208 
THE COTTAGE GARDENER. 
July 20. 
and most of them well in bloom. Few could tell such a j 
talc in the first days of July this season. Tlio remark 
j applies chiefly to Geraniums and Calceolarias. Amongst i 
j the former, I was shown a desirable Scarlet, called “No. 1 
60,” with large bright (lowers, pronounced to be as good 
or better than Punch , and a habit little stronger than 
Tom Thumb. For yellow Calceolarias, Mr. Fraser lias 
lallen back on the old Rinjosa, as the ground did not suit 
any other kinds so well; and taking the season through 
as respects late and early blooming, this old small- 
llowered kind has many advantages. 
Tho second thing worthy of especial notice is the 
j lean-to conservatory, which is divided into two divisions, 
j one ot which communicates with the mansion. The 
I first halt is filled, as respects its centre, with three large 
! Orange-plants in largo tubs; and a similar plant of a 
| hue hybrid from Rhododendron arboreum. These are 
fixtures, as without taking out a portion of tho house 
they could not be removed. The wall is covered with 
climbers. In the second division the wall is covered 
with Camellias, and beautiful and healthy they looked. 
The young shoots had just been slightly tied in, and 
were thick and regular from the summit of the wall to 
its base. This wall was a mass of bloom from Christmas 
to May. It has every promise of being so again. The 
kinds were Poeoniflora, reticulata,fnnbriata, Hume’s Blush, 
Chandler's Elcgans , &c. I think I previously mentioned 
how well Camellias were managed against the back wall 
of a peach-house at Tingerth. In this second division, 
festoons for creepers run lengthwise near the middle of 
the house; and by means of moveable stands, and a 
broadish shelf in front, the house was always kept gay 
with plants in bloom. In tho first division, the stems 
of the Orange-trees rise a little above tho tubs before 
they begin to branch out; and thus, by placing boards, 
neatly fitted on purpose, across the top of the Orange 
tub, a stand for compact (lowering plants is procured at 
once. After having seon the collection of Camellias, 
Azaleas, Heaths, Geraniums, and the glass roofing at 
command, the wonder was where all these things could 
be housed in winter, even supposing tho graperies and 
and pits to be Crammed. But Kentish gardeners are 
becoming proverbial for doing great things with little 
means. 
Crossing this east lawn, we enter an avenue walk, 
formed of Lime-trees, which loaves the kitchen-garden at 
a little distance on the left, and the rose-arboured flower- 
garden on the right, neither of them, however, being 
seen. Between this avenue and the kitchen-garden 
wall are some nice spots, on which Mr. Fraser has 
fixed his eye as rare places for forming wild Ferneries 
and Alpincries. At the top of this Lime walk, and at 
right angles with it, enclosing thus a.nice square space 
for a kitchen garden, is a Walnut avenue. Several 
things struck my attention, or were pointed out to me 
here. The size of these Walnut-trees, but of which I 
have no memorandum, tho pencil marks being ob¬ 
literated ; the desirableness of an urn, or obelisk, or 
commemorative pillar, at the top of the Lime avenue, 
at the point where they both meet. The peculiar 
character of most of the Lime-trees, most of them at 
something like a dozen feet from tho ground, having 
that peculiar, crow-nest, crowded appearance, as would 
| seem to denote they had once been pollarded at that 
heighth, though there is nothing in the present vigorous 
appearance of the main stems of the trees to warrant 
that assumption, and the vast quantity of mislctoc, with 
which the trees arc loaded, which must give the avenue 
a peculiar appearance in winter, and almost led mo to 
believe that Wilderness Bark had been a favourite 
residence of the Druids of the olden times. 
The Kitchen-Garden is large, some five or six acres, 
well cropped, and containing a fair-sized Vinery in two 
divisions. In the Melon-ground are two nice pits, 
heated by liot-water, and a number of frames. I have 
got so much to say, and have already scribbled so much 
paper, that I must now be brief; and would beg our 
amateur friends’ attention particularly to the economical 
modes which Mr.Fraser adopts for securing his bedding j 
plants and abundance of late-flowering plants. 
Vineries. —These were producing fine crops. The | 
borders are covered every winter with asphalt fastened ' 
firmly to wood, and so made that theso asphalt covers, I 
when not wanted for the border, in winter and spring 
are used for the protection of covering pits for vegeta¬ 
bles and flowers. Theso were now under cover. In j 
theso Vineries were many plants generally grown in 
hothousos or stoves. In winter, a stage, now fresh- , 
painted in a shed, is moved into the house, and a green- | 
house formed at once. 
Onions. —I should have mentioned this above. There 
was a fine healthy crop. I heard great complaints 
of the maggot in that part of Kent, on the omnibus. I 
am sure that if Mr. Fraser has used any particular 
method to get rid of this pest he will let us know. 
Walls. —All the finer fruit were in great abundance ; 
and Peach and Apricot-trees were in healthy condition. 
Strong canvass cloth covers arc used alike for retarding 
and protecting—letting them down during the day, 
and pulling them up during the night, when cold, for 
some time before the blossom appeared. These covers 
are made into pieces, as far as I could guess, of about 
four to five yards in length, and they arc fastened to 
square pieces of wood at each side. One of these sides 
is fixed by screws to brackets at the top of the wall, 
and then two strings fastened to tho lower piece of 
wood, towards the middle, and ono at each end, and 
these, passing up the side of the cloth through rings, 
and going over a pulley-wheel at the top, enables two 
men to pull them up and let them down with great 
rapidity, by each standing at an end of a piece, and 
pulling or lotting go, as the case may bo, an outside and 
a middle string. Of course, the pulley-wheels are placed 
in the upper piece of wood, and, independently of being 
easily managed, they are thus easily moved from place 
to place, and very easily packed away over the rafters 
of a dry shed. These covers had been in use at least 
five years, and seemed none the worse for wear. 
Melons. —Mr. Fraser had been troubled with his 
plants looking very fresh at first, but, just when com¬ 
mencing to grow freely, some of the middle-sized leaves 
would curl up; aud the process would continue until 
the plants were injured. There were two pipes for 
surface-heat, and one small one for bottom-heat. When 
the day lengthened, so as to minimise fire-heat, tho 
Melons did well, setting, and swelling their fruit in 
perfection. He attributes the cause—and I-imagine 
quite rightly (see recent articlo on Cucumbers)—to a 
stagnation for want of heat at the roots, while there was 
a strong heat above from sunshine and fire-heat com¬ 
bined. Tho demand for evaporation, in such circum¬ 
stances, was greater than the weak action of the roots 
could supply. The evil would bo aggravated by doing 
as I have done in such circumstances, putting a foot or 
eighteen inches of hot dung below tho plants at planting 
time; for, ere long, that would get so dense, that the 
heat from the pipe would not easily penetrate it. An j 
open bottom for a lining to throw in heat or a slow 
growth at the top to restoro tho reciprocal action of 
a sluggishness at tho roots, are tho chief remedies 
which Mr. Fraser suggested. 
Com Pits. —I have frequently mentioned how these 
may be changed to warm pits in summer, with no more 
assistance than what tho sun gives ; and in such places 
I saw fine plants of various kinds of Achimcnes in full 
bloom, destined, I have no doubt, to adorn the con¬ 
servatory. 
Straw-wall Pits.—T hese were now being filled with 
