570 
JOURNAL OF HORTICULTURE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. 
[ December 24, 1885. 
their formation should be prepared. Collect leaves, old vegetables, and 
littery manure of any kind ; mix them all together, throw them into one 
heap, turn this every three or four days, and by the beginning of January 
a hotbed may be made up, which will produce early Carrot», Potatoes, 
Radishes, or anything which may be desired. A hotbed is the most useful 
thing anyone can have in a garden in the spring months, as propagation 
and other things may be done in it, and the main point is to secure plenty 
of material to make it with. Where leaves and straw manure are short, 
Cabbage, Savoy, and other vegetable stumps and leaves are a great 
help. 
Jerusalem Artichokes. —Although these are not grown in every 
garden, we regard them as one of our very best winter vegetables, 
deserving more extensive cultivation. The roots can be used in many 
ways, and many persons enjoy them as a vegetable pure and simple cooked 
like Potatoes. When planted in rows in the spring they soon emit side 
shoots, which grow up and make it difficult to tell where the rows are. and 
for this reason it is necessary to dig up every winter and plant every 
spring. They ought to be all dug now, putting a quantity of the smaller 
ones to one side for replanting, and storing the others like Potatoes for 
use. They keep well for months, and those dug up now will be quite good 
until May or later. 
Walks. —This is a good time to see that walks are in proper order. A 
kitchen garden walk ought to be a thoroughly good one. When they are 
not well made the wheeling which has to be done on them very soon puts 
them out of shape, and makes them puddly in winter p.nd uncomfortable 
at all times. Large stones should form the foundation, smaller ones should 
top these, and gravel or ashes should crown all. Altogether, these materials 
should be 1 foot in thickness at least. Where old walks are out of form, 
pick them up ; pull the small material to one side, place some rough 
material in the centre, and throw the fine from the sides over the top again. 
All walks should be a little higher in the centre than at the sides, and 
although some may think any kind of path will do in the vegetable 
garden, good and well-kept pathways are both ornamental aDd useful. 
Tools. —These are not used so much at present as they will be in a 
few months, and now is the time to have broken ones repaired and new 
ones got in where required. This applies to hoes, rakes, baskets, and, in 
short, everything. On some estates borrowing of tools goes on, and every 
new tool we bring in is at once branded “ garden.” 
.FRUIT FORCING. 
Peaches and Nectarines. — Earliest ■ forced Mouse. —Forcing 
operations having been impeded by the cold in the early part of the 
month, the buds are not so forward as usual; but where the roots are in¬ 
side, as those of all early Peaches should be, the.buds are swelling strongly, 
some showing colour, and the night temperature should not fall much 
below 45° on cold nights and 50° on mild nights, with a rise of 10° to 15° 
by day, but nothing is gained by being in a hurry until the length of day 
is considerably increased, when any apparently lost time will be more 
than made up by trees that have been carefully treated, and even kept 
back through the early stages when the weather was against them. Trees 
that are allowed to unfold strong blossoms in a low temperature, particu¬ 
larly at night, with free ventilation and in good condition at the roots, 
invariably set well and stone satisfactorily, as might be expected, through 
the energies having been husbanded, finishing good crops of fine fruit in 
a higher temperature than is usually given. A high temperature at the 
beginning is often fatal to the crop, and jeopardises the future by inducing 
weak wood, but by proceeding gently the trees make strong short-jointed 
wood, and due regard being had to thinning and other details of manage¬ 
ment, the trees are profitable and remain so during an ordinary lifetime. 
Great crops are had at the expense of size and quality, the occasional loss 
of a crop, and the premature destruction of the trees. Maintain a mode¬ 
rate degree of moisture in the house by damping available surfaces in the 
house occasionally, but avoid wetting the blossom after the anther s show 
clear of the petals. 
Second House. —Where three or more houses are forced annually the 
second should be ready for starting on New Year’s Day. Whatever is 
needed by the house, trees, &c., in cleaning or repairs, should 
be attended to at once, and the lights, if off the roof, replaced. Fire 
heat need only be used the first fortnight to exclude frost at night, but 
the heat should be turned on in the morning to raise and maintain through 
the day a temperature of 50°, and ventilation so as to insure a change of 
atmosphere, not allowing an advance above 55° without full ventilation. 
The trees should be syringed in the morning and again in the after¬ 
noon early, so as to allow of the trees becoming fairly dry before night. It 
is a very common practice and great error to allow the inside borders to be¬ 
come dry in the autumn and through the early winter months, which is 
generally followed by the casting of the buds, particularly the most 
prominent and promising. The borders being composed of good loam 
resting on efficient drainage, there is little danger of their receiving too 
much water, either by throwing the houses open to the autumnal rains— 
a most excellent practice^-or by giving them liberal supplies artificially. 
Succession Houses. —Proceed with dressing, pruning, and tying the 
trees, and cleansing the houses. Remove the inert surface soil, and 
supply fresh loam, to which has been added a sprinkling of bonemealand 
some wood ashes. Ascer.ain that the borders are thoroughly moist. 
Keep the house as cool as possible, and if the weather prove very bright 
it is well to shade if possible so as to keep the blossom back, especially in 
the case of late houses. This is a very important matter, and though 
coommon with old gardeners is little practised now. The swelling of 
the buds through a spell of mild weather and afterwards kept stationary 
for weeks through severe weather, is very injurious io the crop, often fatal 
as the buds fall, or they expand very puny blossoms which set badly, and 
the fruit setting swells very irregularly and a large per-centage is cast in 
stoning. 
