132 
THE COTTAGE GARDENER. 
May 19. 
Keeping Plants in a Room Upstairs (A Clerk). —We are quite 
delighted with your enthusiasm, and have no doubt you will ultimately 
succeed; but do not attempt too much at once. Recollect that imperial 
Rome was not built in a day, nor yet in an age. You could keep a great 
many things in such a room, to be turned out-of-doors in summer; but 
as your chief aim seems to be to grow and keep the flowers there, we 
regret to damp your hopes ; for you certainly could not grow many at a 
window, with or without a stand, if the window is only two feet five 
inches by three feet five-and-a-half inches. Read over what has been 
said to the “ Engine-House Gardener,” and you will perceive the im¬ 
portance of light. In fact, w atering and feeding a plant, and keeping it 
without direct light, are just synonymous with feeding an animal, and 
depriving it of its digestive organs. Plants could not be kept growing, 
and healthy, at more than three feet from such a window ; if within three 
inches they will be better. Two or three dozen of small plants might be 
kept on a table, or stand, in winter. To keep them from frost, move 
them to the centre of the room at night, or in severe weather. Have a 
wooden shutter for the window, and a cloth to throw over the plants in 
extreme cases. Commence with Fuchsias, Geraniums, Cinerarias, and 
even a small plant of your favourite Camellia. The Cactus you inquire 
about will do very well if you give it plenty of light in summer. See 
what Mr. Fish said the other week, and read the articles on the “ Neglected 
Greenhouse,” as the general hints will just suit you. For such a place, 
patronise light, sandy soil, and be rather shy in mixing up manure with 
it, until you have got more experience. You are quite right about the 
hot-water bottles; good large ones will answer capitally. We suspect 
you have got a ceiling of plaster between the slates and you, or you will 
be scorched in summer and chilled in winter. Could you have placed 
some large skylights in the roof? You could then do greater things, as 
your room would be almost as good as a greenhouse, and the cold you 
could shut out by single or double shutters. After keeping the plants in 
your room in winter, we suspect you would find no difficulty in thinning 
them out, and placing your best ones in other windows in summer. 
Vines in Greenhouse ( Samoth Yellot). —Your Vines need more 
roots added to them, instead of root-pruning. It is a difficult operation 
to renew a bad border without taking up the Vines. Unquestionably 
the border is bad, and the Vines much below the fruitful point. When 
fruit-trees of almost any kind wear out, or become weak through bad 
root-action, they almost invariably wind up their labours by an effort at 
the extremities of the branches. You were not likely to get a “show” 
this season, after suddenly forcing them to the spur-system. Let side- 
shoots be reserved at about a foot apart; stop them at about five eyes, 
and continue stopping their laterals at intervals through the season, 
attending to former advices in The Cottage Gardener ; also apply 
strong liquid-manure if a great drought should occur. 
Grape Blossom becoming Blind (A. R. F.). —Your border is in¬ 
side ; surely the roots have lacked moisture, being over a hot chamber. 1 
Why apply 70° bottom-heat with so low an air-heat as 50° ? The next 
season beware of your chamber ; let Nature have her own way ; the 
proper relation between top and bottom-heat will be tolerably well sus¬ 
tained without resorting to extreme measures. An outside border is a 
very different affair. As to those Vines newly planted, give them fair 
play ; neither burn, nor starve them. Let their laterals ramble pretty 
freely for awhile. Take them in by all means directly, for fear of injury 
to the young spray if done later. 
Feeding Bees (An Inexperienced Bee-keeper). —“A swarm, of last 
year, was brought, in August last, a journey of sixty miles by railway, 
which caused the breakage of several combs, and otherwise so disturbed 
the hive, that the Bees were able to make a very small provision of food. 
They were blown down on Christmas morning, and the hive turned 
upside down, and again blown off the stand on the following Sunday, 
(Little care could have been taken to fasten them securely in their ex¬ 
posed situation.) They were then removed into a dark out-house, and a 
ound-and-a-half of honeycomb introduced into the hive. Subsequently, 
arley-sugar, according to The Cottage Gardener receipt, was given 
regularly, and the Bees still continue to eat it eagerly ; but have become 
very numerous and industrious. How long should the giving of food be 
continued ?” Until the Bees refuse to take it, for when a sufficient 
supply of food can be obtained abroad, they will have nothing more to do 
with barley sugar. 
Spangled Polands (Bearded Polands). —“In a pen of Spangled 
Polands, would laced feathers disqualify? or, if two pens were equal in 
other respects, would the Spangled beat the Laced?” Laced feathers 
are constantly seen on Spangled Polands, especially on the wing-coverts; 
they certainly would not disqualify. Polands perfectly laced throughout, 
are rarely to be met with, but their owner might exhibit with confidence, 
provided all other points were right. 
Golden Polands (Ibid). —“ In Gold Polands, ought the topping or 
crest to be as free from white feathers as possible ? In Gold and Silver 
Polands, are light or dark -grounded birds considered most desirable ? ” 
In Gold Polands we have always wished to see the crest either free from 
all white feathers, or otherwise, entirely white, the latter, however, 
is of very rare occurrence. Many a bird, however, has been rewarded 
with a prize, whose topknot had a considerable admixture of white 
feathers. A main feature of excellence in both the Gold and Silver 
Poland, is the “clearness” of the ground-colour; bright orange- 
yellow in the first, and creamy-white in the second. 
