236 
JOURNAL  OF  HORTICULTURE  AND  COTTAGE  GARDENER. 
September  10,  1905. 
Spray  of  Double  Tulips. 
.S'.  ,K  S. 
Forcing  Home-grown  Daffodils. 
Wh  en  there  exists  a  large  quantity  of  roots  in  tlie  garden 
and  shrubbery  boi’ders,  a  feeling  may  pardonably  arise  that  some 
of  these  Mould  do  greater  service  lifted  and  foinvarded  into 
earlier  bloom,  and  thus  afford  a  means  of  giving  a  greater  touch' 
of  colour  at  some  particular  time  in  the  conservatory  or  shoAv- 
house.  For  cutting,  it  may  be  said  these  would  serve  to  relieve 
the  better  cla.'-s  stock  of  purchased  roots,  and  thus  reserve  these 
latter  for  pot-gronn  purposes.  This  they  do  most  conveniently, 
but  particularly  is  this  true  of  late  winter  and  early  spring, 
before  the  outdoor  stock  supply  the  flower  basket.  What  I  have 
found  in  these  home-groun  roots  is  that  they  require  more  time 
betAveen  the  lifting,  potting,  and  the  starting  them  into  growth, 
unless,  of  course,  they  have  been  prepared  by  enforced  ripeness 
and  re.st  after  the  foliage  has  died  down  naturally,  and  they 
are  lifted  for  the  purpose. 
Brought  on  in  batches  at  early  forcing  time,  we  have  found 
those  first  introduced  into  heat  to  be  someuliat  stubborn  and 
sulky,  and  are  content  to  allow  the  later  lots  to  outstrip  them 
in  time  allowance.  Thi.s  cannot  be  other  than  disappointing, 
if  it  does  not  favour  a  loss  in  time.  Naturally  there  is  not  the 
ripeness  of  the  bulb  which  favours  the  Dutch  grown  ;  soil  and 
climate  M'ould  aid  that  desirable  maturity,  but  for  later  use, 
and  attempts  tq  unduly  force  them  abstained  from,  there  is  no 
reason  \vhy  home-grown  roots  should  not  do  good  .service. 
[True,  it  is  not  in  every  garden  where  they  grmv  in  that 
profusion  and  vigour  to  justify  their,  distiu’bance  for  gentle 
forcing;  but  there  are  some- cases,  at  any  rate,  where  this  is 
so,;  and  afford  so  good  an  accessory  to-  the  annually  purchased 
stock.  The  double  Narcissus  Telamonius  plenus  and  Spurius  are 
both  free  in  growth  and  flower,-  and  are -easily  forced.  Ard  Righ, 
Trijimpet  major,  and  poeticus  ornatus.  are  others  that  adapt 
themselves  to  this  practice. 
(In  the  rather  stiff  soil  of  our  lawn  borders  the  double  Daffodils 
and-  .some  others  grow'  with  such  freedom  that  in  a  few'  years 
a  single  root  produces  great  clumps,  which  at  flowering  time 
give  two  to  thi'ee  dozen  blooms  of  fine  .substance,  colour,  and, 
size. 
Some  of  these  can  be  lifted  and  well  spared,  and  providing 
that  only  a  clump  here  and  there  are  lifted  and  sufl&cient  replaced 
in  ,the  same  station  for  a  future  stock,  the  border  display  loses 
blit  little  of  its  .spring  effects  in  floral  grandeur.  When  required 
only  for  cutting  purposes  they  may  be  more  easily  grown  in 
boxes  made  in  any  convenient  size,  and  from  to' Sin  deep. 
iThose  who  cannot  afford  to  purchase  bulbs  for  natralising  can 
use  these  box-grown  bulbs,  thougli  it  cannot  be  said,  they  are  so 
successful  as  are  imported  roots. — W.  S. 
Cook?. 
JUj  the  Man  who  serves  the  Kitchen^ 
Though  I  ain’t  bin  a  riter 
for  a  very  long  time,  Mr. 
Editer,  I’m  a  reeder  o’  long 
standin’,  and  in  the  whole 
coarse  o’  my  hexpeerience  I 
niver  remember  seein’  ,  .a 
harticle  in  th’  Jernel  under 
the  above  headin’.  Now, 'in 
diskussin’  my  literary 
hefforts  with  my  old  w'oman, 
she  has  made  a  great  point  o’’ 
me  bein’  orijemal,  becos  as 
she  said  to  me:  “Jim,”  said 
she,  “  a  author  as  ain’t  ori¬ 
jemal  is  no  class,  and  if  your 
name  is  ter  go  down  ter  pos¬ 
terity  along  wi’  that  o’ 
Shakespeere  and  Dickens  you 
must  strike  a  line  o’  yer  own, 
or  these  ’ere  gardeners,  who- 
has  a  mighty  opinion  o’  their 
own  ritin’,  nil  swear  your 
copyin’  ’em.” 
