April 21. 
THE COTTAGE GARDENER. 
longed one step after the animal is distressed is worse than 
useless. If the cottage gardener wishes to improve his 
pony’s paces, ho should either employ an experienced artist 
for the purpose, or else ride him out regularly himselt. 
Exercise should never be entrusted to an ordinary servant. 
If a roll in the loosebox, or a range in the paddock, will not 
keep him right in the intervals of his journies, he must be, 
by all means, put into a light little cart, mounted on an old 
pair of carriage wheels, with springs, and set to do a variety 
of little errands and jobs about the place. For instance, in 
hot summer weather, cows are best in the house all day; 
their green fodder then will require carting home for them. 
All the manure from a model little farm-yard should be very 
frequently drawn out, and either spread at once, in rainy 
weather, on the grass land, or thrown in a heap in the 
corner of the field, to accumulate till it is required. The 
ordinary plan of allowing some hundred tons of putrid 
material to rot about the living places of animals and men 
is too barbarous to be permitted without a remonstrance. 
The labour, too, of finally removing such a quantity of 
material when the busy time comes for using it is incon¬ 
veniently felt; though its gradual removal, say once or twice 
a week, or fortnight, can generally be accomplished with 
ease. There are a hundred little operations besides, as I 
have before observed, such as going to market, loading sand, 
lime, gravel, stones, tiles, &c„ in which the pony may be set 
to work. It is very needful, especially at first, to load him 
lightly, and not to let him work in the cart more than half- 
a-day, nor for many days together. In a few months you 
will be delighted to see how his arms and thighs will swell 
out with well-developed muscle ; and as he tugs your little 
chaise up a hill with increased vigour, you will be reminded 
of the story of the strong man and the calf before alluded 
to. No offence to you, gentle reader, in the comparison. 
The cottage gardener’s hay-iield should be slightly ma¬ 
nured over every part of it at least once a year, if not twice ; 
and all his little bit of pasture once in three years. It is a 
salutary rule that the frost should touch your top-dressing 
between the time it is applied and the time that the grass 
or hay comes to be eaten. I am aware of the many advan¬ 
tages resulting from abridging the quantity of meadow 
ground, and growing artificial grasses instead, in the course 
of a regular rotation of crops, keeping the ground in grass 
for two or three years together. But I still suppose that 
among small allotment farmers, and those who occupy their 
glebe lands, there often occur reasons for not disturbing the 
old unbroken sward of favourite meadows. Still, half-an- 
acre, or from that to two acres of land, may be kept with 
great advantage under the plough and spade. Having 
studied a little treatise on Flemish Farming, recently pub¬ 
lished, and also Martin Hoyle’s excellent works, and having- 
some personal experience of the matter, I am inclined to I 
think spade labour and the plough are best combined. I 
have been accustomed to turn over such land frequently 
during the winter, working it in very narrow ridges; the 
alternate falls may, if needful, be afterwards deepened with 
a draining spade. The soil is thus thoroughly exposed 
during frost, I am not partial to heavy manuring, but to 
frequent manuring,' and great variety of crops, clover or 
tares, early potatoes or cabbages, mangold wurtzel and 
turnips, carrots, parsnips, beans, winter potatoes, oats to 
cut for green food, peas and beans, onions, and indeed any 
ordinary crop of the kitchen garden may be cultivated in 
this way. If the pony be not strong enough for the place, 
a shilling or eighteen-ponce will hire a neighbour’s horse to 
help him; but I continually see ground turned over after 
once ploughing, and harrowed, and the rows prepared for 
eaily potatoes, with one horse and a light implement. I 
have done these things myself; though, no doubt, half-a- 
day’s work at a time is enough from one horse, and two do 
the work better. The cottage gardener, however, need never 
send Caleb Balderstone a riding out for want of something 
else for his pony to do. 
So much for exercise, until we begin to drive out for own 
enjoyment. One word here on feeding. The best receipt 
for condition, next to exercise, is a liberal allowance of 
corn, say eight or ten pounds of oats a-day (with carrots, 
and a little bran once a-week), in winter, and five or six 
pounds a-day in summer, when the ponyis turned outatniglits. 
