THE COTTAGE GARDENER AND COUNTRY GENTLEMAN, March 13, 1860. 
001 
WEEKLY CALENDAR. 
Day Day 
of of 
M’nth Week. 
MARCH 13—19, 1860. 
Weather 
Barometer. 
NEAR LONI 
Thermom. 
t 
)ON in 1859. 
Sun 
Rises. 
Sun 
Sets. 
Moon 
Rises 
and Sets 
Moon’s 
Age. 
Clock 
bef. Sun 
Day of 
Year. 
13 
Tu 
Primus spinosa. 
29.673—29.598 
55—48 
s.w. 
.14 
20 af 6 
59 af 5 
28 
1 
21 
9 
32 
73 
14 
W 
Anemone nemorosa. 
29.630—29.248 
53—45 
s.w. 
.15 
18 
6 
YI 
32 
2 
<& 
9 
15 
74 
15 
Th 
Caltha palustris. 
29.683—29.170 
54—37 
w. 
-- 
15 
6 
3 6 
22 
3 
23 
8 
58 
75 
16 
F 
Thlaspi bursa pastoris. 
29.914—29.880 
53—44 
s.w. 
— 
13 
6 
4 6 
59 
3 
24 
8 
41 
76 
17 
S 
Draba verna. 
29.760—29.510 
53—31 
s.w. 
— 
11 
6 
6 6 
25 
4 
25 
8 
23 
77 
18 
Sun 
4th, or Midl. Sun. Prs. Louisa 
29.833—29.614 
53—28 
w. 
.03 
9 
6 
8 6 
44 
4 
26 
8 
6 
78 
19 
M 
Lepidium petrieum. [born, 1848. 
30.301—30.166 
53—26 
N. 
6 
6 
9 6 
0 
5 
27 
7 
48 
79 
Meteorology of tiie Week. — At Chiswick, from observations during the last thirty-three years, the average highest and lowest 
temperatures of these days are 50.9’ and 34.2° respectively. The greatest heat, 69°, occurred on the 19th, in 1836 ; and the lowest cold, 13°, 
on the 13th, in 1845. During the period 144 days were fine, and on 87 rain fell. 
IN-DOOR GARDENING OPERATIONS EOR 
THE WEEK. 
GREENHOUSE AND CONSERVATORY. 
Proceed as diligently as possible with the repotting of 
such of the hardwooded greenhouse plants as require it, 
so as to start them in good time to acquire a vigorous 
growth. 
Cacti. —The chief point in managing these plants is 
to allow them an alternate period of rest and growth. 
To be grown in a mixture of lime rubbish and loam, 
with a little cowdung, and in well-drained pots. In 
summer to be fully exposed to the sun, and well watered; 
and from October to March to be kept perfectly dry. 
Calceolarias (Herbaceous).—To be shifted into larger 
pots in a compost of equal quantities of decayed turf, leaf 
mould, good sandy peat, old cowdung, and silver sand, 
with plenty of drainage and moss on the crocks. To be 
kept close for a week, after which air may be freely given, 
avoiding currents of cold air. 
Heaths. —Every vigorous shoot that is taking the lead 
to be stopped, to produce a more uniform and compact 
plant. 
Lilium lancifolium. —To be potted either in a good 
peat, with a little silver sand, or in a light sandy loam, 
using also some silver sand. The bulb to be placed two 
or three inches deep from the top of the pot to allow 
room for the stem-fibres to penetrate the soil. 
Pelargoniums. —The plants potted last month to be 
stopped back. The house to be kept rather close for a 
week or ten days, to assist them to push out their eyes. 
Those intended to bloom in May, that have not been 
stopped since cutting down, will be putting up their 
trusses, on sunny days syringe them lightly, and shut 
the house up warm, with the sun upon it, about three 
or four o’clock in the afternoon. 
stove and orchid-house. 
Keep a lively growing temperature here during the 
day, with a plentiful supply of moisture. Syringe, and 
shut up early, with 80° or more, allowing a fall of 20° 
during the night. Shake out and repot in succession 
the stove plants that have been previously recommended 
to be headed back, and encourage a free growth by 
plunging them, if possible, in bottom heat. Smaller 
pots to be used until they have filled them with roots, 
they may then receive one bold shift that might pro¬ 
bably be sufficient for the season. 
FORCING-HOUSES. 
Cherries. —These may now want thinning if too thickly 
set; but the operation must be influenced by the ener- 
i gies of the tree and the action of the roots. Endeavour 
[ to keep the atmosphere like fine mild weather in May. 
.! During the period of the stoning of the fruit, give the 
* trees no water at the roots, as this is generally one of 
}j the chief causes of so much of it falling off at that time. 
Figs. —When the fruit is swelling off, the trees to be 
! liberally supplied with water. The young shoots to be 
No. 598.— Yol. XXIII. No. 24. 
stopped to four or five eyes, with the exception of those 
that are required to fill up vacancies. 
Melons. —Continue the thinning, stopping, training, 
&c., as required. Set the early crops when in blossom, 
keeping a dry and lively atmosphere during that period. 
Air to be given freely in favourable weather, but 
cautiously, with some contrivance to break cold winds. 
Do not allow a plant to swell a fruit until sufficiently 
strong to sustain it. 
Peaches. —Be moderate in the application of fire heat 
to those that are stoning (they make little or no progress 
in swelling during the period)—say 65° by day and 60° by 
night; but when they commence their second swell in¬ 
crease the heat moderately. Stop all luxuriant shoots, 
and thin out in the second house all clusters of fruit 
when about the size of Peas. 
Pines. —The fruiting plants will be benefited by a 
watering with manure water as soon as the bloom is set. 
Succession plants, if recently shifted, to be shaded in the 
middle of the day if the sun is powerful; to be kept rather 
close and dry, except slight sprinklings over the tops, 
until they have taken root, when they may be watered 
freely, and will generally require no more to be given 
for a week or ten days. 
Tines. —The atmosphere in the early house, where 
the bunches have been thinned, to be kept pure by a 
gradual increase of air and moisture. The night tempera¬ 
ture to be kept up to 65°, with an increase of 10° by day, 
and even more in bright sunshine. The second house 
may now be in bloom, and will require attention in tying 
the shoots and keeping up the necessary amount of heat, 
with less moisture. Where the fruit is set, give the 
Tines a good syringing, to wash off the flowers; after 
which the leaves and fruit should not be again wetted, 
but to be supplied with atmospheric moisture by water¬ 
ing the floor of the house, and sprinkling the flues or 
pipes, or from evaporating-troughs or pans. Give plenty 
I of tepid manure water to the Tines fruiting in pots. 
William Keane. 
CROSS SCENTS — SPRING POTTING AND 
TREATMENT OF BEDDING PLANTS. 
When I followed the i (outers, as fox hounds arc called 
in Gaelic, I was more pleased with a cross scent than a 
fair sport in running the fox to “ earth,” watching him 
in the while terriers worried him, and digging him out, 
if the tormentors failed in turning him out into the jaws 
of the toulers. A cross scent would impel the dogs over 
miles of mountains, and lead to nothing at night but 
sound sleep and pleasant dreams, while a fair run seldom 
failed to end in the drudgery of digging out the fox. I 
fin d that the boy feelings at a cross scent are not confined 
to youth, I can enjoy the fun, in a few strokes of the pen, 
just as well and as keenly as ever. But to begin the day 
let us have a fair run to start with. 
Every plant for bedding purposes that was potted last 
autumn, merely to hold on during the winter—whether it 
was one in a single pot, or a dozen in a stored pot, a3 we 
