812 
THE COTTAGE GARDENER. 
August 12 
cause them to grow stronger and more barren of flowers. Train and peg 
down the verbenas , but do not stop any of the shoots yet, rather train 
them over each other till you have a good bloom. The (Enothera mu- 
crocarpa will train itself; but as the roots are weak, and have been 
planted this season, you had better fasten down some of the shoots here 
and there to steady the plants. In another ten days or a fortnight you 
will see a great change for the better in all the beds. 
Melons (A Constant Reader and Subscriber). —You have not stated 
the necessary facts ; but it is a fair inference that yours is a house, for 
you speak of flues, &c. What pity it is that our worthy friends do not, 
in their queries, give the data as well as desiderata. The simpler ques¬ 
tions are put the better, and as far as possible free from verbiage, but 
still facts must be stated. The dimensions and character of your house 
would have enabled us to give a satisfactory answer. A tank confined in 
a chamber, the latter having sliders on its facings, to allow a graduated 
escape of heat and air-moisture would be good, and act in con¬ 
junction with a source of atmospheric heat; the latter occasionally ind's- 
pcnsable. As to sorts, we say, first of all, the Green-fleshed Egyptian , 
such as those exhibited at the June and July shows, at Chiswick, by our 
friend, Mr. Collinson, of Eaton Hall, misprinted Exeter Hall, in Mr. 
Errington’s article of July 22nd. Next, we would place Snow's Green- 
fleshed; then Bromham Hall ; then Terry's; and, if you can, add some 
of Mr. Fleming's Hybrid Persians; but these want more tender treat¬ 
ment. 
Potato-culture. — B. says—“ On a piece of ground, fourteen feet by 
seven, I dug fourteen holes, arranged thus— 
o o 
o 
o o 
o 
o o 
o 
and having placed a potato set and some manure in each hole, when 
the stalk required it, I continued to bank the clay round it, until each 
resembled a small mole-hill. I have this morning lifted them, and found 
56 lbs. weight of tubers. The potatoes were not planted until February, 
and they were cut down in the height of the growing season by the 
disease. Had they been permitted to come to full maturity, I doubt 
not but that the produce would have been very large.” 
Pine-apples {An Attentive Reader). —Your produce (49jlbs.) from 
18 plants, if they are of the Queen variety, is very good indeed. We 
are glad that “ although you never lived at a place where pines were 
grown,” you have succeeded by attending to the directions given in our 
pages. 
Scarlet Runners (W. Moore). —These are perennials; and it has 
long been known that if the stems be cut down at the beginning of 
winter, and the roots are thickly covered over with coal-ashes, so as to 
preserve them from frost and excessive wet, they will throw up fresh 
stems the following year. However, being so easily and so cheaply raised 
from seed annually, such treatment is never adopted. 
CocniN-CiiiNA Chickens (.4 Constant Subscriber). —These being 
ten weeks old, are just of the age when they are usually “ with scarcely a 
feather to cover their nakedness.” After this age, if they are kept warm 
and fed generously, they speedily become covered with feathers. The 
food you supply them with is very good; but our Cochin-Chinas prefer 
oats to barley, and it is in some respects better for them. 
Pine-growing. — An Essex Farmer will have his wishes attended to 
very soon. 
Woodlice (A. J. V .).—There is no royal road whereby to make these 
vermin march off from your melon-pit. We have found gas-lime strewed 
over the soil, but so as not to touch the plants, check their inroads ; and 
we have trapped them in hundreds, by putting a fresh slice of potato 
under some moss in a garden-pot laid upon its side; but, we believe, the 
most effectual and ever-vigilant subduer of them is a toad. One or two 
of these much-abused animals will clear a frame very shortly of woodlice, 
and keep it clear. 
White Cochin-China Fowls. — A New Subscriber may write to 
Mr. G. C. Peters, Charlton Cottage, Moseley-street, Birmingham. 
