! 
THE COTTAGE GARDENER AND COUNTRY GENTLEMAN, January 19, 1858. 
them conveniently; pack them carefully in light, 
fresh loam, with a good portion of drift sand, and if 
such a thing could be done, I would plunge the pot 
in a sweet bottom heat of from 70° to 80°, produced 
by tan, or dung, or leaves; and I should like it all 
the better, if the steam should rise freely around the 
stem and the head. To keep these moist, they might 
be half encased in moss, and frequently sprinkled 
with water about 75°. As the roots would be filled 
with fluids before potting, little watering would be 
wanted, until fresh roots began to push freely. When 
fresh shoots also began to come away freely, the plant 
could be gradually hardened, and, ultimately, be 
transferred to its ornamental tub ; and, as before ob¬ 
served, tubbed at once, or made to go through several 
successive courses of shifting, without moving the 
plant. During the encouragement of this fresh-rooting 
and breaking-of-fresh-buds process, the plant will not 
require much light; and, therefore, a little scheming 
will soon find a suitable convenience : but light must 
be freely given, before the young buds have exceeded 
an inch or two in length. 
You will perceive from the above, that I do not 
approve of your compost for fresh boxing your plant 
in such circumstances, namely“ Soil from an old 
Cucumber-bed, mixed with a little very rotten manure, 
and leaf mould.” Old Cucumber soil, is not generally 
the poorest sort of soil in itself. You are not how¬ 
ever greatly to blame. We have helped to use such 
material for unhealthy plants, mixed in addition, 
with a good proportion of quick-lime, to set it all 
properly fomenting. It is just the old adage, “ Dung 
makes the Barley grow,” and therefore,- be sure and 
place plenty of it about a puling, sickly plant ! 
Many of us know how sweet a delicacy, after a hard 
morning’s work, is a thumb-piece of boiled pork and 
bread (all the sweeter because it lias been worked 
for ; and wi thout such earning, the greatest delicacies 
of the table of the rich, must often pall on the 
appetite); and, therefore, our knowing nurses were 
quite right in stuffing a sickly infant’s mouth with 
salmon and bacon ! Badinage aside, there can be no 
question, that when a plant gets in bad health, and you 
wish to encourage the production of healthy rootlets, 
the compost used can scarcely be too simple. In the 
present case, I should have preferred well-sweetened 
fibry brown loam ; lightened with a few pieces of char¬ 
coal, and a fair portion of rough, road-drift sand. When 
roots were freely formed in such simple compost, then I 
would give strength by weak manure waterings ; and 
when the roots cried out for more room, then I should 
make such a loam the base of the compost, and add to 
it a little dried leaf mould, or cow dung. Though, if 
attention be given to manure waterings, and surface 
dressings in summer of deer and sheep dung, after it 
had been partly dried and sweetened ; such sweet 
fibry loam, if not too adhesive, but possessing a fair 
portion of siliceous matter, would grow the Orange 
tree well, without any mixture of dung in the soil at 
all. 
If you find any scale on the stem of the Orange, 
paint it over with clay and sulphur, after washing it 
carefully with a sponge and soap water. 
I do not think there will be much danger of stagnant 
water in your Vine border, if it has a chalk bottom. 
At any rate, a few holes made in the chalk, Avould 
generally make all right. As the house is used as a 
promenade, and the floors kept dry and white, I should 
have imagined the Vines would have been more subject 
to scorching, and red spider, than mildew, if fair 
attention were given to air. Paint the shoots now with 
a thick paint of clay, and flowers of sulphur ; and that 
will help against both mildew and spider. If your 
house is moderately lofty, and the floor is not much 
245 
I covered, its white surface will give an extra amount of 
light and heat to the Vines, when the sun shines. 
It. Pish. 
WORSLEY HALL. 
Ttie Seat op the Earl op Ellesmere. 
This noble pile is situated westwards, about seven 
miles from the city of Manchester, on a commanding 
eminence overlooking a rich country, studded with 
water in the shape of two medium-sized lakes, and the 
noble Bridgewater Canal. On the 29th of December 
last, I left Manchester by the half-past eleven o’clock 
train, on the Manchester and Liverpool railway, to 
visit this place; and to see the new and the extensive 
flower garden which was formed last winter and spring. 
The station to stop at, is Patricroft, at which place, 
near the station, are the famous works of J. Kary- 
smith and Co., the inventors of the great hammer, that 
bears their name. I arrived at this station in twenty 
minutes ; and on inquiry of one of the officials, I was 
informed, that I had to walk about two miles. To this, 
I had no objection, as the day was a remarkably fine 
one. The sun was shining mildly through white 
fleecy clouds ; the air was just warm enough to render 
walking a pleasant exercise; and the anticipation of 
the pleasure that awaited me, rendered the walk a 
truly delightful one. The path lay along the banks of 
the above-named canal; and is evidently kept in order 
by the noble earl—for there is a good iron hurdle fence 
next the water, and a broad gravelled road in as good 
condition as possible. Though there is a lodge at the 
entrance, there is no exclusion, for the foot-path is 
open to everybody Avitliout question or hindrance. 
As I Avalked on, I noticed the effects of this un¬ 
commonly mild season. The grass was shooting up 
as fresh and green as if it were April; and the young 
nettles Avere high enough to be Avorth gathering' to 
make the health-giving nettle-broth, so famous in the 
north of England, for curing scurvy, and purifying the 
blood. The path, or carriage-road—for it serves both 
for foot and carriage passengers—leaves the canal after 
a distance, and turns to the right, evidently to avoid a 
group of coke ovens. To conceal these unsightly 
objects, a considerable breadth of trees lias been 
planted.; they are just at the age to require judicious 
pruning and thinning, and ought not to be neglected 
eA T en another year. The trees are healthy, and growing 
freely ; and, as yet, eA T ery branch down to the ground 
is alive. But I observed, half-way up, many branches 
that were striving for the mastery ; and if these are 
not removed, the lower parts of the trees will perish, 
and the plantation will be naked at the bottom; and 
thus expose the objects intended to be hidden. 
The path ends at the high turnpike-road which led 
me through the pleasant village of Worsley. Turning 
to the right, the hall appears on the left hand ; and a 
handsome church Avitli a lofty spire on the right. This 
beautiful edifice is placed opposite the principal en¬ 
trance gates. As my object Avas to find the gardener 
first, I inquired the proper Avay to his house. The gate¬ 
keeper very courteously informed me, that the best 
way to find him, would be to continue on the highway, 
and pass the mansion a short distance, when I should 
find a gravelled lane that would lead me straight to the 
desired spot. I thanked him, and remarked to myself, 
that it Avould be a good thing if every lodge-keeper 
was equally civil and obliging. Too many of them 
think themsel\ r es above being civil to a foot passenger. 
The highway is well paved, and is sunk about five 
feet beloAV the level, and walled on each side: hence 
the passengers are not seen from the mansion. Just 
within the wall there has been planted, some years back 
