February 19. 
THE COTTAGE GARDENER. 
315 
the rales and particulars relative to this Bee Society ? 
Prizes, we observe, are also to he offered for wax models of 
flowers and fruits. 
We have before us the two first numbers of The 
Scottish Gardener, a very excellent and very cheap 
periodical. We have several of its essays, sound and 
practical, marked for extract; but at present we have 
only space to say, in the words of its prospectus, it will 
“ prove of the greatest service to the gardening interests 
of Scotland.” This is not the only horticultural monthly 
we have to announce; for we see that another, the 
Garden Record, under the editorship of Mr. Neville, 
is about to appear. 
An enquiry is being instituted by the National 
Society into the truth of the accusation against their 
secretary, Mr. Edwards, of showing flowers not his own. 
This enquiry will be good-for-nothing if the witnesses 
are to be called by one side only. The active members 
of the society went down to vote for the accused when 
put up for a member of another society; and if the 
committee is composed of those members, and if they 
do not call for the members of the Amateur Tulip 
Society, who were positive witnesses before, the enquiry 
will, we fear, be worse than unsatisfactory. 
As everybody is propagating Dahlias, a few words on 
the various modes of doing that part of the business of 
cultivation may not be thrown away upon amateurs. 
The dry roots are now, or will he by-and-by, showing 
their eyes, whether in heat or otherwise; and those who do 
not want more than two or three plants, have only to take 
away all decayed portions of the tuber, and let them remain 
in some situation where neither frost nor damp nor heat can 
injure them, merely taking care that when they shoot there 
shall be nothing in the way to prevent their growing up 
fairly. Unless a root is inclined to shrivel and dry up, a shoot 
may get four or five inches long without hurting it as a future 
plant. If many more than are wanted come out, let the 
extra ones be rubbed off, leaving only such as can be de¬ 
tached with a piece of the tuber, because only one main 
shoot can be well used on a plant. When we come much 
forwarder, part the tuber into two or three, with a good 
portion to each shoot. Trim it so as to go into a pot, if it 
is too soon to turn out in the ground, but if this does not 
happen till the middle of May plant them out at once. 
Some, however, will grow early, and these should be potted 
and kept in the cool until planting time: this is, for amateurs, 
by far the least troublesome mode, because there needs no 
hotbed, no artificial heat, indeed nothing but a place in the 
dwelling-house out of the reach of frost. Some persons 
who have not even this plant them four inches below the 
surface, directly they show their eyes, and if they come up 
before the middle of May earth them up or cover them 
with pots to keep off the frost. 
The next mode to be mentioned is breaking off the shoots 
j when two inches high, and potting them in small pots, but 
they ought in this case to have bottom heat to strike them, 
j but a root will not make so many this way as it will by 
allowing the shoots to be more matured, and cut oft' at a 
joint. Some amateurs plant the tubers just as they are 
j taken up, in fact as they would potatoes, and then they have 
i a bush of many shoots, an immense number of flowers, but 
all very small. 
RETARDATION, BLOSSOM-PROTECTION, &c. 
The accession of new readers to The Cottage Gar- 
bener, the apathy of some to what appears a thrice- 
told tale, and the danger of forgetting maxims of high 
import amid conflicting opinions, with the constant 
turmoil of every-day matters, of necessity causes a re¬ 
petition somewhat annoying to persons more mindful 
of the omissions or errors of by-gone days in horticul¬ 
tural affairs. What said the poet:— 
“ Truths would you teach, and save a sinking land— 
All hear, none aid you, and few understand.” 
And what is true this way in the moral, social, and 
political world, is equally so in the world of gardening. 
By the time these remarks have appeared in print, 
the middle of February will be past, and the buds of 
many fruits will begin to manifest an impatience of 
their winter bondage. The pros and cons, both for and 
against protecting, have long occupied the mind of fruit 
cultivators; and it is, indeed, strange to reflect what a 
mass of conflicting evidence would appear, were it 
possible to place the whole in juxta-position. When, 
however, it is fully considered that, up to the present 
hour, perhaps, not a tithe of our fruit growers have duly 
appreciated the importance of “ ripening the wood',' a 
serious drawback will appear against the parties who 
have been so loud in their condemnation of covering. 
Their bad crops formerly drove them to covering, and 
the continuance of fitful crops emboldens them to press 
a heavy charge against covering. As long as we hear 
tell of men sweeping away green peach-leaves with a 
besom, to ripen the wood, so long shall we continue to 
press the charge of a non-appreciation of the first prin¬ 
ciples of fruit-culture—ripening the wood. Sweeping off 
leaves in October, indeed! If the wood is not tho¬ 
roughly ripened through the agency of the leaves pre¬ 
vious to that period, it will by no means be afterwards; 
and the birch twigs will be far better employed in making 
besoms. 
And what is observed here as to peach and nectarine 
culture, applies, less or more, to most of our fruits, more 
especially those from warmer climes. To be sure, some 
of our very commonest apples and pears will bear and 
thrive for many years in the most untoward situations, 
but we shall look in vain for first-rate winter dessert 
fruit in such situations; and, moreover, such trees, in 
general, show unmistakeable signs of a very different 
parentage from our modern dessert kinds. 
Again, such trees are seldom pampered as those in 
the deep and rich soils of our kitchen-gardens, or their 
days would be shortened. As to parentage, let any one 
plant the celebrated Newtown pippin of America in the 
cold portion of an ordinary orchard, beside a common 
apple, say a Keswick codling, and he will find that even a 
south wall is insufficient, and that it will not attain per¬ 
fection side by side with a Moorpark apricot, or Royal 
George peach. It must also he remembered that much 
of our modern dessert fruit is for late or winter purposes, 
and that, somehow, such kinds are naturally late in 
perfecting their wood as well as fruit; hence the neces¬ 
sity for taking all possible means to promote the ripen¬ 
ing of the wood. So much, then, for the position of the 
covering question, to which we should have scarcely 
adverted in this place, but that we would not have the 
readers of The Cottage Gardener alarmed at a mere 
bugbear; they may rest assured that the protection 
question is daily growing in favour with men of high 
standing in our profession. 
It must be borne in mind that covering to retard, and 
covering to protect, blossoms, are two distinct processes, 
although the very same material be used, and this leads 
to a consideration of the material proper. We do hope 
that our readers will not allow themselves to hamper 
the question with the fear of a little expense in the 
material, for it can be but trifling, choose what we will 
amongst ordinary fabrics. In these days of double glass 
walls, costing some thirty shillings at least per lineal 
yard, surely eighteen pence may be expended on the 
same length for a covering. Everybody knows that the 
branches, or rather spray, of evergreen shrubs or trees 
have been extensively used for this purpose, especially 
