December 10, 1874. ] 



JOURNAL OP H0RTICDLTDR3 AND COTTAGE GARDENER. 



519 



bloom in his absence. I think the Chilwell Geraniums prove 

 that a determination to keep none bnt really good things must 

 pay in the end, for some years since I think that only two 

 flowers were kept and named out of six thousand seedlings, 

 and now bo much is the breed improved that the kinds I have 

 named were all raised in one year. Years ago many thought 

 there was no further room for improvement in Zonal Gera- 

 niums, but who when admiring the Maid of Kent could so 

 soon anticipate a Lady Emily which was sent out last spring, 

 or a Lady Byron which has to be sent out next year ? — Quintik 

 Beau, Pleasley Vale Gardens, Mansfield. 



GARDEN LABELS. 

 I THINK with your correspondent, that a cheap and excellent 

 label might readily be manufactured of white porcelain with 

 the lettering burnt-in. Plants in pots are usually sent out 

 from nurseries with a wooden tally, on which is either a num- 

 ber or the name of the plant, too often indistinctly written. 

 The adoption of " Amateur's " suggestion would be a real 

 boon to the horticultural world, and it is a matter for surprise 

 that it has not been carried out long since. — SnuscBiBKK. 



I WOULD recommend the following method of preparing 

 labels for plants :— Cut pieces of zinc to the size and shape 

 required, stamp the holes, paint them white, when perfectly 

 dry write with a blacklead pencil. Of course the better the 

 writing the more elegant they will look. But I prefer wood to 

 zinc, as I have seen the paint come badly off the zinc with the 

 heat of the sun, &a. The wood can be cut to any size, or 

 shape also. Paint them white, when dry write with blacklead 

 pencil, then varnish. If this is properly done they will keep 

 beautifully for many years in either hothouse or garden. — 

 William Laurie, Gardener, Lynnwood. Stirling. 



The most legible mode is to print the names so that they 

 can easily be read without having to step on the beds or 

 border. But now comes the query. What are they to be done 

 with that will last and stand the weather? We want some- 

 thing that is lasting but clear, and can be plainly seen at a 

 passing glance, and that I am afraid is out of our capacity, 

 unless we apply to the crockery manufacturer or some sort of 

 enamelliug. But we must not despair if there is any reliance 

 to be placed in what I have now before me, and that is a scrap 

 out of a Boston journal, the substance of which is as follows : — 

 For zinc labels take of verdigris and sal ammoniac two drachms, 

 lampblack one drachm, water 4 ozs., to be well mixed in a 

 mortar, adding the water gradually. It must be kept in a 

 glass-stoppered vial. Write with a quill pen on the zinc with 

 the ink, after shaking it well, and after it is dry you may 

 expose it to the weather or bury it in the ground for years, 

 and it will be as legible as when first written. — Thomas 

 Sheasbt, Hare Uill Gardens, llaceleslield. 



I USE labels made of glass, and write the name of the plants 

 upon them with a diamond, or they can be written upon with 

 a blacklead pencil when they are required for flower seeds or 

 for one season only. For espaliers or wall trees I drill a hole 

 through one end of the labels, so as to suspend them with 

 copper wire, or nail them to a wall with copper nails. If nails 

 are used they should not fit the holes too tight, nor should 

 they be driven quite home, so as to allow the glass to expand 

 a little when warm. Made plain without holes the cost per 

 label would not exceed Id. each ; with holes about 2d. each. 

 Small labels could be made for pot plants at about Od. per 

 dozen. — Another Amateur. 



[Our correspondent has sent us specimens of .ill the kinds, 

 and they are the most attractive we have ever seen. They are 

 more than one-eighth of an inch thick, and being of frosted 

 glass they can be written on with a blacklead pencil, and the 

 writing easily washed off and renewed or changed. — Eds] 



I THINK if " An Amateur, Fifeshire," will try five grains 

 chloride of platinum, dissolved in 1 oz. of distilled water, and 

 write with it upon zinc labels first rubbed with emery paper, 

 he will have one of the best and most enduring labels. I have 

 known these labels buried more than two years, and found the 

 writing perfectly legible. — W. B. H. 



[Of zinc labels the best forms that we have seen are those 

 prepared by Mr. Yeast, Mortlake, Surrey ; they also have the 



merit of being very cheap. They are substantial, and give 

 plenty of space for writing. — Eds.] 



