46' 



FOREIGN NOTICES. 



are a very durable manure, remaining dissolv- 

 incr in the soil, and forming elastic and soluble 

 manures for the service of plants, for periods 

 varying from two years on heavy clays, such as 

 those of tJie Kentish hop-grounds of the Weald 

 of Kent, to three or four years on the light 

 chalky soils on the valley of the Kennet in 

 Berkshire. Of these rags, the consumption by 

 the Berkshire and Oxfordshire farmers, but es- 

 pecially by the Kentish hop growers, is very con- 

 siderable. I am informed by an extensive dealer 

 in these rags, (Mr. Hart, White Lion-street, 

 Bishopgate,) that 20,000 tons, at the least, 

 are annually consumed by the farmers of the 

 south of England. Mr. Ellis, of Barming, 

 Kent, purchased annually between four and five 

 hundred tons, almost exclusively for his hop- 

 grounds. The cottager, even, is interested in 

 these facts, for every shred of an old woolen 

 garment is available lor his garden — is an ad- 

 mirable manure for his potatoe ground; or, if 

 he has not a garden, the collectors of rags, who 

 gather for the large dealers, will readily give 

 him a farthing per pound for all he can collect. 

 Cottage Gardener. 



Management of Pear Trees. — The practice 

 of what is termed root pruning has of late years 

 attracted a good deal of notice. Root pruning is, 

 however, no modern discovery. It has been fol- 

 lowed less or more for a century, and perhaps 

 even longer ; but the system of docking the roots, 

 and dwarfing trees, is somewhat new in this coun- 

 try, although well understood in the Celestial 

 Empire. The result of this practice has been the 

 production of stunted, bark-bound trees, the fruit 

 from which partakes more of the character of the 

 wood of the tree than that which we desire to find 

 in a plump, well-grown Pear. I therefore take 

 this opportunity of cautioning my amateur readers 

 on a point which, to my personal knowledge, has 

 sadly misled many of them. It may be stated, 

 and in fact recognised as an axiom, that unless 

 a tree is in a kindly growing condition, the fruit 

 will at all times be inferior. Let it not be infer- 

 red from this that I mean over-luxuriance ; in that 

 case wood alone will be made. 



Pears should be generously used when they are 

 first planted; the ground should be in good heart, 

 and manured near the surface. If in the course 

 of a few years the trees indicate a tendency to 

 produce more wood than is desirable either as re- 

 spect.* the fruitfulness of the trees, or out-growing 

 the limits originally assigned them; then can- 

 tiouslv examine the roots, and carefully curtail 

 their exuberance, but this should be done by de- 



grees, and the month of August should be prefer- 

 red to any other for the operation. 



The most important point in the management 

 of Pear trees hinges on the summer pruning ; many 

 imagine that when the trees are planted there is 

 nothing more to be done, except picking the fruit. 

 This notion has converted some little gardens into 

 little forests. During summer let the superfluous 

 shoots be stopped back to within 3 inches of the ' 

 old bearing wood, broken off rather than cut. 

 This will cause flower buds to be formed at the 

 base of the shoots so treated. The projecting 

 part can be removed in autumn or winter close to 

 the fruit buds; by following this mode of treat- 

 ment the trees will be kept within a limited space, 

 and their productiveness secured. Gardeners' 

 Ckron .... 



Continuous Blooming Roses. — I am prepa- 

 ring to give your readers a descriptive list of a 

 few roses which I have called continuous bloo- 

 ming; but in truth none can be more so than 

 the two which may be found in front of many 

 hundred English cottages, and known as the 

 common and crimson China. If the cultivators 

 will but take the pains to remove the flowers 

 as they fade, and prevent the seed-pods from 

 swelling, they will not fail. I have been try- 

 ing them on standards with varied success, be- 

 cause I have found that a frost which does not 

 injure a plant on a wall or house front cuts off 

 many of the youug buds on the head of a stan- 

 dard. I have many standard Chinas of differ- 

 ent varieties, and somecalled Noisettes, a score 

 or two of which more or less partake of the 

 character of the old China; but as they have 

 only blossomed one season, I am not satisfied 

 that I have seen enough to justify a positive 

 opinion. I will merely say that among the 

 nearest approach to m)' desideratum, and at all 

 events much longer in bloom than many others, 

 I may mention first the Noisette Feilenburg, 

 flowering from the end of June to the end of 

 November, in a strong clay soil, seven miles 

 north of London. This is bright crimson, flow- 

 ers double and small, joints short as the crim- 

 son China, and it has stood out three winters 

 in a bleak situation, without protection of any 

 kind, on ground but poorly drained. I will look 

 over my notes, and give a few more, that even 

 the first year of planting give promise of cov- 

 ering very close when fully established. I ob- 

 serve this rose is noticed elsewhere, but all the 

 florists together cannot say too much of it, and 

 those who want a few cannot do better than 

 order Feilenburg, and as many more as they 

 i require "of the same habit and season." lb. 



