278 
THE COTTAGE GABDENER. 
[July 31. 
Certainly, if a man sets himself to think, it matters not if 
the object be small or great so long as he does think, and 
thinks to the purpose. 
Where my employer formerly resided in Salop there was 
a great quantity of the shrub Snowberry (I do not know the 
botanical name, but I promise myself all these things when 
your Dictionary is complete, for 1 never dare take a book in 
by numbers, I always get so impatient for the remaining 
parts). The roots of these Snowberrys had ran along and 
intersected the shrubbery in all directions, throwing up 
suckers and forming, in some places, an almost impenetrable 
jungle ; and the bright idea came into my head one fine day, 
that this stuff might be made useful in some way as to 
protecting my strawberries. I thought at first of spreading 
it entirely over the surface of the ground, but concluded that 
would be too gawky. A few hours after I was looking at 
some yellow sallows, and the idea came upon me in a 
moment. The Snowberries certainly would make nice little 
faggots, and long ones, too, bound round with some of these 
very sallow twigs. 
It was winter time ; I set to work next day, and did not 
cease this employment till two hundred of these little faggots 
were completed; they were each five feet long, six inches in 
diameter, rather flat than round, and tied rather loosely 
with the yellow sallow twigs mentioned above; the small 
side-spray, of which there was a profusion, was allowed to 
remain rather loosely about them; I placed them in a dry 
loft till the proper period of using them. 
I placed these along side my strawberries about the time 
they were coming into bloom. I fastened each faggot down 
in its place with a hooked peg sufficiently long to steady it; 
for expedition, neatness of look, protecting the fruit from 
wireworms, slugs, and dirt; let the rain, however severe it 
might be, pour upon them, it could not injure them ; they 
were either suspended in the air, or reclining on the sides 
of the faggots, and in ten minutes after the severest storm 
were perfectly dry, with scarcely a splash of dirt upon them. 
The rows of red berries exposed to view irregularly along 
the side-spray of the faggots have a rich and very pretty 
appearance. The plan perfectly satisfied me, and I intend 
to improve upon it another year. The faggots were taken 
up after the bearing-season was over, and placed in the dry, 
and would probably, and have, for all that I know to the 
contrary, lasted till this time. My employer came to this 
place the following spring (1818) before the strawberries 
came into bloom, and we found not a plant in this garden 
to faggot! 
I had a fine flowery description given to me of this garden 
before I saw it; but, alas ! what a “ baseless fabric of a 
vision ”—how supremely bamboozled was I. I found it a 
dreadfully worn-out affair, and almost as far off what it was 
represented to be as it is, to its Antipodes. 
However, upon the principle that when a man’s cart sticks 
in the mud, it is very little use calling on Jupiter for assist¬ 
ance unless he put his own shoulder to the wheel, I set 
myself to work. 
The following winter found this garden very much resem¬ 
bling a gravel-pit. 
I had the good fortune to meet with one of the best work¬ 
ing labourers in this country, and he came to me with the 
understanding that he was to do as I wished, and not to 
argue on a matter, whether he thought it right or wrong 
(the man that I employ occasionally now comes upon the 
same principle, and it saves me an immense amount of time 
and argument); suffice it to say, the following spring found 
this garden under quite a new arrangement, with straw¬ 
berries again in prospective. 
The present time is the distance I then looked forward to ; 
and brings me to a point in which I can explain the further 
improvement, hinted above, which I contemplated in Salop. 
I have explained how I placed the small faggots along 
each side of the plants there ; but as each of my plants are 
one foot six inches apart, there are interstices between each, 
which also require a something similar to the sides. 
I find, in order to report progress “ faithfully,” which 
Mr. Errington insists upon, I must here make another 
digression. 
I have no Snowberry undergrowth here to make faggots; 
and, in fact, being in a town, as we are, I have not got any 
wood at all but by purchasing. 
