March 20. ] 
THE COTTAGE GARDENER. 
389 
Take the silting hens from the nests every morning, and 
give them corn, water, and dry dust, and see them safe 
back again. 
Continue to store eggs for hatching. 
Anster Bonn. 
(To be continued.) 
EARTHING-UP POTATOES. 
On the 20tli of November 1849, I planted a patch of 
ground in my garden with Forty-folds. There were fourteen 
rows running from east to west. Directly the plants 
appeared above ground, I covered over with earth half the 
number of rows, and continued to do so, by drawing it from 
the sides in the usual way, until the stalks became too high 
to admit of being covered. The last hoeing was on the 29th 
of April. The remaining half of the rows were not hoed 
up, the earth between was occasionally stirred and kept free 
from weeds. On the 30th of April all were equally healthy 
and flourishing; but on the next night we had a severe 
i frost—the thermometer sunk to 25°; and the consequence 
! was, that every potato not earthed up, was cut to the ground: 
they afterwards sprung up again, however, but none were so 
fine in the haulm, as those which were earthed up and 
which escaped the frost. The disease made its appearance 
in the stalks in all equally, about the first week in August, 
and soon after the potatoes were dug and weighed. 
In both cases the tubers were nearly equally free from 
disease, but the weight of the seven rows not earthed up, 
was less than the remaining seven rows by 29 lbs.: the tubers 
were likewise of smaller size. 
Now, although I am ready to admit that had not the frost 
occurred, the results would have been different, still I think 
that the protection afforded to the young plant by the 
earthing-up system, must always be of service; and I have 
never found that my crops of potatoes were inferior to those 
of my neighbours, either in size or quality, and I have often, 
as in the instance recorded, preserved them by the plan of 
earthing entirely over the stalk, during the last eight or 
nine years that I have pursued the system. 
Please excuse the length of this letter; but the subject is 
important, and any practical observations on the culture of 
this popular root must be of interest. I shall again, this 
year, give the two plans a fair trial, and shall be happy to 
send you an account of the results.— Henry W. Livett, 
Wells, Somerset. 
[We are glad that some one besides ourselves is engaged 
in this research. We uniformly find the unearthed potatoes 
most productive in our light, cool-bottomed soil. We are of 
opinion that the deficiency in Mr. Livett’s experiment, arose 
from the stems of the unearthed being cut down by the 
frost. We shall be glad to have the report of further 
experiments, and in them a statement not only of the 
difference in the weights, but of the total weights.—E d. C. 
G.] 
TO CORRESPONDENTS. 
*** We request that no one will write to the departmental writers of 
The Cottage Gardener. It gives them unjustifiable trouble and 
l expense. All communications should be addressed “ To the Editor of 
The Cottage Gardener , 2, Amen Corner , Paternoster Row , London 
Hyacinths (Laplander ).—As a stranger amongst us, we are glad to 
I hear that you are in the hands of Mr. H., an old friend of ours ; and if 
I you tell him so, and request of him, in our name, to put you on the right 
scent, when an immediate answer is desirable, we are sure he can tell 
you how to proceed. There is not the slightest cause of apprehension 
about the safety of your Hyacinths ; we have nearly a thousand of them 
exactly in the same condition Some people destroy their Hyacinths by 
kindness ; they are as hardy in this country as the daisy. Yours will rise 
much higher yet, and cause as much admiration as your crocuses did. 
The natural light soil to the south of Cheltenham suits without any 
manure. 
Flower Gardens. —“Mr. Editor.—Tell your correspondents who 
have transgressed by sending plans, after the announcement I made , 
that I shall keep all the plans I receive ; and if they are sent again, when 
I have time to resume the subject, I shall not promise to give an opinion 
upon them.”— D. Beaton. 
Vinery {An Amateur). —About thirty feet in length is considered a 
fair sized vinery; in breadth about fourteen feet; the back wall to the 
roof must be at least nine feet. Give the roof a moderate pitch, not too 
sharp, otherwise very bright glass in large frames may cause burning. We 
should use the British sheet, as does Mr. Rivers ; about lG oz. the square 
foot. You can grow either cucumbers or pines in your vinery, or even 
figs , if you desire; but you should get the advice of some practical man 
near as to the interior arrangements. In planting your vines, put the 
earliest sorts at the warmest end, finishing with the West’s St. Peter’s, 
or the Hambrough, at the coolest end. 
Saponaria calabrica {FloraMontague). —Plant it nine inches apart 
every way. Your bed is too large for so dwarf a plant. We do not know 
Saponaria multiflora , if, indeed, there .is such a plant, which we much 
doubt. Humeas look well singly on grass, and they require very rich soil 
that way. No plants will make a shot-silk-like effect except the two we 
named, Old Scarlet variegated and Verbena venusta. 
