118 
THE COTTAGE GARDENER. 
[Mat 22. 
or four inches apart. Their more healthy appearance and 
sturdy habit easily distinguishes them from cuttings of the 
more puny varieties, containing a greater number of good 
points essential for an exhibition stand. In my case, an 
easy growth, and luxuriant habit, with a tolerable handful of 
flowers of medium quality on each plant, is of more conse¬ 
quence than two or three blooms of first-rate excellence. 
Healthy-looking seedlings planted in the autumn, when the 
summer flowers are cleared away, make the beds look partly 
furnished all the winter, the foliage being quite as showy as that 
of most plants of more aspiring claims ; and in May they 
will look as if it were a pity to disturb them for the 
season ; but cruel as it may seem, it must be done. Other 
things must then be planted amongst them, and unless 
some one seems more than usually good, the whole had 
better be sacrificed in June, when the permanent summer 
crop has taken hold of the ground; but by that time pods 
of the ftrst flower will have ripened their seeds, which save 
and sow, rejecting of course all that is bad. Seedling 
pansies are also well adapted for planting amongst other 
things requiring some temporary ornament for the early 
summer months, as the tea and china roses, &c.; besides 
they make a very good edging around any permanent bed. 
I have several beds temporarily planted with pansies, which 
promise in a few days to look tolerably well. Various 
causes prevented my planting them until the spring, other¬ 
wise they would by this time (the 1st of May) have been 
more gay; but I intend planting verbenas, &c. in amongst 
them, and at the proper time will sacrifice the pansies as I 
have done on other seasons. 
The next useful flower in mixed colours is the Polyanthus, 
but the treatment of these is different. They do not 
propagate so quickly as pansies, so the old plants must be 
preserved; this is attended with but little trouble, as they 
have done flowering by the time the ordinary bedding-out 
stock is required to be put out, but they must not be 
crowded together under trees, or in any exposed spot 
where they may be trampled to death at a time when they 
are not conspicuous as ornaments; but let them be care¬ 
fully separated and planted in the reserve garden, a place I 
shall speak of hereafter, and there they can form those 
embryo buds from which the next season’s bloom proceeds. 
The same treatment will serve the whole of the Primrose 
tribe, the single as well as the double varieties of which are 
eminently qualified for the duty of furnishing a spring 
I display. In fact, the double lilac often blooms in autumn 
| and all through the winter, but I have never got it to bloom 
in autumn when it is often removed, as is the case with 
those relieving the parterre. There is a single one distinct 
in colour, which I think will become very useful that way; 
it is called Elatior, and is a very good blue; but I have 
not been able to increase it to be available for this purpose 
yet. 
While speaking of this class of plants, I may mention 
that the most brilliant, inexpensive, and showy bed for 
early spring, is the common Primrose. I guess some of my 
readers think I am descending very low now, even to 
meanness. Well, be it so; but I shall not be easily convinced 
of my error, and few that have seen a bed so formed but 
have been converts to my opinion. Plants taken out of the 
coppice, hedge bank, or wood, as soon as they can be 
distinguished, which is not before the end of January (or 
February in ordinary seasons), planted tolerably thickly in a 
bed, present a mass of bloom which no other spring plant 
that I am acquainted with can equal—and that bloom, too, of 
a most showy colour. So partial am I to my primroses, 
that for several years I have had a good many beds embla¬ 
zoned with this, the most lovely of all spring flowers. I am 
' trying to obtain sufficient of the double of the same colour, 
but it does not equal the common for abundance of blossom. 
I believe some people use the various kinds of Violets for 
spring beds, but the flowers, sweet and attractive though they 
be, are not conspicuous, and there can be no question but 
that they are much lessened in numbers by taking up and 
replanting in autumn, so that I would not advise their use, 
unless in special cases, where the particular favour in which 
they are held is deemed such as to overcome all other 
disadvantages they labour under. 
When a bed or two of Fuschia* forms part of the design 
of floral arrangement, which they often do, some means 
must be taken to render them somewhat attractive in the 
spring months. Some that I have are planted in the 
interstices, between the fuschias, with bulbs, as Hyacinth and 
Narcissus, the latter of which does very well, but the former 
not so well; and the best of all for fuschia beds is the 
Winter Aconite, which, blooming long before anything else, 
makes it particularly cheerful and welcome; and so exceed¬ 
ingly hardy is this plant, that it is not only able to cope with 
the sturdy fuschia, but one bed that I have of the Fuschia 
Glolosa is threatened to be overcome by it. It seeds freely, 
and when in flower the foliage is graceful. 
Before I proceed farther, I may mention not having been 
successful with the Hepatica: although I have increased and 
grown it with avidity, I cannot get it to flower abundantly 
enough to satisfy me; and what flowers it produoes do not 
throw themselves sufficiently above the leaves; I can only 
attribute it to a dislike it has to be removed so often. The 
best flowering plants that we see are such as have not been 
moved for years. Perhaps some of your readers may have 
been more fortunate with it, and if so, I should feel glad 
to have their method of managing it. S. N. Y. 
(To be continued.) 
A FEW WORDS ON HATCHING AND REARING 
POULTRY. 
In submitting the following brief hints on hatching and 
rearing poultry, the writer has endeavoured, by adopting 
plain and simple terms, divested of all technicalities, to 
render himself perfectly intelligible to the merest novice 
in poultry culture. Having had many years experience in 
the above the information may be relied upon, and in the 
first place, I would recommend all parties desirous of 
procuring a superior breed of birds, at the least possible 
expense, to obtain two or three barn-door hens about to sit, 
then buy from some neighbour, having the desired breed, 
fresh laid eggs, allowing from eleven to thirteen to each hen, 
according to size ; should more than thirteen eggs be placed 
under a hen, and the weather prove cold, the chances are 
that one-third of the clutch, at least, are spoiled. 
If an out-house, or cellar, can be used for the nest-liouse, 
so much the better, provided the floor is slightly moist. In 
the darkest corner place a good handful of broken oat 
straw, and to better form a nest, and prevent the eggs 
rolling out when the hen moves, place a row of bricks all 
round. In such a place the chickens will shell-out strong 
and healthy. Many persons may wonder at my recom¬ 
mending a moist place, but let it be remembered if you 
leave a hen to herself, she will choose for the brooding 
place a spot under a bed of nettles, a gap in a hedge, 
inside a stack of faggots, or similar damp places; all being 
places nature has pointed out as the most suitable, and 
apparently for this reason. The germ of the egg floats 
uppermost within and against the shell, in order that it may 
meet the genial warmth of the breast of the fowl, we must, 
therefore, in hatching, apply most warmth to that part only; 
the egg being supidied with only a limited quantity of 
moisture, is thus arranged to prevent evaporation from a 
large surface, as the egg is only very warm at the part in 
contact with the fowl, until the blood-vessels searching 
nourishment for the embryo have surrounded the inner 
surface of the shell, when the whole egg becomes gradually 
warm, and eventually of an equal temperature. I will 
reserve the remainder for another early paper. W. J. M. 
GLASS LABELS. 
I would propose tallies cut out of 1C or 21-ounce glass, 
the names put on with a writing diamond; they would be 
imperishable, and would cost little of time or money. 
Every gardener has, or ought to have, a proper diamond for 
cutting glass, for repairs; and a splinter writing diamond 
may be had for a trifle.—A. Wilson, Norton, Kent. 
