236 
THE COTTAGE GARDENER. 
August 
Strawberry Grub (Alitclieldean). —The whole of the packet 
you enumerate arrived at our office, and the box was unopened until 
it reached the hands of the editor. There were then no grub or grubs 
in it, but, if he remembers correctly, some dry earth. If the insects had 
been there, they would have been examined and reported upon as 
fully as are all subjects submitted to us, without any favour or pre¬ 
ference, and without any regard on our part to trouble or expense. 
If you can describe the grub, for we presume they have by this time 
entered the chrysalis state, we may still, perhaps, be able to furnish 
the information required. 
Gas Lime ( Euntoniensis ). —You will find two very full essays 
upon the refuse of gas works as a manure at pp. 95 and 105 of our 
first volume. 
Sowing Flower Seeds (T. G. Williams). —Calceolarias, cinnera- 
rias, verbenas, and mimulus, or monkey flower, may yet be sown, 
though rather too late to bloom early next year. Drain your seed- 
pots with, first, a large piece of broken pot or an oyster shell over the 
hole, propping it up with a small piece of pot or slate, to let out the 
water. Upon this place some similar pieces of broken garden-pot, and 
upon them put an inch thick of small broken pots, about the size of 
marrowfat peas. Over the whole put some turfy siftings of peat or 
loam, or of both : this will prevent the soil from choking up the 
drainage. The soil best suited for such things is a compost of light 
loam, leaf-mould, and sandy peat, in equal parts. Fill the pots with 
this nearly up to the rim, press it gently down with a circular piece 
of wood, so as to make it quite level and smooth. Then sow your 
seeds, covering them very thinly with some of the compost sifted 
fine, press this again very gently with the piece of wood, give a gentle 
watering with a very fine rose pot, and place the seed pots in a frame, 
or on a shelf of the greenhouse. Transplant the seedlings into shallow, 
wide pots, thinly, as soon as you can get hold of the plants, placing 
them in the same place again. As soon as they are large enough, 
pot them singly into very small pots, repotting them as they grow 
larger, until you get them into pots 3.J inches diameter, in which 
they may remain till spring. It is too late to sow' scarlet lychnis, 
sweet-williams, and Brompton stocks, to flow'd - next year. 
Bees (G. G. Boyle). —The middle or end of September is the best 
time for taking honey from the common straw hive ; the method will 
be given in our next calendar. Your seeing no drones in your tw'o 
swarms is not at all unusual; the queens in both were late in laying 
drone-eggs, so that though very few went out with the first swarms, 
yet an abundance was in both the second swarms ; and as your first 
swarms were late, there has not been time for drones in any number 
to be bred. We never recommend more than one entrance to a co¬ 
lony, be it ever so numerous. “ Under hiving,” or placing a hive 
beneath that in which the bees are working, is very objectionable, 
because you can never obtain fine honey. On that principle, a box 
cannot be taken away, with safety to the stock, until there are three, 
and then the uppermost, which must at least be one year old ; and 
having once been the bottom one, it has been filled with brood and 
pollen, and the combs thereby very much darkened, and, in all 
probability, many of the cells will be found partially filled with the 
pollen. 
Gladiolus Cardinalis (Ibid). —You ask what depth of covering 
this should have ? Three inches of soil; or, if you mean protection 
covering, three inches of dry coal-ashes, and a thatch to throw off the 
wet. The flower-spikes of G. rumosus branch out occasionally, and 
so do those of other gladioli. The mime is not at all appropriate. 
Irises (Ibid). —Iris Susiana and I. Chalcedonica are the same. 
All the varieties of Iris Xiphium and Xiphioides are handsome, but 
their names are so ephemeral that a selected list would do little good. 
We will get a list of the best tuberous-rooted irises. 
Fuchsia Corymbiflora (Y. '/,.). —This flowers freely if the wood 
is ripened in the autumn. Keep it rather dry after the middle of 
September, and in November prune it back to the ripe brown wood. 
