THE COTTAGE GARDENER. 
125 
November 28.] 
« p. S. I have been asked, whether the pan would do for 
hot water? The removal of the pan with water would be 
dangerous to the cinders and sand above, unless it had a 
water-tight covering ; but no doubt it would answer. The 
temperature of my house (see the dimensions) could be 
raised by the stove I had, about 15°, with the register open 
wide. Leaving the register in a certain position, the heat 
evolved would continue the same, but the temperature of the 
FRONT OF GREENHOUSE INSIDE. 
THE FRUIT-GARDEN. 
Protection from Frost. —The fig is one of the first 
in the fruit way to require a little defence against severe 
; weather; but there is no occasion, indeed it is bail 
policy, to cover up too soon, for such frosts as occur 
before December sets in tend rather to harden the wood 
than otherwise. Moreover, covering for a very long 
period is apt to engender an amount of confined damp, 
which is in a degree prejudicial to the bark of most things 
in the vegetable kingdom. Close covering should be 
avoided with the fig : this is a tree which does not need 
much protection. There are several modes of covering 
practised, but we are not aware of any better than that of 
! sticking in either spruce boughs, or fronds of fern, as thick 
as possible; commencing at the bottom of the wall, and 
overlaying each tier, as in thatching a building or stack, 
i Spruce is particularly adapted for the purpose, for it 
! has the desirable property of casting its leaves in a 
' progressive way in March and April; thus giadually 
inuring the tender and swelling bud or fruit germ to the 
light and air. 
Some persons tie straw in wisps, and hang these on 
lines, overlapping each line successively, as with the 
boughs. This is, however, rather too fussy a proceeding; 
we would have all practices of this kind reduced to a 
minimum amount of both trouble and expense, which 
two terms indeed, as to gardening in general, are nearly 
synonymous. 
In former days it used to be a practice, with some 
hardeners in the neighbourhood of London, to unnail 
the figs entirely from the wall, then to prune them, and 
j finally to bend and strap them down almost parallel 
; with the horizon; they would then closely encase them 
with mats, and really the whole proceeding, when 
i summed up, was tolerably expensive, and without any 
| commensurate benefits. 
Those who cannot get spruce boughs, will do well to 
resort to .the use of new straw, which may be thus 
applied:—Let the operator cast a sharp eye over the 
• tree or trees, and see if he cannot throw the whole of the 
wood into three, four, or more groups, according to their 
extent. By a group we mean the fastening, from right 
and left, a considerable number of supple or inferior 
branches to one of an older and sturdier character, and 
which thus being averse to bending is eligible to form 
a centre to each group. An extent of walling of some 
half a dozen yards in length may thus be thrown into 
five or six groups, and they may be drawn very close 
together with either willows or string. The groups will, 
of course, be nearly perpendicular, and the operator may 
now merely tie straw (drawn into thick wisps) all the 
way up and around each group. This plan is so simple 
that an active labourer will complete half a dozen yards 
in a half day’s work. Of course the whole of the group 
must be surrounded with straw, and some may be tucked 
amongst and behind the shoots towards the wall. We 
never knew them suffer during the hardest winter if 
thus protected; still the fir boughs are better, as requir¬ 
ing no unnailing of the trees. 
One thing must here be observed; where figs are very 
fruitful it is not unusual to meet with a host of little 
fruit late in the autumn; all those which are as large as 
a horse bean may at once bo stripped off, as they are 
only exhausting the tree,—being sure of destruction. 
Another point: figs should not be autumn-pruned. Let 
all the shoots remain on until the buds begin to swell 
in the end of April, and then the veriest tyro may dis¬ 
tinguish with ease between the good or bearing shoots 
and the inferior. After the figs are covered, some coarse 
litter should be applied over the surface of the roots 
close to the wall, in order to protect the collar from 
injury. 
The British Queen Strawberry. —Here is another 
fruit belonging to the protected section, and one so valu¬ 
able, when highly cultivated, as to be deserving of a 
considerable amount of care. Everybody admits that it 
is somewhat tender, as regards extreme weather we 
mean; as to its presumed tenderness as to cultural ope¬ 
rations, that we have nothing to do with at present. 
Where they are grown in rows, we advise an immediate 
application of mulch, of a somewhat littery character, 
such as the half decayed linings of old melon frames, of 
about the texture of musln-oom dung when sweetened. 
This should be tucked in closely, and even a little intro¬ 
duced with the hand amongst the crowns. 
In addition, it will be found capital practice to stick 
fir boughs, or the fronds of fern, amongst them, so as to 
arrest the radiation from the root upwards; and such 
may be introduced tolerably thick; that this will obstruct 
the light is an argument of no weight whatever between 
the end of November and the middle of February. About 
the latter period the mulch will have to be partially 
dressed away from the crowns, and may then be spread 
between the rows, where it serves the double purpose of 
manuring the soil and encouraging a permanency of 
moisture to the surface fibres; for we have known straw¬ 
berry crowns (somewhat elevated above the ordinary 
level) suffering from drought, as to their surface fibres, 
in the month of May, whilst all the while the lower 
roots were saturated in a cold and undrained soil. In 
our opinion, by far too little attention is paid to what 
is termed “ mulching; ” in the early part of May, or 
even a fortnight sooner in some parts, we would have 
all naked soil between strawberry rows covered two 
inches thick. 
We do hope that our gardening friends will thoroughly 
repudiate the idea of cutting away the decaying leaves 
at this period. Let them rest assured that nature, not 
accident, did not decree their shrivelling on the plant in 
vain. This is one of the cases in which a desire to 
carry out neatness of appearance must give way to a 
principle of culture. Neatness is, indeed, a great essen¬ 
tial in all gardening, but as soon as it becomes antago¬ 
nistic to the greatest amount of success, the point should 
be instantly given up, unless the circumstances are very 
peculiar indeed. 
These remarks are intended to apply to all our straw¬ 
berries, for in no one case have we ever found a benefit 
in this unnatural and forced procedure, but the reverse. 
The inventor of this piece of error has probably before 
now paid the debt of nature, or we should almost desire 
