66 
THE COTTAGE GARDENER. 
October 30. 
but this crop is very precarious at tliis untoward season. 
See to those planted in pots some time ago, and keep 
them in a healthy condition, hy all the means you have 
at command, otherwise they will do no good;—keeping 
close to the glass, taking care that no drip takes place, 
and removing all offensive matter likely to engender 
disease, are amongst some of the preventives to their 
falling a prey to thrip, mildew, and other misfortunes; as 
it unfortunately happens at this dull period that the usual 
| antidotes to these evils can hardly be used with safety, 
our advice, therefore, is rather to keep disease away, than 
i attempt to cure it. Protect any that are in bearing in 
the open ground or sheltered places, and let those past 
use he at once cleared away, and the ground manured, 
dug, or trenched, as the case may he. 
Cauliflowers we recommended last week to he 
pricked out into frames to stand the winter, we also ad¬ 
vised those intended to be planted in hand-lights to be at¬ 
tended to at once, if not done before: we usually put nine 
plants in an ordinary square hand-light, and in spring 
remove all hut the foiu’ corner ones. We allow sufficient 
space between the hand-lights in the row for their tops 
to he taken off, and placed between, and an equal space 
or more between the rows for walking on, and ex¬ 
amining them : keep a sharp look out for slugs, and pre¬ 
vent their ravages by the means previously directed for 
this and other crops. See, also, that those left in the 
seed-bed do not suffer by anything, as in a mild winter 
they make useful, good plants. Pick out all large weeds 
from amongst them, but a little cliickweed, or such like, 
is not altogether without its uses amongst their stems 
when a severe frost sets in. In thus allowing that 
weeds are of some use, we presume we are speaking 
treason, nevertheless such is the case, whatever their 
annihilators may say to the contrary. 
Mushroom-Beds may yet be made, examine those 
lately spawned, and see that the heat does not decline 
too much. When there is a house on purpose, and they 
are wanted early, fire-heat will wonderfully hasten their 
progress ; prepare materials for future beds, which keep 
from the heavy rains we often have at this season. 
Sundries. — Asparagus and Sea-hale wanted early 
must be now put into force, if not already done. (See 
last week.) Endive may yet be planted, and so likewise 
may Cabbages, but all work of this kind ought to be 
finished now as quickly as possible. Celery may soon 
after this be earthed-up for the last time. Cardoons we 
suppose to have been done some time sooner, and all 
vacant spaces of ground, not wanted for winter cropping, 
may be at once ridged or trenched, or both, taking 
such advantage of the weather as to have that work 
done while it is dry, and all wheeling performed when 
the walks are clear. 
J.R. 
MISCELLANEOUS INFORMATION. 
ALLOTMENTS AND COTTAGE GARDENING.— November. 
As we have not a great deal more to offer concerning 
allotments, we will offer a few remarks on Cottage-Gardens 
as well, for these, in some counties, form a different class, 
, and are very frequently held hy a different class of men. 
For the most part, the latter constitute the true agricultural 
labourers, whilst amongst the former may be found, perhaps 
in majority, the workmen of the factory, or our ordinary 
mechanics. The garden of the established cottager, too, 
differs from the urban class : the latter, under the allotment 
system, being principally devoted to roots, greens, and other 
annual matters, whilst most of our old cottage-gardens 
contain then’ apple-trees, pears, plums, cherries, goose¬ 
berries, currants, strawberries, &c.; in addition to the above, 
many, moreover, near market towns, attempt a few extras, 
as rhubarb, celery, brocolis, &c. Some of the latter class, 
too, possess a greater extent of holding; in these parts it is 
not uncommon to find a cottage with a couple of acres 
attached to it, the owner generally contriving to keep a cow, 
and also to fatten one or two pigs, or, it may be, to keep 
a breeding sow occasionally. 
In making occasional trips through the country we have 
at all times, as in duty bound, kept a sharp eye on the state 
of cultivation which, in the main, characterises the latter 
class, and we are sorry to be compelled to observe, that, as 
a class, they are not what they ought to be in these stirring 
times. This autumn we have passed scores of cottage- 
gardens, where the owner had been either too idle or too 
ignorant to plant his early potato ground with some useful 
greens or Swedes. Now this is scandalous, and were we 
landlord to such holders, we should really threaten either to 
raise their rent or to proride a fitter tenant, painful as such 
proceedings must be to every well-intentioned person. It 
is much to be feared, too, that idleness, or, what is tanta¬ 
mount to it, neglect, is the chief cause, and that this might 
in some degree arise from the want of a provident forecast. 
The forecast alluded to, is the providing a bed of greens or 
Swedes in their own garden to fill the blank. We think it 
was Miss Martineau who once advised cottiers to sow a 
little cabbage-seed every month excepting October, Novem¬ 
ber, December, and January ; and good advice too, for how 
much better it is to buy a couple of ounces of seed, value Is., 
than to risk being without plants, to plant improper ones, or 
to leave the ground idle. 
Again, the state of the hush-fruit in some of these gardens 
is really infamous, and cannot arise from sheer ignorance. 
Rows of gooseberries may be seen, with the couch-grass 
dangling triumphantly over the stunted ruins of what was 
once a useful and profitable bush, the latter, perhaps, 
dangling with moss, encouraged by the stagnant air. Apple- 
trees, too, smothered with the interior spray, which, possess¬ 
ing in some seasons superior “ setting ” chances, produces 
such a profusion of half-fed fruit as lays the foundation for 
early decay, whilst, at the same time, the fruit does not 
possess marketable properties. 
Now all this, and much more, calls loudly for reform; and 
influential persons who fully understand how great a boon a 
well-managed garden is capable of being made to the cot¬ 
tager—both as a matter of profit, of convenience, and as 
tending to bring up his children in industrious, and, con¬ 
sequently, peaceful and social, habits—should at once lend a 
helping hand. The bearing of the subject on the poor’s 
rates is enough, of itself, to recommend it to notice; for, 
depend upon it, that man whose garden is overgrown with 
nettles and couch grass, whose spade or fork has been laying 
flat on the ground in one of the walks, all over rust, for 
some weeks, and whose shattered window is stuffed with 
rags—that man, we say, is already within one short stage of 
the poorhouse. We shall take occasion to revert to these 
things again, during the rest period, and, in the meantime, 
proceed to consider existing crops. 
Potatoes. —How lamentable it is, after so many years’ 
experience of the fatal effects of the disease, to find that so 
little advance has been made in what is termed “ breeding 
well,” or, in other words, in applying extra care in selecting 
and preserving potatoes for stock. This lying down and 
“ crying to Jupiter,” is sad nonsense, and quite unworthy of 
the age we live in. Does really any man in his senses 
believe that the man who betimes carefully selects his seed 
potatoes, and preserves them free from fermentation, shall 
not have a much greater amount of success than he who 
leaves them in the wet soil until the corrupting haukn has 
fairly impregnated the potatoes with its virus, and who then, 
in the true spirit of a Dawdle, tumbles them into a deep pit, 
to undergo a stewing process for months, and when taking 
them out is necessitated to strip away all the first and best 
sprouts, which have become blanched like a stick of celery ? 
We have now several baskets of the purest sets we ever 
saw r , not a diseased one amongst them, and never has been; 
