March 18. 
THE COTTAGE GARDENER. 
389 
shelter they require is protection from excessive rain or snow, and this is 
best attained with hoops and oiled canvass. The best time to take off 
Pansey cuttings is about the end of July. They do not require any heat 
to strike them. PJace them in pure loam, with a thin layer of sand on 
the surface, under a hand-light, behind a north wall; put in small weak 
cuttings. They will make roots in time to form nice little bushy plants, in 
J^-inch pots, before the winter sets in. You may increase them also by 
layers, in the same way as carnations. These make the finest plants. 
Basket of Geraniums (An Amateur). —Towards the end of this 
month you may expose this basket of plants to the sun and air, in a warm 
sheltered place, if you provide a covering at night sufficient to keep the 
j frost from them. Prune a little off the tops of the shoots, and any dead 
i parts, and in two or three days after pruning, stir up the dry soil and 
, throw part of it away, then give a good watering or trvo, so that all the 
! soil gets some of it, and after that, say in another week, make a rich com- 
! post, and fill up the basket with it, and you need give no more water for 
I three weeks. Those geraniums which look so bad had better be cut 
down to the first live wood at once ; if the roots and collar look black, 
they are dead. 
Bignonia jasminoides (Kate F.). —When this beautiful climber is 
allowed to grow luxuriantly, like yours, it never blossoms. When the 
roots are much cramped, and the branches allowed a large space and very 
little pruned, it blooms as freely as a rose from June to September; but 
it flowers much better in the open air ; and if it were kept in a large pot, 
on purpose to be turned out in the pot every May, no plant would repay 
better. Ho not repot your plant now, nor until you compel it to bloom, 
and never cut a twig of it till that is accomplished ; but you may give it 
a fresh pot any time in the summer, whenever you see the blossom-buds 
clustering in bunches here and there. The small, smooth, sweet-scented¬ 
leaved geranium you lost, is, we think, the best variety of Citriodora, if 
the leaf was very thin, nearly round, and a little notched on the edges, 
and the flowers very small, very gaping, and nearly white. It is our own 
favourite of all the sweet-scented ones. Mr. Appleby could supply it, if 
you were to send him the name and our description, as there are six or 
eight kinds of Citriodora. 
Grass under Cedar Tree ( L . //.).—You can do nothing better 
with it than scrape off the fallen leaves, and throw an inch or two of 
fresh soil over the whole ; then sow hay seeds from the stable, and rake 
and roll it. This may last a few years, and the process must be repeated 
as often as the grass fails. Dissolve half an ounce of sulphate of ammonia 
in each pailful of your hard water. 
Kilkenny Anemone (S. S.). —All that we want to know of this 
anemone is the proper name, and that we could find out if you were so 
kind as to send us a flower and leaf of it. The way to treat Dielytra 
spectabilis is to plant it out of doors early in May, and to take it up in 
October, and keep it dry like a fuchsia till January or February, then to 
water it, and set it in the greenhouse or frame, and it will soon be in leaf 
and flower. No plant flowers more freely if thus managed, and the soil 
is good. Any soil that will grow' a geranium will do for it. The Sponge 
Rose is the earliest and the best to force of all the cabbage rose section. 
The bush is dwarf, and the flowers not large, but they are deliciously 
fragrant. The best Yellow Calceolaria is one called Corymbose., but 
much depends on the kind of soil. We do not recommend Salvia ptatens 
for an edging to a scarlet geranium bed, it is entirely unlit for such a 
purpose. 
Rustic Flower-pots (S. Tomlinson). —In these, made from hollow¬ 
ing out knots of wood, and to stand in a window, put crocus, tulip, and 
hyacinth bulbs in them now. Let us know their size, and then we will 
give special directions; or including your case in an article or two 
seemingly required by our correspondents. We congratulate you in thus 
turning such things to account. Any thing looks better than red pots. 
Window Gardening (Isa). —We are glad to hear you are so fond of 
flowers. Perhaps you have not had an opportunity of reading the papers 
on this subject by Mr. Fish and our other coadjutors; but whether you 
have or not, we will try and meet your case. 
