THE COTTAGE GARDENER. 
February 27.1 
! J 
Charcoal Drainage (C. P .).—It is quite impossible that charcoal 
I drainage, if used in lumps so that the superfluous water could easily 
I escape, was the cause of your plants sickening and dying. Be assured 
I your drainage was imperfect, or there was some other cause for the 
fatality, quite independent of the charcoal. This has been used by the 
best gardeners for every species of potted plants, and without injury. 
Cement for Zinc and Glass (IF. J. M.). — Our correspondent 
requires a cement, or glue, suitable for uniting lapped joints of zinc and 
glass, so as to resist the continual action of hot water. Can any reader 
furnish a recipe for such a cement? 
Candied Honey (C. A.). —To use the candied honey as a food for 
your bees, put a pound of it into a saucer, with a quarter of a pint of 
water, and let it simmer over a slow fire for five minutes; the crystals 
will then be dissolved, and when cold will be in a very proper state to 
give to your bees. The price of Payne*s Improved Cottage Hive, is 
Is. 6J.; the small depriving hive, Is. 2d. Mr. Payne will have you 
supplied if you write to him. 
Diseased Cucumber Leaves (A Constant Subscriber). —They are 
kept too hot and too dry, consequently are attacked by the thrip, and 
perhaps by the red spider ; paint the inside of the frame with a mixture 
of sulphur and clay water ; and keep the air more moist. 
Diseased Camellia Leaves (A Constant Subscriber ).—The brown 
blotches on them are caused by drops of water upon them, and the sun 
shining upon them whilst the house is closed—or as gardeners term it, 
they are scalded. The buds probably fall because there is a deficient 
supply of water and warmth to the roots proportionate to the warmth 
and moisture of the air. 
Spanish Hen’s Eggs. —A correspondent near Derby, wishes for some 
“genuine;” and another in Cheshire requires some “fowls of the 
genuine Cochin-China breed, or a few of their eggs.” 
Peat Charcoal. —A correspondent (W. C. G.) says that he has just 
received one and a half ton from Dublin, at 47s. per ton, including sacks. 
The freight to Liverpool being 4s. per ton additional. 
Melilotus leucantha. — R. A. wishes to be informed where he can 
procure seeds of this bee flower. It is a white-flowered Trefoil-like 
plant, not at all ornamental. 
Autumn-bearing Raspberries (J. M. G.). —There is only one sort, 
though called the Double-bearing, the Siberian, and the Late. It may 
be obtained of any nurseryman who advertizes in our columns. You will 
find directions for its culture at page 258, and other parts of our first 
volume. 
Wheat Gluten ( Pyrus ). —This is the remainder after washing from 
wheat flour all its starch. This gluten mixed with salt has become 
putrid, and unfit for use in your business, and you ask if it can be em¬ 
ployed as a manure ? Certainly, and you will find it a very powerful fer¬ 
tilizer. Now that it has fermented, it mixes perfectly well with water, 
so you may use it in that way, pouring it over ground about to be dug 
for the cabbage tribe, or to your asparagus beds, but do not apply it to 
any flowers except your rose-trees. 
Pear-trees (Ibid). —Many of our finest new pears would bear as stan¬ 
dards in your climate (Stockport), but whether they would possess flavour, 
is altogether another affair. You have no alternative, as far as we can sec, 
but to cut them back, and graft them with kinds which will withstand 
the climate, and tend to produce a succession. Try to get B cur re Diet 
(December); Dunmore ( October); Hacon’s Incomparable (December); 
Louis Bonne of Jersey (November); Thompson’s (November, December) : 
Gloat Morceau (December); Beurre Langelier (January). These will 
be enough for you for ordinary standards ; if your case had been a wall, 
we should have advised somewhat different. See some remarks in our 
fruit article to-day, as to grafting old trees. 
Dwarf Apples and Pears ( J. L.). —Twelve dwarf standard apple- 
trees, as follows:—Ribston Pippin, Margille, Pitmaston Nonpariel, 
Lamb-abbey Pearmain, Kerry Pippin, Pearson’s Plate, Ashmead Kernel, 
Sturmer Pippin, Boston Russet, Golden lteinette, Ross’ Nonpariel, Red 
Juneating. Six pears:—Jargonelle, Dunmore, Louis Bonne of Jersey, 
Marie Louise, Beurre Diel, Glout Morceau. Plant your apples sixteen 
feet, and your pears twelve feet apart. Your soil, by your description, is 
very eligible ; pray do not put much manure in, especially for the pears. 
Oleander not Flowering (A Subscriber). —If your greenhouse is 
cool, it is time enough for it yet to show flower. If it, by-and-by, does 
not do so, you must not have exposed the shoots sufficiently to light and 
air last season. As the plant is too large for your house, your only remedy 
is, after giving a little more patience, to prune it back, and keep it rather 
warmer afterwards, encouraging it with plenty of manure water, shifting 
it, if necessary, into fresh rich soil, and getting it full in the sun, first in 
the house, and for a short time out of doors, before housing it in the 
autumn. Next season you will have flowers from the points of the shoots 
made in this. 
Seedlings of Achimenes, Gloxinia, and Gesnera (D. J. M.). — 
How long will it be before they bloom—depends upon treatment; generally 
from one to two years. We have had plenty during the winter, and still 
have plenty of bloom, and we believe with good treatment would have 
plenty of flowers all the season from Gloxinia plants, the seed of which 
was sown in the spring of 1850. 
Hardy Autumn Flowering Herbaceous Plants (Ibid). —These 
arc too numerous to be enumerated; we should fix upon the Phloxes, 
among which are beautiful things; then the hardy Asters, and Sulidagoq. 
