open brass pan, called in their patois a "bashin." They put a very little water in it, about a large teacupful, then the potatoes, and then two or three large cabbage-leaves are laid on the top. This is placed on a low fire after breakfast, where it remains steaming slowly till dinner-time; and beautiful is the sight when the leaves are removed, and the mealy potatoes bursting from the clean brown skins appear done to perfection. How often in rambling excursions through that lovely island, has a dinner of these fine vegetables, with a rasher of bacon, been eaten in one of its exquisitely clean cottages-and a more excellent meal need never be desired. I have known many attempts made to persuade the English cottager to follow a better plan, but always without suc

cess.

When articles of food are few, does it not seem of consequence to prepare them in the best and most profitable way? No more fire is required in the one case than in the other-no more trouble or expense; yet in go the poor potatoes day after day, swallowed up in a saucepan brimful of water, in spite of all that can be said.

It is a remarkable circumstance, that among the allotments in my neighbourhood, where the potato disease prevailed to a great extent, one or two of the cottagers were singularly exempt from its attack. In the case of one tenant in particular it was very striking; on each side of his allotment the crops, in common with those of the other cottagers, totally or partially failed, but the potatoes on his land never failed; and he has told me that since the disease has been known, he has never lost more than a bushel out of any one crop, and the two first years not more than half that quantity. Last year, his strip of ground still yielded its usual supply of fine healthy roots, but it will never again gladden his eyes, and furnish his winter store. He is at this moment closing a life of hard labour, and joyfully awaiting the summons to a better world. He has often assured me that his seed, and his mode of tillage, were the same as his neighbours' in all material points. He loved his land dearly, and cultivated it with the utmost care and neatness; creeping down to enjoy the sight of it long after his infirmities disabled him from work. But he used to acknowledge, with tears of gratitude, the mercy of God who spared the fruits of his ground when others withered and died; and he devoutly gave God all the glory.

It is cheering and delightful to see a devotional spirit in the poor. All classes and all professions depend equally on God; for His hand only withholds them, moment by moment, from destruction; but the humble tiller of the ground, the poor, hard-working labourer, seems to stand peculiarly close to the outspread hand of God. Between the soil "wet with the dews of heaven," blessed and made fruitful by "the Lord who giveth the increase," and the hand that plants and sows, there is no intermediate agent; it seems as if the agricultural labourer worked, as it were, hand to hand with the Lord of heaven and earth. This thought should give the poor man a double interest in our eyes, and a solemn one in his own. He should walk, as well as work, closely with God. A copious blessing is promised to him who fears God and keeps His commandments-who "keepeth the sabbath from polluting it, and keepeth his hand from doing any evil." If the cottager would consider this, and search the Scriptures daily to hear what the Word of the Lord reveals, he would not the less diligently plough, and thrash, and labour for his bread-he would not the less enjoy his lowly roof and humble fare, or be deprived of any of the lawful gains and pleasures of

his self-denying life: but he would be blessed in his person, in his family, in his basket and his store; his life would be full of peace, and his hope full of immortality! And let us remember, that the poor and the rich are alike included in the blessing and the threatening of the Lord-the poor shall not escape nor shall the rich be spared: "there is no respect of persons with God!"

HEATING OF HOTHOUSES.

No. II.

HOT WATER APPARATUS.

RESUMING again the subject of hothouse boilers, I think I said sufficient condemnatory of all those toy-looking things which we have so often urged upon us as models of economy, in the way of fuel, &c. We must now consider what description of boiler is best adapted for the required purpose, as well as other particulars regarding its fixing, &c., &c.

