THE COTTAGE GARDENER AND COUNTRY GENTLEMAN, April 5, 1859. 
11 
[Your plant of Stauntonia was ruined before you had it by 
being stinted in a small pot. We were in the same dilemma four 
or five years back : and we had to take up our plant, and cut off 
the coiled fleshy roots, and start again in bottom heat, after 
cutting down the plant to the last eye—that plant now is the 
pride of our garden. We cut it as close as a Grape vine at the 
end of April; and it runs a long way, and is as green as a Por¬ 
tugal Laurel till cutting time comes round. Wa protect it like 
the blossom of fruit trees when it is hard frost. It is now a 
shining beauty ; but we must soon prune it, and take all shine 
out of it for a while. Of the flowers we take no account.] 
SEEDS OF BULBS—HARDY BULBS. 
“ A Young Gardener wishes to know whether, if seeds of 
Camassia esculenta, Trichonema roseum, Geissorhiza Jlookerii, 
Sisgrinchium anceps, Trichonema speciosum, sown this year, will 
flower next; or, if not, how soon ? and will any of them flower this 
year ? and when is the best time to sow the seeds ? Are they all 
quite hardy ? He would be grateful for a list of the handsomest 
hardy bulbs, with their heights and colours ; and would like to 
know whether they can be raised from seed to flower next year : 
if not, where the bulbs are to be had, as but very few are named in 
ordinary catalogues. His garden is in Yorkshire.” 
[As a general rule, seeds of all bulbs may be sown as soon as 
they are ripe ; but they, or most of them, will not sprout till the 
time it is natural for the parent bulb to begin to grow. Seeds of 
Crocuses should be sown in October, and so with all the Ixias, 
and their allies ; but if such are not sown till the spring, they can 
do little more than just establish themselves the first season. All 
the seeds you mention are in this condition—they will not flower 
this year, nor in the next. They would flower just as soon, if 
they were out of the earth till next September. If you have them 
true, the Camassia and Sisyrincliium, are hardy; but you had better 
treat them all alike—say, like Ixias, or cold-frame roots. A list 
of the best hardy and half-hardy bulbs would only frighten and 
bewilder you, and some bulbs never flower under ten or fifteen 
years from seed. Your first start should be to learn the old 
plants, and then to try what can be done with seedlings. There 
is food enough for this work in The Cottage Gardbnbr to last 
you fully ten years after it is consumed. Let us know if a list 
woidd satisfy you then.] 
HOW TO FARM PROFITABLY.* 
Tub genus Agriculturist is of sluggish growth, and fixed 
habits; the genus Commercialist growg rapidly, and enjoys 
change. We thought “ long, long ago,” what an excellent hybrid 
could be raised by crossing the two—another race after the type 
of Noah; who, before he “ began to be a husbandman ” and a 
vine-dresser, was a mechanic, and a trafficker. 
Now, just such a far-seeing, common sense man is Mr. Meehi. 
He, too, trafficked and wrought in Leadenhall Street before he 
“ began to be a husbandman ” on Tiptree Heath; and the result is 
the same—he has done much towards increasing the fruitfulness 
of the earth. 
We remember, thirty years ago, the farm which Mr. Mechinow 
cultivates. It was then a wet, desolate region, unremunerative, 
and unhealthy. Now, it is well-drained, well-enclosed, well- 
cultivated, healthful, and profitable. 
This great change has been accomplished by the adaptation to 
agriculture of the clear, progressive, calculating, ledger-keeping 
mind of the manufacturer and merchant. To suppose that Mr. 
Mechi made no mistake—incurred no losses—in his efforts to 
secure improvement, would be to suppose that he is more than a 
mortal. It is quite true that he committed errors, and made un¬ 
remunerative outlays. But, even these he has turned into benefits ; 
for he states what they were, and holds them up as beacons, to 
warn others from shoals on which he sustained damage. 
Wo thank Mr. Mechi heartily for publishing this excellent and 
very cheap little volume. We recommend it to our readers, and 
we promise that not one of them, who has a plot under plough or 
spade, but shall derive pleasure and profit from the perusal. 
