October S, 18GS. ] 



JOURNAL OF HORTICULTURE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. 



281 



bo used for Strawberries for other purposes, or at least allow 

 of duo preparation during the winter. These runners, pricked 

 out now, if used at all for forcing late next spring, will succeed 

 those pricked out n i on as they could be obtained in summer, 

 and which arc now nice strong plants, that will lift with good 

 balls. For the earliest lifting in spring we prefer, however, 

 those which have come from a small pot before planting them 

 out in the open ground. The ball formed in the pot has a 

 tendency to keep the roots nearer home. 



Such plants tunic. 1 out of small pots, or pricked out at once 

 into rich soil for forcing purposes, will require little trouble in 

 winter in comparison with plants in pots, as the former will 

 pretty well look after themselves ; and where a slight hotbed 

 can be given to the roots after potting or planting, whilst the 

 tops are kept cool until the roots arc growing afresh, they will 

 bear well if taken up after the middle of March. To have 

 plants to fruit well early under glass, say in February and 

 March, they must be well established in their pots by the 

 end of September, and the ball be as. full and firm with roots 

 as to be like a mould of cheese when turned out. We wish 

 we could now put a lot of our earliest in 40-sized and 32-sized 

 pots under the protection of glass to stop the progress of 

 growth, which this moist weather encourages, and hasten on the 

 maturation of the buds, which seem very strong, and we would 

 only now like to see the foliage less vigorous and green. This 

 season, with the exception of a dusting of soot on the surfaco 

 of tho pots, which the rains washed in, the pots have had no 

 manure waterings ; but when sunny drying weather permits of 

 such waterings being given, early ripening of the foliage and 

 buds is hastened, as well as strong vigorous growth. Compara- 

 tive dryness will assist the ripening process now, but it will do 

 little more than help, unless we have more direct light. We 

 have proved over and over again that many fine plants that 

 are barren in early forcing owe the barrenness to too much 

 dryness in autumn and winter parching up the fruit-buds in 

 embryo. The same result often takes place from having the soil, 

 and especially the crown of the plant, too moist after forcing 

 has commenced. There will be little danger of over-dryness if 

 the plants be kept out of doors in winter, plunged or otherwise 

 before forcing-time, and there will be no great danger of over- 

 moisture if drainage is secured, so that the moisture can pass 

 easily away, and the crown of the plant is well raised in the 

 centre of the pot. Any of these extremes, and especially extra 

 dryness, will be apt to occur when the pots are kept under 

 glass in winter, if not frequently looked to and examined. If, 

 as they ought to be, the plants have been firmly potted in their 

 fruiting pots — and it is hardly possible to make the soil too firm 

 if the roots be not injured — then that firmness and the mass 

 of roots in little space will cause the leaves to show distress, 

 and the soil to exhibit signs of separating from the sides of the 

 pot whenever the soil becomes rather dry ; and as soon as 

 these signs commence to appear water should be carefully 

 given. When the plants are kept out of doors in beds, and 

 the pots unplunged, they are much more liable to suffer bad 

 effects from changes in the weather than plants growing in the 

 natural soil, as there all changes affect them gradually. Many 

 fine plants with their pots exposed, and the soil inside of them 

 wet rather than otherwise, have had their roots so injured by 

 a sudden severe frost, that when shortly afterwards put into a 

 gentle heat, what was left of the good roots would cause fresh 

 leaves to come from the crown, but there would not be enough 

 of root-action to start a flower-truss, and the flower-buds would 

 either rot or shrivel up, or wait for more favourable circum- 

 stances to make their appearance. We note this latter fact 

 because plants which have had their roots injured by frost, and 

 thus refused to throw up their truss in the usual time, when 

 taken back to a bed under glass until fresh roots were esta- 

 blished, have then thrown up a healthy truss, but some six 

 weeks or so later than their neighbours did. The exposure of 

 the pots in winter is not sufficiently guarded against. 



There have been several inquiries as to removing any of the 

 leaves from potted Strawberry plants in autumn. We do not 

 profess to know all the outs and ins in this matter, but we 

 rarely remove a leaf then, as a fine mass of leaves, even when 

 a little spotted, which they will be as the buds and crowns 

 ripen, acts as a protection to buds and roots ; but we clear away 

 the most of such old withering leaves when we start the plants 

 with heat, and this, we think, gives a better chance for a strong 

 truss to come from the crown. 



