334 
however, be neither very certain nor very profitable. Beyond 
these things we are not aware that anything else can be 
placed under the head of cottager’s autumn cropping; for it 
will be time enough to speak of autumn potato planting in 
the nest allotment paper. 
Onions. —If any onions remain still on the beds hi agrow¬ 
ing state, they must immediately be bent down with a rake 
or broom. All those loose on the ground should be instantly 
removed and ripened oft’. The onion not only bears, but 
requires, a deal of heat to ripen it soundly; and we do not 
hold with the plan of laying them out-doors on walks, &c., 
at this late period. They had better be put in baskets and 
carried in and out, as the ant dries its winter stores, unless 
they can be placed in some dry room immediately over a 
fire place. Hoping is the best plan for the cottager, and this 
done there will be no trouble with them afterwards. A few 
winter onions may be sown in the first week of September if 
neglected in August. These will be useful to draw young, 
and. also to transplant next March, when, with a rich soil, 
they will produce onions at the very period when the winter 
stores are gone, and the spring sown not come to hand. 
Keeping of Stoke Boots. —It is full soon for these to 
come to hand in any quantity; the time is near, however, 
and a little advice on the general principles connected with 
their sound preservation may be useful. As with the potato, 
so with the carrot, the parsnip, the swede, the mangold, &c., 
dryness is the great essential, and in addition coolness. 
When we say dryness, however, we do not mean subjecting 
the roots to an atmosphere which shall extract their own 
juices. We merely mean a security from rain or snow, and 
a dry situation beneath. AVe have before said that germi¬ 
nation, or sprouting, robs the root of its stores, and that 
such sprouting cannot proceed in an injurious degree with¬ 
out moisture or much atmospheric damp. 
AVe once knew a person pile up a large body of carrots the 
moment they were removed from the field, and, after a strawy 
covering, they were soiled or earthed over, after the manner 
of potatoes. The consequence was, that in a few' weeks they 
were a mass of putrefaction, and no wonder. They were in 
a sufficient body to provoke a high amount of fermentation, 
especially being, as they were, full of the watery matter fresh 
imbibed from the soil. This had no means of escape com¬ 
mensurate with its accumulation ; they were, therefore, sub¬ 
jected to what may be termed a stewing process. 
The longest kept mangold wurtzel we ever knew was found, 
after lying nearly t-svelve months at the bottom of the pit 
(an in-doors one), imbedded in broken straw and dust; this 
mangold, taken out in November, was fresh, or nearly so, as 
when first placed there. 
Pickles.—The ATnegar Plant. —This is the season for 
the cottager, or allotment holder, to lay in a stock of pickles; 
for why should a poor man be debarred the luxury of a zest 
to his piece of bacon or cheese. Of course, red cabbage, 
onions, ghirldns, narsturtiums, <fcc., will readily come to 
mind; but what we would here draw attention to is the im¬ 
mense utility of what is termed The Vinegar Plant.. Our 
readers are many of them, doubtless, acquainted with this 
singular fungus—for so it is. Having, however, tried it here 
for nearly two years, and made our pickles from it, we can 
vouch for its great utility and convenience. Our plan is 
this :—One pound of treacle and three-quarters of a pound 
of sugar to about five quarts of water. These materials are 
placed in a jar with the vinegar plant, and remain a little 
more than a month. A\ r e then draw oif the vinegar, and 
repeat the same process with the plant. But here it may be 
observed, as information to the novice, that the plants repro¬ 
duce or increase frequently; and that such, if permitted to ac¬ 
cumulate, are found, it would appeal- by experience, to absorb 
the vinegar. Our plan, therefore, is, to remove the oldest 
and, of course, thickest plants when a change is made ; for 
these will be found to become much increased both in thick¬ 
ness and firmness of texture. Another point should be 
noted: the old plant on removal is made to repay the amount 
of absorption, by subjecting it to a change of water; and this 
I not being thorough vinegar, we have deemed it expedient to 
j add it to the jar again, in order to complete acidification. 
| AVe keep a paper tied over the jar, as in pickles, and the jar 
stands on a shelf near the kitchen fire; the temperature, 
doubtless, ranging from seventy to eighty degrees on the 
average. Nothing can succeed better, and with us it has 
[August 29. 
fairly superseded all other vinegars—the flavour being equal 
to most of our ordinary vinegars at least. 
