372 
THE COTTAGE GARDENER AND COUNTRY GENTLEMAN, Mabch 19, 1861. 
TO CORRESPONDENTS. 
Young Gloxinias Showing Bloom [A Lover of The Cottage Gardener ). 
—The Gloxinias should have the flowers removed, the surface soil stirred, 
and the growth of fine foliage he encouraged. 
Clianthcs Dampieri Culture (Idem). — This plant is impatient of 
pot-shifting. Sow each seed in a small pot, and when the plant is up, and 
before the roots begin to cling to, or even reach to, the sides of the pot, turn 
the plant at once into a large—say an eight-inch—pot, well drained, filled 
with sandy loam and peat, and be careful not to soak the soil further than 
the roots extend. 
Glazbd Earthenware Pipes for Hot Water (A Constant Reader ).— 
Tou would require 3 feet or 4 feet of iron piping to come directly from 
the boiler ; after that distance the glazed earthenware pipes would do very 
well, especially if no great pressure was put on them. In uniting the 
joints, knock in some rope yarn, or something of that kind, at the endofthe 
socket, and fill up the cavity with Portland cement, made nearly as thick 
as putty. Wet the joints with a brush dipped in water before filling them 
up with the cement. 
Soda in House Sewage (A Regular Subscriber). —Soapsuds alone are 
of little use to growing and flowering plants. The additional soda would 
not render the suds less beneficial. If used, one-part of the suds to six of 
water will be sufficient. If given in excess it will make the leaves decay, 
Manure water should be applied to the plants weak, and not oftener than 
twice a-week. It should never be applied in a strong state. To plants 
cultivated for their flowers it should not be given until the flower-buds 
appear. 
Various (A Subscriber). —We cannot tell what weight of Potatoes you 
will require for planting an acre, as we do not know what sized sets you 
intend using. Planted in rows 2 feet apart, and 1 foot apart in the rows, 
you will require 21,780 sets, so if the sets average 3 ozs., you may easily 
calculate for yourself. Prune last year’s shoots of the newly-plantecl 
Apple trees. We cannot tell where you can purchase Ligurian bees at 
present; they can sting but are not so irascible a3 the common bee. Any 
wooden hive can have a window in its side or sides, so that the bees can 
be seen. 
Chrysanthemums in Pots (W. C. TV.). —They are usually grown in 
eight-inch and eleven-inch pots, according to the size of the specimens. 
We do not know the address of Mr. Holmes. 
Field-culture of Strawberries ( Strawberry). —If straw should prove 
too dear this year to allow of its use for keeping the berries clean, we can 
only recommend spent tan, mowings of grass, and long litter from the 
stable. The last-named does not impart any flavour to the berries. The 
rain soon washes it clean. 
Climbers—Planting out Silene ( Boz ).— You, like many other corre¬ 
spondents, seem to think editors are clairvoyants. It is difficult to advise 
on gardening subjects without knowing in what part of this kingdom the 
plants are to be planted. Nor do we know what Silene you mean. There 
are many of them, but most of them may be planted out early in April 
south of the Grampian range; but it is questionable if the 1st of May would 
not be the best time to put out any Silene where the frost you sav killed 
rampant Roses or strong Rose climbers. 
Cyclamens Done Flowering ( L.J.L.). —Some gardeners keep them dry 
in the pots all the summer; and some turn them out of the pots into the 
border about the middle of May, and take them up and pot them at the end 
of September. But we mean shortly to explain this difference. 
Peach Trees under Glass (A Novice). —These making an excess of 
young wood you had better root-prune. Dig a trench in a somicircle 
round them at about three feet from the stem, and cut through all the roots 
you meet with. Disbud and train just as you would the trees on the outer 
walls ; and give abundance of ventilation. On no account manure the 
border, it would make the trees of still grosser growth. Water the border 
when the soil seems to require it. There is no separate work on Peaches 
under glass. 
