THE COTTAGE GARDENER AND COUNTRY 
GENTLEMAN'S COMPANION, December 30, 1856. 
219 
j thoroughly well-educated couple, brought up in all the re- 
| finements and elegancies of life. Though they had little 
| money, they bad many friends, who not only possessed the 
[ will) but the power to serve them—a power, too, which they 
i exercised to the utmost, until their patience became ex¬ 
hausted, in endeavouring to assist a couple who refused to 
help themselves. And so Anderson and his wife continue 
, to drag on a miserable existence upon a small pittance 
allowed by the parish, and a trifle occasionally given in 
charity by those who had known them in better days. 
I pray my readers, those particularly of the working 
classes, and all of every class who may have a fondness or 
inclination towards beer and spirits, to pause and think upon 
the decline and fall of James Anderson and his unfortunate 
wife. Here is a case before their eyes of superior position, 
education, and means, of great advantages and bright pros¬ 
pects, all wrecked and ruined by the love of drink. I am con¬ 
vinced and satisfied that of all Satan’s arts and devices—of all 
his deepest and deadliest attacks against the souls of men— 
not one is so deep, deadly, and desperate as the love of 
drink. Whenever that horrible taste takes possession of a 
man his doom is sealed so long as it retains its power, and 
it is the most difficult task to overcome it. The maddening 
effects of drink in its mildest form cause such miserable 
depression of mind and spirits when the time of sickly 
soberness arrives, that nothing but a return to the draught 
of poison can restore composure to the wretched victim. 
And thus Satan hands him alluringly on, with flattering 
ways and words, until he sinks, stupefied and reckless, into 
the burning lake. Oh, readers! be warned in time, lest you 
take no thought till you rise up in eternity ! Remember, 
“ drunkenness,” and a sin yet more harmless in the eyes of 
some, viz., “ revellings,” are of those works of the flesh that 
shut us out from “ the kingdom of God." Drink in its very 
mildest form, beyond satisfying the simple thirst that animal 
nature experiences, is dangerous and unholy; it is playing 
with fire, and putting a match to gunpowder. It is tampering 
with a passion that the Lord hath himself declared prevents 
our inheriting the kingdom of God. 
No man who drinks is either prosperous or happy even in 
this world. His affairs are sure to be turned upside down: 
they are sure to come to ruin; a cui'se rests upon them and 
corrodes them. His heart is sure to be distracted within 
him; his spirits are sure to be broken, depressed, and 
melancholy; and his short-lived pleasures, if they can be 
so called at all, are furious and unsatisfying. Readers, have 
any of you ever seen, in all your lives, a man given to the 
mildest estate of drink who ever looked well in the face or 
happy? or who ever “got on," as it is called, in his worldly 
business or profession ? It will be doing the best service to 
Satan that ever was done yet if you have. No ; where no 
blessing is, there is no good thing, no success in this life, 
and no sure hope in the next. Madness, misery, sloth, dirt, 
sickness, and famine tread on the heels of drink. High¬ 
born drunkenness in its effects is rather more covered up 
from the eye of man than that which is low-born; but in the 
sight of God all men are equal, and the consequences are 
in themselves equal too. Oh, dear readers, flee from drink 
as from a fiery-flying serpent! Fly not to some other 
object, or pursuit, or amusement; they will do you little 
good ; but fly to Jesus Christ, the Friend of sinners, who will 
snatch you as a brand from the burning, and strengthen 
you against every temptation. Fly at once to Him for 
deliverance, and strength, and happiness, and prosperity, 
and peace. Remember that drink can give you none of 
these things; but, “ at the last, it biteth like a serpent, and 
stingeth like an adder.” 
CELERY CULTURE IN AN UNFAVOURABLE 
SITUATION. 
My locale is on the north side of the Mendip Hills, and 
our garden has a declivity to the north. I need not inform 
my readers that it has a cold aspect. For several years I 
have been disappointed in growing Celery. On three or 
four occasions the last planted has not grown at all after 
having been finally planted out. I last year tried the plan 
| recommended in The Cottage Gardener, of having beds 
of Celery instead of rows, although I had always before 
planted double rows, and it has more than answered my 
expectations; but I made a material variation in the method 
of planting, which I think may possibly be useful to some 
brother gardener or amateur. 
