October 10.] 
THE COTTAGE GARDENER. 
r 
the house or out. It is evident the vine is “poverty struck,” either 
through lack of moisture at certain periods or too much. Or, it may be 
I that through a deficiency of ventilation it has been “ starved to death.” 
Remember that a north aspect in a stable-yard is not the sort of place to 
give healthy stamina to a vine. We must, therefore, presume that this, 
coupled with the severe check of removal, was quite enough to throw 
j your unfortunate Black Hamboro’ into a declining state. Were we in 
your case, we would purchase a good, strong, and well ripened plant from 
a respectable nurseryman, and plant in the end of next March, with a 
! determination to see all matters of summer culture well carried out. 
' Strawberries on Light-soiled Bank (W. R. I.). —If you cannot 
renovate your soil and start anew, pray use the waterpot most liberally 
from the moment the first blossom opens until the first fruit changes 
colour. Cannot you apply a good coating of “mulch” on the heels of 
some liberal shower in May ? Such applied two inches thick will be of 
immense service, by encouraging a host of surface fibres, and preventing 
a too rapid evaporation. 
Cucumber and Melon Cuttings ( M. F. G.). —These strike readily, 
but it is too late to talk about this in the end of September. An article 
framed expressly to meet the desires of yourself and several other corre¬ 
spondents will appear very shortly We trust it will suit your case. 
Malt Wine, or, as one of our correspondents more aristocratically 
terms it, Maltese Wine. —We have received three recipes for making 
this, and as we are quite unable from our own palate to decide which is 
best, we publish them all. 
Maltese Wine, to be made in March or October.—To fourteen gal¬ 
lons of water add forty-six pounds of brown sugar, boil the sugar and 
water twenty minutes, skimming it well all the time ; then pour it into 
a tub ; when it is nearly cold, put in twelve pounds of raisins picked and 
chopped, and when quite cold put in two gallons of ale when it has fer¬ 
mented and is ready to be tunned ; let it stand three or four days, stirring 
it every day ; then put it into the cask w ith a pint of brandy, half a pound 
of sugar candy pounded, and two ounces of isinglass dissolved in a quart 
of the liquor. When it has quite done fermenting, bung it close up, let 
it stand twelve months, then bottle it. The cask should not be quite full. 
—(A Grateful Subscriber). 
Malt Wine. — To a ten gallon cask, eight gallons of water, twenty- 
four pounds of good moist sugar, boil together half an hour, skimming it 
well all the time; put it into your tub till nearly cold ; have ready two gal¬ 
lons of good ale when that is ready for tunning; mix it well together ; 
work it in the tub two or three days; skim it three times a day. Then 
put it into your cask, with three pounds of raisins, the rind of six lemons, 
a little isinglass, and a bottle of brandy; let it work a week, then stop it 
close, and bottle it off in twelve months.—(T. Phillips). 
Malt Wine, or English Madeira. —To make nine gallons, take 
five gallons of water, and boil in it for five or ten minutes twentv-eight 
pounds of sugar ; draw off the liquor into a convenient vessel, and allow 
it to cool, then mix with it six quarts each of sweet-wort and of tun; 
allow it to stand for three days and then put it into a barrel. Here it 
will work or ferment for three days or more ; then bung up and keep it 
undisturbed for two or three months, then add three pounds of whole 
raisins, half a pound of candy, and one pint of brandy. In four or six 
months it should be bottled. Three or six months in this state and it is 
fit for a king ; indeed, it is the best of home-made wines. ( Sweet-wort , 
is the liquor that leaves the mash before it is boiled with the hops. Tun, 
is the new beer.)— {A Constant Subscriber). 
Choice Plants for a Greenhouse without Artificial Heat 
(J. S. L.). —We will try and do you service, but your want of artificial 
heat is a great drawback. 
Ericas and good Plants for a Greenhouse (J. 5.).—You will 
be attended to ere long. 
Roses in Pots (A Subscriber). —See what Mr. Fish has said to-day. 
Double Sf.necio Elegans ( A Lover of Floivers, Leeds). —This came 
up in the border, and you ask how to keep it. Take some of the small 
side shoots off close to the stem with a sharp knife; remove the lower 
leaves, and insert the cuttings round the side of a pot, in light sandy soil, 
and cover with a hand-light, or set it in a frame. In a fortnight you 
might give these cuttings a little bottom-heat; pot them off when struck. 
To make doubly sure, after taking off your cuttings, cut your plant pretty 
well down. In a week cut round its roots ; place a pot over it at night, to 
save it from frost, and raise it with a ball, and transfer it to a pot in a 
fortnight, to be kept in a pit or greenhouse. 
Roses (J. B.). — Victor Hugo and Due de Treviso are good old, and 
very strong, Hybrid Chinas. The third ( Emmeline ), we forget just now 
to what section it belongs, but any of the old nursery catalogues will tell. 
Those strong varieties never flower well if they are much pruned, and 
what pruning they do require, according to Mr. Beaton’s plan, should be 
done late in March, so as to reduce their vigour. Thin the shoots a little, 
and merely cut off the first few inches of the points of the strong shoots. 
Gladioli. —See what is said of them to-day in another page. 
