THE COTTAGE GARDENER. 
295 
August B.J 
gently into the soil, anti scatter over them the smallest dusting of silver 
sand. It would be better to water the compost well before instead of 
after sowing, and then, with a square of glass put over the pot, or a 
bell-glass, set in a cold frame, and kept shaded and close, little more 
water will be wanted until the little plants appear, which the most of 
them will do in a month or two, if the seed be good. When up the seed¬ 
lings must be hardened off by exposure to sun and air, and allowed to 
stand in the seed-pot until March or April. The seed of bulbs must be 
used in a similar manner, but so much care will not be required. If the 
seeds are large, it will be as well to give no water for a short time after 
sowing, but allow them to swell by the moisture they absorb from the 
soil. 
Datura (E . 7).). —This, “with large, pendant, white flowers,” we 
suppose to be the Brugmunsia suaveolens. This has not flowered in 
your greenhouse, not even when cut down, and you wish to know if 
putting it in a small forcing house would assist it, and, if so, when to put 
it in? This plant, if kept in a dormant state during winter, in a warm 
shed, pruned a little and put into a greenhouse in the spring, may be 
turned out into rich compost in the open garden, and will bloom beau¬ 
tifully in the end of summer and autumn ; the blooming may be pro¬ 
longed into the winter by pruning the roots gradually, aud then trans¬ 
ferring the ball to a tub before frost. The plant also blooms well during 
spring, summer, and autumn in the greenhouse; but it should enjoy a 
season of rest during the winter, the wood being so well ripened pre¬ 
viously as to allow the leaves to fall. Such plants cut-in a little in the 
spring, top-dressed with rich compost, and placed in your small forcing 
house, say in February or March, would throw out a number of shoots, 
which should be thinned, and each of these should produce blossoms 
when the plant is moved to the greenhouse, say in May. Those put in 
the greenhouse from the shed, or from underneath the stage, where they 
stood during the winter, treated in the same manner, would come in a 
month or two later. 
Sweet-scented Hoses to Force in Winter {Ibid). — Moss: The 
common moss, Alice Leroy, and Celine. Hybrid Perpetuals: Madame 
Laffay, Duchess of Sutherland, Baronne Prcvost, William Jesse. Bour¬ 
bons: Armosa, Paul Joseph. Tea-scented: Abricots, Ncphctos, Belle 
Allemandc, Sofruno, &c. The two last classes are the easiest to force, 
and need little preparation. 
Campanula Carpatica {Ibid). — It is a perennial, though if the 
seeds are sown early, they may bloom in the autumn of the same year. 
It is easily propagated by divisions of the root, and these bloom betterand 
later than when left untouched. 
Carnations with Different Coloured Blooms {It. V.). —This 
is not at all uncommon. Flowers, especially florist’s flowers, arc liable to 
sport, as it is termed, in this way ; and when they do so frequently they 
are rejected by amateurs because liable to come untrue. 
Wood Labels {Ibid). —You ask “for the most simple way of making 
these.” Have some laths planed smooth, cut into the required lengths, 
and painted white ; when dry write the name with a cedar pencil. 
Potato Haulm Diseased (O. Stevens). —As your potato tubers 
“are not near being ripe” you had better leave them untouched; if 
August proves dry they will ripen, and the disease will not descend to the 
tubers. If you can nip off the diseased tops, if the disease is confined to 
the summits, try the effect of doing so ; but on no account cither cut or 
pull off the major part of the stems. Let every one remember that to 
remove the stems or leaves is to slop the further growth of the tubers ; 
and that the leaves being gangrened is by no means an indication that 
the tubers are so. 
Aphis on Red Cabbage {\V. Wakefield). —The insect on your red 
cabbages, cauliflowers, &c., is the common Cabbage Louse {Ajthis Bras- 
sicee). Dusting the plants with Scotch snuff frequently, and supplying 
the roots abundantly with water and liquid-manure, is the treatment best, 
calculated to destroy the enemy, and to enable your plants to withstand 
their attacks. 
Caterpillars on Pear and Cherry Leaves {S. H. R.). —These 
caterpillars, which you very graphically describe as having “ eaten the 
leaves threadbare,” arc slimy grubs, the parent of which is a saw fly, 
Selandria /Ethiops , which you will find figured and described at page Gy 
of our third volume. Try what dusting with lime will do against them. 
There is no reason, as your Cora lima Fuchsia has reached the desired 
height, why you should not stop it by pinching off the leading bud. 
Australian Seed {A Lady). —Your seeds are of species all good 
hardy greenhouse plants. Defer sowing the seeds till spring, say February; 
sow them in peat-earth, well drained ; a temperature of from 55° to 05° at 
most will suit them well. Keep your seeds in a dry room, hung up in a 
canvas bag, until sowing time- 
Expense of Erecting a Hothouse {A Young Beginner). —Ask the 
builders in your neighbourhood to send you an estimate, describing how 
you wish it built. If 20 feet long and 12 feet wide it ought to be done 
for something under ^£'50. You had better heat it with a flue. If you 
refer to our indexes you will find abundance of information on all the 
modes of heating. What docs for a greenhouse is equally effectual for a 
stove ; for the latter the fire has to be kept up more frequently and longer. 
Orchard {A Staffordshire Inquirer). —Drain your ground and treneh 
it before you begin to plant. Plant on stations , as directed by Mr. 
