June 20. 
THE COTTAGE GARDENER. 
243 
or four inches of half-decomposed manure or litter, and, if 
the weather he hot and sultry, the side of the pots next the 
sun should be sheltered from its burning rays by some pieces 
of mat, mown grass, or branches of trees. September and 
October plums, such as Coe’s Golden Drop and others, need 
not to be removed to the open air to ripen their fruit, as 
their flavour is always rich and good, unless the house be 
crowded; they may then be removed and suffered to remain 
I out-of-doors till some of the peaches and apricots have 
! ripened their fruit, and then take their places in the Orchard 
I House. Figs in pots, which require much room, may be 
removed to some very warm corner in the open air, about the 
middle of June; they will ripen their fruit very nicely in 
September. By following the methods above given, a house 
may be made to hold three times the number of fruit trees 
it otherwise would do, and yield an astonishing variety; in 
short, there seems no end to the pleasing advantages of Orchard 
H ouses. It must, however, be borne in mind, that the 
ripening of fruits in the open air cannot be carried out in the 
extreme north." 
AGRICULTURE versus HORTICULTURE. 
“ AVhat do you know about the tater ? Go and mind 
your Geraniums !” were the words addressed by a septa- 
genarian, who had passed the greatest part of his life on a 
small comfortable homestead of his own in one of the rural 
parishes of the pretty Island of Jersey, to a horticulturist 
who was some ten years his junior, but who had acquired 
an equally comfortable position through his acquaintance 
with the sciences of Horticulture and Floriculture. 
But the mere expression of the two sentences is not the 
most amusing part of the affair; the exciting causes are 
truly laughable, as well as the admonition they were in¬ 
tended to convey. 
Some short time since, a few of the “ Jersey Mechanics’ 
Institute,” being somewhat amused at the excitement exist¬ 
ing amongst the alarmists respecting the utter failure and 
badness of the “potato crop,” determined to prove the 
correctness of the report by the following expedient: They 
offered a prize of one pound sterling, to the producer of the 
ivorst sixtonnier (about 5 quarts) of potatoes, i.e., potatoes 
which were samples of the produce of a crop which had been 
destroyed by the “murrain." 
As may be readily supposed, there were but few com¬ 
petitors ; few persons being willing openly to acknowledge 
their readiness to increase the excitement which the report 
had already caused; there were, however, some, and amongst 
them our worthy friend, the septngenarian before alluded to, 
who produced a sixtonnier of potatoes, which, to all appear¬ 
ance, had been subjected to the process of putrefaction by 
some artificial means, or, to make the matter less contemp¬ 
tible in your readers’ eyes, had become so by accident or 
through neglect. 
The different specimens being produced, it was necessary 
to have the prize offered awarded according to the manner 
proposed, and to the sample most deserving of it; when our 
second friend was called upon to act as umpire; who, to the 
consternation of the elderly gentleman, proclaimed the cause 
of his potatoes being in the state they were in, and caused 
him to be laughed at—silently, of course, as his great age 
protected him from open ridicule. And so highly was the 
elderly gentleman incensed at the umpire, that these were 
the words in which he expressed himself, on meeting him a 
few days afterwards in the public market: “AVhat do you 
know about the tater? Go and mind your Geraniums!’’ 
The evident intention of the elderly gentleman was to 
make his hearer understand that there was a broad dis¬ 
tinction betwixt growing Potatoes and growing Geraniums, 
and, founding his expressions on the “ Rule of Thumb,” 
thought, or could not see, how it was possible for a Horti¬ 
culturist by profession to be a judge of, or to know any¬ 
thing about, potato culture, or' its produce. How much the 
old gentleman must have deceived himself, and how very un¬ 
likely was he to lead his hearers into his own line of thought 
on such a subject, either by his style of language, or his 
mode of expression, in reference to it. If he had known 
one-sixteenth part of what his years and experience would 
have given him opportunities of acquiring by the most com¬ 
mon-place observation, ho would have been aware of the 
the fact, that “Science is the mother of knowledge;’’ and 
that, unless a man’s knowledge is founded on scientific 
principles, which admit of practical illustration and defini¬ 
tion, he may be easily led astray, and often find himself in 
a peculiarly perplexing position, not knowing how to extri¬ 
cate himself; nor being quite sure himself, as to his where- 
abouts, or to what he was doing. 
