year, and will not swarm. [He is quite right.] The comb is nearly to the bottom of the board, and, consequently, part of it is joined to the eke. Would you recommend me to take the eke off now, if practicable? As this has been a bad bee season in this neighbourhood, my old parent hive, weighing below 20 pounds, and both, are daily getting lighter. In order to preserve them, I have commenced feeding them. May I continue to do so until the frosts set in? If so, how often a week?" By all means take off the eke, and do it in the middle of a fine day; treat the bees with a few puffs of tobacco-smoke in at the mouth of the hive, then turn it very gently upon its sides, placing it so that the combs are perpendicular; then, with a short knife, commence cutting out the combs as far as the cke reaches; all may be done in three minutes; if the bees are fierce, give a little more tobacco. Go on feeding as fast as the bees will take it until they have 20 pounds stored. Mr. Payne will send you a hive with pleasure; but please apply to him at the time you require them, and send him the money first.

LOBELIA ERINUS, &c. (Verax). The nurserymen's lists say the truth about Lobelia erinus and Erinus grandiflora; both are perennial and half-hardy. There are many varieties of them, which require to be perpe uated by cuttings, as their seeds do not always reproduce the true parent. Compacta must be raised from cuttings, as it is more variable from seeds than any of them but Erinus. E. grandiflora comes true from seeds. March is the best time to sow all of them.

CAMPANULA (Ibid).—To be sure there is a fine, hardy, deep blue dwarf Campanula; the name is Carpatica; and there is a snow white variety of it; both fit for everybody. We have described and recommended them repeatedly, and we thought all our readers knew them, and recollected what we sung to their praise.

LANTANA SELLOW11 (Ibid).—This also we spoke of repeatedly, and not long ago. It is a little purple bedder, strikes in the spring as freely as a verbena, flowers all the summer, can be taken up and potted from the frost, will also come from seeds sown in a hotbed in March or April. IXIA BULBS (E. Jonas).—About three weeks past you planted these, and they are now about two inches out of the ground. Cover the ground over them with two inches of leaf-mould or coal-ashes, and cover them well in frosty weather with two thicknesses of mats, or, if you can, with boards; the covering to be removed every fine day.

FLOWER-GARDEN (A Young Gardener).—Your design is very pretty indeed, and if it is your own conception you must be "brought out." Let us hear from you confidentially, giving your address. Your list of plants is very suitable, but you will improve on it next year when you see the effect of your present plan.

SCARLET GERANIUMS (G. E., Westmoreland). - Mr. Beaton will write something which will answer your purpose.

WATER LILY (F. H. Earle).-A water lily will grow in your three feet square tank very well. You ask the depth of water necessary: it should be at least 18 inches deep, especially as you intend using it for watering; there should be also four or five inches of mud at the bottom, for the lily to root into. Fresh water every time you take any out will be very beneficial to your plant.

DAMSON WINE.-We have received this recipe, for which we are obliged:-"To every gallon of water put two pounds and a half of sugar, which you must boil and scum three-quarters of an hour; to every gallon put five pints of damsons, stoned; let them boil till of a fine colour, then strain through a fine sieve; work it in an open vessel three or four days; then pour it off the lees and let it work in that vessel as long as it will; then stop it for six or eight months, when, if fined, you may bottle it. Keep it a year or two in bottles. Bullace Cheese is quite as goed, or even superior to damson cheese; you make both the same way, putting in the kernels after the stones have been broken.

DAMSON WINE.-E. B. sends a recipe for damson wine, which she knows to be good:-"1 peck of damsons to four gallons of water; cut the damsons and put them in a tub; boil the water and pour it over them; let them stand four days; then put them in a sieve and let them drain; put the liquor in a cask and put four pounds of sugar to a gallon. BURYING BEES (B. B.).—The hives are bound with straw previously, to prevent the damp injuring the hive, and for this purpose straw is better than any other preservative. Grapes are useless for bees, and you will find about bee flowers at page 316 of volume iii. Let your hives remain unmoved until you see what Mr. Payne says in our next number.

AUTUMN PLANTING POTATOES (Potato-eater).—Your Prince Regents which ripen in August, will do very well for autumn-planting. We cannot say whether your variety is the same as the York Regent.

