l2 THE COTTAG 
Potatoes. —It may be some use to the excellent 
writer of “ Our Village Walks,” to be informed that 
there is an excellent plau for cooking potatoes, which 
! she would do well to communicate to her poor cottage 
| friends. It is almost universally practised in the 
| northern counties of England, and obviates all the 
! evils she mentions that arise from boiling them in 
i water : I allude to the plan of cooking them by steam. 
A tin-pan, with a lid, is made to fit on a saucepan, 
and has its bottom pierced full of small^ holes; the 
saucepan is employed in cooking any article for dinner 
say, making broth, boiling fish, or turnips, carrots, &c.; 
and at the same time the steam from it passes tlnough 
the perforated bottom of the upper pan, and most beau¬ 
tifully boils the potatoes, without any of the soddening 
effect of water-boiling. The potatoes should first be 
peeled, and the peelings put into the pig’s tub. By this 
plan two operations are conducted at once—a bit of meat 
may be boiling, and broth making, while the steam is 
cooking the potatoes above. The worst potatoes are 
much improved by this mode of cooking, and the good 
ones come out like a flour-ball. 
If the authoress of the Village Walks would like to 
have a potato steamer, I shall be glad to make her a 
present of one, to try and shew to her poorer friends 
for whom she shews such a kind sympathy ; for I agree 
with her that anything one can do to increase the com¬ 
forts and economise the resources of the poor, is both a 
duty and a pleasure. In the south, where fuel is scarce, 
it is an excellent plan to boil potatoes by steam. 
I agree with her iu thinking that the potato disease 
cannot be accounted for, other than as a special 
visitation of Providence; but I believe it was much 
mitigated last year, and may be permitted by Him 
who causes the grass to grow to disappear altogether. 
I would advise her to urge on the allottees she alludes 
to, not to discard potato culture altogether; perhaps 
it would be safe to devote less space to it than formerly, 
but they still should grow some. By planting the early 
roots at once, they may get a crop of turnips after them ; 
and I would say, for their information, that I last year 
saved a considerable portion of mine from disease by 
pulling up the tops as soon as I saw the haulm affected. 
One portion of my crop (the “Farmer’s Glory”), as 
soon as I discovered the black unmistakeable patches 
on the stalks and leaves, was motvn with a scythe close 
to the ground; another portion had the. tops pulled 
entirely up ; the person doing this placed his feet close 
to the stem of the plants, so that the tubers were not 
drawn out of the ground, or disturbed at all. A third 
; portion of the crop was left untouched to see the 
I difference. The result was, that the untouched part 
contained about a third part diseased potatoes ; in the 
! mown part about five per cent, were bad ; and in part 
that had the tops entirely pulled up, there was not 
more than a couple of tainted potatoes in a bushel.— 
A Friend to the Poor. 
Silver Cedar — Polmaise — Arrangement of 
Flowers.— I have to thank The Cottage Gardener, 
as the means of my having succeeded for the first 
time in blooming tree violets and crocuses, in moss, 
this winter; also, for having successfully turned out 
into the open ground, and repotted, some standard 
Fuchsias and a Brugmansia last autumn. I had 
never ventured to plant them out of the pots before, 
but shall never keep them iu again. 
I believe I owe all the hints that have enabled me 
I to accomplish these little successes to Mr. Beaton’s 
papers. I wish it might be any return to him to in¬ 
form him, that the Cedar of Lebanon in my neighbour¬ 
hood presents the same phenomenon as that described 
in his paper on the Silver Cedar, of the neighbourhood 
of Algiers. His mode of expression seems to imply, 
| that lie has never seen the receptacles of the cedar 
E GARDENER. [April 4. 
cones remaining on the branches, and looking like j 
the teeth of a wooden rake set along them. In the | 
case which habitually comes under my observation | 
every year, the cones never fall whole, but scale by I 
scale, leaving the receptacle fixed as before described. 1 
I have preserved a few cones of different species of 
such common firs as have come in my way, and have j 
often looked for a whole ripe cedar cone to add to 
my collection, but have never found any thing but 
scales under the trees. 
Perhaps some of your correspondents may like to 
know, that I have thrice succeeded in invigorating I 
exhausted sea kale plants, by watering them occa¬ 
sionally, when in full leaf, with a solution of nitrate i 
of soda— 3 ounces to 8 gallons of water. It should j 
never be applied over the plants, nor in dry weather. 
Tf left uncut the spring previous, the effect would be J 
greater. Half the bed might be dosed one summer, j 
and half the next. 
I see one of your correspondents asks something 
in reference to a bed of mixed Fuchsias : I have long j 
grown such, from love of variety, combined with want ot 
space; but have come to a conclusion, that a much 
better effect would be produced, in the same space, by 
several small beds instead of one large one, arranged so 
that each should contain two sorts of a somewhat similar 
character. I have named some sorts I grow myself, 
and need hardly say, the stronger growing ones are used 
for the centre, e. g., Eppsii edged with Magnified, 
Exoniensis edged with Olobosa, Gorralina edged with 
Buistii. 
I am also a great admirer of Peonies, and have a 
large bed of them edged with crocuses, of which I mean 
to prolong the interest by planting the interstices with 
summer flowering bulbs. [This is a very good idea. 
What summer bulbs do you intend using?] 
I should be mucb obliged by your opinion of the 
following scheme:—I would propose building a “For¬ 
tune’s pit,” such as is described by Mr. Beaton, with 
the fine passing round the front and two ends, and 
the door in the back at the chimney corner, with the 
addition of a two-light frame to be heated by a pipe 
(with stop-cocks to be used at pleasure) from a boiler, 
over the fire of the Fortune’s pit, which should be 
kept filled from the rain off the roof, having a waste 
pipe communicating with a slate tank inside the 
Fortune’s pit, for watering, that to be also furnished 
with a waste pipe to prevent overflow. I also propose, 
that the fire and boiler shall be enclosed in a hot-air 
chamber, with an opening into the Fortune’s pit—thus 
economising all the heat. This air in the chamber 
should be derived from an external opening, furnished 
with a regulator, on the principal of Dr. Arnott’s stoves. 
It would be sufficiently moistened by the vapour from 
the boiler. Would its passing over the heated iron 
surface of the boiler make it injurious to plants? the 
stove might be brick, and a slate tank stand in place 
of the iron boiler, if there could be flanges made in it 
for the pipe. 
The AW should be fed with air from a drain, pas¬ 
sing under the whole length of the fortune’s pit, with 
an open mouth at the extreme end of the floor, on the 
Polmaise principle, thus keeping up a constant circula¬ 
tion of air in the pit. This opening, and that of the 
hot air chamber, should be provided with means to 
close them at pleasure, and the drain should have a 
second mouth, external to the pit, to be opened when 
the other is closed, if the heat of the flue only be re¬ 
quired. To make the scheme perfect, there should be 
means of making the smoke pass at pleasure through 
the flue round the Fortune’s pit, or up a chimney direct 
from the stove; increase of heat being required for the j 
frame, and not for the Fortune’s pit, this I think could bo 
contrived.—A Flower Lover from Childhood. 
