368 THE COTTAGE GARDENER AND COUNTRY GENTLEMAN'S COMPANION.— February 24,1857. 
it with oil paper, and I planted three healthy Cucumbers in 
it; hut to my disappointment I only gathered thirteen 
Cucumbers out of that frame; but can you account for the 
j plants having so many flowers on before any fruit appears ? 
I want to grow a large quantity of Cucumbers this year 
under oil paper. Suppose I raise a quantity of plants in a 
hotbed under a frame until they are bushy plants: do you 
; think they would grow in a cold bed arched over with paper ? 
1 If you think they will, would you be kind enough to tell me 
' the best way to treat them ? I know a person about a mile 
from me that is a Cucumber grower. He planted twelve 
plants under oil paper, and from those twelve plants he made 
£3 14s., and out of the same number I do not think I should 
make 3s.; but I hope you will put me in the right way to 
prosper. What kind of Cucumbers do you consider the best 
for bearing ? What plan do you recommend for raising a 
heavy crop of Onions, so that I may profit by them ? What 
time of the year do you say Celery is very early ? ”— Constant 
Reader. 
[If you cannot raise the frame as the Potatoes grow you 
should pinch out the point of the Potato shoot when within 
an inch of the canvass; but why not have the soil farther 
from the canvass ? 
2. Having a flue for heat and oiled canvass for covering is 
rather a retrograde movement. Bleached calico, painted 
with boiled oil, and having a little sugar of lead in it, would 
answer better ; but, perhaps, that is what you have got. 
3. We cannot tell what time the Potatoes will be ready 
unless we know if you can keep out frost, and keep the 
plants growing regularly, but not too quickly, with too much 
heat below; but we would risk saying from the 15th to the 
30th of April; earlier if the oiled frames are carefully covered 
in cold weather. 
4. Cucumbers to succeed these will be sown soon enough 
in the first or second week in March, and in a warmer 
place. 
5. We should prefer oiled calico to oiled paper for 
Cucumbers ; and in cold pits or beds, with no artificial heat 
below them, it will be quite time enough to plant them out 
by the end of May or the beginning of June. Seeds for 
that purpose may be sown by the 1st of April, and the 
j plants hardened off may be strong in four or six-inch pots 
before planting time. 
C. Weak plants, or those from very old seeds, produce male 
flowers in most abundance. Pinch them off as they appear, 
‘ and if the treatment is otherwise right the plants will gain 
; strength. 
7. Plants so grown must be treated just as if they were 
under glass, and we presume you know all about that. In 
August and September they would often be better by 
moving the paper or calico off in fine mornings and after¬ 
noons, replacing them at night, and for six hours in the 
j hottest parts of the day. 
8. Unless your neighbourhood is peculiar we can hold out 
no great pecuniary reward. Why do you hot take a leaf out 
of your neighbour’s book ? 
9. Any short, hardy kind, such as CuthiU's Black-spihed, 
the Stockivood Ridge, or the Southgate , will suit you best. 
10. For Onions, trench and manure the ground well, turn 
it over and over several times in winter; dig it fine in March, 
and the first fine day after the soil is comfortable and dry 
tread the ground, rake it fine, and then sow in rows a foot 
apart, and thin to four or five inches in the row. 
11. We hardly know what you mean by Celery being 
early. Some people are never without it. We consider 
good blanched Celery in August as being early, though we 
have had fair small heads in July. Ask fewer questions at 
a time.] 
SUBSTITUTE FOR BE&DS IN HOT-WATER 
PIPING. 
“I intend to erect a Vinery, and also an orchard house, 
both heated by four-inch pipes. There is a considerable 
extra charge made by the founder for “ bends ” for these 
pipes; and it has occurred to me that these might be saved 
by introducing the ends of the pipes at the Corners of the 
house into small wooden boxes, thrmlgh which the water 
would flow. Do you think these might he so constructed as 
to keep tight?”—A. 
[There is no difficulty in making the boxes as you propose, 
but the sides should he beat as if you were going to make 
a brewer’s cooler. You would almost require the pipes in 
both houses to be on the same level if heated by the same 
boiler. Such boxes are very useful, when the pipes run in < 
the same line, when you wish to heat several divisions, as a 
sluice or plug shuts off at pleasure. As your pipes seem to 
come and go from the box at right angles with each other, 
we fear the circulation will not be so good as if you had 
circular bends; but we may be mistaken, as we know not 
the distance from boiler, &c. On the whole, though you 
may save a little at first, yet, as you will have some trouble 
in making the boxes properly, and fitting the pipes to them, 
were we going to the expense of pipes for the rest, we should 
have it complete all through.] 
GARDEN TO A LOW-SUNK HOUSE. 
“ I am restoring an old Elizabethan house, date about 
1600, showing the timbers, gables, &c., and improving the 
interior by lowering the floors of the rooms to add to the 
height, .which places me in an awkward position as regards 
laying out the garden, the level of the drawing-room glass 
door leading into the garden being nearly four feet below 
the level of the garden ; and as I am aware it will require 
both taste and ingenuity to obtain a pretty look out, I should 
feel deeply obliged by your advice and assistance. 
“ I am very fond of terraces of grass, if you think one or 
more would be in keeping with the style and date of the 
house, which I am anxious to carry out as far as possible.’’— 
A Subscriber. 
[You will never be able to make it satisfactory. All the 
soil to six inches below the door or window-sill ought to be 
moved to the sides and farthest-off end of the garden, and 
to be disposed of in successive terraces, with steps right 
and left next the house, and in the centre of the farthest 
end, which should be the lowest; then the middle to have 
a walk all round, and the centre laid out as your own taste 
dictates.] 
PROPAGATING CINERARIAS, &c.-RESTORING 
CACTUSES TO HEALTH. 
“ ‘ A Subscriber ’ would be glad to know whether Cine¬ 
rarias, Primulas, ThuubergiaS, and Lobelias are best raised 
from new seed every year, or whether it is best to preserve 
the old plants ? 
“ Also, whether Cactuses will recover, which have turned 
quite yellow from having been watered when they ought to 
have been kept dry; and what is the best thing to do 
now?” 
[It is best to raise all of them every year from seeds ; hut 
extra good seedlings of the Cinerarias and of the Lobelias 
should not be cast off yearly, but be kept and propagated— 
the Lobelias by cuttings, and the Cinerarias from suckers 
from the old plants, after being planted out of doors a couple 
of months after flowering. Thunbergias being annuals with 
us, and not doing well by cuttings, must be got from seeds 
every year, and they should be sowed before February is 
out. Some gardeners sow them on New Year’s day, and 
those who do, and have the convenience to nurse them well 
till the end of May, may then plant them out of doors, and 
get them to ripen seeds, treated like Sweet Peas; but they 
make fine pot plants, and dislike much sun when in pots, 
or anyways in doors. The finest Thunbergia we ever saw 
was one which was planted out of a pot in September into 
the newly-made border of a new small stove house. It was 
some weakly plant which did not bloom that summer, but it 
“ took *’ to the new border most surprisingly, growing on and 
on all that winter, with leaves half as large again as 
we ever saw on any of them, and by the middle of May, 
when it came into bloom, it could not be much short of thirty 
feet long, and a “faggot” of side-shoots had to be cut off 
to keep it to the pillar and from darkening the front of the 
roof; but the flowers were such Black-eyed Susans of their 
kind as never were seen before or since, and every pod 
ripened seeds. 
The Cactuses will do yet. Turn them out of the pots, shake 
all the soil from them, and trim off eVery dead morsel of 
