CULTURE OF STANDARD PLANTS. 



duced in fine health, they generally get worse and worse, until they are scarcely worth 

 the trouble of recovering or of throwing away. When the tubs, or pots, or boxes in which 

 they grow are too big to move about, and are crowded altogether into a receptacle hardly 

 big enough for a third of their number, we can feel the difficulty of getting at them to 

 give the proper attention, and contemplate the certainty of their taking harm from the 

 confinement, their want of air, light, and water, or from too much wet, with nothing to 

 either drain it off or blow it off. We care not where anybody goes, all the old establish- 

 ments are alike, and with few exceptions, where everything is first rate, it is rare to find 

 either an orange or a lemon tree, or any of the tribe of shaddock, citron, or lemon, in 

 what could be fairly called good health and condition. But for its claims on our skill and 

 industry, where is the subject can beat any of the tribe? Its odoriferous qualities are not 

 excelled by those of any subject in cultivation. Perhaps the Daphne indica odorata may 

 take its place by the side of these, but certainly if there be any diflerence the Daphne 

 must give place to the orange and citron tribe. The flowers are delicate and graceful, the 

 tree evergreen and handsome, and tractable in every sense of the word, for it may be 

 trained a dwarf, a pyramid, or a standard. It may be budded, grafted, or struck from 

 cuttings, each will grow in the stock of the other, and the tree, kept in good order, will, 

 during a great part of the year, have flowers, and fruit of all sizes and states of ripeness 

 and unripeness. But no tree sooner feels the effect of neglect, and none have been more 

 subject to it. The shaddock is the most rapid growing of the whole family, and therefore 

 is strongly recommended for stocks, and all the kinds will graft or bud well on it, and 

 grow vigorously. Our first business is to direct something to be done with the old and 

 ugly trees already about the country. 



Management op Old Trees in bad IlEALTn. — Cut in the head to half its present 

 size, and cut out altogether some of the weakest branches, that there may be room for a 

 healthy growth from the shortened branches; at the same time that the head is cut in, 

 take the roots out of the tub or pot, and if the ball be very hard, damp, and black, soak 

 it some hours, and wash out all the earth. Fill the box, pot, or tub, thus : first put plenty 

 of crocks, to secure good drainage, next the loam from rotted turves three-fourths, one- 

 fourth cow-dung and peat, the cow-dung very much damped into mould, and the peat, 

 which should be turfy, broken small, — the whole well mixed; some of this on top of the 

 turves, to make a bed, as it were, for the bottom of the roots, and the pot, tub, or box, 

 must be filled up with the compost, tucked in between and well shaken. Orange and lemon 

 trees that appear to be doing no good, and growing no form, or an ugly one, with naked 

 branches, and weakly shoots, may by this operation, be renovated in two or three seasons 

 to full beauty and bearing. But some conditions must be observed in all cases; first, that 

 as the rotten, decayed, and closely matted portions of root must be removed, a large por- 

 tion of the head must be removed also; second, that the roots must be pressed on all sides 

 with the soil, and this can only be done with great care, and pressing the earth between 

 them with a blunt piece of wood. It is, however, better in all cases to freely prune the 

 roots, to facilitate this part of the operation, and to cut the head in to a complete skele- 

 ton, and shorten the whole of the branches very much, to compensate for the loss of roots, 

 and begin the larger quantity of new wood. Let the trees thus treated be placed in a close bouse 

 for some time, until the new growth has started, when all the shoots Avanted to form a 

 good full head, must be left on, but others, where they are too thick, must be rubbed off 

 before they waste the resources of the tree unnecessarily. When the)'' are fairly started, 

 may have air in mild weather, but should be shaded from the mid-day sun. Wat 

 st not be done too often, but efiectually, when done at all; and the pots or 



