474 
THE COTTAGE GARDE NEK. 
September 25 
full sun. You have only to believe this, which is far below 
the reality, to see how difficult it must he to preserve ice in 
even the best ventilated houses. There is no way by which 
we can keep ice so well as by making a stack of it in the 
open air, in the form of a sugar-loaf, in the shade, hut not in 
a wood, or among trees, or under their drip. The light way 
to thatch an ice cone is the greatest difficulty, and the great 
secret of keeping ice. The meltings should run off so fast 
as not to damp the straw over it; and to do that, cross 
drains pass under the cone, and lots of faggot-wood over 
the drains, and some straw over the wood, so that the air 
blows right through under the cone, carrying all damp air 
with it. When the covering is made as air-proof as pos¬ 
sible round the bottom of the cone, the ice wastes the faster, 
of course, because damp air is more destructive to it than 
dry air; and confined air —alias air saturated with moisture— 
worse than all; but after all, if you give no more than ten 
or twelve good dinners in the hot season, and do not average 
more than twelve to dine each time, it is far less expensive 
to buy your ice than to store. At all events, v, r e do not know 
how to build a good Ice-house, and there are no good plans 
to refer to, or any book worth a straw on the subject.] 
ROSE CATERPILLARS AND MILDEW. 
“ The Rose-trees, both standard and dwarf, in my garden, 
which is situated about lialf-a-mile from the sea-side, are so 
exceedingly blighted this year, that I shall feel obliged by 
your informing me what measures will be best to adopt 
to prevent a recurrence of the disease another year. There 
appear to be two distinct maladies from which they 
are suffering; in one case, the leaves are covered with a 
whitish mildew, which curls them up; in the other, they 
look as if they had been attacked by a leaf-mining insect, 
which devours the green substance, leaving the leaf quite 
whole, but brown and transparent. I have not been able to 
discover any insect in the fact, but certainly appearances are 
in favour of the supposition.— Thor.” 
[Of all the Rose blights, the two you have sent us 
specimens of are the most common. No Rose-garden is 
ever quite free from the case where the green is eaten from 
the underside of the leaf, from the end of May till 
September; but luckily, the caterpillar, which does the 
mischief is never very numerous, and not at all difficult to 
“ take,” if you look for him early in the morning; but he is 
the smallest of the race, and not unlike the colour of the 
underside of the leaf, therefore, is not so easily seen as 
others : but you can always tell the spot where he is from 
the marks on the upperside of the leaf, and if you rub your 
finger gently over his body he is no more seen ; the least 
touch destroys him, and he must be looked for and so 
destroyed by hand. No messing can reach him properly, 
and, as he is not in legions, he is not difficult to get rid of. 
The powdery leaf shows the common Rose mildew, 
which can only be subdued by dusting flowers of sulphur on 
both sides and on the shoots. The best managed Roses 
are just as liable to it as most others, but a low, damp place 
may encourage it more than a free, healthy place. After 
the end of August, we merely picked off the affected leaves, 
or cut back the affected shoots; but earlier, no such freedom 
should be taken if sulphur can be used.] 
plant blooms best; but on this last point we disagree as 
much as doctors and lawyers; but one thing we all aim at, 
and that thing may suggest to you how to prune your Cassia. 
In all woody plants, we all of us agree to prune down to a 
ripe part. When we want to fill a wall soon, or to have a 
fine, tall bush, or standard sooner, we prune off no more than 
just reaches to a Jinn part of the shoot, and very often that 
part is far from ripe, but we make it do. When we are very 
much confined to space, to elbow-room and to head-room, 
we cut it in to the very last joint; and when we have to do 
with a very free and rambling subject, like your Passion 
llower, we cut it very close also. Therefore, when your 
Cassia is us ripe as you can make it for that season, you may 
prune it long, or short, or middling, according to the object 
you have in view, and the means at your disposal to do it. 
Mr. Eish often recommended standards of this Cass ha] 
WHITE SWEDISH TURNIPS. 
“ In the spring of last year, I had a few plants of White 
Swede Turnip given to me, the seed from which they had 
been raised being said to have been sent direct from Ame¬ 
rica, and considered to he something superior. In the course 
of the autumn, I had some cooked and brought to table 
along with the Common White and Swede Turnips, in order 
to compare their qualities, the result of which was, that I at 
once gave a decided preference to the White Swede as being 
so beautifully mild and delicious. The few remaining Tur¬ 
nips I preserved during the winter; and although they 
were subjected at times to very hard frost, I found that they 
kept as well as our own common Swede. One Turnip, not 
a large one, but well shaped, I planted in the autumn to 
stand for seed; but having soon after to leave that neigh¬ 
bourhood (Durham), and remove into Yorkshire, I took the 
Turnip with me, and early in the spring replanted it; the 
removal, however, causing a delay of at least a month in 
its growth. Since that time it has been carefully attended 
to, and a fortnight ago I had the satisfaction of shaking 
from it exactly half-a-pound of good seed, which to me 
appears rather extraordinary as being the produce from 
one root only. When the seed had well formed in some of 
the earliest pods, and whilst they were quite green, I took 
some of the best I could find, and sowed them on a piece 
of vacant ground, and 1 have now about two score of very 
fine plants, such as will, no doubt, grow sufficiently large 
from which to procure seed next year. I have, of course, 
been labouring under the impression that this While Swede 
is something uncommon in this country. Will you kindly 
inform me whether it is so or not, and impart any other 
information you may bo able to give respecting it. — A 
Subscriber.” 
[There is a white Swede which has been long known in 
this country, but it does not follow that yours is the same. 
You had better, therefore, procure a packet of the white 
Swede, from some nurseryman, and grow it side by side 
with your own, and next year you will be able to judge if 
they are distinct varieties.] 
THE HOUSEHOLD. 
PRUNING CASSIA CORYxMBOSA. 
“ I have a Cassia Corymbosa, which has made shoots near 
three feet long this season, and is very full of bloom buds. 
As it flowers at the points of the new wood, should it not be 
pruned in after bloom is over? If-so, will you kindly tell 
me how close I should cut it in; and when is the proper 
time ?—Theophilus.” 
['The gardeners prune every plant we have to do with, first 
before it blooms; and, secondly, after it blooms. All plants 
which bloom on the current year’s growth, like the Vine, and 
your Passion-flower, and beautiful Cassia corymbosa, we cut 
in very close indeed, or to half the lengths of the young 
shoots, or to full length, except a little oft' the points, ac¬ 
cording to the way and to the shape we mean to grow the 
plant, and also, according to our own notions of how the 
(Wo shall be much obliged by any of our readers 
sending us approved receipts iu cookery, bints for house¬ 
hold management, or any other domestic utilities, for 
insertion in this department of our columns.) 
As this is the season of the year when Damsons, Plums, 
&c., are becoming ripe, and the price obtained for them is 
not so great as formerly, in consequence of the idea that 
they are unwholesome, they may be employed very profitably 
by making them into wine, by proceeding thus :— 
Pltjm and Damson Wine. —Boil twelve gallons of water, 
in which has been placed thirty pounds of strong raw sugar ; 
then bruise in a mortar a quantity of Damsons or Plums, 
that when bruised they will measure, with the stones (which 
endeavour to have broken), about nine gallons ; add them to 
the water and sugar when cold, with one ounce of German 
yeast dissolved; put it into an open tub, and allow it to fer- 
