Mcy IB, ie<e. ] 



JOtJBNAIi OP HORTICULTURE AND COTTAGE GARDRNEB. 



329 



hOHBeB are pretty well filled, and we mnst wait a week or two 

 before we trust lots of plants out of doors. We watered these 

 honseB for the first time thia peaaon, with some dung water 

 that run from the farmyard. Previously a dusting of suul had 

 been given to the pots. Used in moderation nothing is more 

 effeotnal for giving leaves of plants a dark green colour. Twenty 

 or thiity years ago the agriculturists in this district used to 

 send straw to London and bring back soot, and the soot was 

 kept secure and dry until tlie sowing time for young Wheat, 

 &c., camo. Many an artiliclal manure has been used since 

 then, but, on the whole, we question if the Wheat has im- 

 proved. Tho old love, ns well as the old custom, seems to have 

 lately returned, for this season wherever we go we smell the 

 soot, and see the Wheat fields coming out in their dark green 

 livery. Amateurs and cottagers should look sharply after the 

 soot from their own houses, as tliat is sure to be pure, and 

 this may easily be done when a chimney sweep is employed, 

 by arranging that he shall leave the soot behind him, and 

 have a price for his work accordingly. We have known cart- 

 loads of the finest soot go from largo uFtablishments, and loads 

 of very inferior material brought back again. We presume 

 that, just as in other trades in these days, there are sweeps and 

 swefps, but in most cases when we have purchased soot the 

 sweep has supplied us with a pure article. 



Tied-in the shoots in the Peach house, exposing the fruit. 

 Removed one shelf of Strawlerries to give more air and light 

 to the Peaches, and will have all the floor cleared of plants ere 

 long, as until lately there was scarcely a foot in the length of 

 the house for walking room. We trained and regulated Melons 

 in a frame and pit. We thinned Grapes, and laid out, regulated, 

 and tied up Vines in a late house, where they would grow, so 

 that we have been forced to remove plants from beneath them. 

 After regulating, thinning shoots, stopping, &c., we gave the 

 Vines a good syringing, to help the leaves to get right in their 

 places. These Vines, after a late pruning, had been left 

 roughly suspended, and to afford more room for shelves at the 

 top of the house, the Vine stems had been rather bundled 

 longitudinally there, \intil, as they grew, we were forced to give 

 them more room. Now, we mention this for the purpose of 

 stating that until the above good syringing, the Vines when 

 swelling and breaking were almost left to themselves as respects 

 damping and syringing, and scarcely a bud refused to break as 

 desired. These Vines became weaker than usual last season, 

 but they seem as if they would improve this year. The diffi- 

 culty will be to cut enough of bunches away. For years we 

 have wanted to go on doing a bit of a border at a time, and thus 

 renew the whole by degrees ; but every season finds as much 

 difficulty as the preceding one, as to obtaining soil, &c. The 

 Vines in the orchard house are coming strong and fruitful, 

 though at first they had only o small piece of soil and a gravel 

 walk beyond to go into, and which walk would make a good 

 border if soil were substituted for rubbish, even if the gravel 

 went on the top again. These orchard-house Vines had no 

 syringing. A slight damping of the floor, except when the 

 Peaches were in bloom, was quite sufficient to cause the young 

 leaflets to bristle with dewdrops in a morning ; a very pleasant 

 sight so far, as it is rarely seen on a sickly plant. 



We allowed the Vines in the late vinery to grow and ramble 

 much longer than usual without dressing or stopping, because 

 as they suffered from want of moisture last season, or what 

 little they had was too strong, we were anxious for the present 

 to encourage root action, and then to stop and thin gradually, 

 so as not to cause a check. To ns the whole question of stop- 

 ping the side shoots, or allowing them to grow, lies in a nut- 

 shell. Where there is plenty of room, allowing the shoots to 

 grow beyond the fruit seems to do little injury to the fruit, and 

 keeps a vigorous root action. But where room is limited, and 

 at an early period at least, some things are required to be ob- 

 tained beneath the Vines, then nipping out the point of the 

 shoot some one or two joints beyond the fruit is necessary to 

 keep the Vine in something like space, and thus concentrate 

 its powers more. Provided the wood is moderately strong and 

 is well ripened, it matters little how you grow, cut, or prune ; 

 every piece of well-ripened wood will be sure to show fruit. For 

 general purposes it will be best to stop at one or two joints 

 beyond the fruit, more especially if free growth is maintained 

 by a few shoots left as leaders. 



