THE COTTAGE GARDENER AND COUNTRY GENTLEMAN, October 9, 18G0. 
19 
object, but you wish to grow other things that require lees heat, 
then your wooden division must be carried by glass or otherwise 
right up to the roof, and the Cucumbers during winter must be 
confined to that division or bed. According to the plan proposed, 
there should be three or four inches over the top of the flue of 
rubble, and at least from twelve to fifteen inches of soil over that; 
but, unless deemed desirable, the wood division would be as well 
if it were six or nine inches nearer the flue—the bed then would 
be quite wide enough. In fact, supposing that Strawberries were 
forwarded elsewhere, and were brought to the house to finish 
them, and the whole of it was to be devoted to Cucumbers and 
Beans and things requiring heat, we would just as soon dispense 
with wood divisions, clinkers, and crocks, and grow our Cucumbers 
in pots or boxes—say the latter eighteen inches long, and fifteen 
inches wide, and fourteen inches deep; and set them along the 
top of the flue, and merely separated from it by a couple of bricks 
to rest upon and keep the strong heat from them. In thus 
growing Cucumbers by flue heat, the flue must be sound and 
strong and the fuel good, or you may have an explosion that will 
soon injure the Cucumbers. If you have plenty of head room 
over the flue the bed would yield the most regular heat. We 
fear we do not quite meet your case ; but if not, give us more 
particulars and we will try again.] 
DANGER OF SULPHUR FUMIGATION BY 
MIXING IT WITH LIME. 
My orchard-house, 20 feet by 14 feet, built of wood and glass 
roofed, painted white inside and out, was lately beginning to be 
infested with red spider, from which it had been quite free during 
the summer, all which time it was syringed pretty regularly; but 
I have discontinued it for a few weeks, and not liking to recom¬ 
mence it so late in the season, I determined to apply lime and 
sulphur. 
I therefore procured fresh lime which I divided into three eight- 
inch pots, half filled, which when I had sprinkled with water I 
scattered half a pound of flowers of sulphur, and shut up the house 
until morning, at which time I ought, I believe, to have syringed 
thoroughly; but I put it off until evening, not having time to do 
it then. In the meantime, the day being a bright warm one, the 
leaves of almost all my trees presented the appearance of having 
been burned; the Pears and Plums particularly looked shrivelled 
and quite crisp and dry. Since then they have not improved, 
and now look as if they were dead, and many of the leaves have 
fallen off. 
Now, as I am quite inexperienced in fruit growing (this being 
my first year), you would confer a favour on one of your readers 
by telling me what is best to be done. Where was I wrong in 
the operation ? Is it likely I have killed the trees altogether, or 
are they only injured for this year, or will my prospect of fruit 
next year be destroyed ? Would it be well to discontinue 
watering ?—R. C. J. 
[We have always been shy of recommending the lime and the 
sulphur cure, because some sorts of lime emit a stronger heat in 
slaking than others; and whilst some people would carefully 
allow the first strong heat to pass, and use plenty of water before 
using the sulphur, othese would put in the sulphur whilst the 
slaking was commencing, and thus run the risk of burning 
and melting the sulphur by the excessiv# heat. Hence, as a 
matter of safety, we would recommend heating some iron vessel 
with water inside to 160° or so, and then painting it all over with 
sulphur, because at that heat the fumes prejudicial to the insects 
would be given off without any danger to the plants. Hence, 
also, syringings with sulphur water have been recommended. We 
think it is likely that your lime was too hot when you applied 
the sulphur, and that you also used too much sulphur. For 
such a house the three pots should have been pretty well slaked 
before adding the sulphur, and an ounce or two instead of half 
a pound, would have been sufficient. The syringing early the 
next morning ought to have been attended to; and if the day 
promised to be hot and sunny, plenty of air should have been 
given early, so that the house after the sulphuring should not 
have got hot. We fear the airing had also been delayed, and the 
whiter your house was inside, the more would it suffer from that 
cause. A little shading would also have been in your favour. 
We should hope the trees had so far perfected their wood 
by the middle of September, that they will not be injured 
much for the following year. You will know if the buds are 
plump, and the young wood free from a shrivelled appearance. 
