ibi 



JOURNAL OF HOKTIGULTURE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. 



I June 12, 1873. 



he very beueficial ; this should be allowed to remain aU the 

 summer, as it keeps a uniform temperature and moisture round 

 that part of the ground where the roots are ; it also causes an 

 emission of active rootlets near the surface of the ground. 



Nearly aU the pruning and training requh-ed should be done 

 in summer. To allow fruit trees of any description to make 

 strong young shoots, and to prune them when the trees are 

 at rest, is very injudicious treatment. Cutting or pinching- 

 back the young shoots to a certain number of leaves on all 

 the varieties indiscriminately is bad practice, as some sorts 

 make three times as much young wood as others. I examined 

 a .large plantation of young trees not long ago, and many of 

 them were perfect thickets of wood through summer-pinching ; 

 the wood had not been thiuned-out, consequently suu and air 

 had not free access to the heai't of the trees, and blossom-buds 

 were formed very sparingly. The young shoots should be 

 thinned-out and stopped about midsummer, and the final 

 pruning may be attended to about the end of August. The 

 branches should be well thinned-out ; they had far better be 

 too few than be too much crowded, as if they are too numerous 

 the fi'uit will not ripen well, nor will blossom-buds be formed 

 for the ensuing year's crop. The length to which the young 

 wood must be cut-back will be regulated by the intentions of 

 the cultivator with respect to his trees. If these are to remain 

 very dwarf, the young wood must be cut-back closely ; or they 

 may be allowed to grow to a considerable size by only taking 

 the iJoints out of the young wood. 



Sometimes the trees have a tendency to grow with too much 

 vigour, and if such is the case blossom-buds will not form 

 freely. Generally this is caused by the trees being planted in 

 soU that is too rich. The best way to check this over-luxuri- 

 ance is to lift the trees, and replant them in ijure loam, or 

 they may be only partially lifted ; but either way the operator 

 must be careful not to injure or bruise the roots in any way. 

 It is beat to form a circle round the trees, large or small accord- 

 ing to the size of the trees. A trench must be dug to the 

 depth of 18 inches or 2 feet, cuttiug away all the roots extend- 

 ing beyond the radius, then work with a fork under the ball of 

 earth, so that any roots running into the subsoil may be cut 

 away. It is best to remove the old soil, and replace it with 

 fresh loam. 



There are two insect enemies which are special pests on the 

 Apple trees in this neighbourhood — viz., the larvre of the 

 gigantic Goat moth (Cossus ligniperda) ; they eat into the heart 

 of the tree and cause much damage. They are destroyed by 

 having a wire thrust into the hole, but they have a habit of 

 winding about so that they are not easily reached. A more 

 troublesome pest still is a small caterpillar which eats into the 

 hearts of the fruit, and causes it to drop in an unripe state. It 

 answers to the description of Tinea pomonella. The way we 

 get rid of them is to go round the trees daily and pick up all 

 affected fruit and destroy it. The Bombyx Neustria in a 

 caterpillar stage devours the leaves ; they live in colonies, 

 sheltered by a web-Uke tent, and should be picked off by hand 

 and destroyed when in an early stage of their development. 

 The eggs may be found in the winter deposited in cells, and 

 firmly glued in rings round the small twigs. — J. Douglas. 



OENAMBNTAL PLANTING.— No. 3. 

 Yeky much of the beauty and life of our English landscapes 

 fleets on the wings of the autumnal winds which, sweeping off 

 the pale and yellow leaves, render most trees that are in- 

 digenous, as well as many acclimatised exotics, appear cold 

 and bare. On all sides the monotony of bare branches assails 

 us, and we involuntarily long for the warmth and fulness of 

 aspect that is gone. It is then that the value of evergreen 

 forms is fully appreciated. It is the artist's time of trial, 

 when the eye of able ciiticism tests his work at such a period 

 of the year, for it is then that the forms " with verdure clad " 

 stand out in such bold and striking contrast to those with- 

 out foliage, that the intention and aim of the planter may 

 be read like a book. It is in reality a page of nature em- 

 bellished by art, and its effect upon a sympathetic and appre- 

 ciative beholder will be very much in proportion to the manner 

 in which it has been wrought out. I (jnalify this assertion 

 somewhat, because, as Emerson says — " If you criticise a fine 

 genius, the odds are that you are out of your reckoning, and, 

 instead of the poet, are censuring your own caricature of 

 him ;" and so we might say, rather, that the effect produced 

 upon the mind is pretty much in proportion to its power of 

 comprehension. 



The scene is tame, flat, and heavy; our object, therefore, 

 must be to impart relief, richness, and warmth of colouring. 

