234 THE COTTAGE GARDENER AND COUNTRY 
planted before the first half of March is out. The place 
should be kept as clean from weeds, and as regularly dug 
and attended to, as a gentleman’s garden, till the plants are 
big enough to almost meet. It would be a most marked im¬ 
provement to sweep out all “ churchyards ” from amongst 
us.] 
MANAGEMENT OF THE AIR IN GREENHOUSES 
DURING WINTER. 
“At page 216 Mr. Beaton says, ‘There is only one thing 
we attend to in managing these pits, the greenhouse and 
conservatory different from what you see in gardening 
books, and that one thing is, ive never make use of sun-heat to 
warm the air inside during the whole winter, and those who 
do otherwise, and shut up their pots and houses in winter 
in the afternoon of a sunny day, with a view of using less 
fire that night, and having less stress upon the plants in 
consequence, must have their philosophy from the moon.’ 
“ As the practice condemned in the above paragraph is 
the system I have followed practically for a considerable 
number of years, and as I never at any time in winter had 
recourse to fire heat, when, by the aid of sun heat or from 
the state of the weather, I was enabled to exclude frost or 
damp out of the houses, I wish to be informed if Mr. 
Beaton would have it understood that he excludes sun heat 
entirely from his houses in winter as injurious to plants ? 
“ If Mr. Beaton will be kind enough to explain his system 
I, from the known ability of Mr. Beaton, shall be inclined to 
give it a trial.”—P. Sinclair. 
[Whatever the degree of heat one wishes half-hardy plants 
to be in during the winter, whether by night or by day, 
whether in frosty weather or in rains and fogs, the top and 
bottom ventilators of houses, and the “ back air ” on pits 
and frames, ought to be kept open, if ever so little, till the 
mercury showed the heat to be down very near the re¬ 
quired degree for the night, and that implies that if no frost 
is expected, “ air should be on all night,” and so it ought. 
The philosophy of the practice is, that warm air holds more 
moisture in it than cold air, and frost goes through glass as 
fast as heat; therefore, when you inclose warmer air than 
you mean to keep all night, you allow it to cool, and in cool¬ 
ing it loses the power of holding the moisture, and it must 
part with it and cause drip in all parts of the house, or so 
much damp as hurts tender leaves and soft wood most 
materially. 
The effect of closing sun heat, as we say, in winter, if 
frost and fire succeed, is to force plants in the most natural 
way; that is, by diffusing warm,damp air among them. We 
all agree there is no forcing so good or like that by dung 
hotbeds, and by closing houses early in the afternoon of fine 
days; but in winter we differ materially, as your practice 
attests. Even if you never see a “ drip ” in your houses you 
are forcing, to a certain extent, all the while by keeping up 
damp air, that is, warm air cooled to the damping point. A 
man of our early acquaintance, in the time when hot water 
was not thought of, would light his fires, or rather, order 
them to be lighted, in the afternoon, and still would keep his 
top and bottom ventilators open till the air was as low or 
cold as he wished it to be next morning. At daybreak be¬ 
tween 35° and 40 D was his pitch for closing the greenhouse, 
according to the weather. In hard weather close at 40° ; 
when not hard only close at 35°. He was the best gardener 
of his day.] 
LOCUSTS OF PALESTINE, OR ST. JOHN’S BREAD. 
“ Can you give me any information respecting this article, 
which is used by farmers for fattening cattle ? I have heard 
several accounts of it and its habit of growth, but from no 
very reliable source. Its form and size are that of a full- 
grown Scarlet-runner Bean, but of a very dark colour, very 
sweet, dry, and hard.”—J. C. W. 
[The pods you mention are from the Ceratonia siliqua, or 
Carob Tree, called in the south of Europe Algaroba Bean. 
It is a native of Italy, southern Spain, and Palestine. There 
is no better notice of it than the following in old “ Gerarde’s 
Herbal—“ It groweth in sundry places of Palestine, where 
there is such plenty of it that it is left unto swine to feed upon, 
GENTLEMAN’S COMPANION, January 27, 1857. 
as our Acorns and Beech mast. Moreover, both young and old 
feed thereon for pleasure, and some have eaten thereof to 
supply and help the necessary nourishment of their bodies. 
