218 
THE COTTAGE GARDENER. 
July 
and it contains within its closely folded petals a 
sweet liquid, of which insects arc particularly fond, 
and which seems placed there and guarded, as if by 
closed doors, for their especial use. The little crea¬ 
tures force their way in, but the structure of the en¬ 
trance forbids their return, and they effect their es¬ 
cape by gnawing through the extremity of the flower. 
What a beautiful, what a merciful provision, for the 
myriads of little helpless creatures formed by the 
Hand divine! Nothing made by Him is ever for¬ 
gotten, nothing is so small but His eye sees and His 
mercy sustains it! If not for its beauty, yet for its 
use and for its instruction, let us cultivate the inte¬ 
resting snapdragon. There are white and pink va¬ 
rieties—all lovely. They will spring gaily and con¬ 
tentedly from the very wall that surrounds our garden, 
thus helping to beautify what is unsightly in itself; 
and providing, as they do, for the wants of the small¬ 
est of living creatures, do they not loudly and re¬ 
proachfully call upon us to trust fully in Him, whose 
word has declared, “ bread shall be given thee, thy 
water shall be sure.” Let the cottage gardener listen 
again to the language of the flowers of the field, and 
ponder these things in his heart. 
GARDEN HEDGES. 
As in a recent Number (No. 39) you call the 
attention of cottagers to their garden hedges, I beg 
to add my testimony to the importance of that appa¬ 
rently small consideration, but which, I further beg 
to say, is anything but trifling. Whoever goes over 
a farm, the fences upon which being neglected and 
bad, does not at once pronounce the occupier a bad 
manager? The attention now so conspicuously 
paid thereto throughout my neighbourhood suffi¬ 
ciently shews its importance amongst modern im¬ 
provements. I reside in one of the best cultivated 
districts in Lincolnshire ; and the recent general 
amendment of our quickset hedges is astonishing, 
by the plan of slashing (not clipping) them, which, 
being done twice a year, when their periodical growth 
is completed, is easily performed by a slashing 
hook (a one-handed instrument), with which an 
active skilful labourer, in the employ of one of our 
best agriculturists, I am assured, can slash one mile 
of hedges in a day, if undertaken when the shoots 
are young, which must be the case if done twice 
a year. Under this gentleman’s recommendation, 
the towing-path fence of an adjacent canal (com¬ 
prising a length of thirty miles) was put under this 
process two years ago, and now looks more like a 
superior garden fence than that of a public work, 
and this more from the mode of slashing than the 
slashing itself. It is found so efficient that nearly 
all the quick hedges about us are put under similar 
treatment, with the certain results of good and bad 
workmanship. The mode is simply this : it is done 
with a slope upwards, so that a hedge five or six feet 
high, having a base of three feet at the ground, shall 
gradually rise in a cone-like fashion to a point, or 
within three or four inches, at the top. The result 
is, the thorn of which the hedge is composed grows 
from the very bottom to the top. which it never does, 
nor will do well, if cut straight down, leaving breaks 
and defects along the entire fence. 
I was asked by a friend, some years ago, what 
I would recommend as a division fence to some 
gardens he was about to allot to the labourers upon 
his estate. I at once said quickset, not to exceed 
five feet in height, or more than two feet in width at 
the bottom—to be clipped in a cone-like fashion to 
a point at the top. He adopted the plan, and the 
result is most satisfactory with thirty gardens, upon 
about six or seven acres of land. I have found the 
sloping of a laurel screen in my own garden very 
effective, which sci-een, when previously pruned 
straight, never did well.—Q. 
ITALIAN RAY GRASS. 
It is foui'teen years since I first made trial of the 
Italian ray grass, aud with very satisfactoiy results 
where the soil was suitable. It is only a biennial, 
and therefore is not suited for an ingredient in per¬ 
manent pastures or meadows. It is not improbable 
that the duration of this grass may be prolonged, in 
like manner as wheat, it is said, may be rendered 
perennial, by continually cropping it before it has 
completed its flowering state, and by abundance of 
liquid mannre. A moist soil, or abundance of arti¬ 
ficial moisture, seems to be most congenial to it. A 
silicious soil, or a mixture of sand and clay, seems 
to suit it best: its produce on a dry, light, calcareous 
soil is very little superior to that of common ray 
grass. It has been doubted whether this grass bo 
properly a Lolium; and, accordingly, Joshua Rodwell, 
Esq., of Alclerton, near Woodbridge, has separated 
it from that genus, and has assigned it to a new genus, 
under the name of Folium, and he has called this spe¬ 
cies Trifolium, in which nomenclature the Agricultural 
Society’s publishing committee acquiesce. To what 
circumstance it owes its specific name, he, Mr. 
Rodwell, has not explained. This gentleman states, 
in the 2nd vol. of the Royal Agricultural Society’s 
Journal, p. 214, and in vol. 5, p. 280, that he sows 
four pecks of seed to the acre. Mr. Dickinson, in 
vol. 8, p. 573, of the same Journal, states that he 
sows two bushels (but thinks three bushels is better), 
by a broad-cast machine ; or, if sown by hand, four 
bushels to the acre; and, as his success has been 
unexampled, I should prefer either of these two first 
mentioned quantities to Mr. Rodwell’s four pecks. 
Four bushels, however, seems excessive. With 
respect to the time and manner of sowing, it may 
very well be sown with any spring corn without 
injury to the corn crop, in which case it will yield 
some feed between harvest and winter: or it may be 
sown by itself in July or August, or Avith any serial 
crop, or flax, that shall be sown for green meat, 
between the sowing of the spring corn and Septem¬ 
ber, but the earlier it is soavii the more vigorous the 
growth. If abundance of liquid manure can be 
supplied, its powers of production seem to be almost 
unlimited; and no plant appears so likely to enable 
a cottager to keep a cow on a small allotment, if he 
can command an ample supply of sewage, or other 
fertilizing matter; but I fear it is rarely found that, 
with all the industry and carefulness Avhicli a cotta¬ 
ger can bring to bear on the subject, he can make 
more manure than his garden will absorb for the 
production of culinary vegetables. If there be any 
surplus, it could not be better bestowed than on 
Italian ray grass. The plant is most prolific of seed; 
and, though the first purchase is expensive, the cot¬ 
tager will be to blame who does not provide his 
future supplies of seed from his own growth. 
W. P. T. 
PLANTS UNDER TREES—CYCLAMENS, &c. 
There are two plants, both of the same genus, 
Avliich I have never seen in any cottage garden, and 
not often in the garden of any amateur, though they 
are very pretty, quite hardy, and very easily culti¬ 
vated, or, rather, as I shall presently shew, want no 
