THE COTTAGE GARDENER AND COUNTRY GENTLEMAN'S COMPANION.— July 20,1856. 
i steps to another gravel-walk. Here stone should have 
I been employed. The flower-beds arc of the most tasteless | 
j shapes, and with little or no connection with each other in 
I the general design. The beds, too, are upon grass, an 
arrangement that can rarely be satisfactory in a small space 
with an architectural boundary. The garden and its 
accessories present a very incongruous effect, the good 
points being marred by the bad ones.— George Lovelt,, 
1 Landscape Gardener, Bagshot. 
(To be continued.) 
GENERAL NOTES.— August. 
Sowings. —As the supply of the spring crops of vpge- ; 
tables will principally depend upon the sowings made during 
this month, it will be best to make sowings of Cabbages of 
sorts about the middle of the month, not forgetting a few 
Red Dutch for summer use ; even if the weather sets in very 
dry and hot, the seeds should be sown and the beds watered, 
to get good stocky plants before winter. Also, a sowing of 
Cauliflowers, to keep through the winter ; a sowing of some 
hardy sorts of Lettuce, such as Bath Cos, Hammersmith, or 
Brown Dutch, for standing through the winter; and Oni^y 
seed sown now, some to be thinned out for use in the spring, 
and the remainder to be left for bulbing. Also, a sowing of 
Early Horn Carrots will come in useful in the spring; and 
the Flanders Spinach, a most useful sort, seed round, will 
stand the winter well. Sow Vegetable Marrow, if the weather 
is dry. Keep the plants well supplied with water, and the 
ground mulched with short grass, or any other short litter 
that can easily be procured. 
Celery should be well attended to, keeping it supplied with 
water, or manure-water, if possible, in dry weather. Fruit- 
trees on walls will require attention in nailing and pruning, 
! cutting back towards the end of the month the breastwood 
- to two or three eyes, when all danger of the buds starting 
into growth will be over. To counteract the gross habit of 
some trees, and to establish an equilibrium between root 
and branch, it is necessary to have recourse to root-pruning, 
which is done by opening a trench at a moderate distance 
from the stem of the tree, and cutting the strongest roots ; 
it will be the means of checking rampant and luxuriant 
growih, and of securing ripe wood in the autumn. The 
centre of Gooseberry and Currant -trees may be thinned, to 
admit a free circulation of sun and air, and a few matted up, 
or protected in some way from the ravages of wasps or birds, 
for autumn use. 
Make fresh plantations of Strawberries; the runners that 
are not wanted should be cut away, to increase the strength 
of the old plants; and such runners, if any, as have been 
potted and intended for forcing, should be well supplied 
with water, and the pots placed on the walk, or plunged in 
an open part of the garden. Exhausted plantations of 
Strawberries should be dug in, manured, and buried deep, 
and tbe ground planted thick with Cabbages, to furnish 
winter greens. 
The seeds of Pelargoniums, or any other perennial plants 
that may be considered worthy of the experiment of raising 
new varieties, should be sown as soon as ripe during the , 
month, and herbaceous plants and evergreen shrubs in¬ 
creased by cuttiugs or by layers. Double Hollyhocks to be 
well staked, the flowers thinned out if over-crowded, and all 
worthless seedlings, being great robbers of the soil, pulled 
up as they bloom. Trailing ami climbing plants should be 
frequently looked over, to keep them neatly trained and 
secure from rough winds. The faded flowers of Hoses 
should be picked off, and the production of autumn blooms 
1 in the perpetuals encouraged by watering with liquid- 
manure, and, where practicable, by mulching tbe surface of 
the ground around the stems. To the many attractive 
qualities of the Chrysanthemum, such as brilliancy and 
variety of colours, habit of growth, and season of flowering, 
may be added, the facility with which it can be increased at 
a late period of growth, with a certainty of producing nice, 
stocky, free-blooming plants. Tbe top shoots eight or nine 
inches long, with several side-shoots on them, now layered, 
one in a 48-sized pot, or even the shoots taken off and put 
310 
in as cuttings, one in a pot, or three of a sort or different 
sorts in a large pot in good, rich soil, and shaded for a few 
days during sunshine, will make dwarf, bushy, free-flowering 
plants. 