On the contrary, as to hay, you can hardly be too stingy, 
for pony is a gross feeder; will blow himself out if he can ; 
and must not be allowed to gorge ad libitum during the day 
time. He likes a lump of salt always in his manger. Ho 
must learn to be moderate also in his drinking, except at 
night. He is very fond of soft water, and does not like that 
from a pump. In winter, many careful men have always a 
bucket of water before-hand in the stable, which takes ofi 
the extreme cold. A full-sized horse will dispose of a stone 
of oats a day when he is in full work, but he should have 
succulent food at the same time. In one word : oats save 
hay; oats save grooming; oats are the raw material of 
all good horse-flesh; oats give muscular power; oats add 
permanently to the value of the horse, bringing out and 
rounding off the form of the limbs and elevating the fore¬ 
hand. l'eas, beans, Indian corn, and barley, may be, now 
and then, substituted for them with advantage. Two pounds 
of oats, or one feed extra per day, only comes to an extra 
shilling a week; the horse should improve to that extent in 
value by the year end ; but whether that be the case or not, 
you ought to save that much in hay and in the superior 
quality of your manure. There is an ancient witticism in 
the facetiai of Hierocles about a man who was continually 
currying and brushing his horse, but who kept too tight a 
hand on the corn-chest. The steed saw through the hum¬ 
bug of the thing himself, and one day told his master that 
all the rubbing and scrubbing was to no purpose iinless lie 
got plenty of corn. The raciness of the joke, which must 
at one time have raised many a horse-laugh, has nearly 
passed away in the course of two thousand years; but the 
sense remains, Vibgyor. 
TO CORRESPONDENTS. 
[ Bee Flowers (IF. L. T.).— Salvia nemerosa (of Sir W. Smith), and 
Melilotus leucantha, arc the two host, but it is useless planting even 
these, except by the acre. The fields, and the fields alone, supply their 
store of honey. 
Diseased Peacii Shoots (A Thankful Reader).— \ our Peach is, to 
all appearance, a case of badly-ripened wood, to which we have so lre- 
(luently pointed. Probably your border is too rich, and your trees too 
flourishing; a common fault with beginners. Were they ours, and our 
opinion was confirmed on seeing them, wc would open a trench and root- 
prune them. If, however, the trees are weakly, you must look to some 
other cause : we judge by the length of the joints. Our wood has three 
joints where your shoots have only two. There can be little doubt about 
the cause. Lopk back, and see what “your tutor’’ said about stopping 
all shoots at the end of August. 
Sheep (J. B. H .).— 1 The cross-breed between the Welsh Sheep and 
Southdown w'ould answer very well, but the best cross with the \\ elsh 
Sheep would be the Cheviot breed. The best age to put ewes to the ram 
is when they are about eighteen months old. Some breeds would begin 
breeding earlier, but without much advantage.—J. B. 
| Dilwynia juniterina ( H . S .).—Refer again to The Cottage Gar¬ 
deners' Dictionary; you will not find any such thing as Dioncea juni- 
| per inn . The piece of a plant you sent is not a Dioncea at all; it is 
Dilwynia juniperina, a greenhouse plant from New Holland. lour 
JEchmeas will produce suckers round the base of the old plant that has 
flowered, and you may please yourself whether you take them oil and 
make new and more plants, or repot them and allow the suckers to 
remain. In the latter way you will have large plants that will produce 
as many spikes of flowers as there are suckers. 
Orchids (Ibid).— You say you have cultivated—1, Oncidium papilla ; 
2, Aerides odoratum ; 3, Zygopetalum Mackui; 4, Dendrobium nobile ; 
5, Cattleya mossice ; and, 6, Stanhopea tigrina, in a small mixed house, 
where the heat was only 45° at night for several weeks, and one week 
they were in a common greenhouse, the heat of which was frequently 
down to 40°, and they are now doing well. The Oncid, Dendrobe, and 
Cattleya are showing bloom ; the Dendrobe has twenty-three blooms on 
it, and several are open now. You justly observe, this may be interesting 
to many readers of Tiie Cottage Gardener. Your treatment amounts 
only to'this, you have given them a severe rest, and we suppose have 
kept them dry in such a low temperature, and have them now in a 
warmer house, with more moisture, which has caused them to be doing 
well now, and flowering. It is, however, surprising that the Aerides has 
done so well with your treatment, as it is a native of the hottest part of 
India. You do not say whether it is thriving and flowering as the 
others are. 
Cow and Henhouse Combined.— C. IV. says,—“ As some of your 
correspondents speak of the warming of poultry houses, I will mention a 
simple plan, which many probably might adopt, and which has answered 
well with me. I have a shippen with stalls for four cows, and as one or 
two of these were not used, I partitioned one off with some boarding, but, 
chiefly with wire-work, so as to let the warmth from the cows have free 
access. This keeps up a more regular warmth than a stove, and is not 
dependent on any one’s negligence. When the cows go out in the day¬ 
time it gets well ventilated, and in summer, when they sleep out alto¬ 
gether, it is perfectly cool. The wire-work admits plenty of light as well 
as air, and a door behind the cows provides easy access for its being 
cleaned out when the shippen is cleaned every morning. The ease of 
cleaning such places is a very important matter as regards the health of 
poultry. A small hole in t)ie brickwork, near the ground, provides 
entrance and exit. My perches are made of boards, such as are now 
used for-bed-bottoms, four or four-and-a-half inches wide, and an inch 
thick. So perching, the birds neither dirty themselves nor the perches, 
