48 r, 
THE COTTAGE GARDENER. 
September 10. 
such a dry season as this has been, mulching and frequent 
waterings would bo an advantage.] 
FORCING MUSHROOMS, RHUBARB, Ac. 
“ I have, in my malt liouse, an arched passage by the side 
of the kiln: there is a temperature of 45° throughout the 
winter. Can this place be adapted, in any way, to the 
growth of Mushrooms. Rhubarb, and blanched Turnip- 
greens ? If so, you would oblige a Subscriber by telling him 
how to proceed.—G. H. K.” 
[These are just the sort of questions we feel a delight in 
answering, as it shows a disposition to make the most of 
circumstances. IVe suppose you have doors to this passage, 
to open and shut at will, as there might be weather 
when it would be advisable to let heat out, and keep cold 
, out—and also to let light in. The Turnip-tops will be 
best not totally dark, but approaching darkness. They 
make a most delicious vegetable; and if cut only once, injure 
the Turnips no more than allowing the tops to grow to any 
length in tire field in the spring. An average of 50° would 
bring them quickly in fine perfection. If you should hardly 
have enough of heat, a little sweet dung, dry rather than 
otherwise, in which to set the Turnips, and cover them with a 
little hay, or a cloth, until they begin to spring, would soon 
start them into growth, when the covering should be re¬ 
moved. The same may be said of the Rhubarb. A tempe- 
rature of 45° will not cause it to shoot much before its usual 
I time in the spring; but the addition of from 5° to 10° at the 
! roots will do so, and yield you a nice supply. From twelve 
( to fifteen inches of well-wrought dung, from which the rank¬ 
ness has departed, packed about the roots, and not allowed 
to get too hot, would enable you to have a supply all the 
winter. The roots had better be packed in earth in a box, 
so as to move it up and down, and out and in, at pleasure. 
Without the dung, you might very possibly manage by 
placing the box, or large pot, next the heated side of the 
passage, and enclosing a space all round it by means of 
another box, Ac., as the heat will thus be concentrated in¬ 
stead of diffused through the passages. For Mushrooms, 
recent articles would show you that you must have ferment- 
ing'-mqterial, in rather a dry state, in the shape of stable 
dung, if to be got. Nothing is better than horse-droppings, 
with nearly an equal portion of the shortish litter, or the 
long cut small; but we are not at all particular, having used 
all fermenting substances for heat, and dryish, littery dung, 
or horse-droppings, for the spawn to run into. Half-de¬ 
cayed matter for hotbeds is as good as any. We have also 
been very successful by the following mode :—Take horse- 
dung as it comes from the stables, shake out the very 
largest; dry the remainder considerably; build it then in 
a bed firmly some eighteen inches at back, and some ten 
inches in front. If it should heat very violently, pierce it 
with a number of holes; as soon as the heat begins to 
decline, beat it again firmly; and the air, being so far 
excluded, the heat will abate. Keep trying it every day; 
if a little warmer than new milk, shake your head at it, and 
wait a bit. When you get heat like that, insert pieces of 
spawn, about the size of walnuts, every eight inches square, 
and beat firm again. Keep trying your watch stick, and if 
the heat does not increase, you may encase the bed all over 
with a few horse-droppings, or a little moist cow-dung. Try 
again in a day or two, and, if all right, earth up with one 
inch-and-a-lialf in thickness of the freshest and stiffost loam 
you can find, beat it firm, wet the surface, and draw a clean 
spade over it. There will now be no danger of heat; but 
you may require a slight covering of liny to keep it in. A 
temperature in the bed of from 70° to 80° at spawning time, 
a temperature of from 00° to 70° in the bed afterwards, and 
a top temperature of from fit) 0 to 00°, are the most favour¬ 
able circumstances for Mushroom growing ; and with such a 
passage, and a little manure for the bed, no place would 
answer more admirably than this passage. It will at once 
be seen, that a small bed all the length of the passage 
would just suit the three things you wish to grow, and none 
of them care a pin about the light. Seakale would answer 
equally well, and so would Endive and Chicory, but without 
the dung. IVe have grown Mushrooms at all times, and all 
| places mostly, and with many make-shifts, such as would 
make amateurs stare again, who are too apt to imagine that 
professed gardeners have everything they wish for to carry 
on their operations ; and, therefore, we shall be glad to give 
definite advice upon any definite circumstance. If there is 
much heat in the wall, separate the bed from it by means of 
a board, or the bed might get too hot and too dry.—R. F.] 