Lupines will continue until late, if they are prevented seeding. For 
345 
striking effect, few things would equal the hardy Gladioluses, such'as 
Pscittacinus, Ganduvensis, &c., but they arc all bulbs. 
Apiiklexis (Ibid). —We should consider the kinds you mention as 
varieties, but should not like authoritatively to say that they arc not 
species, as the distinction is easily seen ; it is a matter of little practical 
importance whether you consider them species or varieties. 
Making a Hotbed between Brick Walls (II.). —We presume 
you mean putting your fermenting material into what is technically 
termed a brick pit, for this purpose your material must be as well pre¬ 
pared as for any other mode of making a bed; if for purposes that will 
admit of turning, the freshest or best prepared maybe put at the bottom, 
and thus less material will be necessary to insure a certain degree of heat. 
If we do not meet your case, explain your wants and wishes more fully. 
Forcing Vines, and Growing Geraniums (T. R. Lucas). —We 
presume that you have vines up the rafters, and geraniums on a stage. 
The geraniums have been kept hardy, are starting into growth, and you 
wish to know whether you should repot them, or wait until they have 
done flowering. Now, first, if you force your vines much, your house 
will soon be too hot for your geraniums, if florists’ kinds, unless you 
could remove them altogether, when your temperature at night exceeded 
55°. Secondly. If you wish for early blooming in April and May, neither 
I stop the shoots, nor fresh pot; but as your temperaturc^advances, and 
especially as the flower-buds begin to appear, use manure water, but not 
before. Thirdly. If you wish summer-blooming large plants, stop ram¬ 
pant shoots, encourage them to break afresh, tie out the shoots, and when 
the pots are filled with roots repot again. By one lot succeeding each 
other, you may have flowers until autumn ; but recollect your geraniums 
will not do well in your house, when after forcing the roof gets covered 
! with foliage. There is an article to-day by Mr. Fish, that will suit you, 
as respects potting. 
Cannabis Sativa for Fumigating (Ibid).— We think you must mean 
C. indica; but at this moment we cannot refer to the page you mention. 
Both are annuals, that merely require to be sown in common soil. 
Haricot Bean. —This is nothing but a variety of the Kidney bean in its 
dwarf state ( Phaseolus vulgaris), and in its rambling condition of 
scarlet and white Dutch runner (Phaseolus ramosus), which will soon 
reach the height you mention, though by stopping they may be success¬ 
fully cultivated as dwarfs. Their culture has often been given. White 
seeds are most esteemed as Haricots. 
Sparmannia Africana (Amateur). —You ask, how to make it bloom 
more freely in a greenhouse ? This, though rather rough-looking, is an 
old favourite of ours, which we have not lately seen—its blossoms being 
useful in spring and winter for little bouquets. When done flowering, 
or nearly so, prune it into good shape, and give it a warm corner until it 
breaks, then encourage it to grow, by fresh potting and plenty of water 
during the summer; any quiet place out of doors will do. Get it sup¬ 
plied with as many stout, stubby, healthy, well-ripened shoots as pos¬ 
sible. House it before frost, and abundance of bloom will crown your 
efforts. 
Potting (Tiverton). —See Mr. Fish’s article to-day. 
Gas Lime (J. S.). —You greatly err in considering that you can keep 
your land fertile by the aid of such applications as gas lime only. There 
must be an annual addition of animal or vegetable decomposing matters, 
to restore to the soil the carbonaceous matters taken from it by preceding 
crops. The sea-weed you mention will do excellently for this purpose, 
but we should not mix with it gas lime in a larger proportion than one 
cart load to five or six of sea-weed. Cinder ashes from the gas works 
are useless for mixing with land, unless this be very heavy. 
Jersey Cows (Utile et dulce). —They are usually white and brown, 
the first colour prevailing. They will thrive with you in North Devon, 
with only ordinary care and feeding. We shall best answer your wish by 
thus announcing that you are desirous of purchasing two, and would be 
glad to hear of any one who will deliver them, having their first or 
i second calf by their sides, all of the real Jersey breed, at your residence, 
and for what sum. They could come by steamer to Southampton. Will 
some of our Jersey readers oblige us with some information on these 
points. 
Asparagus Beds (J. H.). —If you will refer to vol. i., page 113, and 
to vol. iv., page 51, you will find full directions for making these. If you 
trench jour ground three feet deep, mixing abundance of rich manure 
(you cannot put too much), throughout that depth, you will have a good 
soil for the bed. As your soil is stiff, it will be an improvement to mix 
fine coal-ashes and sifted bricklayer’s rubbish with it, as you trench in 
the manure. You can obtain three year old plants of any of the nursery¬ 
men who advertise in our columns. 
Soft Clay Soil (Rusticus). —This is a bad soil for your parsonage 
garden, and the worst of all possible plans for planting it, is that which 
you have adopted, of having holes dug in it for your shrubs, and filling j 
the holes with good soil; they will act like so many wells, into which | 
to drain the water from the clay and chill the roots. You had better | 
mix your better soil with a little of the surface of the clay, and plant in , 
stations upon the surface, mulching over the roots, to keep them moist i 
in the spring and summer. If you have chalk, coal-aslies, bricklayer’s ! 
rubbish, drift-sand, and such like opening materials at command, you 
cannot have them trenched into your ground too abundantly ; but, above 
all, and before all, drain your garden. We are glad you have succeeded 
in obtaining a bright scarlet thorn. 
Call a iETmopiCA (A Window Gardener). —You may remove the 
suckers from this at once. You cannot supply it with too much water. 
