November 4. 
THE COTTAGE GAllDENER. 
bell-glass ovei’ them. (T forgot to say that the seedlings 
must he potted off when about three inches high.) There 
is also another mode to obtain plants, and which I think the 
best and quickest way to get a tine plant, and that is to 
select some of the finest shoots when the wood is mo¬ 
derately firm, with a good leader, and of these shoots, about 
from nine to twelve inches from the tip, out a nitch or slit 
upwards about an inch, beginning from below a joint; place 
in this nitch a small wedge, to keep it open, and chop some 
moss fine, and mix with it a very small (juantity of peat, not 
too fine; place tliis fine moss and peat in some longer moss, 
so as to keep it together, then place it round the nitch, and 
bind it up rather tightly, biit not too much so; bind it up 
with hirge worsted, or what is called wool-spun, and leave a 
long piece from the tie, and place over this layer, as 1 shall 
call it, a common glass bottle, by driving a large nail or 
hook into the wall, tieing a wire or strong whip-cord round 
the nock of the bottle, and hanging it on the nail, filled with 
water, and put the end of the wool-spun into the water; 
this will keepi the moss always moist, and when you find it 
has made tolerably good roots, cut it half way through from 
the old plant, and in a fortnight you may cut it off, and pot 
it, and next spring plant it out where it is to remain ; 
piroteet it a little for a year or tw'o in winter, with a mat or 
stra^v; prune it as you would a rose, that is, to about two 
or three eyes, but above all, do not prune it until the 
middle of Apndl, or you may lose your plant.— Charles 
Levett. 
I 
BEE-HARVEST.—1852. 
I 
Seeing that you ask for returns from bee-keepers of their 
experience of this year’s results, I beg to forward you the 
annexed tabular account of my apiary. It consisted, in the 
s])ring, of thirteen stocks in various hives, wood and straw, 
nearly all upon the depriving system, by means of glasses, 
small atr.aw caps, and small boxes. They w'ere numbered 
from 1 to Id. 1 consider it a veiy bad year, both as to 
swarms and tho amount of honey gathered. To make a 
comparison, I may state tliat last year, from nine hives 1 
had seventeen swarms, all of which did fairly. This year 
I had- 
June 1. A swarm from No. 4. 
„ 4. Ditto „ No. 0. 
„ 4. Ditto „ No. 10. 
„ 15. A second swarm from No. 4. 
„ 10. A swarm, not known whence. This deserted 
the hive a few days afterwards. 
„ 20. A double swarm, viz., a first swarm from No. 7, 
and a second swarm from No. (i, joined 
together, of their own accord, on a tree at 
the time of swarming. 
„ 2d. A swarm from No. 8. 
So that I have seven stocks which have not thrown off a 
swarm. And have only added six new stocks to my apiary. 
Aiy honey-harvest lias been— 
June 10. A small wooden box, taken from the topi of 
No. 4. llemoved because it contained brood, 
chielly drones. The honey in it weighed 
2,j- lbs. 
July 24. A straw cap, taken from No. 2, very rich, and 
thick comb. Weight Id lbs.; of which the 
cap weighed 14 lbs., honey 11 J lbs. 
,, 24. straw cap taken from No. 11, equally good 
with the above, but the cap somewhat 
smaller. Weight 12 lbs.; capi liardly 1^ lbs., 
honey, 10^ lbs. 
N.13. These caps, when well filled, are supiposed to hold 
10 lbs. of honey. T never before had one of the kind that 
exceeded that weight, so that the above two are very good 
specimens. 
July 21. A straw hive. No. 10. An old hive. Gross 
weight 2d,I lbs. Hive about 5 lbs. Good 
honey, cut from it free from brood and 
pollen, about lOllis. 
„ 24. A straw hive. No. 0. An old hive. Gross weight 
22 lbs. Hive about 7 lbs. Honey strained 
from it about 8 lbs. 
,, do. One of this year’s swarms. Yielded of pure 
honey, strained, 10 lbs. I. 11. 
93 
TO CORRESPONDENTS. 
*♦* We request that no one will write to the departmental writers 
The Cottage Gardener. It gives them unjustifiable trouble and 
expense. All communications should be addressed “To Me Editor of 
the Cottage Gardener^2, Amen Cornel'^ Paternoster Row, LondonA^ 
Re-arranging Walks in a Villa Garden {Suburban). —We do 
not approve of either of your plans, Rigs. 1 and 3 of the walk 
diverging and surrounding a triangle at top ; much better let it proceed 
up the centre, as in Fig. 2, and terminate in some ornamental oliject, as 
an arbour, summer-house, piece of sculpture, or sun-dial \ but a summer- 
house or arbour would be most appropriate. Your space is too limited 
to grow many vegetables, under any circumstances; therefore, appearances 
ought to guide you as to its disposal. Avoid all tali things, as Asparagus, ' 
Feas, Jerusalem Artichokes, and Scarlet-runners, all of which you will 
buy cheaper than you can grow, and devote what space you have to 
lower-growing crops. A walk by the side of a wall is not necessarily 
injurious to the fruit-trees trained thereon, provided a suitable description ! 
of soil be afforded the roots underneath the walk, the substance of which ' 
ought to be thin, Trees often do better so treated than when a heavy ^ 
vegetable crop contends with them for the uses of the border. See an i 
article by Mr. Robson, on Suburban Gardens, in to-day’s paper, which 
will be followed by others bearing on the same subject. 
