Octobor 9, 18G6. ] 



JOURNAL OF HORTICULTURE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. 



273 



stoning, I cleared the house of nil plants, shutting it up early- 

 say from two to half-past two o'clock, p.m., the thermometer 

 sometimes rising to 90", and not at any time during the disease 

 did I let it fall below 70°. Then I flooded every part of the 

 house with water, hut not the Grapes, putting on a brisk firo 

 by four or live o'clock. I then placed from one to two dozen 

 flower-pans on the flue, covering the bottom of them a quarter 

 of an inch thick with sulphur, and putting in enough water to 

 cover the sulphur ; when this had evaporated, I poured in some 

 more water, and I followed this treatment till I saw the mildew 

 turn to a brown, then black colour. One precaution needed is, 

 to be sure to give air early in the morning, say by 7 a.m. This 

 treatment I found to stop the progress of the mildew in a few 

 s.— II. B. 



RUBBISH-HEAPS. 



I have generally two or three rubbish-heaps which I treat 

 differently, and much future labour as respects weeds, &c. 

 would be avoided were they always kept distinct by the work- 

 men. The first or regular rubbish-heap, the never-failing 

 help to the kitchen garden and the rougher flower-borders, 

 consists of the remains of all vegetables and plants that are 

 useless for other purposes, bails of temporary plants that are 

 of no more use, weeds that are seeding, and, from the lawn, 

 short grass that is not needed for heating-purposes or mixing 

 with litter. By this time of the year there are generally two 

 snch heaps, and much of their future utility depends on the 

 mixing of their constituents, and when, as in the case of much 

 green grass being added, there is considerable heating, on 

 the covering all over with a coating of the most earthy part to 

 keep as much as possible all gases from escaping. This can 

 scarcely be done in the additions that are made day by day, as 

 there will be baskets of this, and barrow-loads of that thrown 

 down in the easiest emptying place. If these heaps are near 

 the working-sheds, all work connected with them may well be 

 done between the showers in such uncertain weather as that 

 which we have lately had. One such heap has, therefore, been 

 finished ; a good lot of grass in a heating state had been mixed 

 with vegetables, weeds, earth, &c, at different times, and now 

 all such grass available has been added, and the heap has been 

 covered over with the earthiest matter at command. Inside, 

 the mass is fermenting strongly, and little or no gases are 

 escaping, and when cut down in winter, such a heap will only 

 be inferior to the best half-decomposed farmyard manure. 



My second kind of rubbish-heap is one that undergoes the 

 fiery process. It consists of primings, that either from their 

 spines and thorns cannot be handled, or are so small and leafy 

 as to bo unfit for fumace-lighting, as cuttings of Ivy, Peri- 

 winkles, and all sorts of root weeds, and seed weeds, such as the 

 White Convolvolus and the Sowthistle, which would not do to be 

 taken to the above rot-heap, as the loots would just be in the 

 best position for extending themselves throughout the mass ; 

 and if Chickweed, Groundsel, Thistle, iSrc, had the flower-buds 

 formed and opened, there would often be moisture enough in 

 the stems, and heat enough in the heap, to perfect and scatter 

 the seeds, and not enough to destroy them, consequently up 

 they would come again when taken out to the garden and 

 placed near enough the surface for sun and air to act upon 

 them. In such cases the useless spray comes in well for a fire, 

 on which a great heap of such half-rotting weeds is piled ; 

 and when fairly heated, and the heat kept in with old-used 

 earth mixed with the weeds and rubbish of primings, a large 

 heap of burnt earth and ashes is obtained, and snch, for surface- 

 dressings and keeping vermin at bay, is little inferior to lime. 

 The smouldering of the heap when fairly started tends to char 

 instead of quite burning up much of the vegetable matter. 

 The fire is the best means for reducing all such rubbish into 

 little space, and securing from deleterious materials a good 

 dressing for any, and especially strong loamy and clayey 

 ground. 



