January  28,  19C4. 
JOURNAL  CF  HORTICULTURE  AND  COTTAGE  GARDENER. 
Trade  Note. 
he  made  for  keeping  up  a  supply.  Where  the  p’ants  are  still 
fresh  and  growing  a  frame  may  be  placed  over  it ;  while  more 
may  be  carefully  lifted  and  placed  in  pots  and  deeji  boxes,  and 
placed  in  heat. 
EARLY  CARROTS.— A  sowing  of  Early  Horn  Carrots  should 
now  bo  made  in  a  frame  where  a  gentle  heat  can  be  main¬ 
tained.  The  soil  should  be  light  and  rich;  Gin  of  soil  should  be 
plaecel  on  the  heating  material,  and  be  made  moderately  firm. 
It  is  a  great  mistake  to  sow  these  thickly. 
EARLY  CELERY. — A  small  sowing  of  this  should  now  be 
made.  There  is  always  a  demand  for  early  heads  for  flavouring. 
It  is  also  now  time  for  a  start  to  be  made  where  intended  for 
exhibition.  Do  not  hurry  the  seedlings  in  a  high  temperature. 
Allow  the  seed  to  germinate  slowly;  a  temperature  of  SOdeg  is 
quite  high  enough.  As  soon  as  the  seedlings  are  well  above 
the  soil,  place  the  box  or  pans  as  near  the  glass  as  possible. 
Admit  air  freely  as  the  plants  become  strong  enough  to  bear 
it.  Celery  should  not  receive  a  check  under  any  circumstances, 
as  this  is  often  responsible  for  early  bolting. 
DIGGING  AND  TRENCHING. — All  ground  should  be  deeply 
dug,  or,  better  still,  trenched,  as  it  becomes  vacant.  Where  it 
is  intended  to  plant  Peas  the  ground  should  be  deeply  trenched. 
This,  however,  should  be  carefully  done,  taking  cave  not  to  bring 
tO'O  much  of  the  crude  subsoil  to  the  surface.  The  subsoil 
should,  however,  be  broken  inv  deeply  in  order  to  aerate  and 
sweeten  it. — A.  T.,  Cirencester. 
The  Flower  Garden. 
SPRING  FLOWERING  BULBS. — A  little  attention  given  to 
the  borders  when  bulbs  are  beginning  to  push  through  the  soil 
will  be  amply  repaid  by  their  strong  and  healthy  growth  after¬ 
wards.  Stirring  the  soil  among  them  and  breaking  the  crusty 
surface  will  be  of  great  benefit,  but  the  soil  should  not  be 
trodden  upon  more  than  necessarj'^  at  this  period;  indeed,  it  is 
well  not  even  to  hoe  or  move  the  surface  except  when  crumbly 
or  dry.  Clumps  of  bulbs  which  have  been  established  for  several 
years  will  be  benefited  by  a  midching  of  soil  and  artificial 
manure.  This  will  greatly  invigorate  them  and  add  tO'  the 
beauty  of  the  flowers.  Recently  planted  bulbs  will  not  need 
this,  the  ground  before  planting  being  dug  and  enriched.  A 
light  dusting  of  soot,  however,  round  the  bulbs  will  tend  to  ward 
off  slugs  from  attacking  the  growth  during  the  present  period 
of  slow  growth.  Snowclrops  and  Winter  Aconites  are  beginning 
to  brighten  up  the  borders  in  sheltered  places,  and  the  blooms 
being  the  first  of  the  season,  show  to  the  best  advantage  when 
the  surroundings  are  neat  and  fresh. 
SHRUBBERY  BORDERS.— The  accumulation  of  leaves, 
w'eeds,  or  other  rubbish  between  shrubs  and  plants  must  be 
dealt  with  in  order  to  give  a  neat  and  tidy  appearance  to  the 
borders.  If  the  leaves  cannot  readily  be  forked  or  dug  in,  the 
next  best  f)lan  is  to  rake  them  off,  and  convey  to  the  rubbish 
lieap  for  burning.  The  soil  ought  to  be  top-dressed  with  mould 
or  short  dung,  in  shrubberies,  to  make  good  the  loss  from  the 
carting  away  of  the  leaves.  It  is  as  well  to  complete  the 
work  of  forking  as  soon  as  possible  now,  as  many  of  the  hardy 
bulbs  will  commence  to  push.  Where  there  is  any  extent  of 
vacant  ground  not  occupied  by  any  plants  at  the  present  time, 
this  should  be  deeply  dug  and  manured,  so  as  to  be  available 
for  spring  and  summer  planting. 
