April 3] THE COTTAGE GARDENER. 1 
WEEKLY CALENDAR. 
M W 
Weather near London in 1850. 
Sun 
Sun 
Moon 
Moon’s 
Clock 
Day of '' 
D D 
APRIL 3—9, 1851. 
Barometer. 
Thermo. 
Wind. Rain in In. 
Rises. 
Sets. 
R. & S. 
Age. 
bef. Sun. 
Year. 
3 Th 
Gooseberry flowers. 
29.684 — 29.526 
58—26 
S.W. — 
34 a. 5 
33 a. 6 
8 24 
2 
3 
28 
93 
4 F 
Currant flowers. 
29.656 — 29.420 
56—42 
S. 0.08 
32 
35 
9 34 
3 
3 
10 
94 
5 S 
Dog Mercury flowers. 
29.556 — 29.381 
57—25 
S.W. 
29 
37 
10 44 
4 
2 
53 
95 
6 Sun 
5 Sun. in Lent, Lady-smock flowers. 
29.609 — 29.440 
63—38 
S.E. — 
27 
38 
11 52 
5 
2 
35 
96 
7 M 
Cuckoo heard. 
129.514 — 29.440! 55—34 
S.W. 1 0.06 
25 
40 
morn. 
6 
2 
18 
97 
8 Tu 
Redstart seen. 
129-429 — 29.346 
61—31 
S.W. 0.02 
23 
41 
0 56 
7 
2 
1 
98 
9 W 
Tree-Pipit heard. 
129.536 — 29,459 
52—42 
N.E. — 
20 
43 
1 55 
3 
1 
44 
99 
We have often wished that there was a law commanding every one who 
ventured to write a book, thenceforth, to record his birth and parentage, ; 
at the commencement of a diary, to jot down in it, from time to time, the 
particular events of his life, and that when dead, his family should send 
it to London, to be deposited, and indexed, in an office especially devoted i 
to the purpose, and of much more ready reference than his will would be 
if enrolled at Doctors Commons. We have so wished, and still wish, j 
because at some period or other, a memoir of every member of the 
literary fraternity is certain of being inquired for, and, of course, the 
i inquiry is the more general, and the interest more strong, just in pro¬ 
portion to the usefulness or rarity of his works. Yet, how fruitless is our 
research relative to many of those whose brain-births are amongst the 
most popular of our literature. Who wrote the Iron Basilike ? Who 
composed our National Anthem ? Who wrote Thomas a'Kempis ? Are 
questions as unanswerable, as who was Jnnitis ? Now, it so happens, 
that the writer of these weekly notices has a great thirst for the biogra¬ 
phies of those who have written upon gardening ; and he once had two 
companions who enjoyed the like unquenchable propensity—he alludes 
to the late Mr. Felton, and Mr. W. Forsyth. The latter had one of the 
most extensive private libraries of horticultural literature, perhaps ever 
collected, and he was most liberal in allowing it to be consulted. He had 
spared no labour in collecting biographies of the authors of the books on 
his library shelves. Those biographical collections he left in MS., and 
we shall be obliged by any one informing us of their fate. Poor Mr. 
Felton is also dead—and what have become of his large accumulations, 
illustrative of Shakspere, and the Portraits of Gardeners ? These are 
sad remembrances, and painful inquiries, for they remind us of happy 
meetings that can recur no more ; and it was at one of these that Mr. 
Felton sought from us such little information as we could give, relative to 
one whom he spoke of as “ the best practical writer on Scotch gar¬ 
dening ”— Walter Nicol. He was especially anxious to ascertain if 
a portrait of him existed, of which there is little probability, since all that 
can be gleaned concerning him are in this brief notice. Even the place 
and time of his birth are unrecorded, nor is the Christian name of his 
father known to us. The latter was the gardener who planned and 
executed the grounds of ltaith, the seat of Mr. Ferguson, near Kirkaldy, 
in Fifeshire, and the kitchen-garden of Wemyss Castle, in the same 
I county, the residence of General Wemyss. It is probable that old Mr. 
Nicol, in the decline of life, became a florist and nurseryman, for in speak¬ 
ing of carnations, Walter Nicol says—“ My father cultivated them most 
eagerly to a very great extent, and with as much success as most people. 
