234 



JOUBNAI, OF HOBTICULTURE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. 



[ March 26, 1868. 



ronndiDg atmosphere. It is by this means that the plant 

 supplies itself with the requisites for its perfection ; or, on 

 the other hand, receives into its system elements directly 

 inimical to its wellbeing. Thus its very efforts to sustain 

 health and life may, and indeed do, often result in disease 

 and death. Now, whatever the roots of plants may do in the 

 matter, it is certain the foliage does not exercise a power of 

 selecting atmospheric food. Plants can no more reject a 

 poisonous inhalation than the collier can the noxious gas 

 which proves so terribly fatal ; but it is when the plants are 

 in an advanced stage of growth that they receive the greatest 

 injury from the poisonous state of the air which for the time 

 being surrounds them. Their organs of respiration are then 

 fully developed, and in active operation. In the absence of, or 

 whilst these organs are imperfctly developed, which is the case 

 when the plant is in its earliest stages of growth, it will in a 

 great measure escape a passing atmospheric scourge. This 

 has been demonstrated to most, or I may say, all gardeners. 

 When the air of a dung frame is saturated with poisonous 

 gases evolved during the decomposition of manure, and plants 

 of any kind are put in, they will be speedily killed. But it is 

 not the leaves lately expanded — the youngest and, as we might 

 think, the most tender parts of the plants which are first in- 

 jured — no, it is the fully developed foliage which first suc- 

 cumbs. It breathes the poisonous air, and death ensues. My 

 attention was first attracted to this subject before I was the 

 age of the shoemaker's Potato. It set me thinking, and I 

 have continued to think and watch, until I imagine there is 

 some analogy to the Potato disease here. 



The cottage where I was born is now razed to the ground. 

 If its date of erection was not antecedent to the introduction of 

 the Potato into this country, it was at any rate sufiiciently 

 remote to warrant us in a belief that the site of the cottage 

 had never produced a crop of Potatoes. Here, then, was a 

 fresh piece of ground, and it was planted accordingly. The 

 mud walls and rubbish from the building formed the soil, to 

 which were added a few loads of sand. The crop was pro- 

 digious, but considerably affected with disease, except a few 

 earjy Potatoes taken up in July, and a late-ripening pig Potato, 

 which was also nearly exempt from it. Now, where did this 

 disease come from ? It could not well be in the soil — perhaps 

 it was introduced with the sets. Well, it might have been so, 

 though I do not think this was the sole cause, or why did not 

 the tubers turn bad which were taken up early ? The immunity 

 from disease which late-ripening kinds seem also to some ex- 

 tent to possess is becoming more and more acknowledged. A 

 fact not to be overlooked is, that the working classes and cot- 

 tagers are generally discarding mid-season varieties for the 

 greater certainty of sound crops of the later kinds. With them 

 quantity is the primary consideration. Late Potatoes as a rule 

 are inferior in quality. If Paterson's Victoria possesses all the 

 excellencies which it is credited with, it is a step in the right 

 direction. I know nothing of it, and so leave it and all the 

 rest just for a short ramble in the woods, where so many of my 

 boyhood's happy hours were spent. 



I can confirm " A Somersetshire Parson's " plan of sticking 

 elder round the young trees to protect them from rabbits. 

 The plan is effectual, and, fortunately, any other kind of sticks 

 with which the ground happens to be strewn will answer well. 

 My father was for many years woodman on an estate where 

 some thousands of trees were annually planted, and the rab- 

 bits and their ravages were a constant source of anxiety to 

 him. He tried several modes of protection, but sticking round 

 the trees with whatever was most handy he considered the 

 most effectual and economical plan. He considered it was only 

 allowing a man six days to put in a given number of trees in- 

 stead of five. The last time I looked carefully through a piece 

 thus protected I did not see one tree injured. In this instance 

 the sticks used were dead Larch and Spruce. This was his 

 plan after thirty years' experience and anxiety. — J. W. 



[We insert the above, but we totally dissent from what our 

 correspondent says relative to plants inhaling noxious gases. — 

 Eds.] 



REMOVING L.VRGE TREES. 

 In compliance with Mr. Flitton's request, I have to state 

 that I obtained much benefit by the use of old netting, such as 

 has been used by fishermen, for wrapping up the ball of earth 

 before attempting to move the plant, and securing the same 

 by cords. By this means the ball is secure, and can be shifted 

 without loss of soil ; and in most cases the net may in part i 



remain on the ball, as it will soon rot away. I have found 

 this advantageous in transplanting large Portugal Laurels, as 

 they will not live if the ball is cracked or severed in the least 

 degree. — Wii. Thorold, Thorpe Boicer, Nom-ich. 



