THE COTTAGE GARDENER AND COUNTRY GENTLEMAN, Decembeb 28, 1858. 
197 
and valuable time, to allow him to do such work. A good 
gardener will always find work to do, which the mere labourer 
knows nothing about. I am happy to say, I always found this 
argument convincing. 
In large places,—such as Chatsworth, Trentham, Eicton, and 
many others,—where foremen are kept, the head gardener has 
plenty to do, to keep everything going on right, and the men to 
their duties, without any kind of labour whatever; but there are 
hundreds of places where the gardener must labour with his own 
hands, and his proper work is pruning, propagating, sowing 
seeds, potting, planting, and such - like operations, that require 
skill and knowledge of various kinds, to bring out a given and 
desired result. 
1 do hope yet to see the day when really good gardeners will 
be moro highly valued, and better paid; and, in the meantime, 
I say to such, go on quietly and perseveringly, and do not fear 
but you will obtain your due reward. —T. Appleby. 
VINE MILDEW. 
Your correspondent “ A. A.” (See page 150) writes as 
follows :—“ I find a letter containing advice as to the cure of 
mildew in Vines, which advice, taken as it stands, is, I think, 
rather calculated to mislead. The writer of it recommends the 
application of sulphur to the pipes and flues while hot, which, 
without doubt, will effectually cure mildew; but if the pipes are 
made too hot, or too great a quantity of sulphur applied, it will 
injure the Vines as well.” He further states, “ I once had some 
Cucumbers destroyed by red spider ” (a very common case); “ so I 
pulled them up, made the pipes as hot as possible, and painted 
them thickly with sulphur, keeping the pit closed during the 
time. When I opened it, the fumes were so strong, that i was 
obliged to leave it open for some time before I could work in it 
with any comfort; and I feel convinced, that had there been 
any plants in it, they would not ha\ e been worth much after the 
operation was finished. With the pipes, or flues, moderately 
warm” (the advice given by me), “a thin paint of sulphur may 
be beneficial.” 
My advice on this subject was, that I would not recommend 
dusting the bunches, or syringing the leaves, with sulphur, or 
anything that has an unsightly appearance. But the method I 
would advise, is, simply the one practised by myself with the 
best results—viz., washing my hot-water pipes and flues regularly 
over every fortnight with sulphur during the forcing season, 
when the pipes, or flues, are sufficiently hot to evaporate it. My 
advice was, not to make the pipes as hot as possible; had that 
been requisite, I should have so stated: but I contend, that the 
words sufficiently hot to evaporate were all that was requisite. 
The quantity of sulphur to bo used entirely depends on the size 
of the house, or the quantity of piping used in heating it. My 
early vinery has six rows of 4-inch piping, besides the chimney 
flue. Now, these have been all coated over at one time, so that, 
if there was any danger in the quantity of sulphur used, I think 
I should have experienced it before this. But, bear in mind, I 
did not, like “ A. A.,” make my pipes as hot as possible,—but 
merely sufficiently hot to evaporate the sulphur,—or, like “ A. A.,” 
I fear I should not have found the fumes of the sulphur as 
pleasant to smell as the essence of lavender. 
“ A. A.” will find, in the latter part of my article, that I act 
with discretion when using sulphur. When I recommended the 
gentleman at Dulwich to sulphur his flues, I advised him to 
have his plants removed. He did so, and all ended well.—E. 
Bennett. 
FAILURE OE THE CALCEOLARIA. 
I see, in The Cottage Gardener, a statement of the failure of 
Calceolarias, by Mr. Robson. Now, for the last two seasons they 
have done very badly with me. All the yellow kinds I have 
tried, with the exception of amplexicaulis. 
In 1857, I planted two beds, holding 115 each, hi the Italian 
garden, with Prince of Orange. They died oil, one after the other. 
Then I replanted the beds with Trentham Yellow, which seemed 
to do pretty well for a time, but soon w ent off' in tho same way 
as their predecessors, though not all of them. 
Seeing them dying off, and the beds getting bare, I was in a fix, 
for I had planted out all my other Calceolarias. 