DIGGING  AND  MANURING  FLOWER  BEDS.— Possibly 
not  all  the  flower  beds  are  occupied  with  bvdbs,  shrubs,  or  spring 
flowering  plants,  so  the  opportunity  may  be  taken  with  these  to 
thoroughly  dig  and  manure  them.  The  subsoil  should  be  well 
broken  up.  Soil  of  an  adhesive  character  should  have  gritty 
material  mixed  with  it,  and  soil  that  is  poor  and  sandy  have  the 
addition  of  strong,  rich  loam.  In  forming  new  beds,  after 
removing  the  turf,  take  out  the  soil  two  spits  deep,  and  the 
subsoil  should  be  well  broken  up,  incorporating  with  it  leaf  soil 
■or  decayed  manure.  The  same  kind  of  material  may  be  mixed 
with  the  surface  soil  as  it  is  returned  to  the  bed. — E.  D.  S., 
Gravesend. 
Trade  Catalogues  Heceived. 
D.  M.  Andrews,  Boulder.  Colorado,  U.S.A. — Wholesale  Catalogues — 
2,  Plants,  Shrubs,  Hardy  Mountain  Cacti;  (2),  Rare  Seeds. 
Blaekmore  and  Langdmi,  Twerton  Hill  Nursery,  Bath. — Begonia  Cata¬ 
logue  for  190d. 
Chas.  W.  Breadmore,  Royal  W’inehester  Seed  Establishment,  120,  High 
Street.  Winchester. — Seeds. 
Clibrans,  Altrincham. — Neio  Chrysanthemums. 
F.  C.  Edwards,  Warehouse  Hill,  Leeds. — Seeds. 
W.  Baylor  Hartland,  The  Royal  Victoria  Seed  House,  Cork. — Seeds. 
F.  C.  Heineman,  Erfurt,  Germany. — Seeds. 
J.  Lambert  and  Sons,  Treves,  Rhine  Province,  Germany.— Seeds. 
A.  Perry,  Hardy  Plant  Farm,  Winchmore  Hill,  London,  H.—  Sale  List 
of  Plants.  ■  •  . 
An  Ipswich  Seed  Firm. 
Messrs.  Thompson  and  Morgan,  of  5,  Carr  Street,  Ipswich, 
has  been  e.stablished  nearly  half  a  century,  and  are  one  of  the 
best  known  firms  in  this  eastern  portion  of  England.  Wo  have 
received  their  seed  catalogue,  which  we  find  to  be  alphabeti¬ 
cally  arranged,  concise,  and  very  useful.  Cultural  hints  are 
furnished,  and  the  front  pages  contain  the  novelties  for  1904. 
- • 
The  Weather. 
An  Inch  of  Rain. 
For  every  100th  of  an  inch  a  ten  of  water  falls  per  acre. 
Dense  London  Fo^. 
A  sudden  and  peculiar  fog  rolled  up  from  the  river  and 
spread  along  the  streets  like  volumes  of  smoke  on  Friday  even¬ 
ing  of  last  week.  Pedestrian  and  vehicular  traffic  were  rendered 
dangerous  on  account  of  the  density  and  the  suddenness,  and 
the  fog  continued  till  about  six  o’clock  on  Saturday  evening. 
The  new  flare-lights  adopted  by  the  L.C.C.  were  in  operation 
at  some  of  the  Louden  crossings. 
Rainfall  at  Castlemilk  Cardens,  Lockerbie,  Dumfriesshire. 
I  herewith  enclose  the  record  of  rainfall  taken  in  our  gardens 
for  the  year  1903.  For  the  la.st  eighteen  years  our  average 
rainfall  here  is  38.84in  ;  and,  with  the  exception  of  the  years 
1897  and  1900,  with  50.24in  and  SO.lOin  respectively,  none  of 
the  eighteen  years  can  come  within  14in  of  the  rainfall  this 
year. — James  Troup,  gardener. 
