406 
THE GARDENING WORLD. 
Feb. 28th, 1885. 
not dry so freely as in the common ones, and great 
care had to be exercised in watering them, especially 
until the plants were established. As far as I could 
tell, the zinc had no deleterious effect on their roots. 
Some good examples were grown in them as well as in 
some of the hard-burned, highly-glazed earthenware 
ones, and specimens in both kinds did duty with good 
effect at one or two important exhibitions in the 
north. 
Orchids of all kinds were also grown in baskets 
made in this pottery-ware with the most satisfactory 
results. As an experiment, these zinc pots answered 
the specific purpose very well indeed, but on the 
whole they were troublesome and costly.— Scribo. 
PROTECTING SEEDS FROM 
BIRDS. 
Fkom this time onwards for some time quantities of 
seed will be committed to the ground, and it is of 
vital importance that they should be protected from 
the ravages of birds, for when failure occurs we not 
only lose the value of our labour and the seed, but the 
season also. Those who can use powder and shot, or 
have other means of ridding themselves of these 
depredators and adjudged enemies of the gardener, 
need not be troubled with providing protectors; but all 
are not so .placed, and to those who live in districts 
where wild birds abound, and they are not allowed to 
be destroyed to any extent, I would say make friends 
with the merry songsters at once, and by the use of 
simple materials, and at a trifling cost for labour, 
protect all kinds of seeds from the birds, leaving them 
to the good work of destroying insects. 
Several methods of protecting seeds I have seen 
practised, with more or less success. * One of these is 
to damp the seeds a little and then sprinkle them 
with red lead, rolling them well together so that every 
part of the seed is covered. No more seed should be 
dressed than is required for immediate sowing, and the 
seeds should be sown as soon as dressed. Covering 
the drills 'with two or three lines of cotton, fastening 
bits of paper on it at intervals, and stretching cotton 
over the rows without the bits of paper are artifices 
adopted by some. Another plan is to use bent sticks 
with pieces of glass suspended so that when moved by 
the wind they chatter together, and the glass in 
turning about throws a reflection that frightens the 
birds for a time, but they soon get used to it. Cover¬ 
ing seeds with nets is a great sacrifice, for the edges of 
the nets have to be pegged down to the damp ground 
and soon rot, to say nothing of the labour required to 
fix the same above the ground. Soot sprinkled over 
the surface of drills or seed beds will keep birds off 
until rain comes, when it is necessary to renew it, 
and if the weather is showery to successfully ward 
off birds by that means may result in an over dose 
of soot, so that that cannot be said to be satisfactory 
in all cases, although it may answer sometimes. 
The plan we are in the habit of adopting is to 
protect all kinds of seeds that require it, and that are 
sown in drills, with wire Pea-guards. Enough of 
these are at hand to protect the Peas from the time 
of sowing until they are earthed'up and staked, and 
they are removed from one sowing to another, from 
February to the end of June; some of them are occa¬ 
sionally used for a row of Turnip seed, and most of 
them are brought into use again about the beginning 
of August, when we make a large sowing of Turnips 
for standing through the winter. For all kinds of 
seeds, such as Cauliflower, Cabbage, Lettuce, Eadishes, 
&c., a frame-guard is made in the following manner ; 
A deal board, | in. thick and 9 ins. wide, is cut down 
the middle with a saw, making two pieces about 4i ins. 
wide ; these are cut into convenient lengths according 
to the width of the border or other position where 
seeds of this sort are generally sown. Most of our 
guards are from 2 ft. to 3 ft. wide, and 4 ft. to 5 ft. 
long; they are nailed together at the corners, and the 
top is covered with wire-netting \ in.-mesh. Two strips 
are fastened under the wire and across the frame to 
keep the wh;e from dropping in the middle, or the 
birds would reach the seed through the wire. We 
have sufficient of these also to enable us to remove 
them from bed to bed at each successional sowing. 
No seeds are ever sown that it is known the birds will 
attack without one or other of these guards, and by 
their use a load of anxiety is saved, and we are cheered 
rather than annoyed by the presence of the birds.—• 
C. Warden, Clarendon. 
AURICULAS IN FEBRUARY. 
