THE COTTAGE GARDENER AND COUNTRY GENTLEMAN, May 1, I860. 
67 
to keep up tlie soil. There is a passage up between all 
the fan-beds to the Golden Chain bed. Two of the 
smallest of tho fan-beds—the match pair—are planted 
with the Variegated Alyssum. Two of the largest of them, 
also a match pair, are planted with the Flower of the Day 
Geranium—that is, these four white beds are in a cross 
from a yellowish centre, and between the arms of the 
cross, or between these four white beds, aro four beds of 
Cuphcea eminens —a large bloomer I noticed in a report 
of Kew three years back. Now that is a wheel of eight 
spokes, and a neutral group of very great richness in the 
centre of a scene without any particular assistance from 
the actual flowers. The very same idea was given by 
Mr. Craig, of Kew, in the plan he planted for me and for 
Eaby Castle, without a particle of a notion that I had 
then such a wheel in my possession; and I never saw 
that exact plan anywhere. Mr. Craig saw, also, that the 
beds from 36 to 42 in that plan were a second thought, 
just as Mr. Evans told us last week at page 56. So you 
see the rules of our art are just as true and telling as the 
rule for navigating the Prince of TV ales to Canada, and 
back again. Outside the ends of that wheel—the rich, 
neutral wheel — came four large corner, or say half¬ 
corner, beds — for the composition extended beyond 
them — the four were planted with Toni Thumb, after 
our friend, the Irish Doctor — so much white and so 
much scarlet; but the white here was from “ a white- 
foliaged Eyebright as was seen at Shrubland Park,” 
whose eye would not brighten up at the sound or sigh 
of true Eyebright. But what was it ? A real goddess ? 
one of the three Graces expressing joy or pleasure ? 
Such was Euphrosyne, and Eyebright is called Euphrasia 
after her ; but the goddess which was bedded at Shrub- 
land Park with “ poor Tom," may have been another of 
the three, and I shall have to trouble Mr. Taylor then 
to let us hear what it was and how it did, and where we 
can get it, or else I must go to Scotland where the wheel 
is going round and round as fresh as when it was sent 
to me. 
I must also put myself square with my Nosegay 
friend and west country patron, Mr. Pince, of Exeter. 
It is said, in the last Cottage Gaedenee, that he should 
say the Model Nosegay was the best Hose Geranium. He 
never said anything of the kind, he is too good a judge 
to decide that way. But what they say that he said, 
and what I ought to have said instead of Bose, is a vase. 
Mr. Pince told a friend of mine that the Model Nosey 
was the best vase plant he had seen last year, and very 
likely in the vases and rustic baskets it has no rival but 
Mrs, Vernon. D. Beaton. 
HOW TO FAEM TWO ACEES AND MAKE 
THE MOST OF THEM. 
(Continued from page 61.) 
HOW to cube poek. 
This is a different thing altogether from curing bacon, 
and it is seldom we meet with both done well at the 
same place, there being but little pork cured in the 
district from which the bacon curing has been described. 
But in many parts of the south of England there is very 
excellent pork cured in a very efficient manner—in fact, 
there is more pork made than bacon; and the quality 
when well done is very good, provided the animal has 
been well fed, as this tells on the preserved article, 
whether pork or bacon. The best way of curing pork is 
in a wooden tub with a moveable lid, fitting rather close, 
yet easy to take off and put on again. The tub, if new, 
ought to be well seasoned with salt and water, and may 
finally be rubbed over with lard. The pork, being cold, 
may be cut up into moderate-sized pieces, and the skin 
side is rubbed a little with salt, as advised for bacon. 
A layer of salt is placed on the bottom of the tub, and 
the pork laid as flat upon that as it can be, a good layer 
of salt being laid over each layer of pork ; the latter 
being packed in a close-fitting condition, and pressed 
tight down. The whole being put in, and a good salting 
given at top, the lid may be put on and the tub placed in 
a cool place. I ought to have mentioned that saltpetre 
ought also to be given as well as salt; the latter being 
much more liberally applied than for bacon, as it is 
expected that the bulk of the pork is fat, the hams being 
generally cured and dried. The shoulder, however, is 
often put in the pickle-tub, and, if so, ought to be the 
first portion used, as the lean part of meat becomes so 
much more salt than the fat; the latter, in fact, not 
taking up more thau the proper quantity, however much 
may be given: therefore do not pinch this article, as it 
is the only thing with saltpetre that is advised to be used. 
No preparation of pickling fluid, the pork and salt will 
of themselves provide that; and if all go on well the 
whole of the pork will be covered with brine in two or 
three months after the pork is put in ; and in that con¬ 
dition the pork is said to be better at the end of one or 
two years than at the first—in fact, it will keep any 
reasonable length of time, and be sweet and good. 
TIIE MANURE-HEAP. 
The management of manures has been a fruitful source 
of discussion in agricultural publications, and the method 
in which it is often treated is certainly very often to be 
deprecated ; but it can hardly be expected that the small 
farmer of two acres can enter into the mechanical ope¬ 
rations so ably enforced by some writers on this head 
in the way of distributing liquid manure and similar 
matters, as we may fairly expect he has all his horse 
power to hire, and of course that must be used econo¬ 
mically. The advice we therefore give him is to avoid 
all unnecessary carting; but by all means to scrape 
together as much manure as ever he can in the shape of 
road-scraping, mould of all kinds, even sand or clay may 
often be used for a “bottom” for the dung mixing. 
The cow-yard also might be covered oyer six or eight 
inches thick or more with chalk, which might be removed 
with the last coating of dung in the spring. The cow 
being taken in in the autumn, the yard must be covered 
with straw, which by-and-by is converted into dung and 
more straw added, until, some time in January, it is 
advisable to clear it all out, carting it out to the “ bottom 
of the mixing, prepared with mould, &c., as above, 
about a foot thick ; and in some situations where its 
appearance is not objectionable, let the dung be laid 
two or three feet thick, and at two or three periods 
throw some salt upon it. The yard being covered again 
with straw, more dung is made, which is carried out in 
like manner; and unless the first portion of it be wanted 
in the spring for the tillage-ground it ought to lie till the 
autumn for the grass-land; but about August or Sep¬ 
tember let it be turned over, and the rough portions 
broken, and in November it will be ready to cart out. 
Observe, I advise every means to be adopted to increase 
the quantity. Straw for litter used liberally comes 
cheaper than artificial manures, and is much better when 
converted into good farmyard dung. A good salting is 
also useful on light soils, though I am not certain it is 
wanted on still’ lands. It must also be observed that, 
previous to hot dry weather setting in, the mixing ought 
to be covered with mould or something that will prevent 
evaporation; and in turning the mixture take care to 
keep some of the earthy matter at the top as well as at the 
bottom, and expose- no larger surface to the atmosphere 
than can be helped, making the heap a medium height, 
and its sides and top uniform. 
Where a large quantity of rough soddy lumps, com¬ 
posed of sedge, or rushes, or hedge-parings, having much 
vegetable matter in them, is to be had, it is better to make 
this into a heap by itself, and to add one load of quick¬ 
lime to every half dozen loads of such substances. The 