This of some is called St. John’s Bread, and thought to be 
that which is translated “ locusts,” whereon St. John did 
feed in the wilderness, besides the wild honey whereof he 
did also eat. I rather take the husks or shells of the fruit 
of this tree to be the cods or husks whereof the prodigal 
child would have fed, but none gave them unto him, though 
the swine had their fill thereof. I have sown the seeds in 
my garden, where they have prospered exceeding well.”] 
BERBERIS ASIATICA AS A HEDGE SHRUB. 
“ I want to divide off a part of my flower garden by a low 1 
hedge, say about four feet high. What kind of shrub do you I 
advise me to plant ? Being planted at the back of a three- i 
feet border it must not take up much room, as I wish to j 
place greenhouse flowers in front during summer. One that j 
would bear pruning well I should prefer, and it must not 
grow higher than four feet. If a flowering and pretty shrub 
I should much prefer it. Will any of the Rhododendrons 
bear this treatment ? ”—G. 
[The best plant for such a hedge is Pyrus Japonica. It 
flowers as freely as a hedge of Geraniums would. It hardly 
ever makes a surface root to rob the border in front; the 
roots go very deep, with very few fibres; it will grow so close 
that a tomtit could scarcely get through, and it may be kept 
three feet, or four feet, or five feet high for any number of 
years. It may be seen in most of the established nur¬ 
series round London, or you may go down to Kingston and 
you will see there the most beautiful hedge of it that ever 
was seen in the nursery of the Messrs. Jackson. 
The next best plant to divide a flower garden and lawn 
from the kitchen garden, in moderate-sized places, is the 
Kushmul Berberry ( Berberis Asiatica'). We saw a hedge 
of it planted before last Christmas, between the kitchen i 
garden and flower garden, by two of Mr. Jackson’s men. ; 
The tally said, “ 350 Berberis Asiatica,” which made our i 
“teeth water;” but before the end of the week the lady i 
there sent word that enough for a hedge of these Berberry 
plants would be sent to the Experimental Garden. Rhodo¬ 
dendrons are not applicable for “ trimmed ” hedges. The 
following, upon this hedge shrub, is extracted from the 
Horticultural Society’s “Journal— 
“The Kushmul Berberry ( Berberis Asiatica), found in all 
the mountainous counti’y north of Hindustan, where it ap¬ 
pears to be called Kushmul. It is correctly distinguished 
from the Chitra, or B. aristata, by Dr. Royle. 
“ This is the largest of the species in cultivation, growing 
quickly to the height of eight or ten feet, with pale, erect 
branches, rather small spines, and a beautiful lucid bright 
green glaucous foliage. The leaves are oblong, tapering to 
the base, and a good deal netted when old; as in all the 
Indian species they are toothed in various degrees, according 
to age or other circumstances; when toothed they invariably 
are scolloped as it were, and not serrated as in the Chitra. 
The flowers grow in very short, roundish, sessile racemes, 
scarcely projecting beyond the leaves, and are succeeded by 
clusters of dark purple, roundish berries, covered with a 
rich bloom like a plum. In India these are dried and sold 
as raisins, which they much resemble except in size. It is 
the best known of all the Indian Berberries, having been 
longest in cultivation, and in the south-west of England has 
become extremely common. Thousands of plants have been 
distributed by the Horticultural Society. Nowhere, how- ! 
ever, has it been cultivated with so much success, or on so j 
large a scale, as at Killerton, the seat of Sir Thomas Dyke ( 
Acland, Bart., from whose gardener, Mr. Craggs, came the 
following account: — 
“ ‘ About eighteen years ago I received a packet of seed of 
Berberis Asiatica, from which I raised about one hundred j 
plants. After keeping them two or three years in the nur- I 
sery I planted them out singly in different situations both at j 
Killerton and Holmcote. The plants grew vigorously, were j 
allowed to take their natural growth, and in a few years, at 
the latter place, began to seed. Being near the sea the late 
spring frosts did not kill the blossoms, and from those plants 
we have now for several years obtained many pounds of seed, 