Your own treatment after that ought to agree with it. 
Oleanders (Ibid). —As the flower-buds wither, your oleanders 
are either badly rooted or they want more sun and water while grow¬ 
ing. Keep them in-doors all the autumn, and the tops near the 
glass, and do not let them go to rest till late in November; but, first 
of all , see if the soil in the pots is not too close and hard, if so, pick 
out as much of it from the roots as you can, and add some fresh rich 
loam in its place, using the same pots. 
Cacti done Flowering (Ibid). —The cacti after flowering ought 
to be kept in-doors till their growth is finished, and after that to be 
placed in a sunny situation to the middle or end of September, ac¬ 
cording to the state of the weather. During rain, turn the pots on 
their sides ; too much rain injures their roots. 
Fuchsia Cuttings (T. M. IF.). —You will find instructions how 
to pot off these at p. 253 of vol. i., and at p. 3fi of the present vol. 
Those struck in May should be potted singly immediately. Treat 
F. fulgens as we have directed above for F. corymbiflora. Guano is 
a word of three syllables. Have the colouring matter of your spring 
analized. Any nurseryman in London will supply you with Myatt’s 
Victoria rhubarb. The covers procurable at our office fit the first 
volume exactly. You must have got one of Low’s portfolios. 
Fernery (R. P. B.). —You will find full directions for making 
one at pp. 98 , 108, and 128 of our first volume. 
Sea-kale in Cellar (Ibid). —Self-sown plants, if not very young, 
will do for growing in this way, as directed at p. 102 of vol. i. Full 
grown plants are best for the purpose. 
Catalogue of Plants (S. F. C.). — We will consider your sug¬ 
gestion. Your plant is salsafy (Trapogon porrifolius). It is too 
late for sowing peas at Newcastle. 
Mangold-wurtzel Leaves (II. IF. Livett). —You may pluck 
off the oldest outside leaves, as well as those of your large broeolis 
which did not head in the spring. Boil them before you give them 
to your pig; boil all green food before so emjfloying it, and after a 
month’s trial you will never again give it uncooked. 
Late Strawberry (Ibid).—' The best that we know is the Elton. 
Swainstone’s Seedling occasionally bears a second crop late in the 
autumn. The White Alpine is a perpetual bearer: we have gathered 
a large plateful of this in the middle of December. 
Charcoal (F. S. A). —This should be used in pieces about the 
size of a small nut, and it is mixed with the soil in pots to render it 
porous, and facilitate the drainage. Some persons are also of opinion 
that it slowly forms carbonic acid in the soil, which is beneficial to 
the roots of plants. 
Outside Pages (Rev. II. Parker). —You will see that we have 
anticipated your suggestion, and increased our size at the same time. 
You need not have the first two pages of the Numbers that had only 
two pages of advertisements bound up with the rest. Direct the 
binder to cut them off, or cut them off yourself at the inner marginal 
line. 
Market Gardening (I. and J. How). —We must refer you to 
what we said to similar applications at p. 291 of our first volume. 
You are better qualified for the occupation than those to whom we 
there replied, and the capital you can command (.^TOO) is sufficient 
for your support until your harvest begins, and for stocking your 
plot of three or four acres, if you content yourself with growing only 
those things that are in most general demand; but eight miles from 
one market, and five from another, is a long distance; and, then, is 
there already an abundant supply of garden-stuff there ? You must 
consider these points, and then decide for yourself. 
Cauliflowers (A Subscriber).— If you sow in the third week of 
August, in a sheltered dry border, and prick out the seedlings at the 
end of September in a similar border, most of the plants will stand 
through the winter uninjured, especially if you sprinkle about an 
inch in depth of coal ashes between the plants and close up about 
their stems. We have wintered them thus in Essex, without even 
the protection of a mat. They may be planted out finally early in 
April. Hoses are propagated by cuttings and budding. Rhododen¬ 
drons may be raised from cuttings, but layering is the best mode of 
propagating them (see p. 268, vol. i.). You may still stop and dis¬ 
bud cherry-trees on walls. 
