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JOURNAL OP HORTICULTURE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. 



[ October 10, 1867. 



through early frosts. Sonr!, go over, and cut down all over- 

 grown plants to provide young leaves for winter supply. 



FllCIT CARDKN. 



The general impression amongst practical men is, that 

 autumn planting of fruit trees is superior to that in the spring. 

 We are decidedly of this opinion, and we would advise those 

 who intend making new orchards, removing large fruit trees, 

 or replacing decayed young ones, to commence operations of a 

 preparatory character immediately. Such preparation should 

 ooosist, in the first place, of a necessary provision of fresh 

 and sound loam ; and if this can ba obtained with some rough 

 tnrf in it so much the better ; if not, it will be well to mis 

 rough_ stable litter, straw, small sticks, or any other coarse 

 material with the loam, when filling into the holes. The loam 

 being provided and thrown into a high and sharp ridge, in order 

 to throw oil the rains, the next work is to thoroughly drain 

 the site intended for planting. Without this all subsequent 

 operatiojis will but end in disappointment. Thorough drainage 

 being secured, stations may be formed for making a hard 

 bottom of broken stone-rubble, broken bricks, or other hard 

 material, with a coating of cinders on this hard surface to pre- 

 vent the soil from entering the porous materials beneath. As 

 to depth, we would advise great moderation, provided the 

 kinds are in any way tender and designed for the dwarfing 

 system. For such, IS inches in deplli of soil will be quite 

 sufficient ; and if the ground is of a nK.ist character one-third 

 of the volume of soil should rise above the ordinary ground 

 level— indeed, in all capes it is well to raise it considerably. 

 We would also advise that a trench be thrown out without 

 delay around very large trees intended for removal. This will 

 at once check late growth, and induce a disposition to emit 

 fibres. Continue gathering Apples and Pears, most varie- 

 ties of which will now be fit ; at all events, the early occurrence 

 of frost renders it inexpedient, to leave them so long as might 

 have been advisable under moru favourable circumstances. 

 Nonpareil Apples should be aniop'^it the last gathered, and the 

 same may be said of the GInn M(jji;ean Pears. If Coe's Golden 

 Drop Plums are carefully ;.'i*'iered, wrapped singly in thin 

 paper after remaining some daj s in a dry, airy room, and then 

 packed in shallow boxes, they will keep a long time, and so 

 will the Blue Impt'ratrice anil the Ickworth Imperatrice, the 

 latter being the preferable one of the two. 



FI.OWEn GiRDEX. 



As the nights now become cold, tall Fuchsias, Scarlet Pelar- 

 goniums, and other specimen plants planted out on lawns 

 should be taken up, potted, and placed in the greenhouse for 

 the wmter. Shrubs overgrowing walks should now be cut 

 back. Cuttings of L.aurels and other shrubs may now be 

 prepared and put thickly in nursery-beds in the reserve gar- 

 den. Look over Hyacinths, Tulips, Narcissus, &c., and sort 

 them preparatory to planting in the flower garden. For off- 

 sets a bed sho\iId be prepared in the reserve garden, using 

 the best sandy loam and well-rotted cowdung or leaf mould ; 

 but the bulbs when planted must have a layer of pure soil on 

 the surface to preserve them from canker, as manure is sure 

 to accelerate the disease. 



GREENHOUSE ANP CONSERVATORY. 



Much has to be done in plant-houses in the next fortnight. 

 AU pots should be washed clean, and all insects extirpated. 

 Should any plants prove so foul that soma time must elapse 

 before they can be thoroughly cleaned, they had better be re- 

 moved to the plant-hospital, or to some of the other bouses, 

 where they will be out of sight and can do no mischief. Every- 

 tiiing must now be made thoroughly clean if success is to be 

 obtamed during the dull winter months. Above all, let the 

 glass, both on the roof and at the bides, be washed ; those who 

 unfortunately have not enough assistance cannot accomplish 

 this, but the difference in point of success between a dirty 

 roof and a clean one will be found enormous, all other matters 

 being equal. Let everything liable to suffer from frost be 

 housed immediately ; a single night's frost will render nuga- 

 tory the labour of many months. The tall Cacti should by 

 this time have completed their growth. It is a good plan to 

 remove the terminal point from such as are still growing, and 

 to dimmibh the siiriilyof water— indeed, they will need very 

 little, if any, betw. .u the end of October and .January. Let 

 them have u'.jniMlance of light; this is of paramount import- 

 ance when a good bloom is desired. 



STOVE. 