PiiYTOLAccAS (T. W.), —Many thanks for the seeds of Phytolacca 
decandra, which are quite true. The ])lant, however, will grow full live 
feet high, if you can preserve it through the winter. Damp is worse for 
it than frost, and it is always a safe plan to grow a few from seeds every 
year or two. The seeds will keep better in the berries, and also on the 
stalks, all the winter; and about the end of February is the best time to 
sow them, and then to sow the berries just as they are. They want the 
same treatment as ridged Cucumbers, or Capsicums, or Tomatoes, and 
no soil can be too rich for them to llower in, and no soil can be too poor 
for them to stand well against the frost. Hence, to grow them to per¬ 
fection, we ought to treat them as biennials. Sow them at the ena of 
April, in a close, cold pit; nurse them in pots till July; then plant them 
out for six weeks; then take them up and pot them, and keep them over 
the winter with the Hwwens, and next May plant an avenue, or long 
border, with Humeas and Pocans alternately. Ry so doing you will 
make a stir in that part of the country. Three, five, or seven plants of 
this Phytolacca, planted in a group in front of a tall mass of evergreens, 
in very rich soil, and at some distance from the walk, w'ould have a 
splendid efi'ect. 
Flower-garden {T. F.).“You have distributed the colours w-ell, but 
the plants do not match as they ought to do for this style; 3 and 4, for 
instance, purple Pehmia and blue Lobelia, when in their prime, will 
look like a carriage-horse and a Shetland poney yoked together; both in 
high condition, but not a match, as all pairs ought to be, whether carriage- 
horses, fiower-beds, or liower-pots. To a practised eye, a man going 
down the road with a hobnailed shoe on one foot, and a tight Wellington 
on the other, would not look more strange than a Petunia and a little 
Lobelia, side-by-side, “ to match!” Salma chamcedryoides is the nearest 
to suit No. 3 bed; 13 and 15 ought to change places with 11 and 12, 
being lower, and of better habit, next the house; 1, 2, 5, 8, 9, 10, and 
14, could not be done better, and there is not a plant in the catalogue to 
suit No. 6, except Cineraria amelloides, to carry out your own way of 
matching in blue and purple. To exemplify all this, and as a good 
example of covering such a space, we shall engrave your plan some day. 
The Vine will do very well as you propose to train it, but beware of the 
shoots being crowded. 
Flower-Garden (J. //.).—The best-shaped beds arc circles; next 
best, ovals ; third best, long, narrow beds, with some graceful curves in 
the outline; and the fourtli best is, for you, what you think the best 
yourself; and so with all the world besides. In nine coses out of ten the 
shapes of flower-beds are determined by the size, situation, and laying- 
out of the piece of ground. You marked a line from the circle in front 
of the olfices to the oval at the farthest end, a single bed placed on that 
line would spoil the clfect of your garden, on paper, whatever the shape 
might be. If you could place two other circles opposite the present two, 
and a half-moon-shaped bed in the middle, between them, that would 
be right. 
Scarlet-flowering Peach (R. AT.).—We never say where such and 
such plants can be bought. We said once or twice that Mr. Appleby 
could get any plant that was on sale in Europe or America for anybody 
who offered to pay for it. The best ivay is to give your commission, in 
all such cases, to the nearest nurseryman, and he can, if he chooses, suppVy 
you with plants free of all carriage, &C., as cheap as you could buy them in 
Jmndon. Your bookseller does the same thing every week in the year 
with this Cottage Gardener. Doing things in a business way, in a 
business country like England, is always the surest and cheapest way in 
thelongrun. We are intending to have excellent lists of all the best 
shrubs and trees this winter; for we can now afford space for them. 
“Orchard” will see much of his question answered to-day, in a 
paper on Fruit and Vegetable Culture. The most noted counties for the 
Duntson are Shropshire and Cheshire. In tlie part where we write 
(Cheshire) every cottage gardener has them blended with the thorn 
hedges; and many, in good seasons, pay their rent with these alone. 
They delight in sandy soil, although we find them occasionally growing 
in still* soils. Any nurseryman, living by the rail in those counties, w'ould 
supply you. Plant directly, above the ground level; use in your stilf 
soil some road scrapings, or loose material. To your Apple list add 
Beauty of Kent, Chapel Apple (to be had in any Lancashire nursery), 
Dumelow’s Seedling, or Normanfon Wonder, To your Pears add Jersey 
Gratioli, Dumnore, Beurre de Capianmunt, and iSeurre Diel. You may 
put the rubble lietween the roots, in stations formed hard, with a convex 
surface. 
“ Stupid.” —Your paper will be noticed in due course. 
Large Plants of Pelargonium dying off. — B. F. had some 
splendid plants of the fancy kinds last summer; dense bushes, the 
heads fully four feet in diameter, and a mass of bloom for four months. 
