November 20. 
THE COTTAGE GARDENER. 
117 
tion, and there would be no time to sit brooding 
over misfortunes, which, even if real, are only mag¬ 
nified by idleness. 
The necessity of great cleanliness in the stye can¬ 
not be too often impressed on you; and now cold 
winds have set in, give your pigs as warm a bed as 
you can. If there are trees near you, collect all the 
leaves, and throw them into your stye: I am now 
collecting quantities, and scattering them over the 
farm-yard; trodden on by the cattle, they will make 
excellent manure, and, where straw is dear, will be 
found of great service. If you have a wood near 
you, cut as much fern as possible, and keep it till it 
is dry; it makes a very good substitute for straw. 
In fact, collect every thing you can for the pig'-sty; 
for, the more manure you have, the better crops you 
will grow next year; and, consequently, you will be 
able to increase the number of your pigs. Above 
all, save the “liquid manure” from the sty. Some 
of the cottagers near me sink an earthenware brown 
pan (price Is (id) just outside the sty; and by taking 
out a brick the “ liquid manure ” runs into it. You 
can either do this or make a small tank. The 
former plan is the cheapest, the latter the neatest 
and most lasting. 
Your poultry will not now be in such a thriving 
condition as the rest of your farm-yard: they are 
looking dull, and laying but few eggs, as this is the 
usual moulting season. Directly 1 observe mine 
looking very dull I give them four or five pepper¬ 
corns, and have found it a capital remedy for droop¬ 
ing wings. Should you happen to have a brood of 
young chickens at this season of the year, you will 
find great difficulty in rearing them; they must be 
kept in a very warm place, and only let out when 
the sun is shining brightly. Rice well boiled and 
well dried, I find the best food for very young 
chickens. I find dry food answers better than that 
which is moistened, but they must always have a 
pan of clear water near them. But even if you 
manage them according to the most approved sys¬ 
tem, you will meet with much disappointment if you 
attempt to rear a brood so late in the year as Novem¬ 
ber. I have one now, which I am anxious to save, 
and therefore keep them in a green-house with plenty 
of fresh air admitted, but still they grow very slowly, 
and I have lost several. But “ nothing venture, 
nothing have;” and, perhaps, you may be more suc¬ 
cessful. C. M. A. 
WATERCRESS IN GARDENS. 
Nothing is easier than to have a good succession 
of this wholesome plant throughout the year, which 
I have had all this, to the admiration of most of my 
gardening friends, and this is the plan I pursued. 
About the early part of March I procured a handful or 
two of healthy plants, torn out of a neighbouring brook, 
and having prepared two small beds of good loamy 
soil under an easterly wall, I cut the plants immedi¬ 
ately into lengths of about three or four inches, pre- 
lering those pieces which had the appearance of a 
little white root attached, and planted them at once 
with a small dibble, nearly up to the tops in rows, 
about eight inches apart, and six inches between the 
plants, watering them well, and shaded them with 
mats supported on sticks just above the plants for a 
lew days. Every plant struck root and soon began to 
grow. I kept the beds generally damp by applying 
the watering-pot nearly every day; by the next month 
they were so much grown that I could nip off the 
tops, and supply a good plate for every day in the 
week; after the tops were first gathered the plants 
threw out side shoots in abundance and soon covered 
all the bed, and during the spring and summer pro¬ 
duced a substantial crop that there was some difficulty 
in keeping them down by constant gathering. The 
only time when they were not so good in flavour or 
condition was when inclined to seed. I let them all 
show for seed and cut them off close to the ground, 
well weeding them, and surface stirred the ground 
where I could; they soon made fresh vigorous shoots, 
and have ever since supplied an abundance of as fine 
heads as any that comes into a market, and that 
without any farther attention than giving them a pot 
of water every day during the dry weather. I have 
this autumn cut one bed close down again, whilst 
the other is gathered from, and when the severe 
weather approaches I intend protecting them from 
frosts. I recommend our friends who have not grown 
them to try the experiment. I am quite certain they 
will be repaid for their trouble. 
J. W. Gidney. 
East Dereham, Norfolk. 
MARTYNIA ERAGRANS. 
Seeing in the notices to correspondents, at page 56 
of your excellent work The Cottage Gardener, you 
speak of this Martynia as a weedy-looking plant, 
with very handsome, large, purplish flowers, well 
worth growing in a warm border, but that the seeds 
should be sown in February, in strong bottom heat, 
I beg to add a few more words concerning this plant, 
as every one may not know that this plant might be 
called a half hardy annual; at least, this is my con¬ 
clusion, if the following is sufficient evidence, and 
many things are found out by such accidents I am 
about to relate. In the garden belonging to the Rev. 
the Warden of Winchester College, a self-sown plant 
of Martynia fragrans came up in a bed of Pelar¬ 
goniums, which had been planted about the middle 
of May ; and, about the middle of June, when I was 
weeding and surface-stirring the beds over, I saw a 
seedling of the above-named plant, which, of course, 
I left, giving it all the encouragement I could to do 
well with the Pelargoniums. The plant grew very 
luxuriantly, and commenced flowering early in July, 
and continued growing, branching out, and flowering 
up to very late in October. The soil it grew in was 
very light and rich. The bed in which the plant 
grew was near the principal walk through the flower- 
garden, therefore its odd-looking seed vessels, and its 
flowers too, for an out-door flower, looked so very re¬ 
markable that the plant caught the eye of nearly all 
visitors through the garden; and it astonished many 
of those who had been in the habit of growing the 
plant, and even had it at the same time in either 
a vinery, green-house, pit, or plant-stove. It so 
lrappens this Martynia is pretty much of a favourite 
in this neighbourhood, but this self-sown plant beat 
them all. It grew very large, flowered freely, and 
ripened abundance of seeds, which I intend to sow 
the first of May next in the open garden. Now I 
have the pen in my hand, I will name a few other 
plants that self-sow themselves about this garden, 
and flower the same season. Ganna Indica sows 
itself and ripens its seeds in the summer months. 
Nicotiana tahacum, Ageratum mexicanum, Impatiens 
balsamina, and Maurandya Barela,yana come up, 
flower, and ripen their seeds in the summer months, 
and sow themselves about the open garden. 
Thos. Weaver, 
Gardener to the Warden of Winton College. 
