March 7, 1867. ] 



JOURNAL OP HORTICOLTDBE AND COTTAGE GABDENEB. 



173 



WEEKLY CALENDAR. 



MARCH 7—13, 1867. 



Meeting of Linnoan Society, B p.m. 



Royal Hort. Soc. Promenade, 3 P.M. 

 1 Sunday in Lent. 

 Meeting of Royal Geopr.ipliical 

 Society. S.80 p.m. 

 Meeting of Microscopical Society, 

 8 P.M. 



Average Temperatnre 

 near London. 



Dav. 



49..5 

 49.5 

 49.4 

 49.8 

 49.4 

 ,'.0.6 

 50.8 



NiRht. 

 82.8 

 31.7 

 80.9 

 31.7 

 32.a 

 82.1 

 81.3 



Mean. 

 41.0 

 40.6 

 40.2 

 40.7 

 40.8 

 41.4 

 42.5 



Kain in 

 last 



40 years. 



Daya. 

 16 

 16 

 11 

 16 

 17 

 19 

 14 



Snn 

 Rises. 



m. h. 

 85al6 



33 6 



81 6 



28 fi 



26 6 



24 6 



22 6 



Snn 



Sets. 



Moon 

 Rises. 



Moon 

 Sets. 



48al6 

 49 5 



4 

 32 





 82 



8 

 50 



7 

 7 

 8 

 8 

 9 

 9 

 89 10 



19af7 

 81 8 

 44 9 

 68 10 

 mom. 

 10 

 17 1 



Moon's 

 Age. 



Days. 



2 

 S 



4 

 5 

 6 



Clock 



before 



Snn. 



10 48 



10 38 



10 17 



10 1 



9 45 



Day 



of 

 Year. 



67 

 68 

 69 

 70 

 71 

 73 



From observations taken near London dnring the last forty years, the average dav temperature of the week is 49.8*^; and its night 

 temperature 32.2°. The greatest heat was 67^, on the 12th, 1841 ; and the lowest cold 7', on the 10th, 1847. The greatest (all of rain was 

 0.69 inch. 



SMALL VERSUS LARGE POTS IN PINE APPLE 

 CULTURE. 



AVING long held the opinion 

 that there is little or notliing 

 gained by growing Pines 

 in pots exceeding 11 or 

 12 inches in diameter, and 

 having had a good oppor- 

 tunity of testing the two systems in the production of the 

 supply of Pines liere during the winter of lHti(i-7, I have 

 thought the result might interest some of the readers of 

 The Jodrnal of Horticulture. 



In the spring of 18(ifi I found the plants intended for 

 the winter supply in a more forward condition tlian usual, 

 and than I wished them to be. I therefore, contrary to my 

 usual practice, decided on shifting a portion of them into 

 16-inch pots, with the view of keeping the plauts growing 

 and, consequently, preventing them from starting till .July. 

 This was done on the :.i'2nd of February, and the plants 

 selected for the shift were the strongest and tliose having 

 their pots the best filled with roots. The plants constitut- 

 ing the portion left uushifted were mostl.y in 11-incli pots 

 and a few in la-inch pots, and from these I would not have 

 expected such large fruit under any circumstances as from 

 those which were shifted into tlie large pots. The latter 

 were in all respects the finest plants. 



The fruit from the whole of these plants, forty-eight in 

 number, were cut between the end of October, lH(;(i, and 

 the end of -January, 1807, and to show the results I append 

 the respective weights of twelve from 16-inch pots and 

 twelve from 11 and 12-inch pots ; — 



their respective weights did not tell, any more than the 

 weights given, in favour of the large pots. — D. Tho.mson, 

 Archerfield Gardens. 



16-inch Pots. lbs. oz 



Smooth-leaved Cayenne 9 6 



„ 9 1 



„ 8 9 



Charlotte Rothschild . . 8 5 



Smooth-leaved Cayenne 8 3 



„ 8 3 



Charlotte Rothschild 



11 and 12-inch Pots. Vbs. 

 Smooth-leaved Cayenne 9 



Smooth-leaved Cayenne 7 4 



At first sight it may appear to those not conversant with 

 Pine-culture that something considerable was gained by 

 shifting into the l(i-incli pots, but it must be borne in mind 

 that all the finest plants were selected for the largest 

 pots— plants from which, whether they had been shifted 

 or not, I would have looked for the finest fruit : so that in 

 respect to the production of large fruit, I consider little, or 

 indeed notldng, was gained by the shift. Of the other 

 twenty-four fruit there were only eight under (i lbs., and 



N». 310.— Vol. XII., Nzw Sebies. 



PLANTING PEAR TREES. 



QUINCE AND PEAR STOCKS. 



Thanking " C. C. E." for his friendly, able, and timely 

 remarks on the above subject at page 8.5, I, as one of the 

 parties interested, beg to give an answer to liis question, 

 " What is to be done ? " 



I, like " C. C. E.," have had trees of the Pear on the 

 Quince stock from a first-class nurser}- worked fi or 8 inches 

 above the roots. Only last March, and again in November 

 last, we had a number of trees, some worked 2 inches, and 

 others between that and 10 inches, above the roots, whilst 

 a few had been worked so low that the junction of the 

 stock and scion had been covered \vith soil, evidently at 

 the time of perfoi-ming the operation of grafting ; these 

 had not rooted from the graft. The trees are five or six 

 years old. Now, I planted all so that the fibres were 

 covered with 3 inches of soil irrespective of the height at 

 which the trees had been worked, and immediately after 

 planting gave each a mulching of well-rotted cowdung 

 2 or o inches tliick all round the stem to a distance of 



2 feet from it. This is wliat I did last year and in pre^-ious 

 years, and what I recommended Vol. XL, page 400. 



'• C. C. E." asks — 1st, " The limit of distance between 

 the graft and roots." I would prefer the trees worked as 

 near the ground as practicable, and not exceeding 'i inches 

 above the roots. The trees would then be eligible for all 

 soils and situations ; the junction could be covered, which 

 I recommend to be done on all but heavy wet soils (for 

 on shallow, dry, light soils the rooting from the graft or 

 Pear is an advantage rather than a disadvantage), or the 

 junction could be left uncovered, soil being placed to within 

 the least possible distance of tlie junction of the stock and 

 graft, which is desirable, as the certain rooting of the Pear 

 would tend to wood growtli, and on such heavy wet soils 

 the good offices of the Quince in causing a dwarfer growth, 

 fertility, and an earlier ripening of the crop, are destroyed. 



2nd, " Should trees grafted (! or 8 inches or more above 

 the roots be rejected?" Yes, if those not worked more 

 than 'A inches above the roots are procurable ; but if such 

 cannot be had, and only those that have been worked 6 or 

 8 inches or more above the ground are to be obtained, ray 

 answer is, No. Plant them so that the roots wiU be covered 



3 inches with soil. 



;!rd, " Sliould trees grafted on the Quince stock or 

 8 inches above the roots have these buried, or should the 

 tree be planted up to the junction of the stock and gi-aft ? " 

 Well, no : the roots should not in any case be covered 

 more deeply than 3 inches. When these are deeply covered 

 the shoots are long, sappy, and generally badly matured ; 

 but when near the surface the probability is the wood will 

 be short and well ripened. 



4th, " If the roots are not to be buried, is the stock to be 

 hidebound ? " No. Soil should be piled up against the 

 stem so as to entirely cover the exposed portion of the 



No. 962.— Vol. XXXVII., Old Seeiis 



