180 



JOURNAL OF HOBTIOULTUBE AND COTTAGE GARDENEE. 



r March 11, 18C9. 



whole qnarters of trees tmtouohea, whilst here if we manage to 

 save a share of our buds we are more than contented. On some 

 beautiful dwarf Cherries with all our care, and even resorting 

 to netting, the tJower buds are so stripped that there will 

 scarcely be enough for a crop. As yet we have never been 

 troubled in this respect uuder glass. Apples were untouched 

 until to-day, whun we noticed some hundreds of buds of the Red 

 Quarenden shelled out and the remains on the ground. As yet 

 we find that a wash on the trees, as a deterrent in this respect, 

 depends very much for its efficacy on the whiteness. The lime- 

 wash can be of very little use in other respects, as though used 

 when tolerably fresh it will soon, from exposure, become as 

 mild as challi, and in that we should think there could be 

 little offensive to the bill of a bird. When we used cow dung, 

 soot, &c., more liberally, things not very pleasant we should 

 say, we do not thirik the wash was so effectual as when more 

 lime was used. There may, therefore, be something in colour 

 as a deterrent. Whether there be anything in red lead as a colour 

 we are not certain, but though during the week we have noticed 

 half a dozen pheasants close to and on the piece of ground 

 appropriated, as stated last week, to Beans and Peas, not a 

 seed has yet been taken, though there has been scratching iu 

 the neighbourhood. They have not yet scratched so as to find 

 out the colour, but there miy be some instinct in the very 

 smell from the lead that tells them to beware. We have pre- 

 viously had the seeds turned up and left, and are rather 

 surprised the turning-up has been delayed. As soon as symp- 

 toms of that appear, we will net to keep all large intruders out. 

 Apricots, though we have not been able to nail them, opened 

 their blossoms so fully that, having nothing better at hand, we 

 covered them thinly with spruce twigs. Unfortunately some 

 wooden copings, which form an excellent protection when well 

 secured, were smashed in a terrific gale. 



On-hard Houses. — We were fortunate in having the roofs of 

 these, as respects pnttjing, secured iu the beginning of the 

 winter, and therefore as yet, even in very high winds, we have 

 not had a square touched. We hear accounts of disasters from 

 the wind where large squares had been used, and the puttying 

 had become loose, or had gone. This is one disadvantage of 

 using large squares in these cheaply-constructed houses, for if 

 the wind once finds it way in owing to a few squares slipping 

 out, there is no calcniating how many may be made the sport 

 of the tempest. Setting the squares in grooves would, in this 

 respect; be a great advantage, counterbalanced to a certain ex- 

 tent by the greater difficulty in having a broken square fully 

 removed. Whenlarge squaresarensed, audputtiedin the ordi- 

 nary way, it would be well to have a small brad or sprig at the 

 sides in the centre of each square, as well as at the lower corners 

 of each, to prevent lifting as well as sliding. The great security, 

 however, will ever be keeping the roofs always in thorough 

 order. Considerable observation and experience enable us to 

 say that the let-alone policy, as respects glass houses, is sny- 

 thing but economical, and that the cheapest and the best plan 

 would be to do glazing whenever it was required, and after 

 painting properly at first, to give a coat of paint every yesr. 

 The houses would then always look well, and would rarely re- 

 quire much work to be done at any one time. So far as to 

 common roofs. We believe the day will come when we shall 

 Lave glass roofs on a uniform plane without laps, and when 

 putty, it not painting, will be altogether dispensed with. 



In our earliest orchard house, Peaches, &e., are nearly in full 

 bloom, and the buds of those in the second are swelling and 

 opening, notwithstanding all our retarding. The first house 

 could not be so much exposed, owing to having the ground 

 pretty well filled with Pelargoniums, He, all the winter, which 

 we could have covered with soft litter in severe weather. Both 

 houses have a row of Peas coming on in front. In the latest 

 house there are Lettuces, planted small iu the beginning of 

 winter, and growing fast, but they will not be in much before 

 older plants out of doors. But for the mildness of the winter 

 these Lettuces would have been more thought of. Introduced a 

 row of Tom Thumb Peas in pots to the back of the first orchard 

 house, removing them from a similar place in the Peach house, 

 where they would have been apt to be drawn with more heat 

 and shade. 