A third heap, but scarcely a rubbish-heap, consists of larger 

 prunings more free from leaves, dried Hollyhock stems, Pea- 

 stakes, too rotten for further use, and for lighting furnaces, 

 for which purpose they are inferior to fresh dry faggots — in 

 fact anything wooden, from small twigs to shoots as thick as 

 the thumb or wrist. These, firmly packed together, may be 

 charred. One of the easiest modes of doing this is to cover 

 the outside with a few inches of large weeds, tree leaves, or 

 even long grass, or anything of that kind, and then cover 

 this over with the commonest refuse earth. The rough inside 

 covering prevents the earth falling through into the charring 



mass, and will bo more easily obtained in a garden than a 

 covering of turf, which is next to essential to charring large 

 lumps of wood for kitchen purposes. To char this twiggy 

 rubbish much the same process must be gone through as for 

 charring wood for stove purposes. The charring can only take 

 place when enough of air is admitted to ke< p up a smouldering 

 combustion without flame. For this purpose, light where you 

 will, the tire will take hold at the top of the heap ; and when 

 it has taken good hold, it must be securely banked up with 

 earth there to prevent flame issuing forth, and a few holes 

 farther dow-n in the heap must bo made to let a littlo air in to 

 keep up the smouldering combustion. As the matter there 

 becomes charred the upper holes are flint up, and others made 

 lower down until you reach tho bottom, and the whole is 

 charred, smoke and vapour issuing freely from these holes ; 

 but if ever as much air is admitted as to cause the materials 

 to flare and flame, then the charring is exchanged for burning, 

 and instead of valuable charred mate] tal j ou will have a much 

 less bulky and much less valuablo material in the shape of 

 ashes. When charring, therefore, is attempted, the heap must 

 not be long left from the time of lighting the fire to that of 

 removing the charcoal. A slight neglect — the opening of a 

 rent or vent in the covering, so as to create flame inside — will 

 soon, as respects charring, render all the labour abortive. 

 When I practised much of this sort of rubbish-charring, the 

 earth and weeds used in covering were afterwards burned up 

 in the weed-heap. 



By these three modes almost everything cast out from a 

 garden can be made the most of for useful purposes. — R. Fish. 



THE PHILOSOPHY OF PRUNING. 



Pitching is one of the most important operations to be ap- 

 plied to plants, especially to woody plants. Pruning in some 

 sort has to be performed at all periods of their existence and 

 growth ; and upon all, from the lordly forest tree, or the fruit- 

 bearing orchard, of whatever kind, to the humble bushes and 

 brambles that yield us their abundant and most welcome fruits, 

 or the trailing Vine that adorns our arbours, and covers our 

 trellises with its rich and tempting clusters of luscious Grapes. 

 Many herbaceous plants are also submitted to judicious pruning, 

 and yield in consequence an increased product of fruit. Our 

 ornamental gardeners and plant-growers practise pruning most 

 admirably upon their house plants, and by their successful 

 methods of pursuing the practice they produce the most won- 

 derful effects in the vigour, thrift, symmetry, and blossoming of 

 their specimens. Yet, when we come to travel about the country, 

 and see the shrubberies, the parks, the orchards, fruit gardens 

 and vineyards, as they are, wo shall be struck with the great 

 amount of ignorance or neglect which is manifested in what we 

 everywhere behold ! Still more shall we be surprised when we 

 hear nurserymen and orchardists, men who have had oppor- 

 tunities for extended observations, and those too, who are con- 

 sidered successful cultivators, advocate the idea that trees should 

 not be pruned at all. An apologymay be found for them in the 

 many instances of bad pruning that may frequently be met with 

 — they may say that no pruning is better than such mutilation 

 — and with some varieties they may have a share of reason on 

 their side, since there are many sorts that will very naturally 

 produce an open head, everywhere provided with abundant 

 fruit-spurs, those great desiderata of the fruit-grower. 



We prune our plants for the most opposite purposes. We 

 prune to make them assume some desired form, we prune to 

 produce symmetry, we prune to torture them as much as pos- 

 sible from their natural habit. Agin, we prune to make them 

 grow vigorously, at one time, and we perform other pruning 

 operations in order to dwarf and stunt our specimens, and to 

 make them as diminutive as possible. The experienced or- 

 chardist will tell you to prune the barren but thrifty tree in order 

 to make it productive of fruits, and he may also tell you to 

 prune one still more severely, which has expended all bs energies 

 in fruit-bearing, and appears likely to exhau.-t itself to its own 

 destruction. Upon very high authority, snppi rted h; universal 

 and annual practice, the Vine-dresser will advise you to prune 

 your Vine in order to make it fruitful, and he will also urge you 

 to prune in such a manner as to prevent over-production — he 

 will further insist that you shall prune again during the season 

 of growth to promote the same objects. 



Thus it appears that the ends to be attained by pursuing the 

 practice of this important operation are exceedingly diverse and 

 apparently contradictory ; nor is it any wonder that the novice 



