18 
THE COTTAGE GARDENER. 
[April 10. 
Q. Will it be prudent for the owner of one cow to rear 
her calf?— A. A person who has hut one cow wall act im¬ 
prudently in rearing her calf, unless it he of a very valuable 
breed, or he can spare the milk which it will require. If lie 
rears a calf, it should be one worth rearing. 
Q. What is the most approved method of rearing a calf ? 
— A. The calf should be removed altogether from its mother 
after it has sucked the disturbed milk, which acts as a 
wholesome medicine to the calf, while it also relieves the 
mother; it should get about two quarts of new milk each 
day during the first week, four quarts the second, eight 
quarts the third. Afterwards, three pints of oatmeal gruel 
should be put into hot skim-milk, to make it milk-warm; 
any sort of milk may be given the fifth week, and if a little 
linseed or oil-cake be added the increased vigour of the calf 
will repay the expense. 
Q. Proceed.— A. An ill-fed calf will never make a fine 
beast, however well fed it may be when grown up. After 
five or six weeks, water may be mixed with milk, and the 
porridge left off gradually, and at fourteen weeks the calf 
will be weaned, and able to feed on bran, tender grass, Ac. 
A handful of fresh hay or grass hung up by a string a little 
higher than the calf’s head is perhaps one of the quickest 
methods of teaching it to eat. 
Q. Why should not a calf be allowed to suck its mother ? 
— A. It is difficult to wean a calf which has often sucked 
its mother, and a cow feels so restless when her calf is taken 
from her, that it becomes difficult to milk her by hand; 
besides, a calf may suck more than enough when allowed 
to help itself without measure. By giving the above quan¬ 
tities, a calf of average size gets milk enough for its nou¬ 
rishment, and sufficient is left for family use.” 
Flowers and their Poetry. By Dr. Bushnan. This is 
one of the few books one has the pleasure of meeting with in 
which everything is elegant and appropriate. The poetry, 
the illustrations, the printing, and the binding are all indi¬ 
cative of good taste—all perfect in their way. It is a book 
that no one can take up without gratification; and we eould, 
without a shade of weariness, take each poem on its pages 
successively as a theme, and carol over it until sundown. 
It is a gem of a book, and if we dare spare time and space, 
we would give Dr. Bushnan’s own Birth of the Flowers , verse 
by verse, with a note upon each; but we must rest satisfied 
with a shorter one, by “ Delta,” and we assure our readers 
there are few less excellent in this volume all Flowers. 
LILIES. 
[written under a drawing ok a bunch of these flowers (by 
A DECEASED SISTER) IN THE ALBUM OF LADY L. L.] 
“ Look to the Lilies how they grow ! ” 
’Twas thus the Saviour said, that we, 
Even in the simplest flowers that blow, 
God’s ever watchful care might see. 
Yes I nought escapes the guardian eye— 
However vast, however small— 
Of Him who lists the raven’s cry, 
And marks from Heaven the sparrow’s fall. 
Why mourn we, then, for those we love, 
As if all hope was reft away ? 
Let not our sorrowing hearts refuse 
Meekly to bend and to obey. 
Shall He, who paints the Lily’s leaf, 
Who gives the Rose its scented breath, 
Love all his works, except the chief, 
And leave his image, Man, to death ? 
No I other hearts and hopes be ours, 
And to our souls let Faith be given, 
To feel our lost friends only flowers. 
Transplanted from this world to Heaven. 
In common with several of our contemporaries, we 
observed and expressed our regret that Mr. Alexander 
Forsyth had left the service of the Earl of Shrewsbury, 
at Alton Towers, and that despite his known abilities as 
a gardener, he could obtain no adequate engagement. 
W e are right glad to find that our sympathy was 
uncalled for, inasmuch, as that we see he has communi¬ 
cated a paper to the recent number of the Horticultural 
Society’s Journal, and a correspondent informs us, that 
Mr. Forsyth went direct from Alton Towers, to his 
present engagement- as head gardener to Mr. Brunei, 
at St. Mary’s Church, Torquay, where a new residence 
is erecting from a design by Mr. Bums, and the garden 
and arboretum are being laid out by Mr Nesfield. 
GARDENING GOSSIP. 
A widely spreading notion that Pansies should be ex¬ 
hibited in pots has given rise to astir among the growers 
for sale. It is the general opinion that the buyers 
would be more satisfied at seeing the habits of the plant, 
and the manner in which the blooms grow, than they 
are at seeing the flowers, as it were, constrained to a flat 
form by the mode of placing them in their respective 
holes on a board. Again, it would make a more decided 
feature in an exhibition to require twelve plants in 
bloom, than thirty-six flowers on a stand; besides which, 
it should be required that not less than a given number 
of flowers should be open on a plant. It is quite certain 
that by such a regulation many new crumpled and 
uncertain varieties, which now teem from the hands of 
the dealers, would be condemned at once. 
The Pansy, like the Verbena, depends greatly, for its real 
value, on the habit of the plant, whether grown in beds or 
borders; abundant bloom, compact growth, and rich foliage 
are essential, but ordinary exhibitors, who sacrifice all kind 
of neatness in their gardens for the sake of torturing flowers 
into a condition for cutting, will naturally object to a plan of 
showing, which will oblige them to cultivate plants as they 
ought to be grown, instead of spending all their efforts on 
individual flowers. We confess that with all our ambition to 
show, we would no more encumber our garden with shades 
and props, and tables covered with pots, than we would turn 
in a half a dozen pigs. We remember to have visited a 
garden once the day before a show, when the lady of the 
house observed, that we should find it more like a china- 
shop or a glass-warehouse than a garden, and so it was; 
dozens of finger-glasses, basins, and other domestic articles 
were covered over flowers intended for cutting the next day, 
and all manner of contrivances to prop and fasten blooms 
destined for the show; plants were reduced to skeletons to 
throw all their strength into one portion, and no bear-garden 
could look more confused, littery, and ruinous. As to a 
garden, it was unworthy of the name. Gardening must be 
corrected somehow; for in these matters it is going mad. 
The more public societies insist on showing in pots the 
better; for cut flowers deceive everybody but real florists, 
and those also, unless the show be exclusively for the floral 
object whatever it may be. 
The Botanic Gardens at Chelsea, which we had not 
visited for some time, and which were in a deplorable 
i state when we were there last, has been so greatly 
improved under the curatorship of Mr. Moore, that they 
remind us of the change made at Kew. Two new ridge- 
roofed houses, one a stove and one a greenhouse, are 
great improvements, and the plants in all the houses 
remarkably healthy. 
The Society is rich in aloes, and all medicinal plants, but 
all out-of-door vegetation sadly feels the effect of the smoky 
atmosphere and dry situation. The remains of the two 
Cedars which mark the site of this garden, and are seen afar 
off, appear to grow less every year, and some of the old 
specimens are splendid ruins; but in all that can be im¬ 
proved by careful culture we are glad to recognise the change.. 
There is a talk of establishing an Amateur Florists 
Society for mutual protection, to which, of course, no 
