July 23, 18S8. J 



JOURNAL OP HORTIOULTDRE AND OOTTAGB QARDENEIR. 



Planting Trees F.arUj. — The same fiots, with an extended 

 observatiuu of the re8iiltD uf Rprin;; planting on a large soale, 

 ai>d especially in districts snoU as tbin, wUere we have had 

 nothing worthy of the name of rain lot close on three months, 

 will demoustrata the importance of autumn over aprins; plant- 

 ing. Could we have onr own way, we would have all ahrub and 

 foreattroe plautiug done in the month of November. Thou, in 

 general, the earth retains Bomdtbiut! "' i's summer warmth, 

 which encourages root action at once, however feeble, and the 

 raiDB of winter give eiioiijjh of moisture to encourage that 

 action, and by the time the heats of Hummer come there is 

 Bomething to meet the expanding of the buds, and if there is 

 not much growth the tirstseasin, the plants hold their own, 

 and are ready to grow freely tlie second season. 



Then, again, this will bo all the more successfully done if 

 the plants are on the place, if they have had even one or two 

 seasons' Rrowth after purchasing before being transplanted for 

 good. We have several times insisted on this, and at least a 

 score of gentlemen have told us they have acted on the sug- 

 gestion, getting young trees home from the nursery early in 

 the autumn (generally by the end of October), placing them out 

 in nnrsery lines, and then in a year or two taking them up as 

 wanted, and not more than is wanted at a time. This answers 

 the nurseryman quite as well, nay better, for planters become 

 discouraged when they plant unsuccessfully, and in such a 

 sammer as this, spring planting on a large soale, where no help 

 can be given, except what nature supplies, will ever be so far 

 unsuccessful. On the other hand, though advocating this 

 reserve nnrsery at home, unless in the largest establishments, 

 where a regular tree-raiser with suitable assistance is kept, it 

 will always be the most economical for a gentleman to pur- 

 chase from the raisers in the first place, even if he keeps the 

 plants a year or two before finally transplanting. If the plant- 

 ing is to be done at ouce, it is very important it should be done 

 early, from the end of Ojtober to the beginning of December, 

 and the sooner in November the better. When the plants are 

 procured late, there are many casualties to be encountered. 

 For instance, once we had many thousands of plants sent in, 

 taken up all right, but in the several-days journey they en- 

 countered a severe unexpected frost, and we judged that the 

 roots were greatly injured. What would such plants be after 

 being well frosted, and finally turned out in March, with suck 

 a -season before tbem as this has been ? We have such a case 

 within no great distance of us, and we would rather not see the 

 results. We know what the consequences are too well. Such 

 plants taken up in the end of October, would have had scarcely 

 a small per-centage of failures, and bow we should not like to 

 guarantee an estimate of them. The warm dry weather soon 

 brought out the buds, but the roots could do nothing towards 

 supplying the exhaustive evaporation, and death was the con- 

 sequence. There was no moisture from above to encourage 

 looting, the roots inserted had not come into fresh operation, 

 so as to draw np for themselves moisture from beneath. 



If one fact more would be of use it would be this — never have 

 established trees presented a more gorgeous foliage than this 

 season. Now, after three months of dry weather, we perceive 

 that Ash, and even Elm, are showing signs of a little distress, 

 which, most likely, will result in an earlier ripening of their 

 foliage; but these trees are comparatively surface-rooters, 

 hence they do not bo well avail themselves of the moisture 

 deeper in the earth. We have, however, never seen Oaks with 

 more healthy vigorous foliage, but then the Oak roots penetrate 

 the soil deeply, and the tree is, therefore, when established, 

 pretty well independent for one season of a surface-moisture 

 supply. The sooner after the middle of October that we plant 

 trees, forest or otherwise, the sooner do we enable the roots to 

 avail themselves of the moisture beneath, when in such a sea- 

 son as this there is no moisture available from above. 



