July 31.] 
THE COTTAGE GARDENER. 
281 
is distinct and good. Madame Lamoricicre, also, was flowering 
most charmingly. It is a new rose, very distinct, and of 
the brightest pink; this must please the ladies. General 
Cavaignac was not sufficiently expanded, but it looks very 
promisingly. The varieties of this class are now become so 
numerous that a new one must he very distinct to be ad- 
missable. Dr. Arnot is pretty from its brilliancy, though 
small. Lady Alice Peel we could not pass without in¬ 
spection, and a waft of its fragrance; and our old friend, Mrs. 
Elliot, caught our eye; and last, not least, Madame Laffay 
came in for some share of our attention,—our gigantic 
friend, La Heine, too, was not altogether unobserved; it does 
not, however, appear to open well, but when it does so, how 
fine is it! 
Bourbon Madame Angelina is quite a gem, but a very 
delicate grower. Bouquet de Flore was beautiful, and one of 
the very best abundant autumn bloomers. Prudence Raeser, 
with its very double and unique lilac-rose-coloured flowers, 
in immense bunches, was very good. This I find with me 
is one of the most profuse autumnal-blooming roses I am 
acquainted with. Plant this with Madame Desprez, Bouquet 
de Flore, Jean de Arc, Noisettes; Globe de Rosamenne, Pierre 
de St. Cyr, Bourbons; Queen, Geant des Batuilles, and Fel- 
lenberg, Noisettes, and on my credit as a rose-grower, I 
guarantee any lady a bouquet of the queen of flowers, from 
the 12th of June, until the chills of approaching winter 
arrest the expansion of their blooms. Mr. Godwin also 
informed me, tbat these all stand well with him, and bloom 
most profusely when the beauty of nearly every other rose 
is passed away. 
It is a difficult task to enumerate Bourbons amongst so nu¬ 
merous and beautiful a family, there are so many claimants 
on our admiration. We noticed three or four as very distinct, 
Cornice de Seine et Marne, Menoux , Souvenir de la Mal- 
maison, and Vicomte de Cressy. 
China and Tea roses do not stand this climate in the open 
border without much care. We observed a capital method 
of growing them here, which Mr. Godwin favoured me with, 
and which I give for the benefit of your readers. The bed 
being marked out to the desired dimensions (the subsoil 
being a retentive clay), the earth and clay were taken out to 
the depth of about tw r o feet six inches, placing drain-tiles at 
the bottom, on which, and all over the bottom, faggots, in 
bundles of about one foot in diameter, were placed ; on this 
about equal portions of rotten turf, road scrapings, and 
decayed manure were deposited. In this preparation, Tea- 
scented, China, and Bourbon roses were planted in May, 
1848, and appear to thrive admirably. They are protected 
with spruce fir boughs in severe weather. The Teas par¬ 
tially die down in winter, but push vigorously each subse¬ 
quent spring. 
I would here just observe, from twenty years experience, 
and in many instances dearly bought, I have found March 
and April the worst months in the whole year for getting 
roses in pots from the nurseries. The probability is that, 
in nine cases out of ten, the plants bought have been pro¬ 
tected under glass, and the consequent premature activity of 
the juices entirely unfits the plants either for carnage or 
planting out; and the destruction of many is almost certain. 
November, May, or June, I find decidedly the best months 
for all roses cultivated in pots; and March and April the 
most destructive, generally speaking, for every description 
of rose in cultivation. 
I observed that both the Yellow and White Banksia roses 
had bloomed in May in five-inch pots. I have been often 
surprised and disappointed at not having yet seen a good 
specimen of these shown at Chiswick, or the Regent’s Park. 
What could be more beautiful than a dome-shaped mass of 
these interesting varieties exhibited in a pot, covered with 
their charming bunches of pearly white, or golden yellow 
flowers ? 
