THE COTTAGE GAIIDENEE AND COUNTRY GENTLEMAN, December 13, 1859. 
155 
or thirty volumes from my shelves ; and if the plan be 
taken up in the right spirit, I would set the example by 
bequeathing all my gardening books at my death to the 
library at Kensington Gore. I have been in earnest all 
along about the library, and I could tell and explain why 
so few have consulted the old one since 1830. But at 
Kensington Gore we shall have rooms entirely devoted to 
books and study—not the working-office of the Society 
and Secretary’s sitting-room, as in Regent Street; and 
after all this grub and caterpillar state, we shall all meet 
there as soft as moths and as gay as butterflies. 
One could hardly be in the vicinity of Covent 
Garden Market at this season of the year and not call 
in and see how things go there. AVell, it pulls down 
one’s feathers to see so much improvement in the 
forcing department of flowers year by year, for this year 
in particular; for they have had the early Tulips, the 
single and double Van Thol, in small 48-pot3, and five 
or six in each pot, every one of which is as regularly 
and as timely bloomed as the rest, and all out by the first 
day in December, instead of on Christmas or New Year’s 
Day, as of old; white old Cyclamen Persicums by the 
dozens in full bloom; single Chinese Primroses, as large 
and as high-coloured as were ever seen in Bath or Ipswich 
in their palmy days, and a much greater sight for all 
country gardeners. Just answer this question to your 
own conscience, if you were ever initiated to the free¬ 
masonry of gardening, as I was, against my will. Did 
you believe in the art of growing the free Poinsettia 
pulcherrima like the single truss dwarf-flowered Hy¬ 
drangeas of the present age—that is, to have it in bloom, 
at this season in 48-sized pots, and from four to six 
inches high, the leaves all green, and down to the tops of 
the pots, and the heads of bloom as large and as brilliant 
as you had seen them on seven-feet stems ? I counted a 
score of such plants in that very condition on one stall in 
Covent Garden Market that day ; but, whether they were 
from France or from Isleworth, they were a lesson not 
to be forgotten. 
Just suppose a ribbon-line of Flower of the Pay , ten 
inches high, in midwinter, and three hundred feet long, 
at Kensington Gore, and two lines of this Poinsettia in 
front of it. The one to be of plants eight inches high, 
and the other six inches in height—the two making 
one band a foot wide of the brightest crimson you ever 
saw, and would they not be worth the journey up to see 
them too? The next question is, But who could make 
them? and the next, How did he manage the dwarfing 
process? Then a discussion on those nosegays, where 
another improvement is seen in the make and cut of the 
guard-papers under them. 
And, verily, Covent Garden seems to feel already the 
impulse of the new Horticultural Society. All the flowers 
are on wires, the worse luck; but there is a noted im¬ 
provement in the make of the nosegays since 'I was last 
there, but no alteration on the old shapes. The best 
telling are the large white Camellia on the top and the 
seven or eight ribs of blue Violets, with the same number 
of white ribs, or French-white ribs, of the flowers of white 
and French-white Chinese Primroses curving down from 
under the edges of the white Camellia to the bottom 
or rim of the nosegay, then a row all round of green, 
and finished with fancy-cut guard-paper. A few cut 
scarlet Geraniums and an immense number of orange- 
scarlet flowers of Tropeeolum Lobbianum are the next 
best telling in the market, after the Camellias and the 
dwarf Poinsettias. I did not see a forced or a retarded 
Rose in the market; but there w r ere a far better display 
and assortments of everlasting flowers than I had ever 
seen before. Really some nosegays of them, which were 
surprisingly cheap (6d., 9 d., and Is. each), were well 
worth one’s while to buy and “make up ” with them till 
natural flowers come in again, without paying too high 
for them. Flowers must be dearer this winter than 
usual, as the early frost killed so many of what would 
help on till Christmas. That may account for the extent 
of everlasting flowers. I lost the flowers of all my Pom- 
pones by the frost; but there was no lack of them in the 
Market. The large kinds do not seem to be favourite 
cut-flowers there, for I never saw more than two or three 
sorts of them ; but of Pompones there is a large supply.- 
D. BeatoJL 
HOW TO FARM TWO ACRES AND MAKE 
THE MOST OF THEM. 
{Continued from page 124.) 
crops of the fourth season — Continued. 
Potatoes. —So much having been written of late years 
regarding this important but uncertain crop, little can 
be added to what has already been said on the matter.- 
One tiling, however, has always been urged in the pages of 
The Cottage Gardener —to plant only the early kinds, 
and to plant these as early in the season as can be done. 
A strong dusting with quicklime where there is reason 
to suspect the disease is making its appearance ; and, if 
damp weather follow, scattering a little guano amongst 
them, will stimulate the plant to resist the disease and 
out-grow it. But I am far from asserting this as a cure ; 
on the contrary, a perfect remedy or preventive has not 
yet been discovered ; but any means that will lessen the' 
evil ought to be tried. Caustic substances, like soot, afn 
also useful. But the great thing is to have the plants 
in such a state of forwardness as to be but little affected 
with it when it comes ; and as soon as they are ready to be 
taken up do so immediately. Not tbat their own pre¬ 
servation depends on this (although it sometimes does), 
but that the ground will bo wanted for another crop : it 
must, therefore, be dug at once, and sown with Turnips, 
the same as that recommended after the Wheat; which 
Turnip crop will require hoeing and thinning afc the 
proper time. 
Lucern. — This crop, which had been sown the pre¬ 
ceding autumn, will require hoeing in April ; and towards 
the usual hay-time it may be cut as green food. In a 
general way Lucern likes a stiff soil, and is often very 
productive—-two or three crops being cut each year. It 
ought not, however, to be cut too late in the autumn; 
neither ought it to be fed off very close then, otherwise 
the crown of the plant is injured. A good deep cultiva¬ 
tion suits Lucern, and a top dressing of rather rough 
dung in the winter is useful for preserving the plant: 
the roughest part of the dung may be raked off in the 
spring, and carried into the yard again. This crop we 
purpose calling permanent for a year or two, unless its 
appearance betokens its wearing out: in that case let 
it be at once dug up, and some other crop planted in 
its place, as will be shown hereafter. 
AUTUMN OF THE FOURTH YEAR. 
The crops requiring attention at this season will be 
the Swede and White Turnip ; there being 40 rods of 
the one and 60 rods of the other. The Swedes may be 
gathered, their tops and roots cut off, and housed or stored 
away somewhere. They keep very well when piled up 
in a steep ridge, covered over with straw, and about 
six inches of earth over that, having tufts of straw- 
rising above the earth every six feet or so apart, to act 
as ventilators. Generally speaking, Swede Turnips do 
not affect the cow’s milk, especially after they have started 
to grow a little; and, being cut into slices, cattle are 
invariably fond of them. White Turnips arc, however, 
more liable to give a bad taste to the milk, and must not 
be given to the cow when in milk; but as a green crop 
is a necessary change I have advised it here, and would 
recommend the owner to make terms with some neigh¬ 
bouring farmer or cattle-dealer to eat them off with 
sheep, the farmer supplying the hurdles. If an arrange¬ 
ment could be made for him to supply his sheep with 