Feeding Bees (A Subscriber). —If your bees are at all short of honey 
in their hives, begin feeding immediately. If you feed with barley-sugar, 
it matters not at what time of day you give it. If your straw hives have 
an opening at the top, give it them there, but if not, push half-a-pound 
of barley-sugar in at the mouth of each hive twice in the week; the 
barley-sugar must be transparent, and not at all grained or in crystals. 
Sixteen Best Bedding Plants (A young Gardener). —We cannot 
undertake to arrange gardens. 
Hot-water Apparatus (Ab initio). —Your arrangement is very de¬ 
fective. Applying the heat at the side and near the top of your boiler is the 
very worst mode in which it could be applied. We can hardly conceive 
that by such a mode you could ever get any heated water into your tank 
through a flow-pipe forty feet long. If you ever succeed in communi¬ 
cating heat to the tank.it will be a very low temperature, for the circulation 
| of the water must be at the slowest possible pace, as the heat to the cold 
return current has to be communicated downwards. The heat ought to 
be applied to the lowest part of the boiler. Heat is conducted down- 
{ wards through water very slowly. You will also find your zinc pipes a 
perpetual source of annoyance by their leaking. 
Binding the Cottage Gardener (F. H. B .).—Cloth bindings for 
all the back volumes may be had at our office, Amen-Corner, Paternoster- 
Row. We believe the other work you mention is still publishing. 
Sycamore Trees (T. IV .).—After arranging a plantation, you want to 
occupy the ground under the boughs of some large sycamore trees with 
i ornamental hardy trees or tall shrubs, which is next to an impossibility, 
if not quite impossible. In the first place, ornamental trees and tall 
shrubs will not grow at all under the shade of tall trees, even supposing 
I you had them established there ; but the ground is so preoccupied by the 
i roots of the old trees, that you cannot establish a fresh plantation, even 
if the shade were in their favour. Try a mixture of tree-box, common 
j laurel, spurge laurel, and the evergreen berbery round the sides. If any- 
| thing will grow under your trees, these will. 
Glass for Pit (Sabrina).—' The safest and most economical glass for 
amateurs to keep half-hardy plants in winter, and to strike cuttings in 
summer, is Hartley's Rough Plate: taking the cheapest squares from 
the lists in our advertisement. This glass is warmer, a great deal stouter 
than the common, and it requires no shading, unless the pit is very shal¬ 
low’. Have nothing to do with ground glass. 
Carnations and Picotf.es (Ibid). —It is very evident the soil does 
not suit these. All you can do is to renew them from layers every year ; 
to begin early, so as to have strong plants, and to mix some fresli soil for 
them, if only the scrapings from the road in a dry state. 
Flower Garden (S. S.). —Although this garden is in a wrong posi¬ 
tion in reference to the house, it is very well laid out. The first page of 
your list of planting would occupy all our spare time for one week. In 
large plans, the names ought to be on the margin, in the same way as the 
plants are intended to match or harmonise ; or, better still, written on 
the beds. If yours had been so written, lialf-an-hour would finish our 
part; but, as it is, it would take us more than a week, if we had so much 
time to spare for one correspondent. 
Dutch Every-day Layers. —S. A. S. wishes to know where she 
could obtain eggs, or fowls, of this variety, and the price. German 
Daisies are the double variety grow’n in our gardens, but improved and in 
various colours by hybridizing. 
Hay.— W. B. H. wishes to know “how many cubic yards there are in 
a load of new hay, newly stacked ? ” Some of our agricultural friends 
will oblige us by sending an answer. 
Dyeing (A poor Country Farmer’s Thrifty Wife). —You will never 
succeed well with any colour but brown from gall nuts. 
Spanish and Game Fowls.— H. II. wishes to know the price at 
which he can be supplied with first-rate specimens. 
Tomatoes (Q. C.). —Sow at the end of March or early in April, in 
pots, in a hot-bed or stove. There are full particulars in The Cottage 
Gardener’s Dictionary, under the head Love Apple. It is too long to 
extract. You are quite right as to the Mignonette culture. 
