THE COTTAGE GARDENER. 
221 
Joly 11.] 
Expenses on 04 Aches of Land for the Year 1840. | 
£ s. d. 
To twice ploughing If acres of land, @ 12s per 
acre. 1 E ® 
11 sacks of potato plants, @ 12s . 6 12 0 
Cutting and planting . 1 0 0 
Hoeing and moulding. Olo 0 
Ploughing 1 acre three tunes. 1 16 0 
Carrot and wurtzel seed. 0 4 0 
Planting and thinning wurtzel . 0 0 G 
„ cleaning carrots . 0 1 6 
Hoeing wurtzel three times . 0 15 0 
Taking-up and trimming. 1 0 0 
3 bush, of seed rye. 0 12 0 
Double ploughing 4 acres for oats. 410 0 
2 qrs. of seed oats ... 2 12 0 
Drilling, harrowing, and rolling. 1 5 0 
Scaring birds. 0 10 0 
Harvesting oats . 2 0 0 
Threshing 53f qrs. of oats, @ 2s Dd per qr. 7 7 1 
20 loads of manure, @ 10s. 10 0 0 
Rent, @ ^£4 per acre . 20 0 0 
Rates, taxes, and tithe. -1 0 0 
£74 3 7 
Returns off Of Acres of Land for 1849. 
£ s. d. 
By 1 acre of rye cut green . 9 0 0 
1 „ potatoes sold on the ground. 24 0 0 
Turnips oft' same ground . 8 0 0 
1 ton of potatoes for house use. 5 0 0 
4 sacks of plants. 2 0 0 
0 „ chats for pigs. 0 18 0 
If ton of carrots . 2 10 0 
is „ wurtzel, @ £1. 18 0 0 
53f qrs. of oats, @ £l* . 53 10 0 
17 loads of straw, @ £1 . 11 0 0 
Returns.139 18 0 
Expenses. U 3 1 
05 14 5 
Interest on capital, wear and tear of carts, &c. 5 14 5 
£00 0 0 
THE ERUIT-GARDEN. 
ROUTINE WORK PECULIAR TO THE SEASON. 
Preservation of Fruit. —At this season a very watch¬ 
ful eye is necessary duly to secure the earlier fruits, about 
which so much care has been bestowed during a long 
and untoward spring. The anxious housekeeper will 
be thinking about her preserves; for the stomach must 
be gratified as well as the eye; and without the products 
of the garden, the minds of, at least, the natives of the 
British Isles would be ill at ease. Foremost in this 
category, the depredations of birds may be alluded to. 
It is of little use to ask a gardener to be merciful on 
tliis subject; our splendid British Queen strawberries, 
and our Fastoljf raspberries, as I think, deserve a better 
fate than to be gulped down by impudent blackbirds, 
whose mellifluous notes, however gratifying, may be 
nurtured in a more economic way. 
Of course, most of the readers of this work are on the 
alert betimes, in order to defend their fruits; neverthe¬ 
less, as we write for young as well as old, it is a duty to 
caution against the depredations ot these cratty foes. 
At the risk of being thought cruel, we must say, that 
few things are more effectual for destroying the throstle 
and the" blackbird than iron traps, such as are used for 
rat-catching, only of a very small size. Such may be 
purchased for about eightpence each ; and a single 
cherry or strawberry yvill suffice for a bait. The tops of 
garden walls are a very safe situation in which to place 
them ; here they should be fastened at one end. They ; 
answer quite well on tbe ground near to the crops they 
are intended to protect; but care must be taken or the 
fowls, or some pet dog or cat—not to say young people 
—may be injured by them. 
Much attention is also necessary as to the weather; 
for in some seasons it is difficult to get strawberries 
thoroughly dry, and they will not be satisfactory for 
preserving purposes if gathered when damp. In rainy 
periods, therefore, a greater frequency in the gatherings 
becomes necessary, and all other work should be laid 
aside when proper fruit can be secured. As a general 
principle, both strawberries and raspberries should be 
carefully looked over every afternoon: for the greatest 
amount of depredations committed by the birds is gene¬ 
rally from half-past three until five in the morning. 
Alpine strawberries should now be well watered during 
dry periods; drought being very injurious to them at 
this period, when they are forming those strong trusses 
which are to produce fruit in September and October; 
when, if good, they become useful assistants in the 
dessert. 
Apricots will soon be ripening, and as earwigs are 
most destructive vermin to this valuable fruit, a look-out 
must be made and the enemy destroyed. We are not 
aware that any plan is better than placing bits of linen 
rags in clusters, in the lower parts of the tree; here they 
take refuge at certain periods, and under certain changes 
of the atmosphere ; a day or two’s observation will soon 
exhibit their habits to a sharp observer. Old shoes, with 
a wisp of soft hay in them, or what are termed “ thumb- 
pots,” with hay placed sideways at the bottom of the trees, 
or even in the larger forks formed by the branches 
dividing, will act as very good traps; whilst our great 
carnation growers will tell you of bean-stalks, or even 
the heads of tobacco-pipes. 
The wood of the apricots should be carefully nailed 
down, or otherwise trained, just before the ripening 
period. The apricot fruit probably enjoys the direct 
action of sunlight more than any of our cultivated 
fruits ; and no wonder, when we consider the climate it 
comes from. Let finger-and-thumb stopping be exer¬ 
cised over all young apricots in course ol training ; 
we mean, in stopping those grosser shoots which, in 
gardening phraseology, are apt to “ run away with the 
tree.” _ 
Another point of very great importance is, to have all 
lateral brcastwood of later growth stopped, before it can 
produce any injurious effects as to shade. Be assured, 
the little spurs (on which the principal dependence must 
bo placed for ensuing crops) need not the shade of their 
coarser neighbours; such may keep up a smart root- 
action in their behalf, but at the same time it must oe 
remembered, that they are averse to the perfecting of 
the blossom-bud. 
Vines. —Nothing sooner runs wild than the grape¬ 
vine, whether indoors or out; especially in the latter 
case. No success can be expected, even in the most 
favourable parts of Britain, from out-door vines smo¬ 
thered with useless spray ; the vine-dresser, therefore,^ 
should be on the alert, weekly, from the early part ot 
May until the end of July, or nearly so, pinching, stop- 
[* The oats being very fine in quality, part of them were sold for seed, 
at (wc believe) 26s.—E d. C. G.] 
