THK COTTAGE GARDENEK. 
January U. 
advise those ^^•ho liave room to stow away soot, to take it in all the year 
round as the sweeps bring it (which they are glad to do even at a less 
price). You can measure it with your own strike, and prevent the im¬ 
positions one is subject to on fetching it at the time it is wanted. I may 
here mention the tricks they adopt. In sending for soot, your man, 
‘ however careful, is almost sure to be cheated. The sweep often carries 
the soot out in sacks, your man (or yourself, if you like it better) sees the 
hrst sack or two filled with proper measure, but such a dust is kicked up 
that it is impossible to breathe in the place; you then stand outside to 
sec the number of sacks emptied into the cart or waggon, and the 
moment your back is turned, the sack is changed for a less one, and so 
you arc defrauded. And if you insist on its being carried out in the 
strike, or bushel, some of the soot is trodden down in the bottom of the 
bushel, and there remains —only a part is emptied into the waggon. One 
scarcely ever thinks of measuring soot, as it is generally taken to the 
field and sown forthwith ; but on one occasion, strongly suspecting there 
I was not the quantity stated, I took the trouble fo have it measured, and 
[ found I was attempted to be robbed of exactly 60^ per cent.** 
I Vine Grafting (IV. Aigburth), — We do not think it would be well 
j to graft your vine now, at least, we never thus performed it. The 
I general practice is to suffer the stock to V)e a little in advance of the 
scion. Perhaps you may venture towards the middle of the month. 
You do not say whether the head of the stock is to be cut entirely away, 
or whether you are only adding a graft to the side of an existing shoot. 
Vines take so readily by grafting, that it is almost impossible to fail. 
To avoid bleeding, rub white lead on the wounds, and cover the junction 
I part with moss, to be occasionally damped. 
I Unfruitful Wall Trees (An Old Subscriber). —Half the fruit- 
[ trees in the kingdom are ruined by border-cropping, or, in other words, 
t annually destroying their surface-fibres. We allow no digging or forking 
j for seven feet next the wall in full grown trees. Deep roots produce late 
growths, late growths ripen badly, and badly ripened wood sets badly. 
It could not be otherwise with tender trees. You must not allow what is 
vulgarly termed blight. Any crop, if you must crop it, for which six 
inches of digging will sufiice, you must make up for want of depth by 
extra manuring. 
Sulphur Paint (G. 72.).—With such a dressing you may safely paint 
both walls and wood all over in the end of the montli. You may double 
the amount of sulphur with benefit, and if the colour is too glaring, you 
may subdue it with soot; this is our practice. You may apply it to any 
tree about which a fear of insects exists. 
Heating Pits (MP'i7/<VrMi iitVef).—We really cannot answer for your 
modified plan. These compromises sometimes have an awkward termi¬ 
nation. It is our duty to point to principles, your*s to carry them out. 
As to training Cucumbers and Melons, let us repeat they 7nnst enjoy 
plenty of light; the mode of training matters little, only do not let them 
grow at random. It will probably be necessary to give a paper some day 
on these minutife. If William Bird was at our elbow, we would take 
him round the garden and point to matters at once, but really our 
columns are scarcely broad enough to follow that course which good¬ 
nature itself would point to. 
Poland and Hamburgh Fowls (.4 Fancier).—There is no 
doubt about the distinctness of these, but you do not enumerate all the 
sub-varieties. If, as you say, the taste for Shanghaes is ill-grounded, 
the mistake will soon be found out by the natural good sense of our 
countrymen; but we differ with you entirely. When you have any facts 
to record we shall willingly publish them. 
Books (D. H .).—You had better wait for the new edition of Mackin¬ 
tosh ; and instead of the other, buy The Pine-apple^ one of the works 
published in the series called “The Gardener’s Monthly Volume.” It 
is to he had of Mr. Bohn. 
Poultry-house (72o6'«).— You will have seen the plan of Mr. Pun- 
I chard’s ; others of the cheapest construction will be published in the 
forthcoming work on Poultry, and we shall borrow' a plan from it. Gal¬ 
vanized iron net-work is the best, and cheapest in the end, of all the 
' materials usable for Poultry enclosures. Three feet high for Shanghaes, 
and six feet high for other varieties is required, 
t Potting Sand (J. D. P., Dublin). —The Killwing sand will answer 
i excellently for potting purposes. 