Weight op Bantams (Ibid). —“ What is the store and show weight 
for the Gold-laced ? ” Gold-laced Bantams exceeding seventeen ounces 
in the male, and fourteen ounces in the female bird, must possess points 
of unusual merit to compensate for any excess over these weights. With 
regard to your Shanghae enquiry, you must first tell us the weight, 
shape, and colour of the hens with which you intend to place the cocks 
in question.—W. 
Roosting Place for Siiangiiaes (R. Bosworth). — Your roost 
10 feet long, and 4A feet wide, will not accommodate more than one cock 
and five hens, especially as you must have the nests on the floors. You 
will repent it, if you have the nests erected “ on the top.” 
Pansev Culture (M, C .).—The seed should be sown as it ripens, 
therefore, the time extends from the end of June until September. If 
you buy our 117 th number, you will find an essay there on the culture of 
this flower. We cannot tell why you fail in growing Marvel of Peru, 
unless we are informed exactly how you treat it. Editors, unfortunately, 
have not the gift of cluir-voyance. 
Medlar Blooming but not Bearing (A Subscriber). —Your tree 
being in a rather moist, undrained soil, and shaded by trees, accounts for 
the unfruitfulness. Drain, and give more light. 
Carrot (H. T. .Tames). —The Carrot “ shaped like a peg-top,” and 
“ much used in Belgium,” is the Dutch Short-horn. If you cannot 
obtain it of your seedsman, apply to the Pomological and Horticultural 
Association. 
Pickled Cabbage (Sarah).— To have it of a good colour and crisp, ! 
use strong vinegar, cold, and do not add any salt. To keep slugs from 
vour seedlings, you must sprinkle quick lime about them frequently. 
Have some of the lime in a canvass bag, and shake this over the seed¬ 
lings. 
I Vine Leaves (A Gardener). —We cannot see any Thrips on the leaf 
i sent. It has been scorched, and there are some indistinct symptoms of 
the mildew; but the latter is not decidedly apparent. 
i 
Shanghae Hen Laying Soft Eggs (A. B. C.). —Her egg-passage 
must be in a state of great irritation. Give her three or four pills, each . 
containing one grain of calomel and one-twelfth of a grain of tartar 
emetic. Give her one pill every second day, and keep her on soft food 
and in a warm place. 
! Dorkings with Four Toes (H. S. W.) —We cannot otherwise 
“ come to the rescue ” of your fine fowls than by advising you to continue j 
to breed some as “ Sussex fowls,” by which name the four-toed are 
usually described, and rewarded among “Extra Stock.” The purest 1 
Dorkings will, occasionally, throw four-toed chickens, and the only way 
in which you can avoid it as much as possible is to breed exclusively from 
five-toed pullets, and by another cock similarly characterized. 
Bees (B. R.). —Will some of our readers say where a copy of the poem 
J by Ur. Evans, entitled “The Bees,” can be obtained. An answer to j 
your other question next week. 
Golden Poland Eggs. — Will W, IV. Sims send us his address on a 
stamped envelope ? 
British Wild Flowers (G. T. H.). —If you require a good botanical 
work on these, buy Smith’s English Flora. 
Pears Cracking (M. R.). —As the soil is poor, this probably causes 
the cracking in the fruit of your Easter Beurre. Remove about six inches 
deep of the surface to the distance of four feet all round the tree, and 
fill the hole with a mixture of fresh loam and stable manure in equal 
proportions. Give frequent and very copious waterings over this during 
dry w'eathcr in summer. 
Bees (Rusticus). —You may obtain, for half-a-crown. a copy of 
Gelieu’s work, translated, at Mr. Miller’s, bookseller, 43, Chandos 
Street, Tralfalgar Square. The volume in “ Chamber’s Educational 
Course,” entitled Meteorology, will suit you. 
Fumigating a Greenhouse.—To effect this, M. S. obliges us with 
the following directions:—“ Dissolve four ounces of saltpetre in half a 
teacupful of hot-water, pour it over half-a-pound of tobacco (the common 
kind will do) ; dry it before the fire, and when nearly dry set fire to it 
on an old dish in the greenhouse. It will moulder until all the tobacco 
is nearly burned up, and is most effectual in destroying the insects in 
one night. A greenhouse fumigated in this way scarcely ever requires 
the process to be repeated.” 
| Eggs, Butter, and Milk (Claude). — Can any one seriously argue 
that these are not animal food ? 
Joyce’s Stove (D. J. M .).—Never having used one, we cannot say 
how much fuel a small one will consume in ten hours. 
Names of Plants (T. M. TV .).—The common Coltsfoot, Tussilago 
farfara. (J. P. O.). — Hibbertia volubile, a greenhouse plant. (D. G. 
L’.)-—The white flower, Curdamine trifolia, and the other, Epimedium 
alpinum. (J. A.). —Your cuttings and bloom are of the double-blossomed 
Pomegranate, Punica grunata; it is hardy. 
Braiima-Pootra Fowls. — A Correspondent enquires—“Are the 
Brahma-Pootras a distinct family ? ” Having already expressed our 
opinion on this point we offer now no reply, but we shall be glad if some 
of our readers who know the fowls will give their judgments upon them. 
^ Diseased Geranium-leaves (Ellen Cox). —They are affected with 
the Spot. Keep the roots more active by very weak manure waterings, 
and the air of the house drier. See W'hat is said at page 502 of our last 
volume. 
London: Printed by Harry Wooldridge, Winchester High-street, 
in the Parish of Saint Mary Kalendar; and Published by William 
Somerville Orr, of Church Hill, Walthamstow, in the County of 
Essex, at the Office, No. 2, Amen Corner, in the Parish of Christ 
Church, City of London.—May 19 th, 1853. 