.January 
Inches. 
..  5.73 
August 
Inches. 
..  f„0 
I'ebruary 
.  .  4  8.i 
Septeinher  . 
..  4-.70 
March.. 
..  r-D 
Octolier 
..  10-no 
April  . . 
..  1-90 
Noveiiiher,. 
.  .  2-07 
May  .. 
. .  3  50 
Deceuiher.. 
. .  o-m» 
.June  .. 
1'.75 
— 
July  .. 
. .  5-00 
Total  .. 
..  56.i7 
At  Hamilton  N.B. 
If  the  previous  week  was  notable  for  its  stormy  character, 
last  was  remarkable  for  its  mildness.  The  atmosphere  was 
heavy  and  dull,  and  the  temperature  abnormally  high  for  the 
time  of  year,  falling  from  SOdeg  during  the  day  to  3'Odeg  and 
40deg  at  night,  a  state  of  matters  which  made  any  unusual 
exertion  extremely  unpleasant  by  its  corrsequent  flow  of  pei'spi- 
ration.  At  present  thi.s  condition  exists,  and  the  air  is  per¬ 
fectly  still ;  but  a  shade  colder  than  during  the  rest  of  the  week. 
The  sky  is  heavy  and  overcast,  as  though  it  might  result  in 
snow. — D.  C. 
Notes  from  Newton  Mearns.  near  Glasgow. 
As  forecasted  in  my  last  report,  we  liave  had  a  week  of 
open  weather.  After  such  a  long  spell  of  wet  weather  and  frost 
intervening,  garden  operations  have  commenced  in  full  swing, 
and  delayed  planting  has  now  been  overcome.  We  have  been 
fortunate  in  now  having  fine,  drv  soil  to  have  planting  done. 
It  is  seldom  we  have  such  climatic  conditions  for  planting  in 
January.  Should  the  mild  and  dry  weather  continue  for  a  few 
days  to  come,  we  shall  have  all  alterations  carried  out,  and, 
after  all,  we  shall  not  be  so  late  as  we  anticipated  ‘'Ome  time 
back. — N.  R. 
Royal  Meteorological  Society. 
The  annual  general  meeting  of  this  .socict.y  was  held  on 
Wednesday,  the  20th  instant,  at  the  Institution  of  Civil 
Engineers,'  Great  George  Street,  Westminster,  Capt.  D.  Wilson- 
Barker,  F.R.S.E.,  president,  in  the  chair.  The  report  of  the 
council,  which  was  read  by  the  secretary,  described  the  work 
carriecl  out  by  the  society  during  the  past  year,  and  showed 
that  there  was  an  increase  in  the  number  of  Fellows.  One 
remarkable  feature  was  that  out  of  the  thirteen  deaths  re¬ 
ported,  four  of  the  Fellows  had  reached  the  great  age  of  ninety- 
two  or  more  years.  The  Symons  gold  medal  for  1904  was 
awarded  to  Hofrath  Dr.  Julius  Hann,  of  Vienna,  in  considera¬ 
tion  of  hi.s  eminent  services  to  the  science  of  meteorology. 
Count  L.  Szichenyi,  first  secretary  to  the  Austro-Hungarian 
Embassy,  attendecl  and  received  the  medal  cn  behalf  of  Dr. 
Hann.  'The  presiclent  in  his  address  dealt  with  the  present 
condition  of  ocean  meteorology,  and  began  by  referring  to  the 
early  workers  in  meteorological  science,  Lieut.  M.  F.  Maury 
in  America,  and  Admiral  R.  FitzRoy  in  England  ;  also  to  the 
address  on  the  same  subject  delivered  to  the  society  by  Dr. 
R.  H.  Scott,  F.R.S.,  in  1886.  He  then  sketched  the  present 
state  of  our  knowleclge,  illustrating  his  remarks  by  numerous 
maps.  He  reviewed  the  meteorological  work  of  different  nations, 
pointing  out  the  energetic  action  of  the  United  States  in  par¬ 
ticular  and  of  Germany  and  England..  He  regretted  the  want 
