THE COTTAGE GARDENER. 
August 11. 
| 364 
pieces, from twelve to eighteen inches long; tie them at 
right angles in the middle; bend them there, so as to 
form a conical, circular top, and fasten the four ends, 
! at equal distances, to the circular hoop ; cover this 
j frame-work with fine tissue paper, previously brushed 
with oil or grease, and then allowed to dry before being 
used, and you get a first-rate propagating help, that will 
require less shading during the day than glass, and 
j more air when the days are cloudy, and during the 
j night. Propagated in spring, pot as soon as struck, 
and they will make nice little flowering plants in the 
autumn. Propagated now, they had better remain in 
the propagating pots during the winter, or merely be 
shifted into a pot a size larger, without dividing them. 
If you can keep them in the window during the winter, 
so as to keep them growing and green, they will make 
nice plants by Midsummer, if repotted in spring. If 
stored past in a dormant state in winter, the fuller the 
pots are of roots the better, and they will make nice 
plants for the end of summer and autumn. 
4. General Treatment .—I have left little room for 
this. Keep the plants in the window now, with 
plenty of air, until they begin to get shabby; mulch, 
and use manure-water judiciously ; smoke, or wash, 
if you see the appearance of a fly; never let a 
withered leaf or a decayed bloom be seen twice. By- 
and-by, the plants will get a little leggy, the leaves 
will be so-and-so, and a few flowers at the points of the 
shoots may tempt you to keep them where they are 
until every flower is gone. But resist the temptation ; 
turn the plant out-of-doors, in a somewhat shady place, 
for a few days, and then right in the sun, and this will 
harden and ripen the wood, unless you adopt with a few 
the standard or umbrella fashion, train to one stem, and 
in the shape of an acute or an obtuse-headed cone. 
Give no more water when out-of-doors than will just 
keep the plant from flagging. Strive to have almost 
every leaf off before they feel a frosty night. Before 
that frost is so powerful as to injure a bud get them 
under shelter—anywhere will do where the frost cannot 
reach them—and if there is no light, the cooler the 
better, so that there shall be no excitement to growth 
before March, or thereabouts. If the soil is moderately 
moist, and the pots were plunged in damp moss, or in 
saw-dust, &c, there would be little occasion for the 
water-pot during winter. If allowed to get dusty dry, 
the buds will break weak and irregularly in spring. If 
too wet, they will break gouty and irregularly. Before 
wintering, prune off a good portion of the more twiggy 
matter of the plant, but do not cut close to one, or even 
a few buds. To have a mass of early bloom, in such 
circumstances, it is necessary to have as many shoots as 
you want in the spring as equal as possible in point of 
strength, without being obliged to stop any, or only a 
few, of the strongest. If you spurred back in the 
autumn many of the buds would not break at all. As 
it is, when vegetation commences, it will often be ne¬ 
cessary to damp all the stems, and lay the plant down 
so as to get it to break equally all over. I may mention 
that a blanket, sheet, or mats, or dry hay, &c., for 
protecting the tops of the plants in the winter, as men¬ 
tioned by one of our coiTespondents, is a capital idea. 
As soon as vegetation commences sprinkle the heads; 
by the time the buds are half-an-inch in length the 
plants must be brought to the light, and slightly watered 
if they required it, shading them slightly in a bright 
day at first. When the shoots are three-quarters-of-an- 
inch long, repot them, by shaking away the most of the 
old soil, prune away auy old roots, dip the remainder 
for a few minutes in a pail of water, about 05° to 70°, 
allow these to drain, and then repot in a clean pot of a 
similar size, or rather a smaller one than the plant 
occupied before—in the latter case resolving to give the 
plants another shift some six or eight weeks hence. 
The saturating the roots with water is to prevent the 
necessity of soaking the new soil until the fresh roots 
are working freely in it. Until that takes place the 
plants will want the shade, in the heat of the day, of a 
muslin curtain, and the stems, or foliage, to be fre¬ 
quently refreshed with the sponge, or syringe. We 
thus get new shoots pushed from the old roots in the 
old soil, and then we cajole these shoots, by a relative 
action, to produce new roots in the new soil. We act 
exactly on the same principle as we do in .striking a 
cutting. When the balance is getting restored, as the 
appearance of the plant will testify, we finally prune 
back, or rather thin out, the shoots that will not be 
necessary, and these are just the very thing for cuttings. 
By thus keeping up a young stock, the plants need never 
be more than two summers old. The young plants, 
either from spring or autumn striking, if wanted to 
come in after the others, must be pruned later and 
closer in the spring, be kept in the same or another 
window, be turned out-of-doors in April or May, with 
a little protection, such as a cloth thrown over them, 
and stand exposed by the end of the last-named month. 
They will make fine plants to bring in in the end of 
summer, when the older ones arc past their best. 
Nothing will better pay extra attention, in the shape of 
cleanliness, and judicious manure-waterings, and surface- 
mulchings. After May, and right on to the end of 
September, air must be given, and gradually increased, 
to keep the plants bushy. Well supplied with water, 
and pans to stand in, after the middle of June, they 
will do as well outside the window as within it. In 
potting, if you are fortunate to have such turfy soil as I 
have recommended, 1 would keep spades and riddles at 
a distance; break or chop off a piece of the heap, re¬ 
duce it to fragments with my fingers, having most of | 
the pieces the size of peas, for a four-inch pot, and from 
that to vvalnuts for an eight-inch one, and when the 
specified proportion of gritty and manuring portion, if 
deemed necessary, were added, trundle it all, nicely in¬ 
corporated, among the roots, and pack as firmly as 
possible. In using such soil see that it is not too dry. 
If it will adhere slightly, when grasped in the fist, it 
will do. If it leaves the marks of the fingers pro¬ 
minently it is too wet. What I have said, as to soaking 
the roots and not watering soon afterwards, applies to 
plants potted early in spring. Those potted in the 
summer may be soused directly. R. Eish. 
JOTTINGS BY THE WAY. 
( Continued from page 342. ) 
Trentham (the Duke of Sutherland’s).—The lake in , 
front of the house at Trentham is of considerable 
extent, and part of its borders reaching close to the 
hanging wood, which so greatly adds to the beauty of 
the view from the mansion. Through this lake the 
river Trent wound its way. This mansion is, then, i 
situated on the banks of the Trent; and hence its name, ■ 
Trentham— ham, or holm, meaning a dwelling. The j 
river, in passing through the lake, deposited the muddy ; 
part of its waters, thus filling it up, and, in addition, j 
whenever there was a flood, discoloured the water of the 
lake, so as to render it very unsightly. To remedy this, 
Mr. Fleming proposed the extraordinary expedient of 
changing the course of the river, and supplying the 
lake with clear water from the springs in the neigh¬ 
bouring hills. This startling scheme, after some delay, 
the Duke consented to carry into effect, and it is now 
completed. I. saw the river flowing on its quiet, even 
way, in its new path ; and I was informed, that the ex¬ 
pense had been much less than had been anticipated. 
The lake is in the course of being cleansed out of the 
