171 
THE COTTAGE GARDENER AND COUNTRY GENTLEMAN, December 25, 1860. 
second year should be cut back to two or three eyes. 
This pruning should not be delayed one day later than the 
leaves are off.’' The italics are mine, to confirm the 
sentence of the early-autumn pruning of all trees or 
bushes which one desires to see getting stronger and 
more strong at each successive break, or every spring. 
The first two weeks in November are the best time for 
putting in these cuttings ; but with ordinary care they 
will answer all through December. But Mr. McKelvie 
has kindly promised to give us a paper on the advantages 
of the system, and said that October would be the best 
time to put people in mind of the practice. But, bless you, 
who knows who will be alive then ? The best time of the 
whole year to have it all out would be with our Twelfth- 
Night cakes. 
Till then, and to the end of time, my warmest thanks 
are due and will be paid to the authorities of the Ken¬ 
sington Gore new Garden for a move which I had often 
called for in these pages, and which they have just de¬ 
termined upon—and that was, and is to be, to teach honest 
people how to place the dessert on the dinner-table, 
which, to my own personal knowledge, is a branch of our 
calling hardly yet out of the wilding state. We beat the 
best of them in growing the finest fruit for our climate ; 
we force better fruit than Nature can or has ever fur¬ 
nished ; and yet I have seen the shine taken, out of us 
and of all this by the mere dishing of the fruit, and the 
way it had been arranged on the table. The old Horti¬ 
cultural Society had no taste for fruit or flower-gardens, 
beyond going into a fruit-room to cut and try kinds 
against each other, or to keep the borders full of written 
tallies, whether there were plants or not; and although 
they gave handsome prizes for competitors with fruit, 
they never required to see how such or such a “ collection” 
could be split up for the dessert—the final triumph of all 
our exertions. I never would give a straw to the best 
collection of fruit I ever saw exhibited upon their tables, 
unless I could turn it into a well-balanced dessert. Now, 
however, great encouragement is to be given to dessert 
arrangements, and all will see it, and many will learn the 
best lessons of the garden there. D. Beaton. 
MANAGEMENT OF YOUNG CALCEOLARIAS. 
“ E. A. W.” has now a quantity of fine young plants, but 
they appear to have only one 9tem each. Should they be nipped 
at the top to make them throw out others, or will this prevent 
their running up for flowers ? The plants she see3 in perfection 
usually have many flower-stems, and she cannot from such 
succeed in raising any like them. 
[Your Calceolarias are growing as they ought. Let them 
proceed their own way till the middle of February, and then top 
them, if they are bedding Calceolarias ; but if they are seedlings 
of herbaceous sorts to flower in pots, you must stop them a 
month earlier, or according to their size, and accordingly as you 
want them to bloom early or late.] 
GISHUKST COMPOUND—WIRE DRAINAGE 
CAP—RIDDELL’S BOILER, 
Does Mr. Rivers in his recommendation to paint orchard- 
house trees in January with Gishurst, eight ounces to the gallon, 
intend that it should remain on altogether ? And would it be 
imprudent to apply it to shoots that are not perfectly brown, 
few having attained complete ripeness during the past autumn ? 
I find a downy substance like mould upon the twigs of my trees. 
It has been impossible to give much air during the late damp 
season, supposing it to arise from moisture; but is it important 
that any remedy be applied ? 
To those who cannot obtain the proper orchard-house pots 
pierced with five holes, it will be found very convenient in sup¬ 
porting the pieces of tile or potsherd required for drainage, to 
cover the one large hole with a ring of wire made quite rudely, 
and with wires crossing it at right angles to each other. 
With regard to slight heating, I fancy that Riddell’s slow- 
combustion boiler would be found most convenient and econo¬ 
mical, though in its first expense involving more outlay than the 
generality of stoves. It consists of two concentric upright 
cylinders, the central one holding the fire, and the outer one 
water. It will burn for thirty-six hours without attention. The 
fuel used is small coke or cinders.—W. T. G.] 