THE EMPLOYER AND THE EMPLOYED (H. H.).—It is quite impossible for us to give advice when we know neither of the parties; but if we did we should probably say as we say now-Tell your employer what his late steward engaged to do for you. If he replies that he is unwilling to do all that you were promised, it then remains for you to consider whether you are comfortable and willing to remain upon the terms offered. a head gardener, your wages are low; but such situations are not plentiful, and applicants for them are very numerous

For

ELM TIMBER (A Bromley Curate).-Fell it as soon as the leaves are all fallen. Either November or December are good months for the purpose. The timber is not so liable to decay as that felled in the spring. BACK NUMBERS (G. E. H.).-All these and the indexes can be obtained of our publishers through any country bookseller. GERMINATION (A Lover of Flowers).—We do not understand youpray write more explicitly.

UNRIPE FIGS (A Young Entomologist).—We know of no use for them. China asters can only be raised from seed.

SILLETT'S FORK HUSBANDRY (C. Greening).-Any bookseller will get it for you from Messrs. Simpkin and Marshall. Do not be misled by the prices, but calculate his returns at such prices as you can realise now in your own neighbourhood.

WEIGELEA ROSEA (A Constant Subscriber).—Turn it out into a border without disturbing it. It is perfectly hardy.

RABBITS (A. B.).-The best and cheapest trap is the wire used by poachers. Your steel traps are not strong enough, get larger.

BEES (-)-The bee traps cannot be purchased, but they are easily made. We have no recipe for bitter ale. Answer to your other question

next week.

BOOKS (T. M. W.).—We do not know either of those you mention. CURRANT CUTTINGS (Clericus).—The insects on the roots of these are a species of mite (Acarus), and will do them no harm.

COVER FOR BEES (W. Snowden).-Nothing is easier than to put a broad band, or collar, round the conical part of your common straw hive, | so broad as to support an inverted milk-pan. We believe that turning bees to the north, and shading them from the sun in winter, is a good plan. Wait until you have read what Mr. Payne says next week.

EARTHING-OVER POTATO STEMS (A. Foster).—This has no beneficial effect in preserving potatoes from the murrain; it must rather have a tendency to increase it. In cases where no disease followed such treatment, there would have been none, probably, if the stems had not been earthed-over.

NORTH BORDER (W. W. H.).—This, 150 feet long, we should partly plant with pot-herbs, and the remainder will serve for laying in brocoli, placing auriculas and polyanthuses upon after they have done flowering, and many such purposes.

LIST OF PEARS (Amicus).—You will find a list of 20 pears, calculated to supply you with fruit from July to April, in the first volume of THE COTTAGE GARDENER. There are about 600 varieties, good, indifferent, and bad, which it would be useless to encumber our pages with. The twenty selected by us are described, and full particulars given concerning them.

ARTICHOKE CULTURE (T. P. R.).—Suckers of this must be planted in March or early in April, in rich moist soil, in rows about four feet apart each way. Water abundantly and mulch over their roots during their time of growth. They will produce heads from July to October. These are boiled, and the bottoms of their leafy scales eaten with butter and salt.

POULTRY NOT LAYING (L. A.).-Keep them warmer, and feed them on more stimulating food, such as fragments of flesh meat, buckwheat, and sun-flower seeds.

NAME OF PLANTS (J. K.).-Your's is Oxycoccus macrocarpus, the large-fruited Cranberry. It succeeds in peaty soil, in a cool situation near water.

FORCING POTATOES (Truro).-It would be quite impossible, commencing at this time, for you to succeed in producing for your employer a crop of new potatoes in a 2-light frame by Christmas-day, however well you may be off for fermenting materials. Asparagus you have sufficient

with a crop of potatoes, if you have all things ready to plant the bed the first of January next. Achimenes patens is a stove plant, and requires the same treatment as other Achimenes.

VARIATION OF THE COMPASS (Weathercock).-In putting up your vane, the true north in the neighbourhood of London must be 22° 30' to the east of the north, as pointed out by the magnetic needle. In other words, the variation of the compass there at present, is 22° 30′ W.

NAME OF PLANT.-That which came up accidentally in a kitchengarden is Cacalia coccinea; a very pretty half-hardy annual. NAME OF APPLE (Rev. T. H. R.).—It is Fearn's Pippin, and has not been introduced more than thirty years, if so much.

LONDON: Printed by HARRY WOOLDRIDGE, Winchester High-street, in the Parish of Saint Mary Kalendar; and Published by WILLIAM SOMERVILLE ORR, at the Office, No. 2, Amen Corner, in the Parish of Christ Church, City of London.-October 24th, 1850.

