October 16, 
THE COTTAGE GARDENER. 
41 
before the runners began to shoot from the plant, and sufficiently thick 
to cover all the soil. It answered three purposes : it effectually pre¬ 
vented the devastation of the snail, the ground was kept moist underneath, 
and avoided the labour of watering, added to which no rain could dash 
the fruit with soil. Every other means failed but this, and the plan was 
adopted by many of those who had the same desire that he had to eat 
that delicious fruit in perfection.” 
Removing Bay-tree ( Evergreen). —A Bay-tree, eighteen feet high, 
and as many through, will require great judgment and some strength to 
remove so far as two miles; but there is no fear of succeeding, even under 
the circumstances you name, as the Bay removes as safely as the common 
Laurel, but you ought to employ an experienced person to assist you. 
Azaleas and Beutzia will not do at all under the Laurel hedge. Try the 
Gloire tie llosamene Rose, and plant two feet apart. To prepare the red 
clay bank for flowers, you must mix one-half sand with and as much of 
the hotbed dung as you can spare, We shall soon publish a list of stove 
and greenhouse plants that will grow gracefully over the pots like the 
Torrcnia. 
Pelargonium echinatum (A. B. C. B.). —If it is well drained, it 
will be quite sufficient to repot it once in four years. You seem to have 
managed Primula nivalis quite right; it was worn out, and ought to 
have been divided three years since. Your cuttings of it are sure to grow 
and make fine plants, but it is doubtful whether they will flower next 
year. Altogether you appear to us to be on the right scent with all your 
plants. 
Yellow' China Rose (T. Fallon). —Are you sure that your rose is 
the Yellow China ? We never heard of it being bad to flower, and we 
suspect it to be the old Yellow Briar, with Provence rose flowers, which 
no one can flower unless the soil suits it, and no one can say what that 
soil is. At any rate, take up your rose next month, prune it close, and 
root-prune it partially, put fresh rich light soil under it, and water it 
occasionally next summer. 
Datura Arborea (W. B. P.)— Your Datura not blooming freely, 
and with diminutive leaves, has been short of food; they are, indeed, 
gross feeders. The best way to manage the Brugmunsiu or Batura 
family, which are woody, is to let them go to rest in October; they will 
cast every leaf. Rest is induced by dryness at the root, and the usual 
decline of temperature. Our practice is to place them anywhere in-doors, 
in the dark if you like, where no frost can reach; and in the early part of 
February to take them out to the potting bench, shake out all the soil 
from them, trim their roots, repot them a “single shift,” and then 
plunge them in a bottom heat of 70° to 80°. They are, at the same time, 
pruned in almost to the old wood. In a few weeks they will have made 
new growth, and may be “ cooled down,” or “ hardened off,” and, hence¬ 
forth, need ordinary greenhouse treatment until near Midsummer, when 
they may, if you please, be placed out-of-doors in a warm and sheltered 
situation. The soil should be about equal parts stiff loam and manure, 
and the more liquid manure the better; at any rate water profusely. 
Garnet's Bergamot Pear was always a shy setter; your blossoms are 
badly impregnated, probably the pistil is defective. This sort is too 
robust to be confined to mere spurs ; try the tying down of young shoots, 
as advised in our previous numbers. 
Pruning Filberts ( Rhyd-y-Gors, Caeymarthen). — This is very 
simple, provided proper wood exists in the trees; that is to say, wood of 
sturdy yet moderate growth ; and this can only be secured by a steady 
and uniform action of root. Neither luxuriant filberts, nor those half- 
starved, will bear well. In pruning, the first point is to thin out much 
of the little spray in the interior of the tree, for even to the filbert a free 
admission of light is essential. Next thin out a little even of the exterior, 
removing the extremes of luxuriance and weakness, and next shorten 
back what few strong shoots are left (to extend tbe size of the tree), 
pruning away about a third of the length. A well-pruned filbert almost 
approaches the punch-bowl character, the interior not quite so open. 
Never permit suckers to remain. Do not prune until the nuts blossom 
in March, and be sure when they bloom to suspend catkins, or male 
flowers, if the trees be deficient. 
