164 
TEE COTIAGE GARDENER AND COUNTRY GENTLEMAN, December IS, 1860. 
Pruning Filberts ( 7F. A'.).—Remove all the suckers. Prune in Feb¬ 
ruary, Remember that the nuts are borne at the points of the young spray, 
and prune accordingly. It is too late to make a Mushroom-bed unless 
under the shelter of a shed, and there you make one even next month. 
Forcing Tree P.eoniks (Idem ).—They will stand very little forcing, 
and that little much better after January and February than in December. 
You have acted in the best manner with those you have taken up, which 
taking up is also against them. Were we in your case we would let the 
pots remain plunged in the mild hotbed out of doors for two months longer, 
merely protecting the heads and buds of the plants with evergreen branches, 
or a mat in an extra cold night. Independently of other reasons, we never 
think the colours of the flowers come out nicely fully the sun has gained 
some power in spring. 
Moving a Large Ceanotbvs rigidus (Idem). — Unless you can lift such 
a plant with a ball carefully, the blossom will be apt to sufTer. Unless 
from necessity, we would allow the flowering to pass, then dig round the 
plant, partly undermining it, cutting the far-extended roots, put some 
fresh soil round, give a good watering, and move with a ball the beginning 
of next October. With the exception of the flowers suffering the plant 
may be moved now. 
'Over-pruned Pear Trees (Idem ).—We would graft the Pear trees if 
very old ; but if not very old we would remove alternate branches as you 
say, leaving the branches from eighteen inches to twenty-four inches apart, 
and then we would train young wood on between them, provided it comes 
regularly, which we presume would be the case, from the places where the 
spurs were removed from, and either train them downwards or backwards. 
From nine inches to twelve inches is a fair distance. 
Orchard-House (Kate ).—We presume your house faces the south, and 
that you have command of air in front. Then the proposed air giving by 
boards will do; but, of course, if these ventilators were glass it would be 
better. In autumn, at least, they will shade some fifteen inches of the wall. 
Heating a Tank by Pipes (Melville ).—In such a tank we would use 
three four-inch pipes, or four three-inch pipes. The pipes may be of any 
convenient size before entering the tank if above one inch in diameter. 
In such a house always kept pretty waim there will be no danger from all 
thp contraction and expansion of the pipes in passing through the cemented 
wall. 
Jasminum grandifeorum (A Subscriber).—In such dull weather as we 
have had the potting would be apt to give the plant a check, especially if 
the greenhouse was cool. Potting was bad treatment if you wanted the 
v nt v° bloom in winter. In general it blooms in July and onwards. If 
the shoot® are alive never mind the leaves, but keep the plant, prune it 
back a little in March, and you will probably have fresh shoots, leaves and 
nowerB in summer. 
Griselinia i.ittoraeis—Rhododendrons (G. Banbury ).—The plant is 
a ncwieh. ll8rd y evergreen of moderate growth, and suited to the front of 
shrubberies. Theflowers are just like the flowers of two-thirds of all our 
evergreens—not so showy as the leaves. See our No. 616, page 250. High- 
coloured Rhododendrons are all of one shade, and there is not one of them 
that will do as you propose. Some half a dozen out of all our best gar¬ 
deners might manage to do as you suggest, but there is not an ordinal v 
man in England who could do it. 
Plants for Back Wall of a Greenhouse (A Young Beginner).—Vie 
should be glad to assist you if we knew exactly’ how. You would see that 
lately we recommended Camellias for such a place if at all shaded. Now 
we know nothing at all of the arrangement of your house, and whether 
you have a stage in the middle or not, or how that would shade the wall or 
not. Besides, though climbers and creepers look well anywhere, their 
chief beauty will be found in their dangling from a rod or rafter instead of 
being trimly trained to a wall. AVe question whether Camellias and Acacia 
armata, or some other with fine foliage, would not suit you better than 
mere climbers. There are none better or prettier than Passifloras ; and 
two or three, such as coerulea, coerulea racemosa, and Colvilli, would 
fill your place. Then for finer climbers there are Kennedya Marryattse 
K. nigricans, Hardenbergia, Comptomeria monophylla, and macrophylla! 
and Habrothamnus elegans, whch would fill your space; but these latter 
would need a good amount of light, and all except the last a portion of 
heath soil. AVhen we know more particulars we may be able to advise 
better. 
