August 22.] 
THE COTTAGE GARDENER. 
323 
nothing to do with the flowers being single or double. Now, 
the opinion I have formed, and which is entirely founded on 
the experience of the last few years, is, that as regards stocks, 
that by giving them rich and nourishing soil, paying attention 
to situation and drainage, double flowers will he produced in 
greater profusion, and more certainty; and that by a con¬ 
trary treatment the reverse may he expected. For instance, 
last year I sowed seed (saved by myself from single stocks 
growing in the midst of double ones) upon a very rich vine- 
border recently made—not high gardening, you will say— 
facing the south and well drained, the result was about six 
or eight to one in favour of double stocks, l’art of the same 
seed was sown in a small bed about twenty feet from the 
aforesaid vine-border, the situation not so open, and the soil 
very poor, the result was just the reverse, about six or eight 
to one being single. The same thing occurs at this present 
time; a portion of the seed saved by myself was sown as an 
edging to a rose-bed composed of old cow- dung, silver sand, 
and Wanstead yellow loam : of 47 stocks there were only 
six single, and they all together. The other portion of seed 
sown on the same border of poor soil as previous year, the re¬ 
sult was about three or four to one single stock.—.T. It. S. [We 
do not perceive where you differ from Mr. Fish in his ob¬ 
servations at pages 238 fl. He says, “double flowers are 
chiefly produced by cultivation, and are perpetuated by the 
same means.” And, then, after advising that to free-growing 
seedlings rich manure he not given until after the bloom 
appeal’s, and then to give increased nourishment. We have 
no doubt ourselves as to the fact, that a much richer soil 
than is required for the growth of a plant in a seed-hearing 
state, is essential for growing it with double flowers.— Ed. 
C. G. 
Goats. —These animals are very tame, and when reared 
from early kidship by any one, become as much attached to 
their owner as dogs; and will follow him and lay at his feet 
in the same manner. Their habits resemble also those of 
the chamois : they frequent mountainous and rocky districts, 
where they leap fearlessly from rock to rock ; their tiny feet 
keeping them firm on the narrowest paths, which they seem 
proud to tread. Their food is of the kind afforded by such 
situations : the rankest and most aromatic weeds and herbs 
being selected; as also woody herbage, chiefly of an astrin¬ 
gent nature, such as the sloe, rose, and blackberry. With¬ 
out this food (which Nature has pointed out to them) they 
are soon attacked with diarrhoea, or become what is termed 
“ hoven.” Grass, alone, will kill them in a very short time ; 
though a chance attack may be relieved by a dose of common 
salt, administered in water. They delight in heat, which 
never produces vertigo in the goat; and the writer has seen 
them in tropical countries lying on rocks the most exposed 
to the sun, and so heated they could scarcely be touched by 
the human hand. They will endure cold, hut not if they can 
avoid it. Their milk is highly nutritious, when it will agree 
with the stomach.— Busy Body. 
To Prevent Carnations Bursting. —Take a broad bean 
from its pod, cut off both ends, and cut the remainder into 
two or three slices, according to the size. Push out the 
green, part from one slice, and you have remaining a com¬ 
pressed ring of skin. Slip this over a hud of a carnation, 
and let it hang on the lower part of it; by the next day it 
will have collapsed into a tight and scarcely visible bandage. 
—A Parson’s Wife. 
Preserving Fruit.— In addition to the very excellent 
advice given to cottagers for preserving fruit, by “ A Friend,” 
I would offer this, as more economical for cottagers or any¬ 
body else. Instead of tying the jars down with paper dipped 
in brandy, make some stiff paste with flour, spread it on 
writing-paper, and put this over the jars, while quite lwt, and 
the preserve will keep for years in a dry situation. My wife 
lias followed this plan for years, and always with success. 
She used some last week that had been done two years ago. 
—A. Aloes. 
Strawberries.— I have amazing crops; and I never do 
anything to the plants except cutting off the runners. The 
ground in which they grow is as hard as a road, being 
chalky. The sorts I have principally are the Kean’s Seed¬ 
ling, the Pine—an old sort, but the best I know. The 
British Queen and Princess Alice Maude do not seem to do 
well; hut I shall follow your directions with them auother 
year.—W. X. 
TO CORRESPONDENTS. 