Jasmine—Phloxes—Rose-stocks (An Original Subscriber). — 
“1st. What is the best time and manner of pruning white and yellow 
Jasmine remaining upon a house? Do the young shoots grow better for 
not being nailed very near their tops ? 2nd. Best treatment of Phloxes, 
white and purple, after flowering ; cut down and left, or moved ? Stalks 
burnt make good stuff for potting purposes? 3rd. In planting Stocks 
in November, for budding Roses upon in grass lawns, is it better to leave 
a small circle round them unturfed or not ? If it is, could the space be 
properly used for Verbenas in summer? Had the Stock best be put in 
with a ball of its native earth, or should the roots be pruned and shook 
clean ; are its branches immediately to be pruned close, or should that 
be done while the brier is still growing in the hedge ?” We insert your I 
letter entire, with answers, both for your own private use, and for letting 
our readers see an excellent specimen of how letters should be written for 
editorial consideration. 1st. For weak Jasmines , the end of October is the 
best time to prune; for very strong ones, the beginning of April is best. 
Close pruning is best for them, as it is for all such climbers as flower on 
the current season’s growth. The young shoots will look more graceful 
hanging out a little from the wall, and will flower just as well as if closely 
trained. 2nd. The best way is to let Phloxes alone until their leaves die 
off naturally, or by the frost, then the dry stalks would help to burn or 
char garden refuse, or be charred, which would be better “stuff” than 
their ashes. 3rd. It is better to leave an open space round rose stocks 
for the first few years, and the open space may be used for Verbenas, as 
you suggest ; but you must make good what food they consume, other¬ 
wise the roses are robbed in open day. No native soil with rose stocks 
and their roots, if long and large, must be cut to within a foot of the stock, 
and if it were convenient they ought to be pruned now. But whoever 
thinks of doing that ! ! 
Tropceolums for Conservatory (W. X. IF.).— Tropeenlum Lob - 
bianum would answer in one of your tubs, and would mix with T. penta - 
phyllum at the top of the house; and when the latter was done flowering 
Lobbianum would come in to succeed it. We cannot think of another 
climber suitable to plant with either of these, or, indeed, with any 
Tropceolum in-doors, as they grow too fast for others, and would soon 
smother them to death. We have seen Lophospermtnn trained horizon¬ 
tally on a wall to cover the naked spaces left by other climbers, and it 
answered very well indeed up to any height that was bare. 
Stephanotis Floribunda. — F. W. T. writes to us thus :—“ I have 
a fine plant of Stephanotis floribunda which, in a pot, never gave me any 
flowers, and did not grow freely. I, all in a hurry, turned it out into a 
bed, with bottom-heat from tanks ; the bed of sandy poor soil, and not 
regularly made, varying—in parts sandy, in others nearly very stiff. 
The bed cannot be heated without heating the house, and is not more 
than 10 to 15 inches deep, so in cold weather it has most bottom-heat. 
Since the planting out it has made a great growth, and given two bunches 
of flowers ; but it has lost many leaves, and now presents many bare 
branches, with several yellow leaves.” Your Stephanotis is, indeed, in 
an awkward position ; the soil is too poor for it, which with bottom-heat 
caused the roots to spread fast; and as soon as they reach the tanks, 
how do you mean to save them from being stewed to death ? You cannot 
receive the proper effects of the tanks till the water in them is 120° at the 
least—heat enough to kill any root in contact with it; by all means 
remove the plant before you apply heat for the winter. You might cover 
a space of two feet or more in width across the end of the tank with 
boards; lay a strong rich compost over the board, and plant the Stepha¬ 
notis in that with safety; indeed, that way it would surprise you in two 
years; and, as it flowers on the young wood made the same season, it 
should be pruned close in winter. 
Dahlias (T. Phillips). —Descriptive lists of these, and other superior 
florists’ flowers of the season, will appear in a short time. 
Strawberries on Fruit Border (Mrs. Charles Brown). —Any¬ 
thing planted on a fruit border is in some degree injurious to the fruit- 
trees, but strawberries and other strong feeding plants are especially 
injurious. Nevertheless, many fruit-tree borders are so planted ; and, if 
you do the same, the strawberries will do less hurt close to the stems of 
the trees than if planted six feet from them. 
Heading-down Laurels (Ibid). —The best time for doing this is 
just before they begin growing in the spring. 
Recipes (J. Dawson). —We cannot give you any of the recipes you 
require. Toad-stools , however large in quantity, will give you very little 
manure in bulk. What they do yield is rich. Mix them with salt, and 
cover them with earth. The mixture will make a good compost for your 
kitchen-garden. 
Wood-work of Greenhouse (Novice). —It is quite impossible for 
us to give estimates. 
Bass’s Pale Ale (An Amateur). —Can any of our readers give “ direc¬ 
tions that can be relied on ” for brewing this. Do not wean the colt until 
the spring. Cochineal, or Brazil Wood-chips, will give rhubarb wine a 
red colour ; but you must try a little to ascertain the quantity required. 
Ten plants of rhubarb will yield you 60 lbs. of stalk at a cutting. 
You must not “mow” (!) the stalks down; pull off the outside ones 
only. HI any varieties of rhubarb continue red when old. The Cottagers ’ 
Hive is twelve inches in diameter and nine inches deep, inside measure. 
There is no hoop round the bottom. It is the same diameter throughout. 
Kidney Beans (D. Walker). —Yours are very like the Dwarf Early 
Cluster ; but the seeds of this are rather darker. 
Calendars (W. Morett). —Thanks for the trouble you have taken, and 
if any copies of No. 104, page 410, have the Calendars headed “ Septern- 
' ber,” they are wrong, and October should be substituted. 
Cabbage-seed Destroyed by Insects (R. C.). —If the insect is 
really “ similar to the mite in cheese,” you cannot have thoroughly dried 
you seed ; it has consequently decayed, and then mites come to feast upon 
it. Are you sure that it is not a weevil like that at page 347 of last 
volume? Heat your seeds to 140° for a few minutes; it will kill the 
! insects without injuring the seeds. 