Liquid-manure (A Subscriber, Helensburgh). —The drainage 
from a cowshed is nearly of the same richness as that from a stable, 
and will therefore require a similar amount of water to be mixed with 
it. You may apply it with the greatest advantage between the rows, 
or round the stems, or in shallow trenches near cabbages, cauliflowers, 
spinach, and lettuce, as well as to your flowering annuals in a poor 
soil, as soon as the flower-buds of the latter are well advanced, as 
well as whilst they are blooming. 
Bees (H. G. B.). —Your swarm, put into a common straw 7 hive in 
June, had much better be left there until next year. (B. S. P., Nor¬ 
thampton).— It is too late to put side boxes to your hive; moreover, 
they are at all times objectionable. Although the hive weighs 40 lbs. 
there is no way of getting honey from it without endangering the 
stock. It is quite necessary that hives should be placed so that the 
sun shines upon them the greater part of the day. You had better 
let your stock send out a swarm next year, and hive this into an 
“improved cottage hive,” or into “Taylor’s amateur’s box hive.” 
Whatever may be the weight of your stock at the end of the season, 
on no account destroy the bees for the sake of their store. Had you 
managed them as directed in our calendars, you might have had 20 ibs. 
of honey in a glass, and 30 lbs. in the hive for their winter store. 
Moving Yew-trees (Rev. Jacob Robson). —You state that, “in the 
latter end of February last, two yew-trees of, it is supposed, a hun¬ 
dred years’ growth, were removed from the grounds of Lord Lilford, 
at Atherton, and planted with every care in the church-yard of Tyldes- 
ley, but they scarcely look as if they would live. Being lately in the 
Lake district, you there saw two others, of about the same age, at 
Birtwistle, on the banks of the Windermere, (where a beautiful little 
church has been built by a private individual,) but they look less 
promising even than those at Tyldesley.”—Under these circum¬ 
stances, you ask for our advice. We have heard of yew-trees a hundred 
years old being safely transplanted, and we have moved them when 
they were above sixty years of age, but much depends on the kind 
of soil they grow in. From shallow light soil they can be moved 
easily enough at any age up to a hundred years, for a yew-tree at that 
age is comparatively a young one. They should be well prepared at 
least twelve months previously, by digging out a circular trench two 
feet wide, and a yard from the stem ; every root to be cut off at that 
distance, and the trench to be filled in with light sandy earth. In 
this, young fibrous roots will work freely; and, at removing time, be 
very careful to preserve those young roots. About the end of Sep¬ 
tember is the best time to remove large yews. They should be well 
supported with forked poles to keep them steady, and be well watered 
in dry weather during the next season or two. 
Names of Plants (Y. Z.).—That of which you sent the flower, 
seed pod, and leaf, is Physalis Barbadensis, or Barbadoes winter 
cherry. That of which you sent a sprig is Westringia rosmarini- 
formis. (William T.) —The plant of which you sent flowers and 
leaves is Spircea ulmifolia, a hardy shrub ; that of which you sent 
“ the obovate leaves,” Rhus cotinus, the Venetian sumach. It is 
used for tanning in some parts of Spain. (R. L. B. P.) —The plant 
of which you sent us only a sprig off a very young shoot, we have 
but little doubt is an Acacia, but not determinable without a branch 
with last year’s wood, as so many of them are much alike in this young 
state. You say it is six years old and has not bloomed ; cut one-half 
of its roots now, 18 inches from the main stem, and water it well, or, 
if in a pot, turn it out of doors now, and keep it rather dry through 
the autumn. 
London: Printed by Harry Wooldridge, 147, Strand, in the 
Parish of Saint Mary-le-Strand ; and Winchester Higli-strcet, in 
the Parish of St. Mary Kalcndar; and Published by William 
Somerville Ore, at the Office, 147, Strand, in the Parish of 
Saint Mary-le-Strand, London,—August 2 nd, 1849. 