Cucumbers. —Let every opportunity be taken to husband the sun heat 
by early closing in the afternoon, damping at the same time with tepid 
water. In bright weather the plants may be slightly sprinkled through a 
fine rose, and the pathways must be sprinkled every morning, otherwise 
red spider will be troublesome. Liquid manure in a weak state should 
be given to plants growing freely, but the plants being at a standstill it 
will be advisable to withhold the liquid manure until they are showing 
free growth, it not being of any use to give liquid manure to plants that 
have few feeders or little activity at the roots. 
Hotbeds for Raising Cucumbers and Melons. —Fermenting materials 
having been mixed as advised, and having been turned twice to generate 
a uniform heat and to allow of the rank heat escaping, it will be ready 
for making into a hotbed at the end of the month, which should be done 
in a southern aspect, and in front of a Privet or other hedge, so as to 
break the force of the north wind and prevent its driving into the back 
of the frames when air is admitted. The ground on which the hotbed is 
made should be higher than that surrounding it, so as to prevent water 
lodging under the bed, and if the site be low the bed should be made on a 
layer of faggots. The bed should only be made so large as to take the 
frame and allow of about 3 inches aU round, so as to allow of linings 
telling effectively when applied. The dung and leaves should be well 
beaten down with a fork as the work proceeds, and make the bed suffi¬ 
ciently high to allow for settling, which will be about a third ; therefore it 
will need to be about 6 feet high at the back and 5 feet in front to begin 
with. It is an old and capital plan to place a few layers of pea sticks 
across and along the bed for conducting the heat supplied by the linings to 
the interior of the bed. ft is also a good plan to put a shell inside the 
frame of half-inch deal boards, so as to form a cavity of an inch between 
it and the side of the frame, and 6 inches shallower than the frame, which 
will afford a means of admitting top heat. Put on the frame, and when 
the heat has risen level the surface if unequal, replace the frame, and put 
in sufficient fermenting material to make the depth of the back part equal 
or corresponding with that of the front, and on this 2 or 3 inches of short 
material. About 4 inches of dry leaf soil or sawdust in which to plunge 
the pots containing seeds as soon as the heat is up to raise young plants. 
Such a hotbed is very useful, and properly made and attended to is perhaps 
the most useful in a garden during the spring months for propagating 
purposes. 
PLANT HOUSES. 
Cyclamens. —If these are not coming into flower fast enough under 
comparatively cool conditions, place them on a shelf close to the glass in 
a temperature ranging from 50° to 55°, where a circulation of air can be 
maintained when the weather is favourable. If this is done they will 
come quickly into bloom, and their flowers will be thrown well above the 
foliage. These plants must never suffer by an insufficient supply of 
water at their roots in any state of growth. Weak stimulants may now 
be given every time water is needed to all plants that have filled their 
pots with roots. Where young stock is grown on annually for decoration, 
those plants used in rooms and other similar positions may be thrown 
away directly they cease flowering, for they rarely do any good another 
year. Those that do retain them for flowering another year must keep 
the plants after flowering in a cool light position, and supply them 
regularly with water. Young stock now in small pots for another year 
must be kept slowly moving in a temperature of 45°. They must be 
arranged close to the glass, and ventilated whenever favourable to insure 
a slow but sturdy growth. Plants of the same size still in pans must 
have the same treatment, and directly after the new year they should be 
placed singly into small pots, so that they can afterwards be shifted into 
3 and 4-inch pots. Seedlings just coming up must be kept moist and close 
to the glass, for these will make valuable flowering plants if looked after 
before the close of another season. Those that have not sown seed 
should sow it at once in light soil in pots or pans, the seed being lightly 
covered with fine leaf mould. After this the soil should be watered and 
covered with a square of glass, and then placed in a temperature of 60° 
to 65°. 
Primula obconica. —The seed of this plant is a long time germinat¬ 
ing, but it is such a free-flowering plant that where decorative plants are 
required in 5-inch pots a good number should be grown. Plants raised 
from seed as soon as it was ripe are still in pans, but ready for small pots, 
in which they may be placed without delay. These may be grown 
under glass until they are placed into 6 and 7-inch pots, and they will 
flower profusely through the whole of next winter. This plant does well 
in a cold frame during the summer, but if this cannot be given it the 
plants will do very (veil outside after they are once placed in their 
flowering pots. For the present the young plants should be grown on in 
an intermediate temperature. Another pan of seed should be sown at 
once for flowering plants in the smallest size pots named. Fill the pan 
with light soil and sow the seed on the surface and not covered with soil. 
Water with a fine-rose can, and then cover with a square of glass until 
germination takes place, which will take some weeks in a temperature 
of 60°. 
Fern Spores. —Where quantities of Ferns are required for decoration 
in small pots it is necessary to raise suitable kinds by Bowing spores, 
Small plants raised by this means are always much more handsome and 
shapely for these purposes than it is posrible to have them by division of 
larger plants. Spores are easily saved by the removal of mature fronds from 
, varieties that produce them freely, and, spread upon a sheet of paper to dry. 