Flower Garden Plan (Harriet). —Your garden plan is really very good- 
3 must be yellow, or you have a pig with one ear. The CEnothera macro- 
carpa would suit 11 to a nicety; and the four corner beds might be edged 
with Nemophila to be sown directive 6 will be late. We would put varie¬ 
gated Mint edging round 2 and 10. ^ is most capital; but 7 wall not do at all 
—black as midnight. Perilla must have white or variegated leaves next to 
it, on one side at least. Could you not get one dozen of Flower of the 
Day to put inside of Perilla, and make a dash with them? If not, sow it 
now with red and white Clarkia mixed, and they will be off by the first 
or second week in August. Then change to China Asters for the autumn, 
and we warrant your beds to look well till better times and more glass 
can be had. 
Bedding Plants (A Young Gardener). —The best six variegated Gera¬ 
niums for your new garden are Flower of the Day, Bijou, Alma, Brilliant, 
Lady Plymouth, and Golden Chain. The best three or four kinds of Plain¬ 
leaved—Punch, Tom Thumb, or Crystal Palace if you could get if 
Cottage Maid for Horseshoe, and Attraction. Six best Verbenas—Defiance’ 
Mrs. Holford, General Simpson, King of Purples, Geant des Batailles, and 
the two striped Empress Eugenie varieties of pulchella. For six best 
Calceolarias, drop four, and take Aurea floribunda and integrifolia, or 
rugosa; but try amplexicaulis without training down. For Petunias, take 
or ask for the best white, the best purple, as there is no end to these ; then 
Shrubland Rose. You must have a bed of Tropmolum elegans, and a 
couple of dozen of Perilla nankinensis, fifty or one hundred yards of 
Lobelia speciosa, the same of the variegated Alyssum—all for edgings, and 
then your new garden will do with some Tritoma uvaria in circles on the 
grass, and a Pampas Grass or two. 
Various (L. N. N .).—A pit covered at night with matting would now 
do for Geraniums, but excessive wet and cold during the day must also be 
excluded. The Geranium cuttings will strike more readily in a gentle hot¬ 
bed than in the house. Leave the Roses uncut until by their vegetation 
you can be certain how far they are dead. We do not know where you 
can buy a Vinegar Plant. Dead leaves if not decayed may be collected 
now, and would probably heat sufficiently for striking cuttings. 
. Drying Potatoes for Planting (Gnirpshguol). —Dry your Flukes 
in a cool oven now, do not overdo them, and select for the purpose those 
which have not sprouted. 
Ividdean Mode of Heating (G. B. C., Kensington). — We have said 
already, that there is nothing yet proved, in the practical application of 
the Ividdean system, to warrant any one adopting fixed rules for its 
details; all have yet to be first practised and proved. You have the prin¬ 
ciple, and the effects of one or two ways of applying it. But as to what 
you, or we, or Mr. Ividd, or any one else, may say farther than that 
is of no more weight than the flow-current in Polmaise. You do as your 
judgment may suggest, and tell us the results of your doing, and we shall 
give them to our readers with what suggestions they may point out to 
ourselves. We are not farther on the road yet than the length of heating 
plant-houses while the plants are at rest, and without applying moisture 
to them. Every step beyond that is to be proved in practice. We have 
no experience as to its use for heating living-rooms, nor has Mr. Kidd 
given us power to ask him on that branch of the subject. Can you give 
us a clue to what you heard as having been done in America with this 
system ? 
Covering for Conservatory (An Old Subscriber). — Try frigi domo. 
You neither tell us where you live, nor how your Cucumber-pit is heated, 
so how can we suggest a remedy ? Can vou send us a sectional drawing 
of it? 
Gladioluses in Open Ground (J. G. F.).— Mr. Beaton said at the time 
he did not recommend any one to repeat his experiment. 
