346 
THE COTTAGE GARDENER. 
August 14. 
start afresh, but April will be time enough to remove 
the halls and shake off the soil, and to plant the little 
seedlings anywhere round the garden where there is 
room for them. After two or three good waterings they 
are now safe, if the slugs and snails do not get to them ; 
but no one allows these to get about a garden, in these 
days, more than weeds. When I took in my new garden, 
in J 1852, the ground was swarming with slugs, but I 
killed them all that season, by merely laying down 
Cabbage-leaves, under which they flocked, for hiding out 
of my°sight, and I had them destroyed every morning; 
since then, I do not think I have lost a leat by them. 
I used to say I killed thousands of them, but T am sure, 
if I killed one, I killed one thousand, for I never saw 
such lots of them anywhere else. Now I wish all the 
weeds were as easily kept down as slugs and snails— 
not on my own account, for I never allow any weeds 
in my own garden—but from knowing how troublesome 
they are to some people. 
RAISING EVERGREEN BERBERIS SEEDLINGS. 
The next plant, or one of the few which every one 
ought to grow, is the common Evergreen Berbery 
(Berberis aquifolium), which is just at this time full of 
ripe seeds, in clusters like Grapes, of which birds are as 
fond as children are ot fruit; they, too, I mean the 
seeds, must be gathered as soon as the berries begin to 
turn colour, and to be sown as thick as Sweet Reas in 
rows, here and there, wherever there is room, or in a 
bed by themselves, like the old way of having Onion- 
beds; they ought to have one inch deep of covering, 
and no more; they will lie all the winter as they are, 
and never come up till late in the spring ; but they will 
all grow at last, and if they come up as thick as grass 
they will take no hurt the first year, and after that they 
can be handled and planted thinner for a couple more 
years, when they will be fit for any place; they will 
grow anywhere, or in any kind of soil in this country, 
and as they can be increased so fast, and with no kind 
of trouble, they are everybody’s plant, and no one 
ought to be without some of them. There is-one use, 
however, above all other uses, for which I should like to 
hear not only of thousands of them, but millions and 
millions to be planted, and that is in place of turf 
edgings, round beds of shrubs, along shrubberry borders, 
and carriage drives in all villa gardens of less than ten 
acres in extent, and in all other places where less than 
four men are kept on purpose for the garden. No one 
can tell the trouble and expense of keeping turf edgings 
in proper order better than an old gardener; and I have 
no hesitation in saying, that edgings of turf are the 
most expensive things about a garden. To understand 
this, you ought to be up early in the morning, and see 
how the thing is actually done; just watch a man laying 
on his scythe on a verge of grass a foot wide, and as 
long as the end of it is off’, if ever there is an end to it 
at all; inside, on the border, the place is full of some 
plants or another, so that the man cannot take a long 
stretch to cut every time he draws the scythe ; let him 
be ever so handy at other things, you must take him to 
be clumsy now ; but he cannot help it, no one ever 
could at "this awkward job; it is a kind of dod, dod, 
dodging at the best, till all is done, and then it is only 
half done, if so much ; both sides of the verge must 
now be gone over with the edging shears, which are 
always blunt, or always at the grind-stone ; after that 
the top and both sides are to be swept to gather off the 
grass; the broom scratches every little plant on the 
border side, and the stones on the gravel side, and do 
what you will, you cannot help doing some barm on 
both sides; this is to be repeated every week through 
the season ; and if you were to calculate the man’s time, 
you would find that I am not far wrong when I say about 
the expense of turf edgings ; but compare this with that 
of keeping a strong band of the Evergreen Berbery 
between the border and the gravel, and you will find it 
as mere nothing to the expense for turf. 
As to the comparative looks of the two edgings, I hold 
that of the Berbery to be the best of the two by far. 
You may not like it so well at first, but depend on it 
you will soon come round to my way of thinking, and 
wonder the edging has not come into fashion long ago. 
If I had a bed of seedling Berberis to go to next 
October, I would unturf every verge round the garden, 
and dig up the bottom; then plant a row next the 
gravel, putting in the plants so thick that the edges of 
the leaves would touch all along, or all round; then fill 
and tread the earth over the roots, and then stretch the 
garden line six inches inside the first row, and plant 
a second line the same way ; then a third row to finish 
a good broad edging — for I dislike a narrow verge 
above everything. Now, for the keeping in order of 
such a luxury of an edging, all that would be needed for 
the whole garden in one year would be only the work of 
a tidy man for a few hours one afternoon towards the 
end of May in each year, w r hen the plants were all out 
of bloom; then I would order every shoot which grew 
out over the gravel, or over the border, to be cut into 
one straight edge on each side, and all the shoots along 
the band to be cut down to four or five inches, after that 
the bottoms would grow together almost as close as 
grass itself; and my edgings would be finished for one 
year. 1 need not say anything about the extra bloom 
that one would have this way, out of nothing, as it 
were, nor of the feed for bees at the very time when 
it is most wanted; everybody in the country can sec 
at once the beauty of all this; therefore, all that re¬ 
mains for me is to say that this is as easy to do as it 
is for me to write about it. 1 have done it myself, and 
I have seen it done under my directions by people 
who never dreamt of such a way, and everybody likes it. 
I). Beaton. 
Ciiystal Palace. —The report of the Crystal Palace 
Company issued preparatory to the General Meeting, 
states that the amount expended up to the 30th of 
June was 1,231,000Z., and the liabilities to be discharged 
before closing the capital account amount to 45,0002., 
which will make a total of 1,27 5,0002. This is exclusive 
of 65,0002. remaining due on the original purchase of 
land, and against which there are available assets of 
38,0002. Estimating everything, the general result 
coincides with the statement a year ago, that the under¬ 
taking would be completed for 1,300,0002. The estimate 
of 1,0002. a-week for expenditure has also proved correct, 
or, rather, it amounts to about 9002. The net profits of 
the first year (exclusive of 25,786 guinea season tickets, 
which are applicable to tho next year) have been 
66,0002., out of which a dividend of 5 per cent, was 
declared in February, leaving 12,2902. now to be carried 
over. The total number of visitors to the Palace, 
exclusive of season ticket-holders, has been 1,322,008, 
of which 956,232 were from tho opening to the 30tli of 
December, and 365,776 from the 30th of December to 
the 30th of June last. The rental for space in the 
former period was 18,7382., and in the latter only 4,3112. 
Much of the permanent success of the undertaking is 
felt to depend on the increase of the railway facilities, 
and it is expected that the West-end line, which is now 
proceeding with vigour, will be finished in the course of 
next year. The shareholders having already had a 
dividend for the year, none is declared on the present 
occasion; but, if one should be warranted on making 
up the books in December, the directors will call a 
meeting. Sir Joseph Paxton, having brought all the 
works apd arrangements of the building and grounds to 
a point which requires only ordiuary labour for their 
