4 
THE COTTAGE GARDENER. 
April 3. 
them to fibre upwards, and also to protect such fibres j 
from drought by non-conducting bodies in the height 
of summer. A little half-rotten, damp, old thatch 
strewed over their roots in July, will prove of much 
service, inducing new fibres, and screening those already 
in existence. 
To those anxious for new fruits my lists will ap¬ 
pear meagre, no doubt; but I must again repeat, 
that they are lor those who are not well-informed 
about fruits, and who have no space to squander. We 
have many new Pears with fine names, and a great 
trade is driven in them, doubtless ; many, probably, ot 
high consideration; but although our lively neighbours, 
the French, and John Bull, agree well about the Russian j 
war, I am sorry to observe that they are not equally i 
unanimous about Pears and their culture. 
R. Errington. j 
ASHES FOR SOWING,IN A WET SEASON. 
The ground was so wet at the beginning of March, 
from the cold, drizzly rain after the frost and snow, 
that even on our light soils here it was not easy or 
safe to work it for any of the crops; and knowing that 
“parched” ground is the worst of all for planting and 
for getting in seeds, I adopted the following method for 
getting over the difficulty in my own garden. Last . 
summer I bought a hundred of second-hand sleepers 
from the railway people, piled them up to dry, and 
during the frost, having little else to do, I set about to 
cut them up for firewood; this, with half the quantity 
of coals, enabled me to have roaring fires jn every room, i 
I have been accustomed to hothouses so long, that I 
cannot bear the cold any more than my plants; this ! 
wood, therefore, as it happened, was about the best 1 
purchase I ever made, and the ashes and small cinders i 
from it put me on my legs, when I had hardly a leg to 
stand on, forgetting in my seeds in the cold, wet ground, j 
We never had a worse season for seed, that I remember, i 
than last March. As long as the frost lasted, I took as i 
much care of all my ashes as I would of salt or sugar; 
I poured strong water over it now-and-then, and the 1 
frost fixed the ammonia in a very short time; when it j 
thawed there was no bad smell from it, and J got it as 
dry as I could by turning it over, and by a covering to i 
keep the rain from it; and as soon as some ground I had | 
ridged was half dry, I took an equal quantity of it with j 
the ashes, then mixed them over and over until the heap i 
was a regular mixture. I then passed the whole through 
a small sieve, and o/ all the dressings you ever saw for 
covering seeds with, this was about the best. I had so 
much that 1 could afford to cover all my drill crops 
entirely with the mixture. I put in almost all my sheds 
in drills, except a few flower seeds, and they had half-an- 
inch put over the beds of the same useful stuff, so that 
the ground being wet hardly signified anything against ! 
me this season. Then, if there is anything in the doctrine 
which teaches that ashes retain the ammonia from strong ! 
water, and I believe there is no question on the subject, 
my coverings must help on my seeds considerably 
against the lateness of the season. 1 never experienced 
the practical value of this kind of mixture for covering 
seeds so much before; and 1 would recommend it to 
every one who has a garden. Wood or turf-ashes alone, 
or coal-ashes by itself, is not nearly so good as when the 
two are thus mixed together, because the coal-ashes are 
best for holding the ammonia, and by adding very light, 
pulverised soil, bulk for bulk, the heap covers double 
the quantity oi anything, besides reducing the strength 
of the ammonia, so to speak, so as to be sale for the 
most delicate seeds. 
J he next best mixture would be one-half coal-ashes and 
the other half of burnt earth; the ashes should be quite dry 
and sifted, and the strong water to he poured over them 
before they wore mixed with the burnt earth; if all the 
pruning# and dead wood about the grounds were burnt 
or charred, it would be still better. For the strong 
water, where there is neither horse or cow, or any dung 
to be had, just tell Susan to empty her slop-pail two or 
three times over the ashes, and then there will be no 
want of ammonia, and the thing may be done quietly, 
nobody knowing anything about it. Now, and to the 
end of May, there is no end to the uses for which such 
a heap would come in for; every seed you sow, and 
every plant you turn out of a pot, would soon find the 
use of such a gentle stimulant, and all the bedding- 
plants ought to have a little extra at first, to assist 
against the great change from the pot to the open 
ground. China Asters, Zinnias, and all Verbenas and 
Petunias, with many others, are particularly fond of 
some light, rich compost about their roots at the first 
starting off; the want of it at that critical time is the 
cause why so many hang down their heads, or remain 
stationary for a long while at first turning out. Depend 
upon it, such timely helps are among the grand secrets 
in gardening. It is not science, and all that sort of thing, 
which is so much needed, as plain, common sense, in a 
homely way, which any one may prove for himself in 
one season, and at very little cost. 
STRIKING CUTTINGS. 
There is a new application for striking cuttings just 
come into play, by a gentleman of Surbiton, W. Walton, 
Esq., and not more than a gun-shot from my door, 
which application, if I am not mistaken, is destined to 
do as much for amateurs in that line as The Cottage 
Gardener himself. 
Our great Rose-grower here is the author of the in¬ 
vention; lie has the apparatus in full work now, raising 
seeds and striking cuttings. I have been to see it 
several times, and I never saw such a handy way of 
striking cuttings before. The apparatus, like the 
Wardian case, may be made to mutch the furniture of 
a drawing-room, and be as good for striking cuttings, or 
for raising seedlings, in the clrawing-room, as safely and 
expeditiously as by a tank hotbed, and by only a tenth 
of the expense. 1 intended to have had a drawing of 
the apparatus ready for The Cottage Gardener this 
week, but on seeing the original sketch, there were some 
slight improvements which occurred to me, to which 
the gentleman assented, and another apparatus is now 
in the hands of a skilful mechanic, who will set it up 
in his own shop the moment it is ready. As soon as 
we shall ascertain the exact power of the thing, the 
cost of make, and the cost of working at Surbiton, I 
shall draw up a report of it, and we shall give an en¬ 
graving to explain the working of it. Meantime, my 
object is like that of Sir Benjamin Hall, when he first 
announced his new Board of Health bill—to advise 
parties, who may have similar projects in contemplation, 
not to incur much expense on them, until they see how 
l'ar oar bill, or propagating apparatus, will suit them 
instead. The original is placed against the back-wall 
of a new greenhouse, at the end of the cross passage, 
and the appearance, from a front view, is much like that 
of a writing-desk, the sloping face of the desk being of 
glass, all the rest that one can see is of wood. Now, 
raise the glass-lid of the desk, and, instead of “bills and 
papers,” you have pots of cuttings, and seedling pots, 
in different stages, standing along the bottom, on silver 
sand, the whole as clean and sweet as a new pin, the 
thermometer at 85°, a dew on the inside of the glass, 
the sand is a little damp, and the bottom of the pots, 
from the heat of the sand, may be about 90"; but as the 
pots are merely placed on the sand, not plunged, we may, 
for all practical purposes, imply that the top and bottom- 