Amongst hundreds of fine summer roses, we particularly 
noted the following as really distinct and good.— Chenedolle, 
General Allard, Hortensie, Alba Achilla, Paul Ricaut, Bouvet, 
Blairii No. 2, Madeline, Princess Clementine, beautiful white; 
also Madame Plantier, and Madame Legras, snowy white; 
Coup de Hebe, Persian Yellow, Leopold de Beaufremont, 
Prince Albert, and Stadtholder. These, from having also 
gi'own most of them myself, I consider the cream of summer 
roses. I have also another paper of notes oa the best 
method of growing the Cloth of Gold, and other shy-flowering 
roses, from practical observation; also on several novelties 
of recent importation from Belgium and China. Should 
you consider them at least worthy of a corner in your capital 
publication, I shall be happy to communicate them.—A n 
Ardent Amateur and Constant Reader. 
[We shall be much obliged by your proffered communi¬ 
cations.—E d. C. G.] 
DOMESTIC HINTS. 
It is rather late to answer your correspondent of May 1st, 
“ Legcolium,” but if he has not already obtained the inform¬ 
ation, he may be glad to know that an experienced house¬ 
keeper says that crumbly butter is owing to its not being 
thoroughly separated from the butter-milk, and that butter 
is always most in this state, when it is long in coming, but 
may always be made to bind properly, by having the butter¬ 
milk dissolved out of it, by washings in many waters, and by 
squeezing it out, by persevering in breaking it till it is of 
proper consistency; she says a marble slab is the best place 
for this last operation. 
You have sometimes published papers, recommending 
Oatmeal as an article of diet, both cheap and nutritious, 
more so than wheat-flour, according to your taste, and 
on other authorities ; perhaps some of your correspond¬ 
ents may like to know, that in default of a girdle, the 
common iron oven by the side of most kitchen fires, 
dries (for it is drying more than baking that it needs) oat¬ 
cake extremely well, and even the flat top of an ironing 
stove would answer the purpose. The less the oatcake is 
browned, or changed in colour by the halving, the better. 
A variety of oatcake, to some palates even more excellent 
than the cake made in the usual way, is produced by making 
up the dough in the shape of a roll pudding, in circumference 
the size the cakes are wished—of course very large would 
be unmanageable—it is then cut into slices of the desired 
thickness, the difference produced by the rough surface thus 
obtained, and the closer and smoother substance resulting 
from the ordinary rolling out, is greater than would be 
imagined without experiment. 
I find I save about Is. 3d. of the price of oatmeal, by 
having a bushel barrel from Edinburgh, where it costs from 
lOd. to 15d. per peck (a month ago lOd), the carriage per 
steamer to London is 2s. Gd. for this quantity, and the meal 
being, I suppose, fresher from the greater demand, keeps 
good in a good dry place to the end, say two months, 
while the London “true Scotch” will not keep a fortnight. 
Eew people are aware how short a time bread-stuffs will 
keep, specially undried English oatmeal. When groats, 
&c. turn acid, and disagree as they generally do with 
weak stomachs, and (according to your correspondents) 
with chicken, it is because they are not fresh, and fer¬ 
mentation was begun—a fact which, in all preparations 
of oats, may be invariably detected by the presence of 
the hot, bitterish taste, which is so common, that most 
people believe it to be a natural and inseperable charac¬ 
teristic of the oat, but which is never present till it has begun 
to turn rancid and unwholesome. In its very early stage, the 
taste produced is as if a small quantity of ginger had been 
added to the meal, and is far from being unpleasant. I do 
not suppose a packet of groats or oatmeal is to be found 
in any country shop entirely free from this symptom of 
staleness; and I know it is difficult to find it in London, 
even in Scotch oatmeal, which, from being kiln dried, of 
course keeps longer than our English meal. 
The difference made in meal by this drying process is 
highly exemplified in Stafford’s American ground Indian 
meal, which keeps perfectly good for months, without even 
ordinary care in storing it, while the English maize-meal is 
perhaps more perishable than any other ordinary flour. 
Perhaps it may be useful to some of your correspondents to 
know, that Inglis’s English maize-meal costs 2|d. per lb. 
retail; Stafford’s ditto, in paper packets of 7 lbs., costs 2d. 
per lb. only; while in casks of 198 lbs. it costs but Gs. 4d.— 
that is, about Id. per lb.; while the English costs 18s. Gd. 
per cwt., or about 2d. per lb. wholesale,—so for once the 
best article is the cheapest. For pig-feeding we have found 
half maize-meal answer admirably, only it was troublesome, 
its weight making it always sink to the bottom of the wash ; 
