January 30.J 
THE COTTAGE GARDENER, 
281 
garden ground, and perhaps, too, his pleasure garden, sur¬ 
rounded by a wall of Babylonish construction; the coach¬ 
house and stables might be hid from sight; the east wind or 
the north, or any other pernicious blast, might be thus 
effectually screened off; and the mound thus made at the 
same time might tell for something—convey a reminiscence 
of the past, and so a better idea of the future. I once travelled 
on a railway, on an opening day, with a great antiquary. When 
the train should have set off, it backed. Some looked afraid; 
others laughed, but said it was a bad omen. “ The anti¬ 
quary ” quoted an old French proverb, “ Pour mieux sauter il 
J'aut reculir." At the time I was much amused at his queer 
face when he first told us what the sense of the words was ; 
and then, pretending to have forgotten his French, he with 
great effort blundered out the words with as much show of 
ignorance as a pedant would have made of knowledge. 
Afterwards, when the shares recoiled I bought in, and made a 
good leap in consequence. This is always my apology for the 
alleged retrograde, crab-like tendency of ancient learning. 
To return, then, to the year 1851. I think it would be a 
great gain to supersede the ugly, expensive, bouse-of-eorrec- 
tion-style of park wall or kitchen-garden wall, by something 
in the Ninus and Semiramis style of the year circa 1851, b.c. 
Possibly a Ha-ha outside would be required. At some rail¬ 
way stations one often sees little gardens laid out with great 
taste ; but I apprehend that much larger surfaces of embank¬ 
ments might be Beat.oned to profit for fruit, strawberries, and 
what not. Everybody knows the value of a fruit wall, and 
most gardeners like a nice sloping exposure towards the 
morning sun ; but a slope as steep as the roof of a house is 
not often seen in cultivation. 
There is, in the recently published account of the survey¬ 
ing voyage of Colonel Chesuey, some very curious information 
about water, and the general practice of conveying it under¬ 
ground. I do not know that it would be immediately inter¬ 
esting to the readers of The Cottage Gardener ; but as a 
matter affecting the health of both animals and vegetables, I 
think that the principle is excellent, and should be more 
strictly enforced in this country, though for the contrary 
reason. There water is scarce, and they convey it all by pipes 
underground to save the loss by evaporation. Here, at least in 
this neighbourhood, it is in excess, and we suffer from the 
great evaporation going on from our ditches, babbling brooks, 
&c. They should, as a rule, all be piped; and a great popu¬ 
lous country like ours ought not to be behind such an out-o’- 
the-world place as Persia. And yet in this respect we are so. 
And to read of the water carried nobody knows how many 
miles by pipes made of raw hides for the supply of Cambyses’ 
army, it is astonishing that with gutta percha now at our 
command so little is made of that material. Here is the 
passage :— 
“ During the mad expedition of Cambyses, a king of 
Arabia caused a canal to be made of the skins of oxen 
and other animals, sewn together raw, extending from the 
river Corys, a distance of twelve days’journey, into the arid 
country, where it supplied the army.” The author quotes 
Polybius, B. iii. ch. 9. Ho states that water is, in one instance, 
now carried by subterraneous pipes for forty miles. The 
whole account of Cliesney, ch. xx. vol. 2, is highly interest¬ 
ing ; and mutatis mutandis much of it might be well imitated 
io this country. Think of giving a man the inheritance of 
five generations in the land for bringing water where no water 
was before ; think of the Shah being paid rent for the water 
instead of for the land ; and above all the following passage : 
“ The day of bringing the water to its ultimate destination is 
made a day of rejoicing among the peasants, who having 
patiently waited the fortunate hour named by the astrologers, 
receive the gushing forth of the stream with shouts of joy, 
accompanied by songs, music, and loud expressions of the 
anxious desire that prosperity may attend it.” 
In the article of manure, I think it is well to bear in mind 
that four-fifths even of solid ordinary manures is water; 
while in guano and bones the proportion is almost reversed. 
This shows the necessity of excluding the water from the 
dung-pit, both top and bottom. If four out of five cart-loads 
or barrow-loads of manure be merely water, why needlessly 
add to the charge by carrying out perhaps five out of six 
parts of water? Besides, nearly all the poisonous gases are 
the compounds of hydrogen, arising from the decomposition 
of water. The cinders from tho fire, if well riddled, give the 
best deodorizer available near at hand, from a charred mid¬ 
den near a house; but they make matters worse if the rain 
gets in. 
So now, Semiramis, “ ecetilibus muris,” and D. Beaton, 
railways, Cambyses’ vein, and the Arabian King, the Shah of 
Persia, and sanatory reforms, be they wet or dry, have come 
to an end. Yibgyor. 
TO CORRESPONDENTS. 