The fruit this season will not be so good as if the leaves had 
remained green ; but if they have sun they may be tolerable, as 
we have had fine Peaches at times on shoots that had not a green 
leaf, similar to the specimen shown at the Crystal Palace the 
other day. When the fruit is gathered, comparative dryness at 
the roots will cause your trees to rest sooner, and we hope that 
next season the trees will bear little or no traces of your present 
disappointment.] 
BULBS FOR FLOWER-GARDEN DECORATION. 
WITHOUT their use a flower garden must always look sombre 
and bare in the spring months. The present system of bedding 
has considerably interfered with the culture of bulbs ; but with 
a little extra attention, the beds may be made showy from the 
time that vegetation commences in the spring. For instance : 
In a symmetrical or angle-bedded flower garden, where a good 
show of bedding plants is desired with the smallest amount of 
trouble, a fine effect at a distance will be produced by having a 
nice batch of bulbs—Crocus, Tulips, Hyacinths, Scillas, &c.— 
placed at the corners. The beds may then be rough dug in the 
winter in the usual way for the advantage of the regular bedding 
plants; and the filling the corners will give a pleasing appear* 
ance to the whole group in the spring. These bulbs in most 
cases may remain for several years in the same place—in fact, just 
so long that they may not get too deep like an Oxalis, or be 
thrown out of the ground like a Crocus, accordingly as the new 
bulbs are formed below or above the old ones. The beds may be 
levelled and planted, just as if no bulbs were there; and by the 
time that the bedding plants are spreading freely, the foliage of 
the bulbs will be decayed and out of sight. Of course, such 
corners in oval-rim or ridge-planting, though giving a lively 
appearance to the parterre, are not to be compared to a whole 
parterre filled throughout with shaded and contrasted colours. 
But our practice and observation would lead us to adopt the 
cornering or edging system in preference to planting in beds, if 
full justice could not be given to both bulbs and bedding plants : 
it may be inferred from this, that the bedding plants will do well 
in summer and autumn, and the bulbs also receive no injury 
from late planting, or the bedding plants being inserted among 
their decaying foliage in May. We have seen many bods so 
managed, but very rarely with much satisfaction for the whole 
of the season: making a hole with a trowel in a hard-crusted 
bulb-bed, and there placing a bedding plant, is not the best way 
to make that plant root vigorously and blow freely ; and the 
bulb 3 are apt to be blamed when we ought to censure our own 
carelessness or want of thought. A few beds well managed will 
confer more credit on the cultivator than many beds in a 
slovenly condition. Allowing, then, that full beds look better, 
when well done, than mere cornering or dotting, how various 
and beautiful are the combinations that may thus be easily 
formed! Here, for instance, is a little group of clumps just 
under the parlour window ; the'group being of a circular form, 
one round bed in the centre and six round it, branching out like 
the spokes of a wheel; plant the centre with the Queen Y ictoria 
Crocus, a lovely white, about two inches apart in the rows, and 
six inches from row to row, and then have two beds opposite 
with purple, two with yellow, and two with blue, and how nicely 
they will look! Or, if preferred, border the white centre with 
purple, the blues with yellow or variegated, and the purples with 
white ; or the colours may be shaded in each bed. Perhaps there 
may be only one circular bed near the house that can be devoted 
to Crocus, perhaps nine or ten feet in diameter ; this would look 
extremely elegant if filled with concentric rings of all the different 
shades of colour, white relieved with purple, purple with yellow, 
and edged with blue on the contrasting system, varying the 
edging according as the kerb or path round the bed is of a cold 
or a warm colour. If the shading of colours is preferred, the 
result will equally show that there have been thought and design 
in the planting; but there is no end to the modes in which even 
a single bed may be planted. We lately recommended a young 
lady to plant a somewhat larger, rather oval bed with Crocus in 
Lover’s-knot style ; and she told us that the effect was charming; 
the broadish bands of the knot were yellow, the enclosed spaces 
in the centre purple, the space round the bands was blue, and 
the striped and white finished the edgings. We have instanced 
Crocus as being so easily managed; but the same artistic 
arrangements may be as easily effected with Tulips of the early - 
blooming kinds, JNarcissus, Hyacinths, &c. In all such cases we 
would prefer planting as advised under each division, and lifting 
