THE COTTAGE GARDENEB. 
304 
to the same rule. Such figures are not read like a book, straight 
on, but like one’s face—two eyes, two eyebrows, two dimples, two 
blushes one on each cheek, with one nose for a centre, and the fore¬ 
head and chin, as end figures. To have one cheek iHtdilmndus, and 
the other, Azureus or tuteus, would be very odd, would it not? 8, 8, 
very good. 9’s generally so (Standard-roses): nothing except Nemo- 
philuSf Saponaria calabrica, or sma\{ Campanulas, uv Lohetias, or some¬ 
thing very dwarf, should be planted under standard roses. But tour of 
your 9*8, the corner ones, would be a Gtoire de Rosnmene rose to be 
planted with each Standard, and be trained up to the head of the rose. 
10 and 12 very good; 11 and 13 ditto, that is, each pair matches pretty 
well. Tubs will not be in character at all where the Cypresses stand; 
but Irish Vews will answer there better than the Cypress, as to effect; and 
they ought to-be from 5 to 9 ft. high, not lower or higher tor the par¬ 
ticular situation. We must not write private letters even to young 
ladies. 
Sbedling Geraniums (1001).—You are certainly one out of a thou¬ 
sand ; six whole pages, filled with what a lady from the Isle of Man 
would put into a quarter of a note page, shows how little you know of 
the nature of time or of human patience. Let your geranium seedlings 
go on just as they are, be they ever so gawky, till they bloom, or else 
they may take another year to prove them. A seedling is more likely 
to fiowe'r sooner in a three-inch pot than iu the largest; pinching, 
stopping, bushvness, and all that sort of thing, is downright nonsense 
when applied to Seedling Geraniums. Geranium seeds do equally well 
sown with or without the “ husk.” You mistake the philosophy of gar¬ 
dening altogether. A gardener who could not tell why the Moss Roses 
come not from cuttings, ouglit to have asked you why the nightingale 
sings at night. In your next letter, let us hear your reason for the breast 
of the robin being red, or w'hy ducks like water, while we know they 
would do as well without swimming. 
Weigela rosea Pruning {W, F. /f.).—Full-grown plants of this 
beautiful shrub require the older wood to be removed annually, any 
time in winter, and to encourage young wood, which produces the best 
flowers. The young w'ood ought to be shortened as soon as the flowering 
is over; at the same time, very weak or very crowded shoots ought to be 
cut out altogether. 
Forstthia VIRIDISSIMA {Ibid).—li flowers on the old wood like the 
white and red Currant, and it may be spurred-in exactly like them after 
it comes to a full size; hut while it is m progress, cut only a few of the 
second-sized shoots about one-half their length, and the stronger ones 
pass by. Now is a good time to prune both. Many thanks for the 
brevity of your letter. 
Flower-garden Plan (.4, R. F.).— Your plan is very good indeed, 
and your style of planting still better. 12 and 33 are the only two beds 
we dislike, as the height of the plants {Af*eraUim) in them strikes off the 
view looking from either end. To keep to your own tints, we would 
plant them (12 and 33) with Heliotropes. Humeus in the centre of the 
figure, as you propose, will have a very fine effect, and better if you had 
them with three, four, or five stems from near the bottom for these beds; 
but when Hunieas are planted as accompaniments to architecture, they 
look best trained to one stem. This plan is well worth engraving. The 
iioses now in pots, and which you want to bloom next Christmas, prune 
them now on the close system. See to the drainage, and then plunge 
the pots in front of a south wall or vine border; and in the hole under 
each pot place a 48-pot, with the mouth upwards, and on this open 
mouth pl^ie the bottom of your rose-pot; that is the best contrivance 
for good drainage, and for keeping out the worms. Keep the plants free 
from insects, and give liquid manure occasionally; prune again by the 
middle of September; and early in October place in a cold pit, and in 
November begin forcing. 
