266 
THE COTTAGE GARDENER AND COUNTRY GENTLEMAN, February 5, 1861. 
safety so far to the changing and turning of that cover ng so 
often. 
Out-of-doors Broccoli has been uncovered, leaving a branch 
just along the rows to break the force of the sun a little at first. 
Most of the heads so covered are all right. The branches along 
the rows of Cabbages have also been lifted off, and the ground 
forked over. A very few are injured, perhaps one in thirty, and 
fhese have been replaced. The branches have also been removed 
from Celery, and the slight covering on the surface; and although 
a few exposed leaves are injured, the plants will be none the 
worse for use. The evergreen branches have also been removed 
from the Strawberries, and I never saw them looking bett r. If 
• a severe frost should set in again, and no snow should precede 
it, before the ground gets too hard, little twigs fifteen inches high 
-or so will be stuck among the rows instead of merely laying 
them along the rows. These little matters may seem unimport¬ 
ant, but I look upon a good crop of fine Strawberries out of 
doors as of equal importance with early Green Peas and garden 
Beans. We have yet sown none of either Peas or Beans, but 
will soon sow out of doors for the second crop, and in-doers for 
the first. 
Out of doors, well might “ M. H. P.” say all would be lament¬ 
ation and woe. It was not the severity of the season merely, 
but the growing condition of the plants before the frost that 
has caused such fearful destruction. I expect sad reports of 
many ornamental trees that were previously considered hardy. 
Here (Luton), I expect every Laurustinus will have to be 
severely cut back in spring. There is no end to the losses 
among Roses. Even those against walls, though slightly pro¬ 
tected, are greatly injured, and on walls or trellises ; in beds I 
do not expect a single Rose of the China or Tea sections, with 
all their varieties, to live, unless they push afresh from the 
bottom. All above is thoroughly killed, though Figs with 
scarcely more protection seem little or nothing injured, only 
they had lost all their leaves long before the frost came. If such 
seasons as this and the last are to be expected, lifting or root- 
pruning in autumn will have to become common operat'ons to 
get deciduous plants especially into an early state of rest. 
Advantage has been taken of the thaw to lift some more roots 
of Sea-kale and Rhubarb, and place them in the Mushroom- 
house. After this time the large Rhubarbs—such as Victoria, 
&c., give the best returns. We had thought of putting in more 
Turnips for blanched Turnip-tops, but we found the tubers too 
frosted still. The Swede is the only one for this purpose. I 
planted another lot of Potatoes, just an inch or two sprung, into 
large Sea-kale pots, placing four sets in a pet, after filling it 
about half full, and allowing one shoot to each set or tuber. 
The Potatoes are then earthed up as they grow, and are kept 
anywhere in a little heat until the shoots are rising, when all the 
light possible is given. After trying Handsworth and many 
more for this purpose, we have fallen back for this and also 
chiefiv for Frames on the old Ashleaved Kidney. The Mush¬ 
room-bed firmly beat down, having a nice heat about 85°, as 
warm as new milk, was spawned by inserting pieces about the 
size of a walnut every eight inches. The bed being firmly beat, 
and the heat continuing regular, the soil was put on but not beaten 
for a day or two to see how it would be. A fresh bed was made 
of manure turned and heated in a shed, beat and trod as hard 
as possible, and yet giving out heat enough to cause air to be 
given to keep down the temperature of the house, as the atmo¬ 
spheric heat should never be higher than from 55° to 60°, and 
nearer the former if the Mushrooms are to be thick and stubby. 
I find some people like the wafer-thin Mushrooms best. I dare 
say they are easiest cooked. Boring holes in such a hot Mushroom- 
bed is all very well when there is plenty of time to wait and 
wasting the material is no object, When that is a matter of 
moment, it is important to make it compact, so that the air being 
excluded continued active fermentation does not waste it too 
much. If there was room to dry horse-droppings, Ac., suffi¬ 
ciently, without heating them more than to set the spawn going, 
the finer and fleshier would be the Mushrooms. At one time 
we used to put a thin plaster of cowdung over the surface of the 
bed before covering it with soil, and the small buttons were 
beautiful; but the large Mushrooms were too thick, fleshy, and 
firm, to be easily boiled or stewed. There may thus be too 
much of a good thing. 
