154 
THE COTTAGE GARDENER. 
[June 6. 
prevented. We should think that your soil requires draining; and we 
should not give liquid manure, but salt about once a month, and in the 
autumn a good coat of well rotted manure, and charred refuse. 
Potatoes not Eartiied-up {George). —If any of the tubers arc close 
to the surface, cover them about an inch in depth with earth. Applying 
such a depth of soil even generally is desirable, to prevent the upper 
tubers from becoming green, and is very different from earthing-up. It 
is quite impossible for us to say why your sitting-hens uniformly have 
addled eggs, whether you have them from your own layers or from else¬ 
where. The nests must be in fault, we should think. Are they damp, or 
incommodious? At all events alter them. Put them down on the ground, 
or raise them so as to be different from what they are at present. Jen¬ 
nings's Indian Rubber Tap will not bear much pressure, and the Indian 
rubber lining, we hear, requires frequent renewal; but Mr. Jennings says 
lie has removed this objection. His direction is, 29, Great Charlotte- 
street, Blackfriar’s-road, London. 
Weevils on Roses (J. S. S.). —These arc the Otiorhynchus sulcatus, 
or Furrowed Weevil. See what we said on the subject at page U) 6 . 
Bee-feeder {W. Whit ear ).—Your fountain bee-feeder is very good 
when it is absolutely necessary to feed bees from the outside and through 
the entrance. We will give it a trial. 
Frosted Roses {R. Wrench ).—We, too, have lost roses to a severe 
extent by the frost at the end of March, which was more severe on the 
27 th than the frosts of 1838 and 1841. Nothing that we know of can now 
be done for them, but to wait patiently in hope that the Midsummer 
growth may push some eyes or buds, which to all appearance are now 
dead. 
.Soils for Flowers (J. D. S.).—Ageratum Mexicanum is an annual, 
but may be kept as a perennial by cuttings, and will grow in any kind of 
garden mould that is not too poor. The Yellow Acacia requires a very 
good open porous soil, such as one-third peat with two-thirds loam, with 
a little sand. Calceolarias, same soil as the Ageratum ; Cyclamens, the 
same as the Acacia; and the Gaillardias, dry good common garden soil. 
Rhubarb Wine (W. Camberwell). —May and June are good months 
for making this. Five pounds of the stalks of Rhubarb, sliced and mashed, 
added to each gallon of cold water. Allow the mixture to remain un¬ 
touched for three days, then pour off the liquor ; add three pounds of loaf 
sugar to each gallon; allow the mixture to ferment in an open tub for 
four or five days, and when the fermentation has ceased draw olf the 
liquor into the cask, and allow it to remain until March, when all fer¬ 
mentation will have finished. Then rack off, and add three pounds more 
sugar to each gallon. This is said to make so good a wine, that a Mr. 
Stone, of Bradford, in Wiltshire, took out a patent for the process. 
Another recipe is as follows :—Add to every pound of stalk, sliced and 
bruised, one quart of cold water; let the mixture stand three days, stir¬ 
ring it twice a day; then strain and press, and to every gallon of liquor 
add three pounds of loaf sugar; cask it, adding a bottle of brandy to every 
five gallons ; suspend by a piece of string a lump of isinglass in the cask, 
and stop it close. In six months, or when the .sweetness is sufficiently 
diminished, bottle for use. 
Vinegar Plant (E. A. E .).—The vinegar made by this is excellent. 
You will find a drawing of it with a description, recipes, &c., at page 94 
of our second volume. 
Plants for Balcony (A. Y. Z.).—You will find a list of these at pp. 
69 and 83 of our present volume. Go to any florist with that list in your 
hand, and select for yourself. 
New Cheese {B. H., Fulham ).—To make this, or, as it is often 
called, Bath cheese, for no other reason that we could ever learn than 
because it is not made there, you must proceed as follows :—To each 
quart of new milk add half a pint of cream ; warm the mixture to 80°, 
and stir in then just enough rennet to coagulate or curdle it. When the 
curd is formed, place a cloth over the perforated bottom of the mould, 
then fill it with curd by the aid of a skimming dish, and cover the ends of 
the cloth over it. As the curd shrinks, add more curd until the cheese is 
of the desired thickness. During this process, a piece of board to fit 
within the mould must be kept upon it, and a pressure of half a pound. 
When the cheese is thick enough, turn it out into a dry cloth, return it 
into the mould, and put on a pressure gradually increased from one to 
two pounds. At night, turn it into another clean cloth, sprinkle it with a 
little fine dry salt, and if enough drained place it on fresh leaves of the 
nettle or strawberry, and cover it with the same. Turn the cheese and 
change the leaves every morning. In a fortnight it is fit for use. 
Cottage Gardeners* Dictionary {S.). —Thanks for your hints ; 
you will find most of them carried out. Wc cannot give estimates, how¬ 
ever, you might as well ask a builder to give you the prices of plants. 
Gooseberries Diseased {X. X .).—Your gooseberries red and 
hardened on one side have been injured, probably, by the severe frosts early 
in May. Some water is softened by mere exposure to the sun, but it is 
only that of which the hardness originates in calcareous salts (salts of 
lime) held in solution by carbonic acid gas in the water. The warmth of 
the sun drives off the gas, and the calcareous salts fall to the bottom of 
the vessel. 
Scour in Calves (T. W. L .).—The best medicine for them is, pre¬ 
pared chalk, two drachms ; powdered opium, ten grains ; catechu, one 
drachm; powdered ginger, half a drachm given in thick gruel once or 
twice a day.— W. C. S. • 
Milk, to ascertain its Purity (S. D. K. T.).—You ask for a 
simple mode of ascertaining this, and we regret that wc know of none. 