Parrot ( L . J?.).— -The case of a parrot tearing out its own feathers 
is very common, and we have never been able to obtain a remedy. We 
knew a cockatoo that for many years never had any feathers, except 
its wing quills, and on its head. It plucked out all the others. Such an 
unnatural proceeding seems to be induced by irritation of the skin. 
Colour for Hives (J. R. J.). —Wooden hives may be painted any 
light colour you please. There is no magic in any one. We prefer a 
stone colour. It is true light colours soonest become dirty, but they are 
easily washed or repainted, and light colours attract less heat than dark 
colours. 
Iron Training-rods (G. J. W.). —If iron wire or rods are allowed 
to be rusty, they certainly injure the branches which chaff against them. 
We have seen a whole row of raspberry canes thus injured. The wounds 
strike a deep inky colour, the tannic and gallic acid in the bark com¬ 
bining with the rust or oxide of the iron. If the iron is galvanized, 
which does not rust, no such injury arises. The rods never become so 
hot in summer as to be injurious. Zinc wire is very brittle in winter, 
and expands so as to be too loose in summer. Galvanized iron is unob¬ 
jectionable. 
Pigs. — J. P. B. has a young litter of Chinese pigs which, though appa¬ 
rently fat and healthy, one by one lose the use of their forelegs, become 
unable to rise, and soon after die. Upon opening them, the liver is 
found to be enlarged, and a black spot on it. Can any of our readers 
suggest a prevention or a cure ? 
Prince Albert’s Model Cottages (An old Subscriber).— These 
are well suited for the country. If you write to — Woods, Esq., Secre¬ 
tary, Labourer’s Friend Society, Exeter Hall, London, he will give you 
full particulars. 
Orchard Unproductive (G. R.). —You cannot do wrong in clearing 
the trees from moss, and scrubbing the stems and branches with strong 
brine. Tell us what is your soil and subsoil, and whether turfed, and 
then we can tell you what to apply. We believe Dr. Newington’s 
dibbles are useful; but we think a small cultivator may always make a 
drill out of a glass bottle, with pipes of different sizes to pass through 
the cork. * 
Curd for Chickens. —There is none so good as that made from 
rennet, in the usual way. Alum is sometimes employed for the purpose, 
but it is not every poultry-keeper who likes it. A calf’s maw keeps so 
long, if properly prepared and taken care of, that it is quite worth while 
for any person who requires much curd for young fowls, to purchase 
one of some farmer’s wife, and so always have it ready at hand. Perhaps 
some correspondent may be able to answer the question—In what manner 
greaves are best used for feeding poultry, and whether there be any one 
living in the neighbourhood of St. Paul’s Churchyard who sells them in 
cakes, giving directions how to use them to the best advantage for that 
purpose. 
Bees (Kate F.). —Neither the Kalmia latifolia nor the Azalea pontica 
are grown in such abundance as to produce any bad effects in the honey 
of this country. 
Melilotus leucantha (Ibid). —Send us a stamped envelope, with 
your address, and you shall not regret doing so. It will thrive in any 
soil. Cows will eat it, but they prefer either tares or lucerne. 
Berberry Jam. —We have this from a French gentleman:—Towards 
the 15th of October the berberries are gathered, in dry weather. Shred 
them, and put them in a pan, with enough water, in which simmer them 
for a quarter-of-an-hour; then take them off the fire, and press them 
with a wooden spoon, to crush them ; then pour them on a hair sieve, 
through which you must make the juice pass; then weigh the juice, and 
add to it a little more than its weight of fine sugar, broken in small 
pieces ; put them again on the fire (the juice and sugar only). When 
the jelly rises in froth, by boiling, it is done. Take it away from the 
fire, skim it gently, and pour it into the pots. 
Emigrating (IF. IF. IF.).—We never recommend any place as 
desirable for emigration. It is too responsible an undertaking. 
Ccelestina ageratoides (Verax). —You can obtain it from any of 
the principal London florists. We have no Himalayah pumpkin seed left 
