302 
THE COTTAGE GARDENER AND COUNTRY GENTLEMAN, August 23, 1859. 
cuttings, and also plenty of cut flowers, without ever 
troubling his beds in the flower garden for any of such 
purposes. 
MAKING VINE-BOEDERS BY DEGREES—COVERING AND 
UNCOVERING EARLY VINERY-BORDERS. 
To these matters attention has frequently been directed. 
When other matters are convenient and suitable, it is 
best to make a Vine-border by degrees as the roots 
extend, as thus the roots are longer furnished with fresh 
material. In renovating the borders Mr. Davidson had 
filled not half the allotted space. On removing the 
covering the crow-quill-like spongioles were looking out 
in every direction, asking for more feeding room, which 
they would,soon get. When borders are covered it is 
common to find directions by the end of April and May 
to get them uncovered, forked over to let the heat of the 
sun into them. I lately dissented from this early un¬ 
covering ; and showed that, wherever covering was used 
to retain heat in, or throw heat into, the soil, such early 
uncovering was prejudicial; because by experiment it 
was found the earth lost more heat than the sun gave it. 
The uncovering of the Vine-borders at Worsley was being 
done on the 25th of June; and the appearance of the 
Vines inside and the roots outside did not seem to say 
that the work was much or anything too late. 
I shall just add one more gleaned crumb— 
THE IMPORTANCE OF HEATED MANURE AVATERINGS. 
Fine crops of Mushrooms were in low houses, as firm 
and compact as at Christmas ; the roofs being thick flag¬ 
stone, which served as a platform for examining the wide 
Fine-pits at back. The Pines were magnificent as respects 
plants and fruit. Melons were grown in great luxuriance 
in pits and span-roofed houses. Cucumbers had leaves like 
parasols ; and so succulent and thick, as to baffle, without 
the assistance of shading, the sun to scorch or burn. 
Free-flowering plants were growing extra luxuriantly. 
All this, except in the case of the Mushrooms, I attribute 
chiefly to a free use of weak, clear, heated manure water, 
adding strength as the plants could bear it and required 
it. A large tank was sunk underground: here manure 
water was made, or brought from the farm, and allowed 
to ferment at will. When Avanted, it is pumped into 
pots or water-barrels by means of a small iron pump. 
All this is common enough; but the simple thing worth 
mentioning is, that close to this tank stands a small 
copper wash-house boiler, with its furnace beneath, and 
its little funnel chimney. A small fire soon heats a 
copperfull ; and, kept burning as wanted, there is no 
excuse for giving plants water at a lower temperature 
than the atmosphere in which they are growing. This is 
a far better arrangement than taking water from pipes in 
a forcing-house impregnated with iron, &c. In forcing, 
such warm water is indispensable in winter. In spring 
and autumn many checks are given, because water of the 
common temperature is given to plants in houses. I 
watered a Vine-border even a few days ago from a manure- 
Avater well; and if I had had such a convenience, I should 
have liked to have increased its temperature from 5° to 
10°. The using of such heated ivater, manure or other¬ 
wise, is a good lesson for avoiding giving checks. The 
man who did this carefully would hardly make a practice 
of letting plants from a light glass house remain many 
hours or minutes in a dark shed ; nor allow a plant from 
a tropical-heat house to stand in the open air or in a cold 
shed, until, after being thoroughly chilled, he found it 
convenient to take it back again, and then wonder if it 
flagged and shed its leaves. R. Fish. 
RENEWED GROWTH OF POTATOES. 
I trust this may be the first intimation you receive on the 
subject; but I have to inform you with regret that the Potato 
crop in this district is in a critical state, owing to a second growth 
from the tubers, with an unusual appearance of renewed vigour 
in the stalks, which, in some cases, are producing flowers. 
On taking up the plants with withered stalks, the tubers are 
sound and ripe ; but Avith those having green stems, the tubers 
are found to have sprouted; and, in some cases, I have seen a 
number of small ones as big as nuts proceeding from the larger 
Potatoes, the quality of which is much injured, as on cooking 
they are hard and close. 
From the long continuance of dry weather a premature decay 
of the stalks would not have been surprising ; but to see the 
crop looking so green, I cannot account for. I shall be glad to 
learn what course would be the best to pursue, whether to take 
them up at once, or allow them to remain until the stalks fade. 
I do not hear of the appearance of the old disease yet.—Z. A., 
Dartmouth. 
[We have observed the same re-growth in Hampshire, and the 
crop was immediately taken up. Those tubers which had re- 
sprouted were separated for immediate use.] 
i THE ADVANTAGES WHICH RESULT FROM 
DEEP CULTIVATION. 
Having ivithdrawn the superfluous moisture from soils by 
perfect drainage, there remains one,—a most important operation 
to be performed,—which consists in deeply moving the soil, and 
exposing it to the influence of the atmosphere ; thereby allowing 
it to absorb ammonia, and disintegrating those mineral and saline 
substances which enter largely into the elementary construction 
of plants. 
This is peculiarly a subject of interest to the gardener, whose 
productions depend so largely on an abundant supply of food 
for their succulence and flavour. Unlike the agriculturist, there 
are no bounds to his cultivation ; tvhile the latter, if he goes 
beyond certain limits, pays a heavy penalty for it, by having his 
cereal crops laid down, and much injured. Perhaps the farmers 
have profited by deepening then- furrows-, and not suffering their 
old, unbroken pan of earth to remain; thereby taking a lesson 
from the industrious and persevering market-gardener, whose 
practices have done so much to improve the culture of the earth, 
and v. hose perseverance is unrivalled. 
There is one important advantage which we gardeners gain in 
light, dry soils by increased depth ; it is the only way we can 
compensate for the rapidity with which a few hot suns evaporate 
moisture from our soil, by permitting the roots to descend to 
where the soil is comparatively cool and moist, and to recruit the 
exhausted energies of the plant. 
It is a marvellous fact, that many old and imperfectly-dug 
gardens are considered worn out, when at the same time they 
possess under their surface a mine of mineral and saline in¬ 
gredients, which merely want breaking up and exposing to 
render them available a3 food for plants. Let us advise the 
owners of such ground what to do. We would not, all at once, 
trench deeply, but we would at the next digging bring up a small 
quantity of subsoil to the surface, which, when commixed, will 
restore all the elements of fertility. Thus would we continue to 
do every other time of digging, and thus should we have a full 
supply of inorganic food for our crops. When I first came to 
Nuneham, the garden there was completely exhausted of inor¬ 
ganic matters; and now, by biennial trenching and bringing up 
each time a small quantity of the bottom soil, it is one of the 
finest gardens extant. We have a soil thoroughly mixed, and a 
yard in depth. I have also tried some experiments upon the 
principle of the Lois Weedou plan of farming, and I have pro¬ 
duced fine crops of the same vegetable year after year hi succession. 
But I must not be understood as writing aught against the use of 
manurial agents—they are our sheet anchors in gardening ; but it 
is amazing how teeming and inexhaustable is the womb of Nature ; 
and the advantages which result to those who watch her operations, 
but to assist them, are great and manifold. Man is placed here 
upon the earth by an infinitely wise and good Creator. He 
orders and governs everything by Ilis unerring laws ; and it is for 
man to discover the beauty and accuracy of design, and by his 
industry to use them to the promotion of his own social enjoy- 
meut. 
AVhen a plant is placed in a given locality, it is daily absorbing 
from the ground those peculiar properties which it peculiarly 
requires; and when it comes to be removed, certain elementary 
principles are removed with it. This often repeated must 
naturally lessen the supply of this principle for other crops, 
