August 12. THE COTTAGE GARDENER. 309 
former to one of the latter—draining them well pre¬ 
viously. Press tho soil down gently and evenly, and 
upon it sow this carefully-prepured seed, rather thinly. 
Set these pans either upon a platform in the greenhouse, 
near to the glass, or upon a very gentle hotbed covered 
with glass. Give air on all favourable occasions, and 
be particularly careful, when the plants begin to appear, 
that they are not subject to a damp atmosphere, for if 
I they are, they are almost sure to fog off. This serious 
evil may be prevented by covering the bed with dry 
coal ashes, which will absorb the damp partly, and by 
giving abundance of air to carry off the remainder. 
The great aim should be to keep them healthy, and 
growing them as slowly as possible, to induce a dwarf 
stockiness to the plants. As soon as they have become 
two inches high, and the weather is sufficiently warm 
and mild, set the pans out-of-doors for a week or two, 
shading them from violent sunshine till they have 
become inured to the full light, as well as the full air. 
They are then ready to be operated upon, according to 
Rule 5, which says, “ As soon as the seedlings are grown 
a few inches high, and the weather will permit, plant 
them out in a nursery bed, in a carefully-prepared soil— 
neither too light nor too heavy.” 
Prepare the Ground, by first (if it is not naturally 
dry) perfectly draining it, if that can be easily done; but 
if not, by raising the surface of the bed above the sur¬ 
rounding level five or six inches. The sides of the bed 
may be formed with either slate, or brick, to hold up the 
soil close to the edge of the bed. The soil should be 
strong loam well enriched with very rotten dung; press 
or tread it down pretty firmly, and then bring out the 
seedling roses, one pan at a time. Commence raising 
the plants at one side with a small trowel, then make a 
mark across the prepared bed, and put in the plants in 
a line with the mark, planting them at six inches apart. 
When the first row is planted, make a second mark or 
line across the bed one foot from it; plant it the same 
as the other, and so proceed till they are all planted; 
then give them a gentle watering, and shade them for a 
few days with sticks and mats thrown over them till 
they make fresh growth. They then want no more 
attention that summer, except keeping them constantly 
weeded, and the surface stirred occasionally, to prevent 
moss growing, and baking and cracking with the drought 
of summer. As they advance in growth and begin to 
assume a character, look them over, and any that by 
foliage, or any other mark, denote a difference and show 
an improvement, let buds be taken from such about 
August, and insert them either into the common stock 
in the usual way, or three, four, or more, may be put 
into some rose bush, of any kind, with characteristic 
marks similar to the seedling; that is, if the seedling is 
of a stout habit, like the Gallic tribe, put the buds into 
one of similar habit and class ; but if weak-growing, like 
the China, or Tea-scented class, bud it into one of them. 
The reason for this precaution is obvious; the strong 
growers should be worked upon strong growers, or they 
would overpower the stock and eventually perish ; and 
the weak growers upon strong stocks would never be 
able to take up the abundant flow of sap from such a 
strong stock and such a necessarily large stock of roots. 
Proportion, then, the apparent habit of the seedling to 
the habit of the stock, and they will work together har¬ 
moniously. And this agreement in strength of stock 
and scion is necessary to be observed in budding or 
grafting any roses, whether seedlings or not, though the 1 
advantage, in a slight degree of strength, may be allowed 
to the stock in preference to the scion. The seedlings, 
after the buds are taken from them, must not bo de¬ 
stroyed till they have blossomed, as sometimes tho most 
unlikely in foliage, habit, or strength, produce good 
roses; the budding of any being only done to accelerato 
blooming of tho buds so removed. If they bloom sooner, 
they are soon proved, and if found worthy, may bo then 
rapidly multiplied; or if worthless, are the sooner dis¬ 
pensed with. T. Appleby. 
(To he continued.) 
OCCUPATION OF VACANT GROUND. 
The season has now arrived when several of the 
summer crops, as Peas, Cauliflowers, Early Turnips, 
and sundry other things will have reached, and gone 
past, that state of perfection which fits them for table, 
and may be at once removed. In fact, we advocate 
their being cleared away as soon as ever they are 
superseded by other crops, or are no longer fit for use. 
This being accomplished, either in whole, or piecemeal, 
then comes the question, what is to be done with the 
ground they have been occupying ? Usually, circum¬ 
stances determine that question in a manner against 
which there is no appeal, but often some discretionary 
power is vested in the cultivator. 
The deep-thinking gardener, whose plans were laid 
long ago, will tell at once what profitable crop may, with 
advantage, be now introduced to occupy the vacant 
ground. With him the change is as familiar as the 
periodical return of the twilight and dusk after the beat 
of the day ; he had arranged, in his mind’s eye, a certain 
course of rotation which seldom gets marred, unless by 
accident; and certainly there are such mishaps; but, then, 
he is as likely as any one to remedy these misfortunes, 
and turn them to the best account. With him, there¬ 
fore, we have less to say; our duties lie more with the 
less-experienced class ; and as we have all along advised 
the space between rows of Peas to be planted with Brocoli, 
or some other of the Cabbage-worts, we will suppose 
that to have been done, and all that is wanted then is j 
to clear away the crop when done with, dig or stir the * 
ground where the row has been, as well as the inter¬ 
mediate spaces; also where the treading, inseparable to I 
the gathering of a crop, may have rendered it hard, | 
close, and unkind, and at the same time filling up any ! 
gaps in the crop. Little more can be done until the 
plants shew symptoms of growing away with vigour, 
when the application of liquid manure will be of great 
service; but in the early part of a plant’s career, we 
think it unnecessary, or even hurtful, while, at the time 
a plant is in a vigorous growing state, it absorbs such 
grateful food in almost any quantity; we, therefore, say 
to those who have such crops to manage, to improve 
the growth of them by surface-stirring the ground, 
thereby encouraging a healthy action, rather than that 
gouty, gluttonous one resulting from an over-dose of 
manure water. 
Now for the ground vacated by the Cauliflower crop: 
and may not this be planted with Brocoli too, seeing 
that such a large breadth is wanted? To this we have 
several objections. The Cabbage-worts do not like to 
follow each other, although they are by necessity very 
often made to do so; but when it can be arranged other¬ 
wise, another crop ought to follow, or intervene between. 
Celery comes in very well that way, and so docs Winter 
Spinach, and similar crops; the most important, how¬ 
ever, being Celery ; but whether this, or any other dis¬ 
similar crop from the one removed be decided upon, the 
ground ought at once to have a good digging without 
any delay. Much as ground benefits by tho rest it 
receives in the growing season with no crop on it, that 
benefit is much enhanced by the free access of air to all 
its parts; therefore, to clear off a crop, and then rake 
the hardened ground to such a smooth, fine surface as 
almost to make it appear improper to set foot on it 
again, is bad gardening. Pretty as it may appear to the 
eye, it is scaled up against the beneficial influences of 
the atmosphere, so that it can hardly be expected to 
