140 
THE COTTAGE GARDENER. 
[November 2S. 
and, if boiled sufficiently long, will be found equally good. 
They should be put on in cold water, and boiled rather 
sharply at first. “ Sheep’s trotters ” and “ cow’s heels ” 
1 are also most serviceable for the consumption of the poor; 
I and they have the additional merit of keeping longer than 
meat will, which is an advantage to those who live far from 
J a butcher. Some farmers have made a capital rule of 
paying their labourers every Friday instead of Saturday. 
If this was generally adopted, the week’s provision could be 
! laid in on market-day, when, generally speaking, everything 
| is cheaper, and more choice is given. In the kitchens of the 
rich, soup for the poor can be made at a very moderate 
expense ; for I fancy there are but few' houses where there 
is no waste,—where nothing is put into the “ hog-tub ” 
that might be of service to some fellow-Cliristian. A little 
additional trouble, both to the mistress and the servant, is 
certainly required; but I am very sure there is no one who 
would grudge this, particularly when they feel they may be 
the means of making the cottage homes around them per- 
] manently more comfortable; for if they feel the luxury of 
having a nicely-dressed dinner once or twice a-week, they 
j will soon, I trust, think of preparing the same fare every 
j day: and in a little time we may, perhaps, see gaudy ribbons 
\ and smart caps discarded by the women, and the “ mug of 
| beer" now drank at the alehouse given up by the men, and 
in their place a clean cloth spread at one o’clock, and a 
smoking basin of soup ready for each person.—A Friend. 
GRUB-KILLING. 
Many persons have begun, or soon will begin, to trench 
and rough-dig their garden ground. I fancy I found it very 
destructive to grubs and wireworms last winter to trench 
during the frost. I waited for a frost, first to drive the 
j insects down low into the earth, and on certain signs of the 
next approaching frost, and while the ground was hardening 
and hard, I set some of my men to trench as quick, and as 
deep, and in as thin ridges as they could, by which means 
I exposed my enemies, by night and day, to an influence 
which, I am inclined to think, was destructive of vast 
I numbers. I had some grumbling about hard digging, but 
j improvement stops where grumbling is attended to.—A 
l Worcestershire Man. 
HONEY DEW. 
I confess to have been waiting with impatience for some 
notice from one or other of your numerous bee correspon¬ 
dents on the subject of honey dew; for although I stated 
my disbelief in its collection by bees, I could not altogether 
divest myself of the hope that a fact so often stated and so 
currently credited, might rest on a better foundation than 
mere vulgar error; although in my seven (not three) years’ 
experience as a bee-keeper, my own eyes never witnessed a 
satisfactory instance of it. At length, after the space of 
nearly a month, comes the notice of “ S. I. R.,” who, in an¬ 
swer to my query for enlightenment, answers with confi¬ 
dence, “ Undoubtedly they do!” and in proof of it he men¬ 
tions his having picked up a swarm (the first he ever had, 
whence he was more likely to have jumped at an erroneous 
conclusion) so late as the 15th of July one season, which 
swarmed still later the following season, viz., on the 25th of 
J uly, and yet the hive was filled in three weeks. To account 
for this, he mentions the fall of an abundant honey deiv at 
the time on the leaves of the horn-beam. This, no doubt, 
looks very like proof positive, but “ S. I. R.” does not tell us 
whether lie actually saw' his bees collect this matter. Unless 
j ho can assure us that he witnessed with his own eyes the 
I collection of that dew, I must still confess myself sceptical 
: on the subject. For the sudden increase in a hive of bees is 
| no unusual thing even so late as November, or so early' as 
March ; while it frequently happens that bees desert an old 
hive in the spring or summer, with which, from some cause 
j or other, they have become disgusted; in which case it is 
natural to suppose they would transfer their stores to their 
: new dwelling, as comb was made to receive it; indeed, such 
I instances are actually on record. Not only so, but how often 
has a wealthy hive been known to perish in the course of the 
summer from the death Of its queen, or some other cause, in 
j which case the remaining stores become the prey of the first 
neighbouring colony of bees that scent out the deserted 
treasure. Again, the swarm of “ S. I. R." may have been in 
a locality favourable to a late collection of honey, which 
seems the more reasonable to suppose, seeing that the hive 
from which it issued, which was also a very late swarm, ap¬ 
pears to have done equally well the year before. L need not 
say that honey dew's are universally declared to be of rather 
rare occurrence by all bee waiters. “ S. I. R.” repeats again 
at the end of the paragraph, “But this is only one solitary 
instance; I have, seen it frequently.” Seen what? Honey 
dew ? So have I, at least the substance called honey dew. 