It is a well-known maxim, that the greater the surface of boiler exposed to the action of fire, the quicker it is likely to heat (hence the many varieties we have all aiming at that object), but that rule, like many others, is liable to exceptions, and unless the fire burn briskly, it is vain to think of it soon heating the apparatus; and if many intricacies impede its progress, it will not burn freely; consequently, the shape of a boiler ought to be so qualified as not to oppose too many obstacles in the way of its ascent; yet, at the same time it ought not to escape out at the chimney without having performed the duties required of it. There are several modifications of the old square boiler, more or less arched underneath, called by the different names of tile-backed, ridge or saddle-backed, and differing very widely in their capacity. The latest or most improved, being on the under side a semicircular arch of perhaps 18 inches in height, and somewhat less in width, while the top or outer plate of the boiler is of a similar shape, leaving the space between the two about 6 inches in depth; the interior height of the arch is ample room for fire, which is fed in by the door, as all fires ought to be; and as it will be seen the top and both sides are exposed to its action, independent of its being carried round it afterwards, that we may fairly suppose that fire to do its duty without wasting any material portion of its heat. A boiler of this description properly fixed, and subject to certain regulations we shall just now mention, will be most likely to serve the amateur's purpose: its simplicity, ease in attending to, and not liable to get deranged, are strong recommendations in its favour; and one I had the management of for some years never once deceived me, that I can recollect of. Nevertheless, there is another very good acting boiler, something in shape like a tumbler glass, deeply fluted at the sides, called, I think, Burbridge and Healey's boiler, that I have found to do very well also. Everything depends on the arrangement of the fire; the shape of the boiler being only a secondary consideration. We may therefore sum up by remarking, that whatever description of boiler you select, by all means let the fire-box be sufficiently capacious-it is false economy to be told you must have the space so confined, that the coke or whatever you burn, should always be touching the bottom of the boiler; we grant the heat imparted may be greater, but it is at a sad sacrifice of time: the fire burning so indifferently, so often requiring to be looked at, and at nights there is not room to put sufficient fuel on to serve the number of hours which it ought to do, that the little saving there may be in firing in the one case, is lost in a tenfold manner by the extra trouble it gives.

We shall now consider how the boiler ought to be connected with the heating apparatus in the inside, which is a matter I think too little attention paid to. As we are told, on undeniable authority, that water on heating rises to the surface or highest level, then floats away, or rather is impelled to do so by the efflux behind it, keeping up a continuous circulation, and finally finding its way into the boiler again on a lower level than the one on which it started from; now this very circulation is the very thing we want, and yet how many impediments do we see thrown in its way. In the first case, I have seen an excellent contrived boiler placed so low, that the water had to ascend three feet before it reached the level of the series of pipes it was destined to flow into, and that ascent an elbow-turn; and some five or six feet more was compressed in a pipe not more than two inches bore, when it was ejected into a series of pipes containing, collectively, at least ten times the area of borage (if such a term be excusable). Now, I think it cannot be denied but there was a sad waste of power; but as it needs no demonstration to shew what an impediment was thrown in the way of a good and free circulation, it is scarcely necessary to add, the return pipe was the same size. Now, the greatest number of heating apparatuses are constructed as above, differing only in degree; and I cannot but wonder how ingenuity should tax herself to heat the boiler in the quickest possible manner, and then keep a great portion of that heat by placing a formidable interruption in the way of its entering the house. As a remedy for such a state of things, we may state that the ascending fluid ought to have a pipe as large as the whole of these, taken collectively, it is intended to serve, and that its onward progress ought not to be impeded by any abrupt turning,-if turning there must be, let it be a lengthened and gradual one, so that the heated water may flow with an uninterrupted course the whole of its rounds, and let its return to the lower part of the boiler be also in a capacious pipe.

When the nature of the place will admit of it, we would advise the boiler not to be much below the level of the upper tier of pipes inside-in fact, we do not see there is any reason why it should be lower at all. The first-constructed hot-water apparatuses were something above the pipes inside the boiler, lid to take off, and several lids or raised portions of the upper tier of pipes inside the house, which lids it was customary to take off when a moister heat was wanted; and as the top pipes were exactly on a level with the water in the boiler, the heated particles of water rising from the bottom, or part over the fire, had only to rise to the surface, and float away into the upper pipes, which, as we said, were level with it. The beauty and simplicity of that system has, I think, never been excelled; when the fire was applied, it was only necessary to go into the house, take off one of the lids of the pipes, and look in and witness the current always in one direction. I may observe, it was the opinion in those days that the upper pipe ought only to be about two-thirds full of water; the circulation being quicker. I need hardly add, my opinion at the time was also to the same effect; and I have often wondered why the principle at first laid down as to heating by hot water should have been ever departed from, as I know of nothing which has improved so little; in fact, I do not hesitate to say in many instances it has retrograded.