LIFTING AND BOOT-PRUNING FRUIT TREES. 



No. 6. 

 Peach, Nectarine, and Apricot trees, as also the Plum, which 

 are all upon the Plum stock, are often when young very free in 

 growth, making long sappy shoots which do not ripen well, 

 though sufKciently so for continued growth, but not f*'r the 

 formation of fruit-buds, and the trees are consequently for 

 some years unfruitful. I had some of all three kinds planted 

 four years ago this autumn, and one-year trained, which in 

 three seasons' growth covered on walls a space of 9 feet high 

 by 10 feet width, one Apricot tree outstripping all others, 

 having in three years occupied a space of 12 feet by 10 feet. 

 These trees are in a free, open, rich, light soil. I have others 

 in a stronger and firmer soil, which from the time of planting, 

 also four years ago, have made much shorter-jointed firmer 

 wood, ripening perfectly, and producing fruit from the second 

 year, whilst the others have fruited but little. The trees in the 

 heavier and firm soil have not grown more than two-thirds 

 the extent of the trees in the freer soil, and the fruit produced 

 is not compensating, as they are not better furnished with 

 bloom-buds for their size than are the others one-third larger. 

 Both are plentifully furnished with them, and next year the 

 larger trees will afford— I am guided now by experience — one- 

 third more fruit than the smaller trees, and make up at once 

 for the want of bearing in the preceding two years. 'They will 

 in seven years from planting cover the whole of their allotted 

 space, and will be made to fruit right away now, whilst the 

 others will not have covered theirs under ten years, probably a 

 dozen. 



I know it is not considered good practice to manure trees at 

 planting and encourage growth by a rich soil, as it tends to 

 make them unfruitful and unhealthy. This is unquestionably 

 true of the Apple, Pear, and Cherry on the free stock ; they 

 grow quite freely enough without a rich soil — even become gross 

 when the soil is heavily manured at planting, but for trees on 

 the dwarfing but free-roeting stock, whether they be Apple, 

 Pear, Cherry, Plum, Apricot, Peach, or Nectarine, a good 

 dressing of manure thoroughly incorporated with the soil is 

 the best thing that can be done to give them a start. It seems 

 to me strange for a tree to be pinched for support whilst it is 

 young, the object being to get it to fruit at an early age ; but 

 I cannot admit that a young fruit tree famished into maturity 

 when it is young will have other than small sap vessels, nor 

 that it will be as capable of transmitting through its stunted 

 growth as good a supply of food as a tree that in youth has 

 grown freely, or be nearly so healthy. 



It is admitted that Vines fruited heavily in the early years 

 of their growth do not give such good after-results as those 

 which are very sparingly cropped the first two and three or 

 more years. The early and heavy-cropped are so enfeebled as to 

 be of little value for some years ; they seldom if ever recover 

 so as to equal in result those which during the first two, three, 

 or more years were allowed to make headway and obtain a 

 firm grip of the soil before they are permitted to bear a full 

 crop ; in fact, if they are allowed to carry a full crop the first 

 year it is advisable to throw them away. It is also granted 

 "that the fruiting size of Vines is not so good for permanent 

 planting as those which have been grown a shorter time in 

 pots, and have not such stout, short-jointed wood, and the 

 eyes very prominent — have neither the roots so cramped nor 

 stimulated by high feeding producing wood in a season as thick 

 as a finger in degrees of thickness from the fore to the little, 

 and eyes like nuts. It is known that the fruiting canes are 

 not so good for planting as the moderate-sized ones ; they may 

 produce greater results for a time, but in the end are not so 

 serviceable as those planted of less size. Even within the past 

 few years the practice of growing them in pots at all for plant- 

 ing permanently has been departed from by no less an autho- 

 rity than Mr. W. Thomson, the young Vines being raised in 

 beds and so planted in their permanent position with their 

 roots originating dlrcctlj from the root-stem instead of being 

 made to form every conceivable angle and curve around the 

 inside of a pot, which the planter tries to straighten at 

 planting. 



If early-bearing — growth which results in fruitfulness, and 

 in Vines results in after-enfeeblement — is it not equally ap- 

 plicable to other fruit trees ? I think it is ; and yet whilst 

 we have to guard against a system which by starving or a firm 



