324 
THE COTTAGE GARDENER. 
[February 20. 
perly cropped and managed, no weeds will have a chance 
of making their appearance, or vermin either. 
The soil, if the foregoing observations are well carried 
out, never requires rest, all that is needed, is to have seed 
and plants always in readiness for each and every piece 
of ground immediately it becomes vacant. Another fact, 
| too, is that soil, well managed, does not require half the 
1 quantity of seed provided or sown for cropping, that is 
required for inferior managed soil; neither is there any 
risk of robbery, either by weed or vermin; nor is the 
trouble or expense of the high cultivation system so 
great in the end, as is the slovenly, weedy, behind-hand 
system of management; the former keeping the soil 
always in condition, and ready, when suitable weather 
prevails; while the latter has too frequently to undergo 
I a partial or imperfect system of cleansing, just at the 
very time when it should have been ready for receiving 
the seed or plants, and then, in consequence of unfa¬ 
vourable weather for performing such operations, the 
season, perhaps, gets too far advanced to insure strong 
plants, and those produced, under such a system, are 
always more than usually subject to disease, stagna¬ 
tion, and vermin,—commonly termed blights. 
F ham i no .— Cucumbers and Melons should be sown 
in succession, and seedlings potted off as soon as they can 
be handled, taking care not to bury the stem. Place 
these in a kindly heat, close to the glass; keep their 
surface stirred with a small pointed stick; stop them at 
the first joint, after one rough leaf is made; shift them 
early, and take care to have a kindly heat and soil to 
turn or ridge them out on ; increase the heat about those 
early turned out, and to the cucumbers now in bearing, 
as the days and nights increase, apply weak tepid liquid- 
manure to commence with, increasing its strength as the 
plants advance in fruit-bearing. 
Mint and Tarragon may now be forwarded, by placing 
over them a hand-glass, small boarded frame, box, or 
| sea-kale pot, with a few boughs or light straw. Mus¬ 
tard and Cress may be produced in the cottage window 
| on a small portion of soil placed in anything, or even 
sown on damp flannel. Radishes and Corn Sallad should 
be sown in succession. Mushroom-beds made, as pre¬ 
viously directed, with good stable manure, and healthy- 
holding loam, and those beds that have been some time 
in bearing should have a supply of tepid manure water. 
Charring Earth.— Every kind of material may be 
charred and turned to account for the cultivation of the 
soil. Coarse, sour, or Weedy earth may easily be charred, 
and made a valuable manure; and the month of March 
is often an advantageous time for performing this opera¬ 
tion, on account of its drying windy days and frosty 
nights, which act so favourably in drying. Close, heavy, 
adhesive soils that are to be found under hedges, all 
waste corners, &c., may be dug up roughly, placed edge¬ 
ways or in ridges to dry partially, and may then be 
charred in conical heaps or in continuous ridges. The 
best system for performing it is to place three rough 
stakes triangle-shape for the centre flue or chimney, as 
directed in the last number for garden refuse ; if intended 
for a conical kiln, or at intervals of ten or twelve 
feet, if in a continuous ridge, the intervals, or distance, 
that the flues or chimneys are to be placed, should be 
regulated, of course, by the width and intended height 
the ridge is to be packed. To commence packing, in 
the first place, the interior of the chimney should he 
blocked with a piece of wood for the three stakes to he 
bound too, after first placing a small portion of easily- 
ignitable materials inside at the base. This centre 
piece of wood is to prevent the others from collapsing 
while the kiln is packing, and to be drawn out when the 
kiln is ready to be ignited. If there is not a tolerable 
quantity of vegetation, to mix with the sods intended 
to be charred, a small portion of hedge-trimmings, 
refuse wood, timber-yard chips, saw or wood-dust, or tan, 
or other rubbish, should be worked in as the process of 
packing goes on; first, by placing round the base of the 
chimney a small portion that is likely to be easily 
ignited, then some of the driest sods next it. The kiln 
may then be packed to the desired height and width, as 
the materials fall to hand, leaving the crumbs and fine 
earth to be added for the last casing, to prevent flare. 
The same principle holds good for charring in ridges of 
any continuous length. Nothing more has now to be 
done except withdrawing the centre chimney-stick, and 
introducing the fire at the summit, and when it has 
sufficiently taken hold at the base, to }dace over the 
summit a sod, and introduce draft-holes at the side, or 
all round at first, within a short distance of the summit, 
and thus continue to make them lower, and blocking the 
uppermost as the charring process goes on; blocking 
with a case of fine earth the whole at last, and making 
it air-tight. In order to smother the fire, a little water 
may be introduced into the centre, and be immediately 
blocked in with a sod, to prevent the evaporation from 
escaping. This latter process, of course, is not required 
till all is properly charred : after which it may be stored 
in the dry or temporary thatched place where it has been 
charred, if the time lias not yet arrived for making use 
of it, and it should be required in the immediate locality 
where it has been charred; but be very careful not to 
let it get wet previous to being required for use. 
James Barnes. 
MISCELLANEOUS INFORMATION. 
OUR VILLAGERS. 
By the Authoress of “ My Flowers," Ac. 
Many years ago it was my delight to go and see a poor 
suffering woman, who had been afflicted, almost from her 
childhood, with many ailments, which had checked the en- 
j joyments of youth, and deprived her of the strength and 
activity of maturer age; and when I first knew her, she was 
scarcely able to move across the small room in which she 
sat, and was a constant sufferer. She lived in what might be 
called a shed, built in the yard where once her parents lived, 
and in which her mother and herself had settled themselves, 
when the husband died and the son succeeded to the house 
and business. This small and miserable hut was divided 
into two apartments, in which two persons could with 
difficulty turn ; but it was not until the mother’s death that I 
knew anything of Hannah A-. 
Her brother was a careless, indifferent man, with a dirty, 
ill-tempered wife, who grudged every kindness he seemed 
inclined to show to his afflicted sister; so that the walls of her 
two little rooms were neither properly plastered nor white¬ 
washed; they were all stained with damp and mildew, from 
the slight manner in which they were built; and a waggon 
which was backed against the corner of the shed, had rent 
the feeble brickwork, and left an opening nearly from the 
ceiling to the floor, through which the wind was allowed for 
year's to whistle. 
Yet even now I look back with pleasure to that cold and 
solitary dwelling, for it was the palace of content, and the 
pink of cleanliness. The moment a friend turned round the 
gable, and peeped through the little -window, a joyful smile 
lighted the pale face of the inmate, as she sat by her fire in 
an easy chair lent her by those who truly regarded her; and 
the beautiful order and neatness of the two little rooms 
were refreshing to the eye, on entering. How she contrived 