If any of our readers in the course of their wanderings found in a quiet country church a monument inscribed as follows, they would say-and their conclusion would be the truth-" Surely a teacher rests here."

"Living in an age of extraordinary Events and Revolutions, he learnt (as himself asserted) this truth, All is vanity which is not honest, and there is no solid wisdom but in real Piety."

These are the words of JOHN EVELYN, one of the greatest men of the Stuart era-if that man is great whose knowledge, kindness, and piety were equal, and each pre-eminent. I must observe, says one who knew him well, that his life, which was extended to 86 years, was a course of study, inquiry, curiosity, instruction, and benevolence. The works of the Creator and the mimic labours of the creature were all objects of his pursuit. He unfolded the perfection of the one, and assisted the imperfection of the other. He adored from examination; was a courtier that flattered only by informing his prince, and by pointing out what was worthy for him to countenance. He was really the neighbour of the Gospel, for there was no man that might not have been the better for him. He was one of the first promoters of the Royal Society; a patron of the ingenious and indigent; and peculiarly serviceable to the lettered world; for, besides his writings and discoveries, he obtained the Arundelian Marbles for the University of Oxford, and the Arundelian Library for the Royal Society. Nor is it the least part of his praise that he, who proposed to Mr. Boyle the erection of a philosophic college for retired and speculative persons, had the honesty to write in defence of active life against Sir George Mackenzie's "Essay on Solitude." He felt that with himself retirement resulted in industry and benefit to mankind, but with others it was a withdrawal to laziness and inutility, Evelyn did, indeed, love retirement: but it was retirement occupied by literature, the fine arts, philosophy, and the cultivation of the soil. With an ample fortune, clung round by all that renders home a foretaste of that which knows no separation, yet whenever the service of his country called for the exertion of his abilities he never hesitated to tear himself from these flowers of life. He accepted, at different times, a Commissionership of the Privy Seal, of the Mint, of the Plantations, of Greenwich Hospital, and for the care of the Sick and Wounded; but he retained none longer than was required to effect the good designed, and then hastened back, like a bird

to its nest.

He was born on the 31st of October, 1620, and reached manhood just as the first Charles was falling before the Parliament. He would have ranged himself beneath the royal standard, but the king dispensed with his services, and directed him to make the tour of Europe. The diary of that tour remains as a testimony, to use his own expression, that "he did not travel merely to count steeples." It remains also, as do his letters, to tell us that he who loves monarchy, and is the personal friend of kings, may yet detest and oppose their arbitrary measures. The same records also tell us, that he who directed to be inscribed on his tomb that "he fell asleep in full hope of a glorious resurrection through faith in Jesus Christ, and who through good report and bad report remained strongly and steadily attached to the doctrines and discipline of the Church of England, yet was truly charitable to those who differed from her creed. 'God," he said, "will make all things manifest in his own time, only

let us possess ourselves in patience and charity. This will cover a multitude of imperfections." This truly Christian man demands an especial notice in our pages, because, as old Switzer remarked, "like another Virgil he was appointed for the retrieving the calamities of England, and reanimating the spirit of his countrymen for the planting and sowing of woods. To him it is owing that gardening can speak proper English." Not only did he improve the language in which he conveyed his lessons for the cultivation of the soil, but those lessons were the results of experience guided by philosophy. His French Gardener, a translation, first appeared in 1658; his Kalendarium Hortense, or Gardeners' Almanack, in 1679; his Sylva and his Terra and Pomona in the same year; Quintinye's Treatise on Orange-trees in 1699; and Acetaria, or a discourse on Sallets, at the same time. These are not all his contributions to our horticultural literature, but they are sufficient to establish him in the foremost rank of its authors. No work has been more justly celebrated than his Sylva, a discourse of Forest Trees, for it not only imparted sound information as to their cultivation, but was attended with this happy result, that in the dedication of the second edition to the king he was enabled to say, "It has been the sole occasion of furnishing your almost exhausted dominions with more than two millions of timber trees." To achieve such success seems to have been only a carrying out a mission descended to him from his ancestors. From some eminence in the cultivation of one of our native trees the family derived its patronymic, for he tells us that the name was originally written Avelan, or Evelin, and signified the hazel. Even the family residence told of forest craft-Wotton, or Woodtown, being so named from the noble plantations in which it was embosomed. In 1705 Evelyn saw a fourth and enlarged edition of his Sylva issue from the press, and on his birthday in that year is this entry in his Diary: "Oct. 31. I am this day arrived to the 85th year of my age. Lord! teach me so to number my days to come that I may apply them to wisdom." This was almost the last entry, for on the 27th of February following, according to the words of his epitaph, he fell asleep." It must not be omitted that his son, John Evelyn, delighted in the same pursuits; and it is equally deserving of record that he was blessed by having for his life's companion one who loved him, who sympathised in all his pursuits, and, surviving him but three years, wished her dust to mingle with his. "MARY EVELYN," says her truthful epitaph, "the best daughter, wife, and mother-the most accomplished of womenbeloved, esteemed, admired, and regretted by all who knew her is deposited in this stone coffin, according to her own desire, as near as could be to her dear husband, JoHN EVELYN, with whom she lived almost threescore years." There is, says Mr. D'Israeli, what may be termed a family genius. In the home of a man of genius he diffuses an electrical atmosphere; his own pre-eminence strikes out talents in all. Evelyn, in his beautiful retreat of Saye's Court, inspired his family with that variety of tastes which he himself was spreading throughout the nation. His son translated Rapin's Gardens; his lady, ever busy in his study, excelled in the arts her husband loved, and designed (and etched) the frontispiece to his Lucretius; she was also the cultivator of his celebrated garden, which served as an example of his great work on Forest Trees.