MISMANAGED AZALEAS. 
“ I have a few Azaleas, all of which are looking poorly. I 
have them out-of-doors at present. They are large, old 
plants, and I do not know when they last bloomed. I shall 
be much obliged by your telling me what to do with them.— 
A.D.” 
[If you had asked advice in the spring, we could have 
done more to assist you. As it is, the season being fine, 
you may have bloom next season. See they do not want for 
water, and get them under glass by the end of this month. 
Keep them from frost all the winter. If flower-buds are 
formed, they will begin to swell as the days lengthen in 
the spring. Whether they bloom or not, by April and May, 
keep them rather close and warm, under glass ; an average 
of 00° will not hurt them, and sprinkle them every after¬ 
noon with milk-warm water from a syringe. If there is any 
thing like vitality in them, this treatment will cause them to 
make fresh shoots, and these, when an inch or two long, if 
exposed to more air and light, will, technically, set their buds 
for blooming. If put out-of-doors, let the place be sheltered 
in August and September, and house again in good time. 
IVe must add, that as in all likelihood the soil is getting 
exhausted, you had better shift them into fresh soil, after 
growth has freely progressed next spring. Never mind, if 
you use even smaller pots, after shaking away the old soil. 
Use heath soil, mixed with charcoal, silver-sand, and crocks 
broken small.] 
FLOWERS IN A CONFINED YARD. 
“ Peiscilla D. 0. Burlingham, resident in a house in 
High-street, Lynn, is desirous of planting flower-borders on 
two sides of a yard, opposite the parlour window. The yard 
is about forty-two feet long, from east to west, and twenty- 
one feet wide from south to north. Borders might be planted 
along the north and west walls, and creepers raised against 
them. The former would, of course, be shady, but the latter 
has plenty of sun. Though there are no manufactories near, 
the kind of coal used here causes a good deal of smoke, and 
1’. B. does not expect to succeed, except to a very limited 
extent; yet, as the sight of a few flowers and a little green 
would he a great source of pleasure, she wishes to make 
the attempt.” 
[You have given a fair account of what you want, the 
name of the place you write from, and the nature of your 
position, in a few words. If others would but follow the 
same rules, we would willingly do our part to advise them ; 
but statements without heads or tails, and from this, or the 
other side of the moon, are sore puzzles indeed. Such 
letters do give trouble, and plenty of it. If you were to buy 
strong plants in pots of the Irish Ivy , not shorter than six 
feet, plant them against the north wall, just two feet apart, 
and nail the shoots to the wall, you would have the most 
pleasant green all the year round. As soon as the Ivy was 
nailed, if you were to buy so many of the original China Hose, j 
and plant them three or four feet apart, and in front of the | 
Ivy; then nail them to the wall for tire first two or three ! 
years, and after that to tie them loosely here and there to i 
tire spurs and breast-wood of the Ivy, and water the whole 
once a week, from May to September, for the first two 
years, you would have the best wall clothing for that kind of 
wall and situation that the art of man or the ingenuity of 
woman could contrive. After the Roses were up seven or 
eight feet, begin to bud other climbing Roses on them, and 
you might soon have a collection of Roses. Spring bulbs 
and common Scarlet Geraniums are the only fit plants for 
the border. For the west wall many things will do, as Coto- 
neastcr microphylla, Forsytlda viridissimn, Aucuba, Corchorus, 
Pyracantha, and some evergreen climbing Roses, with a few 
pot plants in summer, and spring bulbs.] 
PYRAMIDAL GERANIUMS. 
“ Tiie Cottage Gardener of June 0, page 254, has a com¬ 
munication from Mr. Beaton, on Pyramidal Geraniums of 
five to six feet high, which interests me much, and J beg to 