“  Right,”  says  I,  “  and  can 
yer  account  for  nothin’  ever 
appearin’  in  th’  Jernel  about 
cooks,  considerin’  as  they  has 
to  do  wi’  th’  vegetables  as  th” 
gardeners  grow'  ?  ” 
I  may  say  that  afore  she 
w'ent  in  ter  partnership 
along  o’  me  th’  missus  w'as  a 
cook,  and  I  thought  she  could 
throw'  some  light  on  th’  ques- 
tion. 
“Aes,  Jim,”  she  said,  “  theer’s  tw’o  very  good  reesons. 
Either  Mr.  Head  Gardener  doesn’t  like  th’  reedin’  publick 
to  know'  as  he’s  on  a  level  wi’  the  cook,  or  else  he’s  afeerd 
o’  sayin’  summat  as  nil  bring  that  lady  down  on  ’im  ;  but 
as  long  as  I’m  heer  to  defend  you  there’s  nothin’  to  fear ; 
only  remember  that  you  say  nothin’  about  me,  or  there’ll 
be  a  shindy,  I  promise  you.  So  now  you  can  go  on  W’ith 
yer  subject.” 
Perhaps  this  explernation  meets  the  case  ;  but  still  it’s 
a  bit  of  a  puzzel  to  me  that  while  reems  o’  copy  has  bin 
turned  out  about  vegetabels  and  gardeners  as  grow's  ’em, 
there’s  bin  a  strange  silence  over  th’  party  wot  prepares 
’em  for  table.  Yet  cooks  and  gardeners  is  inseperabeL 
Wi’out  cooks  there’d  be  no  gardeners,  becos  there’d  be 
nobody  to  boil  th’  taters  w’en  th’  gardeners  ’ad  grown  ’em  ; 
and  if  there  w'ere  neither  cooks  nor  gardeners  there’d  be 
non’  o’  those  delightful  little  row's  wot  does  so  much  to- 
releeve  the  monotony  o’  gentleman’s  places. 
Now',  bein’  a  kitchen  garden  man,  I  perfess  to  know  a 
bit  about  cooks,  and  it’s  mv  proud  boast  tnat  if  theer’s  any 
chap  on  this  bit  of  a  mudbank  (as  th’  Amerikans  call  our 
proud  little  island)  wot  know's  ’ow'  to  w'ork  ’em,  that  man’s 
your  humble  servant.  In  my  time  I’ve  ’ad  the  privilig  o” 
servin’  fat  cooks,  lean  cooks,  tall  cooks,  short  cooks,  old 
cooks,  young  cooks,  teetotal  cooks,  and  cooks  as  drank. 
I’ve  bin  brought  inter  contact  wi’  maiden  cooks,  ajid  cooks 
as  w'os  widders,  cooks  as  perfessed  to  despise  men,  and 
cooks  as  would  ha’  fainted  wi’  delight  if  some  chap  had  a 
hoffered  to  a  married  ’em.  I  served  a  man  cook  for  a  bit 
once,  but  he  were  a  Frenchman  (Froggy,  we  called  him),, 
and  had  a  bit  of  a  temper.  That  wouldn’t  ha’  mattered  so 
much,  but  one  momin’  he  knocked  th’  butler  down  wi’  a 
fryin’  pan  ’cos  th’  butler  told  him  as  Boney  was  licked  at 
Waterloo  afore  Blucher  came  up,  and  in  consequence  b’ 
this  little  devai’shion  he  got  a  month’s  notis,  th’  butler 
bein’  an  old  servant,  and  mighty  particular  about  givin’  a 
drop  o’  beer  away,  which  w'OS  considered  to  be  a  fine  trait 
in  his  karacter  by  th’  missus,  w'ho  wms  a  great  adverkate  o’ 
temperance. 
Now,  th’  cook  as  comes  nearest  to  perfeckshon,  accord¬ 
in’  to  my  way  o’  thinkin,’  is  a  fat  ’un  ;  the  fatter  th’  better, 
becos  the  superflewos  amount  o’  flesh  (or  fat)  she  carries 
pervents  her  from  worryin’  either  herself  or  anybody  else, 
A  fat  cook  is  rarely  ’ard  on  a  chap.  If  you  happen  to  be  a 
few  minits  late  wi’  th’  vegetabels  in  a  mornin’  she  measures 
