28 
THE COTTAGE GARDENER. 
[October ]0. 
West India Seeds (J. W., M. F .).—These, and the yams, are of no j 
value, especially as you have only a greenhouse. You could not grow j 
anything from them. 
Gooseberries (0. F.). — You will find a list suited to your wants at 
page 391 of last volume. Of currants, the best black is the Black , 
. Naples; of reds, Knight's Large and Knight's Sweet; of whites, the 
Dutch White. We cannot name nurserymen. 
| Kitchen-garden (C. M. J .).—You say, “From the end of next No- 
' vember until next June I shall be unable to bestow much care on the 
! garden, and I wish to prepare it accordingly.” Plant it now with potatoes 
and cabbages. They will only require hoeing occasionally. The cabbages 
1 will supply you with heads and sprouts through the spring and early 
summer, and the potatoes, if you plant Ash-leaved Kidneys, will be ready 
j in June. 
Hen Coop (R. It. B.). —A good size for the coop depicted at page 192 | 
of last volume is four feet long, three feet wide, two feet high in front, j 
slanting down to nine inches high behind. Can you oblige us by stating 
at which of the seats of the Duke of Sutherland you saw the coop you I 
mention ? 
Mead ( Ystrad). —If made according to Mr. Payne’s recipe, the longer j 
it is kept the better it will be. The elder wine, for which a recipe is given I 
in the same paper (Aug. 29 ), will keep for three years without brandy. 
Pumpkins ( J. Derham). —Neither of those sent by you are the true j 
Himalayah; proving how difficult it is to keep any of the Gourd tribe j 
free from being cross impregnated. The only slightly pear-shaped is 
nearest the true sort. As to “ what use are they ?” read what was said in 
our first volume about making soup from them. It is the cheapest good 
soup that was ever suggested. Boiled and mashed like turnips, they are 
also excellent. The Mammoth pumpkin is worthless. Send Mr. Beaton 
some of your tall blue Larkspur. 
Hard Water for Garden Purposes (J. M. U.). —Before you use, 
let it stand in a tub exposed to the sun and air for a day, and mix with 
every ten gallons an ounce of sulphate of ammonia. 
Oxford Brawn.— Take the head of a young porker, lay it, after being 
split, in soak for 24 hours in salt and water; rub it well with common salt 
and a quarter of an ounce of saltpetre and a quarter of a pound of moist 
sugar; let it lie in the salting-trough three days ; wash it well, and put 
it on to boil until the meat will come readily from the bones; cut up the 
meat into small pieces ; season to your taste ; put it all into a brawn tin, 
or any earthenware vessel with a flat bottom will answer as well; the 
tongue should be placed in the middle upright. It is much improved if 
four or five tongues can be had instead of one. When cold, turn it out.— 
Mary W. 
Bees Collecting Honey-Dew. — P. V. M. F. writes as follows:— 
“ Can Mr. Payne, or any of your readers, inform me whether they have 
ever actually seen bees collecting honey-dew ? In the whole three years of 
my experience as a bee-keeper, I must confess myself never to have been 
eye-witness to this fact; and l am bound to say, that I am wholly incredu¬ 
lous as to what is called honey-dew, whether resulting from the secretions 
of aphids or the perspiration of leaves being collected by bees, except, 
perhaps, in very bad seasons when flowers yield little or no honey. I have 
heard the busy hum of bees, of which l)r. Bevan speaks, among the 
foliage of the lime or linden tree, but on close inspection, though the 
leaves may have been profusely covered with the sweet secretion culled 
honey-dew, I have never detected one of the many varieties of the genus 
bee which throng the blossoms of the lime employed in gathering this glu¬ 
tinous liquid. If by chance one bee has alighted on a leaf, and thrust out 
its proboscis for a moment, it has been only for a moment, and it has 
flown off instantly, as if disgusted. I may mention that I observed oaks, 
beeches, elms, and a variety of other trees, covered with this dew, but in 
not a single instance have I detected a bee appropriating it. About the 
leaves of a climbing rose that was greviously affected with blight this 
summer, I observed several queen wasps indulging themselves, and occa¬ 
sionally a bee settled on its leaves, but I never observed it suck the liquid, 
nor has any body, with whom I am acquainted, been able to give me any 
certain information on the subject, though all profess to believe in honey- 
dew." We shall be glad of answers to this. We have seen bees appa¬ 
rently collecting honey-dew from filberts severely affected with it last 
year. 
Grapes Cracking (M. D. Y .).—The cracking of fruits, whether of 
j vines, melons, or pears, is generally caused by the want of a uniformly 
moderate amount of moisture in the soil. We think it probable that 
some mulching applied during any dry period when the grapes are about 
completing their first swelling, and this well watered on, may probably 
| stay the cracking. If, however, you can prove that stagnated moisture 
is the cause, the remedy is obvious—thorough drain the subsoil, and raise 
the roots. Your naming “light gravelly soil,” however, inclines us to 
the former opinion. You surely have got a wrong sort; probably a 
Black Frontignan or a West’s St. Peter’s. We would graft a Muscadine 
1 and a Hambro’ or two next May on your tree. 
Fruit for East Worcestershire (J. M.). —Your aspect being 
rather inferior, we dare not suggest tender fruits. For ])ears, we would 
take one Jargonnelle, one Dunmore, one Maria Louise, one Winter 
Neilis, one Glout Morceau, one Josephine de Malines. In plums, you 
1 may take one Greengage and one Golden Drop. Do not improve all the 
old elm soil in common; make stations with your first soil and mellowed 
pond mud. 
