18 



PRACTICAL HINTS TO AMATEURS. 



just as the young wood begins to harden, 

 after the first flowers are past. A frame, 

 sunk on the north side of a fence or wall, 

 with a sash to cover it, will enable you to 

 raise hundreds of roses with very little at- 

 tention. Make the soil in the frame six 

 inches deep, of rich mould, mixed with one- 

 half fine sand. In this plant the cuttings, 

 with a single leaf left on the top of each. 

 Water them every evening, leaving the 

 sash off all night, and replacing it early in 

 the morning. In case you want them to 

 plant out in the borders, you may let the 

 cuttings grow in the frame where they 

 strike all summer, — covering the glass with 

 about six inches of straw in the winter, 

 and planting out the young plants early 

 the next spring ; but if you want them for 

 pot culture, then, of course, plant the cut- 

 tings in pots, instead of the soil of the 

 frame ; and in five or six weeks they will 

 have formed new roots, so that you may 

 re-pot them — one in each small pot. 



To have raspberries very large and fine, 

 you must make a new plantation every 

 fourth year. The soil should be trenched 

 20 inches deep, and a quantity of coal 

 ashes and stable manure turned well un- 

 derneath. The raspberry likes a cool deep 

 soil ; and a top dressing of guano every 

 spring adds greatly to the size of the fruit. 



Look over your cherry trees, and see 

 that none of them suffer from being hide 

 bound. If they look unnaturally small in 

 any part of the trunk, and swollen in other 

 parts, you may be sure this is the case ; 

 and if you do not relieve it, by slitting the 

 outer bark with your knife, the tree will 

 soon decline. Old cherry trees are very 

 much improved in health and productive- 

 ness by shortening-in the long branches at 

 this season of the year, — thus forcing them 

 to make some thrifty new shoots. 



Plum trees like a moist soil. I have 



found that covering the ground four inches 

 deep with old spent tan-bark, is a good way 

 of preserving the moisture, and keeping 

 the tree in health. I scatter fresh lime 

 thickly over the surface of the tan every 

 year, as soon as the green fruit begins to 

 fall. This kills every curculio that at- 

 tempts to enter the ground. The tan pre- 

 vents the weeds from growing, keeps the 

 roots cool, and insures me good crops of 

 plums. I spread it as far as the roots ex- 

 tend, and it wants renewing, or adding to, 

 once in three or four years. 



Do'nt indulge in the folly of hilling vp 

 all the plants you raise in your kitchen 

 garden. If you study nature, you will see 

 that as plants grow older, the roots at the 

 base of the stem always incline to raise 

 out of the earth ; from which, it is clear 

 that they prefer not to be wholly buried 

 up in it. Besides, unless it is a plant that 

 dislikes moisture, you lose half the benefit 

 of the summer showers by piling up a hill 

 over the roots to turn off the rain. It is 

 much better to loosen the ground tho- 

 roughly, and keep it nearly level. 



Liquid manure is of great advantage to 

 crops in a growing state ; but it has double 

 the usual effect if applied in damp and 

 cloudy weather. 



In raising hedges, the great point is to 

 get breadth at the bottom. It is easy enough 

 to get a hedge high enough; but if you 

 let it run up without cutting it back, so as 

 to make a broad and thick base, you can 

 never make that base broad and thick 

 afterwards. Shorten-back, therefore, till 

 you achieve what you want at the bottom ; 

 and the top will afterwards take care of 

 itself. 



If you find any of your favorite fruit trees 

 are failing from dryness of the season, or 

 heat of the sun, cover the surface of the 

 ground two or three inches deep with straw. 