I think it will be more intelligible if I begin at the com¬ 
mencement. At the latter end of March I make up a 
small hotbed, large enough for two hand-glasses ; those the 
tops of which can be removed are the best for the purpose. 
After a few days I put some mould on the bed and some fine 
at the top. I sow the seed rather thickly, and sift a light 
covering over the seeds. I press it down a little, and water 
when required. By the end of May the seedlings are fit to 
be pricked out. I have a small bed in a warm comer, the 
size of a three-light frame, where I winter Cauliflower plants. 
These are planted out by this time, leaving the frame vacant, 
I turn out the mould about a foot deep, and put some fresh 
dung in to make a little heat. I return the mould, and in 
two or three days fill the bed with the Celery plants. This 
will hold about three hundred. 
Just after this I make up a hotbed for out-of-frame Cu¬ 
cumbers. I do not exactly remember the dimensions, but it 
is for three hand-glasses, with about two feet and a half space 
all round the bed from the outside of the glasses. Thus, if 
the glasses are two feet square, the bed would be seven feet 
wide and thirteen long, and about a yard high. I put some 
fir slabs round the outsides. After the Cucumber plants are 
planted under the glasses there is a large space vacant for 
a month or so. This is just the place for the Celery. This 
bed, in addition to the other, will hold as many plants as I 
want, and, perhaps, a few for a friend. 
In about a month the Cucumbers begin to spread, and it 
is time for the Celery to be shifted. I look out a place for a 
bed. I mark it out five feet and a half wide, and as long as 
the quarter of garden is wide. I then throw out the earth 
on each side about a foot deep. Now, all the Calendars, &c., 
recommend plenty of rotten manure for Celery ; but I get a 
heap of fresh dung, with some fresh-cut grass and leaves. I 
begin at the end, and take out about four inches deep and 
the length of the spade. I put a good layer of this fresh 
dung. I then mark three feet and a half back, and put this 
on the fresh dung ; then put fresh dung for another bout; 
so I go on to the end. In four or five days it will be a little 
dry on the surface, and a little warm under. I then plant 
the Celery very carefully, doing it with the spade, putting the 
plants ten inches apart in the rows, and the rows fifteen 
inches apart. I give them plenty of water, and three or four 
times after I give them a little guano in water; they flag, 
but very little, and soon recover. I earth them up when 
they require it, doing it carefully by hand. 
In another week I put out another bed, and in another 
week another bed, and so on till I have enough.—G. Lewis, 
Blag don, near Bristol. 
MICROSPERMA BARTONIOIDES. 
This is the principal plant in the list inquired after by 
Mrs. Jane Forrest, of Forrest Lodge, Glen Alpin, by Morven, 
or rather, Morbhein, in Scotland. (Seep. 181.) All that 
was known about this Microspermum in this country, up 
to the end of 1854, was published in The Cottage Gar¬ 
dener at that time. (See Vol. XII., p. 469.) Since then 
Mr. Walton, the inventor of the Waltoniau propagating 
case, and I, have been growing it against each other, but 
he has the advantage over me with his “ case,” in which 
he can rear any plants or seeds. But before I enter on 
the merits of our rivalry here, let me tell to all whom it 
may concern, that Microsperma Bartonioides will not pay for 
his or her keep out of doors in the climate of London; 
that it is the most difficult of all the annuals to rear during 
the first stages, or until it is safely pricked off from the 
seed-pot; that heat is “ruination” to it; that once on its 
legs it is as easy to grow as a Collinsia; that it will grow 
to two feet in height, and branch off from the pot in 
proportion; that it is a deeper yellow than Eschscholtzia; 
that it is one of the best pot annuals; that if it were reared 
in pots till it was six or eight inches high and coming into 
bloom, it might he trusted out into a bed or border in a 
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