312 
THE COTTAGE GARDENER. 
January 10. 
guano. He applies it broadcast over the butts, or bouts, as they are 
called in Cheshire, just before they are soiled over, and the sprouts just 
breaking ground. The soiling is then immediately applied about four 
inches in thickness. Homo would do well to use two-and-a-half hun¬ 
dredweight, in his case, of real Peruvian, digging his ground well in the 
end of March, when dry, and setting well-kept seed, already begun to 
sprout by design, immediately on the heels of the digging. 
Fruits for Yorkshire ( B. L., Hull). — Pears —Shobden Court, 
j Gratioli of Jersey, Broom Park, Hacon’s Incomparable, Thompson’s, 
Forelle. Dessert Apples —Kerry Fippin, Court of VViclc, Golden Reinette, 
| Nonpariel Pitmaston Russet, Wyken Pippin, Boston Russet, Old Non- 
| pared. Kitchen Apples .—Wormsley Pippin, Beauty of Kent, Winter 
Majetin, Gooseberry Apple. Alfreston, Calville Blanche. This selection 
< is an admirable one, and just such as we would have recommended to 
| you. Of Pears for the east wall, you should have Jersey Gratioli, 
Haeon's Incomparable , and Forelle. Of Apples, Golden Rienette , 
| Pitmaston Nonpareil , Russet, and Old Nonpareil. All the dessert Apples 
in your list may be grown on Paradise stocks with success ; but the 
j culinary varieties should be on the Crab. The whole of the Pears will 
I do on the Quince; but unless your soil is heavy and wet, we would not 
| advise you to adopt it as a stock.—H. 
Richmond Villa Black Hambro* Grape (A. B .).—We know this 
Grape, and, from what we have seen of it, it appeared to us to be very 
like a variety which we have known for the last six or seven years by the 
j name of Black Champion. We are not prepared to say that it is the 
same, but if it is so similar as it appeared to us to be, it is a very first-rate 
Grape, and well worth cultivating even in the smallest collections. It is 
very superior, both in the size of the berry and bunch, to Black Hambro’, 
is nearly a fortnight earlier, produces berries of a more uniform size, and 
colours better. Such is our opinion of Black Champion , and such, also, 
was the opinion we formed of the Richmond Villa when we saw it. But 
we are always delicate about giving decided opinions on new things until 
we have had sufficient experience of them. We must, therefore, leave 
you to act in some measure on your own responsibility.—H. 
Flower-garden Plan, No. 11 (A Yorkshi?'eman).—Tha.t plan would 
do for even a smaller place than yours. The circles can be about five 
feet in diameter, and you ought to allow three feet between the beds ; but 
the right way to go to work would be to get out the garden line, and a 
good bundle of little sticks, and with them to try to make the actual 
figures from the plan ; then, if you found the place too small, allow less 
distance between the beds rather than curtail them. 
Roses (Rev. P.).—We have often said that all the strong hybrid 
China Roses, like Bluirii , No. 2, will not, or rather will never, flower 
well, if at all, provided they arc pruned like Moss and Cabbage Roses. 
Printed lists of these, and all other Roses, are offered for the mere charge 
of postage by all the great rose-growers, therefore it would be only waste 
of paper for us to print such lists. 
Gooseberries (Ibid ).—The following arc among the best table 
Gooseberries ; the first three are small, and the other three large kinds :— 
Rough Red, Red Champagne, nnd Pitmaston Green Gage; Roaring 
Lion, Red Warrington, and Rifleman. For baking—Dixon’s Golden 
Yellow, Wellington’s Glory, British Crown, Keen’s Seedling, Heart of 
Oak, and Jolly Angler, are as good as any, but there is a score as good 
as these, and if you send to Mr. T., who knows more of this class of 
fruit than any gardener, he may give you even a better selection ; he is 
still where you say, and is a trustworthy dealer. 
