THE FLORAL WORLD AND GARDEN GUIDE. 61 



have thern long enough to allow plenty of room for the roots to swell when growing. 

 All the wall-trees will be benefited with a dressing of Gishurst compound, mixed at 

 the rate of 4 oz. compound to the gallon of water. 



Pits and Frames. — The lights of the frames full of bedding plants should be 

 drawn off during the middle of the day if the weather is open and dry, otherwise 

 give an abundance of air by tilting the lights at the back. Make up a nice hotbed 

 for propagating purposes, and raising seedlings. Bedding plants must now be pro- 

 pagated largely, as soon as the cuttings can be had, so as to give the plants plenty 

 of time to get strong and well hardened off before the time fur turning them out into 

 the beds. Look well after green-fly and mildew, and adopt remedies for their pre- 

 vention and cure. 



Forcing. — Sow for succession Sion House French beans. Keep those in bearing 

 well supplied with weak manure water, and the syringe freely at work, to prevent 

 the appearance of red spider and thrip. Strawberries in bloom to have a free cir- 

 culation amongst them without being exposed to cold currents. Vines started last 

 month should have a rise of about five degrees, and those sufficiently advanced 

 should be disbudded directly the bundles can be discerned, and tied in when neces- 

 sary. When allowed to grow tco long they frequently snap off in tying, besides 

 getting in contact with the glass, and thereby suffering considerable injury. The 

 temperature of all the houses should have a rise of five degrees above that advised 

 last month. Unless the vines are in flower, maintain a thoroughly moist atmosphere. 

 Figs as they progress in growth must have plenty of moisture at the roots, and 

 he kept well syringed. The temperature should range from 60" to 70 3 through the 

 day, with a fall of ten degrees at night. Peach and nectarine trees in bloom must 

 have plenty of air to insure the bloom setting. Those started earlier will now re- 

 quire disbudding. Begin with the foreright shoots first, and proceed gradually. 

 Keep the trees regularly syringed, watch closely for mildew after easterly winds, and 

 sulphur directly it makes its appearance. See that the inside borders are in a proper 

 state as regards moisture. Cherries and plums must he started very slowly, and 

 have an abundance of air when in bloom ; 4o 5 to 50° will be plenty high enough to 

 begin with. Pines in fruit may have a rise of five degrees from last month if the 

 weather is mild and open, otherwise remain the same. Succession plants must not 

 he excited into growth yet, or they will suffer irreparable injury. Water when 

 necessary, but guard against its getting into the hearts of the plants. Get a stock of 

 soil, tan, etc., ready for a general shift next month. Mushrooms the same as last 

 month. Fresh batches of asparagus, seakale, and rhubarb must be put in for suc- 

 cessions. 



The Destruction op Couch. — Ts it to this end that all our tillage processes 

 are so laboriously conducted— for this purpose that harrows, cultivators, hoes, and 

 ploughs are so constantly and so expensively at work? One might easily imagine 

 it. Certainly there is no more constant companion or attendant on our manage- 

 ment. These processes, professedly for its extirpation, do not extirpate it. On 

 the contrary, they are annual, recurring as regularly as seedtime or as harvest, and 

 one cannot, a priori, with any confidence declare that they are not intended, or at 

 least that they do not contribute, to propagate and continue it. This, of course, 

 however, is denied ; the land " breeds" the plant, perhaps that is the explanation ; 

 and all the fallow operations, hoeing, couch picking, burning, are annual and con- 

 tinual, simply because they are inevitable. It is half- work which breeds the plant. 

 The annual scraping of the land with hoes will only create the need for its endless 

 repetition. Even ploughing does but transplant the living weed, and increase the 

 vigour of its growth. Repeated fallow operations of course reduce it, and a hot 

 sun withers it ; but half work of this or any other kind will only reproduce it, 

 and a year's rest in grass, or a few years' rest in sanifoin, will bring all the evidences 

 of its vitality before us again as unmistakable as ever. — Gardeners' Chronicle. , 



