THE COTTAGE GARDENER 
February 7.] 
use about half of such earth for the hills, the remain¬ 
der being light loam and leaf soil; the latter not too 
much decomposed. As the beds require successive 
earthings, we increase the amount of loamy soil; and 
thus the mass is a series of zones, each, from the 
centre outwards, of more solidity. 
Ventilating Cucumbers. —In concluding, we may 
offer advice about ventilation, and subsequent ma¬ 
nagement. One of the great faults in bed-forcing, 
is the small amount of ventilation allowed. Some 
persons love to see their beds almost choked with 
steam. Now, under any circumstances of early forc¬ 
ing in dung-beds, there is sure to be no lack of 
atmospheric moisture; and he who persists in giving 
a little air by night as well as by day, will, in cutting 
fruit, by no means be behind the man who will have 
confined steam; albeit, the high-steamed plants may 
make a greater show in leaf during the earlier stages. 
Caution, however, is necessary in giving air in bright 
and windy weather; but this we need not dwell upon. 
Every afternoon, if possible, the frame should re¬ 
ceive a dash of water from a fine-rosed pot, or the 
syringe; the power of water in sweetening the atmos¬ 
phere is enormous ; care, however, must be taken, not 
to apply more to the roots than the needs of the plants 
require. As they grow and advance, a very frequent 
stopping must be had recourse to, and good linings 
applied, in order to be able to ventilate freely; tailing 
care that the most powerful dung lays next the wood, 
or brick-work, in order to make a warm atmosphere, 
without raising too severe a bottom-heat. Care must 
be taken, also, whilst a lively bottom-heat prevails, to 
apply water liberally close to the frame inside. 
it should be understood by the tyro in cucumber 
forcing, that the oftener the linings are turned the 
better; a still, mild day, should be chosen for the 
purpose. In fact, the linings should be kept in an 
equable state, approximating the character of the 
dung in the first working, previously described ; 
water, therefore, will be requisite in the various turn¬ 
ings and additions.—R. Errington. 
THE ELO WEE-GARDEN. 
Lawns. —As soon as the lawns are dry after the 
January frosts, the worm-casts should be levelled 
down with hard brooms, or old stumped rakes; or, 
in large places, by a bush-harrow drawn by a horse. 
This last-named, is the way we brush over the grass 
here at the end of winter, and is very effectual if the 
“ bush-harrow” is properly made. Ours is finished 
after this manner: a common wooden hurdle is laid 
down horizontally to the line of draught, and then 
covered with the tops of thorn bushes not much 
stronger than the tops of common pea-sticks, by 
wattling the ends between the bars of the hurdle, and 
letting the ends of the bushes lie over each other 
like the thatch on a building, until the whole faco 
of the hurdle’ is covered,and twofeetof the brushwood 
is out beyond the end of the hurdle. This makes a 
powerful brush, and the very best instrument to 
scratch a mossy surface with. After two turns of 
this harrow—one along and the other crossways—the 
grass should be well swept, and then rolled; or, if 
any bare parts are thin of grass, a little seed of the 
white and small yellow clovers should be scattered 
before the roller. I have heard an objection made to 
sowing clover seeds till April, but that must refer to 
tilled land, as 1 have sown clover seeds over a grassy 
surface at all seasons—from the end of September to 
April—and I never saw any difference in the result. 
It is an excellent plan to give some kind of 
dressing to all grass under the scythe; any time in 
February; and just after this rolling is the best time 
for it. Even for good land, where the grass grows 
strong without any artificial assistance, I would re¬ 
commend some poor sandy compost for keejnng a 
solid smooth bottom under the scythe, and when a 
good bottom of moss is not present, this is more ne 
cessary to render the grass soft and carpety to walk 
on. For poor land, the best dressing is fine sifted 
coal ashes; and if they are dry under cover, they 
would absorb a largo portion of some liquid manure; 
and that is by far the easiest way to enrich a poor 
spot of grass. Old tan is also a good dressing, and 
so is the top half-spit from the flower beds; but 
rough composts of that sort should be laid on before 
the brooms or bush-harrow were applied. 
Walks. —After the grass, the walks come in for an 
annual dressing; but as the walks ought always to 
be in trim order, and as they may be made or repaired 
at any time, I shall pass them over to day with 
merely stating, that all the new walks which have 
been founded here during the last hall dozen years, 
are very differently made to any that have been 
hitherto recorded; and they proved so good and 
economical, that we have been engaged part ol this 
winter in renovating most of the olden walks alter 
the same manner; and that I shall shortly write a 
paper solely on the formation ol walks, roads, and 
their keeping. 
Flower-Garden Stock. —Early in February is the 
usual time to look over the stock of half-hardy plants 
for filling the flower-beds next summer. It is true, that 
March is time enough for this, where means are short; 
and that others begin propagation at the commence¬ 
ment of the new year. Here—where we use as many of 
these things as most people—we commence by pre¬ 
paring a large mass of dung and leaves about the 
middle of December, and by removing our verbenas, 
and things of that sort, into some ol the hothouses 
about the middle of January, so as to make a growth 
fit to get cuttings from before the middle ol February, 
by which time our heap of dung and leaves is settled 
down in the shape of “ a good hot-bed,” or rather beds, 
inside of a range of deep brick pits, with a circle ot 
hot water pipes round them; and in six weeks, or 
by the end of March, we generally strike off the bulk 
of our next summer’s supply. The number, I need 
not say, or even allude to, more than this, that, 
although our machinery for this manufacture ol 
flower-garden plants is nearly perfect, we are gene¬ 
rally as much pinched for room and pots before we 
can trust the hardier things into temporary shelters 
out of doors—as any reader ol The Cottage 
Gardener can be; and this is the case with garden 
ers all over the country. Formerly, we used to pro¬ 
pagate the greater number of our verbenas, petunias, 
senecios, calceolarias, &c., in August and September, 
and then kept them over the winter in store-pots 
that is, large numbers of small plants together in one 
pot. But that plan is far more expensive, and not a 
whit more convenient than our present mode ol pro¬ 
pagating these things early in the spring; and we 
find, that any of these dwarf plants if rooted before 
the end of March, are as good—and in some instan¬ 
ces better—for turning out next May, than the same 
kinds propagated in the autumn, if compelled to be 
half-starved through a long winter in crowded pots. 
Of all plants, some of the verbenas are the most 
difficult to carry through the winter without losses 
and mishaps by mildew, damp, &c. Therefore, ol them 
we keep no more over the winter than is sufficient to 
provide a few cuttings of each sort early in I ebruary. 