Flower Garden (Jonathan ).—Your plan will be engraved, when 
your questions will be answeted, with some observations of our own. It 
is a very useful plan for many places. 
Front Garden (F. IF.).—The usual way of screening off the house 
from the public road is by planting a hedge of common Laurels, as from 
gate to gate in your plan, the plants to be about four or five feet high, 
and to be planted a yard apart along the boundary, and two feet from it; 
that would be by far the most convenient way for you, then the whole 
border in front of the hedge would be at your service for a selection of 
such things as you like best. If you plant all with them, you will have 
no flower to speak of after June. Why not use perpetual Roses one- 
half, and such shrubs as Ribes sanguineum, Pyrus japonica, Philadel- 
phus Gordonarius, which flowers in July, Dwarf Almond, Red Mezereon, 
Yellow and Silver Variegated Hollies, Evergreen Barbery (Berberis 
aquifolium), Darwin’s Barbery, Forsythia viridissima, Deutzia gracilis, 
Leicesteria formosa, Sweet Briar, with common and Tree Pceony, 
J Lupinus pollyphyllus, Phloxes, and a few Scarlet Geraniums in front. 
Oxalis Bown (Constant Reader's .—The enclosed fleshy tuber-like 
| thing is what we have all along called fangs. A section of the Oxalis 
genus make these fangs to convey nourishment to a new colony of b.ilbs, 
j which settle at as far a distance from the old bulb as the farthest ends of 
1 such fangs, exactly as the “runner” from a Strawberry plant is meant 
; to extend the young from the old plants. The Oxalis, by means of these 
fangs, year by year, would soon bury its new made bulbs in loose soil 
1 so deep that they would never flower. Your bulbs are quite right and 
! proper; leave them as they are till next April, but not quite dry; by 
that time the substance of the fangs will be expanded in making a set of 
new bulbs for you. 
Tacsonia molissima (E. M .).—Your question has been answered 
i ’ n our articles on the genus. Your plant flowered in a greenhouse, and 
i fruited also. You pruned it back to the main stem, and you arc afraid 
there w'ill be no room for it, which is all quite right, unless your house 
i is a Crystal Palace, for this is the first climber we would plant in the new 
j Palace at Sydenham. In three years it would reach up to the highest 
part of the centre transept. To get your plant under control, you must 
cutoff so many of the roots every year , just as is recommended at page 105 
of this vol.; and, besides that, a large portion of the annual growth ought 
to be trained outside the house, as there stated, in a goodborder. No 
ordinary greenhouse is large enough for the three Tacsonias, except for a 
few years. Get manicata and pinnatistipula, and inarch their young 
, shoots into young shoots of molissima, then humour the three on the 
same roots, and try and leave pinnatistipula outside every season. The 
other two “ time about,” that is one of them outside one year, and inside 
the next. The roots, the roots, the roots, of these Tacsonias are the 
things to manage, and to cut off every bit of young wood every year 
except the main leader, or leaders, but ‘the more you cut them, without 
cutting the roots, the more they will not flower. 
Clethra arborea (Ibid). —We should have no fears about it in that 
part of Dorsetshire against a south wall, but we would mat it the first 
two or three winters—it is about as hardy as the “ Green Wattle,”— 
Acacia a finis, alias dealbatu. It is very doubtful if the Tacsonias, or 
Tecornajasminoides, would stand out there without good covering; but , 
as you have plants of them, why not try them, and let us know. “A 
faint heart never won a fair lady,” or proved half so many Gordon ex¬ 
periments, as the heart of spades. 
Clotted Cream (Ibid.). —That is the Devonshire fashion, and we 
know of no better way than working it by hand. A clergyman near us 
gets all the butter from three or four cows done “by hand,” and prefers 
it to any other way. The new milk is scalded by plunging tin-pailfuls of it 
in a copper of boiling water; the cream is managed in the usual way, 
and the butter is made bv working up the cream in an open w'oodcn tub 
by the hand, just as they work the yolk of an egg with a spoon. 
