356 
THE COTTAGE GARDENER AND COUNTRY GENTLEMAN, September 13, 1859. 
straw would be justifiable, certainly. But supposing the ice to 
commence wasting in zones, each of which is less and less, width 
of diameter seems of great importance ; and it is better to have 
the incipient wasting commence at a long radius from the centre 
than at a short one. The same amount of waste in one case 
leaving but a small central piece of ice; while in the other a 
block of considerable diameter remains for use. 
A good deal has been done in constructing rustic ice-houses ; 
but they are, perhaps, but very bad samples of sound economy— 
always tumbling down in a state of rottenness, bit by bit. 
Whoever erects them is doomed to pay too much for his whistle, 
and had far better erect at once a good brick-house. 
A great deal of ice is now stacked in various localities, and the 
practice answers well. At the Duke of Bedford’s, at Woburn, it 
is largely done with great success ; but the greatest affair of the 
kind which I have ever seen was at Berkeley Castle a few years 
ago. There they had so large a quantity as two hundred cart¬ 
loads in one heap, placed upon sloping flagstones, which answered 
their purpose in every way. 
Of these modes of keeping ice it is difficult to say which is the 
best; but we may say that all are good when well done. I 
think where having a supply of ice involved making an expensive 
house, it might be quite right to try the formation of stacks, 
which, as I have already said, answer admirably. 
When an ice-well is filled, it is usual to direct that the straw, 
which I omit, should be placed round the sides, for the purpose 
of giving passage to any moisture; but the ice will immediately 
thaw from the wall, and form a passage for the moisture, without 
having the damp straw falling down and lying upon the ice to 
melt it, which is in my opinion very objectionable. 
I have often wondered that one does not see more frequently 
an ice-cellar attached to country houses, remembering how useful 
such places are for various purposes of domestic economy. If 
these things were well considered in planning a house, how much 
of after expense and trouble would be saved by placing the ice¬ 
house close to the mansion, and not sending a man daily to carry 
two buckets of ice to the house. Henry Baile y, Nuneham . 
THE BLOSSOMING PRINCIPLE; HOW 
VARIOUS! 
It is a well-known fact in the gardening world that we 
possess the power of causing certain plants or trees to 
blossom at periods, when, uncontrolled, they might not do 
so. It is equally certain that many subjects are quite 
uncontrollable in this respect. It must be admitted on 
all sides that the pow.er of inducing fructiferous or blos¬ 
soming habits is a most desirable object, and it may be 
worth while to look over the subject. Some plants and 
trees are what may be called periodical in their blossom¬ 
ing, others bloom as it were by starts ; but still all these 
cases are, as it were, so overlaid with exceptions that 
generalisation is almost impossible. However, by quoting 
a few illustrations of habits, we shall, doubtless, stumble 
on facts. 
Most of our fruits we know are tolerably decided in 
habit—such as the Apple, Pear, Plum, Apricot, Peach, 
&c. Nevertheless, it is no uncommon thing to find a 
stray Apple blossom at the end of the autumn. Then, 
again, our bush fruits are in the main equally fixed in their 
habits ; the Gooseberry and Currant decidedly so. But 
the Raspberry is more wayward as to blossoming; and it 
is evident, from what is known of this singular bush, that 
we need not deem it an impossibility to eat Raspberries 
three-parts of the year. 
When we look into our herbaceous tribes we shall 
find some singularly habited plants in this respect. The 
Chrysanthemum, for instance—who can produce a show 
of these in June or July ? But we come to the cool 
autumn months, and the difficulty speedily vanishes. 
The Dielytra spectabilis is somewhat odd in its move¬ 
ments. I took some old and strong roots up last October 
to pot for what is commonly called forcing. About one- 
half were potted, and the other, cared little for, were left 
at the compost heap; a little soil being strewed over 
them, which was washed nearly away by the first storm, 
and the plants lay bare to the frost and weather for 
several weeks. The roots seemed to preserve their 
vitality unimpaired; and finally, in the middle of Decem¬ 
ber, the poor unfortunates were potted. They were 
placed on the damp cinder floor of the Camellia-house, 
and in a short period made the finest blooming plants 
we had. But this plant will not bear forcing in its full 
signification. If it can get its annual rest betimes, 
and that of a decided character, it is readily excited 
in any mild greenhouse at a temperature of 35° to 50°, 
especially if on the damp ground or floor. And this 
singular affair reminds me of a strange observation I 
once heard a knowing old gentleman—a worker in metals 
—make concerning Rhubarb. 
It is, doubtless, well known to the readers of The 
Cottage Gardener that hundreds of the suburbans about 
great manufacturing towns are in possession of a great 
many useful practical facts connected with their little 
gardens, albeit not professors. My man of metal was 
from Stockport, and he assured me that the best way to 
propagate and encourage choice Rhubarb was to take up 
the roots in November, and throw them on the surface 
of the soil, uncovered, until February. This appeared 
strange doctrine to me; but this I do know, that some 
young Rhubarb plants were trenched out of a plot here 
last autumn, and lay on the surface all the winter with¬ 
out suffering the least damage. We thought we had too 
many, but in the spring we had recourse to the rejected 
for enough for a row; and they have grown as well as 
those planted carefully in November. This may seem a 
little wide of my text, but I want to put in all I can to set 
other minds at work. By-and-by we shall get a master 
mind that will string these loose and random beads. 
We have lately had questions raised as to the habits of 
the Delphinium formosum, and I am glad to see them in 
these pages ; for we really desire further knowledge con¬ 
cerning it. This spring, about the end of April, I topped 
or pinched a few plants in the store-bed at various heights, 
in order to see if they would continue long in blossom, 
and whether it would be satisfactory as a dwarfing pro¬ 
cess. I am sony to say I cannot report so well of this 
affair as I could wish; they did blossom, but they were 
stray flowers, and by no means expressing the glorious 
character of D. formosum in all its pride. Still I do not 
think it invincible; probably treated as a biennial, and 
sown at special periods, something may be done. Had 
this fine fellow been of the habit of a Verbena, and a 
perpetual bloomer, he would have thrashed all the blues 
out of the flower garden. 
But to return to the kitchen garden. Here we may 
find cases of Cauliflowers buttoning, Celery and Lettuce 
bolting, with other matters. Now this condition is pro¬ 
bably the natural one : it is simply our high culture and 
selection of condition which ai’rest this tendency to bolt 
or run to blossom. But in this case, were it our object 
to produce this blossoming condition, we feel quite at 
home in this respect. These subjects, however, are so 
susceptible, that although there is to be seen an identity 
as to the flowering habit between these and fruit trees, 
yet we can but slenderly use the same appliances. 
There are, to be sure, several ways of operating to this 
end. But we may fairly resolve them into two; operat¬ 
ing by the root, and by the foliage. By the root, we can 
cut off the supplies at will, with many things, especially 
plants in pots. We can withhold water, and we can 
even cut away a portion of the fibres and roots. Now 
with all those ordinary plants which are commonly de¬ 
signated herbaceous, we well know that the organisation 
of a fine blossom-bud for the ensuing year depends 
entirely on the healthy development and action of the 
foliage of the present year. Thus the character and 
value of Asparagus in the ensuing season depend on the 
encouragement given to the foliage of the present year. 
So that if any novice in such matters were to wish to 
know how many stalks he might cut from any given root 
in the ensuing spring, he has only to count the number 