As it is not our intention here to enter into the details of the interior arrangement of pipes, which is often regulated by circumstances, we will confine our

selves to general rules, by saying, do not let your pipes be too small; and, if possible, do not let them be buried in the paths of the house; in plant-houses it is difficult to have them otherwise, yet they might be contrived to run by the wall in some way or other. Make as few abrupt turnings as you can help; and your house be lofty, or large, do not pinch the pipes in number. See that the joints are good and secure, and we leave the arrangements of them with you, as so many circumstances interfere in their direction, that it is useless to deal with any thing than general principles.

if

As the above has been written solely for the guidance of the amateur, many of whom may be obliged to intrust the heating of their plant-houses, &c., to a servant not being a practised gardener, I have entered more freely on the matter. In my next, I will give my opinion on the much despised, yet ever useful, smoke-flue, with its various bearings, as a mode of heating hothouses. S. N. V.

MY FARM-YARD.

THE animals about which I am now going to write are certainly not the usual inmates of a farm-yard; yet I think a few remarks on goats and rabbits may not be out of place, nor uninteresting (and I hope not unprofitable), to some of my cottage readers.

Very often, in passing the heaths and commons which abound in many parts of England, it has been a matter of surprise to me, that the cottager who cannot afford to buy a cow does not possess a goat. The rocky mountain, the bare common, the "blue heath," which to the eye of the dairyman offer nothing tempting-nothing, in fact, but starvation-to the goat keeper have each and all great attractions; for goats will live, and thrive too, where any other animal would starve. Their appetite very much resembles that of the pig's, being by no means dainty; in fact, few things you can offer them come amiss. In the summer, of course, they require nothing but the natural herbage; but in winter, when the frost has dried up the short grass, or the snow has completely hidden it, they will require something to be given them after each milking; but, however severe the weather, they may be allowed to roam about during the day, but at night should have some shed to shelter them. Furze, which is often very plentiful on commons, if chopped fine, is very good food for them, and they will eat it with avidity. Potato peelings, refuse hay, chopped straw, and roots of any kind, they will thrive on. If properly trained, and kindly treated, they cause but little trouble; returning punctually at the usual milking hours. The goat does not give much above one quart of milk a day; but that is so very rich that it bears, and is improved by, being diluted with water. It is considered very nourishing, and particularly suited to young children and invalids.

The goat usually produces two kids at a birth, sometimes three. The female should not be allowed to breed till eighteen months old. If good milkers, they give milk for ten months together; but, of course, as with the cow, this differs with different goats, some becoming "dry" much sooner than others. The flesh of a kid is considered a great delicacy, superior to that of the lamb; but this, I suspect, is very much owing to the difficulty there is in obtaining it!

Amongst the rugged mountains of Switzerland large flocks of goats are kept; and cheese-making is carried on there in as large a way as it is in England among the valleys and quiet nooks of the dairy farmer. The colour of the cheese made from

the goat's milk is not good, but it is high flavoured, and very similar, when well made, to "Parmesan." Of course in England a "flock of goats" would be useless, for no sale could be found for the cheese; but I do think, if two or three were kept by those who live in wild districts, it would materially increase their comfort; and the children would be reared in greater health, and with less anxiety, if a basin of goat's milk was provided for them at breakfast and supper time. The only mischief I believe a goat is accused of doing, is "barking young trees;" but these are not often found on hills or commons. The planting days are nearly over, the axe being, I regret to say, much more in request at the present time than the spade; therefore, the slight amount of injury they are capable of committing is more than compensated by the gain and pleasure that is derived from them.

My second interloper is more, properly speaking, the inhabitant of the garden than the farm-yard; for where rabbits are kept you usually see their hutch in a retired corner of the garden. However, I dare say some of my young friends will not think a few words on "rabbit keeping " very much out of place. They are great favourites with children; and it is very material (in whatever rank of life it may have pleased God to place us) to encourage children in their love of animals, which is so natural to all of them. Having something depending on them for its "daily bread' inculcates habits of attention, kindness, forethought, and regularity; all very material points of character if you wish your child to be a "comfort to himself and those around him." Having said thus much on the policy of having some living creature for the child to look after, I must tell you that, if properly managed, rabbit keeping becomes a most profitable concern. They require, it is true, some little care and attention, but in how many cottages are the children lounging about, only in the mother's way. If, instead of this, they were collecting roots for the rabbits, and attending regularly to them, no time would be lost, and the results would be a rabbit for dinner once or twice a week!

