THE COTTAGE GARDENER. 
207 
! July 23.] 
j vinegar pick a quart of ripe raspberries, cover them with 
i best vinegar, and let them stand 24 hours ; strain it through 
a piece of flannel, make a thick syrup with one pound of 
l sugar, mix it with the juice and boil them together for ten 
| minutes; strain it again and bottle it. If this vinegar is 
kept hi a cool place it will keep good for some years. Only 
! those who have watched by sick beds can know the pleasure 
I with which a cooling drink is received, and surely when it 
can be procured with so little trouble and such little expense 
i it should not be withheld; and although, through (rod’s 
! mercy, sickness may have been a stranger in your dwelling, 
yet come it will, and as we know not what a day will bring 
forth, it is our interest, our duty, to prepare not only for our 
bodily wants but for our spiritual. “Watch, for ye know 
neither the day nor the horn - of your Lord’s coining.”—A 
i Friend. 
ALLOTMENT FARMING FOR AUGUST. 
T’otaxoes. —It is a painful duty to announce the re-ap¬ 
pearance of the potato disease ; not the mere root-rot which 
may be found at times very early in the summer, without 
exciting any very serious apprehensions, but disease at¬ 
tended by the real Botrytis infestans —the name of a para¬ 
sitic fungus, but too familiar to our readers. Such appearing 
in Cheshire, at the period at which these remarks are penned 
(July 14th), so suttieiently alarming as to induce all parties 
to make an endeavour, before the season is too far spent, to 
produce as great an amount of vegetable food as possible, 
which may, should a great emergency occur, act in some 
! degree as a substitute, or at least aid, to an economical 
consumption of the potato. We do not wish hereby to 
cause unnecessary alarm; for, judging from past symptoms, 
it may fairly be inferred that the disease is (as was by most 
well-informed persons anticipated) steadily on the wane; for 
there can be no question but a progressive advance has 
been made both in the productive and the keeping qualities 
of the potato during the last two years. A wise general wifl 
not, however, go to sleep and dream of safety whilst the 
enemy is picquetting within gun-shot, but betake himself 
immediately to at least defensive measures. As first and 
best advice, we say at this period, make an effort to plant a 
few more Swede turnips. No root is more useful, especially 
after Christmas, than this. 
The allotment should be carefully looked over forthwith, 
in order not only to search for blanks, but to see if any 
crop exists which is not flourishing, and which might be 
removed and turned to account at the present moment. 
Such might be the case with late p>eas which have become 
much mildewed, broad beaus much hifested with the fly, 
cabbages which are much clubbed, &c., &c. Now is the 
time to act with some real decision, for most of these 
things may be given to the pig or cow. Early potatoes, 
too, if more than the cottager can consume, should be sold 
forthwith, for these are, or ought to be, too good for the 
pig ; and, indeed, the allotment or cottage garden ought 
at tins tune to teem with materials of no other use than 
to give to the pig, and to increase the bulk of the manure 
I heap. Sometimes the onion crop is much grubbed, and 
the cottager is apt to stick tenaciously to them, although 
| only a few patches of plants remain, which can be expected 
I to survive the wreck; let these, we say, be pulled up 
j forthwith, and roots introduced. The same may be said of 
! the carrot beds; and, indeed, of every garden it may be 
I affirmed, that a keen eye and a decisive mind may at all 
times find occasion to make some re-arrangement of this 
' kind; and it will be found that, with a proper amount of 
earnestness, and a little labour, which only costs the allot¬ 
ment holder the sweat of his brow, enough may be produced 
to purchase the sacrificed store, and something to boot. 
And here we would say, let there be no unnecessary alarm 
. about having too many Swedes, or other store roots, in case 
! the potato disease should not spread. If too many for the 
j cow or pig, or the cottagers family, they may always be ex¬ 
changed or sold. 
