382 
AMERICAN AGRICULTURIST. 
[October, 
server as an agreeable change from the seem¬ 
ingly never-ending brick and stone of the city r . 
The window-gardening is not confined to pri¬ 
vate dwellings, but all the leading hotels are so 
decorated. In the dining-room of the Laugham 
Hotel (said to be the largest in England), some 
hundreds of well-grown specimens of plants 
are placed in the windows, and kept in perfect 
order during the entire summer. The selection 
of plants is made regardless of expense, and in 
looking around the dining-hall it is with some 
difficulty that you decide if you are not dining 
in the midst of a vast conservatory, so redolent 
is the air with the perfume of flowers.'- The 
same taste for window-gardening is displayed, 
more or less, in all the English towns and vil¬ 
lages, and even the humblest thatched cottage 
of the peasant by the w'ayside is given a look 
of cpiiet happiness by the bower of flowers in 
the window. How different the look of these 
humble homes, where the occupant is receiving 
barely $4 per week, to the squalid shanties in 
the suburbs of our great cities in America, 
where the “naturalized” American citizen is 
earning three times that amount! 
Here let me deviate from my text, but to a 
kindred subject, and tell bow the English cot¬ 
tager works his garden in some of the old 
towns, such as Colchester. To each cottage, 
renting for about $50 per year, is attached a 
garden of something more than an eighth part 
of an acre in extent. In this little spot the 
tenant contrives to grow four to six kinds of 
vegetables, such as potatoes, cabbage, peas, 
turnips, etc., and of fruits, gooseberries, currants, 
raspberries, and strawberries. Every foot is 
made to produce something, and rarely a -weed 
was seen in some scores that we saw ranged 
side by side. The heavy work is done bj r the 
man of the house, “ before or after hours,” on 
his own time. In the weeding and hoeing lie is 
assisted by wife or children. There is great 
rivalry among the different owners of these cot¬ 
tage gardens, and in many places liberal prizes 
are given by the horticultural societies to those 
that are best cultivated. 
Prizes are also offered for the best window- 
grown plants, and in Hull and some other 
towns plants are distributed and printed in¬ 
structions given for culture to encourage the 
taste.— London, August 10th. 
Garden Experience. 
BY C. M. A. HESS, JOHNSON CO., INI). 
Can you find space in your columns for a 
little experience and a grumble from this hitherto 
unheard-of section ? 
I am fond of tlying new sorts of vegetables 
and comparing them with established varieties. 
Here are some results. 
Sowed peas, “Carter’s First Crop,” “Mc¬ 
Lean’s Little Gem,” and “ Laxton’s Alpha,” on 
March 23d. They came into bearing, Carter’s, 
May 22d; Little Gem, May 28th; and Alpha, 
June 2d. So much for earliness. The Alpha 
bears tremendously, but all at once, while Car¬ 
ter’s gives tivo and sometimes three pickings ; 
for delicate flavor the Little Gem is best of all, so 
my wife says, and on that account I shall sow a 
few each season, even though I don’t think they 
pay in product for the ground occupied. 
I economized space and swindled the bugs 
by sowing Little Gem peas with early potatoes. 
I used the King of the Earlies, and can speak 
well of them. They are earlier than the Early 
Hose—heretofore a standard in this section—and 
drier or mealier when gathered young; planted 
March 23d, five inches deep, in gravelly soil, 
covered about three inches, then sowed the peas 
and covered level; had potatoes to eat (size of 
unliulled walnuts) on June 4th. The peas had 
quite a start before the potatoes came up, but 
there seemed room enough for all. Pulled the 
pea-vines out when done bearing, and left the 
potatoes, from which I gathered every day until 
July 4th. I was not troubled with bugs at all, 
although my neighbors had plenty. 
Now for the growl. Why are we bound to 
receive, in ordering seeds, a certain percentage 
that is useless? I can count nine distinct total 
failures in one lot of twenty-four packets—is 
this not too large a percentage ?—all from one 
house. Don’t they sometimes give us seed a 
little too old to be good ? Of course, there are 
allowances to be made. Aren’t we advised in 
the catalogues that failures may occur ? But so 
many in one firm’s lot make me suspicious, and 
I shall not order from them again. 
