April 3.] 
THE COTTAGE GARDENER. 
racier, which has been made against the covering 
principle, is the fact, that fixed or mattened coverings 
“ draw ” the blossom hud ; that is to say, attenuate it, and 
by consequence produce vegetable debility. Now, it must 
be at once admitted, that if any person taking a dry and 
abstracted view of the question, fastens down his pro¬ 
tecting material, and leaves all the rest to the chapter 
of accidents, minus the necessary attention, those “ pro¬ 
tectionists,” who recommend moveable coverings, ought 
by no means to be held responsible for the consequences. 
Before concluding this piece of advice concerning the 
protection of blossom, it behoves us to offer a necessary 
caution. We have before spoken of the retarding prin¬ 
ciple as an essential and indivisible portion of the great 
question of blossom protection. Let it he observed, 
however, that to retard in the end of January, and in the 
end of March, are two very different affairs. And why ? 
Simply because the advancing spring brings a much 
advanced average temperature ; and it is scarcely neces¬ 
sary to remind our readers that the inducements to 
“ draw ” are much greater at high temperatures than 
low ones. And here we fall within the regions of science 
—here the great matters of heat and light, not abstract¬ 
edly, but in their combined action, call for a consideration. 
The thorough elucidation of this, in a purely scientific 
point of view, must be left to enlarged views and fairer 
opportunities; we may merely add, that such is the case 
in practice ; and that he who covers heavily as late as 
March, simply on the protective plan , will possibly find 
his labour wasted, and it may be, end his days in an 
unconverted state, carping at those crotchety fellows 
who persist in not only protecting, but retarding blossoms. 
In concluding this paper, let us importune our jury— 
a discerning public—to divest themselves of prejudice, 
and to begin by judging it as a mere common-sense 
matter. Let them take a lesson from every early goose¬ 
berry bush in yonder warm corner, where no blast can 
reach, and where every glimpse of sunshine is enjoyed. 
Or, if analogy is permissible, let them observe the fate 
of the poor honey-bee, put to bed hungry in October., 
and tempted by the cravings of an empty stomach, by 
the first gleam of spring, to wander through devious 
tracks in search of the pale primrose, the crocus, or the 
tussilago. R. Errington. 
THE ELOWER-GARDEN. 
The Routine of the Season. —For the great bulk of 
cottage gardens, the beginning of April is not only the i 
best time, but also the most convenient season to put the i 
flower-garden in order, and get the borders and beds ready 
for sowing seeds. The grass, if there be any, should bo 
swept, rolled, and mown; the gravel walks first scraped, 
to gather off all blacks, or other discoloured parts, then 
stirred with a hoe to loosen the surface a little, so that 
the rake may put it all level, and gather off large stones, 
that when it is rolled the whole will have a smooth 
hard surface. Then, and not till then, is the right time 
to give the walks afresh appearance, if that is desirable, 
and one can afford to give them a very slight coat of 
fresh and finely-screened gravel. It is a great waste to 
lay on a thick coat of gravel, for unless the new gravel 
is of a good binding quality the walk is not so firm after 
a thick coat of it is put on as when the surface is merely 
covered. Our walks here are as good as walks can be; 
we have no stint of good gravel, and this is exactly the 
process we adopt with them every spring. When they are 
thus regulated they look all over the garden as if they 
were quite new, and yet they are as firm and as hard as 1 
if they had not been touched for years past. Nothing 
sets off a garden so well in the spring as really good 
and fresh looking walks, whether the garden be large or 
small. Where the proprietor of the garden is employed 
all day long at his calling, and has to do all the garden- 
work early and late, the more economical way is to finish 
all the digging and wheeling first, and let the walks 
come in for the last part of the spring dressing. 
Flowers in general are great impoverishers of the soil, 
therefore it is a safe plan to add some compost to the 
borders and beds every season. One-half of this com- I 
post should be very rotten dung, and the other half from 
the rubbish-heap which every garden furnishes during 
the twelvemonths; but fresh earth from banks, or com- ; 
mons, is still better than the best compost one can make. ! 
There is not a single bed or border in the flower-garden ■ 
here but we dress after this manner every spring, and i 
all the beds are emptied in three years. They are tlnee ; 
spits, or spadesful, deep, and one spadeful is removed 
every year, and the same quantity of fresh earth and j 
compost is added, and always on the top. Our top layer ' 
being thus fresh every season enables the young plants 
to grow away, at first, with all the vigour that good gar¬ 
dening is capable of giving them. When they are 
once established in good health, and their roots strike 
deeper in the beds, they meet with poorer soil, and the 
deeper they go the poorer it becomes, so that on our dry 
soil the plants are never too leafy, and they flower pro¬ 
fusely to the last. Now the old plan, and the one more 
generally followed, is this : a coat of decayed dung, or of 
some compost, is laid on the beds as often as it is found j 
necessary, and this is dug a spit deep; or perhaps the bed 
is trenched, working the manure regularly throughout, 
but always leaving a surface of the old soil to set the 
plants or sow the seeds in ; the seedlings or young plants 
do not grow, at first, so strong or so fast in their bed of old 
soil as they would do if in a fresh compost—time is lost— 
but by-and-by, as the roots get down to the manure, 
the plants grow too fast, produce many more and larger 
leaves than are essential to a good bloom; and, if the 
situation is low and damp, by the middle of August we 
have more leaves than flowers, and when the garden 
ought to be in the height of its beauty every thing looks 
weedy, This old-fashioned way we must abandon before 
we can hope to do much good. All the new stuff, what¬ 
ever it may be, or however slight the dressing, we must 
leave on the very surface. In other words, we must 
take a leaf from the farmer’s book. His most precarious 
crop is the turnip, and he does not bury the muck for 
them, so that the roots cannot reach it for many weeks. 
No; he opens his drills, puts in the muck, closes them 
up as soon as he can, and runs the seed-machine depo¬ 
siting the seeds right over the muck, and very nearly in , 
contact with it, so that as soon as it sprouts the roots | 
are in the very midst of it, enabling his plants to grow 
away rapidly, so that neither fly or beetle can make 
head against them. 
That is the way they do it on the farm, and that is I 
the way we must also do it, if we want to keep our head ! 
above water, and the way to do it is this : say that our i 
bed requires three inches of compost, then, first of all, j 
remove three inches of the old soil from the top and j 
wheel it on some border—the Dahlias, or Hollyhocks, or 
Phloxes, and, indeed, all the herbaceous plants may thus 
be annually refreshed. Favourite shrubs, or new trees, 
will come in for a share, and, if there is any to spare, 
make a heap of it for another time, or let it go to swell 
the compost-heap for next year. At any rate out with 
it from the best flower-bed; then fork the rest of the 
bed as deep as your prongs will reach, and spread the 
three inches of good stuff on the top, and pass on to the 
next and the next bed till you are all round ; when you 
come to a bed that produced more leaves and less j 
flowers than you liked last year, do not fork that so 
deeply, remove more of the old soil, and put in cinder- 
ashes, lime-rubbish, or sand, or something very poor 
and porous instead, but let a little, if ever so small a 
quantity, of fresh stuff be put on the top, to encourage 
the young things at the first going off*. Then enter this j 