About the year 1785, he had a most admirable collection, and excelled all 
his neighbours in the real Clove Gilliflower. A year or two afterwards he 
unfortunately changed the situation of his valuable collection, from the 
borders in front of an extensive range of hothouses, to several large 
mounds of soil brought from a field, to be used in composts for melons, 
peaches, grapes, &c. He had taken some of it for his potted carnations, 
and found they did remarkably well in it, and so was induced to shift the 
whole stock. He had not discovered that this soil swarmed with wire- 
worms, and from their ravages, in two years, he lost three-fourths of his 
stock. He shifted the remainder back to their original situation, but, 
unfortunately, some of the field soil had been trenched into the borders, 
and so, ultimately, was lost his entire collection.” We hope this catas¬ 
trophe will be a warning to our readers, as it was throughout his garden¬ 
ing career to Walter Nicol. He began that career under the tuition of 
his father, at Raith, but he migrated to England for improvement, and 
eventually became head gardener to the Marquis of Townsend, at Rain- 
ham Hall, in Suffolk, the gardens of which, however, were said to be no 
evidences of his skill. Returning to Scotland, he succeeded his father as 
head gardener at Wemyss Castle, where he remained until about 1 797, 
when he settled at Edinburgh, as a garden designer, employing his 
leisure as a writer on Scotch gardening. In 1/98, appeared two editions 
of his Scotch Forcing and Kitchen Gardener , and in the year following, 
The Practical Planter. In 1809, he published The Villa Garden Direc¬ 
tory , and its fourth edition, dated 1823, is now before us. His Gardener's 
Kalendar appeared in 1810, and his Planter’s Kalendar in 1812, but this 
was completed after his death, and published by Mr. Sang. This last 
work was intended to contain, and does contain, his observations made 
during an extensive tour, undertaken in 1810, to visit the principal seats 
and plantations in the United Kingdom. He had scarcely commenced 
the arrangement of his materials, when he was hastily arrested by death, 
in the March of 1811. His works are of first authority, and rank on a 
level, both as compositions, and for sound practical knowledge, with the 
works of Abercrombie. The only garden plan we know as being his, is 
the principal approach from the north to Dalhousie Castle, near Dalkeith. 
We have several passages marked to shew the practical character of 
his works, hut must restrict ourselves to the following:—“A striking 
proof of the superiority of the larch, in water-works, occurred on the 
estate of Athol. A weir, or river dam, which, while constructed of oak, 
required to be renewed or repaired every four or five years, was formed 
with larch, and in 1/92 had stood nine or ten years, the timber then 
remaining in a sound firm state. On the 6th of May, 1'28, I visited 
this dam : it exhibited no signs of decay at that time.” “ I have known an 
instance where a field was taken in for a nursery from an old pasture of 
a rough sward, and in which myriads of the grub-worm, slug, &c., had 
found an asylum. It was conceived, that by sub-trenching or deeply 
digging it the land might be effectually cleaned; and, accordingly, the 
field was planted with nursery, without any preparatory crop of grain, 
&c., being taken. But the result was, that most of the firs, the larches, 
the elms, the beeches, &c., became a prey to the vermin the ensuing 
season ; and their stems were found peeled entirely round, about an inch 
under the surface.” “ Perhaps some may think I say too much when I assert, 
generally, that trees three, or at most four, years from the seed, and which 
are from twelve to tw enty-four inches high, will, in any situation or soil, 
outgrow those of any size under eight or ten feet within the seventh year. 
Observe, I say generally ; for by planting a poplar or lime of eight feet, 
in deepjnould and a sheltered situation, they will most likely outgrow 
an oak or elm of twelve inches within that time. But change situation 
and circumstances—place them on thin soil, and in an exposed situation, 
then mark the result: the young plants flourish, the others languish. 
This may be deemed an unfair comparison, the trees being different in 
their natures. But let the trial be made in any situation, with plants of 
the same species or kind: take two oaks, two beeches, two larches, &c., 
one of each being, suppose, eighteen inches, and the other any size from 
two to ten feet in height; and I do assert that, by an impartial treatment, 
the young will outgrow the old plants within the seventh year. Nor will 
the latter ever overtake them in growth, become such handsome trees, or 
valuable timber.” 
Meteorology of the Week —At Chiswick, the average highest and 
lowest temperatures of these days, from observations during the last 
twenty-four years, are 56.1°, and 36.2°, respectively. The greatest heat, 
78°, occured on the 3d, in 1818. Rain fell during 66 days of the period, 
and 102 were fine. 
In the Fruit-Garden department to-day, Mr. Errington 
lias considered the modes of preserving the blossoms of 
our wall fruit, but there is one mode—that of retarding 
\ the blossom, which we wish he had entered upon more 
I fully, for we believe it is by far the most desirable 
i security for us to aim at. It is the blooming in March 
and early in April, the most fickle season of our fickle 
climate, that renders our crops of wall-fruit precarious. 
It is their blossoms being tempted out by sunny days, 
and then killed by frosty nights, that we should aim to 
avoid, for there is no doubt, if it can be effected, that it 
is wiser and safer to prevent their being induced to 
blossom, than to have to protect that blossom after it 
has expanded. Such a course of procedure is only 
another example of the old adage, “ To prevent is 
better than to have to cure.” 
Now, we believe that this might be very easily and 
very effectively accomplished; and we beg to draw 
attention to the following experiment with two Belle- 
j garde peaches, of the same age and size, growing in 
the same garden, and against the same wall. One, 
last November, was shaded by a moveable, close paling 
of boards, so high and so long as to shade the entire 
tree all the day, though placed at a distance of four feet 
in width, measuring from the wall. Every sunny or 
mild day, from November until the end of March, 
was this screen placed before the peach tree; and when 
the ground was frozen, a covering of straw was placed 
over the border about the roots to keep in the cold. 
At night, and during cold days, the screen was removed. 
We calculated that by keeping both the roots and 
branches inactive by this cold, shading, system, we 
No. CXXXL, Vol YI. 