Wooden Shutters.— “ J. T. L.” says, page 250, that he cannot get : 
them six-feet-and-a-half by four under ] 0 s. I have had some made 1 
after Mr. Fish’s recommendation, three-quarters-of-an-inch thick, planed | 
on one side, joined well together, fastened to three cross pieces, and a 
ledge round. My size is not quite so large as “J. T. L’s;” his size 
could be made'jby my carpenter for 6s. 6d. each, cash. His address is 
It. Allen, Mile End. near Whittington, Salop.—J. P. O.” 
Cow (<|>).—We cannot discuss such a subject in our pages. 
Auriculas, &c. (Bertha). —All the plants you mention can be raised 
from seed; but as you can buy them all very cheap, and you would have 
to wait a year or two for seedlings blooming, we advise you to buy plants. 
Sand for Potting (A Devonshire Rector).— The fine shell sand of 
which you enclosed a sample would answer very well for potting pur¬ 
poses. Even the granite sand from Dartmour, if the black sediment 
was washed out from it, would also do very well. 
Manures (K .).—As you have no stable-manure you must use guano, 
ground bones, urate of the London Manure Company, super-phosphate 
of lime, &c. These will do for Turnips, or any other crop : super-phos¬ 
phate and urate would, probably, answer your purpose. If you live near 
the sea, sea-weed will be a good store for you. Save all weeds, scourings 
of ditches, and any other vegetable refuse, in a pit, and have the house- 
slops emptied over them. 
Icebergs (L .).—You will have seen what Mr. Beaton had written 
before your note arrived. 
Dyeing Everlasting Flowers. —A subscriber will be much obliged 
by information how to dye Xeranthemums, &c. 
Hartley’s Rough Plate Glass (M. 5.).—It is perfectly suitable 
for a vinery. # 
Poultry Diseases (IV. Southcote). —You must advertise your capa¬ 
bilities. It is quite impossible we can recommend that or those totally 
unknown to us. 
Australian Laughing Pigeons.— A Pigeon Fancier wishes for a 
description of these. 
Hen Laying whilst Roosting (E. F. S).— Nothing is so easy to 
cure as this. Let her sleep in a place where there is no roost, and where 
she must consequently sleep upon the ground. 
Cancer. —If “ H. B.” will send an address to the Editor, a private com¬ 
munication might be had from the party. 
Potatoes without Manure (A. B). —If your soil is fresh, and has 
been well trenched, you may apply thirty bushels of soot and thirty 
bushels of salt per acre, and be certain of a better crop than if you 
manured with stable-dung. J 
Shrewsbury Show (S. D.).— It shall appear next week. If Secre¬ 
taries of such Societies as advertise in our pages will oblige us by sending 
reports of the exhibitions we shall always insert them most readily. It 
is quite impossible for us to send special reporters to all. 
Motherless Chickens (W. L. S.).—Feed them upon eggs boiled 
hard, and chopped fine, mixed with bread crumbs and a little barleymeal 
or Indian meal. They only require this for the first fortnight. A little 
crushed hempseed, given once daily, mixed with their other food, is 
very beneficial. 
Nest Eggs (A Subscriber).— Any turner of wood could make wooden 
ones for you. 
Dendrobium (A Gardener , Lwerponl).^-No such specimen reached 
us ; send us another. We answer all queries without the slightest 
preference. 
Spanish Cockerel (W. Curtis). —Send an advertisement. 
Names op Plants (Ignarus).— No. 1. Aspidiumfilixmus. No. 2. 
Aspidium dilata/um. 
London: Printed by Harry Wooldridge, Winchester High-street, 
in the Parish of Saint Mary Kalendar; and Published by William 
Somerville Orr, of Church Hill, Walthamstow, in the County of 
Esses, at the Office, No. 2, Amen Corner, in the Parish of Christ 
Church, City of London.—January 19 th, 1854. 
