342 
THE COTTAGE GARDENER. 
[February 27. 
serve as models; but neighbours will not readily take 
example from each other; this is much to be regretted, as 
much good is always done to both parties by setting and 
following a good method. There are, I suppose, faults on both 
sides—the thrifty and tidy cottager, perhaps, holds her head 
a little too high, not remembering that if she is freer from 
outward faults than her neigbours, it is by God’s grace that 
she is so. Whilst, on the other hand, the untidy and careless, 
: fear to look into matters, knowing that they have no excuse 
(which will bear inspection), for the difference that exists 
between them. 
Truth is generally unpalatable; but people will often bear 
to read it, when they will not listen to it; and, therefore, 
perhaps, a few random shots from the pen of an unknown 
“ Friend,” may “ come home ” to the fireside of some of my 
readers. “ Idleness is the root of all evil," is a proverb of 
which we see the truth every day. There are two sorts of idle¬ 
ness—idleness of the body and idleness of the mind; and I am 
very sure, most of the wretchedness seen in our villages is | 
caused by the latter. A very great deal of the happiness or j 
i misery of a cottage home depends on the wife; “A man i 
must ask his wife’s leave to thrive,” is a true saying ; for of [ 
what use is it that a man brings home, regularly, liis har'd- J 
earned wages, if they are not made the most of by the wife ? j 
Two things are very necessary to be learnt, before you can 
become a good manager, and they are—activity and fore¬ 
thought. If the wife lounges about the house, looking at 
the dirty state of things, and wishing they were clean, will 
they become so ? or, if she stands at her door, chatting to j 
the passers by, till the hour is passed when the potatoes 
should have been in the pot, and then suddenly remembers 
that they are not washed, can she be surprised at receiving 
cross words from her husband on his return? The sure 
way of driving a man to the ale-house, is to make his home 
uncomfortable. Cleanliness is one of the first points to be 
attended to, in order to make a cottage comfortable. Do not i 
imagine, because you have but little to spend in soap, that, 
therefore you cannot have your home clean; this isamistake 
—boiling rain water and some nice, pure sand, will make 1 
boards look as white as you need them; and though for j 
your clothes some soap is required, yet very little will suffice, ! 
if you boil wood-ashes with the water in which you intend 
washing them, and as for the cleanliness of yourself and the ! 
children, hot water and a hard cloth is all that is required. 
Do not imagine, because your kitchen is clean, that the rest ] 
of your cottage need not be attended to; this is deceiving 
yourself, and setting a bad example to your children. You 
are in hopes that your girls will get into “respectable 
service,” when they are old enough, are you not ? Well, then, I 
be sure they will never make good servants, and, consequently, 
never get good places, unless they are early taught habits of i 
cleanliness : “ Train up a child in the way he should go, and 
when he is old, he will not depart from it.” Do not (as 
many bustling, hard-working mothers do ) perform the hard 
work yourself, and leave the girl to “ mind the baby;” this is 
a bad plan both for her and for yourself. Make your 
children assist you in everything you have to do; it will 
require a little patience at first, but you will soon be repaid, | 
by the amount of trouble they will take off your hands. 
Most of you work hard for your children’s bodily wel¬ 
fare : are you as earnest for them minds and their souls ? j 
Do you see that they attend a school regularly? Remember, if ! 
they do not learn to read, and sew, when they are young, it is j 
very unlikely that they will do so when grown up. How many 
a weary hour has been profitably and pleasantly passed, 
even in health, by being able to read; and when an accident, 
or illness, overtakes you, what a delight it then becomes; and, 
as you never know “ what a day may biing forth,” it behoves j 
you to prepare them for a day which is sure to arrive—I , 
mean a day of adversity. Do you provide for the spiritual 
wants of your children, by attending to family prayer, and ! 
