354 



JOURNAL OF HORTICULTURE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. 



( May 19, 1870. 



taking care that they have been transplanted within the last 

 three years, and not one in a hundred will fail. But if trees 

 are planted that have stood half a dozen years without removal, 

 which have been struggling all the time for space to unfold the 

 leaves on the leader, which have no side shoots, the roots 

 going as straight down as the leader goes upwards, it would be 

 better to burn than to plant them, for younger trees will be 

 far superior. Oaks which at 4 feet high are difficult to remove, 

 are so only because they have thick strong roots, but get rid of 

 these by transplanting two or three times, causing the produc- 

 tion of fibres, and they lift with fibrous roots, with a ball if 

 wanted, and as safely at 12 feet as at 4 feet high; indeed, 

 some hard wooded trees at 3 or 4 feet high are nothing better 

 than flower sticks. 



Strong large " hard woods," then, are what I would plant, 

 and immediately after planting stake and securely tie. The 

 staking and tying with many would not be necessary, and a 

 lad with a paint pot, or can, and brush could brush the stems 

 from the ground upwards to the height of 2 or 3 feet with 

 paraffin oil, and neither hares nor rabbits would touch them 

 for a Eeason. The like result would attend placing a hayband 

 round each stem, so as to cover il for about 3 feet high, also 

 painting the stem with a composition of one-fourth lime, one- 

 half soot, and one-fourth cow dung, with sufficient gas liquor 

 to bring (he whole to the consistency of paint. Lime and 

 soot in equal proportions will answer just as well, gas liquor 

 being used for mixing, and so will lime alone, only it is apt to 

 get washed off. The work of staking and tying is often neglected 

 until the trees are blown to one side, twisted about — very often 

 in frosty weather — and injured to a serious extent ; and fre- 

 quently the precautionary measures to keep off hares, &c, are 

 not thought of until the trees are barked. 



As to the Larch, Spruce, and Scotch Fir, with its allies the 

 Pines, I would have the first two, and the Austrian Pine in 

 particular, not under 2£ or 3 feet high, the Larch beiug no 

 worse if nearer 4 feet than 3 feet. These ought to be trans- 

 planted within two years of the time of planting, and then 

 they will lift with good fibrous roots, and even balls if wanted. 

 Scotch Fir I would have 2 to 2} feet high, or even larger, but 

 not at all unless it had been moved every alternate year, and 

 all the better if only the year previously. Such trees, properly 

 planted, would need no staking, or only a few stakes, and a 

 lad would go over a great many in a day with a brush, anoint- 

 ing the stems of the Larch, and also the others, if bare, with 

 paraffin oil. 



The shrubs should also be of good size to correspond with 

 the trees, and to hold their own against the grass, and a 

 selection being made of those least likely to suffer from the 

 game, put in stakes about 2 feet high, and run three pieces 

 of tarred twine round at 6 inches apart, beginning at G inches 

 from the ground. I think that in this way good plantations, 

 belts, screens, clumps, or whatever they may he, will be ob- 

 tained in a few years, fit for game and landscape purposes. 



The precautionary measures will only serve for one year. It 

 will be necessary to repeat them every season until the trees be 

 safe — that is, when the "soft woods'' and "hard woods" 

 have begun to have scaly barks. 



I may be asked, Could not small trees be treated in the same 

 way as the larger trees ? No doubt the hardwooded trees and 

 Larch could, but not the Scotch Fir and Pines, but even if they 

 could, and hares and rabbits were not to touoh them, the grass 

 so interferes with their growth, that they merely live for a few 

 years, and grow about as much in three years as they would in 

 trenched ground in one. Why not trench the ground, then, and 

 plant young trees ? Of course, if game is not the principal 

 object, then trench by all means ; but where game is wanted, 

 the planting must be on crass, or if grass does not already 

 grow on the spot, it must be furnished by sowing such kinds 

 as are suitable for the herbage, and seeds which the game ] 

 like. — G. Abbey. 



nite arrangement arrived at a year in advance. Let it be under- 

 stood that I am not wiiiing on behalf of those persons who 

 keep a gardener, but for that numerous class, the owners of 

 small gardens, who do the greater part of the work themselves. 