The richest of cow’s milk contains 86 parts in every 100, and the poorest 
90. If you were to evaporate 100 grains to dryness, and found less than 
ten grains remained, you might justly suspect that water had been added. 
Propacating the Mulberry {Ibid). —You may do this as you wish 
from one of its large branches. You cannot follow a better plan than that 
detailed at page 104 of the present volume. It is quite impossible for us 
to say with precision how much house sewage is enough for an acre of 
ground; it depends upon the number of inmates, and many other con¬ 
tingencies. If your sewage contains one pound of fertilizing matter in 
every ten pints, you may put on twenty tons per acre, and repeat the ap¬ 
plication once a month throughout the summer. 
Soot as a Manure {J. O.). —You say this mixed with salt and applied 
to potatoes was a failure. IIow, and in what quantities did you apply 
them ? We knew a mail who dibbled holes, put in the sets, then filled up 
the holes with salt, and was the sworn enemy of salt as a manure, because 
the sets he had pickled did not grow ! If we were about putting soot upon 
turnips in a rich soil, wc should sow it over them immediately they 
appeared above ground. 
Verbena Venosa {A. A. A.). —We sec that this plant is marked one 
shilling in the catalogue of Messrs. Henderson, Pine Apple Place, Edge- 
ware-road, London ; but you may get it at the same price of any florist 
who advertises in our columns. 
Names of Plants (L. R.). —Your plant marked A, is a species of 
Lonicera ; and B, Alyssum saxatile. {Mabinogian). —Yours is Lonicera 
Tatarica, or Tartarian Honc 3 r suckle. {A Subscriber, Evesham). —1, Is 
Spireeu opulifoliu, or Guelder-rose-leaved Spirtea. 2 , Nemophila pha - 
celioides. 3, Prunus padus, the Bird Cherry. 
Exhibiting Fuchsias {Northumbria). —If you have three moderately 
well and equally grown fuchsias fit for exhibiting in a stand of three, we 
should not displace from these Scarlatina reflex a, to substitute for it your 
noble specimen of Fuchsia sei'ratifolia. The gardeners are quite right in 
advising you to have uniformity of size. But you should certainly exhibit 
F. serratifolia as a single specimen, and the judges may award you an 
extra prize; for a specimen of this “seven feet high, beautifully fur¬ 
nished, and well-bloomed,” is not to be seen every day. 
Vine Training {W. D.). —Your Black Hamburgh against a wall 
having two branches about four feet long each, you bent each down 
horizontally, and left only two buds on each branch to grow, intending 
next winter to cut out two and leave the other two for fruit bearing, and 
so every year ; but you find the buds have shot up about six inches ; they 
are throwing out fruit. You are taking a wise plan with your young vine, 
but pinch olf the bunches of fruit by all means. 
Keeping a Cow (P. P., A Poor Curate). —You wish to know the most 
profitable way of tilling one-third of an acre of land, for the support of a 
cow. The soil and situation of your land, to us equally unknown, renders 
any precise answer impossible. If your land is grass, and you can water 
that grass, or, still better, irrigate it with the sewage of your house, im¬ 
proved in quality by admixture with cow-dung, or any other rich organic 
manure, and can add to the bulk of this by diluting it with pump-water ; 
and if you soak the land with this us soon as the grass is cut tor your 
yard-fed cow, you will, with proper care, get four or five capital cuttings 
of grass per annum; and, as a cow cannot be fed better than upon cut 
grass and hay, there is no extent of produce equal to this. Wc are try¬ 
ing this ourselves, and it promises to work admirably. If you cannot 
thus irrigate or water your land with liquid-manure, try lucern (and the 
produce of this is much increased by irrigation); keep it clean, and dress 
it with one cwt. of gypsum (it will cost Is 6 d). If you expect, that by 
growing any description of roots you can better support your cow, sow 
the land with carrots (red, if the soil is suitable, and white if it is heavy), 
and with Swedish turnips, in equal proportions—changing the ground 
every year; but if you can manage the grasses in the way to which we 
have alluded, there is nothing equal to that for weight of produce. 
There is one cow, the returns from which were very large, that was kept 
as follows. The plot, to supply the green food, wa 3 rather less than half 
an acre. In summer, per week 3$ bushels of grains, i$ ditto of bran, 
and the produce from 19 perches of red clover and rye-grass, 2 perches lucern, 
17 of white clover and cow grass, 18 of red and white clover, 10 $ of lucern, 
and 2$ of carrots—Total, 1 rood, 29 perches. In winter she had per week, 
grains 8 bushels, bran 4 bushels, hay $ cwt. 
Sticks Across a Hive {J. II. G .).—You say, “ I shall have to send my 
hives every year to the moors, say 50 miles; and I am told by several 
bee-keepers, that sticks across the hive are a great help in keeping the 
comb up.” The objections to sticks across the hives are twofold ; for they 
not only cause much unnecessary trouble to the bees in the construction 
of their combs, but render the extraction of these almost impossible, which 
in the depriving system become necessary; but if it be absolutely 
necessary to remove the bees 50 miles every year, it is more than probable 
that without sticks the combs would be broken down, and the bees 
destroyed. 
Sow Pigging too soon {JV»). —Wc avc inclined to attribute the evil 
to some innate defect in the sow, and not to mismanagement. Moderate 
exercise and moderate feeding is most desirable for breeding animals, but 
after parturition the food should be more nutritious. We do not approve 
of many Swedish turnips for breeding-sows. 
London: Printed by Harry Wooldridge, Winchester High-street, 
in the Parish of Saint Mary Kalendar; and Published by William 
Somerville Oru, at the Office, No. 2, Amen Corner, in the Pariah of 
Christ Church, City of London.—June 6th, 1850. 