We have lately received from amateurs several parcels of 

 Vine shoots, some uufrnitful, others showing fruit, but run- 

 ning off into tendrils, and that alike on weak and and strong 

 shoots, the first partly arising from want of strength, the latter 

 not so much from over-luxuriance, as from deep roots and 



imperfect ripening of the wood. Now, even when the roots arc 

 rather deep, and in rich soil, and the Vines make tolerably fair 

 wood, you may always have Cirapea, provided that wood is 

 ripened by a high temperature and a dryish atmosphere in 

 autumn. Now, as stated a little before, you may have your 

 Vines in such a good state that it matters but little how yon 

 train or prune, you may even cut off every fpur close to the 

 old stem, and afier such close pruning fruitful shoots will come 

 in abundance, and need selecting ; but in such a case as the 

 last, we consider that it does matter considerably, as it seemB 

 more dillicult for the Vine, especially if it have little forcing, 

 to ripen all the side shoots, than to ripen a few grown on the 

 short or the long-rod system. At any rate, wo could mention 

 at least a score of oases where the Vines consisted each of one 

 main stem, with short side shoots, cut back to a bud or two 

 every winter, that produced but little fruit year after year, 

 when by training young shoots, and so by degrees dispensing 

 with these spurs gradually, the young shoots of this summer 

 would throw out fruitful shoots from their buds next season. 

 Of course, the thinner these young thoots were grown, and the 

 more exposed to sun and air, the more fruitful they would be. 

 We mention this as an ascertained fact, that in unfavourable 

 circumstances a few young shoots on a Vine, with their fine, 

 prominent buds, will be more easily ripened and hardened 

 than a great number of side spur shoots cut back at pruning 

 time to a small bud at the base, and that, as a consequence, the 

 fine buds on the young wood will be fruitful, and the small 

 buds on the cut-in spur will be fruitless. Some time ago, a 

 friend of ours could obtain nice-looking wood, and bnt little 

 fruit, but he was so enamoured of the spur-system of pruning, 

 that he could not bear to give it up, and as to raising his deep 

 roots, and giving more fire heat, both were out of the question. 

 Merely as a better chance, he was induced to train a young 

 shoot from the base of the Vine, letting it grow 8 or 10 feet with- 

 out stopping, and stopping the side shoots from spurs in the 

 usual way. Then, after Christmas, the old stem was spurred- 

 in as usual, and the young shoot was left 7 feet long. The 

 Vine broke well. On the whole of the old spurred stem there 

 were two small bunches. From every bud of the young shoot, 

 with the exception of three near the base, came side shoots 

 showing two or three good bunches each. Nothing is more 

 simple, nothing can answer better than spur pruning, when 

 the Vine is in good health, and the wood can he well ripened; 

 but it is well to know that this system may not suit in un- 

 fortunate circumstances so well as an older if not more na- 

 tural system. We need not enter into the reasons, but we 

 believe the fact remains, that the fine buds on a young shoot 

 will be thoroughly matured when the small buds at the base of 

 a spur shoot will not be matured under the same circum- 

 stances. 



ORNAMENTAL DEPABTMENT. 



We have been very busy, but much as lately detailed ; for 

 example, potting, moving, hardening-off, and taking up, divid- 

 ing, and planting Neapolitan and other Violets. — E. F. 



TRADE CATALOGUES RECEIVED. 



T. Bunyard & Sons, Maidstone and Ashford. — Liit of Bcd- 

 dinfj'Out Plaiits. 



D. Eadclyffe & Co., 129, High Holborn, London, W.C— 

 Catalogue of Bedding Plants, Ferns, &c. 



A. Stansfield & Son, Vale Nurseries, Todmorden, Lancashire. 

 — General Fern List. 



COVENT GARDEN MARKET.— May 12. 



TilE state of the market is mncb the same as last week, pood descrip- 

 tions of fruit and vegetables being in fair request. Foreign imports 

 include the usual variety. The Potato trade is rather better in the best 

 Lisbon Potatoes, which arc now coming in good. Old Potatoes are a 

 complete druK. Among spring vegetables, we have now yoong Turnips, 

 Carrots, and Cauliflowers. 



FEUIT. 



B. d. B. d 



.\pples ^2 sieve 3 to 4 



Apricots doz, BO 4 



Cherries lb. DO 



Chestnuts bush. 10 16 



Currants fj sieve 



Black do. 



Figs doz. 12 20 



FUberts lb. 



Cobs lb. 10 16 



Gooseberries . . quart 10 16 



Grapes,Hothouse..lb. 10 12 



Lemons lOU 4 8 



Melons each 



Nectarines doz. 24 



Oranges 100 4 



Peaches doz. 24 



Pears (dessert) . . doz. 

 Pine Apples lb. 8 



p. d. 8. 



0tol6 































a 







36 

 12 



m « 



a 



12 <o 







Plums 3-j sieve 



Quinces doz. 



Raspberries !b. 



Strawberries oz. 6 16 



Walnuts bush. 10 16 



do 100 10 2 