reading God’s holy word once during the day; and do you 
accompany them to a place of worship on the sabbath, 
teaching them, on that holy day, to abstain as much as 
possible from all work? And now, having gone thus far, let 1 
me give you a few rules, in order to make your homes happy, 
! and to keep your husband from the ale-house. Rise early; * 
I offer a prayer to Almighty God, who has preserved you 
j through the night, before you leave your room; have your 
j children washed and your kitchen clean, before your husband 
returns to breakfast, which, of course, you will have ready for 
him; mend your clothes before they go into the wash tub, 
and, if possible, get your washing out of the way before the 
dinner hour; have a hot, nicely-cooked dinner ready, by the 
hour you expect your husband; in the afternoon, attend to 
your garden as much as you can; and, in the evening, 
have a bright fire, a warm supper, a clean apron, and a 
smiling face, ready to greet your husband, and I will answer 
for it, he will not leave his own fire-side. After supper, put 
the children to bed early; take your work up and ask your 
husband to read a chapter in the Bible to you. Attend to 
these rules for a month, and many a cottage home will 
i become “ the model ” of the village.—A Friend. 
PEGGING-DOWN. 
Having seen, in one of the June numbers of The Cottage 
Gardener of last year, in the flower-garden department, a 
paragraph headed “Pegging-down;" and having read the 
various ways that Mr. Beaton has enumerated, I have to offer 
a far superior one to either. The pegs we use, or rather 
broaches, are made with the wood of the Snowberry, aud 
though all parts of the wood are usable, the last year’s shoots 
are the best. 
The broaches should be about six inches long, split in 
four parts, or more, according to the size of the shoot, then 
taken between the two fingers and thumb — writhed or 
wrung precisely as a thatcher does his broaches, and then 
thrust into the ground. This fixes the plant like a staple, as 
firm as possible, and has no unsightly appearance, indeed no 
appearance at all, and as few shrubberies are without this 
material, broaches of Snowberry can be had with the greatest 
facility. We grow some on purpose, and have used nothing 
else the last seven years, since then- introduction, and as 
they can be made in wet weather, ready for use, the time 
saved when they are wanted is a desideratum, a very little 
practise will render any one expert in making them. 
I take no merit to myself for this invention, as I in¬ 
herited it from my father, except that I discovered the 
Snowberry to be the best material. Some thousands may be 
made in bad weather ready for use, and if they should be too 
dry when used, lay them in water a short time previously to 
using, by which means the saving of time is very great, and 
desirable at a time when so many irons are in the fire. I 
look forward, with the greatest confidence, that this simple 
method will become generally adopted when known, 1 might 
not have taken this liberty of addressing you, had 1 not seen 
that Mr. Beaton has taken no notice of anything of the kind; 
but if I can add the least mite to the stock of knowledge of 
that master of the flower garden, I do it with pleasure; for it 
is no more than I ought in return for the great benefit I 
have received from his writings. 
Geo. Goodwin, 
Second Gardener to Geo. Thomas , Esq., Woodbridge, Suffolk, 
[We have tried this mode and can add our testimony as 
to its efficiency. You need make no apology for sending 
such scraps of very useful knowledge, and the oftener they 
come the better we shall be pleased.— Ed. C. G.] 
ARTIFICIAL SWARMS. 
I have been much interested in perusing the various I 
letters which a “ Country Curate" lias furnished to your 
valuable periodical. His plan of saving the lives of bees, 
by putting those from two stocks into an empty hive, I have 
tried with success. On the 7th August, two were driven into 
one hive, fed, and at the end of three weeks weighed 22 lbs. 
On the Oth September, the bees from three stocks were 
placed in another empty Dive, fed, and in five weeks weighed 
l!)lbs.; both are now doing well. To convince an old Bee 
master of the practicability of the plan, and the advantage 
of feeding on the top of the hive, I placed this last-named 
hive in his garden, provided him with the requisite food, aud 
promised him 2s. 0d. for his trouble, if the bees lived 
through the winter. He told me yesterday, that he saw, a 
few days previously, bees loaded with farina. One hive 1 
have now under ground, the bees in which are evidently 
alive, as I can hear them distinctly through the tube. You 
will agree with me in thinking that I have not had much 