It is too provoking to sow a lot of seed, say 
parsnip for instance, and have none of them 
come up, besides losing the time. I had even 
worse luck, for I sowed cabbage seed enough to 
produce a thousand plants, and did not get fifty, 
and even they were stunted and deficient in 
vitality, while other varieties of cabbage seed, 
from another house, grew beautifully, in the 
same bed. Being intended for early cabbage 
plants, it was of course too late to sow again. 
. A Greenhouse Furnace and Flue. 
BT EDWAKD TATNAI/L. ■ 
[In September of last year (1871) we published 
an article, by Mr. James Hogg, giving full de¬ 
tails for the construction of a furnace and flue 
for heating a greenhouse. At this season, when 
inquiries in regard to heating apparatus are 
numerous, we refer such correspondents as wish 
to use flues—the cheapest mode of heating—to 
the article referred to. Those who propose to 
heat by means of hot water will find useful sug¬ 
gestions in “Henderson’s Practical Floriculture.” 
As an improvement upon the ordinary furnace, 
Mr. Tatnall, of the Wawaset Nurseries, Wil¬ 
mington, Del., gives a diagram and description 
of his manner of inclosing the furnace in an 
air-case, and thus economizing beat.— Ed.] 
Messrs. Editors: Allow me to make a few 
suggestions in addition to Mr. Hogg’s directions 
for greenhouse furnaces in September number, 
1871. Instead of using tile, form an arch of 
fire-brick made for the purpose, and set on edge. 
Leave a space of two inches next the furnace, 
and open to the inside of the house, on both 
sides of the furnace, above the level of the 
grate-bars, and a two-inch opening in the front 
wall on the same level to admit cold air. For 
the first eight or ten feet next the furnace lay 
the bricks on their sides, instead of on their 
edges, to prevent cracking of flues when great 
heat is required. Use terra-cotta pipe instead 
of sheet-iron for the rest of the flue—eight 
inches in diameter, and supported on single 
brick piers, with an occasional pipe having a 
side-opening for the purpose of cleaning when 
foul. The side-opening to be closed with sheet- 
iron mortared in. By all means have the throat 
or opening at the furnace one fourth less than 
the pipe or flue in area. With this provision, a 
gradual rise of fine from near the furnace to 
the upright flue or chimney, and a rise of 35° 
to 45° at the furnace , there need be little fear of 
poor draught. Thirty inches is a better depth 
than tw r o feet; as the additional six inches does 
not necessitate a greater consumption, and the 
larger the body of coal the more easily is the 
fire kept alive when the draughts are off. 
Horticultural Journals. 
Journals calling themselves horticultural, give 
themselves such airs, that w r e are tempted to look 
back upon the field of journalism and refresh 
the memory of these novices. Among the first, 
if not the -first of these journals was Hovey’s 
Magazine. Excessively Bostonian it is true, 
but in its pages are embodied a vast amount of 
our horticultural literature, and whoever has a 
full set of that journal from the beginning has 
a most valuable mine of horticultural lore. 
Then came the Hor¬ 
ticulturist. When A. 
J. Downing edited it, 
it was truly the Hor¬ 
ticulturist. It has had 
its ups and downs 
since then, now rising 
to importance under 
Barry, and then being 
just such as those who 
have had it in hand 
could make it. Then 
came the Gardener’s 
Monthly, a journal 
with the peculiar 
crotchets of which we 
can not always agree, 
but which is edited 
with such a sincere 
purpose and such 
competent knowledge 
as to make it the only 
horticultural journal 
worthy of the name 
that we have in 
the country. A few' years ago a new light 
dawmed upon us—The American Journal 
of Horticulture. It came ignoring the things 
that were behind, and promised a new 
era in horticultural journalism. All that fine 
paper, excellent engraving, and perfect press- 
work could do were done for this journal; 
but, in the language of Sir Charles Cold¬ 
stream, “There was nothing in it.” It ab¬ 
sorbed Hovey’s Magazine, but did not ab¬ 
sorb Hovey, and got no better. Then the 
publisher, thinking perhaps the title not com¬ 
prehensive enough, enlarged it to Tilton’s 