Verbenas {Ibid).— Inglefield Scarlet, Miller’s Favourite, and Duchess 
of Northumberland, Me pink; Barkerii and Louis Philippe, dark; Impe- 
ratrice Josephine, bluish; Defiance and White Perfection would make a 
fine bed, but Emma would mar the effect of it. We have given all we 
know about Mistletoe more than once; insert the seeds in the rough bark 
next April. Treat Lobelia ramosa like the Saponaria, as you propose, 
and treat both at first as half-hardy annuals. The Calceolarias in your 
former letter were smashed ; each is as good as the other two. 
Matricaria {Ibid). —Can any of our readers tell Flora Montague the 
merits and properties of the double Matricaria as a bedder, and how far 
asunder she ought to plant it, and how long it keeps in flower, &c. ? 
Honey from Taylor’s Hives {A Subscriber ).—From a swarm of 
June, 1849, put into a Taylor's Amateurs' Bar-hive , we obtained 28 lbs. 
of honey, leaving in the stock box 23 lbs. 1850 was a very bad year; 
should the present be a good one, we expect at. least 35 lbs. of honey from 
the same stock. The honey of Devonshire is said to be fine, but we have 
never seen finer honey than that collected in the eastern counties. 
Poinsett i a pulcherrima (Y. Z.). — Your plant required to be i 
more bushy, should be cut down to within six inches of the pot now, be 1 
put to rest in a moderately cool house for two months, and kept nearly 
dry during that time. Then it should lie repotted in rich strong com¬ 
post, made of yellow or brown loam, peat earth, and rotten dung in equal 
parts ; be well drained, and part of the old ball gently removed. Give a 
gentle watering with water of the same heat as the stove, then place it in 
a heat of 65° to 70° by day, and 55° by night, till it makes shoots a foot 
long. You cannot make it bushy, and have fine heads of flowers. There 
must be no stopping or pruning after it begins to grow. Keep it as near 
the glass as you can, and give moderate supplies of water at the root, 
and syringe frequently in the evening. Give plenty of air to prevent it 
drawing up weakly. If you have a pit heated with linings of dung, it 
will thrive all the better for being placed in it during the growing season. 
When the flowers appear, remove it into the stove. After the bloom is 
over, reduce the water and give it rest till the potting time next year. 
Fuchsias {W. B .),—Your Fuchsias, Coralina and Exoniensis , have 
grown already a foot long. You have started them too soon ; but you 
may take off the young tops, and put these in a pot with some sand on 
the surface ; cover them with a glass, and shade from sun, watering only 
at the first, unless the sand becomes very dry ; pot them off when rooted. 
Give the old plants plenty of air, or they will grow weak, and will not 
flower finely. 
Salvia patens {Ibid). —This drops its flowers. It is the nature of 
the plant to do so ; but it will not fail so soon if you give it a rich soil 
and plenty of water in dry weather. It will not do well in a shady place ; 
in such a situation it would run all into wood, and the flowers would not 
open at all. 
Carnations {K. C .).—If grown in pots, they are more easily managed 
than if planted out in beds, inasmuch as they can be placed in a proper 
situation, under an awning, for blooming, be more correctly watered, 
and not so liable to disease. Now is the time to shift them into blooming 
pots ; the size nine inches wide, with a compost of fresh light loam and 
one-fourth well decomposed manure. By fresh loam is meant the surface 
of a dry meadow, or old pasture laid up for a year or more and frequently 
turned. The following dozen pairs are good :—Collcut’s Brutus, Wil- 
mer’s Conquering Hero, Bragg’s Duke of Wellington, Halliday’s Lord 
Rancliffe, Martin’s Splendid, May’s Edgar , May’s Mercutio , Cart¬ 
wright’s Rainbow, Smith’s Queen Victoria, Puxley’s Jolly Tar , Puxley’s 
Rising Sun , and Brook’s Flora's Garland. There is no standard work I 
especially devoted to the Carnation. The Cottage Gardener contains 
all you need on their culture. 
Cyclamen Blooms Dying (F. H.). —We now can understand why 
your Cyclamens have not brought their flowers to perfection. Your soil, 
you say, “was good taken from the garden.” Now garden soil may be 
good to grow cabbages in, but very unfit for such fine rooted plants as 
Cyclamens. The following is the right compost: fresh loam (that is, 
decayed pasture turf one or more years old), peat soil got from the moors 
where the heath grows wild, and decayed leaves one year old, well mixed 
together with a small portion of white sand. In this they will grow and 
flower. Again, “ you plunged them after blooming in a south border.” 
This was too hot a situation for Alpine plants like these ; a west border 
would have been more suitable. When the leaves decayed, you should 
have taken the pots up, and laid them on one side to keep them dry and 
quiet till the end of September ; then repotted them in the above compost, 
and if you had no better situation fa cold frame for instance) placed them 
in a window facing the east, giving very little water till the leaves began to 
appear and attain a considerable size, then you might water freely. 
Instruction in Gardening {M. N. E .),—Many young men are 
situated like you, and there are so many that have friends in the business, 