BUSH FRUIT TREES. 



The letter of " C. C. E." (see page 198), is a word in season. 

 How much I wish he had a thousand imitators, so that we 

 might learn the great difference that soil, climate, and manage- 

 ment make in the success or non-success of fruit-tree culture 

 in gardens. 



Before I go into further particulars I must promptly clear 

 myself of what would seem, according to " C. C. E.," to be a 

 little misrepresentation. I repeat with great confidence that an 

 active man can lift and replant one hundred trees in a day. I 

 have always made it a point not to report on any experiment 

 till I had tried it. This was the case with the lifting and re- 

 planting of dwarf trees, for I found some years ago that one of 

 my active labourers would finish off twelve in one hour, and so 

 I modestly put the number at one hundred per day. I must, 

 however, confess that when I saw the assertion of " C. C. E.," 

 that it would require two good men to do the same work, I felt 

 a little shaky, and quite thought that my memory had been at 

 fault when writing the paragraph. I soon ended my trouble, 

 for I at once called one of our active workmen, and told him 

 to bring his treddle spade. This is an implement made here 

 of enormous leverage, and with which, if I descended to bet- 

 ting, I should back a man accustomed to use it to remove three 

 trees while another with a " garden spade " would remove one. 

 It is odd to find so near London so much of the old country 

 customs and prejudices that exist in this neighbourhood. 

 Our workmen's favourite Vulcan lives some four miles off, 

 and although there are five smiths in this large parish, they 

 declare that not one of them can make a good spade. This 

 home-made spade is heavy, is always sharp, and by the clever 

 workmen is wiped clean at night, and kept bright as silver on 

 both surfaces. It measures 15 inches from its lower edge to 

 the upper part of the treddle, and, consequently, can be thrust 

 into the ground to that depth. 



I must return to my tree. Jly man shouldered his spade 

 and went with me to my one hundred trees of Cox's Orange 

 Pippin .\pples on the English Paradise stock, which have been 

 planted six years and tvrice removed. I directed him — my 

 watch in hand, unseen by him — to dig a trench a spit deep 

 about three-fourths of a circle round the tree selected, and 

 '.) inches from its stem, leaving a portion of earth solid. 

 Into this solid portion, after digging the trench, he thrust his 

 spade in a slanting position so as to go under the roots of the 

 tree, he then with strong arm lifted it with nearly all its 

 roots intact, for only two or three small ones were fractured. 

 No root-pruning was required, for owing to the tree having 

 been lifted two years ago its roots were compact. He then made 

 a slight hollow in the place it was taken from, replaced the tree, 

 trod the earth firmly round it, fiUed-in and levelled the loose 

 earth, and not till then did I look at my watch to ascertain 

 the time it had taken to do all that I have described. The 

 hand was at ten when he commenced, and when all was 

 finished it was exactly three minutes past ten, or as we now 

 write, 10.3. (What a concentration of strength and energy 

 there is in a skilful English labourer ! I have never yet seen his 

 match.) Well, the tree was, I repeat, finished in three minutes. 

 Now, I wish to be liberal, and so I allow two minutes in the 

 absence of " master " for back-stretching, and this will give 

 five minutes for each tree, or twelve trees in an hour, and this 

 is ea.sy work ; but it must be understood that it is only Pears 

 on the Quince, Apples on the Paradise stock, and Plums, all 

 under occasional removal, that can thus be operated on so 

 quickly, their roots being compact and requiring no pruning, 

 i'here'is, however, so much difference in soils that it is difficult 

 to estimate the labour required, for in some soils a tree left un- 

 disturbed for two seasons will make long shoots and long 

 straggling roots, so as to require some care in Ufting and re- 

 planting. 



All the varieties of soils here, whether tenacious clayey 

 loam, dark vegetable soil resting on gravel and clay, or Ught 

 sandy loam resting on sand, are highly calcareous, and I feel 

 almost assured it is owing to this that every kind of fruit tree 

 is inclined to early fruitfulness if checked in its growth. Thus 

 a vigorous " maiden tree " (a tree one year old), of a Pear on 

 the Quince, or an Apple on the Paradise, or a Plum, if taken 