Cuckoo Feather (Poultry-yard).—The enclosed feather, which we 
presume was taken from a hen, is a dusky specimen of cuckoo 
plumage. This marking, being found in both Dorkings and the 
common barn-door hybrid, will not be sufficient to determine the class 
to which 5 'our birds may belong; but the small turft of feathers on 
the hen’s head would appear to indicate some relationship with the 
Lark-crested fowl, a common inhabitant of homesteads, and highly 
esteemed for its laying properties. Specimens of one or two feathers 
can only serve to ascertain, and that, too, with no great accuracy, the 
distinctive colour and markings of a fowl. To assign a specific species 
requires particulars of form, habit, and other details, with which such 
queries should be accompanied. The rose-comb of the cock would 
strengthen the supposition of your birds being descended from the 
Dorking, as well as Lark-crested, variety; the male birds in the latter 
being usually seen with an upright single comb. We should be glad 
to know whether the chickens you may breed from these fowls revert 
to the characteristics of either of the races to which w'C have referred 
I their origin.*—W. 
Pbars in Northumberland (A Lover of Fruit).—Beurre diet has 
a rich and generous flavour when mellow', with a slight musky taste: 
when good, it is everybody’s pear, and an enormous bearer. It should, 
probably, have an east or west wall in Northumberland. Hacon^s, with 
you a similar situation, though you might try this as espalier. We do 
not know ” The Green Park.** Fondante d*Automne a similar situation 
to B. diet, and Winter Neilis should have a stout wall with you. As 
espaliers, try Beurre d*Arnaults, Duninore, Althorpe Crassanne, and 
William*8 Bon Chretienne, Get them on the Quince. 
Fruit in Derbyshire (A New Comer). —Your elevation is great 
(1200 feet), and your climate we know. We would, however, by all 
means try our more hardy fruits, and with many you will succeed very 
well; but if you will take advice, we sav, make platforms according to 
directions in our back numbers, the soil eighteen inches deep only for 
Pears. We should have Quince and Paradise, and should not fear 
Rivera’ trees. Try dwarfs, by all means, and be prepared to cover them 
annually. In Applet, any of the well-known hardy kinds; in Pears, 
Eebruary 17. ■ 
Dunmore, Beurr6 d’Amaulis, Beurrfc diel, Fondante d’Automne, Louis , 
Bonne of Jersey, Soldat Labourcur, Flemish Beauty, and Glout Mor- 
ceaux. Cherries: the Duke’s, Elton, and Morello. Plums: Precose de ' 
Tours, Orleans, Royal Hative, and St. Martin’s Quetsche. | 
Plants for a Veranda (Ibid), —Try CalampalU scaher, Lophos- 
permum rubescons, Maurandya Barolayana, Tropoiolum adhuncum and ; 
pentaphylium, the climbing Roses, Honeysuckles, Clematis, Jasmines, &c. j 
Shanking (B. C.).—*See an article by Mr. Errington. 
Orchid Culture (.'1 Reader, P. D.).—You have entered upon a ! 
situation, and have some orchids committed to your care, but profess not , 
to understand their culture, and ask what kind of soil will suit Cattlcyas. 
and if the last year’s bulbs should be cut off when this year’s are half 
grown of Dendrobiumsand Cattleyas, w'hen the leaves decay? You ask 
these questions because some gardener has told you that Cattleyas re¬ 
quire a rich soil, such us half-decomposed tree leaves, and half-decayed i 
branches of trees, broken into small pieces, and that the year-old shoots . 
of Dendrobiums, and the back bulbs of Cattleyas, should be cut off. We j 
have thus extracted your questions in order to answer them succinctly. CaU ! 
tleyas do not require such stimulating compost as your friend recom¬ 
mends. The finest specimens in England are grown in simple fibrous ; 
peat, with all the fine particles beaten and sifted out. Then, the back 
pseudo-bulbs? Unless wanted for increase of the number of shoots in ’ 
one pot, or for increasing the number of plants, they need not be cut off; i 
in fact, they strengthen the leading shoot or pseudo-bulb greatly. Tlie ! 
last year’s shoots of Dendrobiums? These, in many varieties, are the ; 
ones to flower, very few flowering upon the same year’s pseudo-bulbs; ' 
so that to cut them off would be an act of madness. The heat of your I 
house is almost too low for Dendrobiums, but right enough for Cattleyas. ' 
Cattleya Aclandice is a delicate little growing species, extremely scarce, 1 
and difficult to manage. Keep it on the block, as also C. marginata and 1 
C. pumila. Cattleya superba would improve, if it, and the block on I 
which it grows, were planted in a pot filled with verv fibry peat and 
broken potsherds; the block to stand above the pot-edge three or four 
inches. 
