94 



JOURNAL OF HOETICULTUBE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. 



( July 80, 1874. 



to conquer the mildew. They succeeded in a very common- 

 sense manner. They took a trench out round the roots, re- 

 moved the old soil, and refilled with a barrowful or two of rich 

 manure and fresh soil. The Rose has never been mildewed 

 tince. 



la tree and shrub planting a great deal was done twsuty-tive 

 years ago. It fell to my lot to carry them in bundles at the 

 heels of the gardener and drop them into the holes as directed, 

 he mixing the kinds with much care and, as he thought, 

 foresight. How common, in spite of care, to see mistakes in 

 planting trees and shrubs ! They look well for a time and give 

 pleasure ; but by-aud-by — say in twenty years — the error of 

 indiscriminate mixing is seen, and the real difficulty com- 

 mences of making that look right which was planted wrong. 

 The plan in question is an example, and noble shrubs in the 

 finest health have to be chopped up and mutilated because 

 they are in the wrong places. Many in the background ought 

 to be in the front, and vice versa, simply because the planter 

 did not fully comprehend what the effect would be twenty-five 

 years a-head of the date of laying out. If there is one thing 

 more than another demanding thought and care, and, what is 

 more, an intuitive penetration into an effect which can only 

 be realised by the growth of years, it is shrub-planting. It is 

 enough to create a feeling of dejection to see hundreds of 

 shrubs in which one takes an interest, and which had for years 

 looked so well, now, when just in the zenith of vigour, alto- 

 gether out of place, giving an eiifect an once sombre and mono- 

 tonous, and they must get worse year by year or be cut away. 

 That is just what I saw, and it must be confessed I felt and 

 no doubt looked dejected. The feeling, however, was succeeded 

 by elation in observing the case was not a hopeless one. The 

 gardener has worked out a sample of improvement which, it 

 carried out with the same success throughout the shrubbery, will 

 change the scene from what was at once sad and depressing to 

 one of cheerfulness and interest. A thicket of foliage restrict- 

 ing the line of vision by its irregular evenness to a few yards 

 <in either hand, is giving way to an infinitely wider scope ; and 

 beauty of form, tint, and character is presented to the mind 

 by judicious treatment in the matter of thinning. 



Assuredly shrub-thinning is a work of great importance, 

 only a degree less so than planting. It is nothing without a 

 plan and system well thought out before the removal of a 

 single plant or branch. It is necessary to see through several 

 trees at once, and have in the mind a clear impression of what 

 the effect will be when the work is done. If the operator can- 

 not fully see and appreciate the work when it is done, even 

 before a stroke is made, he had better leave things as they are 

 and submit to a great muddle, lest he should make one still 

 greater. Shrub-thinning, to be successful, demands the exer- 

 cise! of various qualities. The mind must be able to take a 

 wide grasp of the work in hand, and a capacity to single-out 

 of the wilderness certain specimens marked for permanent 

 effect — key-notes to which all the rest are subservient ; that is 

 a first condition. There must be discriminating taste suffi- 

 cient to mark the right ones, and decifion of action in remov- 

 ing those not wanted. A dallying resulting in the leaving 

 of two trees where one only ought to stand, ends in the ruin 

 of both. A want of decision in this matter is common to 

 many minds, and to this is traceable much overcrowding and 

 numbers of ill-shaped trees and shrubs. Shrub-thianing, too, 

 is a work in which by no means too many people must be 

 permitted to dabble ; that will inevitably be fatal to any satis- 

 factory finish. It is always an advantage that if a good man 

 commences a work, be it what it may, that same man should 

 accomplish it with as little let and hindrance as possible. 

 Change often ends in chagrin, as it is, unfortunately, not 

 always that the unfinished work of one man will have justice 

 done to it by another. That is a fact well worth being re- 

 membered by any prone to change. 



Shrub-thinning is generally begun at the front fir.st, and it is 

 frequently a matter of regret on the part of the owner to see 

 one plant after another uprooted, and the whole place thrown, 

 as it were, into confusion for an unpleasant length of time. 

 The practice here would seem to have been just the reverse. 

