June 5. 
COUNTRY GENTLEMAN’S COMPANION. 
165 
chariots, when the Lord took off their wheels “ so that they 
drave heavily.” Let us, in all that we see and hear and 
read, mark how essential a thing it is to make the Word of 
God our day-book; how essential a thing it is to do as He 
bids us, whether pleasant or not to the llesli; for we may 
depend upon it, when we go forward in our own strength, 
and according to our own leanings, we shall, at the end, 
reap the hitter fruits that grow on nature’s tree. 
(To be continued ,.) 
ALLOTMENT FARMING.— June 
At this season of the year we may expect colonies of 
Insects to make their appearance. Whether insects are the 
9 ause or effect of disease is still problematical; one party 
contending that a plant becomes unhealthy in consequence 
of the presence of insects that feed upon its juices, prevent 
the elaboration of sap in the leaves, and obstruct the ad¬ 
mission of air ; the other party believing, that as soon as a 
plant becomes unhealthy, either from improper manage¬ 
ment, or from unfavourable atmospheric influence, that 
then, and not till then, it is attacked by insects. That 
insects are the effect of an unhealthy state of the plant, can 
be proved by magy facts. The Turnip crops were every 
season injured, and many seasons they had been entirely 
destroyed by the Turnip-fly. What do we now hear from 
the farmers on the subject? That when guano and other 
stimulating manures are used, the plants grow so quickly 
and luxuriantly that they grow out of the reach of the fly; 
in other words, they grow so rapidly as to bid defiance to 
the fly. To what are we to attribute tlio green fly, red spider, 
mealy bug, and all other insects to be seen on trees, plants, 
and vegetables, but to an unhealthy state of vegetation ? 
The atmospheric influences, and the qualities of soil, are so 
great and so various, that it requires more knowledge and skill 
than falls to the lot of many to combine them in the pro¬ 
portions necessary for the regular progress of healthy vege¬ 
tation. This remark is to be confined more to the culti¬ 
vation of fruit-trees, plants, and vegetables under glass, 
than in the open ground. In the former case, clever 
gardeners are known, by superior management, to grow 
fruits and flowers without trouble from insects. In the ! 
latter case, the atmospheric influences are more beyond 
their control, and, therefore, vegetation is more injured by 
the attacks of insects. 
When we consider that butterflies, moths, beetles, weevils, 
bugs, cuckoo-spit-insects, gall-insects, in short, the greater ; 
proportion of all insects, deposit their eggs on the leaves of 
plants, and that each different tribe chooses its favourite 
sort of fruit, or fruit-tree, plant, or vegetable, wo must 
admit that the economy of Nature is wonderful, and although 
we may not be able to comprehend the wise ordinations of 
Providence, we should, nevertheless, believe that they were 
created for useful purposes. Strange it were, if in so vast 
and complicated a system as Nature presents, objects which 
to us seem useless or hurtful should not occasionally ! 
present themselves as difficulties not easily understood by j 
beings whose views are so narrow and limited as ours. 
In proportion as the knowledge of Nature has increased 
among men these difficulties have diminished, satisfactory ! 
accounts have been given of many perplexing appearances, 
useful purposes have been found to be promoted by objects 
which were at first thought useless or injurious. Amongst 
the many recipes for the destruction of insects are in¬ 
cluded tobacco-water, tobacco-dust, or snuff, soap-suds, 
gas-water, and dipping the points of the branches, or other 
points affected, in a puddle of clay, which, no doubt, in 
many cases, are very efficacious ; but the carbonate of am¬ 
monia (smelling salts) in the proportion of half-an-ounce to 
a quart of water, ejected from a fine-rosed watering-pot or 
syringe, will be the most effectual, under all circumstances, 
for the destruction of insects. 
As the early potatoes are used, the ground should be 
cropped in showery weather with Winter Greens, and a por¬ 
tion sown down with Turnips. 
