THE COTTAGE GARDENER. 
Januahy 29. 
2GG 
“European vegetables here flourish well, with the ex¬ 
ception of potatoes, anti we always had a capital supply tiom 
this garden. Peas are never out of season, and appear on 
the table every day in the year. Vines do not thrive, nor do 
peaches ever come to much; still both are in the garden, 
and they do the best they can with them. Strawberries 
were being planted just before I left, and 1 hope ere this 
they have produced a good crop. Apples, citrons, melons, 
pines, and other fruits all do well. In one corner of the 
garden were some magnificent aloes, one of which was on 
the point of flowering when I left. Its stem had shot up to 
the height of some forty feet, and was nearly as thick as my 
body. I counted thirty-nine branches from which dowers 
were to be produced, and several blossoms would appear on 
each branch. 
“ One part of the garden, perhaps a quarter of an acre, 
was planted with Guinea grass, and formed a playground 
for some enormous tortoises, which are natives of San Bias 
and its neighbourhood. There were six of these fellows, of 
all sizes—the largest as big as the one I have seen in the 
Zoological gardens, and able to walk, with great ease, carry¬ 
ing at once myself (10st. lllbs.) and a 12-stone man on 
his back. They lived entirely upon the Guinea grass, and 
appeared very happy and contented. A stream of water 
i supplying the garden ran through their playground, and a 
large hole was scooped out for them, in the mud of which 
they half buried themselves the entire day. When the big 
one was wanted for inspection, it took all the gardeners in 
the place, with crowbars, to rouse him out.’’ 
Gold, we all know, is not the only article of value in 
California, but we certainly did not expect to find that 
the Onion is one of the most valuable importations to 
that region. 
“ Onions are the great thing. For these there is a large 
demand in California—the Yankees eating onions as we eat 
apples—the neighbourhood of Tepic being one of the few 
places on the Mexican coast where these luxuries can be 
procured in perfection. When I left San Bias, onions were 
selling at a dollar and a half per pound in the market of San 
Francisco. At this time one of the residents in Tepic 
bought for export some seventy thousand of the precious 
fruit. For these he paid six dollars a thousand, and each 
thousand contained two hundred pounds. Assuming that 
he paid a pretty high price for carriage, and lost many by 
decay and in other ways, the reader will see that there will 
probably still remain a good per centage for the outlay of 
the money and risk. I mention this fact merely to show 
how money may be made in California without actually 
digging for it.” 
The meeting of The London Floricultural Society, the 
rival of the National, was well attended at Exeter Hall, 
on Tuesday, and the officers were elected. The London 
Floricultural Society will continue class showing as one 
of the best tests for seedlings. 
It will be proposed at several provincial societies to 
give prizes to gardeners for Schizanthus, Balsams, Cochs- 
cornhs, Rliodanthe Manglesii, Pldox Drummondii, and 
other annuals, which exhibit the skill of the gardener 
rather than the extent of his collections. We do not 
go the length of some as to annuals, unless they make 
the prizes for collections of annuals. Excepting Cocks¬ 
combs and Balsams, we do not think any other annual 
could be shown alone. Half-a-dozen left to the choice 
of the grower might produce a good effect on any 
exhibition. Hereford made a splendid effort last year; 
and the shows which had been discontinued for years 
were resumed with great spirit. These exhibitions were 
liberally supported, and cultivators of all grades were 
put on the qui vive for another season. 
There is no small stir among the amateur exhibitors, 
in opposition to certain judges appointed among the 
nurserymen at various times, and who have hitherto 
always contrived that particular customers or friends 
should be first, and objections to appointing nursery- | 
men at all, are raised in several societies. The difficulty 1 
of appointing independent persons has been stated over j 
and over again ; but the chief evils arise from the desire j 
to save judges’ fees, many nurserymen who gain by j 
travelling being ready to attend for the mere cost of I 
their journies. But distant judges, unconnected with 
trade, arc alone capable of giving satisfaction, and the 
price of such is the best money laid out. 
Glass trails are the fashionable fancy of the day. 
Costly as they are, there are people who try every 
whimsical experiment; and it has been the constant aim 
of theorists to uphold in turn every toy as it lias come 
up. (low many changes in the plans of houses, and 
modes of glazing and heating, have been successfully 
advocated by a single writer ? and let us ask one im¬ 
portant question—How much has been expended by 
the gentry who have followed one theorist through all 
the changes he has supported ? We might stop long 
enough before w r e got an answer. From 1839 to the 
present day, such a succession of impossible, improbable, I 
and unprofitable changes, in plans and practices, have 
been earnestly recommended to those who could afford 
it, that a gardener in some places has been constantly 
unsettled, always in confusion, and no sooner got a 
little to rights than he was again unsettled for some 
new-fangled project. Glass walls, says a correspondent, 
will not be adopted quite so readily as some other 
nostrums. They are more chilling, more costly, more 
| easily damaged, and more difficult to manage, than a 
common wall with glass before it, which can be removed 
when done with. In fact, to look tidy and clean, the 
glass will require cleaning almost daily, because these 
walls are .so conspicuous that the slightest discoloration 
is at once seen. 
One of the best and easiest modes of preserving a 
higher temperature for wall-fruit, that we have seen 
of late, consisted of eight-feet lights, as made for pits 
or greenhouses, put a little sloping to the wall, 
which had a three-inch coping; angular boards placed 
at each end, shut out the draught, and a rolling cloth 
under the coping of the wall drawn down over the 
glasses in the evening, and kept down during severe 
frost, completed this simple protection. Sometimes one 
or two trees only were covered, at other times the whole 
wall. It hastened the ripening very much. The lights 
were useful for other purposes when not in use on the 
wall; and the rolling cloth was used when the glass 
was not. 
We have had many champions rise up in defence of ; 
the SolJ'aterre Rose, and a clergyman, the Rev. M. T. F., 
writes to us thus :— 
“ I am to a small extent a grower of roses, and in that cha¬ 
racter venture to interfere between Mr. Beaton and an 
especial favourite of mine, Solfaterre. Bray avert his wrath, 1 
or modify it so as to prevail on him to try the rose again, 
before he condemns himself to the loss of so charming a 
flower. I have had one for eight years, and have never 
known it fail of blooming freely and well. One year I over- 
