THE COTTAGE GARDENER. 
August 
070 
(V I w 
exhaust more sap in throwing out an abundance of lateral branches. 
Gutta percha tubing is excellent for conveying water into a garden. 
We use it ourselves both of one inch and half-inch diameter. Water¬ 
ing strawberries regularly in dry weather is highly beneficial in im¬ 
proving their produce of fruit, but it is very injurious to potatoes. 
Asparagus Seedlings (W. H. Cheetham ).—Let them continue 
untouched until their stems are dead, giving them now a good sprink¬ 
ling of salt, and a weekly soaking with strong liquid-manure. Cut 
down the stems in the winter and cover the bed with manure. In the 
spring, about May, when the stems make their appearance, give another 
sprinkling with salt and liquid-manure weekly. Repeat the winter 
treatment, and in the following April they will be ready for planting. 
Sea-kale seedlings may be treated similarly, but they had better be 
cultivated in the bed where raised from seed. If moved, let them be 
so this autumn. Now is a good time for propagating the auricula 
by slips, and for making strawberry-beds. 
Under-hiving Bees (G. A .).—You were obliged to increase the 
room in a round-topped hive by placing a flat-topped hive under it, 
and you ask the amount of risk if you take the former away ?—The 
amount of risk will be that of the entire destruction of the stock, for 
the queen will be in the upper hive, and should you succeed in dis¬ 
lodging her there will not be sufficient honey in the lower one to 
support the bees during winter ; the best method to adopt will be to 
separate the hives and take away the lower one, which perhaps may 
contain three or four pounds of honey. After separating the hives 
remove the lower one to a little distance, and the bees will leave it in 
about 20 minutes and return to the upper one. The lower hive will, 
in all probability, be found to contain chiefly empty combs. 
Poor Gravelly Soil (E. L. B., Charlton). — Your gravelly soil 
wants tenacity. This can be given by means of either marly or clay 
dressings. Plenty of what is termed “ greasy peat,” also, will prove 
of much benefit, or, indeed, any vegetable matter, even sawdust. 
The latter articles are, however, not enduring or “lasting,” and the 
only permanent basis of improvement is the marl or clay. Your soil 
should produce peas, carrots, parsnips, mangold, kidney beans, and, 
perhaps, dwarf cabbages. Usually, very early and very late crops 
will suit best: we fear the middle of summer will try you severely. 
With regard to your fruit-tree borders, as yours is a case of severe 
need, we fear you will be compelled to crop to within one yard of the 
wall; try and give up the last yard. You may dig as deep as you 
like on the one-half next the walk, but on the next three feet your 
spade must never go above six inches on any account: we have 
grown capital crops for years this way—the deep rooting crops on the 
outer half, and such things as lettuces, spinach, turnips, kidney 
beans, and even dwarf matchless cabbages, on the shallow-dug por¬ 
tion ; using manure freely, and elevating the three-feet-wide portion 
several inches above the ordinary border surface. You will thus have 
at all times two distinct modes of cropping on the same border, and 
a little extra manure will prove a sort of equivalent for spade muti¬ 
lations. As for your standard apples, you may either leave a bare 
circle, or lay it down in turf. Do not, however, bring any spade cul¬ 
ture nearer than six feet from their stems. • 
Vine-leaves turned Brown [Theta). —We do not deem your’s 
a case of blight; a bad root is doubtless the cause. The autumnal 
purple tint on the leaves is quite familiar to us, as frequently accom¬ 
panying a premature and false ripening, caused by an insufficient 
supply of sap from the roots. We have known many vines which 
would blossom, set, and swell off tolerably fair, but when the greatest 
demand was made on their root action, which is about the time that 
they commence their last swelling for ripening them, suddenly they 
give way, and the leaves become discoloured. A bad-rooted vine may 
lie told by an experienced eye in an instant, merely by comparing its 
foliage with any good-rooted ones ; and this from the walk in front 
without going into the greenhouse. You must alter your border ; 
ample directions will appear in Tiie Cottage Gardener before the 
year is out. Nothing can be done to assist you now. 