 No mixed style of planting will answer in thi.s instance. A crisp 

 bold contrast is required rather than a soft, harmonious blend- 

 ing, and in striving to effect this by the introduction of clumps 

 of kinds possessing strongly-marked characteristics, we again 

 tm-u to the Conifers for our materials. Of these the familiar 

 form of the Scotch Fir immediately claims notice, and de- 

 servedly BO too, for its admhable fitness for such a purpose has 

 long been an established fact. The dense mass of healthy 

 dark green fohage with which it is invariably clothed, the bright 

 reddish hue of its bark, the large size to which it grows, its 

 picturesque appearance when old, its hardy nature and suit- 

 ableness for the most exposed positions, and the marked effect 

 which it so quickly produces, are among the many excellencies 

 for which we so highly value it. We have nothing better 

 wherewith to clothe such bluffs and headlands as are some- 

 times seen jutting-out in bareness and sterility in very exposed 

 situations, or to form snug shelter for a house standing upon 

 some sweeping slope or steep hillside. Without dwelling 

 further upon the numerous excellent qualities of this useful 

 tree, it may be well to offer a word of caution on the manage- 

 ment of clumps and belts of it. The young trees are usually 

 planted so thickly as to require frequent attention in thinning 

 till none but the permanent trees remain. Watch the trees 

 closely, and let the growth and spread of the branches be the 

 guide as to distance apart, always remembering that for a tree 

 to attain its fullest size it must have abundance of healthy 

 branches, and foliage tolerably exposed to atmospheric in- 

 fluences, and however hardy and sturdy it may be, if these 

 conditions are wanting it may certainly exist but it will not 

 thrive. Very little good can be done to an old neglected Pine 

 clump, for when the trees have received little or no attention 

 after they were planted tor, perhaps, a generation, the outer 

 row ^-ill be found to contain all the largest trees, while those 

 in the interior, taken singly, are wretched objects unworthy to 

 be called trees, and are mere slender sticks drawn up and at- 

 tenuated, and with just a tuft of living btanchlets at the top. 

 Now, if one were to act upon the first impulse most of the 

 spoilt trees would be taken down, but if this were done it would 

 seriously affect the appearance of the clump, and the remain- 

 ing trees would probably be blown over by the first gale of 

 wind ; it is better, therefore, to leave such old clumps intact, 

 only removing those trees that exhibit symptoms of decay. 



Next comes the beautiful SUver Fir (Picea pectinata), wliich 

 appears to me to be equally hardy with the Scotch, and is 

 certainly much more elegant in appearance. It is a wonder- 

 fully vigorous tree, thriving in a poor shallow soil to a degree 

 that is equalled by few other trees with greater advantages. I 

 had ample proof of this about a year ago when making a deep 

 cutting for a road through a thick bed of gravel covered upon 

 its surface by about 10 inches of soil of the poorest description ; 

 in this soil only a few feet from the edge of one side of the 

 cutting there are three noble examples of this Pinus which 

 must be nearly 100 feet high, models of symmetry, in most 

 perfect health, and clothed with branches to the ground. Nor 

 have they the advantage of shelter, for they stand upon a 

 western slope facing a wide expanse of waste, over which fre- 

 quent south-western gales sweep with great force. The Norway 

 Spruce, too, forms a fine clump. I was sorry to see such a 

 bad account of it from Mr. Kobson ; when it does succeed 

 there are few trees even among Conifers that equal it in vigour 

 or beauty. There are fine clumps and belts of it at Maresfield 

 Park, tho seat of Lady Shelley, that are so beautiful as to 

 tempt anyone to plant it. 



The Deodar, Wellingtonia, Ai-aucaria, Douglas Fir, Yew, 

 and Pinus macrocarpa all form good clumps ; so, also, do many 

 Evergreen Oaks. The Portugal Laurel likewise blends into 

 a large mass of deep green glossy fohage that is very effective. 

 Nor must I omit the common Holly, the most hardy and 

 robust of all evergreen shrubs. Unaffected by drip, or smoke, 

 or poverty of soil, it flourishes equally weU in deepest shade or 

 brightest sunshine ; only let it become faii'ly established, and 

 further care is unnecessary. It worthily riinks high as a de- 

 corative shrub, it is at all times beautiful, and when laden 

 with its bright berries it is quite unique. There is no better 

 plant for clothing a mound with perennial greenery, and in 

 assigning it a prominent position among select shrubs for 

 grouijing, I would strongly advise the preparation of mounds 

 for it whenever a bold and striking effect is required. The 

 double Corse (Ulex enropaia flore-pleno), though not so ac- 

 commodating in its nature as the HoUy, is equally hardy, and 



