December 24, 1898. 
THE GARDENING WORLD 
269 
hardest roads is vast and continuous, and converts 
the hardest rocks quickly into mud and dust. The 
granite-paved roadways of London lose 4 in. of their 
substance in the most exposed, and 2 in. all over, in 
the course of a year. The cubic blocks of stone, 
though 6 in. to 8 in. thick, only last for a very few 
years. Long before this the surface would be in 
hollows, and require to be re-laid. An example may 
be taken of London Bridge, the most costly piece of 
roadway for its length in the world. Paved with the 
hardest rock, and in the most perfect manner, yet 
the grinding of thousands of vehicles, many of 
them several tons in weight, causes repairs and re¬ 
laying to be frequent and extensive. Not only does 
traffic destroy our roads; frost and rain do so as 
well. 
In country roads it is the practice during the sum¬ 
mer months to deposit, at intervals along the road¬ 
side heaps of material for spreading over the high¬ 
way and filling up the hollows during the following 
winter. Stone is soft when first quarried, and 
hardens by exposure to the air ; after lying in heaps 
through the summer, it is, therefore, better suited 
for mending the roads, than when first quarried. 
Experience has also proved that road material put 
on in the spring works loose, and never makes a firm 
solid road. 
For carriage drives and estate roads, flints are 
very serviceable, as they stand a lot of hard wear. In 
order to get a smooth surface a coating of coarse 
gravel should be spread on the flints ; and if it is pos¬ 
sible, give a thorough rolling with a steam roller; but 
before using it ascertain the depth of the drains. If 
these are shallow it would not be safe to use a steam 
roller. Failing that, the horse roller should be as 
heavy as it is possible to get, so as to consolidate the 
road into a uniform surface, and prevent the wet 
from penetrating it at the top. But the foundation 
must be of such a nature that the dirt cannot be 
forced up through the road material from its base. 
Another important matter is the convexity given 
to a road to throw off the rain to the waterways at 
the sides. If too much curved or rounded the road 
wears badly, and the grinding of the wheels of 
vehicles which roll over, out of a vertical position, 
disturbs the crust of the road. Only in the centre of 
such roads can vehicles stand upright, and the whole 
of the traffic, therefore, passes along one track, and 
soon produces furrows. Macadam allowed a fall of 
three inches from the centre to the sides in a road 
eighteen feet wide. Telford in a road of thirty feet 
wide allowed a fall of six inches from the centre to 
the sides, the centre being flatter and the slope 
greater as it neared the sides. 
It is only on some large estates that a gardener has 
the charge of the various roads, but he generally has 
the charge, more or less, of paths ; therefore, we will 
leave the roads and study that which is most likely 
to be useful to gardeners. We will commence with 
the construction of paths. The first thing to do is to 
get our levels. Where the proposed path is very 
flat, and is to be in a prominent place, it would be 
advisable to have a theodolite so as to get the levels 
accurately ; but for ordinary garden paths this is not 
necessary. Three T-shaped boning rods, a straight¬ 
edge, and spirit level, are mostly all a landscape gar¬ 
dener uses for such work. 
The highest and lowest points should be taken, to 
see how much fall can be got for the drains ; 
measure the distance ; then it is easy to calculate 
what the fall will be. Six-inch pipes should be used 
for the centre of the path, with 4-in. or 6-in. junc¬ 
tions to the gullies. These should be fixed where 
they are likely to be wanted in the lowest places— 
not, as some landscape draughtsmen, put them at 
exactly equal distances apart on their plans, 
irrespective of the natural fall of the ground. It is 
often found that the plans which look so pretty on 
paper are not so useful for practical purposes. 
Woulton’s pot gullies are now generally used instead 
of building brick ones. A useful size of pot gully is 
12 in. at the top, and 2 ft. 6 in. deep, with a 4 in. out¬ 
let. This takes a 10 in. iron-flange grating. 
(To be continued.) 
— ■ - 
THE ART OF STOKING. 