[The safest way is to wash off the Gishurst Compound after 
it has been on about twenty-four hours.— Eds. C. G.] 
EMPLOYING HOTHOUSES FOR PROFIT. 
I have taken a garden with three hothouses in it, with the 
idea of making a living out of them. I have had some ex¬ 
perience in forcing—in fact, I have been in all the branches of 
gardening for a dozen years, and I spend a good bit of time in 
reading The Cottage Gardener, and I think this a good time 
of the year for asking these questions. 
I will give you a short description of the houses. No. 1 i3 
30 feet long, 9 feet wide, and 8 feet high at the back ; the flue 
runs parallel with the front wall about 3 feet from it, goes along 
the west end, and runs along the back vrall just clear from it. Of 
course, it is a lean-to house. 
No. 2 is a lean-to, and is 15 feet by 15 feet, and 10 feet high 
at the back ; the fireplace is at the west end, and the flue runs 
just clear of the wall all round except at the back. 
No. 3 is a span-roofed house 41 feet long by 14 feet broad, 
the gable ends face north and south; there is a path down the 
centre 3 feet wide, and a flue on each side, and between the side 
walls and the flues, of course, forms a bed. The side walls are 
4 feet high, and the roof 7 feet 6 inches. All the three houses 
have fixed roofs with wooden ventilators back and front. 
Now, I beg leave to ask your opinion what to grow in those 
housis to profit by them, as I can have them as long as I please. 
—J. J., Suffolk. 
[The three houses you describe are capable, when furnished 
and well-managed, of yielding a considerable quantity of valuable 
fruit, and then will return a handsome profit. They, however, 
alone will not bring you in a sufficient income for a living; but 
perhaps the garden is tolerably large, and a good soil, and stocked 
with hardy fruits—Asparagus, Sea-kale, Rhubarb, &c.: if so, 
there i9 little doubt that the houses and garden together will pay 
you well. Then, again, a consideration of importance is, Are 
you near to a market for the produce ? In these railroad days, 
indeed, valuable fruits—such a3 Grapes, Peaches, forced Straw¬ 
berries, early Cucumbers, forced Kidney Beans, forced Asparagus, 
Sea-kale and Mushrooms, may be carefully packed and sent to 
the great market—London, where they always are in demand at 
a fair price. For the common cheaper produce you will, of 
course, look out for a market near home. 
You do not state whether the houses are furnished or not. 
We, therefore, suppose that they are new, or at least have 
nothing in them ; and we must suppose, also, that the flues are 
in good order and capable of being used for forcing. We take 
them seriatim as you have described them. 
No. 1 is a lean-to house, with a flue three feet from the front 
wall. This is admirably adapted for an early vinery. The Vines 
should be planted inside about a foot from the flue. The border 
should be well drained and formed of the best material—namely, 
thin turf from an upland pasture, well-decomposed dung one- 
eighth, leaf mould one-eighth if it can be had, and a fair pro¬ 
portion of broken bones—the whole to be thoroughly mixed; 
and add a good sprinkling of old lime rubbish, bits of bricks or 
stones to keep it open; plant in March or April, and do not 
allow the Vines to bear much till the third year. You may 
grow a lot in pots trained up the back wall. These will bear, if 
well grown the first year, a tidy crop the second year. 
On a shelf at the back near the roof you may force Straw¬ 
berries. See what was written on the preparation of Strawberry 
plants for forcing in back Numbers of The Cottage Gardener. 
On a shelf near the front you can force Kidney Beans for two or 
three years till the Vines come into full bearing, but take great 
care to keep clear of the red spider both on the Beans and the 
Strawberries. Cover the flue with flat vessels to hold water 
when forcing is going on, to yield a moist vapour. 
No. 2 is admirably adapted for a Cucumber-house. You can 
make a hotbed of well-sweetened horsedung about October—or 
just now if you have not made any use of the house this season. 
As this hotbed is only intended to give the plants a vigorous 
start you need not make it more than two feet thick, but let it 