Looking along the stage whereon my plants are 
growing in the Auricula-house, I notice that in regard 
to activity the mealed leaved plants are leading the 
way. A large number of the leading seifs have mealed 
foliage, such as Mr. Douglas, Hetty Dean, Lord of 
Lome, Pizarro, Ringdove, C. F. Perry, Topsy, and 
Read’s Brilliant: so have Miss Smith, Taylor’s Glory, 
Smiling Beauty, Acme, Cleopatra, Arabella, and The 
Rev. F. Tymons, in the other sections of white and 
grey. These are all growing freely, and perhaps the 
character of the foliage gives them a prominence that 
appears at least to place them before the green-foliaged 
varieties. Some of the finest grey edges have green or 
very slightly mealed foliage, such as George Lightbody, 
Lancashire Hero, Victor, Dr. Horner, Richard 
Headly, William Linton, and Robert Trail. Of seifs, 
with this character of foliage, there are Blackbird, 
Garibaldi, and Ellen Lancaster. White edges, Mrs. 
Campbell, John Waterston, and Conservative. All the 
green edges have green foliage, and the following are 
making excellent progress: — Prince of Greens, 
Colonel Taylor, Imperator, New Green, Trail’s Anna, 
Talisman, and Lincoln Green. Day by day the plants 
become more interesting, and there is no pleasanter 
task than to watch for their developing buds, and see 
them gradually expand into fine pips and bold trusses. 
Now is the time when bright sunny days require that 
there be a free admission of air, and watchfulness for 
the appearance of green-fly. A good fumigation or 
two should be given before the earliest flowers 
expand, so that cleanliness may prevail. Constant 
attention is the order of the day, never in the form 
of laborious work, but a rendering of small attentions 
that to him whose heart is set on this fascinating 
flower is never irksome.— R. D. 
LEEKS AND ONIONS. 
It seems strange that a bulbous plant like the 
Onion should be so deep-rooted and require such good 
soil to grow it fine, yet so it is, and as everyone likes 
to have them large, the only way is to go in for 
trenching and heavy manuring, as, besides driving deep 
down, Onions are gross feeders, and can scarcely have 
the land they are sown in too rich. This being so, 
a good dressing of dung should be wheeled on and a 
wide opening made at one end of the ground, and the 
stuff taken out wheeled to the other, for filling in 
again when the work is complete. Although trenching 
is necessary and does a deal of good in gardens, it is 
not desirable to bring the subsoil to the top, instead of 
which it should only be broken up and mixed with 
manure, as when thrown on the top, it takes years of 
aeration to make it fit for the roots of young 
tender plants. These all require a well-prepared seed 
bed, and especially is this so with Onions, as when 
not so favoured they turn yellow, and go off wholesale 
with a sort of mould or rot at the roots. 
To get really fine bulbs, without that tendency to 
become what is generally termed “ bull-necked,” not 
only is it requisite to have the land deeply stirred, but 
it is equally important to have it hard or firm on the 
surface, and to bring it into this condition it should 
be well trodden and then levelled and raked so as to 
get rid of all stones and clods from the surface. This 
done, all will be in readiness for sowing the seed, the 
proper time for doing which is about the middle of 
March, but rather than being over nice as to date, it 
is better to wait a few days or a week, than to sow 
when the soil is not in good order. The distance 
apart at which the drills ought to be drawn is about a 
foot, as that space between the rows gives room for 
the spread of the tops of the plants, and for cleaning, 
which should be done before the weeds get large by 
running a Dutch hoe along just under the surface. To 
give the Onions every chance, the thing is to thin out 
early, and in doing this the strongest and best should 
be left at about 6 ins. to 8 ins. asunder. 
