August 
THE COTTAGE GARDENER. 
209 
in the forcing house after potting, they require to be 
put in a little bottom-heat for a fortnight, as before 
described. For late forcing, such plants are fre¬ 
quently taken up and planted out in a slight hotbed, 
where they generally produce plentifully. I have, 
however, more than exhausted my space upon pre¬ 
paring—the storing and forcing must form matter 
for another gossiping. I must, however, be indulged 
with a few words more, and first as to suitable kinds. 
Kean’s Seedling still maintains its supremacy as the 
best forcer and the most abundant bearer. The 
British Queen is a fine-flavoured noble-looking straw¬ 
berry, but second-rate as to bearing, and should not 
bo forced until the end of January. The old Aber¬ 
deen Roseberry is a free bearer, forces well, but the 
fruit is small, and when forced early not high-fla¬ 
voured. I have had them looking well at Christmas: 
1 will say nothing of their taste. 
Secondly, the soil should be fresh good loam, with 
a sixth part of rotten dung, dried and free from 
worms; if stiff loam, a sixth part of rough lime 
rubbish will be an advantage. 
Thirdly, drainage must be well attended to, and 
yet worms be excluded from the bottom. Place a 
piece of potsherd with its convex side over the hole 
in the pot, above it fully an inch of smaller pieces, 
then a little green moss to prevent the soil mixing 
with the drainage, and a sprinkling of soot, which 
will act the double purpose of a vermifuge and a 
fertilizer. 
Fourthly, potting. Pack the soil rather firm, but 
be sure that the centre of your plant stands out free : 
it must not be buried at all. 
Fifthly, watering. Weak, clear, liquid-manure, 
made from soot and guano, I like best, used alter¬ 
nately with clear water: they must never know what 
it is to flag. In rainy days the pots should be turned 
over on their sides. R. Fish. 
THE KITCHEN-GARDEN. 
As soon as the young cabbage plants are large 
enough to manage prick them out tliickly, so that 
they may be strong and vigorous for permanent 
planting. Encourage the growth of brocoli, kales, 
and winter greens, as well as coleworts, by frequently 
stirring the surface about them, first clearing away 
all the yellow leaves, which, if allowed to remain, 
have not only an untidy appearance but also afford 
a refuge for broods of snails and slugs. A little 
slaked lime should be cast about over all the young 
crops of vegetables early in the mornings, or late in 
the evenings, to prevent the attacks of these pests; 
and baits, either of brewer’s grains or of new bran, 
should be laid in small quantities to entice them in 
numbers together, when they may readily be des¬ 
troyed. The grub family are also very numerous at 
this season, and will be found for the next few weeks 
very destructive to all fresh planted vegetables, if not 
well searched for and destroyed. 
Cauliflowers may be sown to stand the winter, by 
those who may not possess the convenience of hand¬ 
glasses or lights, if a good, dry, healthy spot of 
ground be chosen, after the 20th of this month. 
Those who have the above-named advantages will 
do well to defer the operation until the middle of 
(■September, for, if the weather in the autumn should 
be mild and growing, the plants are apt to become 
too luxuriant and too large; are liable also to severe 
checks in winter and in the early spring months; 
and when planted out at the beginning of the grow¬ 
ing season, instead of progressing favourably, they 
arc likely to start, or button, showing at once a di¬ 
minutive flower of no use, and causing only disap¬ 
pointment after all the previous trouble and expense. 
Lettuces and onions should each have another sow¬ 
ing made to stand the winter, as well as the early 
quick growing kinds of turnips, such as the Early 
Dutch, Stone, and American Early. Another sowing 
also of parsley, which will be found to stand without 
running to seed until next spring, and will supply 
the vacancy between the seeding of the early sown, 
and the coming in of that sown in spring. Parsley 
sown last spring, and which has now become strongly 
established, should have a portion cut back in suc¬ 
cession, so that it may furnish plenty of luxuriant 
curled foliage for winter use. Parsley may be as¬ 
tonishingly improved by the application of chimney 
soot in showery weather, or applied, as is best and 
most economical, in a liquid state. 
Radishes and small Salads should also now be sown 
in succession. James Barnes. 
MISCELLANEOUS INFORMATION. 
MY FLOWERS. 
(No. 40.) 
August is the month in which our annuals are in 
full beauty. When the rose ceases to bloom, which 
is the case, with some exceptions, when July closes, 
the gay variety of annuals hasten to spangle the 
borders, as if to compensate for the loss of the queen 
of flowers ; but nothing can make up for the depar¬ 
ture of the moss and cabbage rose. Those roses 
which still bloom on are delicate and gay, and we 
cherish them because they are roses; but they are 
comparatively scentless, and neither their size nor 
form are so fine as those treasures of the earlier 
months. As July departs I take my first farewell of 
my garden, for when the roses and honeysuckles are 
gone I have little to brighten it, as annuals do not 
bloom handsomely in my soil. The bloom on the 
honeysuckle has been extremely fine, and has lasted 
till quite the end of July, which it has never done 
before. The early promise of blossom was destroyed, 
and I much feared they would not recover from the 
unexpected check; but they soon and completely 
rallied, and came into flower the first week in June, 
exactly one month later than their usual time; since 
then the dry weather permitted them to bloom in 
peace, and they have been one mass of sweetness 
and beauty for nearly two months, through all the 
fine summer days, when they could be fully enjoyed, 
for iu other seasons I have lost half my enjoyment in 
consequence of wet and cold weather in May. Per¬ 
haps some experienced gardener would inform me, 
through the medium of The Cottage Gardener, 
whether I might witli safety cut off the early buds 
of my honeysuckles, so as to throw them into flower 
always in June instead of May. 
Some of our annuals come from afar, to ornament 
our autumnal gardens, and can speak usefully to us 
with their silent “voices.” Perhaps the cottager does 
not know that the fragrant flower we all so much de¬ 
light in, the quiet looking mignonette, comes from the 
“ land of Egypt”—that land so wonderful in its history, 
so full of scriptural iuterest, so awfully impressed 
upon our minds from our earliest childhood, and yet so 
highly favoured in its glorious futurity! This little 
