August 14.] 
THE COTTAGE GARDENER. 
309 
they can be got into, leaving the top just visible. Place 
them in the house, or frame, appropriated to propagation; 
give a gentle watering, and shade effectually. New 
roots will soon push forth, and then shoots will appear, 
generally in clusters. When that takes place, reduce the 
shade, to give colour to the leaves and strength to the 
shoots. As these advance in growth, thin them gradually, 
by slipping one or two off at a time, till finally they are 
reduced to one which is to form the future plant. As 
soon as this shoot attains the height of two or three 
inches, nip off the top to cause side shoots to grow, and 
so form a neat bushy plant. This method we have 
proved, in difficult cases, to be a successful one, and, 
therefore, can confidently recommend its adoption with 
such plants as do not readily increase by the more 
ordinary methods. 
General Culture. —This will embrace three periods—the 
growing season, the flowering, and the resting season. 
The first and the last being states or periods necessary 
to produce in high perfection the middle one. The 
means and materials to cultivate these fine flowers are, 
1st. A good greenhouse. 2nd. Proper compost. 3rd. 
Good garden pots; and, lastly, good kinds. We need not 
insist upon all these being of the best-known. It is self- 
evident, that to expect perfect success, every point must 
be jointly and separately of the very best character. 
1st. The house to grow them in. —Pelargoniums, like 
all other large families of plants, require a house to 
themselves, and peculiarly adapted to produce fine spe¬ 
cimens. This naturally leads us to consider what is the 
best form. We unhesitatingly say the span-roofed form is 
the best; and for this satisfactory reason, that the plants 
in such a house grow on all sides alike, not the one¬ 
sided things that are too frequently seen, even at exhi 
bitions of high character. The sides of the house should 
be of glass, the side windows should move up and down 
to allow a large circulation of air, and the top lights 
should also be moveable, to let out the upper stratum of 
heated air. The plants should be placed upon stages 
near to the glass. These stages ought to be broad 
enough to allow large specimens to stand clear of each 
other upon them. The size of the house will depend 
upon the means of the cultivation, and the number in¬ 
tended to be grown. To exhibit collections of ten or 
twelve in number, three or four times during the season, 
the house should be at least fifty feet long, and twenty 
feet wide. This will allow a stage in the centre ten feet 
wide; walks round it two-and-a-lialf feet wide, and a 
platform all round two-and-a-half feet broad. This will 
leave the stage ten feet wide, and forty feet long, which 
will be ample space for three rows of twelve plants in 
each, full-sized and well-grown specimens. On the plat¬ 
forms next the front light, smaller-sized plants may be 
placed to succeed the other when they become unsightly 
through the bloom being over. 
T. Appleby. 
CTo be continued.) 
THE KITCHEN-GARDEN. 
Cabbage-plants. —Pay good attention to these with 
regard to pricking-out in due season, and keeping the 
earth’s surface open and healthy by frequent stirrings. 
Make one late sowing for spring planting, and should 
the mildew make its appearance amongst the small 
plants in the seed-beds, dredge with chimney-soot and 
fresh slaked lime. Dry wood-ashes and charred-dust 
are also very good preventives; and where sulphur is 
obtainable at a reasonable rate it is a famous thing 
i to mix with either or any of the above articles for 
destroying the mildew, and all are excellent stimulants 
to the plants. 
Cauliflowers. —It has been customary for genera¬ 
tions past, and still is practised amongst old gardeners, 
to sow the principal crop of Cauliflowers, for their stock 
of hand-glass and spring plants, about the 18th of 
August. The plants, they contend, get stout and strong 
for standing against the severity of the winter; but we 
contend, that, in consequence of their being thus early 
sown, the checks they meet with during the winter are 
i too severe; and when planted out about the second 
! week in November, according to the old custom, the soil 
about them becomes, by the month of March, so very 
close, cold, and adhesive, that instead at that season of 
: their making a vigorous start into growth, many of the 
| plants are very likely to button, that is, to show a little 
flower about the size of a button, whilst others get crip- 
\ pled and stunted, black-legged and cankered, neither 
[ showing promise of making a luxuriant growth, or pro- 
j ducing fine Cauliflowers, as hoped for, in April or May. 
Our system has long been to sow our Cauliflowers the 
first week in October, on a very gentle bottom-heat close 
to the glass, and to prick them, as soon as they can he 
handled, on some kindly soil, again close to the glass. 
The last week in October, and the first week in November, 
they are potted into small (iO’s, and plunged under frame 
or pit-lights, still close to the glass, and in due season 
they are again shifted, as required, into larger pots. At 
the beginning of January they get their last shift into 
7-inch pots, that is, those intended to be turned out 
under hand-glasses the first week in February; but those 
plants intended to be grown on, and forced in pots in 
some hothouse, are, of course, shifted into 10-inch or 
12-incli pots; and those intended to be planted out into 
the borders and quarters are pricked into temporary 
shallow frames and turf-pits, in order to apply temporary 
shelter during the severe winter weather, by placing 
over them spare lights, thatched hurdles, &c., &c. 
There are several advantages to be gained by the 
foregoing treatment; the early-cleared celery ground gets 
well manured, trenched, ridged, forked, and stirred 
about previous to February, by which time the soil is 
become in a very pulverized, healthy condition, ready 
for the Cauliflower plants, and the hand-glasses, which 
have been all thoroughly cleaned, repaired, and packed 
away during the winter months, are sound, sweet, and 
clean, and the plants being strong, healthy, and fresh- 
rooted, no check takes places if they meet with the 
treatment we recommend in the Calendar during the 
early spring months, and fine Cauliflowers will be pro¬ 
duced by the middle of April, when winter vegetables 
are getting scarce; and there is no doubt that the 
hand-glass will produce finer Cauliflowers, by such prac¬ 
tice, in about nine or ten weeks, than they could do on 
the old system of lord-mayor-day-planting, in six months; 
the wear and tear of the glass, too, is so much the less, 
besides an immense saving of labour and trampling of 
ground, slug hunting, &c., &e., which must be attended 
to when planted out in autumn. 
The Cauliflowers saved from seed should be well 
attended to this month, as a destructive mildew often 
attacks them in gardens, and causes abortiveness and 
disappointment, which timely dredgings of sulphur 
vivum will effectually prevent. James Barnes. 