Rabbits require to be kept very clean, or they become a nuisance to everybody about; and, indeed, they cannot thrive unless they are kept clean and dry. An old box can be converted, with a very little ingenuity, into a convenient hutch. Each hutch should have two compartments, one darker than the other; as the rabbit always prefers having a quiet dark retreat, into which it can retire when frightened. The number I should advise a cottager to begin with would be three does and one buck. They begin breeding at five or six months old, and produce from Instances are on four to ten young ones at a birth. record of one pair of rabbits having sixty young ones in a year. Of course this hardly ever occurs, and I am half inclined to doubt the possibility; however, it is true that they increase in a very rapid manner, and in that way well repay the trouble expended on them. I find I have not space to say a word about the management of these useful little creatures, but must delay that till the next month; in the meantime, I hope what I have said will have the effect of establishing a goat and a pair of rabbits in many a cottage home. C. M. A.

TO CORRESPONDENTS.

We request that no one will write to the departmental writers of THE COTTAGE GARDENER. It gives them unjustifiable trouble and expense; and we also request our coadjutors under no circumstances to reply to such private communications.

Soot Water (W. C.).—This is as good a liquid manure as you

can apply to your camellias, whether white or red. In the first place, soot water is not black; and if it were, the colour of a manure has no influence upon that of the flowers to which it is applied. A coloured manure may be traced into the sap vessels of the stem; but it is digested and changed during its passage through the leaves, &c., before it reaches the petals. If your azaleas have flower-buds, they will bloom this season. We do not know Thornton's Practical Botany.

SLUG MIXTURE (Sabrina).-Your mixture of 1 lb. quicklime, and 1 lb. of flowers of sulphur, stirred well, and boiled in six pints of water, will form a sulphuret of lime-a most nauseous compound, which will destroy both slugs and caterpillars. If used cold, and washed off soon, we do not think it will injure your plants. The best trellis you can have against your house will be galvanised iron netting. See Fox's advertisement.

HYACINTH OFFSETS (Alfred Paddle).-As the offsets "have left the parent bulbs" in your water glasses, you may cut them off, and plant them in pots as you propose; but they are scarcely worth the trouble.

ANTS ON PEACHES (Faversham).-We are quite sure that the ants did not "eat the points and young leaves" of your young peach-tree last year. The destruction was occasioned by some other insect, or some exudation of sap, to feed on which the ants visited it. If they came after insects, they did you good; if to feed on the exuded sap, they did you no harm.

GROUND OVER-DUNGED (Sigma).—You can only practically ascertain this by observing whether such crops as peas, and beans, and strawberries, &c.-crops cultivated for their fruit-are over-luxuriant; that is, productive of more stems and leaves than available produce. GERANIUMS (Ibid).—These taken up last autumn, and kept out of the soil (covered with hay) in a room, had better be potted at once; for they ought not to be turned out into the borders until May. The dust arising from the coal-ashes in which you plunged your pitted plants, though it has covered their leaves, will do them no harm. Exposure to a shower of rain, or to a watering from a fine-rosed watering-pot, will put them all right.

FRUIT-TREE STATIONS (Capt. Forrest).-These, which are to be against a wooden fence, had better extend on both sides of the fence; because, as you observe, "the fence not having a foundation like a wall, the roots will be as apt to go one way as the other." Your carpenter will be a better adviser than we can be as to the covering for your manure tank.

STOVE FOR GREENHOUSE (J. B. H.).-As you do not intend to have either chimney or flue, it does not signify which you employ; they are all injurious alike by the large amount of carbonic acid and other deleterious gases which they emit.

CARNATIONS, &c. (Dianthus).—The party you mention we know to be trustworthy, but we cannot recommend him or any one else. You may obtain Double Russian and other violets from any of the florists who advertise in our columns. There is a double white violet, but we have not seen it. You must water your carnation cuttings, so as to keep the soil gently and uniformly moist; it would only mislead you to say water them so many times a week.

PRICES OF POULTRY (Tooting).-Mr. Nolan, Bachelor's-walk, Dublin, we are informed charges as follows:-The Spanish fowl of first quality, from 15s. to 20s. each; Dorking, 25s. each; Dutch every-day-layers, 10s. each-cocks and hens the same price; Cochin China fowl, 30s. each; Rouen and Aylesbury Ducks, 10s. each. DAHLIA (W. S.).-How can you imagine for a moment that we can tell its name from seeing a single petal?

