THE COTTAGE GARDENER AND COUNTRY GENTLEMAN, March 27, 1800. 
who advertise in our columns can supply it. In poor soil we 
planted it three inches apart every way, and m rich beds not 
more than lour inches. That was in 1815) 1816) and 1817, when 
we ceased growing it.] 
FORCING-PIT INSIDE A VINERY. 
I HAVE a pit 15 feet by 6 feet in the centre of a floor of a 
vinery, with hot water pipes (four-inch flow and return pipe), 
and crocks and cinders above them. Now, my idea is, that tins 
pit if covered with sashes might be most useful in forcing flowers 
all the winter. Is it practicable, without adding to the heat of 
the vinery ? There are Peach trees on the back wall; hut the pit 
standing free of everything, and built of brick, I imagine nothing 
would be injured in the vinery. In fact, it will be a stove inside 
a vinery. The light is good, being large panes of glass.— 
A. Connell. 
["There is no difficulty in doing what you propose, provided 
you never have the vinery hotter than from 40° to 45° until you 
want to start the Vines into bud. Air, therefore, will require to be 
left on ni°ht and day in mild weather, until you wish to excite 
them and the Peaches. Under such circumstances, the chief 
advantages of using your pit in the way you propose, are sur- 
roundin"' it at all times with an atmosphere averaging 10 above 
the freezing-point, the-comfort of attending to everything in 
the day, shutting up the vinery for a short time when you wished 
to move the plants in the pit so as not to check them, and the 
pleasure of covering up, &c., under a glass roof. I mention the 
last, because with the heat at your command, you will need 
covering up in severe weather at Christmas, or so, if you would 
not start the vinery. Of course, when the Vines are starting you 
will regulate the heat accordingly. We have seen Cucumber and 
Melon-beds in viueries managed as you propose.] 
THE FRENCH MARIGOLD AS A BEDDER. 
As one of your correspondents appears to have had some 
difficulty in saving seed of the above, I beg to inform him I hav e 
found it seed very freely, as many of the flowers are semi-double ; 
but the mice require watching, as they bite off the pods before the 
seed is ripe. , , . . 
We obtained the seed first from some French house, through 
Mr. Ivery, of Peckham, but I have not been able to buy it true 
since, although I have had it from various seedsmen. 
I sow about the middle of April, in drills, on a slight hotbed, 
with various other tender annuals, giving plenty of air as soon as 
the seeds begin to start; and as soon as the plants are large 
enough to handle, prick out in a cold frame, or under hoops and 
mats, as the plants only require keeping from the frost, to which 
they are as tender as a Heliotrope. f 
They are capital things to transplant, as they would pull up 
with a ball and a mass ot roots,and will move as well when full 
grown as when small, even in the hottest weather. 
J also saw on a raised sheltered bed early in May, and trans¬ 
plant direct into beds; they do quite as well as the others, but, 
of course, are later. They often flower when not more than two 
inches in height; and from the dwarf habit of the plant, and its 
compact growth, it answers better lor a small or moderate-sized 
bed than for a very large one. 
The French Marigold requires to be planted from four to six 
inches apart in the bed, and will then be an even mass oi colour. 
Of course, the style of growth is very different to the Cal¬ 
ceolaria ; but, as a yellow bed, it is perfect, and the weather has 
no effect on it, beginning to flower the first of the bedding plants, 
and continuing until frost. 
I had a brown-flowering variety of the same habit, which sub¬ 
stituted the brown Calceolaria ; but it would occasionally sport 
into a taller growth, which I remedied by saving seed from the 
best, and pulling each chance tall one out as soon as I saw it 
taking the lead.— James Taplin, Teddesley Park Gardens. 
TRADE LISTS RECEIVED. 
Sutton’s Farmer's Manual and Seed List eor 1860.— 
Although a trade list, yet it is very much more. There is, ex¬ 
tending from page 19 to page 28, a mass of information relative 
to Grasses from the personal researches of Messrs. Sutton, and 
those of Professor Ruckman, of the Royal .Agricultural College, 
Cirencester, that may be consulted with advantage by every 
farmer. It is information practical and useful, relative to all 
Grasses suitable for pasture, arable, woody, heath, marshy and 
sea-shore soils. There are various tables useful^to farmers, a 
calendar of usual operations, and much good minor information, 
but we can only find room for the following extract, for the wood- 
cut to illustrate which we are indebted to the courtesy of Messrs. 
Sutton. 
“ Sorghum Sacciiaratum, or Holcus Sacchaeatus. —We 
had the honour of introducing this valuable forage plant to our 
customers and the English public, five years since, and having 
now cultivated it soveral seasons, in various soils, we can most 
confidently recommend it for general cultivation. It thrives in 
any soil, if dug or forked deep ; and while it is generally under¬ 
stood to prefer v:et land, we have found it at least equally 
luxuriant in dry gravels and sand. On the Continent, it is usual 
to plant it 18 inches apart, under which circumstances it grows 
from 10 to 14 feet high; but in this country, for green food, we 
prefer 0 inches as the distance for the plants in the row, and th« 