I Tetratheca Pruning (Ibid). —This will want no pruning, unless 
forced to grow in heat. The stopping of a shoot, by pinching out its 
} )oint, will he sufficient. When grown in an airy house, that will seldom 
)e required w'hen the plant is established, as it is truly a continuous 
bloomer, and will throw out side-shoots as it extends in height. When 
a plant becomes straggling, you may prune it back with safety, provided 
' you do not cut back into wood above two years old; but after the opera¬ 
tion, you must keej) the plant closer and warmer than usual before it 
* breaks, and then e.xpose it to plenty of air by degrees. For Eutaxia, 
Westringia, &c., see Mr. Fish’.s paper of to-day. 
' Stuaw'berry Forcing. — Amateur writes thus:—“I have at this 
I time several strawberry plants (out-of-doors) in bloom, and just coming 
‘ into bloom (Myatt’s Prolific Hautbois) ; would it answer to take up 
some and pot them in 32’s or 24’s, and put them in a forcing-pit ?’* 
I There is not the slightest chance of doing any good with them. They 
are in bloom all over the country. 
i Vines, in pots, from eyes (An Amateur^ Dublin), —Your seven 
j questions involve such long answers that we must be excused for 
answering only one of them in each week; and we begin with vines in 
I pots, for which you modestly ask a treatise, to include “ all particulars,” 
from the “ striking of the cuttings to bearing.** With good gardeners 
this takes about two years or thirty months. Get plump eyes from well- 
ripened shoots in readiness by the end of next February, then have a 
gentle hot-bed ready with a steady bottom heat of 80° ; take sixty-sized 
pots, and fill them with rich light compost of one half loam and the 
other half of leaf mould and a little sand; plant a single eye in each, 
plunge them in the bed, keep the soil a little moist, and do not let the 
air in the bed get hotter than 65° until you have the eyes in leaf. 
Black Shanghaes (E. Bateman ).—We cannot inform you who has 
any for sale. Those who have must advertise them. The following 
letter, just received, however, may be of use to you:—“I must beg to 
differ from your correspondent ‘T.A.,*who states that ‘ there are no 
Black or pure White thoroughbred Shanghae Fowls in England.* I 
am now in possession of bred from birds imported twelvemonths 
since; and a friend of mine, residing in this neighbourhood, has a pair of 
pure white, thoroughbred Shanghaes, Should ‘ T. A.’ persist in his 
opinion, I shall be happy to do all in my power to convince him of his 
error; and, doubtless, ray neighbour would do the same.—W. Lort, 
Ward End, Birmingham.** 
Disease in Pigeons. — J. T. says:—“I should be greatly obliged 
if you, or any of the correspondents in your paper, could inform me the 
sause, and cure (if any), of a lump or core which comes in the throats of 
come pigeons, generally at from a week to three weeks old, and in most 
cases is fatal, by preventing them swallowing or breathing. During the 
last season I have had quite half my young ones die from the above 
disease. Has the water, which is hard and chalky about here, anything 
to do with it ? But 1 have occasionally had them die when I kept them 
in London, of the same disorder ; but then it could not be the water; 
and as some of my birds are verv valuable it is a great loss.” For 
information relative to White Comb in Shanghaes, see a case in another , 
page of this number. 
Fairplay. —We have a letter sent to us for our correspondent who 
wrote to us under this signature, at page 21‘2 of the present volume. 
Errata.—A t pa^ge III), col. 2, line 20, ior eiid, read one. Line 46, 
iov limited, read united. Line 70> read Gelicu. Page ill, line /> ] 
anepicious, read ei^spicious. 
Characteristics of the Silver-spangled Hamburghs (A Con- 
stunt Subscriber). —The cock should have a full, but firm and erect rose- 
comb, terminating in a point behind, large wattles, and a white earlobe ; 
ground-colour clear white; the extremity of each feather of the body 
being tipped with black, hence their synonym, Moonif'S; wings regularly j 
barred,—a point now much insisted on; tail full, with but a small admix- j 
ture of white in its sickle feathers ; bill short; body neat and compact; | 
legs clean, and in colour pale blue. The hen’s markings should be even j 
more distinct than those of the male bird, the outer edge of each of the ■ 
flight feathers being delicately margined with a dark line instead of 
barred, and the tail tipped only with black. In both sexes the colours 
should be clear, and in no way blended, or run one into another. We 
did not observe the faults enumerated by our correspondent in the prize 
birds of this class at Birmingham, for an imperfect comb alone, such as 
he describes, would at once bar all chance of success ; but the class there 
was not one of peculiar merit.—W. 
