THE FLOKAL WORLD AND GARDEN GUIDE. 



229 



amiable character, and tborouglily sound 

 in the most advanced branches of his 

 chosen science. The " Culture of the 

 Strawberrr," the first of tlic scries wliich 

 Ml". M'Ewen projected just previous to liis 

 death, was reviewed at length in these pages 

 at tlie time of its pubhcation. It was uni- 

 versally pronoimced the best treatise on the 

 subject ever penned, and has, we beheve, had 

 an extensive circidation. Fortunately for 

 fruit growers Mr. M'Ewen had partly pre- 

 pared a treatise on the culture of the peach, 

 ■which was neai-ly ready for pubhcation at the 

 time of Ills lamented demise. The manu- 

 script was placed in the hands of Mr. John 

 Cox, F.H.S., gardener to \YiIliam WeUs, 

 Esq., of Eedleaf, and is now issued under 

 his able editorship.* Here, then, we have 

 George M'Ewen' s legacy to the gardeners 

 of Great Britain, and it is one they may 

 accept vrith proud remembrances of the 

 man, and with signal benefit, let us beheve, 

 to themselves and their employers ; for, 

 like the " Strawbei-ry," this is the best book 

 on the subject, and marvellously brief. We 

 can see at a glance where the manuscript 

 was defective when it came into the editor's 



* " The Culture of the Peach and Nectarine." 

 By George M'Ewen, late Superintendent of the 

 Horticultural Society's garden, at Chiswick. 

 Edited and enlarged by John Cox, F.H.S. London: 

 Groombridge and Sons. 



hands, and he has shown a wise discretion 

 in filling in the blanks between brackets, so 

 that, wliile the text is completed and the 

 treatise made entu'e, the editor's words stand 

 visibly apart from those of the original, 

 and there is no shifting of responsibility 

 upon one who is beyond the reach of either 

 praise or censure. 



The treatise comprises chapters on out- 

 door culture, cultm'e in cool-houses, and 

 forcing ; on the culture of stocks, and the 

 best practical methods of budding and 

 grafting them ; on summer pruning — 

 Mr. M'Ewen abhorred the knife, and in- 

 sisted on summer pinching — out-door and 

 in-door training ; management of peaches 

 in pots ; the eradication of vermin and 

 mildew. To which are added a calendar 

 of operations, hsts of sorts, and notices of 

 new American and French varieties, by 

 Mv. Rivers. The subject is compressed into 

 a nutshell, and yet every contingency has 

 been anticipated, and the treatise is in every 

 sense a model of a master's modeof teaching. 

 The portrait of Late Admirable Peach, ui 

 Mr. Andrews's best style, gives adchtional 

 and proper grace to a work about which 

 there are, to us, attractions apart from the 

 subject. It is George M'Ewen's unpre- 

 tentious monmnent, and may be looked 

 upon as an imperishable headstone to his 

 grave. 



YINES IN A CAEEION BOEDEE. 



1 HATE a great number of vines under 

 my care, and they are all in a wretched 

 state ; suffering from the effects of mildew 

 and other diseases so much, that on more 

 than sixty vines thei-e is not a grape, and 

 several of the plants appear to be in a 

 dying state. What is the cause of failure 

 I cannot tell. They are in a cool house, 

 well ventilated, aspect south-east. 



The soil in the border is of great depth, 

 and it has been plentifully manured with 

 layers of dung every two or three years, 

 and the carcases of dead animals have 

 been put in, and yet it appears as if there 

 is not sufiicient root-action going on, as 

 some of the plants have made no growth 

 whatever. 



Do you think it would be wise to exa- 

 mine the roots, and if by so doing there 

 be fungi found at them, or any other 

 disease, what would you propose as a 

 remedy ? And what kind of compost 

 would you recommend as a new layer, and 

 what treatment would you subject them 

 to from this time? W.B.N. 



[There never was a more fatal step taken 



than the introduction of the system of 

 dressing vine-borders with carrion. The 

 man who brought that system into note 

 left a vast collection of vines completely 

 ruined by it, and they are now being re- 

 covered by his successor, who has adopted 

 a reversal of the plan which all but killed 

 them. You must do as they have had to 

 do at the place we refer to. Lift the roots, 

 cut away all the dead and cankered parts, 

 but take care of every fibre near the sur- 

 fi\ce. Remove the whole of the soil to a 

 depth of four feet, and you will find it to 

 be a sour paste, in which it is impossible 

 for a root of any kind to make healthy 

 fibres. Then lay down a foot depth of 

 large tiles, brickbats, etc., and on that 

 another foot of rubbish from a building- 

 yard, and then fill up your border with a 

 mixture of turfy loam, plenty of sand, 

 and a quarter-part broken bones, old 

 plaster, and charred rubbish. Replant, 

 a-nd lay out the fibres with care, and be 

 content next season to lay in a little good 

 wood, and the year after you may expect 

 a crop.— Ed. F. W.] 