Among plants, propagating for bedding has begun earli< r than 
usual. Store-pots of Verbenas have had one cutting consisting of 
two joints taken off all the points, wl ich will cause the lower 
buds to come strong and let us have more in a fortnight’s time. 
All slips of any kind of bedding Geraniums that could be got 
hold of have also been made into a cutting—among others the 
Lady Plymouth variegated Geranium. I just mention it here 
to notice that the cuttings of this plant should neither be 
very wet nor covered with anything more than the glass of the 
house in which they stand in, or they will damp, and that the 
old plants when the cuttings are taken from them should be kept 
cool and rather dry. Keep them moist and warm, as in a forcing- 
house, and ten to one but they will get gouty and die. 
Black Prince Strawberries in Vine-pit, in a temperature averag¬ 
ing 55°, arc showing flower better than expected. Cucumbers 
have been potted each in a single small pot, and a few more sown. 
Large Pelargoniums have been tied out and taken to the green¬ 
house ; later ones regulated, and a third lot stopped, and 
younger ones potted from four-inch to six-inch pots, and rooted 
cuttings potted into small 60’s. Many variegated Geraniums, as 
Alma, Mangles’, &c., have been taken from boxes and potted 
separately into small 60’s, and set in a pit on a bed of leaves, 
just to give them a fair start; others have been placed on the 
stage of a vinery for a similar purpose. Cinerarias have had a 
slender stick put to them and been taken to the greenhouse, and 
to keep them cool have been set on moss. Watering, pot- 
wasliing, air giving, and the general routine the same as last 
week.—R. F. 
KIDD’S MODE OF HEATING BY HOT AIE. 
To settle as we go is the surest way of keeping out of 
trouble, of keeping out of debt, and of keeping beads 
above water : then let me settle my account with the 
blowers of hot air and cold draughts in the same respi¬ 
rator. The surest sign of success in anything that is new 
or out of the common, is to see the zeal and anxiety of 
the grumblers about it. Without grumbling one could 
hardly get on a pair of new boots, and without grumbling 
a fixed star has not yet been discovered. We can no 
more do without the aid of the grumblers and cold water 
doctors than we can or ever could do without fires in 
winter. But I have made a discovery myself since the 
commencement of the new year, and I want also to bear 
what can be said for or against it. 
There is an old way of firing cannons for fun for the 
boys at Christmas play, by leaving a little whisky at the 
bottom of a bottle, then setting the bottom of the bottle 
against the fire, the bottle being slightly or slackly 
corked, the steam is soon up in the bottle, away goes the 
cork with a bang, to the great delight and amusement of 
the youngsters. Well, being in that order of artillery at 
the late gathering, I made my discovery without even 
attempting anything of the kind. 
Take a bottle, the biggest you can find, first fire off a 
cannon with it to make it clean and dry inside, let it cool 
till it is nearly cold, then cork it and seal the cork ; set 
the bottle upright on the table, or lying down in a basket, 
or in any other position, and you will find by any 
common test that the air inside that corked bottle cir¬ 
culates a3 freely and just as it does all round us. 
Therefore, the Polmaise was on a baseless or bottom¬ 
less foundation after all our calling it so natural. Nature 
does not work her fancies by an over and an under 
current, as is the case in the bottomless-foundation 
system. Polmaise is on the principle of shifting the air 
on a principle which is directly against the laws of 
Nature, just as Mr. Penn’s system was before it. He 
introduced the hot air at the top or highest point of the 
house, and sucked the under current on the level of 
the floor of the house. That was in 1836-7-8-9, at 
Lewisham. I met Mr. Penn’s gardener then in a London 
nursery, and nothing could be more certain than in his 
full confidence in the working of that system. I sent 
Mr. Loudon after it, and he was soon of the same mind 
as the authors and workers of it, and most reading gar¬ 
deners know the result. 
Penn’s system led to the discovery that a Scottish 
laird had been using the same principle on a different 
application at his place, called Polmaise, and Penn’s 
