THE COTTAGE GARDENER AND COUNTRY GENTLEMAN, March 8, 1859. 
349 
Well, before dividing them, see that their new leaves are 
hardened a little under some shelter; but they are not so 
particular as regular pot-plants. Turn them out of the 
pots or pans ; and, with an old table-knife that has a 
sharp point, divide the plant into two equal parts; 
managing the movement of the knife so as to cut none, 
or but very few, of the leaves and crowns, from whence 
the leaves come. Then, if the two halves are big, cut 
each of them also through the middle, and again, if you 
choose; but that must be on your own responsibility. 
For my part, I would much sooner go to the nurseries 
and buy, than risk cutting more than would leave me six 
or eight crowns to the piece. The whole are now to be 
planted in a rather shady place in the kitchen garden-— 
just as Polyanthuses are at the end of their blooming. 
They, and the Polyanthuses, and the Auriculas, will be 
in good time for the beds this time next year, if you 
transplant them from the kitchen garden any time in 
January or February when the weather is mild. The 
three like deep, rich, sandy soil. If your soil is sandy, 
or not too strong, rotten dung and a steel fork will make 
it all that is necessary for nine-tenths of all the spring 
Rowers that can be moved; and, surely, when we cau 
safely remove the largest and the oldest Pceony in the 
garden, as soon as it is out of bloom, and the hot summer 
on our heels; as surely may we trust these tiny things 
when no heat is expected. But the proof of the thing 
is better than all the reasoning in the world. This mode 
is proved, and you have only to do it. Then, recollect 
the moment, or the very day your Hepaticas are done 
blooming, round the beds, or in front of a ribbon-border, 
they are to be divided in the same way—provided always 
that they are not sufficiently small already—and your 
patches of Hepaticas, which look no better than a patched 
petticoat, ought to be taken up and served the same way. 
There is not one man out of ten thousand, or a woman 
out of one thousand, who is aware of the rapidity of the 
movement in Hepaticas, when they are done well and 
properly at the proper time. One out of a hundred put 
me up first to this move. I have been all these years a 
gardener, and knew no more about Hepaticas than a little 
child. Some people find them hard to do, and so did I; 
but the reason is, that we always let them do for them¬ 
selves. They only require attention from the middle of 
March to the end of May, and during that time they 
ought not to lose an hour’s healthy growth day or night. 
The ground should be moist about them all the time, and 
also midched with sifted mulch from littery dung; and 
the quantity of very old and very rotten dung they will 
consume is really surprising. If one-foot deej) of the bed 
for them could be passed through a rough cinder-sieve, 
and be of one-half very rotten dung, and one-half fresh 
sandy loam, you would hardly know they were the same 
plants next year; but they should never get a drop of 
liquid manure, as their growing time is naturally so short, 
and no great heat to stimulate their leaves to digest liquid 
manure. It would not be a bad experiment, to keep one 
good plant in a pot all the time, and have the pot in a 
draught of air, in the greenhouse ; then the mildness and 
extra heat might cause it to seed, and to endure very weak 
liquid manure : and, if so, my word for it, they might be 
had as numerous as any of the sporting families of plants. 
D. Beaton. 
COMMON PRACTICES. 
Sowing. —“ Won't I show the slowcoaches something 
worth noting! I am determined to have early Peas ; and 
secure them from frost, and slugs too, without any bother.” 
So spake a young man who was henceforth to be the 
oracle for doctors’ boys, vicarage factotums, and the 
most experienced of vdlage gardeners. Some of these 
shrewd folk shook their heads ominously; but that was 
always the mode in which the generality of mankind 
treated improvements. It only served to confirm him 
in his views. The ground was therefore dug, and trenches 
drawn out for sowing—these trenches to be the grand im¬ 
provement in early Pea culture ; and rather more than 
twelve inches deep they were. In the Peas were cast, in 
the middle of November, and the beginning of January, 
and duly covered tb the level; the depth securing them 
from early frosts, and the attacks of slugs into the bargain. 
The worst of it was,—the Peas never got to the surface 
at all. When neighbours, that sowed much later, had 
theirs nicely above the ground; those sown so deep were 
found either to be rotten, or thoroughly eaten up by 
slugs and wire-worms; for these gentry, in weather 
at all cold, have the good sense to descend for warmth, 
and devour all that comes in their way. The soil being 
rather heavy aggravated the evil, as no air could possibly 
reach them, or but very little, at that depth and season 
of the year. If the Peas had been sown at a depth of 
from two to three inches, and a little rough ashes, or 
other matter, put along tbe rows as they got above the 
surface, they would have been secured alike from frost 
and slugs ; and every good seed would have thrown up a 
healthy stem. If the frost were very severe, evergreen 
twigs might also have been added—or anything to blunt 
its intensity. 
The evil of deep sowing is not confined to the open 
garden. One cause why seedsmen get such bad names, 
when seeds Mould not grow, is owing to too-deep cover¬ 
ing, or placing them in soil so waterlogged, that, though 
they swell, the air cannot get at them, and decomposition 
is the result. Another cause why seeds saved by ama¬ 
teurs sometimes refuse to vegetate, is, that after cleaning 
they often are left in a place thinly spread out, and 
exposed to the full force of an autumn sun. The carbon, 
or starchy matter, becomes so fixed, or indurated, that it 
will not change into a sweet sugary substance for the 
nourishment of the embryo. I have known fine kinds of 
Cucumber seeds, much injured by full exposure to sun 
for months, or weeks, on the open shelf of a hothouse. 
A few days M ould have done them no harm. 
As a general rule, small seeds in pots should seldom bo 
more covered than the thickness of their own size. A 
little shading, before the seedlings appear, is far better 
than a thicker covering. In the case of all seeds, and 
especially those a little old, it is always safest to place 
them in soil a little moist, and to allow the seeds to 
absorb moisture from it gradually, instead of watering 
the soil. I once tried Peas a number of years old, in a 
box of nice light soil, in a medium state as respects 
moisture, just fit for potting, damp enough to retain the 
impress of the fingers when a handful was squeezed, but 
not so damp as to keep in a lump u’hen you laid it on the 
potting-board ; that box M’as merely patted on the surface, 
and a little moss put on it to keep it from drying more, 
and placed in a temperature of 60°. The greater part 
of the Peas grew. The other box was treated in the same 
way, only it got a good watering after sowing ; and almost 
every Pea rotted, or produced a very sickly stem. Lately, 
one pot of Cucumber seed was sown, and not a seed 
vegetated. The seed was six years old. It got the 
common treatment. Another pot was sown, seed slightly 
covered, no water given, but the pot covered with a bell- 
glass, and shaded in the daytime to prevent the escape of 
moisture; and almost every seed came healthy and strong. 
The watering, in the first instance, when sown, did the 
mischief. In general cases, and especially in the case of 
all small seeds, the necessary moisture should be given by 
Matering the pots M’ell before sowing, after draining them 
well, and filling them with the light, sandy, proper soil, 
and then waiting a day or two for the soil in the pot to 
become a little dry on the surface before sowing. When 
covered afterwards, according to the size of the seed, and 
the mouth of the pot covered with a square of glass, and 
that shaded from sunshine before the young seedlings 
appear, hardly a good seed M’ill fail to grow. Even then, 
careless watering overhead M ill ruin myriads of tender 