Pl.vce for a Pigeon-house (An Amateur). —Your proposed site for 
a pigeon-house, about six feet cube, represents, we imagine, a loft of that ! 
size. Well-ventilated, and the birds allowed their liberty when once | 
reconciled to their new abode, twelve pair would be commodiousiy settled i 
there. Egress should be given at the south end, the entrance being 
opposite. Shelves, as were described in our number of February 3rd, 
with earthenware saucers for nests, will be all the furniture you will 
require. The south Iront should have a stage, which may at times be 
closed in with a latticed front, to confine your birds; and this trap should 
act with a cord and pulley. As to the selection of sorts, our own expe¬ 
rience would point out Trumpeters, since profit is what you aim at; 
they are as productive as any variety, and attain a large size. If 
well-fed, each pair should rear, on an average, nine or ten young ones 
annually.—W. 
Royal Agricultur\l Society’s Gloucester Meeting (J. T R.). 
—This Society will have an improved list of prizes, we hope, at Glou¬ 
cester. One of the Committee writes as follows in The Midland Counties* 
Herald —‘‘The Council, on the motion of Air. Jonas, seconded by Mr. 
Brandreth Gibbs, voted the sum of ^6*100, as the amount of prizes to l>e 
offered at the Gloucester Meeting, for improving the breeds of poultry 
best adapted for the purposes ot the farmer; and referred to the com¬ 
mittee of last year the report with which the Council had been favoured 
by the Society’s Judges of Poultry at the Lewes Meeting (the Hon. and 
Rev. Mr. Lawlcy, Mr. T. B. Wright, and Mr. John Baily), with a request 
for recommendations on the subject of the particular prizes to be offered 
in this department. We have not yet seen the list of prizes for stock, I 
but we believe they will be issued immediately. We congratulate poultry 
amateurs on the very liberal vote of the Council for the purpose of encou¬ 
raging the improvement of domestic fowl; and, should the prize list 
prWe to have been judiciously framed, we have no doubt this part of the 
exhibition at Gloucester will show a marked advance as compared with 
what was witnessed at Lewes in July last. The importance of poultry 
as a source of profit to the farmer having been recognised by the most 
influential agricultural society in the world, we may hope to see a rapid 
improvement in the appearance and quality of the feathered tenants of 
our farm yards. In tliis case, as in all others, it is good stock only that 
is profitable; and the farmers who shall displace the unhappy race of 
nondescripts, now seen almost everywhere, for pure-bred Dorkings or 
Hamburghs, will find their advantage in the increased value of the i 
produce. As the Times has very properly shown, it is a matter worthy 
of attention that our markets should be supplied with better and cheaper 
])oultry and eggs; and it will be obvious, that what is profitable in 
France would, if pursued with the same care, be still more so in this 
country, where a much higher price can be obtained. It must, at the 
same time, be admitted, that there has never been a movement connected 
with rural economy which has so rapidly sprung into importance as that 
of poultry-keeping ; and this is mainly to be attributed to the establish¬ 
ment of an exhibition on a large scale in this town—conducted on sound 
principles, and in the progress of which the promoters have sought the 
valuable co-operation of those whose experience and position enabled 
them to render great practical assistance. The step from the first small 
show in a corn-loft, in Worcester Street, to the wonderful display in 
Bingley Hall last December, has been the work of but four short years ; 
and there can be no question as to the utility of an undertaking which 
has not only obtained so large a measure of support for itself, but has 
been the example on which similar meetings have been already esta¬ 
blished in nearly every district of the kingdom.” 
London; Printed by Harry Wooldridge, Winchester High-street, 
In the Parish of Saint Mary Kalcndar; and Published by William 
Somerville Ore, at the Office, No* 3, Amen Corner, in the Parish of 
Christ Church, City of London.—February )7th, 1863* 