There is such a variety of character in the human family, 
that it is almost impossible correctly to define the septa- 
genarian’s reason for producing this “ sample of potatoes,” 
as he. was himsqlf aware of the cause or causes of their 
being in the state in which he exhibited them, having, in 
exhibiting them to another aged acquaintance a few days 
pieviously, congratulated himself on their appearance, and 
the probability of their getting the prize. AVoukl it be, that 
building on the reputation of a lung-established character 
(every man judging himself too favourably), lie considered 
they would be received as he presented them, without a 
question being asked ? Or, would it be, that he considered 
“ all men were fools except himself," and that they would 
not be able to detect the mistake he was making himself, 
and was willing to lead others into ? Both of which faults 
human nature is subject to, and would make us earnest in 
persuading all persons to endeavour to become perfect in 
understanding whilst it is time; for the “ night cometh, 
when no man seeth ;" and so does old age come, when it is 
too late for a life spent in willing benightment of mind to 
become illumined by the light of reason ; and they may find 
themselves, should they be so long spared, labouring under 
the same delusions as our aged friend ; giving way to excite¬ 
ment; and whilst deprecating and remonstrating with others, 
and directing their attention to what they may consider 
applies most distinctly to their business, forgetting entirely 
how much of their own they had neglected and forgotten ; 
and not knowing how much happier they might have been, 
had they laid their own burden aside, and run the race 
which was set before them with greater accuracy and cor¬ 
rectness.—C. B. S., Jersey. 
BEE-KEEPING FOR COTTAGERS. 
Section C.—On the uses of honey and the method of 
PREPARING IT AND WAX FOR THE MARKET. —AVe are now to 
suppose the honey-harvest over, all supers removed, and all 
necessary junctions effected; if a fair share of success has 
attended the bee-master’s efforts he will have honey in 
three forms; in glasses and supers; in new hiyes which 
have been joined to their parent stocks ; and in old hives 
which have been taken up on ’account of age. Before 
explaining the manner in which'he should deal with his 
store, it will, perhaps, be convenient to discuss its properties 
and uses. 
In discussing the properties and medicinal uses of honey, 
we cannot do better than follow Dr. Pereira, making some¬ 
what free with his inflated language as we go on. He 
states, that honey must be regarded as a concentrated 
solution of sugar, mixed with odorous, colouring, gummy, 
and waxy matters, and that it is emollient, demulcent, 
nutritive, and laxative; that when fresh, it is apt to occasion 
indigestion and colic, and that when collected from 
poisonous plants, it has been found to possess deleterious 
qualities. Happily for us in England, poisonous plants 
are not sufficiently plentiful to affect the qualit}' of honey. 
The Doctor goes on to state, that when mixed with flour 
and spread on linen, or leather, honey is a popular applica¬ 
tion “ to promote the maturation of small abscesses and 
furunculi” (we suppose he means “to bring boils to a 
head”); that it sometimes is used in making gargles, partly 
for its taste, partly for it emollient operation; and that in 
troublesome coughs, barley-water mixed with honey, and 
sharpened with a slice of lemon, and taken warm, forms a 
very agreeable and useful drink. 
So far Dr. Pereira; the following passage quoted from 
old Butler, in “Murray’s Honey-Bee,” is not without interest, 
as detailing other properties of honey. “Honey cutteth 
and castetli up phlegmatic matter, and, therefore, sliarpeneth 
the stomach of them which by reason thereof have little 
appetite; it purgetli those things which }iurt the clearness 