Common TritNn>s for winter, if such arc needed, must be 
| sown in the first or second week. Enough of these may be 
| generally grown on some border or nook; not, however, 
beneath the shade of trees, or close to a hedge. The best 
lands are the Stone or the Dutch. The other and more 
keeping roots are, nevertheless, so much more profitable as 
well as more convenient, that we would advise only enough 
of these for the cottager’s wife, and some to produce a few 
early turnip-tops in spring. 
Cabbages. —These are a somewhat important affair; they 
are always useful and profitable. A rather liberal sowing 
must be made in the second week of August; and as the 
ground for their reception will, in all probability, not be 
ready until some of the autumn root crops ore removed, 
a bed must be got ready in a few weeks, and the seedlings 
must be pricked out at three or four inches apart. Those 
who had sown the coleworts as recommended in June, 
should now endeavour to get a few rows out, using a little 
manure. We plant our onion ground with them every year", 
for we so manage our onions as to get them off' the ground 
a fortnight or more before our neighbours. However, it is 
impossible to dictate any given plot for them—modes of 
cropping are so various. We again suggest that all cab¬ 
bages in heart, and getting what is termed ripe, should at 
once be cut and used up; for if they are intended for sprouts, 
the latter will be more valuable, and the plants become 
exhausted by allowing the old heads to remain until they 
burst. _ I 
Winter Greens, <fcc. —Here, again, is another section of i 
most useful articles, for either the house, the cow, or the 
pig. Nevertheless, it is seldom the cottager can afford 
ground enough to make them a primary crop, such are 
generally introduced amongst the standing crops of the early 
summer, such as peas, beans, early potatoes, &c. A severe 
limitation of ground of course renders it imperative on the 
holder to resort to expedients or shifts; for this course 
nothing need be said of an apologetic character; according 
to the old saying, “ Necessity is the mother of invention,” or, 
as the Scotch have it, “ Necessity gars the auld wives trot." 
Whatever be the mode of cropping, certain it is that an 
allotment or cottage garden, well stocked with good cab¬ 
bage, the green kale, good bouncing savoys, and even a 
dozen or two brocolis, for spring, with a patch of forward 
turnips, to produce early turnip-tops, presents a very dif¬ 
ferent appearance to one which, regarding a first crop alone, 
is suffered to become a wilderness of weeds during tho 
autumn and early spring. 
The green hale is assuredly the first on the list as to 
general utility; next we may place the savoy, which is a 
most exceRent companion for a small piece of the cottager’s 
pickled pork, or what folks within a hundred miles of the 
Mersey call “ green bacon ; ” to these may be added a few of 
the Brussels sprouts, on account of their extreme hardihood, 
as also their eligibility for standing thick on the ground; 
they moreover furnish a useful early food for cow or pig in 
March, when they are “running to seed." Of the brucoli. 
tribes we say little, they are of course a luxury; still, where 
allotments are near railways, or close to thriving towns, we 
would have the allotment holder burst some of the ordinary 
trammels of culture, and study in some degree the markets 
near him; where such is the case the cultivation of celery is 
sometimes a profitable affair: we are, however, diverging 
from the strict line of allotment matters, and must return to 
our subject. 
Mangold. —Little need be added here about this valuable 
root; where grown as a secondary crop between potatoes, 
<fcc., care must be taken at this period that the primary crops 
do not overshadow them; weeds must be kept under, and a 
little soil drawn to their stems we have ever found of much 
service. 
Lettuce, Spinach, (fee. —We do not name these as allot* 
ment crops in general, but point to them merely as being 
useful adjuncts, and, perhaps we may add, luxuries when 
attainable, Those who desire to have these things in a pro¬ 
fitable way during the autumn, should sow a pinch of the 
Brown Cos Lettuce and the Prickly Spinach in the very 
earliest part of August, indeed, for the Northern Counties 
such should be done at least a fortnight earlier to be profit¬ 
able. 
Carrots. —By this time at least the main winter crops of 
the Long Siurey and Altringham carrots will require a final 
thinning. As a general rule the majority of carrot crops in 
field culture will have received their final thinning long ago ; 
such, however, is the horror of the carrot grub amongst 
