342 
THE COTTAGE GARDENER. 
September 
have six or seven shillings, and then buy a pig. 
Whilst saving up your money, ask your wife to save 
all the cabbage water, skins of potatoes, shells of 
peas, &c., in a tub, by which you will have a nice 
store to begin on. And when your pig is bought (if 
you can manage it), take home your pint of beer and 
divide it with your wife, and do not forget to thank 
the “ Giver of all good things” that he has enabled 
you to forsake some of your evil ways; for, depend 
upon it, there is no surer way to misery, here and 
hereafter, than frequenting the beer-shops. Another 
time, perhaps, I will give a few hints as to the feed¬ 
ing, killing, &c., of your pig. 
A Friend of the Poor. 
[Pray communicate all that you practically know 
about the best mode of pig-feeding.— Ed. C. G.] 
DRILLING AND SURFACE-STIRRING. 
Perceiving how strenuously yourself and other 
writers have advocated the sowing of all seeds in 
drills, as well for facilitating the management of crops 
as for their neat appearance, and being a lover of 
method and order, I determined to adopt your advice, 
hut really found it a very troublesome and uncertain 
affair when attempted to any extent, as it is next 
to impossible to draw the drills with any degree of 
accuracy one at a time on a piece of fresh dry ground; 
but on a perusal of the late Mr. Cobbet’s works on 
gardening, I there found directions for the construc¬ 
tion of a very efficient and useful implement, which 
he terms “ a drill rake.” I have had two made, and 
find them so well adapted to the purpose, and such 
economisers of our precious time, that I hope never 
to commit seed again to the bosom of the ground 
without their assistance. 
These drill rakes are made of wood, having four 
or five teeth four inches long, one inch wide at their 
connexion with the head, but tapering to half an inch 
at the point. I use two sizes, one with teeth six 
inches apart for seeds for transplantation, &c., and 
another with teeth eight inches apart for carrots, 
parsnips, onions, and the like. 
The mode of using them is as follows: having pre¬ 
pared the bed, I stretch a line along one side, and 
insert the teeth of the rake at one end, the left hand 
tooth of the rake touching the line; I then walk 
backwards, drawing it after me to the end; five drills 
are thus made. I then begin at the other end of the 
bed as at first, but without the line, merely inserting 
the right hand tooth of the rake in the last drill pre¬ 
viously made; walk backwards as at first, making 
four more drills. I continue thus till the bed is 
finished, which occupies so little time that a bed 40 
feet by 20 feet is done in about 10 minutes, thus en¬ 
abling you to economise seed, and leave it with the 
assurance that it is beyond the reach of those plagues 
of every gardener—the sparrow and finch. 
Well, seeing the fruits of my labour in the crops 
above ground in beautiful array, and knowing the 
necessity for keeping the earth well stirred between 
the rising crops, especially in such a parching season 
as the past, I pondered upon the means of doing so, 
feeling assured that once pulverizing the soil was 
better than ten waterings. I then devised the bent 
fork, of which I send you a sketch (so that I need 
not describe it farther than say the two prongs are 
three inches apart, and four inches long from the 
bend). So soon as the plants are fairly above ground, I 
insert this between the drills, and walk backwards as 
with the rake, pressing it well into the soil, so as to 
stir it deeply; a large piece of ground is thus gone 
over in a short time, and if done often prevents the 
necessity of weeding and watering; of course the 
crops are properly thinned in the drills, by hand or 
hoe. 
I have operated in this manner on all my sowings 
of this season, and the result has exceeded my most 
sanguine expectations. Be it borne in mind, I have 
not used a drop of water to my crops this season, nor 
any stimulating manure, and they are far beyond 
anything I have hitherto grown.—W. Savage, Friary 
Cottage. 
MY FLOWERS. 
(No. 45.) 
What a beautiful autumnal flower the salvia is ! 
How brightly it glows in the border, and how soft 
and silky are its deeply dyed blossoms! Beds of 
salvias are easily obtained, and their effect is so good 
that we should endeavour to increase our stock, and 
to procure as many varieties as we can grow in the 
open border. The shrubby lands are increased by 
cuttings, the annual and biennial sorts by seed, and 
the autumn is a good time for sowing it. The salvia 
is a species of sage, which is so well known as a gar ¬ 
den herb. The latter grows wild in the south of 
Europe, in the islands of the Mediterranean and 
Archipelago, and also in the southern coast of the 
Crimea. It was formerly much valued for its medi¬ 
cinal properties, so much so that it gave rise to a 
Latin proverb, “ How can a man die w r ho has sage in 
his garden ?” The Chinese value it highly, and use 
it freely. I have read that the Dutch, at one period, 
carried cargoes of sage leaves to China, for which 
they received four times their weight of tea, thus evi¬ 
dencing the high esteem in which the Chinese held 
it. Red sage tea is a remarkably fine gargle when 
mixed -with an equal quantity of vinegar, and sweet¬ 
ened with honey. Into this mixture put two or three 
leaves of the honeysuckle, which have a very soften¬ 
ing and healing effect; and I have known this simple 
preparation relieve sore throat when more scientific 
decoctions failed. The thickest and most pulpy 
leaves should be chosen, and left to float in the mix¬ 
ture. In the islands of the Archipelago the sage is 
so large and fine in its growth as to be considered a 
shrub. Even the flowers of the wild plant are varied 
and bright, and no doubt its valuable properties are 
known and esteemed still among the natives of those 
regions. The cultivated species of the sage, which 
we call salvia, comes from warmer and more distant 
lands. The bright scarlet, so dazzling, and so like 
the softest velvet, comes from Peru, and its colour 
forcibly and affectingly reminds us of the scenes of 
bloodshed which took place in its native soil. The 
Salvia splendens is a plant from another blood-stained 
land—unhappy Mexico; and the gold-flowered salvia 
was brought to us from the Cape of Good Hope. 
This beautiful variety has very delicate, silvery leaves, 
and blooms from spring to autumn, thus forming a 
valuable addition to our garden flowers. A garden 
might be extremely gay with these brilliant plants, 
and they bloom quite into the frosty season. Cut¬ 
tings should be taken in the spring, but I think it 
likely that even now they would do well, with plenty 
of shade and moisture. To those of “ my sisters ” who, 
like myself, are obliged to have recourse to inventions, 
it may be useful to observe, that in a hot, sunny 