C ucumbers in Winter ( Clericus ).—Your gardener supplies your 
table with cucumbers from the rafters or trellis of a stove, from June to 
September, and he can do so with an ordinary hotbed, with much less 
trouble to himself, even if he begins in the middle or end of March. The 
frame may be taken away entirely the beginning of June ; and should any 
roots of the cucumbers be visible round where the frame stood, let them 
be covered up with a little earth and nothing more will be needed but a 
little water now and then ; stopping and pegging down occasionally. The 
frame towards the middle of August may be employed again upon a little 
bottom-heat for raising either seedlings or cuttings of cucumbers for winter 
growth, so as to be provided with some good stocky plants to plant out 
in your stove, either in large pots or boxes towards the middle or end of 
September, to run up the trellis under the glass, which will supply your 
table during the winter and early spring months. The Syon House 
variety is considered the best for winter growth. If you look to page 38, 
of vol. iv., you will see Mr. Errington’s plan of a cucumber stove. He 
will wTite upon the winter culture. 
Pig-stye ( A Constant Header). —We cannot give estimates. Get two 
carpenters to send you in estimates and plans, and take that which you 
think cheapest and best. 
Cutting-back Portugal Laurels (Eugenia). —About next April, 
a little earlier or a little later, you may cut back your Portugal Laurel, 
being guided by the commencement of its growth. Cut back just as it 
begins to grow. 
Planting Mushrooms in Pasture (A Farmer and Gardener). —It 
is not improbable that if in April or May you were to insert fragments of 
spaw n in the soil beneath the turf, that during the summer the spawn 
might spread, and increase your produce in the autumn. Try the ex¬ 
periment and let us know the result. 
Early Varieties of Potato (A Country Curate). —If you refer to 
Mr. Duncan Hair’s advertisement in our last number, you will see where 
you can obtain Martin's Early Seedling ; and for Itylott's Flour Ball 
apply to Mr. Turner, Necpsend, Sheffield. Cold, wet, heavy loam will 
not grow potatoes of the best flavour at any time, but we should not 
hesitate to plant there early in November. We know your district 
thoroughly, and could tell anecdotes of the Wigborough, Tolshunt 
Darcy, and Mersea cultivators, that would make you laugh, until the echo 
reverberated from Layer Marvey Tower. Your objections to early 
varieties is not valid, because many early ripeners are among our best 
keeping potatoes. We never grow a late ripening sort, yet we have po¬ 
tatoes until the new ones come again. 
Damson Wine (An Old Subscriber). —Can any one of our readers fur¬ 
nish a recipe for this. 
Petunias from Seed (T. M. W.). —Read the paragraph again. We 
say, “ seedling petunias do never improve in shape or colour by cultiva¬ 
tion.” Nor do they ; if they are bad at first they remain bad. 
Blue Larkspur (H. K.). —The party to whom you sent in a letter 
says, “ Please to say for me, many, many thanks for having thought of 
me in your affliction. I, too, have been through the same furnace, and 
can say, with gratitude, that it is good for us that we have been in 
trouble.” Thanks also for the note about Couve Tronchuda, which we 
will print. 
Mossy Formation on Sweet Brier (B. White). —This is very com¬ 
mon, as well as on the Dog rose and other roses. It is caused by a Gall 
fly (Ithodites Rosoe) depositing her eggs in a bud, and the wounds caused 
by the grubs, each inhabiting its own cell within, produces, in a mode 
unaccounted for, the mossy ball known as the Rose Bcdeguar which was 
once used in medicine. 
Charred Rubbish (A. C., Hereford). —This put alone upon your 
“ stiff soil ” will be highly beneficial. If you arc about to plant cabbages 
on the part manured with it, pour a few gallons of gas ammoniacal liquor 
over it just before spreading and digging,—say a gallon of the liquor to 
every two bushels of the charred rubbish. 
Disfigured Wall (One Constant Reader). —Can any of our readers 
say how a wall can be rendered of a uniform colour, suitable for a rose 
garden, that is now disfigured by the whitewash where an outbuilding 
formerly stood ? 
Muscatel Grape (B. C.). —The Grizzly, "White, and Black Frontig- 
nans are all of the Muscatel class. They are called Muscatellcr in Ger¬ 
many. You can obtain them of any respectable nurseryman. Straw¬ 
berries forced, and then turned out into a border trimmed and watered 
in dry weather, often produce a crop of fruit in autumn. All flowers are 
bad on a vine border; see what we have said to-day about strawberries 
on a fruit border ; the same observations apply to your case. 
Work on Farming (B. M. J.). —Stephens’s Book of The Farm will 
suit. Read also Cobbett’s Cottage Economy. 
Names of Plants (Carrig Cathol). —The little blue annual (1) is 
Brachycome iberidifolia. 2 . The mere tip of a shoot! we cannot detect, 
Send us a flower. (G. C. S.). —Your ferns, 1, 12 , and 13, are Polypodium 
xmlgare. 2. Pteris hastata. 3 and 4. Scolopendrium offtcinarum. 5. 
Asplenium adiantum nigrum . 6 and 10. Aspidium aculeatum. 7 , 9 , 
and 11 . Aspidium Filix-mas. 8 . Asplenium trichomonas. 14 . Adiantum 
cuneatum. Some one, whose letter we have mislaid, has sent us a single 
specimen of a fern; it is Asplenium adiantum nigrum, or Black Spleen- 
wort. 
! 
London: Printed by Harry Wooldridge, Winchester High-street, 
in the Parish of Saint Mary Kalcndar; and Published by William 
Somerville Orr, at the Office, No. 2, Amen Corner, in the Parish of 
Christ Church, City of London.—October 10th, 1850. 