Hereon hinges a tale of wants. I wanted small spray for 
making my faggots; I wanted dwarf pea-sticks; I wanted 
charcoal for potting purposes; I wanted wood-ashes when 
sowing my seeds ; I wanted stout sticks for different garden¬ 
ing purposes; I wanted slender stakes and sticks for my 
flowers ; I wanted stakes with forks, and pegs with hooks ; 
I wanted something, after all this picking and choosing, to | 
burn the large and small wood remaining over and above 
economically, and our household wanted home-baked bread. 
Now comes the explanation. This house has been in 
existence, according to the chronicles, this two hundred 
years, and most likely, for that period of time, its inhabitants 
have felt themselves dissatisfied with eating baker’s bread— 
I know I did—and I did not see why, even if the house 
had existed so long without an oven, that it should do so 
any longer; the strawberries were at the bottom of all 
this—if wood was bought to heat the oven, the small faggots 
and all the other et ceteras would follow in the wake. A 
useless copper boiler was instantly turned out of the kitchen, 
and a nice little oven built on its site, at a very little 
expense, a convenience that we could not possibly dispense 
with ; and yet see how the thing originated—merely because 
I found myself in a fix as to the strawberries. These are 
all mere trifles, yet in the aggregate they make a sum of 
human happiness. The small faggots I make here from 
the wood we buy are chiefly composed of hazel; they are 
four feet long, six indues in diameter, and, instead of sallow 
twigs, I use tar-cord for bands; in the interstices between 
the plants I place loose sticks cut about one foot in length, 
and in sufficient quantity to keep the fruit well from the 
ground; the faggots I place exactly as heretofore. 
Now, the last, and not the least, enemy are the birds : I 
defy them also. Their numbers are legion. My strawberries 
are so planted, that the old mended fishing-nets I buy of 
Mr. Richardson, at lfd. per square yard, exactly cover two 
rows ; up the centre of these two rows I drive some stakes 
(about one inch diameter, two feet six inches long) into the 
ground, allowing their tops to remain above the leaves 
about six inches—I place them from ten to fifteen feet 
apart; along the top of these stakes, which have a short 
natural fork on their tops, I strain aline of tar-cord—the 
forks at the top of the stakes being merely for the convenience 
of so doing. The net is now placed along the top of this, 
and strained down to the small faggots at the sides, which 
effectually secures it, and keeps it down in a kind of way 
that I defy any bird to gain admittance; and, in consequence 
of the net being suspended along the tar-cord above the 
plants, the foliage remains in its natural position, allowing 
the sun and air to penetrate and circulate in every direction 
without let or hindrance. 
In gathering the fruit, it is merely necessary first to 
release the net on one side the two rows entirely; let it 
remain suspended on the top of the tar-cord, and gather 
the fruit off that row ; then fasten down that portion of the 
net, and proceed on the other side in a similar manner. In 
unfastening the net from the faggots, the utility of pegging 
them down will be at once perceived. 
The after-management of the plants that are to remain 
till another year claim my attention unceasingly. I keep 
them free from all runners and weeds, and the surface soil 
amongst them well scarified, but never on any account more 
than an inch in depth; as to cutting off a healthy leaf, 
fancy cutting off a little pieoe of one's own lungs ! would it 
be possible to enjoy the full vigour of a constitution after 
that?— Upwards and Onwards. 
[We hope to hear from this correspondent very often ; he 
is “ a fellow of infinite humour,” but a good gardener withal. 
The remainder of his communication shall appear shortly.— 
Ed. 0. G.] 
NOTES ON FRENCH GARDENING. 
The railway officials of France set us an example that we 
should do well more generally to imitate. At nearly every 
station between Paris and Tours, and on several other lines 
of railway, they have showy and neatly-lcept flower-gardens; 
and during the stoppage of the trains, it is interesting to 
observe the pleasure which the passengers take in them ; 
Roses, Valerians, Rockets, Antirrhinums, Stocks, Pansies, 
and a good selection of free-blooming annuals are mostly to 