Heating Cucumber and Melon Pit {A Subscriber — Attercliffe ).— 
Write to Mr. Pannell, Leicester, for an estimate for heating it with his 
hot-w T ater apparatus, and tell him your difficulties. 
Pure Cochin-China Fowls {A Constant Reader). —These have no 
“ scimetar tail feathers.” Some were shown at Lewes which had these 
naturally, and were disqualified, although their owners had cruelly and 
unfairly plucked out those objectionable feathers. 
Coarse Grass on Lawn {Simplex). —No treatment will convert the 
coarse species of grass into fine-leavecl species. You had much better 
pare off the turf next February, burn it, and spread the ashes over the 
soil, point them in, and sow Messrs. Sutton’s mixture of lawn-grass 
seeds, as you suggest, and then roll all smooth. 
Tropieolum Tuberosum {Ibid). —This blooms at the end of August. 
Our correspondent says:—‘‘I have one which, if I may judge by com¬ 
paring it with some I have seen here, is a fine one. I have pinched off 
the tops at about eight feet high, as it has got above my wall, and would 
go into the next garden. It is grown on a trellis, and is very luxuriant. 
Had I known its expansive powers, I would have provided a wider one. 
I think it would have covered a trellis two yards wide with ease. It may 
| interest some of your readers to hear that of this plant I tried two cut¬ 
tings ; for one of them the soil was manured with wood-ashes and other 
things, for the other with charcoal. Both grew very well; but the char¬ 
coaled one, though the smaller and less promising of the two, speedily shot 
above the other—its leaves are also much larger and darker. From this, 
I am induced to think that charcoal suits this plant, and the more so, as 
I put a good lot of charred sticks in the hole when I planted the tuber.” 
Taking Honey. —A correspondent {R.) says:—“Will you call the 
attention of your readers to the method of taking supers, detailed at 
page 278 of your 5tli volume. Having tried it myself for two seasons, 
and having found it invariably succeed (for, as I mentioned at page 71 
of voi. vii., I consider my only apparent failure a proof of success), I 
j should like to see it more generally tried. Though my continual recur¬ 
rence to the subject may seem somewhat egotistical, I must plead my 
i desire to extend the knowledge of my accidental discovery as my apology. 
I I this morning (July 31) carried off another glass of honey by the method 
above referred to. There were four or five bees and about ten drones in 
the glass. These latter gentlemen do not seem so anxious to rejoin their 
queen, as in gallantry they ought to be.” 
Orange Jelly Turnip {J, Lester).— Apply to Mr. Chivas, Seeds¬ 
man, Chester. 
Pine-apples at High Temperatures {An Amateur). —In very J 
bright seasons, that is, when the light approaches to that of the tropics, ! 
then high temperatures may be employed, not only without injury, but I 
beneficially ; but in the far greater number of seasons, and in the greater 
• part of the season of a pine’s growth, no such amount of light occurs, 
and then high temperatures are injurious ; they promote growth, but the 
growth is not accompanied by excellence of flavour in the fruit, nor a 
maturity of growth in the suckers, so that these will not yield such good 
fruit in their turn as if they were of less forced but more matured growth. 
We are always ready to reply to questions. 
Cochin-China Fowls {Rev. J. S. L.).—You may very reasonably 
expect success in keeping these on your farm near Lutterworth. We 
know they are so kept much further north. They do not require coddling; 
indeed, their native place, Shanghai, has severer weather in winter than 
we usually have in England. The most perfect form of Cochin-Chinas is 
just as free from legginess as the Dorkings. We shall be glad to aid you 
into the right road if we can. 