METEOROLOGY OF THE WEEK.-At Chiswick, from observations during the last twenty-three years, it is found that the average highest and lowest temperatures of the above days are 53° and 38° respectively. The greatest heat, 63°, occurred on the 6th in 1843; and the lowest cold, 20°, on the 3rd in 1845. On 82 days rain fell, and 79 were fine.

We think that it may be accepted as a dictate of the soundest reason, that no practices can be more unjust or unwise than, that the man who has been robbed should be compelled to feed his robber; and, that the poor should be sustained without being called upon to do their utmost to support themselves.

Our Saxon forefathers, whom we are too ready to look back upon as barbarians, were much wiser upon one of these points of domestic policy. If a man was guilty of manslaughter, they did not stupidly imprison him, and still further injure the family of the slain, by making them contribute to the county-rate out of which the slayer was supported whilst in prison; but they made that slayer pay to the family he had so injured the value, or were, of the life he had taken. There was

No. CIX., VOL V

some sense in this; and equally wise would it be of us in the nineteenth century if we not only did likewise, but if, when a man was robbed, we compelled the felon to labour, and to continue under restraint, until he had repaid the value of what he had stolen. So, again, though it is our bounden duty to support the poor, who necessarily and wisely "shall never cease out of the land," yet equal wisdom and justice has dictated, that "the idle soul shall suffer hunger."

The question then arises-how can we empower the felon to give recompense to him he has robbed, and the pauper to support himself? We have no hesitation in replying-By making them till the soil. We have on more than one occasion shown the profit to be made out of small plots of ground, and we would render this

So far from this being a chimerical idea, we are extremely pleased to observe that, the cultivation of the soil is rendered highly profitable as well as a part of the Industrial Training of Pauper Children in the Guilt cross Union, Norfolk. Such is the title of a little pamphlet now before us; and we cannot better enforce our opinions than by quoting from this some of its statements, which are from the pen of the highly-intelligent master of that Union, Mr. Rackham :

"At the formation of the Union the Guardians purchased 3 acres of land, of which LA. 2R. 5P. was used as the Workhouse site, and for the yards and offices connected with it, leaving, la. 1R. 35P. available for the purposes of cultivation. "At Michaelmas, 1845, the Guardians, in order to extend the means of employing the boys in the Workhouse School, and training them in habits of industry, procured 3 acres of additional land: this land, which was then in hills or holes, and useless for agricultural purposes, was levelled by the paupers, the top sward being carefully kept uppermost. In the autumn of 1846, one acre of the new land was planted with wheat, and 2R. 23P.* of the home-land-the la. IR. 35P. mentioned above-was also planted with wheat, making in all 1A. 2R. 23P. under wheat for 1847. This land produced 18 coombs 3 pecks beyond a sufficient quantity reserved for seed for the wheat crop of 1848. The remainder of the land was planted with Scotch kale, cabbages, potatoes, &c., &c., which began coming into use in March, 1847, at which time this account commences. We have now 4A. 1R. 35P. in cultivation.