Next to learning how to water plants in pots, that 
of stoking in a proper manner is the great stumbling 
block to all young gardeners, as well as to all 
amateurs. A few practical hints on the subject, by 
one who has had charge of the heatiDg arrange¬ 
ments, in both large and small establishments, for 
the last twenty years, may be of some value. I 
may preface my remarks by saying that like so many 
other gardening operations, no hard and fast rules 
can be laid down, for the simple reason that no two 
boilers heat exactly alike, so that the hints given 
only apply in a general way to all heating apparatus. 
In the first place “ cleanliness is next to godliness," 
we are often informed, and in no other operation 
that I know of does this apply with more force than 
in attending to fires ; for unless thorough cleanliness 
is maintained success cannot possibly be obtained. 
I will now start at the beginning, by giving an 
easy plan for lighting the fire. After making the 
furnace thoroughly clean, and seeing that the ash- 
hole is also free of ash,and the damper out full length, 
procure a bunch of dry straw ; put this in the fur¬ 
nace ; put two small shovelfuls of coal on the straw ; 
apply a match ; close the furnace door; and in a 
few minutes there will be a good foundation for an 
excellent fire. This saves lots of bother in looking 
for kindling wood. After the fire is fairly started 
the damper ought to be pushed in, as very often the 
heat goes up the chimney if that is not done. 
With a good many gardeners, as well as amateurs, 
economy has to be carefully studied in regard to the 
coal supply; and to keep out frost, and keep down 
damp is all that is aimed at. In that case, as soon 
as the pipes are fairly warm, the following plan will 
be found of great advantage:—Take the poker and 
shove the most of the live coals to the back of the fur¬ 
nace ; then proceed to fill up the front with fuel; beat 
it down with the shovel; and if the coal used is of 
good quality a shovelful of dry ash, from under the 
fire, will greatly help to economise it, if thrown on 
the top of the coals in the furnace. Then put in the 
damper so that it merely leaves room for the smoke 
to escape. These directions will also be found of 
great use in banking the fire for the night. The 
reason for shoving all the live coal to the back is 
that the fire eats slowly forward, causing slow com¬ 
bustion, and therefore 2 steady heat for a long time, 
with a great saving in fuel. In stirring up the fire 
in the morning, it will usually be found that a great 
many "danders" have gathered on the firebars; 
these should be carefully raked out before fresh fuel 
is added. 
A few words as to boilers and fuel may be of 
interest. I attach much more importance to the 
manner in which the boilers are built in than to the 
particular make; for if a boiler is properly fitted up, 
and the fire has plenty of draught, any boiler ever I 
came across does well enough. At the same time, 
my preference is for a plain saddle, and too large 
rather than too small. I may here remark that it is 
false economy to put in too few pipes into a house ; 
too many is a much better fault. 
When on this subject, anyone wanting a very 
powerful boiler, say to heat a large amount of glass, 
or a large mansion, would find the tubular boiler 
made by Messrs. Keith, of Arbroath, everything that 
could be desired. It does not require any building 
at all, and burns coke, although I have used 
common coal in it with great success. In regard to 
fuel for furnace, I am of opinion, that good coal is 
the most economical in the end, although I have had 
great satisfaction with half coke and half coal. A 
great many furnaces, chiefly for want of proper 
draught, refuse to burn coke. Anthracite, where 
obtainable at reasonable cost, is unsurpassed for 
horticultural purposes. At the same time, with 
properly constructed furnaces and boilers of a good 
size, the fuel is of little consequence; but where 
there is any defect let me say again, good fuel is 
best.— Black Watch. 
-•*.- 
Gathering Crabs in Shakespeare’s Greenwood. — 
Another custom preparatory to the great feast of the 
year is the ingathering of Crabs, and the stewing of 
them for a winter dish. In this we have an ancient 
custom handed down for at least three hundred 
years, and in use at the end of the nineteenth cen¬ 
tury. Shakespeare was evidently well acquainted 
with the crab-bore of his native woodland, for not 
only does he make Caliban say, in " The Tempest " 
(Act ii., scene 2) : — 
" Let me bring thee where crabs grow," 
but in the well-known lines ;— 
“ Where roasted crabs hiss in the bowl, 
Then mighty sings the staring owl, 
To-who; 
To-white, to-who, a merry note, 
While greasy Joan doth keel the pot." 
He alludes to this very winter dish, the annual 
making of which is a welcome custom to many a 
rustic houswife in the poet’s own neighbourhood to 
this day.— Knowledge 
ARDEN1NG JflSCELLANY. 