We have no space to quote an entire chapter on any of the 
practical contents, and to extract a few paragraphs would be of 
small utility ; but we must republish a portion of the introduction 
• Sow to Farm Profitably ; or, the Sayings and Doings of Mr, Alderman 
Mechi, London : Routledge and Co. 
to this volume, and give with it the expression of our entire con- 
currenc*. 
“ It is a sound principle, that all changes which take place in 
agriculture, if unattended by profit, are wrong, and are not im¬ 
provements. It must, however, be borne in mind, that agri¬ 
cultural improvement is gradual, and progressively increased by 
time. Tlius I have found it. Fortunately for me, and, perhaps, 
for agriculture, I have been spared long enough to witness the full 
development, and reap the reward of my improvements; but, 
better still, I have witnessed the gradual and more general accept¬ 
ance and adoption of those changes for which I was once con¬ 
demned, but for which I now get some credit. 
“ Let us not, however, deceive ourselves by our self-esteem. 
The truth had better be spoken. We are, as it were, still only on 
the threshold of agricultural progress. As a whole, first-rate 
farming is the exception, and bad or moderate farming the rule 
of British agriculture. This is proved by our miserably low 
average agricultural produce, which is only £3 I0i., or four rents 
per acre. Our whole system will yet undergo a mighty change 
by steam cultivation, by the economy of our town and farm 
manures, by the greater production of meat and manure, by the 
more general use of steam and machinery, by the economy of seed, 
by the eradication of weeds ; and, above all, by the drainage and 
irrigation of lands not naturally filtrative: we shall not then, as 
we traverse our fields, probe the depth of cultivation with our 
walking-sticks, and have the mortification of finding an undis¬ 
turbed, unmanured, and unaerated subsoil, at the depth of a 
common wine-glass from the surface. 
“ The subterranean glazed pan, over which the plough has slid 
for a thousand years, will be torn up by steam-power; and the 
joyous roots of our plants will testify their exultation by a more 
vigorous surface vegetation, highly gratifying to the British 
stomach.” 
OH BEES SECRETING WAX. 
I find, at page 371 of the last volume, that “ B. and W." is 
not satisfied with my reply to “ A Devonshire Bee-keeper,’’ on 
bees secreting wax. But, as that writer can well defend himself, 
1 see no reason why others should take up bis subject so warmly, 
and blame me for not writing more scientifically. Were I to write 
so, perhaps I might be less understood. However, I have to 
notice, that “ A Devonshire Bee-keeper ” agreed with me in 
my observations on bees mending their combs generally with old 
wax; but his own case was a singular exception, for he considers 
that the bees perished from having converted their winter store 
of honey into wax. Such an occurrence never came under 
my notice, nor, indeed, strictly speaking, under his; for the 
mended combs were shown to him by a friend in February, 
1851, who observed, that the hive was blown over in December, 
January, or the previous autumn. There may be some mistake 
as to the exact time, and the bees might have got abroad after 
the accident. And, even supposing that the whole of the combs 
rested on the floor of the hive, it»would not take much wax to 
add about half an inch of cells on the tops of them. 
Having spoken so lately on bees ejecting wax from the mouth, 
as well as through the segments under their abdomens, I must 
not return to the subject. Nevertheless, if “ B. and IV." were to 
look more carefully to what I really said, perhaps he would see 
reason to modify hi* censure of my writing, as contrasted 
with that of Huber. 
With regard to bees collecting wax, or propolis, from Laurel 
leaves, his regret for having used the word “ scrape ” instead 
of “ obtain,” come* with rather a bad grace, after he had 
perceived that expression fell in with my views on the subject. 
But this small quibbling can be of no interest to the reader.— 
J. Wighton. 
TRADE LISTS RECEIVED. 
Of Select Agricultural Seeds, from F. and A. Dickson and 
Sons, Fast gate Street, Chester. —This contains not only a good 
descriptive and priced list of the various Turnips, Mangold 
Wurtzels, Potatoes, &c., suitable for field culture, but especially 
of the Grasses, and their mixtures, suited to different purposes. 
We extract from it the following table, not only because it may 
be useful to some of our readers, but because it answers the 
queries of two correspondents (Essex, and R. T.), relative to 
Buck Wheat or Brank, and Chicory:— 
“ Quantities of various Agricultural Seeds required to Sow a Statute 
Acre .—The quantities of Agricultural Seeds sown per acre vary greatly 