Planting Fruit Trees. — It is rather early to do this if the trees 

 have to be brought from a nursery, and that at a distance, and 

 with little or no earth about their roots, as much injury is 



occasioned if the green leaves shrivel up without ripening, or 

 tho bark becomes at all shrivelled or rdirunken, which would 

 better be avoided by planting in the end of October, or the be- 

 ginning of Novembor. In all cases, however, it is well to pre- 

 pare the places for planting, whether mi mounds or otherwise, 

 bearing in miud that the higher t lie roots are planted, the more 

 will they bo under atmospheric influence, and tho sooner will 

 the trees bear, and the more fruitful will they be. If the trees 

 are at hand, and can be raised with small balls, or at least have 

 a little earth about their roots, and the bare parts can be 

 planted immediately, then the planting cannot be done too 

 earl; during this month. If the tree has a small ball, let it bo 

 placed so that it will neither be too high nor too low, when tho 

 soil comes to its due level, and, therefore, the importance of a 

 firm platform to plant on ; the rest of the roots should bo well 

 packed in earth, and then moderately watered, the other rather 

 moist soil being firmed round them. Little more will then bo 

 required besides syringing the foliage in an unusually sunny day, 

 that the somewhat greenish leaves may ripen gradually, and 

 not be shrivelled up prematurely. When trees are raised, and 

 no ball can be retained at this early season, we would prefer 

 placing the roots in a tub of water for fifteen minutes, that they 

 might be surcharged with juices in preference to making the 

 earth about them like a puddle. Such roots when nicely packed 

 in suitable soil, and then gently watered, and the bulk of the 

 earth packed round them, neither wet nor dry, will do well, and 

 the tops will do well also, with a syringing over the stems and 

 leaves in sunny weather, before the leaves fall. If fruiting 

 plants are thus managed at this early period, they will in tho 

 following season exhibit little or no traces of the moving, but 

 will swell their fruit as if they had not been removed at all. 

 This early establishing of the plants in their new positions 

 is the great advantage of early-autumn planting, and if it is 

 not so generally done as it ought to be, it is not because gar- 

 deners are not well awaro of the importance of so doing, but 

 because a press of other work, in most cases, prevents them. 



Raspberries. — Except in the case of perpetual and autumn- 

 bearing kinds (and most kinds will bear in autumn if the shoots 

 be cut down in spring, and those pushed be thinned out), the 

 sooner the summer-bearing wood has been removed, and the 

 other canes thinned to the proper number, the better will those 

 left be ripened, and the better will they bear next season. In 

 doing this work much earlier than the present time, care must 

 be taken not to remove or tear off the leaves from tho canes left, 

 as until they drop naturally, the finer and the inore untouched 

 such foliage, the finer and more prolific will the fruit be next 

 season. In hot, dry summers, no plants more enjoy manure- 

 waterings and rich surface-dressings. The nearer the roots 

 are to the surface, provided they are kept from dryness, and 

 have a rich pasturage, the more prolific will such plants be, 

 and the more continuous the bearing. 



Melons. — Unless where there is plenty of dung heat, those in 

 frames will not do much good in this dull weather. They will 

 do much better where dry heat from fire, by flue or hot water, 

 can be given ; but unless to great Melon lovers, we always 

 think that a Melon is of little consequence after the second or 

 third week in October. To have the fruit at its best, needs the 

 sun in its strength. There are a few places where they are 

 deemed desirable all the year round, and if so they must be 

 obtained, and receive a little more care than Cucumbers ; but 

 the latter eaten in the green state do not suffer as respects 

 flavour, like Melons, from the absence of sunlight. In fact, we 

 have known Cucumber plants produce nice, sweet, crisp fruit 

 all the winter and spring, and then yield bitter, tough fruit 

 when the days were at their longest. 



OKNAMENTAI. DEPARTMENT. 



Machining Lawns. — The grass has been too wet to use our 

 little machines, as the knives become too much clogged to per- 

 mit of their easy working. What we have chiefly used lately 

 are Green's chain machines, with cutters about 15 inches wide, 

 each worked by one man. We are frequently asked why we 

 do not have a larger machine, with a pony or donkey to draw 

 it. We could use such a one better now than at one time, as 

 we have wider spaces, free of trees or flowers ; but for a small 

 pony we could not well have a machine above 30 inches wide, 

 and then at least a man and a boy would be wanted, the latter 

 to drive and empty, for much is not gained by emptying the 

 grass on the ground and then gathering it up again, and be- 

 sides, it is contrary to one of our maxims — viz., " Never make 

 a heap in cleaning that can be avoided." When a man takes 

 his own machine he takes his barrow with him, and so places 

 it as to be suitable for emptying into it the box as soon as this 



