142 
THE COTTAGE GARDENER. 
Novembee 27. 
garden. Also, the new, most curious JFaier Yam, from 
Madagascar, in a glass milk-pan full of water. A con¬ 
trivance of j)ots for grotciiig Sea-hale, and for propagat¬ 
ing plants; also, a contrivance for covering pits and 
frames, instead of mats, and a great deal about the new 
China Yam, of which we heard so much last spring; 
but all these, and the awards for fruits and vegetables, 
must stand over for another week. 
D. Beaton. 
Farm and Garden Produce in California. —An 
agricultural show has just been held at Sacramento, at 
which the productions of the country were exhibited for 
prizes. The show of animals was remarkable only as 
giving evidence of considerable improvement in the 
breed of horses since the Americans have been in 
possession of the State. The exhibition of fruits and 
vegetables was really curious—the former from their 
variety and precocity, and the latter from their gi¬ 
gantic size. Pumpkins weighing 129ft)., beetroot 7^ 
feet long, and a stalk of Indian corn 24 feet high, 
were among the “monsters” of the exhibition. The 
vegetables' of this country grow with a luxuriance 
unequalled elsewhere, but they are deficient in flavour. 
It appears that peach and pear-trees frequently produce 
a double crop in the same season. The productiveness 
of the strawberry-plant is also very remarkable. A bed 
in the garden of a friend of mine in San Francisco has 
been bearing for six months, and the plants are now, on 
the eve of winter, in flower; but in favoured situations 
strawberries ripen during every month of the year. 
It appears, also, that the great variety of the soil and 
climate of California favours the growth of all the 
ordinary cereals, while flax, cotton, the sugar-cane, 
tobacco, maize, rice, oranges, grapes, lemons, olives, 
pomegranates, nutmegs, and tamarinds also thrive in 
different parts of the country. Many tropical plants 
and fruits are indigenous; and all those of the temperate 
zone flourish. The country is rich in flowers and 
unequalled in pines, as is verified by the “ Wellingtonia 
Gigantea” now so well known in England; and, though 
last, not least, the silkworm is about to be nourished 
into usefulness. The great desideratum to the full 
development of the agricultural -and other rural re¬ 
sources of the State is cheap labour. The high price of 
labour has hitherto retarded the enterprise of the farmer 
and of the horticulturist. Nor is there much prospect 
of a speedy remedy, for the high yield of the mines 
competes with wages, and keeps the latter high.—(2’mes’ 
Correspondent.) 
If American soil can produce Beet-root 7^ feet long, 
and Indian Corn 24 feet high, and as we know it pro¬ 
duces the Wellingtonea, 300 in altitude, we no longer 
consider that its Oceans may not yield Sea-Serpents. 
LITTLE MATTERS. 
There is an old proverb, that “ every little helps to 
make a meikle,” having its counterpart in another saying, 
albeit, with something of the closefistedness in its com¬ 
position, “ take care of the pence, and the pounds will 
take care of themselves.” Gardening is just a work of 
minutiae, and no man will ever shine in it, whose mind 
is so constituted that it can deal only with great results. 
Wherever extra success in gardening is seen, all who 
look beneath the surface will observe that that success 
is not so much owing to great resources, ample means, 
and a great array of conveniences, as to extreme atten¬ 
tion to little matters, with the general and scientific 
knowledge that enables the operator in his generalizing 
habits to perceive, at once, to what results these little 
matters tend. A few of these I propose naming, merely 
in the way of remembrance, as peculiarly suited at this | 
season of the year to window and greenhouse plants. | 
CLEANLINESS. 
This is as essential to a growing plant as to a tender 
animal, and even more so, as both the processes of 
perspiration and respiration are effected through the 
bark and foliage. Many, however, who talk in extacy 
of their love for plants and flowers, will allow them to 
stand for days and weeks well coated with dust, and then 
wonder why the plants will get sickly, and the leaves 
yellow. A little reflection would teach them that there 
was more necessity for keeping these leaves clean, than 
for the daily ablutions to their own persons. The con- i 
dition of plants, in this respect, will soon form a kind of ! 
index to the character and intelligence of their pos¬ 
sessors. A walk along the streets of a country town, 
where the inhabitants keep plants in their windows, thus 
furnishes at once a good idea of the distinguishing 
characteristics of the different households. Let it once 
he known that there is such an easy and successful mode 
of “ taking notes,” and young ladies, especially, will he 
tempted at once to turn all their plants into the ash-bin, 
or to give them the attention which their circumstances 
require. I have known plants, kept inside and outside 
of windows in London, without a dot of dust or a black 
being scarcely ever seen upon them, so carefully was a 
soft hair brush and a sponge applied to the stems and | 
foliage, or fingers washing them more delicately still. 
It would be one of the seven wonders to find afterwards 
that such a person, so attentive and kind to her plant 
protegees, would ever become careless and slovenly in 
her habits when she had a household of her own to 
superintend. 'ITiose wlio aim at keeping plants in good 
order at this season must deign more attention to their 
cleanliness than setting them out-of-doors in a rainy 
day—the chilling cold often doing them more injury 
than the washing does them good. In w'ashing, in win¬ 
ter, the water should be rather above 50° than below it, 
or a few degrees warmer than the temperature in which 
the plant is grown. 
While dust is to be set adrift, no yellow leaves should 
be seen. As soon as they lose their green tint, they are 
of no more use to the plant; while so long as they 
remain upon it, or lie in its* vicinity in the same house, 
they, so far, pollute the atmosphere, and become a fit 
receptacle for mildews and insects. Every yellow, 
decaying leaf just so far indicates an amount of 
ignorance, or slovenliness. With plants retiring to their 
winter’s rest their presence is more excusable ; but then 
the sight of such a plant speaks its own tale, though, 
even in that case, a leaf wholly withered can be of no 
benefit. 
INSECTS. 
Unless a high temperature is maintained these will 
not now be active; hut their hiding-places should he 
discovered, and every nest and egg removed and washed 
out if possible. There are many days when nothing 
can he done out-of-doors, and the plants m{iy get a good 
cleaning within. 
It is not often the Mealy Buy appears on greenhouse 
plants, unless some stove plants have been there in 
summer. Whenever you catch a sight of the pest, 
whether in greenhouse, or stove, and have reason to 
believe that it is to he found only in one plant, I would 
at once counsel burning it, however costly it may he. 
When once it gets into a collection, it will require 
great labour to keep it down, and, perhaps, years before 
it is finally e.xtirpated; while from one plant, you may 
easily get every frame and house you have overrun by 
it. For hard-wooded plants, bolder remedies, such as a 
little turpentine, or spirits of wine, may be used. For 