Deep Stirring uf the Soil for vegetables and flowers that have 

 to be planted out. 'J'his comes in our way from the pame line 

 of thought and observation. With little water at our command, 

 we believe that many of our crops look better than when water 

 was given freely almost every day. We would rather put a 

 bandage over our eyes than look at our lawn ; but, from what 

 we are told, others are a great deal worse. With little water, 

 as above stated, the flowers in the flower beds are rather nice, 

 and some rows of Pelargonium Brilliant, and even yellow Cal- 

 ceolarias, are tine. The first has had little water, the Calceo- 

 laria a little more — that is, a little at tlie roots of sewage in 

 eight or tm days, and though we should have liked to have re- 

 freshed them and good beds and rows of Verbenas with clean 

 water from a syringe or engine over the foliage, we have been 



unable to do so, and the only refreshing they tiad was the slight 

 shower a fortnight ago on Sunday morning. That has been thp 

 only damping of the foliage for a mouth, for, unfortunately, 

 we have had scarcely a perceptible deposition of dew for a long 

 time. Now, we understand, that those plants are as fine as 

 others where water has frequently been given, and that judi- 

 ciously, and we are sure they are much better than some which 

 were watered every day. The standing so well of these plants 

 and braving the tierce sun we attribute partly to Burface-stir- 

 ring, and thus breaking the lines <if the railiation of heat and 

 the evaporation of moisture, but chieliy to the deep stirring of 

 the soil, which enables the roots to descend freely in search of 

 that which to them is an esnential of growth and existence. 

 But for the following fact we could no', have believed that the 

 surface soil was so very dry. In our libbon border one, if not 

 two rabbits had endeavoured to make breeding nests for them- 

 selves. Most of our readers know that until the young rabbity 

 get their eyesight ihey are kept shut up from the light, and 

 with a very small portion of air, as the old one covers up the 

 hole securely. We tried to follow one of these holes to its ter 

 mination, but it went so far that we gave it up. fearing that 

 our spade would do more harm to the plants than even the 

 rabbits would before they were caught. What surprised us, 

 however, was the almost impossibility of getting the soil to 

 lie on the spade, owing to the extreme dryness, to the depth of 

 a spade. It rolled oS like so much kilu-diied sand, and yet. 

 with all this dryness the plants were growing as above, not 

 luxuriantly, as in a moist season, but still holding their own 

 and blooming freely. Of course, with a little wafer at the 

 hottt.m in ten days the soil immediately below the plants would 

 not be so dry as that in the spaces between tbem ; but moisture, 

 like heat, is so diffusive, that after making this allowance we 

 must conclude that they chiefly supplied their wants from the 

 moisture far down below, and that the deep stirring of the soil 

 enabled the roots and the moisture to come all the easier intc 

 connection with each other. 



What we mean by deep stirring is stirring to the depth oi 

 from 18 to 30 inches, instead of a mere spade in depth. In 

 flower beds and vegetable beds it would often be advisable not 

 to turn up the lower spit, hut leave it at the bottom until it wag 

 gradually ameliorated. In flower beds as a rule, we like the 

 finest and richest soil to be at the eurface, as in that case we 

 are more anxious to have bloom than excess of luxuriant 

 foliage. In all seasons the comparatively deep stirring answers. 

 In very moist seasons the moisture has a free passage to 

 descend, and in dry seasons, such as this, be.-ides encouraging 

 the roots to go down, the moisture ascends more easily to meet 

 their wants. 



In general the want of rain and the scarcity of water have 

 rendered onr work much like that of previous weeks. 



KITCHEN OAEDEN. 



We had to water Cucumbers and Vegetahle Marrows with 

 what we could get. In one fine day the vigorous leaves of the 

 latter would have been turned up into as many drinking cups, 

 but a good soaking of sewage immediately brought them back ' 

 ripht. This, however, we must also use sparingly. The Vege 

 table Marrow gave fine returns in June this season, treated on 

 the old-fashioned ridge (dan, with a little rough fermenting 

 material beneath it. No doubt the early gatherings were 

 owing to the hot season. After trying muny kinds we have 

 gone back to the old Vegetable Marrow, as still for all purposes 

 being by far the best, richest when cooked, and easiest to cook. 

 We think it best when boiled whole, when fmall, as carefully 

 as a Beet, and as far as possible no water whatever admitted to 

 the centre. Then cut the Vegetable Marrow open, remove the 

 centre pulp, and dress according to taste. 



FRUIT GARDEN. 



We could only water what was under glass. Took o£f lota of 

 small Strawberry runnei-s, and jiricked into beds, and watered 

 and shaded to make roots, as onr plants of Strawberries in the 

 main beds are so dry. These runners when rooted we will 

 raise with balls, and pot. Trees in pots in the iircbard house we 

 have mulched above the rim of the pot again, as the previous 

 one had melted away, or had sailed off in the watering. Gathered 

 the last fruit in the Peach house, and cleared it out, and gav# 

 a heavy syringing with weak soap water, and shut up early, so 

 that the vapour would settle the few red spider that appeared. 

 There are no free spaces in the wall, or the daubing them witb 

 sulphur, and such a syringing, and shutting np with a bright 

 sun between two and three o'clock, would destroy nearly all 

 ijaseets. In the hottest days damped the shelves of even thC' 