Improving Light Soil (A Young Reader). —You can only im¬ 
prove the staple of this by adding to it a thick covering of clay and 
chalk, incorporating these with it thoroughly ; manures then will be 
more lasting when applied. 
Tobacco (Leytoniensis). —The time for gathering this to dry for 
fumigating purposes is as soon as the leaves are full-grown and look 
yellowish green. Cut down each plant just within the ground, and 
leave them on the bed to dry during the day if fine, but house them 
in a heap every night. When quite dry hang them up in a dry place, 
and take the leaves for use as you require. 
Thinning Vine Leaves (Ibid). —“ Taking off every leaf opposite 
a bunch of grapes” we think cannot be right under any circum¬ 
stances ; but we are always unwilling to condemn a gardener’s prac¬ 
tice until we know all the facts, or have seen the plant he has operated 
upon. 
Mesembryantiiemum (W. J., Clapton ).—Your plant requires 
very little water, and is best treated as a cold-frame plant. The 
cause of the leaves turning brown is the want of proper drainage to 
the pot, or being left out on cold nights, which were so frequent this 
season. 
Cliantiius funiceus (TV. X.). — This is not a climber, but is a 
good plant to train against a wall like a peach tree. Your gardener 
is right, it is very liable to red spider—but what plant is not if the 
insects are allowed a footing ? 
Sutherlandia frutescens (Ibid). —Propagate this by seeds, 
which it ripens in abundance. The best way to use this plant is as 
an annual, sowing the seeds in peat early in the spring, and turning 
out the plants when the May frosts are over; or as biennials, when 
they would flower a month or two sooner. 
Tweedia cierulea (Ibid). —The cold winds injure the flowers of 
yours, turning them of a bronze hue; it is a beautiful blue flower, 
but one of the worst to grow well in a pot ; all its young wood 
should be pruned down to three or four eyes early in the spring, but 
stopping the points afterwards does it little good. If pruned in the 
autumn, as you suggest, it might begin to grow again, and so be good 
for nothing next season. 
Early Roses as Stocks for Autumn Roses (Ibid). —If your 
early-flowering roses against a wall are strong and healthy , no doubt 
autumnal roses would do to bud on them, but we would not recom¬ 
mend the plan generally as you propose, for unless the two or more 
kinds happen to be of the same constitutional vigour, the strongest 
sort would starve the other. Madame Laffay, Baron Prevost, and 
Duchess of Sutherland, are the best autumn roses that you can buy 
cheap ; but if you refer to back numbers you will see many more of 
that class. We do not think that the great rose growers would send 
you cuttings for budding from ; it would hardly pay for their men’s 
time for gathering, naming, and packing them. 
Persian Yellow Rose (A Constant Reader, Worcestershire ).— 
This, you say, blooms badly and uncertainly, which must arise, we 
think, from its being on a bad stock, for it is not particular about 
soil. Bud it now on an Austrian brier, or on the Boursault rose, or 
on the large old China rose, or on any strong-growing kind of the 
China varieties. It does not flourish if budded on the common dog- 
rose, and in some soils it will not do on its own roots. We find it 
succeed best on the Boursault. It does not require pruning, but the 
weakest shoots to be cut clean out. 
Camellias in Open Air (Ibid). —We know your place very well, 
and in 1829—30 had camellias in the open air without any protection 
whatever, half way between you and the “ Man of Ross.” That was 
a most severe winter, but our camellias flowered the following May, 
as camellias always do in the open air in our climate, that is, not worth 
looking at. They will do just as well at Inverness as in any part near 
Ledbury. It is not the rigour of our winters that is so much against 
them, but our cold easterly winds in April and May while they are in 
bloom; and unless they are artificially protected, and that very care¬ 
fully at that season, they will not produce a healthy blossom out of a 
hundred. The end of May is the right time to plant them out, or as 
soon as their growth is nearly finished. The ground should be light, 
with a dry bottom ; the plants should be healthy with good roots, and 
not younger than five years. Knowing your locality we would not 
advise you to plant them out at all. Sprinkle lime or soot, or both, 
about your hotbed, to destroy the snails. 