*** We request that no one will write to the departmental writers of 
The Cottage Gardener. It gives them unjustifiable trouble and 
expense. All communications should be addressed “ To the Editor of 
The Cottage Gardener, 2, Amen Corner, Paternoster Row, London.” 
Chrysanthemum Failures (A. C.). —After the various clear in¬ 
structions given we hardly know what to do more, especially as you 
perceive where your error lies. Stopping them until August will never 
do. If you had allowed the shoots to grow from the beginning of July 
you would have had flowers, if from June they would have been finer; 
a certain time must be given the shoots to organise and mature flower- 
buds. The cuttings which you took in August failed from a similar 
cause: if you had laid the points of the shoots you would likely have 
succeeded, but the buds not being formed in August, and the check given 
by removing the cuttings from their parent plant, rendered them unable 
to form flower-buds, which they might have done if left alone. We can 
hardly advise you for the best respecting your plants now ; one thing is 
certain, they will not give you any flowers until next autumn, so that 
keeping them in that expectation is useless. After being sheltered in 
any warm corner and protected from frost, cut down in March, and 
planted out, they would succeed well against palings or walls. The 
smallest plant might, after cutting down, be again repotted—the shoots 
stopped if necessary, so as to give you, by April, as many shoots as you 
would require—and then you might shift and water well, when, without 
more stopping, you will have fine large plants that will set their buds 
early and flower splendidly j or you may take suckers from larger pots at 
the same time, or merely cuttings, hut if the latter, and in April, you 
must lose no time, and omit no encouragement ; and even then you will 
not obtain bloom so early as from your young plants. 
Lilies of the Valley (Ibid).— If in the greenhouse, there was no 
necessity for covering them with eight inches of coal ashes. Force them 
as soon as you find the pots supplied with roots : see a paper a fortnight 
ago. A little light manure, such as leaf-mould, sprinkled over them out 
of doors will do them good. 
Cow-dung and Soot for Rose-trees (Ibid).— Capital stuff! You 
are lucky to have it. Better point it into the ground, or your next 
neighbour’s garden will receive benefit as well as your own. 
Root-budding for Roses (D. M.). —Can any of our readers give us 
information on this practice, for we never tried it; but in bad weather, in 
the sheds, have grafted scions of well ripened wood (upon largish but 
fresh pieces of roots. All that was necessary was to slice a piece off the 
side of the root, a corresponding piece off the scion, binding the scion 
and root together with a piece of matting, planting them so as to cover 
root and scion too, with the exception of a bud or so of the latter. Many 
failed, but many also did very well. 
Flower-garden (E. and. J/.).—The plan is very good indeed, and 
that way of grouping the beds new to us. The proposed planting is also 
judicious, but instead of planting “ mixed plants ” in the middle of the 
four beds we would plant them at the inner ends, and remove what is 
intended there to the middle, and for this reason, that the outside ends 
would agree better wilh the middle in the uniformity of growth, which 
no kind of mixed planting can do. The effect would he the same as you 
propose—4 and 6; blue and white Lobelias must be of the erinoide 
breed, and therefore too dwarf for the plan and size of the beds ; we 
would abandon that plan. Remove the two Lobelias for bordering a 
couple of the mixed ends, and use Lobelia raccmosa or Salvia Chamce- 
drioides for 4, and White Perfection verbena for 8, which are your own 
colours with more suitable plants. The mixtures will include China- 
asters, Stocks, Indian pinks, Mimuluses, Viscariu occulata, (Enotherus, 
Penstanons, or, indeed, such as come readiest to hand, and keep in 
flower a couple of months or more. The first week in April is time 
enough to sow such hardy annuals as you require. 
Roses and Fuchsias (A New Beginner). —As far as the pruning of 
the newly planted roses is concerned, Bourbons and hybrid perpetuals 
must be cut the same way, that is, close pruned ; and you may cut them 
now, or as soon as you like. Bourbons are a particular race, hut they 
flower as long as the hybrid perpetuals if they are of the right sorts. 
Your fuchsias, now growing, must soon he shook out of the old soil, 
their roots well trimmed, and then be repotted in fresh soil and he 
watered. 
Error (B. B.). —Our reply to you at page 24? should be thus cor¬ 
rected “ The super is placed inside the rim ; the adapter must be ot 
thin mahogany, and twelve inches square.” 
Caps on Cottage Hives (James C. Roberts). —Let the caps be 
placed upon the stock-hives the first week in May (but only upon the 
very strongest stocks), put two or three small pieces of clean empty comb 
at the top of each cap, and see that the aperture in the top of the stock- 
hive is not less than three or four inches in diameter. The guide-combs, 
as they are called, are easily fixed in tho caps by warming them a little, 