*,* We request that no one will write to the departmental writers of 
The Cottage Gardener. It gives them unjustifiable trouble and 
expense. All communications should be addressed “ To the Editor of 
The Cottage Gardener, 2, Amen Corner, Paternoster Row, London." 
Bee Tbap (M. J. P.). —You and others having applied for more par¬ 
ticulars relative to the apparatus for allowing the egress of bees, but 
preventing their return, recommended by Mr. Payne at page 259 : we 
have obtained the following sketch from its inventor, R Antram, Esq., 
Slapton, near Dartmouth. 
! “ This is drawn one-fourth the size of the original, which is four inches 
i wide; but this width must be regulated by that of the hive’s entrance. 
a, are pieces of talc, a quarter of an inch wide, and three quarters of an 
inch long; hinged by being cemented to a strip of narrow ribbon, b, the 
under side of the block; cut out three inches wide, forming a passage 
from hack to front, c, the tin bottom. 
Ivy ( Ivy Lover). —To “cover an unsightly wooden fence with ivy as 
soon as possible, and at the smallest expense,” plant cuttings of the 
broad-leaved or Irish ivy on the most shaded side of the fence in Sep¬ 
tember. Plant the cuttings a foot apart. When well rooted give them 
manure and plenty of soft water in dry weather. You can thin out the 
plants when they become too thick. Each cutting should have a heel ot 
ripe wood, and one joint buried beneath the soil after removing the leaves 
from that joint, and only two leaves be left above ground. 
Oxford Bee Society (A Subscriber).— This dissolved long since. 
Mr. Cotton was its presiding genius; and when he left it was broken up. 
Diseased Rose Leaves (E. C.).—' The leaves you enclosed are very 
severely mildewed. They are covered with the remains of the parasitic 
fungus Puccinia rosce. But the leaves betray ill-management. If you 
mulch over the roots of the trees now, and renew the mulch next March, 
giving water copiously in dry weather, you will not find a repetition of 
such leaves. 
Rhubarb Wine (An Original Subscriber). —In the second receipt, at 
page 154, it is intended that the fermentation should proceed in the cask. 
Do not add the brandy until the fermentation has ceased. Half an ounce 
of isinglass will clarify a large cask. 
Tropceolum Pentaphyllum (S. H. H .).—Let the frost cut down 
your now luxuriant T. pentaphyllum, and the roots, which have large 
tubers, will take care of themselves; but, in case a very hard winter 
should hurt them, you had better spread three or four inches deep of 
coal-ashes over the roots. The habit of the plant is to spread its tuber¬ 
ous roots laterally, and sometimes downwards, so that in a few years 
they depart altogether from their position, or bury their roots too deep, 
therefore it will be necessary to take them up like potatoes every third 
season; and this may be done in October or November, the tubers kept 
dry till next March, then to be replanted in fresh soil. 
Single Pinks and Carnations (Stanley). —It is only by high culti¬ 
vation that these can perchance be rendered double. Mr. Fish’s obser¬ 
vations upon the subject generally apply equally to your flowers in 
particular. 
Pear-tree Baric Split (Ibid). —There is no better application for 
excluding the air and wet than Mr. Forsyth’s plaster, the recipe for 
which is given at page 233 of the present volume. We always use clay 
instead of the wood-ashes, as this renders the plaster more adhesive. 
Guano and Seeds (A Clergyman)—Our correspondent asks us 
urgently to recommend him some party from whom he can obtain genuine 
flower-seeds, because, he says, “ when sowing flower-beds of particular 
colours, I am frequently annoyed by finding my seed not true, and, per¬ 
haps, not more than a third of the proper colour.” Now, we cannot 
specify any particular seedsman, but we will go so far as to say, that if 
you will send your order to any of those who have advertized in our 
columns, you shall have as good seed as can be procured. We have never 
been disappointed in the way you have suffered, except in cases where 
cross-impregnation is very difficult to be avoided. We buy our guano of 
the London Manure Company, 40, Bridge-street, Blackfriars. 
Antirrhinums (J. W. Thame). —We have received your box of seed¬ 
ling flowers. Those numbered 13, 8, and 7, are the best; but all are 
deficient in brilliancy of colour. Your parent plants cannot be good. 
We will give the characteristics you wish for. 
Steaming Apparatus (Devizes). —Thompson’s Registered Portable 
Steaming Apparatus, which received the Royal Agricultural Society’s 