Diseased Plums (T. S.). —We are of opinion that your ill-success is 
chiefly the result of the ravages of the plum aphides. You have not 
stated whether they have been thus attacked or no. We have a tree or 
two this season, which, in former years, bore the most perfect fruit, 
producing fruit precisely like yours. Few persons, even gardeners, 
estimate sufficiently the damage these insect vampires are capable of 
producing. Only look at the damage they can accomplish on a hop 
plantation. It will be found, too, that adhesive and bound soils are 
incentives to their attacks. Such soils, by their incapability of affording 
a lively root-action of a continuous character, induce a torpidity in the 
action of the ascending sap, and the consequence is, the accretive matters 
present become highly concentrated, thickened, and sweet; and thus a 
source of high nourishment to these depredators, which thrive and mul¬ 
tiply under such circumstances beyond all ordinary conception. Such 
! is our opinion, the result of many years close watchings; and we would 
advise you to replant totally in the end of October, using an entirely 
different soil: a light sandy loam, planting on the ground level or above 
it, and introducing half-decayed vegetable matter liberally with the soil. 
Your Derbyshire clay will bear a heavy admixture with sand; it is your 
mechanical texture that requires altering. 
Alstrosmerias {Sarah). —When their stalks ripen and dry, the roots 
ought to be taken up, dried, and replanted six inches deep, in October, 
when, with a slight protection in winter, they will live out very well, if 
the soil is not too wet at the bottom. 
Anemone Seedlings {Ibid). —The seedlings in the pots had better 
remain as they are till the leaves die down, then free them from the soil, 
and go on with them as old roots. 
Di elytra spectabilis {Ibid).— It will not bloom after this time. 
When it dies down in the autumn, keep the pot in a dry place over the 
winter. 
Gladiolus Seedlings {Ibid). — Give same treatment as Anemone 
seedlings. 
Brompton Stocks {Ibid). —Those sown last spring may be planted 
out now where they are to flower, or any time this autumn, before 
October. 
Clianthus {Hampshire Housewife). —Your Clianthus is covered with 
red spider, and not with the white blight, and if you were to kill all the 
spiders to-morrow it would not mend your case this season, because the 
virtue of all the leaves is quite gone for this year, and you may as well 
strip them all off at once, or you may let them remain till October, and 
then close prune the plant, and cover the shoots and stem in a paint of 
sulphur, as Mr. Errington says for the vines. It is not too late to sow 
the Campanula carpatica for next year, if you can keep the seedlings 
through the winter. Sow one-half now, the rest next March, and let us 
hear the result. 
Adiantum capillus veneris {Ibid).— Housewives might call this 
the Maiden Hair Fern. We have gathered handfuls of it in March and 
April from under the edges of snow wreaths in Scotland, to kindle fires 
with to set the heaths “ a low,” therefore, there is no doubt of its being 
able to stand out in summer, and in winter too, in any place in England. 
We trust the beautiful little Maiden Hair Fern will succeed with you in 
Hampshire. Keep it in the shade, as you propose, and near water, if 
possible; a damp atmosphere, and never to see the sun, are conditions 
natural to it. 
RoSe sport {A Constant Reader).—-No one knows the real cause of, 
or a remedy for, roses coming like yours. If the stock is healthy, bud it 
immediately with some other variety. 
Devonian will be specially attended to next week. 
Names of Plants {W. S .).—No. 1. Berberis aquifolia (Holly-leaved 1 
Berberry). The berries would form as good a preserve as those of the ' 
common Berberry. No. 2. Cotoneaster microphylla. No. 3. Comptonia ' 
asplenifolia. No. 4. Escallonia rubra, {Amateur Geranium Grower ).— 
Your Pelargonium is Ajax. {M. D. P.). —Your plant is Diplacus glu- 
tinosits, formerly called Mimulus glutinosus. {A. M. C.).— Y'our tree, at 
Barming, is the Red-berried elder, Sambucus racemosa. {H. B.). —No. 1. 
Phlomis fruticosa. No. 2. That curious plant, Salisburia adiantifolia. 
No. 3. The Silver-striped variety of Euonymus japonicus. 
London; Printed by Harry Wooldridge, Winchester High-street, 
in the Parish of Saint Mary Kalcndar; and Published by William 
Somerville Orr, at the Office, No. 2, Amen Corner, in the Parish of 
Christ Church, City of London.—August 12th, 1852. 