But has he seen the bees in any number collecting it ? I 
have not.—P. V. M. F. 
TO CORRESPONDENTS. 
*** We request that no one will write to the departmental writers of 
The Cottage Gardener. It gives them unjustifiable rrouble and 
expense. All communications should be addressed “ To the Editor of 
The Cottage Gardener , 2, Amen Corner, Paternoster Row, London .” 
Sulphate of Ammonia (S. G .).—The crystals of this salt dissolved 
in the proportion of half an ounce to a gallon of water, may be applied 
with advantage to crocuses growing either in the open border or in sand. 
Apply it not oftener than once a week, and not until the flower-buds are 
visible. 
Crown Imperial (A Subscriber),—• This, which is also called the 
Fritillary ( Fritilluriu imperialis), has been cultivated in our open garden 
borders for nearly three centuries, and this is the beat situation for grow¬ 
ing them. We know of none that are higher than three or four feet, nor 
of any that bloom in another mode than in a cluster of pendant bell¬ 
flowers round the top of the stem and surmounted by a tuft of leaves. 
Gerarde cultivated them here in 1596, speaking of them as “rare and 
strange plants,” introduced from Constantinople. It is a native of Turkey 
and Persia. 
Buying Pinks and Carnations (A Breconshire Subscriber). —You 
may purchase pinks now, and plant them; they are much more hardy 
than carnations and pieotees, which you had better not procure till 
March. 
Roses (A Lover of Flowers). —Your soil may he “good,” but is cer¬ 
tainly not so for roses. Those against your house are too hot to bloom 
well; the others are all in bad rose soil. If they were in good soil, and 
utterly neglected, they could not he half so bad; and from your report 
we strongly advise you not to remove the large Portugal laurel at all; if 
you do, probably you will never see another leaf upon it—plant a young 
one. Geranium Cuttings.— One of our staff made a direct experiment on 
keeping these cuttings over the winter for our pagc3, and the successful 
result was reported. 
Pruning (0. F.). —You will see we have begun a series of articles on 
shrubs, trees, and climbers. The modes of pruning them form part of 
the plan. 
Brunsvigias—Bulb Culture {J. E. A .).—We very much doubt 
your fine large bulbs being properly named. No matter how dry a 
Brunsvigia is all the summer, it will naturally begin to grow in Septem¬ 
ber, and no art that we know of can prevent it doing so. It first throws 
up a strong flower-stalk from the centre of the bulb, and by the time the 
flowers fade, leaves issue and go on growing all the winter, die down in 
May, and rest to September. Brunsvigia falcata, which, by the way, is 
not a Brunsvigia at all, takes the opposite course—grows from the end of 
the spring to October, and rests all the winter. If you are sure your dry 
bulbs are true Brunsvigias, begin to water them immediately, without 
disturbing them from the present soil, 'fhe green one you will of course 
keep watered till the leaves begin to turn yellow, for this is a sure rule 
with all bulbs; and another, equally important, is never to cut of a 
healthy root from a bulb. Htemunthus tigrimis naturally grows from 
September to May, hut may be rested and set growing almost at any 
season; the leaves are its chief beauty—there is no beauty in the flowers 
of any of them. Rogers’s boiler is good, if your coals do not “ cake.” 
Flower Seedlings {H. G. B .).—You find these die when a few days 
old. The surface-soil of your seed-pots is too damp, and kills the seed¬ 
lings as fast as they appear. Sprinkle a little dry soil over them, and 
keep them in a drier place. Plunge the pot with the Pontic rhodo¬ 
dendron in the open ground all the winter; the plant is hardier than the 
pot; the frost might split the pot and so injure the fine plant. Dogs- 
toolh violet. Winter aconite , and Bulbocodium verniim, will most likely 
do well in the moss and china howl, hut we never tried them that way; 
do not let them get too damp, particularly the first and last. The 
aconite, if only recently taken up, will surely do; it would flower in a 
lady’s slipper in damp moss, and so would patches of crocus taken now 
from the borders, hut neither of them would answer with a better treat¬ 
ment the following year. 
Water Plants {Ibid). —You say you are “much pleased with the 
Dictionary;” look under Aquatics, and you will find just the infor¬ 
mation you require. 
Rhododendrons in Peat (E. N. S .).—These for three years have 
looked sickly. The bottom soil is far too dry, or the sandy peat is not ot 
the right sort. Our own rhododendrons are exactly like yours, and the 
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