ROSELEIGH GEM TOMATO. 
During the past summer I grew several Tomatos 
both under glass and otherwise. The one above- 
named gave me good satisfaction. The fruits were 
large, fine in colour, and the majority was of a size 
of about five or six to a pound. It is slightly cor¬ 
rugated at the base of some of the fruits, and let 
others think as they may I prefer them thus for 
many purposes, as I consider them to set freer than 
the very high Perfection type. Another recom¬ 
mendation to this kind is that the fruit is very sweet 
and good flavoured. Ours grew under a low wall 
2 ft. high, in front of some glasshouses, and planted 
in soil that had grown a crop of early Potatos in it. 
The plants were planted out about the middle of 
June. We gave them but very little water, although 
we had but little rain for four months. Undoubtedly, 
Tomatos do not want much water when planted in 
the open.— J. C., F. 
POTATO UP-TO-DATE. 
Potatos come and go like Melons and many other 
things, and perhaps were it not so things would be 
worse for us than now. This kind is of modern 
times. I had not tried it till this year, but I am very 
pleased with it. In our garden it is the best sort we 
have tried for a long time. It is very dry and an 
immense cropper. The size is not too large; the 
flavour is good. We shall grow more of it next 
season.— J. C., Chard. 
CHRISTMAS ROSES. 
Christmas recurs at stated periods, but the bloom¬ 
ing of Christmas Roses is wholly dependent on the 
weather, aud thus it is that many of our hardy 
flowers do, more or less, belie their names. Tea 
Roses are always with us, thanks to the advanced 
condition of horticulture, but their Christmas name¬ 
sakes do not so readily respond to the gardener’s 
artfulness. The Christmas Rose, however, by any 
other name would look as white, as pure, as large, 
and as interesting, and would doubtless be grown as 
much for the sake of its beautiful wild Rose-like 
flowers. The Christmas Rose (Helleborus niger) 
does not like coddling; it loves cool,’ sweet, fresh 
air, and refuses to be happy under any other condi¬ 
tions, although it may with advantage receive the 
protection of a handlight when the elements are not 
in a favouring mood. Mr. Cox, The Haven Gardens, 
Ealing, showed their value for decorative purposes 
on the 13th inst., when he brought a fine bunch to 
the Gardeners’ meeting, and stated that they were 
cut from the open, which is another indication of 
the mild character of the present season.— C. B. G., 
Acton, W. 
Questions ado msujgrs. 
Will our friends who send us newspapers be so good 
as to mark the paragraphs or articles they wish us to see- 
We shall be greatly obliged bv their so doing. 
[Correspondents, please note that we cannot undertake to 
name florists' flowers such as Carnations, Pelargoniums, 
Chrysanthemums, Roses, nor such as are mere garden 
varieties, differing only in the colour of the flower. 
Florists' flowers, as a rule, can only be named by those who 
grow collections of them.) 
Moss and Insects upon Fruit Trees. — J. E.-. Much 
might be done to remove moss and lichens from the 
trunks and larger branches of Apple and Pear trees 
by scrubbing them with a hard brush. The rain we 
have had has softened the moss, &c , and loosened 
to some extent their hold upon the wood, so that 
they can be more readily removed than during dry 
weather. They may then be washed with a solution 
of soft soap and lime in water. The soft soap will 
help to remove the mosses and also serve to kill in¬ 
sects, the lime will kill the mosses and lichens. All 
dead wood should of course be removed and burned 
before you commence the operation of washing. All 
useless wood that serves to crowd the head of the 
trees should also be cut out, and that will facilitate 
work on the remainder. If the trees are very much 
covered with moss, it is evidence that the soil in 
which they are planted wants draining, unless the 
atmosphere of your district is naturally very wet. In 
any case, we should ascertain whether the drainage 
is right. If they are in any way shaded by tall trees 
on the south, east, or west aspects, that would to 
some extent account for the presence of moss. We 
make these various suggestions so that you may be 
guided thereby in any remedial measures which you 
may undertake. 
Summer Flowering Chrysanthemums.— J. E .; 
Of the larger flowering sorts, in addition to those 
