August 28.] 
THE COTTAGE GARDENER. 
337 
addition whatever. The grand object to aim art is to 
have a soil or compost just rich enough to grow a plant 
to a certain size, without too much luxuriance of foliage 
or growth, hut still of such a stimulating power as to 
enable a plant to grow to three feet high, and as much 
through, and to bear or produce so many flowers as to 
completely cover a plant of such dimensions with bloom. 
If, however, the soil should be so poor as to need a 
supply of manure, then use leaf-mould, a year old, and 
mix the necessary quantity, one-lourth in most cases 
being amply sufficient. This article may be added at 
tire time of potting. 
Garden Pots. —A very few lines will serve to describe 
a good garden-pot. It is found, by long and careful 
experience, that plants thrive best in pots that are 
porous, and not too hard burnt; they must be suffi¬ 
ciently so to make them strong, but no more, and to 
attain this exact point is the test of the skill of the 
maker. We have seen very neat pots with a surface 
almost as smooth as glass, and, consequently, of a very 
fine, close texture ; these, we apprehend, were the worst, 
though prettiest, kind of pots we ever saw. We strongly 
recommend to the potters to make their material not so 
fine; let a pot, when finished, have a rather rough 
surface, especially on the. inside. To prove whether a 
pot is porous or not is an easy operation : stop the hole 
at the bottom with some Roman cement, so as to make 
it perfectly water-tight; then place a weight of some 
kind inside the pot, sufficiently heavy to sink the pot 
into the water nearly up to the brim; there let it remain 
until the water penetrates through the sides. If four or 
five pots of different make were subjected to this simple 
experiment at the same time, their difference of porosity 
would be soon ascertained, and the best in that respect 
discovered. This porous quality is valuable, because it 
allows a considerable amount of fresh air to reach the 
roots through the sides of the pots, which is of great use 
in keeping the plants in health, and, whilst fresh air is 
being admitted, foul air can escape by the same means, 
and thus a circulation and a change of air is going on, 
where porous pots are used, that could not take place if 
the pots were not porous. The form of the pot is of 
some consequence; a section of a pyramid, inverted, is 
the best for several reasons, the chief of which are, that 
a greater surface of soil is exposed to light and air, and 
a greater facility is afforded by that shape of removing 
the plant from one pot to another. A child in gar¬ 
dening knows that if a pot was wider at the bottom 
than the top, and the plant had filled it with roots, it 
would not be possible to get the plant out of the pot 
without tearing the roots or breaking the pot. Now the 
most useful proportion is to have the width at the top 
| and the depth both alike, outside measure; a pot six 
inches wide at the top should be, then, six inches deep; 
the bottom should be, in that case, one-third less in 
width, that is, four inches, and these differences of size 
should he in the same proportion whatever the size of 
the pot may be. To strengthen the pots the makers 
put a rim round the top; some make it round, and 
others flat; the latter is the best, because it is not so 
easily, or so liable to be, broken. T. Appleby. 
(To be continued.) 
THE KITCHEN-GARDEN. 
Routine Work. —If showery weather prevails, con¬ 
tinue occasionally to dredge the Asparagus planta¬ 
tions with salt. The spring-planted Artichokes should 
have some assistance with liquid-manure at this time 
to assist them in producing the autumn crop), which 
will be now about showing. Cardoons should also meet 
with the same treatment; some of the early crop should 
be earthed up, in order to blanch them for table. Keep 
the Celery well suckered and earthed in due season; 
and let the earth be well stirred about all late crops. 
Gather Capsicums and Chilies; and pot a few of the 
shortest jointed and best bearing Chilies for the winter 
produce. As soon as the Onions are harvested, manure 
and ridge-trench the ground in readiness for the early 
Cabbage crop. Sow American and Normandy Cress, as 
well as Radishes, in variety; and continue to plant 
Endive in full crop. Plant Lettuce; that sown at the com¬ 
mencement of this month, if now pilanted out in suc¬ 
cession, will come in in readiness to store in frames, 
pits, or temporary shelters, for winter use. Endive, also, 
pricked for the next month to come, may he stored in 
the same way for winter and early spring use. 
A fruitful variety of Cucumber should now be sown, 
or some cuttings struck, of any good sort that has 
been in bearing. If spare frames or pit-lights are at 
command, make use of them at once by taking a crop of 
Dwarf Beans. We produce the French Bean through¬ 
out the whole year by a little contrivance. This 
month we plant them in temporary turf-pits, which 
afterwards come into use for Violets, winter Endive, 
&c. When the nights get longer and colder, if we 
have spare lights, we pint these over them; if not, 
some other temporally shelter: next month we pdant 
inside of the Melon and Cucumber pits. In October we 
commence planting in pots, to be placed on shelves in 
the pine structure, and from that time until March or 
April they are cultivated in pots on shelves, in some of 
the forcing structures, when they are again, for two 
months, produced in pits, frames, and temporary struc¬ 
tures, until they can be produced on warm borders out- 
of-doors. James Barnes. 
MISCELLANEOUS INFORMATION. 
ALLOTMENT FARMING— September. 
By this period, all those who have applied the necessary 
amount of perseverance in cultural matters, will he amply 
rewarded, both in the proceeds of their plot already 
available, and in the prospects of abundance through the 
coming winter. One serious drawback exists, and we fear 
it may prove general throughout the kingdom — the sad 
potato disease has again manifested itself; and here, at 
the period in which this is written, August 14tli, with all the 
virulence which characterised it at a similar period, when 
the disease originally commenced. Many plans have been 
suggested to avert the severity of this evil, but we think the 
very best is to take up the crop the moment any blackness 
appears in the stem itself. We do not think that the crop 
is so seriously endangered whilst the spot is confined to the 
leaf, but when the stems become infested, it is plain that the 
virus is fast taking possession of the whole system of the 
plant, root and all, and no positive gain can accrue to 
the crop thenceforward. People talk of leaving them in 
the ground to ripen after all the foliage has become black¬ 
ened ; but this is a very doubtful procedure. What is 
termed ripening, is doubtless effected through the agency of 
the foliage ; and it is not likely that a half rotten and cor¬ 
rupted foliage can assist much in the elaborations which 
contribute to the ripening process. It is very good practice, 
according to our experience, to cut the haulm down imme¬ 
diately the leaves become, as it were, paralysed by the pro- 