MISS MARTINEAU ON COAV-KEEPING. 
“ AVliat I want to gain is not pecuniary profit, but comfort, , 
w'hile, at the same time, I cannot afford to lose by my experi- j 
ment. There are months of the year (and exactly the months 
when my friends come to see me) when I cannot be sure of 
being able to buy enough of meat, milk and cream, and vege- 
tables for my table ; and the vegetables, and milk and cream, j 
can rarely be had good at any season of the year. If, without 
loss, I can provide myself with hams and bacon, fowls and 
eggs, vegetables (except winter potatoes), butter and cream, 1 
I shall be amply satisfied, as far as considerations of the 
purse go. A much higher consideration is, that if I can 
make my plan succeed, it prorides for the maintenance of 
two honest people, who might otherwise have had no pros¬ 
pect but of the workhouse in their old age, and in all seasons 
of pressure meanw-hile. 
“ My land amounts in the whole to less than tw r o acres | 
and a quarter; and of this, part is mere rock, and a good 
deal is occupied with the house and terrace, the drive, and 1 
some planted portions. A year and a half ago, a little more 1 
than an acre of it, in grass, was let for T4 10s. a-year to a 1 
tenant who kept a cow upon it. This tenant never took the 
slightest care of the pasture, and it became so lumpy and 
foul as to be an eyesore from the house. I paid more than 
six guineas a-year to an occasional gardener, w-ho could not , 
even keep things neat in the time he gave to it, much less i 
render my ground productive. If I wanted a ham, I had 
sometimes to pay Tl for it, and for eggs I paid dining three j 
months of the year a Id. a-piece. I never saw cream worthy j 
of the name; and had to get butter from a distance. In the | 
midst of this state of things, it occurred to me that it, might i 
be worth trying whether my land would not produce such 
comfort as I wanted, without increased expense. 
“ Having satisfied myself that it was worth a trial, I wrote 
to you to inquire whether your union would despatch hither 
a labourer whom you could recommend. Besides that we 
are underhanded in this district, I knew that my neighbours 
would laugh at me for proposing to keep a cow and pig on 
my own land, when the rule of the district is, that it takes 
three acres to keep a cow, and when it is the custom for one 
man to undertake the charge of as many acres of land as 
you please, and my neighbours did laugh for a time. They 
said that I was paying at the rate of (kl. a quart for milk; 
they asked how I could possibly find employment for a man 
on two acres of ground; they charged me first with cruelty 
to my cows, in not letting them range on the fell; and then 
of fatting them. Some, however, saw the importance of the 
experiment in the way of example, and have encouraged me 
throughout. I do not yet affirm that the experiment will 
answer,but I believe that it will; and I am sme that the 
comfort of my little household is prodigiously increased by 
it. I do not forget how our success mainly depends on the 
choice you made of a farm servant for me. He is a man of 
extraordinary industry and cleverness, as well as rigid 
honesty. His ambition is roused; for he knows that the 
success of the experiment mainly depends on himself. He 
is firing in comfort, and laying by a little money, and he 
looks so happy that it would truly grieve me to have to give 
up; though I have no doubt that he would immediately find 
work at good wages in the neighbourhood. His wife and he 
had saved enough to pay then - journey hither out of Norfolk. 
I give him 12s. a-week all the year round. His wife earns 
something by occasionally helping in the house, by assisting 
in my washing, and by taking in washing when she can get 
it. I allow her the use of my washhouse, copper, &c., on 1 
condition that the copper is kept clean for the boiling of the 
cow-food iu winter. 1 built them an excellent cottage of th> 
stone of the district, for which they pay Is. (Id. per weyfi : 
They know that they could not get such another off the pc- 
mises for To a-year. 
“ Besides the cottage and washhouse, I had to bifid a 
cow-house, pig-house (for it is not a stye), a poultryfard, 
and hay-house. I consider these under the head of fivest , 
ment, not expenditure. I could let them, with the Hid, at 
any time if I chose to give up cow-keeping. 
THE COTTAGE GARDENER. 