Scarlet Geraniums (Rev. C. W. Green). —These, especially the 
Frogmore, are very vigorous, but produce very few blooms in your 
open beds. Cold nights and rich soil must be the cause ; or, if these 
are not the cause, then the Frogmore does not suit your soil. No 
plants are more capricious as to soil than scarlet geraniums. Tom 
Thumb would be most likely to succeed with you. We have been 
obliged to discard both, but the Frogmore wouid not carry a healthy 
leaf with us. Our soil is very dry and chalky. 
Bee Hives (An Original Subscriber). —The size of the hole in the 
small hives and boxes used by Mr. Payne is four inches in diameter. 
G. Neighbour’s “ Improved Cottage Hive, No. 7,” is constructed to 
work five glasses of a pint each ; the price is 31s 6d. The best man¬ 
ner of managing this hive is to put an early swarm into it (a May 
one), and then in about 14 days place the glasses upon it, turning 
aside the zinc covers placed over the holes ; and when a glass is filled 
take it off and replace it by an empty one : a good swarm in one of 
these hives will afford two such glasses per week during the honey 
season. It is desirable to fix a piece of guide-comb in each glass. 
It is not a Aelf-glass that Mr. Payne has had made, but one to place 
under a bell-glass, as described at p. 105, vol. ii. The price is about 
2s 6 d or 3s. No ventilator is attached to this glass. 
Lettuces to stand the Winter for Spring Use (J. W. G., 
Dereham).— The old Egyptian Hardy Brown Cos is not only the best 
but is at all seasons superior in flavour : the hardiest cabbage lettuce 
is the Hammersmith. Two or three sowings of each should be made 
this month and beginning of next. Prick out the largest plants at 
six or eight inches apart, and from the middle of October to the mid¬ 
dle of November select and plant, out on sloping banks, which should 
face on one side the south or south-west, as the sun is likely to injure 
the plants in early spring, before the earth is thawed, if planted 
towards the east, causing them to shank or canker off at the collar. 
Dry cinder-ashes will be most useful in protecting the plants if dusted 
over them on winter evenings, when the soil is saturated with rain 
or melting snow, and frost may be expected; it will also be beneficial 
in draining the soil, if of an adhesive character, and the ashes are 
applied in sufficient quantity. All dry dust, indeed, is useful to most 
winter crops as a protection from frost. Lime rubbish, sweepings of 
wood, peat, or turf, and even common road dust, will all be found 
useful in winter for this purpose. We char a great deal of earth, 
sawdust, old tan, and other refuse, which is still more valuable, as 
the application of these in spring acts not only as a protection but as 
a stimulator also. Your small lettuce plants may be left for spring 
planting in the seed bed, but protect them also by occasional applica¬ 
tions of dry dust. 
Water-cresses (Ibid). —If your water-cresses are healthy, we 
should recommend one-half of the bed to be fresh made by trans¬ 
planting next month, and the other half left until next March, which 
will insure a succession of good cresses for both winter and summer 
use. If yours be the American, or, as some call it, the Land-cress, 
it must be sown on a fresh spot every year, as it is not eatable after 
it starts to seed. Next month is a good time for sowing Normandy 
cress two or three times. This is picked like parsley. 
London: Printed by Harry Wooldridge, 147, Strand, in the 
Parish of Saint Mary-le-Strand ; and Winchester High-street, in 
the Parish of St. Mary Kalendar; and Published by William 
Somerville Orr, at the Office, 147, Strand, in the Parish of 
Saint Mary-le-Strand, London.—August 23rd, 1849. 