Turning a Gravel Walk into a Grass Walk (An Old Subscriber).— i 
Most gravel walks will soon get green enough if they are let alone. Some 
oi the easiest walks to keep and walk over that ever we met w’ith were 
neglected gravel walks in a kitchen garden. Box some nine inches high 
was allowed to remain at the sides, and the small weeds soon took pos¬ 
session and covered the gravel; and a chop with the scythe once or twice 
a-year made in the whole a pleasant walk for tender feet. Such natural 
seeding, however, would not do in the middle of your lawn, nor even 
throwing seed along the walk ; because, if that walk is two or three inches 
below the level of the lawn, it would take several years even with top 
dressings before the place occupied by the walk and the lawn would be of 
the same level. We would, therefore, remove part of the gravel if worth 
the trouble; but there is no necessity for doing so if you can place a couple 
oi inches oi so of soil above it. Then sow with seeds in the second week of 
March. If you did not mind a mere trifle for the seeds we would sow now • 
for if the winter was mild the grass would sooner be turned into lawn’ 
If the winter proved severe you could sow again. If from the sides of 
roads, sides of walks, &e., you could get numbers of pieces of turf about 
two inches square, and placed them all over six inches or even seven inches 
apart, a fine firm lawn would soon be formed, especially if you sowed in 
the intervening spaces as well. If you gave the size of the ground to one 
of the respectable firms whose names appear in our pages they would send 
you the right seeds and the proper quantity. 
Flower-buds of Azaleas Falling (Idem ).—It is very likely that the 
peat was rather strong at first, and more likely still that the interior of the 
, ea j; th got too dry. For American blight, oil, turpentine, and 
cjisnurst Compound will settle them ; and so will clay paint if vou keeD 
them shut up in it. J ^ 
Pruning the Pomegranate (Idem ).—Go over your Pomegranate tree 
and prune it, removing all old wood that is not wanted, making sure 
that you leave a sufficiency of buds, either on spurs or on middling-sizec 
shoots to give you a regular supply of moderate-sized shoots all ovei 
the tree next season. From the points of these middle-sized shoots will 
the flowers come next summer, and in summer pruning the very weakest 
and the very strongest should be removed to give the middle-sited flower¬ 
ing shoots room. After the first season the Pomegranate will stand close 
cutting in, every shoot to a bud at its base about the end of October, and a 
little thinning at the beginning of summer, if the shoots are too numerous. 
Chrysanthemum Cvma as, (Bai my r a ).—The Chinese method of growing 
Chrysanthemums, as Mr. Fortune tells us, requires such a degree of prac¬ 
tical knowledge of them, and such a degree of perseverance, as very few of 
the people of Europe have yet acquired. AVe have, perhaps, only one gar¬ 
dener out of every five thousand head gardeners in England, who could da 
the Chrysanthemum up to the Chinese model. Therefore, although we 
encourage emulation in the highest walks of gardening, and endeavour to 
stimulate those who ought to aspire, to excel in all the modes of cul¬ 
tivation, we never advise amateurs to meddle in things which are wholly 
beyond their reach. As good flowers can be had for private use by Mr. 
Salter’s natural system, with hardly one degree of the most ordinary care 
necessary, as can be had, for public competition, by the most complicated- 
contrivances of the China school. AVhen one is an adept at the natural or 
open-ground plan, the next step is the pot culture, in its simplest form and 
practice of shifting from one pot to another. As in the common ruD with 
other plants, and when any one is master of that mode, he or she might be 
excused for wishing to emulate the pagans in their growth and cultuie. 
But the top of the ladder will never be reached by attempting to get at the 
top round as the first step. AVrite again to Mr. Winter and inquire. 