Ice-house Management (W- Stewart). —We need to know how your 
ice-house is manag' d, not how made, before we can tell the reason for such 
waste of ice, and the probable remedy. But the usual mismanagment of 
ice-houses where ice never keeps'is this :—the house being filled, is forth¬ 
with closed so carefully, and the passages filled securely with straw, that 
there is no particle of moving air within reach of the great body of ice. 
The moment the warmth of the earth melts so much ice as will make a 
quart of water, unless that quart or cupful of water be at the very bottom 
of the stack of ice, and runs off at once into the waste drain, it is itself 
warmed, and rises in miid vapour, which will insinuate itself into every 
crack and space in the ice, and henceforward this vapour increases and 
wastes the ice daily at a rapidly increasing ratio. That “ management,” 
therefore, is like grafting the wrong end of the stock. Pure air in rapid 
motion is the life preserver of ice , whether it be stacked on the plain, in 
the wood, or deep in the earth. The surface of a large bed of ice in July 
will not damp a cambric handkerchief if it is exposed to a current of air; 
the air carries off the damp, or melting, as fast as it is made, and thus pre¬ 
serves the ice from the influence of damp, warm air, which is more de¬ 
structive to it than a flame of fire, as many an alpine traveller could tell 
from his attempts at gettiDg a dry bed within a cave covered with ice or 
snow. Stacks of ice on the plain, and covered with straw or fern, will keep 
ice better than a common ice-house, because the stack is surrounded with 
air which carries off the damp : therefore, the true way to manage ice in 
a common ice-house like yours is to have the house most thoroughly 
ventilated, as we ourselves have done for many years. 
Shoots of Hybrid Perpetual Roses (Querist). —At this season and 
till after the end of May you can do nothing with the young shoots of 
Hybrid Perpetual Roses in the way of rooting them, unless you were such 
a propagator as would not need to be told. 
Salvia patens for Bedding (B .).—We do not recognise the leaf, but it 
is not from any known Salvia; but keep the plant until it flowers—perhaps 
it may be valuable, and perhaps a weed. Salvia patens is the best blue 
bedding plant when it is well done, which it seldom is. Ageratum is the 
commoner used for blue ; then Delphiniums ; and then Lobelia, of which 
speciosa is the best. 
POULTRY AID BEE-KEEPER’S CHRONICLE. 
ENCLOSURES EOR PHEASANTS. 
‘‘Where there’s a will there’s a way”—an old saying that 
will remind many of their childhood and youth; of some early 
fits of rebellion; of some stern maiden aunt or uncompromis¬ 
ing grandmother, who was not to be overcome by girls ; or 
some bachelor uncle or grandfather who was proof against any 
entreaty that could proceed from boys. The “I can’t” is 
obliged to give way to the proverb, but in after life it re-assumes 
the ascendancy; and many who would keep Pheasants, wild 
fowl, or other pets, how down to it when they should adopt 
the saw. Just so we once heard the owner of many thousands 
of acres lament his inability to keep two breeds of fowls for lack 
of space. We look on these hobbies as charms about a country 
house; we view them as lessons to children, they inculcate 
kindness, forethought, and they are enemies to idleness. 
A few weeks since we gave some hurried notes or instruction 
on this subject in answer to a correspondent, and we will now 
enter more fully into detail. We described the sort of place 
that will do for Pheasants; we will now state such as may 
and should he made where everything is at hand. The pens 
should be on a dry, gravelly spot, and if they are on a slight 
decline from the house to the front, so much the better. The 
floor inside the house should be raised 2 inches or 3 inches above 
the level of the pen in front; and the surface should be of loose 
gravel, as such is never dirty in any weather, and can always 
be cleansed il necessary, or, at any rate, a fresh surface made by 
simply drawing a heath-broom lightly over it. It also admits 
of being renovated by being raked. Of whatever material the 
fence-work be, whether of wire, netting, or lattice-work, the 
bottom of it all round—say from 18 inches from the ground, 
should be solid for many reasons. It is a great protection to 