When the sun shines out clearly give air. to maintain the 

 plants m a hardened and ripened state, and take care not to 



increase the temperature with a moist atmosphere, or yon 

 will start the plants into growth, which at this season will 

 be perfectly ruinous. The plants under such treatment must 

 necessarily be constitutionally injured ; the sap cannot at this 

 season, for want of light, be jiroperly elaborated, and, conse- 

 quently, the shoots produced are weak and spongy, and are 

 liable to damp off. The art of cultivating exotic plants lies 

 more in studying the seasons of excitement and rest than is 

 generally imagined. This rightly understood and acted upon, 

 must necessarily of itself, and re.asonab]y so, materially im- 

 prove the general aspect of a collection not previously culti- 

 vated with due regard to this particular. The temperature for 

 Orchids must, of course, decline with the decline of the year; 

 as light is restricted, so also must be the heat. Continue to 

 remove all plants having thoroughly ripened their growth to 

 a cooler house with less atmospheric moisture. The Cattleyas, 

 when rooting freely, will continue to produce buds from the base 

 of the pseudo-bulbs if kept in constant excitement ; this, 

 although it increases the volume of the plant, robs the blossom. 

 The Aorides, Dendrobiums, &c., will continue to enjoy a toler- 

 able amount of both heat and moisture. Shading will not now, 

 under any circumstances, be required. In the growing or 

 warmest house let 80' by day and 70° by night be the maximum 

 for a week or two ; for the others at rest, 65° by day and 60° at 

 night will be sufficient. Succulent roots are sure to perish, 

 and it is by the preservation of these that gorgeous flowers can 

 be expected to shoot forth with any degree of vigour. 



PITS AND FRAMES. 



Cuttings now rooted raix'tt be stored away for the winter, in 

 order to make room for plants taken up from the flower gar- 

 den. — W. Keane. 



DOINGS OP THE LAST WEEK. 



Earlij Frost. — Notwithstanding many warnings, some of the 

 most careful would bo caught by the frost on Friday morning. 

 Though the weather had been getting cold, and the wind came 

 from due north, we did not expect at bedtime on Thursday 

 that we should find ice the thickness of a penny-piece iu shallow 

 porous vessels, and the leaves of our bedding Pelargoniums too 

 hard to bend on Friday morning. Owing to the bright sun 

 being clouded at its rising, and more still to the dryness of the 

 ground and the atmosphere, this sudden frost did less damage 

 even in the flower garden than might have been expected. Even 

 the Perilla, though hauging its head for a time, plucked up 

 during the day, and the chief change perceptible was a deeper, 

 somewhat sickly purple in the upper leaves. Dahlias suffered 

 in some places, and escaped entirely in others at a short dis- 

 tance off. In tho kitchen garden the chief sufferers were 

 Vegetable Marrows, which had a good portion of their foliage 

 blackened ; and whilst Kidney Leans, and even Runners grown 

 on the ground suffered considerably, those of tho latter growing 

 and climbing on stakes escaped uninjured — a matter of im- 

 portance as regulating kitchen supply. This rule did not al- 

 ways hold good, as in some cases what was closest to the ground 

 suffered least, whilst the same subjects a little higher were 

 touched to their injury. During the day, however, the flower- 

 beds were at their brightest, all the brighter from being looked 

 upon by nearly two hundred children. Measures were taken 

 to place plants in pots under sheds or other protection, as they 

 would suffer more than those planted out in the ground — a pre- 

 caution necessary, though the wind was slightly more genial at 

 night than in the morning, and bringing a much slighter frost 

 on the Saturday morning than on the morning previous. 

 Though cold on Saturday, the shifting of the wind towards the 

 west gave us hopes that our fruit might (the later ones) hang a 

 little longer, and the flower garden might remain gay for a fort- 

 night hence at least. 



We do not recollect of such a frost so early here, with so 

 few premonitions of its approach, as, with the exception of the 

 Horse-Chestnut, there is hardly a tree that has begun to change 

 its foliage. From a fine-headed Elm in the pleasure grounds, 

 all the leaves that have previously fallen might have been 

 placed in a peck basket. 



Children and School Parlies. — Here what we remarked the 

 other week as to village garden shows also applies. It is well 

 not to have them too late, and especially if many of the children 

 are young. The cold weather, though dry and suuny, damps the 

 general joy, and the little ones become tired out, and are hardly 

 able to appreciate the fine things in the way of cake, tea, and 

 buns, provided for them. Such gatherings in rooms, however 