Golden-spangled Hamburghs (Omega). —The feathers enclosed ! 
are those of well-coloured Golden-Spangled Hamburghs; their provincial i 
appellation of “Bolton Bays” will, in this case, be readily understood 
from the brilliant ground-colour. The “ Dull-black and ochrey-brown ” 
alluded to would betoken a very inferior strain of this variety, which was 
well represented at the last Birmingham Show, and from the winners on 
which occasion fresh blood might be advantageously introduced. Though 
the birds may have been sold to you as “ Copper Moon Pheasants,” they 
are true Golden-Spangled Hamburghs.—W. 
Fecundated Eggs (Argus). —We certainly should have no faith in 
any one’s directions for deciding whether eggs are impregnated from 
their specific gravity. The test, therefore, of “putting them in a bowl 
of water, and rejecting such as do not sink to the bottom,” we believe 
valueless. Our own opinion is, that in the fresh egg, whether impreg¬ 
nated or unirapregnated, no difference is found till after incubation has 
begun ; then, when broken, the membrane of the fertilised egg is found 
opaque, the cicatricula, or punctura, well-marked, and the surrounding 
zone brilliant. Other points of difference might be mentioned, but they 
would require microscopic aid. The mark, or appearance, in the egg to 
which you allude, is probably its condition when placed between the eye 
and a strong light after it has undergone a week’s incubation; the 
embryo in the fertilised egg will by that time have assumed a distinct 
form, easily discernible from the state of a clear egg.—W. 
Furnishing a Conservative Wall (A Brighto^i Subsenber ).— 
You have put up a conservative wall on the north side of your stove- 
house, and you wish to have some plants placed against it that will 
furnish your lady “ with cut flowers plentifully at Christmas,” and they 
are to be very useful, very beautiful, and very uncommon. It is no easy 
task to inform you of any plants that will do all this for you. Camellias, 
you say, will thrive in it you know ; and if so, what can you have better 
to cover your forty feet long wall. However, if you wish for variety, add 
one or two of the following:— Azalea indina alba, Escallonia macrantha, 
Daphne hybrida. Daphne indicu rubra, Coronilla glavca, Chimonanthes 
fragrans and grundifiora, Deutzia gracilis, an Orange-tree, and a 
sprinkling of China and Perpetual Roses. If you were to cover your 
wall with glass, you might extend the list greatly, as there arc many 
plants now grown in greenhouses that would live and flower well under 
glass against a conservative wall; a list will be published shortly. There 
are some other shrubs that would live and flower against your wall, but 
as you wish for winter-flowering ones, the list here given will answer the 
purpose from December to April. i 
Plants for a Ward’s Case (Ignoramus). —You have a Wardian 
case, 2 ft. 6in. long, by 1 ft. 3 in. wide, and 1 ft. 8in. high, with a box 
6in. deep for soil. You wish to know what sort of soil to put in this j 
box, and what kind of plants will grow in the case. You would wish to 
have some flowering plants as well as Ferns, Now, we can assure you, 
from dear-bought experience, that no other plants excepting Ferns and ' 
Lycopodiums will live for any time in such a case. They will live ami 
flower, if already in bud, for a few w’eeks, but then they invariably damp 
off, even with plenty of air on favourable occasions. Be content with 
what we recommend, and you will succeed. would damp- [ 
off in a fortnight. Hyacinths might last a little longer; and Cactus I 
truncatus, if provided with buds would expand them, but would never ' 
produce any more. Tlie soil you should use is the siftings of heath 
mould or peat, with a small admixture of very turfy, fibrous loam, and j 
a small portion of silver-sand mixed through the whole. It is advisable ' 
to have a thin layer of broken crocks spread over the bottom of the box ^ 
for drainage. 
London; Printed by Harry Wooldridqk, Winchester High-street, 
in the Parish of Saint Mary Kalendar; and Published by William 
Somerville Orr, at the Office, No. 2, Amen Corner, in the Parish of 
Christ Church, City of London.--January 6th, 1853. 
