568 



FOREIGN NOTICES. 



charred. Tlic hint thus cfivcn I imagined might 

 be turned to a useful account, and it struck me 

 were tanks or gutters erected on a good principle 

 in the open air, so as to afford bottom heat at tiie 

 desired season, choosing healthy, suitable soil, and 

 placing it on good drainage over those tanks or 

 gutters, that cuttings prepared at a proper sea- 

 son, and inserted methodically in the soil, would 

 strike with success. 



Not having a convenience of this description 

 myself, however, I resolved, when the pruning sea- 

 son of 1845 came round, to select cuttings of va- 

 rious fruit trees, such as apples, pears, plums, 

 cherries, medlars, peaches, nectarines, apricots, 

 some deciduous forest trees, shrubs, and roses, and 

 to prepare them, some by cutting close to an eye 

 of the young wood, and others by baring at the 

 base an inch or two of I he previous year's wood. 

 The}"^ were laid in by the heels until the beginning 

 of February, 1846, and taking the hint from ob- 

 serving the condition of the refuse prunings at the 

 char-kiln, which had been lying about for some 

 time previous to the materials being collected and 

 packed for charring, I had a kindly hot-bed made 

 with well wrought tree leaves to the height of 

 about 30 inches, then about 3 inches of healthy 

 loam, with some charred sawdust were mixed with 

 it. On these I placed an old wooden frame, not 

 so much for the sake of shelter as for seclusion to 

 carry out my experiment. The cuttings were 

 then placed in the .soil at various depths in rota- 

 tion, a kindly lining of the same material as that 

 of which the bed was formed was placed all 

 round ; and the outside to tlie top of the frame all 

 round was then thatched with furze fagaots ; this 

 kept cold winds from the lining, giving the whole 

 the appearance of a little furze stack. Tlie re- 

 sult turned out to my satisfaction. I found that 

 almost any deciduous tree or plant might be made 

 to put forth abundance of roots, and formed into 

 healthy plants, if all matters appertaining thereto 

 were carried out on good and systematic principles. 

 Some fruit trees, however, are greatly improved 

 by being budded or grafted on proper stocks, and 

 the same holds good to some extent with other 

 trees, shrubs, and roses, &c.; but I have observed 

 that the properties of others have been very much 

 deteriorated through their having been worked on 

 unsuitable stocks. On the other hand, I have 

 also seen many trees entirely fail, after good pre- 

 paration had been made for them at a considerable 

 expense, and at the very time when it was rea- 

 sonable to suppose they should have made some 

 return in the way of fruit; and others, again, 

 have changed their naturally good properties ; and 

 therefore, that some of the first attempts to pro- 

 duce healthy, thrifty plants by this process may 

 fail, it is not unreasonable to suppose, still I have 

 seen quite enough to convince me that the thing 

 may be accomplished to a considerable extent. I 



have often observed, on turning leaves, rubbish 

 heaps, &c., that, besides branches, of trees and 

 shrubs having pushed forth healthy roots, green 

 stakes, thrust into hot-beds for the purpose of as- 

 certaining the degree of bottom heat, have under 

 peculiar circumstances put forth roots. Others, 

 again, have put forth strong shoots, only however 

 to a certain extent, without roots ; but I had 

 never, previous to the spring of 1845, given such 

 matters any particular consideration, with a view 

 to discover why such things should happen, and 

 the following facts may possibly throw a little 

 ligiit on the matter. 



The last gentle forcing asparagus bed I had 

 made that year (1845) for producing asparagus, 

 until it came in naturally, was a kindl}- made bed 

 of half decayed leaves, &.c., from other hot-bed 

 linings. The necessary soil and roots were placed 

 on it, and a slight protection formed with stakes 

 placed on the sides, with some temporary wood 

 battens across and tied to the stakes on each 

 side, for the purpose of holding up clear from the 

 surface of the bed some evergreen boughs for 

 keeping off the morning frosts, a plan which I find 

 to answer very well for the last gathering of 

 forced asparagus. Some rubbish faggots, made 

 of refuse prunings, had been placed close by for 

 sheltering other hot-bed linings ; I pulled out of 

 those faggots three branches, lopped off the side 

 branches roughly, pointed one end, and thrust 

 them into the asparagus bed for heat stakes. 

 Time passed on, and the asparagus over ; in the 

 first week in May I proposed pricking a quantity 

 of young celery plants on the bed, but looking 

 about I observed strong shoots had burst forth 

 from all the three stakes, and on pulling them up 

 each was well rooted from the earth's surface to 

 the depth of about 6 inches, and the size of the 

 stakes thus far considerably increased, while the 

 part below the roots remained unincreased. Two 

 of the stakes were Fraxinus excelsior ; both hap- 

 pened to be placed the bare end downwards into 

 the bed, while the other, a common laurel, was by 

 chance thrust in top downwards, and was beauti- 

 fully rooted ; its buds (of course pointing towards 

 the bed) had pushed several strong shoots from 4 

 to 10 inches in length, and had turned up horizon- 

 tally from the stake which had been thrust in 

 slantingly. 



From this and other facts of a similar nature, it 

 has appeared to me that abundance of healthy 

 plants may be produced from branches and cut- 

 tings if properly selected, and at the right season 

 methodically placed on bottom heat, the latter 

 being maintained only a sufficient time at the 

 proper season ; and, at the same time, the whole 

 of the branches or cuttings left above the surface 

 of the soil should be fully exposed to the open air. 

 Jas. Barnes, Gardener to the Baroness Rolle, 

 Journal London Hort. Soc. 