Driving Bees. —An Incumbent says : “I attempted to drive a hive 
of bees, an old stock, into an empty hive, about noon on a fine, bright 
day: inverted old stock, placed on it the empty hive, made all close 
round the junction, tapped upwards of ten minutes; but, on taking off 
the top hive, was disappointed at finding that not more than half the 
bees had ascended, consequently I had recourse to Mr. Payne’s old 
system of cutting out the combs, and brushing off the bees into their 
hive, and then joined the divided stock, and united them to a younger 
stock at nightfall, The driving system, if successful, is most desirable, 
as no bees are destroyed in the operation, whereas in the cutting-out 
system many are sacrificed. This union has continued to work very 
comfortably together—not so, however, in my second union. This was 
between an old stock of some four years old and a fine swarm of this 
year—a very strong swarm, and from which I had taken a capful of 
excellent honey, some 11 lbs. The old stock was a strong one, but the 
swarm I considered the strongest. My reason for uniting the two was 
because the hive of the old stock was in a dilapidated state. Well, this 
union was by no means a happy one, for I found on the following morn¬ 
ing a heap of bees lying dead on the bottom board—I should say nearly 
two quarts. The bees were not in either case besprinkled with honey 
and water : was this the cause of disagreement, or the junction of the 
old stock with the young swarm '! ” After having continued tapping the 
lower hive for ten minutes, and, upon examination, finding only half the 
bees have ascended, the hives should have been again put together, and 
the tapping resumed for five or ten minutes : half the bees having gone 
1 up was a sufficient assurance that the remaining half would have followed 
I had the tapping been continued a little longer. Sprinkling with honey 
and water is not necessary. When the bees intended to be united to 
another stock are dashed out upon the ground, or a cloth, and the stock 
they are to be joined to immediately placed over them, fighting is not 
known to take place. 
Tobacco Plant (Bertram). —It is past the proper time to take up 
your Tobacco plant. U p with it by the roots, hang it in a dry shed until 
the leaves are half-dried, then strip them off the stalks, and pile them 
over each other in a heap for three or four days, or until they heat a little; 
then open them out, and have them dried slowly; then they are fit for ' 
use. Put your Cyclamen Persicum under a cover at once, and read the 
proper treatment in former volumes. 
Fuchsias (S. S ,).—Those you name are as good as those we recom- j 
mended. There is neither a blue Verbena nor a yellow one, but the two 
you name are the nearest to what you want. 
Cold Pits ( Ignotus). —See what Mr. Fish has said to-day. 
Cloth or Gold Rose (M. D .).—Train it against a south or west wall, 
and do not shorten the shoots, but train them in at full length, and if it 
does not bloom, cut one-third of the roots in the spring. The Bevo- 
niensis and many others will do to bud on this Cloth of Gold. The finest 
flower we have seen of Souvenir de Malmaison Rose is from buds thus j 
worked on the Solfaterre, a Rose equally strong with the Cloth of Gold. 
Flower-garden Plans must stand over for awhile; but we shall 
number them as they come, and answer in succession when we can spare 
the time to begin with them. 
Wintering Geraniums on a Lawn.— F. H. says :—“ I have a large 
basket on my lawn filled with nine Scarlet Geraniums : instead of re¬ 
moving the soil and plants, and refilling it next May, I propose cutting 
off all the leaves, and sheltering it from frost and damp, and giving no 
water till the spring, in short, adopting Harry Moore’s plan. Will that 
answer better than filling it with young plants every summer ? ” Yes; 
much better, if you are sure of being able to save them from frost and 
damp. A shelf near the glass in a greenhouse, will not keep Geraniums on 
Harry Moor’s plan; when they arc dried they must be kept dark. 
Busy Body. —If we were to put in your witty suggestion, we should 
have another score of expostulary letters. 
Black Beetles and Crickets. — S. Wilkinson suggests red wafers 
for destroying these', but we do not think them effectual, and certainly 
not against crickets, for these do not eat them. 
