1 369.] HINTS FOR AMATEURS. 503 



afterwards for a time, till the salt dissolves, as if carried on to lawns 

 with the feet, dark patches would soon be seen on the grass. 



Planting of fruit-trees should be finished as soon as possible. 

 Though we have often planted from October up till April, it was 

 more from necessity than choice. In frosty weather there should be 

 no planting done. Concrete should be used for a bottom, which will 

 save trouble, and induce early fruitfulness, as w^hen the roots run 

 down on the hard bottom they turn outwards, and establish them- 

 selves in the healthy soil, where they can be easily got at, and cut if 

 necessary to keep down rank growth. AYe have often made useful 

 concrete with equal parts of coal-ashes and gravel, with a small 

 portion of lime mixed well, using enough water to make it like 

 mortar : a few inches spread over the space below where the trees were 

 to be planted, and well beaten down, and allowed to dry, soon becomes 

 like stone. Care should be taken, when placing the concrete, to let it 

 come up the base of the wall a little, as the roots often find their way 

 down between the wall and concrete. We examined some Apricot 

 roots lately, which had found their way down close to the wall : they 

 were cut clean off; the concrete was as hard as rock. When planting 

 trees on walls where there are different aspects, proper arrangements 

 should be made to keep the kinds by themselves ; for example. Peaches 

 and Apricots should have the south aspect. Plums face to east, and Pears 

 the west; Morello Cherries and Currant (red and white), to be kept late, 

 may face the north ; early Cherries and Pears are often placed on a south 

 wall. There is an advantage in having kinds of fruits by themselves, 

 if only for netting, or otherwise protecting them from frost and birds. 

 Lifting of trees which are growing too strong, or where they are can- 

 kered and subject to red-spider, may be finished as soon as possible. 

 When fruit cracks and falls off before it is ripe, there will generally 

 be a cause found for it at the roots. They will be either perishing in 

 unhealthy clay, or starving in miserable sand or gravel. The roots 

 should be carefully cleared from the soil with a fork, and unhealthy 

 ones cut off, or strong coarse growers reduced, and the whole replanted 

 in healthy clean loam, keeping them flat and regular over the sur- 

 face, placing 6 or 8 inches of the healthy loam over the roots, finish- 

 ing with a mulching of littery dung to keep out frost and drought. 

 When we see trees of any kind liable to the attacks of red-spider, we 

 suspect the feeders, more or less, have found their way into sandy or 

 otherwise unsuitable soil. As examples we give the following : — In a 

 long peach-house, where about 20 peach-trees were planted, we could 

 not keep the trees free from red-spider by any amount of syringing or 

 watering. The fruit fell off prematurely. We lifted the whole of 

 them in October, and found an excellent border of healthy loam, in 



2 L 