 Now is. the time to decide how the beds shall be filled for next 

 spring. The best system, in my opinion, is the employment, 

 principally, of that class of plants which can be moved at the 

 end of the present month, comprising Wallflowers, Pansie3, 

 Alyssum saxatile, red and white Daisies, Aubrietia, Early 

 Tulips, Anemones, &e. The autumn-sown annuals, such as 

 Silene, Limnanthes, &c, should be used in moderation, as 

 they seldom make a show before the 20th of May, at least in 

 the midland counties. They are principally valuable in afford- 

 ing a display during the interval between "the removal of the 

 early subjects and the summer bedders. Early Tulips may be 

 planted in the beds with the aunnals. The Tniips will push up 

 through the plants, bloom in April, and be fading about the 

 time the annuals are putting in an appearance. I have come 

 to the conclusion that the German and other varieties of the 

 Wallflower are inferior to the common sort in appearance and 

 early and free-blooming. The blood-red and the yellow are 

 the be3t for bedding or backing up a border. They should 

 when small be transplanted 8 or 10 inches apart — not left to 

 spindle in the seed bed as is so frequently done. The centres 

 should be pinched out when the plants are a few inches high. 

 A little trouble in their cultivation will be amply repaid by an 

 early and vigorous bloom. Cuttings of Alyssum saxatile should 

 be struck at once, and planted out in a good situation, not put 

 away in any corner. If they can be afforded the protection of 

 a cold frame or hand-glass for a little while, the plants will be 

 much finer. Hyacinths are so liable to injury from the weather 

 that I can hardly recommend them. Care should be taken 

 that the Pansies for bedding are of free-blooming and vigorous 

 habit. The Cliveden varieties are very good. — Fair Play. 



A GAY GARDEN IN SPRING. 



The appearance of desolation which so many gardens pre- 

 sent at this period of the year in such marked contrast to the 

 daily increasing beauty of the surrounding country, where the 

 river banks and hedgerows are in themselves gardens, has in- 

 duced me to offer a few remarks on the subject of spring 

 gardening. 



There is no lack of flowers that bloom at this season, and no 

 difficulty in having the garden bright and beautiful daring the 

 spring months if time be but taken by the forelock, and a defi- 



CASES FOR EXHIBITING FLOWERS. 



Wno that has ever exhibited a cut flower but ha3 not anxi- 

 ously awaited the opening of his box on the day of exhibition? 

 How charming those Roses looked when you cut them in the 

 glimmering twilight; how beautiful they were when you had 

 placed them in their box ; and as you surveyed them the thought 

 would come across you, Can they be beaten ? Bat then there 

 was an ugly idea that came rushing across your mind, What 

 will those porters do with them? You have maiked them, 

 " Flowers — this side up — great care I" but with a thrill of 

 horror you see that the porters are charmingly indifferent to 

 all your care, and you might as well have left that undone. 

 Then, yon have taken a "four-wheeler" at the station; and 

 as you jolted over the rough pavement each jolt sent a pang 

 through you as you thought of your pets and the sufferings they 

 were enduring ; and when you arrived and eagerly opened your 

 box, ala3 ! your fears were too prophetic, and if not the de- 

 jecta membra poelec, you could no more recognise your beauties 

 of the night before in these jaded-looking flowers than you 

 would see in the jaded and haggard young lady of the morning 

 the brilliant beauty of the previous night. One cannot do as 

 I have known some do (and as, we are told, some owners of 

 horses sleep in their stables for nights before the Derby or 

 Oaks), sit in the guard's van on one's boxes all the night ; and 

 therefore all exhibitors, I should think, would hail with thank- 

 fulness anything that would make them independent of such 

 mischances. Now, I believe that 13 in their power. I have 

 had lately brought under my notice a most ingenious contriv- 

 ance invented by Mr. W. F. Chapman, of Llandudno — namely, 

 his patent exhibition and cut-flower transmission case. I have 

 had the opportunity of trying it, and I do not hesitate to say 

 that it i3 an immense boon to the exhibitor. By the successful 

 application of indianrubber it becomes impossible for the water 

 to be spilled or the flowers to be injured, and the exhibitor 

 may save himself all the worry and anxiety he has heretofore 

 experienced. My friend Mr. Perry has, I believe, ordered a 

 set, and I feel sure that wh6n known they will come into very 

 general use amongst amateurs. I fully expect to see them in 

 many an exhibition-room this season, and congratulate my 

 floral brethren on an important invention to meet a want they 

 must have felt. — D., Deal. 



Litdospebmum cvERULEo-puBPUREnM. — I send you specimens 

 of this to show what a most beautiful thing it is at this season. 