"Two dozen spades were purchased at the outset to commence digging the land with, and 6 wheel-barrows were made by a pauper who was a wheelwright; pickaxes and other tools were also made by the paupers with the assistance of the porter who was a blacksmith. The cost for these does not appear, as there was no produce account to charge them to, but the stock being kept up they remain as dead farming stock.

"The first year's account was kept merely to satisfy the Guardians, but at Lady-day, 1848, the new order of accounts came into operation, and the land account now forms an item in the Union ledger and master's day-book, which is duly audited by the auditor half-yearly.

"The quantity of vegetables actually consumed by the paupers according to the dietary table only is charged in the provisions accounts. Persons acquainted with domestic management and the produce of land are aware, that where vegetables are purchased, a great deal is paid for that which is useless for cooking purposes. In the present case this refuse is carefully preserved and used for feeding pigs, which

were first kept in April, 1848. This accounts for the large amount of pork fatted, as compared with the small quantity of corn and pollard used for the pigs. The leaves, &c., not eaten by the pigs, become valuable manure. If the Guardians would consent to keep cows, different roots and vegetables might be grown to feed them with; and these would produce an increased quantity of manure, whilst an increased quantity of manure would afford the means of raising a larger amount of roots and green crops, and secure a more extended routine in cropping the land. This would add to the profit of the land account, and give much additional comfort to the aged people and the young children in the Workhouse, as a better supply of milk and butter would be obtained than can at present be had; but the immediate profit of cow-keeping would be but a trifling advantage compared with the opportunity that would be given of training the female pauper children for dairy-maids, who would thereby become doubly acceptable as farm servants, and the boys too would gain an acquaintance with the recent improved management of cows, which could not fail to be of service to them.

"For the benefit of those Boards of Guardians or Masters of Workhouses who may from this statement feel desirous

* Mr. Rackham suggested to Miss Martineau her mode of cow-keeping.-ED. C. G.

in all cases I change the crops, sowing alternately, wheat, potatoes, carrots, parsnips, and cabbages. I have found by the experience of the last two years, that it is best to plant early potatoes, and to plant them very early, that is to say, in February or the beginning of March. Having plenty of labour during the winter months, the land is laid in ridges 2 feet wide, about three inches of the top soil is pared off which removes all weeds and seeds that may be in the land; after the wheat crops a full spade's depth is taken up, together with all the crumbs, and 3 inches of top-soil is then forked into the sub-soil at the bottom of the trench, which gives fresh soil for the potatoes. At the time of planting a drill, about 3 inches is drawn, and the potatoes are put in a foot apart, the sides of the ridges being chopped down so that the potatoes are covered about 6 inches. As the potatoes advance in growth, I have the land levelled, and in May sow swede turnips or plant cabbage plants. The potatoes are fit to dig in August, when I transplant the swede turnips or plant more cabbage plants, first giving them a good soaking in liquid manure, for which purpose all soapsuds and night-soil are carefully preserved. Two crops are thus obtained in the year from the potato land. "The land appropriated for the produce of cabbages, is managed as follows:-in the middle of July I sow cabbage seed of a good kind, namely, the Ham or Victoria; I sow again in the 2nd weeks of August and September-beginning to plant if possible the latter end of September-in rows 3 feet apart, leaving 9 inches from plant to plant. These being well established in growth and earthed up, other cabbage plants are planted between those rows as before stated, in January or February, as the weather may suit. These are put in 15 inches from plant to plant. In early spring I draw every other plant of those first planted, which affords a supply when most wanted, and admits air to the remaining plants. After cutting the first cabbages, the ground is cleared, and the third crop of cabbages is planted, which furnish a supply till after harvest, when the cabbages between the potatoes come into use, and the cabbage land is cleared or made fit for a wheat crop. It will be seen that an abundant supply is thus produced for pigs, and if the Guardians permitted cows to be kept, there would be enough for them also; but it must be borne in mind that all this planting is followed up by very liberal supplies of liquid manure. "The following is a summary of profit for labour upon 4A. 1R. 35P. of land, as shown in detail in the account already referred to :

"The fact that there are 60 boys and girls who have been trained at this Workhouse now earning their own living, is some evidence of the success of the system pursued there."

From the above statement it appears-and all the details are minutely given in the pamphlet-there is from each acre a clear profit of £15 per annum. if this can be effected by pauper children, can any posNow, sible reason be assigned why able-bodied felons cannot be made to do the same? The labour might be ren dered as severe as that of the tread-mill; for hours of continued digging and carting are not child's play; and, unlike the tread-mill, such severe efforts would not be labour thrown away.