 A steady preparation was made in the background. Suitable 

 specimens at proper distances were tended as to shape, work- 

 ing towards the front. This might be the steady work of two 

 or three years or more. In the meantime the front row re- 

 mained nearly the same, and the general aspect of the shrub- 

 bery from the carriage-drive was unaltered. Eventually, when 

 the time was suitable, up came what was not required in the 

 front row, other and more suitable specimens being in readi- 



ness to put in. This is done quickly, and instead of an im- 

 penetrable thicket, an array of single specimens, each having 

 room to show itself, is opened out, the ground between them 

 is turfed, and the transformation is complete. Fancy driving 

 for years between lines of Yews and Laurels grown into some- 

 thing approaching a hedge ; go again another year, and see 

 handsome and stately plants not seen before, each one giving 

 effect to the other, and the line of vision increased at the least 

 tenfold. It is a surprise and a success which cannot be gain- 

 said. It is the steady preparatory work in the background, 

 little or nothing seen going on in the front, to whicb the suc- 

 cess is mainly due. This little example is worth noting, show- 

 ing, as it does, in a practical manner, how miles of uninterest- 

 ing drives may be transformed into enjoyable groves, and this 

 in a quiet systematic way, with a minimum of disorder as the 

 work goes on, and giving a maximum of pleasure by, as it 

 were, the suddenness and completeness of the change effected. 

 It is just a question of means and the taste of an able man 

 being permitted scope whether the hidden beauties of many a 

 place shall be brought out and its latent resources turned to 

 account and enjoyed, or remain as in the past — hidden, buried, 

 as if they had no existence. 



I cannot dwell at length on other things in this good garden, 

 considering mere description, unless some useful hints are 

 evolved, time not well applied. I would, however, venture to 

 hint on the unwisdom of visitors being hypercritical. Amongst 

 gardeners it is of no use mincing the matter, it is too much the 

 rule. There is too much proneness to find fault, to denounce 

 without taking into account, or troubling to think of, special 

 circumstances or requirements. For instance. Pine Apples are 

 not large here, simply because small fruit are required. But 

 of this fruit I may note one curiosity. A plant refused to 

 "show" last year. lu .January of this year it was cut ofi' 

 level with the pot and planted again as a cutting. In March 

 it " bolted," and at the end of June ripened a Queen of over 

 4 lbs. weight. Of the Vines an exhibition grower would say, 

 "too much wood;" but the Grapes are not grown for exhi- 

 bition, and the fruit is of a character that satisfies, and more 

 need not be said. Here, I believe as everywhere, the more 

 foliage Mrs. Pince carries, the more and better fruit it gives. 

 Midresfield Court ripens admirably in an intermediate house, 

 well up in colour and flavour. What a fine Grape it is ! 

 Peach'^B under glass were abundant ; on walls from want of 

 glass the trees have been ruined. 



It is particularly pleasurable to contemplate on the presence 

 of old faces in old places. Something, yea a great deal, more 

 than "commercial principles " tie master to man, and man to 

 master, amongst the nobility and gentry of our country. The 

 grey hairs of an old servant or labourer are an honour to the 

 place on which he has spent his strength. Happily they are 

 not always the signal for his being cut adrift. If by advancing 

 years there is less of animal strength and activity, there are 

 the counterbalancing qualities of faithfulness, trust, reliabihty, 

 and an experience in auticipating wants seldom present iu 

 youth. Many an old garden labourer knows infinitely more in 

 kitchen-garden affairs than a freshly burnished and accom- 

 pUshed young gardener just " out of the houses." Well it is 

 for these old men who have won respect, who have been fairly 

 dealt with, and have dealt fairly, and who have no real cause 

 to loosen the existing confidence by listeniug to the seductive 

 eloquence of those who, by ambition, selfishness, or a yearning 

 after popularity, would (let us hope unintentionally) sow seeds 

 of discontent where content has long prevailed, and in their 

 efforts for good create evil, by holding out hopes which cannot 

 be fulfiUed. 



The garden, I must add, reflects much credit on Mr. 

 McGillivray. — J. Wright. 



LOOK TO THE POTATOES. 

 I HiVE to-day (July 24th) been through the late-keeping 

 Potatoes, and find the whole of them vigorous in growth, per- 

 fectly healthy, aud without a trace of disease. The baneful 

 effects of the drought are distinctly visible in the smallness of 

 the tubers, and I am afraid the crop is advanced too far for us 

 to hope for much increase either in weight or bulk. There 

 will be frequent inspections during the ensuing three weeks, 

 and judging from its forward condition, the entire crop will 

 probably be taken up and stored by the second week of August. 

 Last season's experience increased my confidence in the great 

 value and importance of early lifting. The Victorias that were 

 lifted on August 14th and VAh last year continued perfectly 



