122 
THE COTTAGE GARDENER. 
November and December,” &e. There is so much 
ignorance in the world.—C. C. 
[Onr correspondent is quite right in supposing 
that cuttings will strike, and seedlings may be raised 
with proper care, such as lie bestowed on his wall¬ 
flower slips, and we shall always be glad to hear of 
such results. But we cannot agree that authors on 
gardening should state any times for doing any given 
work but those which are best. If the teacher were 
to tell bis pupil be might succeed in an operation at 
any time, although but one time was the best, we 
fear that the spirit of procrastination would be too 
much encouraged.—E d. 0. G.] 
Himalayah Pumpkin. — Giumstone’s Egyptian 
Pea. —The seed I now send you was taken from a 
pumpkin weighing 2d lbs., one of the produce of the 
plant raised from the single seed you were so kind as 
to send me, and which you informed me was of a new 
variety from the Himalayah mountains. Two other 
fruit from the same plant were smaller, weighing 
severally 20 lbs. and 12 lbs. From a plant of another 
kind, the seed of which I obtained from Manchester, 
I have succeeded in growing a very fine pumpkin, 
weighing 01 lbs., and measuring very nearly five feet 
in circumference! The colour of the largest of the 
Himalayah pumpkins was of a much deeper and 
richer tint than that of the larger kind, and the flesh 
made into soup, according to your directions, was 
remarkably good, and astonished some of my friends 
who partook of it; baked in tarts, with an equal 
quantity of apples, it was also very good, and im¬ 
parted a flavour and richness to them which, to my 
taste, was a great improvement on the apple alone. 
Have you ever seen or grown Grimstone's Egyptian 
Pea ? I procured a few from that gentleman last 
year—30 peas, at the somewhat exorbitant price of 
2s (id. They are immensely prolific, the main stem 
throwing out from six to ten lateral ones, all of 
which are as productive as the stems of ordinary 
peas; on this account they are only sown at intervals 
of eight inches from pea to pea, and as they scarcely 
exceed 24 feet in heighth they require very little 
sticking.—G. C. W. 
Autumn-planting Potatoes. —As you have con¬ 
stantly advocated the practice of planting potatoes 
in autumn, I have given it a trial, and must first 
state that my soil is heavy, therefore I have been in 
the habit of mixing ashes, sand, and manure, which 
have made the garden very prolific. My plan has 
been to obtain mealy potatoes from a light soil every 
two or three years, as they were apt to become waxy 
after being used two or three seasons. Last year 
they suffered from the disease, and yielded about 
three parts out of four, but many more became 
affected after being stored. Last autumn I planted 
three rows, which looked well and free from the dis¬ 
ease till after they blossomed; I then observed spots 
indicating the approach of the disease: they continued 
to get worse, and at last yielded about one peck out 
of four, and these not mealy potatoes. Those planted 
in the spring showed symptoms of being affected very 
early, and never blossomed: I found, upon taking 
them up, that very few were sound, not more than a 
dozen out of a bushel. I have been in the habit of 
planting full-sized tubers, as I always consider small 
potatoes as immature and unfit to use as seed. I do 
not use any manure at the time of planting, the 
ground having been previously used for other vege¬ 
tables.—W. S. B., Barrow, Suffolk. 
[Although this is in favour of autumn-planting, 
those then planted by our correspondent being best 
of the bad, yet he has not done what all growers of 
November 20. 
potatoes ought to do—plant in moderately rich soil, 
and varieties ripening in July or early in August.— 
Ed. C. G.] 
Ducks as Slug Destroyers. —Amongst the many 
means proposed for destroying slugs, I do not see 
that you have recommended the employment of ducks. 
Two young ones I had hatched this summer have 
nearly cleared my garden, which used to be sadly 
eaten up; they have also learned to pick the caterpillars 
off the cabbage plants, and really do but little damage 
to the garden. I have this year planted the celery in 
short rows across the bed, as proposed, with success. 
I can also bear my testimony to the advantage of 
early planted potatoes. Those planted in January 
were all up and stored, a plentiful and clean crop, 
before the wet set in, and the ground planted with 
turnips, while those put in in April in the same gar¬ 
den were lifted after the rain, a poor and much 
damaged crop.—G. McLeod. 
Sheffield Celery Show. —At this show, held in 
October last, out of twelve prizes eleven were awarded 
to plants of Mr. Nutt’s Champion celery. The tallest 
sticks were forty-eight inches long; and the heaviest 
pair seen by Mr. Nutt this year weighed 1U pounds 
and 9 ounces. We can bear testimony that this 
celery grows as superiorly in the south of England 
as it does in the north; for in our own garden we 
have never had before celery so fine, so crisp yet 
tender, or so sweet and mild in flavour as that we 
have grown this year of Nutt’s Champion. 
Poultry, Slugs, Woodcocks.-— The following fact 
may be worthy of notice, as it is a remarkable one, 
and shows that it is more profitable to keep poultry 
well fed than to be overstocked. Last year, 1848, 
my father kept two ducks and a drake; the ducks laid 
nearly 150 eggs, and being more than we wanted we 
parted with several; however, we put some of the 
eggs under hens, and reared 80 ducks, and they were 
fit to kill when seven weeks old. I believe nearly all 
the eggs we spared were batched. This year we liavo 
met with similar success. We put the young broods 
in the garden, and I must say there is not a better 
slug-trap mentioned in your volumes. When there 
were so many methods proposed for destroying these 
mischievous pests of every garden, I was about to re¬ 
commend this one ; but one morning I noticed one 
of the broods had taken a fancy to a row of Fair- 
beard’s Champion peas, which were just coming up; 
of course the mischievous brood was removed; the 
rest, however, did not such mischief. I have noticed 
the accuracy of your remarks in the weekly calendar 
of the time the various birds arrive, &c. The wood¬ 
cock is said to arrive about the 30th October. In this 
part of the country, however, we find them much 
earlier. There is an old saying in this district that 
about the 19th Sunday after Trinity woodcocks ar¬ 
rive ; and I have heard an instance of a person pick¬ 
ing one up in bis garden on his return from church 
on that day. Several have been killed near this place 
on the first and second weeks of this present month. 
—W. H. Venn, Jun., Whimple, Exeter. 
Phalcf.nopsis am abide. —I am much pleased to 
find Mr. Appleby lias taken up his pen to instruct 
the cultivators of orchids. Few men are more com¬ 
petent, or, indeed, so competent, to do it, and I have 
no doubt many will heartily thank him. There is, 
however, one observation, relative to Phalcenopsis 
amahile, with which I cannot agree; it is, that it 
should be placed on a naked log, and that it will not 
thrive on anything else, and that the roots perish if 
covered at all. Now, the finest plant I ever saw was 
grown with a fair quantity of moss on the log, and 
