December 26. 
THE COTTAGE GARDENER. 
241 
the reach of cattle. The Elm is a troe that will move 
safely even when ton or twelve feet high. 
By Seed .—Several authors describe varieties of our 
native Elms. Mr. Sabine mentions one that he proposes 
naming the Downton Elm ; and another author, in the 
agricultural survoy of Durham and Northumberland, 
mentions one with extra good quality, which he proposes 
naming the Scampston Elm. Now, nuserymen in those 
neighbourhoods should (whenever these varieties pro¬ 
duce seed) save seed from them, and propagate them 
largely. Indeed, every forester or planter should be 
constantly on the look-out for any improved varieties of 
timber trees, and when they are found, to make them 
known, and propagate them, either by seed or by graft¬ 
ing. For stocks, it is absolutely necessary to sow seed, 
and the species proper for stocks is, as I said belore, the 
common Wych, or broad-leaved Mountain Elm. This 
flowers in May, and the seed is ripe about the middle of 
| June. It should be gathered and sown immediately. 
I Fix upon a piece of laud of good quality and open 
| texture. Let it be well dug, and, if poor, add a tolerable 
i coating of well-decomposed manure. Fork this in, 
mixing it thoroughly with the soil, breaking and 
pulverising it well. Then set out the beds three feet 
wide, with one-and-a-half feet wide walks between, and 
with a rake draw off about lialf-an-iuch deep of the 
soil. Upon the seed, sift some of the soil out of the 
walk, about a quarter-of-an-inch thick, returning the 
contents left in the sieve into the walk. Then edge off 
the sides of the bed, rake the walk, and the sowing is 
completed. Should the weather set in dry, the said beds 
should be watered every evening until the seeds come 
up and have made some progress. Should any weeds 
appear, let them be carefully drawn up whilst they are 
very young, for if allowed to become even moderately 
large, in pulling them up some of the seedlings are 
almost sure to be pulled up with them. These seedlings 
should remain in the bed till the second autumn after 
sowing, then they will be strong enough to transplant 
i into nursery rows. If intended for grafting, plant them 
in rows, twenty inches apart, and eighteen inches from 
eacli other in the row. This will be ample space, even 
if the trees stand three, four, or more years, till they are 
high enough to plant in the hedges. On the other hand, 
j if not for grafting, they may be planted in rows half-a- 
j yard apart, and a foot in the rows. 
Soil and Situation .—The Ulmus campestris requires a 
dry, deep soil, and sheltered situation ; but the smooth 
1 barked Elm will do well in thinner soils and more 
exposed situations. I have seen very good timber trees 
of this kind in thin soils, on a substratum of wet clay, 
j Regard must be paid in planting to these circumstances. 
Tho Wych Elm, also, is a very hardy tree, but should 
be planted rather thick, in order to draw it up straight. 
The skilful forester will bear all these points in mind, 
and plant his trees in situations suitable to each species. 
Without this care, great labour and expense will be 
incurred, and no good result will follow. Mistakes in 
these particulars are exceedingly annoying to the pro¬ 
prietor, and often tend to disgust him with tho otherwise 
pleasant operation of planting. T. Appleby. 
(To be continued.) 
— 
MATERIALS FOR COVERING AND TYING- 
UP WITH. 
Amongst the many good qualities of which we suppose 
ourselves, as a nation, to be possessed, some of an 
opposite kind present themselves; but our national 
vanity insists that many of the latter “ lean to virtue’s 
side.” Be this as it may, there is one which certainly 
has a wide boundary with us, but which, nevertheless, 
| is, to a great extent, neutralised by its non-injurious 
tendency—tho habit of grumbling. A lack of sunshine, 
or too much of it; excess of rain, frost, or storms, or a 
too great abundance of these phenomena, all tend, in 
one case or another, to a source of grumbling dissatis¬ 
faction, which fortunately receives no other commisera¬ 
tion than is accorded by two or more complainants ] 
sympathising with each other; the object wished for, 
though as certain to come as tho wind which certain 
sybils were in the habit of selling to adventurous 
mariners of yore, comes none the quicker for the 
grumbling, nor yet for the buying ; but as we have, in a 
great measure, abandoned the buying of fine days, gentle 
and suitable breezes, and other chauges, except so far as 
encouraging tho sale of quack almanacks, whose princi¬ 
pal merit is in predicting these things, we may be said 
to be “ advancing ” in that respect, while, perhaps, our 
propensity for grumbling may be on tho increase in like 
ratio, since there seems no lictitious means of obtaining 
our wishes, we take the greater license in giving vent to 
our regrets. 
Why this should be so, is the province of other than 
the recorder of practical gardening to explain; but it 
evidently is tho case, and, narrowing the charge from 
the community at large to that of a profession, I fear, 
as a body, we stand convicted of being as guilty as any 
other class. A winter is too severe for some, while it is ' 
not enough so for others; a summer is too dry and hot, 
otherwise too dull and wet; while the poetic period of 
spring seems to receive the greatest share of complaints 
of any ; in fact, we hear of the “ effects of a bad spring” 
forming a subject to harp upon for the next twelve 
months; so that, as a rule, we may as well plead guilty 
to the charge of habitual grumbling as accuse any one 
else.of it. 
Now, in bringing forward this petty grievance, I am 
induced to do so by the general, nay, almost universal, 
complaints I hoar of the scarcity of garden mats. Of 
course, the cause is said to be the samo which occasions 
many other things to be dear which are not scarce, and, 
probably, before the end of 1855, we may have them 
cheaper than ever they have been, by our traders, lured 
by the present high prices, glutting the markets with 
them, the same as they have done those of California 
and Australia with clothing and domestic utensils, 
and which they will probably do at the Crimea after 
they are no longer wanted; but allowing these great 
interests to right themselves, and as wiuter will, in 
all probability, have set fairly in ere this article reaches 
the reader, let us see what can be done to remedy the 
evil which the want of garden mats has created, and 
let us, at tho same time, take measures so as to improve 
by the lesson their loss has taught us. 
In the first place, I believe, there are few who will 
assume that we are in a position to manufacture mats, ■ 
such as we have had from Russia, from native produce; 
but I am far from certain that we have not as good an ! 
article by us for the purpose to which mats are often 
put,—I mean covering frames and other things up at 
night. I saw a sort of “ rush matting ,” a few days ago, j 
which struck me as much more useful ns a covering 
than the bark-woven article we have been receiving 
from the north of Europe. It was made solely of such 
rushes as the chairmakers use in bottoming chamber 
chairs, and strung together, the string forming the warp, 
or, perhaps, weft of the substance; for I am not suffi¬ 
ciently versed in such matters to say which it ought to 
be called. Now, with string well steeped in tar, I have 
no doubt but this will be a much more durable article 
than the “ old mat” we have been so tenaciously cling¬ 
ing to; but as I have not yet done with the “ old 
mat,” I will just throw in a suggestion I have often 
thought of, but expected some one else would have 
forestalled me; as the matter is one so often brought 
under the notice of practical men, as almost to create a 