A friend, seeing my condition, helped me all he could, by taking 
some out of his borders, and sending them to me. I filled tho 
beds the third time, but in vain. Now, what was I to do P As 
a last resource, I took up two long rows of amplexicaulis , which 
I had planted out in the borders on the ribbon fashion. I took 
them up with the greatest care, and filled up the beds once more. 
Although I had done all that lay in my power as regards attention, 
in watering the previous planted ones (I did the same with 
amplexicaulis ), still 1 lost a few, and the beds did not look as I 
could have wished them until September. 
This season, 1858,1 thought I would not plant the large beds 
again. I filled two small ones, thinking I had had so much trouble 
the previous season, that small beds would be better to fill than 
large ones, if they should do badly again. And they did do as 
badly as ever ; but I had a good many propagated in the autumn, 
so as to fall back upon, if wanted, of Trentham Yellow, and. 
Aurea fioribunda. 
Now, I was filling up the beds every few days, for they kept 
dying off as in 1857. This grieved me so, that I said I would 
never rely on Calceolaria as a bedding plant again. 
Now for amplexicaulis. As it did the best for me in 1857, so 
it has been the favourite of 1858, having eight beds in the rosery, 
which we plant, in order to put in under the standard Roses. I 
filled four of them with amplexicaulis, and four with Robinson's 
Defiance Yerbena, alternately, and did not lose a single plant. 
The soil in both the rosery and the Italian garden is much the 
same, so that, I think, the little shading by the Roses has been 
favourable to tho Calceolarias this season ; though amplexicaulis, 
as a bedder, will be a favourite with me until we can find a sub¬ 
stitute for the Calceolaria. 
This failure is a great pity, for yellow Calceolarias contrast so 
well with Scarlet Geraniums, Verbenas, and many other inmates 
of the flower garden; and, I fear, we shall have a difficulty in 
finding their equal. 
The soil here is of a light sandy nature, resting on gravel and 
sand, and the soil cannot bo termed worn out, as the place has 
not been made above nine years. There are other places in this 
neighbourhood, where Calceolarias have done as badly as with me. 
I should be obliged, if any of the readers of The Cottage 
Gardener would say, whether amplexicaulis, or what other 
variety, has done the best the two last seasons with them.— 
J. Eastwood, Didsbury Lodge, Manchester. 
COTTAGE BEDROOM WINDOWS. 
As, from the title of your periodical, you are professedly the 
exponent of “ cottage” wants, I feel that no apology is due for 
drawing your attention to a most vital desideratum to very many 
of our rural cottages of the old type—viz., windows that will 
open, and that, too, on a principle which I have adopted in the 
garret windows of my own house lately, with a result as sur¬ 
prising as it has proved satisfactory. 
In a deep wooden window-frame, I have a casement window, 
swinging on a pivot fixed on each side, and opening inwards at the 
top. The opening is regulated by a thin curved bar of iron, notched 
every second inch at the lower edgo to catch on the bottom edge 
of an eye, through which it passes; the bar, by a joint, being 
attached to tho inner side of the bottom of the window-frame. 
On each side of the window is a cheek of wood, resting on the 
sill, and tapering upwards to the pivot, from a base of ten inches 
or a foot wide to the pivots. The pivots rest and act in crescent 
grooves, let into the frame on either side. By this most simple 
process, at a cost of a few shillings only, tho village carpenter 
and blacksmith can effect for anyone, what they have for me, a 
great sanitary bedroom - window improvement, safely available 
in all weathers, too, which no other window casement is; for tho 
side cheeks prevent any rain from drifting in sideways, even on 
the roughest days ; and on hot summer nights—when the sleepers 
in rooms with no fire-grates, and with ordinary windows, are 
suffocating from exhalations and confined animal effluvia—the 
occupants of a bedroom window on this plan can, by simply 
projecting the bar two or four inches, admit the. cool and pure 
external oxygen from below, and let the carbonic acid of the 
vitiated internal air escape by the upper part of the casement. 
Add to which, this further advantage—viz., that by the bar bemg 
curved upwards, and slightly hooked at the unattached end, it 
cannot be drawn through tho iron eye or loop fixed to the sill; 
and, consequently, a cottager, if he lock his door, may safely 
leave his window open, when he goes for a time from home, and 
wants to maintain the while a continued ventilation. 'When wo 