Endive. —A small sowing may be made about the middle 
of the month, and when the plants are a few inches high, 
about one-third of the tops of the leaves may be cut away, 
which will cause the hearts to develope themselves, and to 
bear transplanting better. 
The Leek is a very useful vegetable and a delicious dish 
in the cottagers family when well stewed and eaten like 
Sea-kale. To grow Leeks large, it will be necessary to trans¬ 
plant them about the end of the month, or when they are 
six or eight inches high ; the long, weak tops of the leaves 
and the root fibres are to be trimmed before planting them 
in hollow drills, one foot apart, and from six to eight inches 
in the row, and to earth-up, as in Celery culture, which 
produces very large, white, succulent stems. 
Swedish Turnips are both nutritious and very palatable 
when well boiled, and may be transplanted with safety in 
showery weather, to fill up any blanks in the allotment 
ground. 
Cabbages _A small bed of any dwarf and compact sorts 
may now be sown for early Coleworts. 
Cookery. —As the superiority of our vivacious friends and 
allies, the French, over our own soldiers, in the facility with 
which they adapt themselves to altered circumstances, in 
availing themselves of the herbs and natural productions of 
the Crimea, to produce both savory dishes and nutritious 
food, has been attested by many correspondents from the 
: seat of war, it is incumbent upon the cottagers of the 
\ United Kingdom, whence the raw material for an army is 
produced, to acquire a more particular knowledge of the art 
of cookery, and the useful properties of many herbs and 
vegetables that are but slightly if at all known by them. 
| How very little is known in this country of the sorts of 
Sorrel that are used very generally by the French and Hutch 
1 in soups, sauces, and salads. Also, the Herb—Patience, 
that will produce several cuttings in a season, and continue 
in a healthy, productive state for many years; it is now 
very much neglected on account of the proper mode of 
using it not being generally known. Many other good and 
useful things are neglected for similar reasons. If M. Soyer’s 
Cookery Book for the Million were more generally circulated, 
it would achieve a vast improvement in the application of 
culinary art to the preparation of diet for tlfe inmates of 
cottages. 
Compost. —Now is the season, when vegetation is making 
rapid and rank growth, to collect all weeds, decaying leaves, 
Cabbage stalks, grass, and road-parings for the compost or 
rubbish-heap. 
Vines truined against the cottage walls must now be 
looked over carefully, and all weak and superfluous branches 
removed; the general fault committed in the management 
of many fruit-bearing trees is to allow too much wood to 
remain, which not only prevents the fruit of the current year 
from receiving the greatest nourishment, but prevents the 
sun and air from having free access to mature the wood 
and buds for the next season. 
Lettuce. —A little seed should now be sown for a suc- 
cessional produce of this most agreeable salad. 
Pinks can now be struck in any shady border, spreading 
about three inches thick of equal proportions of any light 
garden soil, leaf-mould and sand. When the lower part 
of the cutting is stripped of its foliage, and cut to a joint, 
and the soil well soaked with water, it is gently pressed 
between the finger and thumb into the soil; when the air is 
more effectually excluded it will strike more certainly than 
when a dibble is used. 
The same method is recommended for the increase of 
Heartsease by cuttings. 
As Haymaking is an operation frequently spoiled in many 
rural districts, we trust that a short account of the manner 
in which it is carried on in Middlesex, a county celebrated for 
good hay, will be acceptable to the readers of allotment 
farming. In the first day’s process, all the grass mown 
before nine o’clock is tedded, or spread out, great care being 
taken to shake it so as to free it from lumps, and to strew it 
evenly over the whole surface of the ground. It is soon 
afterwards turned with an equal degree of care and attention ; 
and if the number of hands be sufficient, they turn the 
whole again, or at least as much of it as they can before 
twelve or one o’clock. It is then raked into what are called 
single windrows; or so that each person may form a row at 
about three feet distance ; and the last operation of the day 
is to put it up into grass cocks. The business of the sue- 
