178 



JOURNAL OF HOBTICULTUEE AND COTTAGE GABDENEB. 



[ Maich 2, 1876. 



buried too deeply, and especially at an early season, many fail 

 to come up, and many of those that do germinate are weakly. 

 In support of this I will quote a very useful passape in Johnson's 

 " Science and Practice of Gardening." It says, " The absolute 

 necessity for the presence of oxygen is a reason why seeds will 

 not germinate if buried beyond a certain distance from the 

 earth's surface, and why clayey soils often fail of having a good 

 plant — an impervious coating of clay enveloping the seed and 

 preventing the air's access." It goes on to say that M. Burger 

 found that "seeds of Rye buried 1 inch below the surface had 

 their leaves above it in eight days and a half, whereas those at 

 a depth of C inches had only just sprouted at the end of twenty- 

 two days ;" and further it says, '* Too deep sowing iLflicts another 

 injury, though it be not at such a depth as to entirely prevent 

 germination. It so oonsnmes the matter of the seed in forming 

 the useless elongation of stalk necessary to bring the leaves 

 above the surface that all further progress in vegetation has 

 been prevented." Enough is here quoted to warn anyone of the 

 dangers of deep sowing, and I would rather err the other way, 

 because when the plants are up surface soil can be conveniently 

 added. 



No doubt genial weather has much to do with the quickness at 

 which seeds vegetate, because heat and moisture are the princi- 

 pal agents in influencing their progressive power. We find that 

 in the case of such small seeds as Primulas, Cinerarias, Lobelias, 

 and many others that these should not be buried under the soil 

 at a much greater depth than the thickness of the seeds them- 

 selves, but then when germination has begun such a shallow 

 covering should be kept continually moist, not so much by fre- 

 quently watering as by a damp covering of moss until the seed- 

 Ungs are welt up and have rooted into the soil sufficiently to bear 

 a little light and air to add to their strength. — Thos. Eecokd. 



DOINGS OF THE LAST AND WORK FOR 

 THE PRESENT WEEK. 



HARDY FRUIT GARDEN. 



"We like to have all the nailing done early ; and as our wall 

 trees receive nearly all the pruning and training they require 

 during the late summer months, there is but little to do in the 

 wint'.r except to look over the trees, to re-arrange the young 

 wood, and replace anyfastenings that have decayed. Wherethere 

 is a very large extent of walls covered with fruit trees, and not 

 more than sufficient assistance to do the work, it is not easy to have 

 all the wall-pruning and nailing done in good time, the more bo 

 when the winter has been severe ; for even if men are sent to 

 such work they cannot do it with the thermometer below the 

 freezing point. The Peach %vall is generally left to the last, and 

 to make satisfactory work of this it is best to undo the trees 

 entirely from the walls. 



It may not be out of place to make a few remarks on the 

 Peach as a wall tree. Nearly all stone fruits require a deep 

 clayey soil to grow them to perfection, and to grow the Peach 

 well the soil mast be deep good clayey loam, not stiff adhesive 

 clay. If the soil contains too much clay, the best corrective to 

 it is good leaf mould as free as possible from decayed wood ; if 

 the ground is not naturally dry it must be drained. On the 

 other hand, light sandy soil may be improved by adding stiff 

 clay. First, as to young trees. Of course they were selected 

 and planted in the position intended for them in November, and 

 the ground will have sunk down enough by this time to allow of 

 the trees being pruned and nailed. The trees if they were 

 selected from a good nursery will have three, five, or seven 

 shoots. Now some growers would cut off two-thirds from the 

 length of these growths, but if the trees were planted at the 

 right time, and had plenty of fibrous roots, not more than one- 

 third of the length should be cut off close. But no rule can he laid 

 down, as much will depend upon the health and vigour of the 

 trees. The two lower shoots should be brought down to an 

 almost horizontal position, then the centre growth must be 

 trained vertically, and the other growths equidistant between 

 them. The same system holds good with the large bearing 

 trees ; the main branches should be nailed-in first, and the 

 young bearing wood must be judiciously placed between them. 



If it is necessary to cut-bac-k any of the young wood it must 

 be cut at a triple bud ; the middle bud of the three is usually a 

 leaf bud. Very few of the smaller growths are furnished with 

 leaf buds except the point of the shoot, which is always one. 

 The round buds are all flower buds, and to cut at one of them 

 is to destroy the growth, as no shoot will be produced. If the 

 protecting material is not in good condition it must be seen to 

 at once. Indeed, as soon as the trees are nailed this may be 

 fixed if the canvas can be rolled up under the projecting coping, 

 where it is protected from rain. 



Apple and Pear trees intended to be regrafted should be 

 headed-down at once if this has not been done, and the grafts 

 may be put on as soon as it is seen that the sap is in motion. 

 There is nothing now requiring to be done amongst the pyramid 

 and other trees in the borders. The ground between them has 

 been manured and dug. 



VINEBIE8. 