Figs and Peaches (A Subscribe' from the beginning ).—It is an in¬ 
jurious plan to pick off their leaves to expose their fruit to the sun. You 
had better effect the purpose by training in the branches. To remove a 
single leaf or two does no harm. We should say that on the Kentish 
Hills, Taxodium sempervirens is not likely to rise above 50 feet in 
height, though in California it reaches to more than 200 feet. The 
Cupressus Uhdeana will, probably, not exceed 30 feet in stature, though 
in Mexico it rises to 6o feet, but it grows very fast. This Cypress, as well 
as C. torulosa and thurifera, are very little more tender than the common 
Cypress. 
Cypresses (J. Guest).— Apply to Messrs. Knight and Perry for the 
information you require. The other subject you name is not forgotten. 
IIeracleum Giganteum.— Any person requiring seed of this may 
have it by enclosing an envelope, stamped and directed with his or her 
address, to “ W. C. G., Post-office, Sandbach, Cheshire.” 
Plan for a Garden (J. K. Grant).— We cannot accede to your 
request. To draw out garden plans would occupy one man’s entire time— 
a man whose services would be worth five guineas a day. Employ a gar¬ 
dener to do it, and then we shall be happy to advise upon any doubtful 
point. . " 
Mespilus Japonica (W. B. D., Elmstone). —This is one of the 
synonyms of Eriobotryu Japonica, the Loquat. It bears a very refresh¬ 
ing fruit. The following extract from The Cottage Gardeners’ Bictionary 
answers your query:— E. Japonica (Japanese). 15. October. Japan. 
1787. Half-hardy evergreen fruit-tree, with white flowers. Cuttings of 
side-shoots, from one to two inches in length, in sand, under a bell-glass, 
and in a few days placed in bottom-heat; by seeds in a hotbed as soon 
as gathered ; also by grafting on the White Thorn, or, better still, on the 
Quince. Peat and loam ; will grow against a wall with a protection in 
winter; has been fruited in pots by turning it out to rest in summer, 
giving a stove heat in winter, when it flowered in December and fruited 
in April. 
Potato Planting (J. Patterson ).—See what we say to-day in our 
leader. If your soil is at all heavy, mix a little coal-ashes with the surface, 
dig your ground enough for a row at a time, put the sets on 
the surface, and then earth over them nine inches high, thus 
Asparagus Beds (An Amateur and a Novice). —Draw off about an 
inch of the surface-soil, as soon as the stems are quite dead and cut 
down, put on a good dressing of the thoroughly-decayed dung and sea¬ 
weed, and then return the inch of surface-soil. In the spring, gently 
stir up the mixture with a fork. 
Flowers for the Graves (C.). —Your essay thus entitled shall 
appear in our next. Never were we more misunderstood than on this 
subject. We love to see the well-trimmed graves, and to flower-decked 
graves have we no objection ; but let the flowers be such as those who 
rest beneath loved when in life, or such as the sorrower-left-behind’s own 
heart suggests. 
Hardy Flowers (Cambridge). —We do not think either Dahlias or 
Geraniums come within this class. They are only half-hardy, requiring 
protection in winter, therefore, should have disqualified a basket of cut- 
fiowers exhibited to compete for a prize offered for hardy cut-flowers. We 
do not think nineteen-pence per square foot too much for garden-lights, 
glazed with Hartley’s rough plate-glass, painted, handled, and all com¬ 
pleted of good materials, and well made. 
PiTcn er Plants (A Subscriber).— More than one genus is included 
under this general name. Messrs. Veitch exhibited Cephalotus, Nepen¬ 
thes, and Sarracenia, in a collection of Pitcher Plants. In all, “ the 
pitcher ” is the form of some of the leaves, as in Cephalotus and Sarra¬ 
cenia, or an appendage at the end of the leaf, as in Nepenthes. 
Errors. —At page 3/8 of last volume, col. 1, line 7 from top, for 
“ Mount Jana,” read “ Mount Jura; ” and in line 10, for “ Brevere ” 
read “ Brcvent.” “ Whitburn ” is thanked for these corrections. 
Wholesale House (A Subscriber, Mickleton). —Any of the London 
houses who advertise in our columns will supply seeds as required. We 
cannot particularise one. 
Laying down an Orchard with Grass (W.). —Tell us the nature 
