September 
THE COTTAGE GARDENER. 
297 
tho boil or beds for tbeso truly noble flowers. Should 
tho situation of the bed be a permanent one, and 
tho soil has been used for several years, it will bo 
necessary to entirely renew it. Make tlio edge of the 
bed firm by treading and boating with the back of a 
bright spade; then stretch a line the entire length, 
and commencing at one end thrust the spado in, 
sloping inwards, to its full depth; draw it out again 
without disturbing tho soil, and repeat tho operation 
till the entire body of soil, insido the bed, is cut off 
from that surrounding it. Commcnco at one end 
and take out tho soil, wheeling it away to some othor 
part of the garden, laying it on as a fertilizer. For 
although it may have lost its nourishing qualities 
for the tulip, it is by no means poor hi respect to 
other plants. For common vegetables, or oven for 
strawberries, it will be found a good application; 
tako it out to tho depth of 16 inches at least, leaving 
tho bottom smooth and level, but by no means bard 
or compressed by being trodden upon. Examino the 
drains, and see them set all right; then lay in a 
covering of very rotten cow-dung, two or three inches 
thick, and upon this place your main body of soil or 
compost, which has been preparing in the compost 
yard for twelve months previously. This compost 
should consist of tho following proportions: seven 
parts good light loam from a pasture field, the top 
spit only; ono part rotten dung, two years old; and 
as much sand as wall make the whole open and work 
kindly. Lay tins compost in your bed of sufficient 
height to allow for settling; and never let it settle 
below the general level, but keep it higher by two or 
threo inches. The bed, however, should not bo 
rounded up in the middle, but kept perfectly ovon to 
receive the benefit of tho rains. We shall return to 
this subject next week. T. Appleby. 
GREENHOUSE AND WINDOW 
GARDENING. 
Campanula Pyramidalis, or the bell-flower, with 
tall pyramid-like flowering stems.—-This good old 
plant, which everybody knows, or ought to know, is 
now going out of bloom, and this is the proper time 
to make a succession stock of plants from it, to 
flower this time two years. 
Propagation, Soil, &c. —About the beginning of 
September is also a good time to sow seeds of it. 
Tho seedling plants will not flower till this time three 
years, at least very few of them will, but nearly a 
season is gained by sowdng the seeds in the autumn. 
The seeds are very small, and if sown now must be 
sprinkled very thinly over the surface of light sandy 
soil in five or six-inch pots. Indeed, all seeds sown 
in the autumn in pots ought to be sown thinner than 
when sown in tho spring, as tho weather is more dull 
and damp, and tho growing season chiefly over, so 
that the seedlings, if they come up vory thickly, are 
in great danger either of damping or bringing up 
each other so weakly that they have no strength to 
pass over a bard or long winter. It has been re¬ 
marked that seedling plants of this tall campanula 
grow much taller than those increased in the com¬ 
mon way by pieces of tho roots and by side slips. 
From five to eight feet is the usual height for this 
class, but seedlings grow some feet higher. Suppose, 
then, we raise a pot or two of seedlings; this autumn; 
they would conic up in a warm window, and perhaps 
that is tho very best place to set thorn in. A cold 
close pit is the next best, but as soon as the seedlings 
arc up they must not be kept close, but liavo air all 
day long. As, if left to themselves to grow wild, the 
plant is quite hardy in England, the same treatment 
as that of the winter mignonette will carry our seed¬ 
lings safe over the winter, and in the spring all tho 
air that tho season will allow of should be given to 
them, and by the end of April they ought to be in a 
fit condition to plant out in tlio open garden. I 
liavo often heard and read that dung is inimical to 
this plant, but the truth is there is no plant in the 
catalogue wliich likes dung better, or is more improved 
by a judicious use of it; therefore, when your seed¬ 
lings are fit to plant out, choose a picco of fight dry 
soil in an open part of the garden, and trench it 16 
or 20 inches deep, and you may mix one-third its 
own bulk of rotten dung with it, if you liavo it to 
spare; or if you wore to open a trench 18 inches 
deep and two or three yards long, and fill it up to 
the top as they fill celery trenches, that is, with half 
muck and half good soil from a compost heap, and 
sprinkle two inches of the common soil on tho top, 
you will have one of the best beds for the out-door 
culture of the campanula (whether raised as seed¬ 
lings or in the usual way) that can be made. If you 
have plenty of seedlings you may put them in four 
or five inches apart, as probably the slugs and grubs 
may want a taste of them, and cold easterly winds in 
May will not add to their number or size; but as 
soon as they begin to spread out their leaves, thin 
them out by degrees: by the end of July you may 
find that a foot apart is not too much for them, and 
in making your bed or trench you may calculate the 
space with reference to this final distance. They 
do best in a single row, and to stand south and north 
if possiblo. In hot weather soapsuds or other weak 
liquid manure must be given them, for although with 
their succulent thick roots they can stand a smart 
drought, it is not good policy ever to let them got dry 
or anything like it. Keep the surface soil as sedu¬ 
lously stirred about them as Mr. Barnes would for 
his best kitchen crop, and by the end of the first season 
they will have made such progress as late spring- 
sown plants would make in two seasons’ growth, and, 
with the rich compost and still richer waterings, they 
are so succulent that it would be very dangerous to 
trust them to the frost without protection. The best 
way to protect them is to scrape off an inch or two 
of the surface soil: this will carry away young slugs, 
and grubs and the eggs of insects, many of which 
while grubs are very fond of this campanula. This 
should be done on a dry day in October, and if the 
weather is likely to hold up, the surface may be left 
uncovered for three or four days. If any of the leaves 
still remain cut thorn off; do not pull them, and the 
crowns of the plants will get well dried and hardened 
by the exposure. Then take very dry coal ashes, mid 
place it three inches thick, to the distance of a foot 
on each side of the plants, and if tho crowns are still 
higher than the coal ashes, make little cones of ashes 
over them, and only just deep enough to cover them. 
They may remain that way, perhaps, for a month or 
six weeks without any frost, and it would be a pity 
to smother them up at first, as if twenty degrees of 
frost were expected the following night. We often 
commit groat mistakes in first covering many plants 
on the approach of winter by laying it on too thickly. 
After a fii'st coat of coal ashes, as above, is given, we 
should rest satisfied till actual frost sets in, and then 
add more as the case may require. It is the crowns 
of tho campanulas which require protection, then’ 
roots are hardy enough, and these crowns may be 
killed by over kindness in tho shape oi a deep cover- 