Errington at page 87 of vol. i. Of Apples , plant for Kitchen use Kes¬ 
wick Codling, Mank’s Codling, Blenheim Pippin, Dunclow’s Seedling, 
Minshall Crab, Bedfordshire Foundling, Norfolk Bcaufin, Hawthornden, 
Herefordshire Pearmain, King of Pippins and John Apple. For Dessert: 
Early Harvest, Early Red Margaret, Kerry Pippin, Early Nonpareil, Pit- 
maston, Pearson’s Plate, Ribston Pippin, Ross Nonpareil, Old Nonpareil, 
Lamb-Abbey Pearmain, Sturmcr Pippin, and Court pendu plat. You wil 
find a list of the best Pears at page 29 of our second volume, with their 
times of ripening. Of Cherries: Early purple Griottc, Early May Duke, 
Black Eagle, Elton, Bigarreau, Florence, Late Duke, Morello, and 
Buttner’s October Morello. You will find full descriptions of these, anil 
of the most desirable Plums, with their times of ripening, &c., at pages 
157 and 178 of our first volume. You can obtain them of any of the 
first-rate fruit nurserymen near London. Plant in October or November 
by all means, but in the month first named if possible. 
Sending Flowers by Post {T. M. W .).—What we said at page 24 fi 
about having the common courtesy ” to send plants to us in boxes that 
could not be crushed, was neither said in anger nor directed against any 
one in particular. If a flower, or other erushable article, is put into a 
pasteboard box with two or three pieces of an old wine cork by the sides 
of the plant, cut of a thickness equal to the depth of the box, the flower, 
&c., is effectually protected from the post-office punch. 
Budding Cherry Trees (T. Ellis). —See what Mr. Errington has 
said to-day ; if that is not sufficient write to us again. 
Strawberries {W. II.). —To have them ripe by the end of April a 
very small amount of artificial heat is necessary. By all means use a 
little fermenting matter inside of jmur pit if possible; but let it be a little. 
You must by no means suffer the heat to exceed 70° on any occasion. 
Your plants may be cither potted (the best plan) or pricked out, a foot 
apart, on good soil, not too rich. The plants must be set to work im¬ 
mediately; and you will do well to have two chances—the Keen's Seedling 
and the British Queen. There must be outside warmth to the pit also. 
Make up your bed in the end of .January ; let the materials be firm, to 
prevent sinking; and plant with balls carefully as soon as the bed has 
settled. Pray read our back numbers on strawberry forcing. Read 
Roberts on the Vine , but do not use the carrion he advises. 
Mildew on Grate Vines {A Constant Subscriber) .—What we said 
last week relative to the mildew on nectarine leaves applies equally to the 
vine. We should sponge every leaf with a weak solution of salt in water 
(say two ounces to a gallon of water), and then dust them with flowers of 
sulphur. To prevent its recurrence try what draining your border will 
do. 
Best Gooseberries (S. B.). —We have had the following from Mr. 
Turner, Necpsend, Sheffield ; they arc very fine, and have not produced 
a sucker. Reds: Slaughterman, Companion, London. Yellows: Ca¬ 
therine, Leader, Drill. Greens: Thumper, Queen Victoria, General. 
Whites : Queen of Trumps, Lady Stanley, and Freedom. For preserving 
and high flavour none are equal to the old Red Warrington. 
Various Questions {J. S., Kingston ).—To prevent swarming, the 
most effectual way is to put a second hive between the stock and the cap 
in which the bees have begun to work. A. cockatoo occasionally laying 
an egg is not a symptom of disease. Your luxuriant Morello Cherry, 
which has been neglected, will probably bear well enough next year, if you 
train in the young wood properly. 
Roses {A Curate's Wife). —Soot water maybe given to roses that 
have done flowering. You can bud perpetual roses on pillar roses that 
arc not perpetual, and you may do so any time till the end of September, 
or as long as the bark will rise ; the evergreen pillar roses are the best to 
work on. Fulgore is the only one of the hybrid perpctuals that we find 
to do well on the Ayrshire section , and the pillar Boursault roses are the 
next best after the evergreen or sempervirens section. See what Mr. 
Beaton says to-day on the subject. 
Roses {F. C .).—Your roses are in a very bad state, indeed. How 
could you expect Mr. Rivers or anybody else to write books or directions, 
or even anticipate that such luxuriant roses as Brennus and Beauty of 
Billiard should be so ruined as to produce only eight inches of wood, 
and that quite bare at the bottom, with thin leaves and little blooms ? 
The “best treatment” for them would be to remove them out of sight, 
and replace them by a fresh stock, after making proper beds for them, 
according to Mr. Rivers’ or our own directions in former numbers. The 
next best plan is to prune them quite close at the end of October, and 
transplant them into fresh rose soil next February. With your “warm 
border sloping to the south,” and your Irish climate, you ought to beat 
Mr. Rivers and all us Englishmen with roses. The brown spots on the 
leaves arc induced by the bad soil in which they grow, or perhaps they 
were only planted last winter, and suffered from spring frosts. 
Preserving Ice {Harriet). —Have nothing to do with building ice¬ 
houses. We shall give you, in good time, directions to keep ice much 
better than in the old extravagant way you propose. 
Ferns {W. II.) —The specimen sent is Asplenium viride , or Green 
Spleenwort. We shall be very glad to receive your notes on hardy Fern 
culture. A wooden tank lined with lead or zinc, the size of the floor of 
your miniature greenhouse (4 feet 6 inches square), and covered with 
thick slate, to be filled with boiling water as occasion required, would be 
the best mode of heating it. We will think over what you say about 
Societies. Other answers next week. 
Vines for a large Window {T. Hill).—' The best black grape for 
your purpose is the Black Hamburgh , and the best white the Chasselas 
mnsque. Peaches and other wall-fruit would not do so well. 
Recipes for Brown Stout and Porter {Ibid). —Avery excellent 
brown stout is made with the following proportions of malt and raw 
grain, and much better than if the liquor were brewed entirely with 