In these houses we were scarcely troubled v,'ith insects last 

 season, but, as measures of precaution, the trees were several 

 times syringed during the winter with hot water, as hot as 

 could be well applied, say 20° or 30° below the boiling point, 

 but of course colder than that before it got from the syringe to 

 the wood of the trees. We lately stated how the trees in pots 

 were top-dressed, and fitted with a rim of thin turf doubled. 



the earthy side Outwards, so as to kill the grass of the turf by 

 keeping it from the air. As another measure of precaution, wo 

 have just cleaned the floor of one house, scraping off all the 

 surface soil, getting loose on the top, for about half an inch in 

 depth. As the roots from the trees on the back wall run through 

 the soil on which the pots stand, this moving away of the 

 surface not only is a security against harbouring insects, but it 

 enables us to see thoroughly the slate of the soil as respects 

 moisture, and to water only that which is dry. We then just 

 broke the surface with the points of a fork, say about a quartet 

 of an inch in depth, and not more for two reasons — first, be- 

 cause roots are quite close to the surface ; and secondly, because 

 roots of Peaches, and we believe most fruit trees, do better in 

 firm than in loose soil. We then covered over with a thin 

 layer of fine rotten manure, mixed wiih a little lime and soot, 

 and then, chiefly to secure neatness, finithod with a sprinkling 

 of fine-riddled loam. This freth, rather open surface, besides 

 looking neat, enables us to water tthen necessary more regu- 

 larly, as the water has more time to perculate easily down to 

 the roots, instead of running off, and sinking in the openest 

 places. 



Whern the surface is hard, as well as the bulk of the soil, 

 fho surface must be kept regularly damper than suits the 

 fruit as it approaclics ripening, and especially if the weather 

 should be dull. Even in the open fields, if we can judge from 

 our experience in forest-tree planting, up to this time the 

 quantity of water that has fallen in rains has not made up to 

 the land for the drought of last summer, where that land was 

 at all hard on the surface, as then the rain ran off along the 

 surface instead of descending, as it would have done if the 

 surface had been loose and open. Iu making holes for trees 

 in ground covered with rough herbage we found the ground, 

 notwithstanding the rains, so dry, that it the trees had been 

 larger we must in common prudence have followed with the 

 watercait. However much there may be in firm soil for Peaches, 

 keeping the surface a little open prevents it from cracking, and 

 allows waterings to penetrate to the rooti more regularly 



If any of our amateur readers have allowed their orchard- 

 house trees to become too dry it would be bad policy to soak 

 the soil all at once, and most likely cause the buds to drop_ as 

 much as they would do from overdryuess. If iu pots, give, 

 say, a piut round the outside, and follow with another in a few 

 days, and tben in a week or so give a little to the centre of the 

 bail of the plant. If well established trees are growing against 

 the wall of a lean-to, and the bulk of the soil, being protected 

 from rains, has become ratber dry, water the ground with water 

 from which the chill has been taken off for about 18 inches in 

 width, and in four or five days follow with another similar 

 width, and bo on until all the border is moistened. Similar 

 care is not required afterwards ; but it is often better and more 

 convenient to water only the half, or so, of tho ^idth of a 

 border at a time. 



OnX.ljrENT.M, pErAKTJIENT. 



Forest Trees, Covers, cCc. — Almost finished planting for these 

 purposes, and feel sanguine that with an ordinaiy summer the 

 trees will succeed well, and present a great contrast to what 

 was too generally the case last season. Besides the suitability 

 of the weather, wo have also great hopes frt m the fact that the 

 trees will be loss or more protected from four-footed depre- 

 dators. Where i-.ares and rahhits are numerous, it is a waste 

 of labour and of money to plant young trees without protection. 

 We have gone through acres, and have scarcely found a tree 

 unbarked. One of two things is essential to success — either 

 such visitors must be brought down and kept down, or they 

 must be prevented from attacking tho trees'. For the latter 

 purpose nothing is so good and economical in the end as gal- 

 vanised wire netting. That 24 inches iu height will be some 

 security against rabbits if well put up, but less than 3 feet in 

 height is no security against hares. We used to think that a 

 good way of fixing'this netting to prevent burrowing was to 

 sink the netting in the ground 2 or 3 inches or so ; but a gen- 

 tleman who is thoroughly conversant with such matters has 

 proved to demonstration that there is a much better way. The 

 web of wire is unrolled nlung the ground where it is to stand, 

 and pulled rather tightly to prevent any puckeiing. A foot 

 then presses the side of tho web that is to be next the gi-ound, 

 and a light wooden millet follows so as to make it level, and 

 the netting is pegged to the ground with wooden pegs, the peg 

 not coming against tho outside of the web, but at the second or 

 third crossing of the holes, so that there shall be at least 

 2 or 3 inches of the netting level on the ground outside of the 

 pegs. From 3 to 4 feet is a good distance tor the pegs. Then, 