There is now plenty of work in the early houses, training and 

 stopping the laterals which are now pushing very rapidly. 

 Some varieties of Grapes do better trained on what is usually 

 termed the short-spur system than others ; the free-bearing 

 varieties, such as Black Hamburgh, Muscat of Alexandria, Lady 

 Downe's, Royal Vineyard, Mrs. Piuce's Black Muscat, and a few 

 others may be spurred pretty closely back year after year, and 

 still continue to produce abundant crops. Other sorts must 

 either have the spurs left longer or young wood must be trained- 

 up from the base of the Vines annually. Canon Hall Muscat, 

 Golden Champion, Gros Guillaume, Buckland Sweetwater, and 

 White Frontignan must be classed amongst those that succeed 

 best with frequent renewals of the young wood. The Canon 

 Hall MuEcat will not show bunches at all from clofely-spurred 

 laterals on an old rod. We train the lateral growth3 all about 

 the same angle, say 45'^ ; some persons train the young wood in 

 a horizontal direction from the rod, but this is not usual. 



Our Vines are now in flower, so that a higher temperature ia 

 being kept up with less moisture in the atmosphere. The 

 Muscat house is about 75° at night, and the Hamburgh house 

 70° in very cold weather. If the glass registers 5° less than thia 

 we do not mind it. The bunches are gently shaken twice a-day, 

 about 10 A.M. and 1 p.m. Late houses are all ready to start, bnt 

 we shall not hurry them at present, as the houses are so useful 

 for bedding plants until they can be placed under canvas out of 

 doors. 



Red spider may be expected very soon to appear In the 

 earliest houses. A correspondent, " J. C," makes some remarks 

 on destroying it last week. His plan is reasonable and well 

 worth a trial, but he ought not to say that "it answers no 

 good purpose to paint the pipes with 'sulphur, but the reverse." 

 Now we have repeatedly painted the hot-water pipes with 

 sulphur and destroyed the spider. I have had so much ex- 

 perience in this that I can tell whether the fumes arising from 

 the pipes is strong enough by remaining in the house for a few 

 seconds, and when the fumes are strong enough the fire is 

 checked at once. Mr. Rivers in one of his books recommended 

 slaking lime in the house and throwing a handful of sulphur 

 upon it. This we tried once, but the lime was not strong enough. 

 Better lime was obtained fresh from the kiln, and the same 

 process was repeated in a house of splendid Grapes just colour- 

 ing, with the result that almost every leaf was killed in the 

 house, and the crop lost for that season. That was my first 

 and last attempt with lime. We only used a 9 or 10 inch pot- 

 ful of lime, but it caused the sulphur to burst into a flame. Of 

 ooturse, the pot was hurried-out immediately the flame was seen. 



PEACH HOUSE. 



When the trees in the early house are in flower the atmo- 

 sphere ought not to be very moist — only sufficient to counteract 

 the drying heat of the pipes. When the fruit is set the trees 

 should be well syringed to wash off decaying petals, and the 

 syringing to be continued daily. The Peach is more liable to 

 the attacks of red spider even than Vines, but to syringe the 

 Vines would be to sadly mar the appearance of the fruit, 

 whereas the Peach is not injured in the least by the free use of 

 the syringe or garden engine. Of course the water must be a 

 little warm. All water used for syringing ought to be. The 

 water-pots ought to be filled with water and placed upon the 

 hot-water pipes, the water will thus be slightly warmer than 

 the atmosphere of the house. 



Continue to disbud, not rubbing-off all the shoots that will 

 ultimately be removed ; to do so may check the trees. One 

 growth at the base and one as a leader to each shoot is the 

 proper number to leave on. When the trees are in good health 

 the fruit may be severely tiiinned very soon after it is set. 

 About double the quantity that will ultimately be allowed to 

 ripon should be left on until nearly the stoning period. If it is 

 all right after stoning begins very few fruits will drop. We 

 have thinned our fruit on the pot trees to the required number 

 before stoning, and have lost but very few from dropping off. 

 The inside borders must be well supplied with water. When in 

 full growth the Peach requires a large supply, and dryness at the 

 roots is very injurious. 



CUCCMBEB HOUSE. 



The instructions given in previous numbers are bo much like 

 what is being done in this department that little additional need 

 be said. We keep the night temperature up to 70° now, rising 

 to 85° or 90° in sunshine. Plenty of heat and moisture in the 

 atmosphere suits Cucumbers, but they may be overdone with 

 moisture. In our small house are two 9-feet lengths of water 

 troughs, and when these were both kept filled with steaming 

 water the leaves became flabby aud thin in texture. When one 

 of the troughs was emptied an improvement was speedily 

 apparent in the general health of the Cucumber plants. The 

 importance of suffiiiient ventilation was found out by accident. 

 The young man in charge used to open the top ventilators only, 

 until it was observed that the plants were gradually becoming 

 weakly, when we tried opening the front sashes just a little, ad- 

 mitting less air at the top ; this soon told upon the plants for 