HOTBED FOR CUTTINGS (J. M.).-Pray refer to page 146. SIR GEORGE SHIFFNER'S PIGS (A Correspondent).-Can any one inform our correspondent whether "the breed of pigs for which the late Sir G. Shiffner was so famous are peculiar to Sussex?" and he will be obliged by "a description of them, and by information as to where the pure breed may be purchased."

SUPER-PHOSPHATE OF LIME (T. W.).-This is made by mixing together bone dust and oil of vitriol; and full particulars are given at page 28 of our first volume. The reason the water will not circulate in your pipe is, that the return to the box from whence the hot water is wished to flow, is partly up hill!

PAYNE'S IMPROVED COTTAGE HIVE (Rev. W. P. Bartlett).-No bars of wood are to be inserted in this, nor should they in any other hive, for the combs to be supported by. At page 305 of vol. i., yon will find the size of the small hives. If the small hive is put on in April, and renewed if filled, the bees will not swarm. We do not know Knight's hive, but we do know that the less complicated a hive is the cheaper it is, and the more easily managed. (H. A. E.).—-You may buy them at Messrs. Neighbour, High Holborn, London. The hives are not sold separate, we think.

TRANSFERRING BEES (Tyro).-In Mr. Taylor's "Bee-keeper's Manual" you will find very full directions; and it is too long for extraction. We recommend you to let your stock in your "old, dingy, single hive" swarm this summer, and then in the autumn to unite the bees in that old hive to the swarm from it in your new hive. Thanks for your fact about resuscitating bees.

TEN-WEEK STOCK-SEED (J. Price).-It is quite a matter of uncertainty whether the seedlings will be double-flowered; and we can only say, that any florist who advertises in our columns will supply you with seed likely to meet your wishes, if you write to him.

THOUSAND-HEADED CABBAGE (Clericus, Beds.).—This is quite different from the Brussels sprouts. Fresh pig-manure may be dug in advantageously at the bottom of the trench for mangold-wurtzel ; but it is very bad using fresh dung for onions. Have you no spot manured for the previous crop on which you can grow them? The plot where celery was grown, for instance. In sowing onions, we tread the ground after sowing, but some gardeners do so before sowing. The improved breed of Essex pigs may be purchased from W. Fisher Hobbs, Esq., Boxted Hall, near Colchester. Is it certain that mice took your peas out of the ground, though thickly covered with soot? Surely it must have been after heavy rains had washed the soot away.

NIGHT-SOIL (Oxoniensis).—This applied, without any mixture, to the roots of your newly-planted fruit and rose-trees is far too stimulating for them. It is all the worse that your soil is light and gravelly, for the roots will be quite stimulated enough by the drought in summer. Take away the night-soil, and cover the roots with mulch, as directed by us to-day editorially. We are glad that you are intending to label each tree and plant botanically, as well as with the common names. We cannot suggest any improvement.

GREENHOUSE FACING THE NORTH (R. Reboul).We would advise you to change its position. Few plants would flourish in a house with a north aspect, though we think such plants as camellias, and ferns, and mosses, would do admirably. If you had pits, or another house for growing, plants would stand longer in bloom when brought to your present one.

CINERARIA-SEED (Ibid).- This may be sown now if you want the plants early, but if not kept in a shady place during summer they are apt to get rusty and insect-attacked. If sown in May the plants will be strong enough to flower about Christmas. In August you must grow from suckers, not seed. We know of no reason why asphalte should not answer admirably for the bottom of a cold pit.

TROPEOLUM CANARIENSE (Ibid).-This will flourish alike in the open soil or in a pot, but it will do better if raised in a pot in the first place, so as to attain some size before you plant it out in May.

BEES (M. P.).-You may hive your bees into a box of the kind you describe, but why not put them into a "Taylor's Amateur's Hive?" the best wood hive, in our opinion, ever invented. Room and ventilation being given in a proper manner, and properly attended to, swarming may be prevented altogether, no matter what kind of hives the bees are in. The holes into your upper boxes may be of an inch wide, by 4 inches long. Two windows, one at the back and one at the side, in the bottom box, are much better than one only. The top of the hive is, unquestionably, the best place to supply food; for the kind of food most proper, see page 240, vol. i. of THE COTTAGE GARDENER. Sugar alone is useless; bees can only take it in a liquid state. For full directions for joining swarms, see page 104, vol. ii.