Daisies on a Lawn (J . B. Lancaster). —There are no means of getting 
rid of Daisies except pulling them up by the roots, or digging the lawn, 
and then the next crop of Grass is just as liable to be covered with Daisiei 
as the last: therefore, spudding them out is the only remedy. The best 
climber for a pole depends so entirely on the height of the pole that we 
can hardly even guess what you mean and require. A Rosa ruga, or a 
Virginian Creeper, w’ill do for a pole from ten feet to twenty feet high. 
Perhaps, on the w’hole, the Virginian Creeper is the best on account of the 
smoke. 
Names of Apples (T . B. B. Owen).— 1, Hollandbury ; 2, Beauty of 
Kent; 3, Syke House Russet; 4, Royal Russet; 5, Braddick’s Non¬ 
pareil ; 16, Hughes’ Golden Pippin ; 7, Hampshire Yellow ; 8, Pearson’s 
Plate; 9, Minchall Crab; 10, Northern Greening; 11, White Costing- 
12, Court-pendu Plat. 
Name of Holly (IF. X. IF.).—It is the common golden-edged, Ilex 
aquifolium aureo-marginatum. 
POULTRY AND BEE-KEEPER’S CHRONICLE. 
POULTRY SHOWS. 
Decemeer 18th and 19th. Lord Tredegar’s, at Newport, Monmouth¬ 
shire. Sec., Mr. C. H. Oliver, Commercial Street, Newpoit. Entries 
close Nov. 21st. 
Decemef.r 21st and 22nd. Halifax Pigeon Show. Sec., D. R. Edgar. 
Entries close December 8th. 
December 27th, 28th and 29th. Kendal. Bon. Secs., C. C. AVhitwell 
and T. AVilson. Entries close December 12th, 
January 2nd and 3rd. Cork. Sec., J. 
AVell. Entries close December loth. 
Dowling, Janeville, Sunday’s 
January 16th and 17th. Poulton-le-Fylde. Hon. Sec., Mr. J. S. Butler. 
Entries close January 1st. 
January 25th and 26th. Cumberland and AA'estmorland. Secs., Mr. 
M. W. Hastwell and Mr. AV. T. Armstrong. Entries close January 12. 
January 30th and 31st. Ulverston. Secs., Mr. T. Robinson and Mr. J, 
Kitchen. Entries close January 10th. 
February 6th and 7th. Liverpool. (Poultry and Pigeons). Sec., Mr. 
A. Edmondson, 4, Dale Street. 
June 4th, 51h, 6th, and 7th. Bath and AVest of England. 
N.B .—Secretaries will oblige us by sending)early copies of their lists. 
CRYSTAL PALACE POULTRY SHOW. 
We doubt whether Aladdin’s lamp ever reared anything so- 
beautiful as this building ; and even if it did, this advantage 
must rest with us that ours is not such a will-o’-the-wisp as his 
was. It does not disappear as rapidly as it came. It remains* 
and twice during the year it affords us such treats as this we 
uoav record. Generally it winds up the season or nearly so, 
although it is held at the beginning of the year; but then there 
are the dust, and the dirt, and the coloured paper, and the 
worn-out cardboard, and the last lots, and really very little 
damaged- articles that remain on the stalls—which have for the 
occasion descended from the galleries. Some people do not like 
this. Noav the Cattle-Show week is chosen. It is funny 
running from the capital of the iron world, w ith its clouds, and 
blasts, and flames, and chimnies, and dosing while there is a 
mental recapitulation of all the pleasures and triumphs of Bir¬ 
mingham, to wake up in such a different scene. Both have one 
feature in common—that is, the musical notes of the various 
cocks, relieved at times by the quack of Ducks, the cooing of 
Pigeons, and the hoarse nofes of Geese. We had this year 
another feature common to both Exhibitions—cattle; and in 
one respect the Palace Avent beyond the Ilall—it Lad horses. 
Some difference between the two mammoth longhorns at Bir¬ 
mingham and the Brittany cows at Sydenham—between the 
