t82 



IRISH GARDENING 



ni-.ciMr.iR 



annuals have been there is always room. \\ hen iht- 

 plunefing is dotie the borders are ai^ain ver>- carefully 

 forked over, about two inches deep, and all is tidieii 

 up ' ere the winter storms begin,' and the result is, I 

 venture to say, as delightsome a wiuier bonier as 

 English eye could expect to look upon. In tiie middli' 

 or end of April, according lo the season, the borders 

 are again all cleareil, the plants being carried straight 

 to the polting shed to be re-potted. In the matter of 

 compo>l I again as in all else study economy most 

 strictly. I grow a great many chry.santhemums and 

 fruit trees in pots. These, as everyone knows, are 

 obliged to be repotted every year in rich soil full of 

 crushed bones. iVc. and are kept during their growing 

 time constantly saturated with liquiii manures of various 

 kinds. The soil when they are repottcil is very far 

 from being entirely exhausteti, ami is ;it once made up 

 into a heap, to be saved for- tlu- slnub potting in the 

 spring. In this way the compost for the shrubs costs 

 nothing. It is like the outgrown clothes of the elder 

 chiklren being made up again for the younger, and I 

 can answer for it that the shrubs do excellently in this 

 soil. The plants are taken out of their pots, the pots 

 washed and dried and clean drainage given. The 

 roots are shaken out entirely, as much old soil as 

 jiossible removed, any long, coarse roots shortened 

 back and then they are repotted, ramming the soil in 

 firmly as \-ou do for fruit trees or chrysanthemums ; 

 and very seldom does a plant when once of a fair size 

 require a larger pot than that out of which it came. 

 When the potting is over we ^o carefully through all 

 the plants and prune them. This, of course, must be 

 done with judgment, but, as a general rule, I remove 

 all long, coarse growth entirely, shorten down the ////;; 

 shoots and head back the leaders, encouraging side 

 and bottom growth as against running up in the head. 

 The pots are then stood back in rows according to size, 

 in some convenient spot not too shady, but not exposed to 

 baking, scorching sun ; the chief point, however, is that 

 the place where they are stood shall be within reach 

 of the water hose, and there they stand and go on 

 quietly until October comes again, and then— (/ac-/ipo. 



" I ought perhaps to have said that the Ericas, Kalmias, 

 Andromedas, and such like have some of the old waste 

 peat from greenhouse .\zaleas. Camellias, &c., mixed 

 in with their compost. And note that where the Holly 

 maggot abounds (and where does it not?), there you 

 must look your Hollies over most carefully once a week 

 in May and June, or you will soon have no Hollies left. 

 The slight check which the late potting gives them 

 seems to make them less able to resist the maggot, or 

 perhaps makes them sweeter, tenderer, and more juicy 

 to its taste." 



^^ ^^ fi^^ 



Bitter Pip in Apples.— This is an obscure disease 

 affecting apples that appears to be getting more com- 

 mon every year. Numbers of small brown spots appear 

 in the flesh of the fruit, some little distance below the 

 rind. So far as present knowledge goes, it seems to 

 be due to some physiological disturbance rather 

 than to the attack of a parasite. An interference in 

 the water supply during the development of the fruit 

 has been suggested as a probable cause. 



Prohtablc \^ege tabic CUilturc. 



Till". I'Xiension of suiall holdings in ICnglanil, an 

 .■il->preciation of the possibilites of intensive cul- 

 ture, and the organisation of co-operation 

 piincijili'S applied lo the routine of marketing havi- 

 created a demand for reli.ible information on the pro 

 filable cultivation of marke(-gardening crops. Most of 

 the existing hooks on vegetable culture are written from 

 the point of view of the private grower with a bi.is 

 towards the production of big, shapely specimens for 

 exhibition purposes, or else they deal with market - 

 gardening on a large scale. In this book* the limited 

 area of the small holder is specially remembered, ami 

 in it he will find not only the general details of manage- 

 ment described, but every doubtful point likely to arise 

 in the practical management of his holding fully dis- 

 cussed and explained. The author is a man who not 

 only knows his subject thoroughly, but one who takes 

 an intense interest in the social problems that are at 

 ]iresent agitating the rural community. Out of his 

 experience as manager of the Pels Fruit Farm and 

 Mayland French Garden, in the County of Essex, 

 Mr. Smith has provided at the cost of six shillings ;i 

 complete text-book for the use of the holder who 

 through his own labour is actually engagetl in making 

 a decent living out of the land. 



It is an indisputable fact that the possibilities of the 

 land under intensive culture are far and away beyoiul 

 the imagination of the ordinary cultivator who blindly 

 follows the old conventions of farming and gardening. 

 Ordinary tillage soil contains vast stores of national 

 wealth locked up in complex chemical compounds that 

 can be gradually released under the intelligent directive 

 labours of the well-informed cultivator. The plant- 

 food is there, and the key to the opening of the larder- 

 door is the gift of the new soil-science of Bacteriology. 

 We must now consider the soil from a standpoint 

 entirely different from the old idea that it was a mass 

 of inert material, the seat of purely physical and 

 chemical changes. The soil is a vast complex com- 

 munity of minute beings of different races, carrying on 

 the same grim struggle for existence as is the visible 

 over-soil population we are all more or less familiar 

 with in our every-daj' experiences. In the various 

 changes wrought in the soil by these multitudinous 

 germs the vast stores of insoluble food, imavailable to 

 crops because of their insohibilit}- in water, are slowly 

 brought into solution and made ready for the feeding 

 roots. Some of these bacterial races, for example, 

 produce ammonia from organic matter, others from 

 nitrates, while either from direct or indirect action of 

 the vital activities of this microscopical flora phosphates, 

 sulphates and soluble salts of potash, lime and mag- 

 nesia, are gradually produced, and so the fertility of 

 the land is sustained. The chief essential conditions 

 necessary to encourage all this vital activity in the 

 soil are a sufficiency of moisture and air and a suitable 

 temperature, hence the importance of drainage and 

 thorough tillage, and the advantage of extending the 

 zone of action by deep cultivation and the complete 



•"The Profitable Culture of Vegetables," By Thomas Smith. 

 Longmans, Green & Co. 6s. net. 