BEES (R. S. F.).—Our correspondent's hives face the south-east, hut are partly shaded. One hive he weighed last year, and found it increased as follows:-June 29th, they then weighed 231b.; July 7th, 261b.; 14th, 34lb.; 28th, 33 lb.; Augus: 24th, 37. In the beginning of August he put a small wooden box upon the hive, but the bees never took to it. At the beginning of February, when the weather was mild, they came out of the hive in the middle of the day by hundreds, and the next day there was also many of them lying dead round about the hive, and there was also scattered all over the hive, hive-board, &c,, small drops of liquid substance not unlike honey. Your bees would be much better if they were placed where the sun shines upon them fully all the day. Your situation otherwise is not at all objectionable. August was much too late to put on a box-it should have been done on the 22nd of June, three weeks after their being hived. They have none too much honey. In the last week of April, put the box again upon the top of your hive (supposing it has not been left on); and if you can fix a few pieces of white comb to the top of it, so much the better; and follow strictly the directions given in page 41, vol. ii. of THE COTTAGE GARDENER, and in following numbers; and from so fine a stock as yours appears to be, you may expect a large supply of honey, if properly managed. Our advice is, by no means to put a sidehive. The drops about the hive-board were the faces of the bees. The dead bodies lying about are those that died in the hive during the winter, and are now brought out. You should have saved your bees that trouble, by cleaning the floor-board as directed repeatedly in THE COTTAGE GARDENER. In ali probability the pieces of wood with which you narrowed the entrance were the cause of the numerous deaths. The entrance, in all probability, became choked up with dead bees, and the living population were half suffocated for want of pure air. Stopping up with perforated zinc would have been still worse. Remove your bees whenever you will, considerable loss will be sustained; but if you do it at all, do it immediately. Buy "Payne's Beekeeper's Guide," and you will be at no loss how to manage your bees in future.

PLUM PRUNING (E. Marsden).—If your plums are young, and their desired form not complete, you may shorten the young shoots three or four feet long nearly half: but why not have pinched the points off in July? Pray read our back papers on the management of gross young wood in the summer season. Four shoots will not form a tree; your pruning now ought to cause abundance to select from.

FRUIT-TREES FOR S. E.WALL (Rhododendron).-Surely you may plant peaches in Shropshire on such a soil (sandy-loam), and on the south portion? Mr. Errington grows first-rate peaches and nectarines every year farther north than you. Of Apricots, the Moorpark first; the Shipley, a safe bearer, and Royal. Of Plums, Coe's Golden Drop, Greengage, Precoce de Tours, Reine Claude Violette, Imperatrice, Ickworth Imperatrice, Jefferson's early Orleans, Quetsche St. Martins. Of Pears, Jargonelle, Dunmore, Fondante d' Automme, Beurree Diel, Winter Nielis, Passe Colmar, Urbaniste, Doyenne d' Hiver Nouveau, Josephine de Malines, Hacon's Incomparable. Of Cherries, the early Duke, Elton, Florence, Royal Duke, and Bigarreau. Let us advise you to procure the pears on quince stocks. If so, however, you must alter the staple of the soil where they are planted, according to directions concerning the quince in our back numbers.

FARMING FIVE ACRES FOR Cows (B. W.).-You will see remarks bearing on your objects in our Allotment article for March. We would beg to direct your attention to the Lucerne as to a "soiling" system. "Cuttings" of this will help you much during the summer; and you will, of course, have an acre or two of hay to carry you through the winter. Added to this, plenty of mangold, some Swedes, and the Thousand-headed cabbage, of which you should have nearly a quarter of an acre for early feed. Perhaps a little rye cutting may chime in with your arable course. You cannot have all; therefore, you will

have to select and form a system for yourself-the system based in the main on the character of the soil. For mangold and Swede culture, watch an Allotment number for April.

SOFTENING WATER (J. B.).-Either carbonate of potash or carbonate of soda will soften water, if its hardness arises from holding sulphate of lime (gypsum) in solution; but carbonate of ammonia is much to be preferred for the purpose, if the water has to be used for watering plants. An ounce of either, to a hogshead of water, is enough to decompose all the gypsum it can contain.

KOHL RABI (J. Andrews).—A pound of seed will give birth to plants enough for several acres. Sow in the last week of this month, very thinly in drills, about 10 inches apart, and let your seed-beds be proportioned to the extent of your field. The plants will be ready for planting out in May and June, in rows two feet apart, and the same distance from plant to plant. The soil should be manured and thoroughly pulverised, the same as for a crop of Swedish turnips, but they require a rather stronger soil.