Of sorts there are many, but few, if any, are superior 
to the Reading or White Spanish, if true, and the 
Brown Globe and James, the latter being desirable on 
account of its keeping. For sowing in autumn, to 
stand the winter, the Tripoli, either Flat or Round, is 
good, as it is very hardy and grows to a great size, 
but will not keep long. To come up immediately after 
it, the Queen should be grown, as it turns in quick, 
and is soon ready for use if sown at the same time as 
the Reading. The Silver Skin is always preferred 
for pickling on account of its colour, but few manage 
it in a way to have the bulbs small, the size most 
people like to see them being about as big as marbles, 
at which they may be kept by sowing thick on a hard,' 
poor piece of ground, and not thinning them at all The 
plan to adopt is not to dig the bed, but choose a hot 
dry spot, and throw over the part to be sown a thin 
sprinkling of soil, or cast the seed on the surface 
first, and then cover it instead of raking it in. To 
have Onions hang sound and good, they must be 
well ripened before being harvested, which may be 
done by leaving them till the roots die away before 
pulling them up, after which they should be allowed 
to he on the ground for a week or so before bein" 
stored, which ought to be done when they are in a 
dry state, and then be strung and hung up at once. 
To get Leeks large and fine, it is necessary to sow 
the seed in February or very early in March, and to 
induce it to germinate, the box or pan containing it 
should be placed in gentle heat, and when the plants 
come up, stood near the glass to prevent them from 
drawing. As soon as they are large enough to handle, 
they must either be pricked out or potted, the latter 
being the better plan, as then they can be grown on 
quickly under the shelter of any cold frame, and 
planted out without feeling a check. The most 
suitable soil for potting them in is that -which is light 
and rich, as then they root freely, and the same if 
pricked out, the light rich soil admitting of the plants 
being lifted with good balls for turning out in the 
open ground or in trenches. These should be dug in 
the same way as for Celery, and manured heavily at 
the bottom by -working in a thick layer of rotten dung, 
when the plants may be planted out by digging holes 
for them with a trowel. This done, the next thing is 
to give a good soaking of water to settle the soil about 
them, and -when the weather sets in warm their 
progress will be rapid. 
The way to get the stems long and well blanched is 
to gradually hoe doivn the sides of the trench, when 
cleaning during the summer, till it becomes filled, but 
before doing this each time it is advisable, if the 
weather is dry, to give a good soaking of liquid 
manure, which will make the Leeks swell and thicken 
considerably. The best sorts to grow are the Ayton 
Giant and Musselburgh, as they are the largest and 
equal to the old one in flavour.— Alpha. 
MESSRS. VEITCH’S ORCHIDS. 
The new Cattleya-house built last summer by 
Messrs. Veitch & Sons, has proved a great acquisition 
to the Nursery. The house was only filled in the 
autumn, but the plants have taken most kindly to 
their new quarters, * and abundantly show it in the, 
robust vigour of their foliage, and the freedom with 
which the early flowering section are throwing up 
their sheaths. The house is 132 ft. long and 22 ft. 
wide, most substantially built, and combining all 
modern improvements as regards tanks, heating and 
ventilating. At the present time it is well worth 
a visit from any Orchid lover, an account of 
the splendid display of Cattleya Trianae blooms 
which it contains ; and which from the wealth of 
buds that have yet to open, it is likely to contain 
for some weeks to come. When we say that some 
1,500 blooms are now open, some idea may be 
gained of the grandeur of the display, but it must 
be seen to realize the marvelously beautiful character 
of the individual varieties, the wide differences that 
exist in the size of the flowers, in the width of their 
sepals and petals, and in the breadth of their label- 
lums; the delicate colouring of the former, and the 
gradations of purple in the latter. It would be an easy 
matter to select distinct varieties out of this collection 
for the honour of varietal names, but they are all 
Triames, here no distinctions being made between 
them, excepting in the case of the well-known and very 
distinct form called Delicata, the broad white sepals 
and petals of which are in marked contrast to the 
rosy-hued blossoms of the typical form. 
If it were only to see the “ Triames,” a visit to the 
Nursery would be well repaid; but there are other 
Orchids and plenty of them to add zest to the visit of 
a connoisseur. In the new Odontoglossum • house 
