
ture, admitting a little air at the top of the house early in the morning, 
so as to allow of any superfluous moisture escaping before the sun’s rays 
act powerfully upon the fruit. Any fruit it is desired to retard should 
be moved to a rather cool or shady house, affording abundance of air. 
Figs. — Planted out trees in Fig houses not infrequently grow 
rampantly, and consequently produce thin crops of fruit. In that 
case root pruning may be resorted to, and the roots be confined to a 
border from 3 to 4 feet in width. If the drainage be defective it 
will be necessary to lift the trees in the autumn as soon as the leaves 
commence falling and replant in fresh soil. Place in 9 to 12 inches of 
rough stones or brickbats for drainage, and over them a covering of 
rather rough lime rubbish, using the finer parts for mixing with the 
compost in the proportion of a sixth to the bulk of turfy loam and a 
twentieth of crushed bones. In replanting, ram the soil well about the 
roots, for short-jointed fruitful wood cannot be so well secured by 
other means than by a solidified compost. The border should be 
24 to 30 inches deep. Should the drainage be good it will only be 
necessary to confine the roots to the narrow border, removing some of 
the old soil from amongst them, and top-dressing with fresh loam with 
an admixture of lime rubbish and crushed bones as above stated. If 
the loam be light add a sixth of clayey marl; if heavy, a sixth of 
road scrapings. The proper time to operate in the manner indicated 
is as soon in late summer or autumn as the foliage gives indications of 
maturing. 
Peaches and Nectarines. —Earliest Forced Trees .—The leaves 
will soon be off, when loosen the trees from the trellis, clean the 
house, seeing to the needful repairs, and painting of the woodwork 
and trellis. The mulching and loose surface soil should be removed 
and fresh loam with a twelfth part of bone dust and a twentieth 
of wood ashes added, affording a moderate watering if the soil be 
dry. Whatever pruning is required should be done as soon as the 
house is put in order, but if the trees have been properly attended to^ 
very little work will require to be performed with the knife. Tress the 
trees with an insecticide. It is well to wash the whole of the trees by 
means of a brush with a soapy solution—say 4 ozs. softsoap to a gallon 
of water, adding a quart of strained tobacco juice, and if there be any 
scale a wineglassful of spirits of turpentine, keeping it well mixed by 
frequent stirring. In applying insecticides care should be taken to 
reach every part, and the brush should be used in such manner as not 
to injure or dislocate the buds. Trees cleaned and neatly secured to the 
trellis look far better than those left untrimmed until the latest period 
before starting. 
Late Houses. — The fruit is swelling well and requires very 
liberal supplies of water until the ripening is well advanced, when 
moderate supplies will be sufficient ; enough, however, should be given 
to maintain the foliage in a healthy state. Trees that are making gross 
wood, and have a tendency to late growth, should be marked for lifting,, 
an infallible remedy for indifferent setting and uncertainty of stoning. 
Any trees that do not ripen the wood well should be curtailed at the 
roots by taking out a trench, so as to detach the roots at about one-third 
the distance from the stem the trees cover on the trellis, doing it about 
the end of September or as early in October as the fruit is gathered. 
PLANT HOUSES. 
Heliotropes .—To have really good plants early in the spring in 
5-inch pots for conservatory decoration cuttings should be inserted at 
once. They may be placed close together in 5 and 6-inch pots, and when 
rooted transferred into 3-inch, in which they can be wintered. The 
cuttings root freely if placed under handlights in a warm house and 
shaded from the sun. As soon as they are established in the small pots 
they should be hardened to greenhouse treatment. The shoots must be 
pinched from time to time, so that they may be dwarf and bushy by the 
early part of January, when they should be placed in their flowering pots 
and encouraged to grow. None of the plants intended for autumn and 
winter flowering should be pinched after this date. If practicable, place 
them where they can be protected at night in frames, but throw the 
lights off during the day. When there is a tendency for the temperature 
to fall at night below 45° the lights should be closed until morning. 
Cyclamens .—Twelve to fifteen months are required in which to 
produce large well developed plants in 5 and 6-inch pots from seed. 
Seed should be sown at once in pans filled with moderately light soil, the 
seed to be just covered with fine soil and the pans placed in a temperature 
of 60° to 65°. The surface of the pans should be covered with a square 
of glass with damp moss laid over the surface. Under these conditions 
new seed will quickly germinate, and as soon as this takes place gradually 
harden the seedlings to bear full exposure to the light, and afterwards 
grow them on a shelf close to the glass. 
Primulas .—Plants intended to flower in the early part of November 
will be strong and sturdy. These should have abundance of air, and the 
frames in which they are growing raised a few inches from the ground, 
so that the air will circulate freely amongst the plants and thus prevent 
the foliage drawing up weakly or damping. These should have a little 
artificial manure applied to the surface, for the pots should be full of 
roots by this time. This will assist the plants wonderfully and prevent 
. them for a time throwing up flowers, which will be an advantage, for 
they quickly appear as soon as the pots become full of roots and it is 
useless to pick them off ; the better practice is to prevent their appear¬ 
ance by keeping the plants growing. Successional plants will need 
careful watering, and the forwardest of them for early spring flowering 
may be placed at once into 5-inch pots and the remainder as soon as they 
are ready. The latest of all will not be ready for a month or five weeks, 
and some of the plants for even a longer period. These must have 
abundance of air day and night, for they are slightly drawn by shading 
rather heavier than usual during the hot bright weather we have ex¬ 
perienced. By admitting abundance of light and air from this date the 
plants will be in thoroughly good condition by housing time. 
Scabious .—Those intended for flowering indoors should be strong 
plants and ready for placing at once into 6-inch pots. They do well in 
good loam and one-seventh of manure. Plunge the pots outside in an 
open sunny position where they can remain until the approach of frost, 
when they must have the protection of cold frames or a light position in 
the greenhouse or any other structure. For flowering in spring seed 