MAGNIFYING (A Young Botanist).-You had better obtain a single microscope, or lens, mounted on a pillar, which leaves both your hands at liberty.

FLOWERS FOR BEES (N. S. H.).—It would be too difficult a task to give a list of the plants from which bees collect honey; it would fill a number of "The Cottage GARDENER;" but it would be more difficult still to say what they do not collect from. We have found the advantage of planting in the vicinity of hives a large quantity of the common kinds of crocus, single blue hepatica, black hellebore, and common butter-bur; all of which flower early, and are rich in honey and farina. Wood sage (Salvia nemorosa of Dr. Smith), which flowers very early in June and lasts all the summer, is in an extraordinary manner sought after by the bees; and when room is not an object, twenty or thirty square yards of it may be grown with advantage: Dwarf marjoram (Origanum humile) and Origanum rubescens (of Haworth) and mignonette may also be grown. Cultivation beyond this, exclusively for bees, we believe answers but very little purpose. With regard to mignonette and furze imparting an unpleasant flavour to honey, is what we have never before heard of, and on asking the opinion of a clergyman in Essex, whose bees are within reach of several acres of mignonette, grown for seed to supply the London market, he says that his honey is always remarkably fine flavoured, which he attributes chiefly to the mignonette. And another clergyman living in a quite different direction, and who is surrounded by furze, teils us his honey is always remarkably good. And Dr. Bevan says, in page 63 of "The Honey-bee," "mignonette, if sown abundantly, is a plant of considerable importance to the apiary, from its continuing in bloom till the autumn frosts set in, and yielding honey of peculiar whiteness and delicacy. Instances are recorded of an abundant crop affording a large supply of honey to an apiary near which it was sown, when at the same time there was a general failure of all the neighbouring stocks."

SOWING DEPTHS (Columella).—From one-and-a-half to two inches is the best depth we think at all seasons for beans and peas. The depth for potatoes at the present season may be, in dibble holes, six inches deep, so that the top of each set is about four inches below the surface. They will not require earthing-up. A seed-bed for annuals, &c., need not be deep, and if for flowers will not require any manure. INSTRUMENT FOR MEASURING DISTANCES (Tooting).-Our correspondent recommends a Perambulator 10 a former inquirer.

RETARDING HYACINTHS (A Young Beginner).—It is doubtful if you will be able to keep back your hyacinths for the May exhibition. Your only chance is to turn out your pots from the greenhouse immediately, and plunge them an inch deeper than the rims in the coldest place you can. A north-east aspect, behind a house or wall, where the sun could not reach them, is the best situation. We have kept them in a cold frame with that aspect until those in the flowergarden were over. Your plant is the Gouty Houseleek (Sempervivum tortuosum).

LAWN OF PUBLIC CHARITY (Med. Bac.).—It is too late now to sow fine grass seeds on a rough lawn like yours; the end of September is the best time to sow grass seeds among grass. Try sowing over it a few pounds of white clover seeds; rake the grass roughly, and then roll it. The worst part of the coarse grass ought to be spudded out, from time to time, during wet weather.

WATER PLANTS FOR SMALL STOVE (C. J. V.).—Unless you take to any of the water lilies (nymphæa), the next we would choose is Nelumbium speciosum; but where to purchase it, or any other plant, we dare not break the rule in such cases. There is such a plant as Platycodon grandiflorum, but then it is not a bulbous-rooted plant. FLOWER SOWING (R. O.).—None of the flowers you name require to be sown even in a cold frame. We have said already that Tagetes tenuifolia might be sown in the open border in April, but you may get it on a little earlier by a slight hotbed; and if you so heat it, the first or second week in April will be time enough to begin. German asters may also be raised, like the tagetes, either way, and at the same time. Stocks also sow for a first crop uow, and again at the end of April. Nolana atriplicifolia sow in the flower-bed early in April; it will contrast with Enothera macrocarpa, not grandiflora, better than any other blue flower of the same habit, and the cenothera will bloom longer than it.

NAMES OF PLANTS (A Young Gardener).-No. 1 is a species of Cupressus, and we think C. thyoides, or white cedar. No. 2 is a species of Juniperus, and we think J. virginiana, commonly called the Red Virginian cedar or cypress; but we cannot undertake to say for certain as to the species from the little bits sent.