Polyanthuses .—Advantage must be taken of a good 
soaking rain to put out seedlings. Equal proportions of 
loam, leaf-mould, and rotten cow-dung is a good compost 
for them. Seed should now be secured, as it is apt to be 
lost, and large plants divided, and planted in a shady border. 
Carnations and Picolecs should be finished layering with¬ 
out loss of time, and watered in dry weather, and those 
that were layered last month will now be fit to take off, as it 
is best to detach them from the parent plant as soon as 
they are rooted ; the seed-pods should be looked to, pro¬ 
tecting them from heavy rains. 
Pansies .—Prick out seedlings, and plant out the. struck 
cuttings for next year’s bloom. Dahlias should have the 
ground slightly forked around them, and the surface 
mulched witli rotten manure. They will require a plentiful 
supply of water at this season. 
Catlings of Pelargoniums and of Scarlet Geraniums will 
now strike freely put. out in the common soil of the open 
ground, dug over, made smooth, and exposed to the sun. 
When the cuttings are rooted and potted off, to be placed 
in a pit or frame, shaded, and kept close for a few days, until j 
they have made fresh roots, when they may be set out in an | 
open situation to harden and ripen the wood, the better to ' 
withstand the severity of the weather when stored up for 
winter. 
The flat Dutch and large York Cabbages are good sorts 
for farming purposes; the seed to be sown early in the 
month on a bed of good dry land; the seedling plants to be 
transplanted, four or five inches apart, into a piece of good 
rich ground about the end of September, there to remain 
until the beginning of April, when they should be finally 
planted out in alternate rows one foot apart. AVhen they 
touch, the Yorks are to be pulled, and used as food for 
cattle or swine, Are., leaving the Dutch to occupy the whole 
ground. As Cabbage is susceptible of injury from frost, it 
will be necessary to clamp it in a dry state in November, to \ 
preserve it from rain and frost, by thatching it with straw, I 
when it keeps well for a considerable time. 
The Vinter Vetch, if sown towards the end of tbe month, j 
may be consumed in time to prepare the land for Swedish \ 
Turnips. During this month is a good time to sow Rye , ! 
which is worthy of more general cultivation as green food j 
for cattle and sheep, particularly in the spring, when ewes ! 
and lambs will derive much benefit from it, and at a season 
when all other green food is scarce. AVhen it is sown for 
this purpose, it should be sown much thicker than when it is 
intended to stand for a crop of seed. It is strongly recom¬ 
mended for land that is dry, or unsuitable for grass. It is 
cultivated extensively on the chalk lands in Berkshire, for | 
the purpose of manuring the land for a crop of Turnips. I 
The quantity of seed should be three bushels per acre when j 
it is intended to be eaten down by sheep. The following j 
advantages should be sufficient inducement for tbe more j 
general cultivation of Rye:—It is an excellent green food at -| 
a season when, of all others, it is most wanted; it can be \ 
produced without sacrificing any portion of the usual rota¬ 
tion pursued on the farm, and with little labour; it will 
grow on any soil, especially on poor, loose land, where any 
other esculent is more or less uncertain; it will bear 
without injury any degree of frost or cold; it is readily con¬ 
sumed by stock; and it improves rather than deteriorates 
the soil. 
In conclusion, we must again .and again impress upon 
cottagers the advantages of collecting all sorts of rubbish, 
grass mowings, tufts of grass, or parings from the margins 
of woods or roads. The common Brake (Pteris aquitina), cut 
green, road scrapings, and other such materials, placed in a 
Hole where the rain can lodge about them, with the addition 
of a little lime if it can be got, will be found, when rotted, a 
good manure for all sorts of culinary crops. — AVilliaji 
Keane. 