LONDON: Printed by HARRY WOOLDRIDGE, Winchester High Street, in the Parish of St. Mary Kalendar; and Published by WILLIAM SOMERVILLE ORE, at the Office, No. 2, Amen Corner, in the Parish of Christ Church, City of London.-March 7th, 1850.

ST. PATRICK.-Upon the occurrence of this anniversary last year we gave a biography of this guardian of Ireland, such as we considered the best sustained by the concurrent evidence of the early historians. The summary of that biography is, shortly, that he was very instrumental in converting the pagan Hibernians to Christianity, and that he died on the 17th of March, A.D. 464. We then, also, expressed our belief that the shamrock, the three united leaflets of which he employed as an illustration of the Trinity, is not the trefoil or clover, but the Wood sorrel. The leaflets of this are more beautiful, and are similarly united in threes. Subsequent consideration has strengthened us in our opinion. The trefoil is not eatable by man; but the shamrock was a common food of the Irish between May-day and harvest, the very time that the Wood sorrel leaves are in perfection as a salad herb. "Butter, new cheese, and curds, and shamrocks, are the food of the meaner sort all this season," says Vallancey, in his Collectanea de Rebus Hibernicis; and Wythers, writing in 1613, alludes to it thus:

"And, for my cloathing, in a mantle goe,
And feed on Sham-roots, as the Irish doe."

Besides this, the Druids, long before the introduction of Christianity, held the shamrock as a sacred and medicinal plant. Now, the Wood sorrel is a native of the groves in which the Druids dwelt, and is gifted with medicinal properties, of which trefoil has none.

EDWARD, KING OF THE WEST SAXONS, was stabbed on this day, A.D.978, by order of his step-mother, Elfrida, whilst he was drinking at the gate of Corfe Castle, in Dorsetshire. The murder was perpetrated to render the throne vacant for her own son, Ethelred, but remorse was the fruit returned to the murderess; and if the following was the warning of Dunstan to Ethelred, most literally was it fulfilled :-"Because thou hast aspired to the kingdom by the death of thy brother, whom thy mother slew, hear, therefore, the word of the Lord The sword shall not depart from thy house, but shall rage against thee all the days of thy life, and shall slay thy seed, until thy kingdom be given to another people!" (Roger Wendover's Chronicle.)

METEOROLOGY OF THE WEEK.-During the last twenty-three years, the average highest and lowest temperature of these seven

days has been 51.20 and 35.3°, respectively. The greatest warmth during these days, in the said years, was 69° on the 19th, in 1846; and the greatest cold, 20°, on the 0th, in the same year. Of the 161 days 105 were fine, and on 56 rain fell.

INSECTS.-The common artichoke's leaves suffer sometimes, though rarely, during the summer, from the attacks of the larva of a very curious small beetle, which may be called the Artichoke Tortoise beetle, Cassida Viridis. The beetle, which is found in May and June, is not more than one-sixteenth of an inch long; the antenæ are black, the dotted wing-cases and other outer coverings green, but the body beneath them black, and the legs pale, with black thighs. It is found upon the Water mints, as well as upon thistles and artichokes. The larva has a very flat body, with spines upon its edges; and it has the singular habit of covering itself with its own excrement, which it unites together in a mass, and carries on a kind of fork attached to its tail. The pupa is also very flat, having thin toothed appendages at the sides of the body, with a broad thorax prolonged forward into a rounded expansion, which covers its head.

a

a, larva; b, the same on a leaf, with its canopy of excrement; c, pupa; d, the perfect insect.

ANY question connected with potato culture is much too important-is too intimately connected with the comfort and subsistence of our countrymen-for us to pass it by, or to neglect any ray of light that may be thrown upon it. Now, one of the most important questions, both as involving expense of culture and weight of produce, is-" Ought the stems of the potato to be earthed up?"

We thought, and we still think, that our own ex:

No. LXXVI., VOL. III.

periments were so carefully conducted for the testing this question, and those experiments so uniformly gave results unfavourable to the practice, that we have never directed our attention to the subject since, but have continued to grow potatoes without earthing them up, and have been perfectly satisfied with the produce; for we have had better and forwarder crops than our neighbours, who continued to earth up in accordance with the old practice.