271 



JOURNAL OF HORTICULTURE AND COTTAGE GARDENEP. 



[ April 2, 1874 



downwards, no top air eonld be given in wet weather without 

 rain coming in ; nor would the roof be watertight even when 

 the frames were closed. The frames, also, when open, as in 

 fig. 1, are better defended, by the tenbiou of their chains, from 

 the action of all wind but the north, than they would be if 

 inclined in the opposite direction. 



The following mode of banging the roof sashes of a con- 

 servatory is worthy of imitation. It is on the principle of a 

 self-balanced chandelier. A cord from each sash paoses over 

 a pulley {Jig. 3, «.), and is joined under the stage (c), where a 

 weight (h), is attached to them by another pulley, and may 

 either be limited in its descent by the ground (d), or by the 

 length of line. By this arrangement, easily understood, either 

 or both sashes may be opened to any extent by a very sUght 

 motion of the line, and without the least derangement of the 

 plants, or unsightly fastenings of the cord. 



CISSUS DISCOLOR. 



When this old and well-known climber is well grown there 

 is none that surpasses it in beauty. The soil should be a com- 

 bination of sandy peat and strong fibry loam, with well-de- 

 composed hotbed and old cow dung, and silver sand. Being 

 a very rapid grower, it requires a rich soil. It also requires 

 shading, otherwise the rich colouring will fade quickly. It 

 loves plenty of atmospheric moisture. Care must also be taken 

 not to syringe the foliage ; wherever water falls it spoils the 

 metallic lustre. 



I have grown it in several ways — on a flat trellis, and on a 

 wire balloon. Either way it is very beautiful. I have also 

 grown it trained up one of the iron supports of the stove, 

 together with Thunbergia Harrisi ; the lovely blue flowers of 

 the latter intermixed with the Cissus discolor had a charming 

 effect. 



It is propagated by cuttings of the young top shoots cut 

 clean at the joint. Plant them in a pot with abefi-glass to lit, 

 place over the hole a piece of charcoal or oyster-shell, and on 

 this a layer of small broken crocks, and above this a small 

 layer of moss, and lastly as much of the above-mentioned 

 compost as will come to within an inch of the rim ; fill that 

 inch with pure silver sand, give a gentle watering, and as soon 

 as the water has sunk and the sand is firm plant the cuttings, 

 taking care to close the sand round each cutting, give a gentle 

 watering, and put on the bell-glass. Every morning take off the 

 bell-glass and wipe it. The pot should be plunged in cocoa- 

 nut fibre refuse in a brisk heat, and shaded during the hottest 

 part of the day. — F. P. LncKHUKSi. 



TO YOUNG GAEDENERS ON RENOVATING OLD 

 EEUIT TREES AND OTHER SUBJECTS.— No. 5. 

 A TKEE which is a "model of training" is often considered 

 to be one in which the branches are carried in their several 

 directions with great nicety, the brushwood being kept well in. 

 But does this conduce to fertility or sterility, and does it im- 

 prove the quantity or ijuality of the fruit ? Does it not rather 

 cause the deterioration of all that is most essential to the pro- 

 duction of good fruit? If you doubt it, go into any garden 

 where trees have been so treated for twelve or eighteen years, 

 and notice the fruit — small, scabby, cracked, and deformed; 

 compare them with the fruit groyving on the young wood at 

 the extremities of the branches, or with those on a young tree 

 near, and mark the differences in size, shape, and hue, and when 

 ripe the differences in texture and flavour. You will then, I 

 think, endeavour to secure more young wood in your trees. 

 We hear much about planting more fruit trees, but do we ob- 

 tain the maximum quantity of good fruit from those which we 

 already have ? If we think so, let us examine the thousands 

 of well-trained trees that are at present growing in our gardens, 

 and I venture to say we must come to the conclusion that we 

 elo not. Why'.' Simply in three out of four instances because 

 we persist in that hard-and-fast rule of what is called model 

 training. We see trees covering yards of walls or other space, 

 with just a few fruit at the extremities of the branches, the 

 remainder of these being straight lines of luxuriant foliage and 

 shoots. 



It does not, however, follow that whilst securing young 

 bearing wood we cannot have a tree with pleasing and graceful 

 outlines. It can be a model of training, and yet be full of 

 young wood, as, for instance, in the case of a Peach or Morello 

 Cherry tree. We are startled every now and then by certain 

 exhibitors never heard of before making a sweep of all the 



prizes for fruit, and in a year or two they fall back to the level 

 of their neighbours. Need we ask the reason of this ? Or does 

 it not at once suggest itself that the wood of those young 

 Vines or Pears is now older, and produces a greater number of 

 fruit, but of much less size? From this we ought to learn the 

 wisdom of laying-in annually a succession of young wood. 

 We may not be able to get such fine fruit from young wood 

 laid in an old tree as from that on a quite young one (Cherries 

 of the Duke and Heart tribe excepted), but we can, neverthe- 

 less, obtain far better fruit than from the old scrubby wood. 

 We seldom think of renovating, except when a tree is not a 

 model of training, and we think little of renovating to get 

 abundance of fine fruit. We often delay displacing old 

 branches for young, but those who wish can make a com- 

 promise by taking out every alternate old branch, and fiUing- 

 up the whole space with young wood, to be removed as the 

 young principal shoot grows ; and when this is of the required 

 length the old branch should be amputated, and the space 

 again fiUed up as before from the young branch. By this 

 system we serve two purposes : we retain a crop of fruit, and 

 do not cause a sudden shock to the tree. 



There are shoots with bloom-buds and others with none. 

 We will suppose that those with bloom-buds will produce a 

 crop of fruit ; in the majority of cases in the following year 

 the fruit spur throws out one or two weak growths, which of 

 course are to be pinched-in, but it is nuny years before they 

 ai'e sufficiently strong to produce a fruit-bud. I believe not 

 one in a score ever does. We get buds formed near them, and 

 such, though weak, will produce blooms iu a year or two. 

 There are a few varieties, especially of Apples, which will form 

 two bloom-buds a year after on an old fruit spur instead of the 

 wiry shoots, but they are the exception. Though we cannot 

 leave those weak growths on wall trees without being denounced 

 as slovenly fruit-growers, we can leave them on bush, pyramidal, 

 and similar trees, because they are almost certain, if left 

 entire, to produce a bloom-bud at their end the second year, 

 when we shall finel them from C to 8 inches long. There are 

 many varieties of Apples and Pears that will bear fruit in no 

 other way but on the tips of these wiry shoots, and by re- 

 moving them many fail in securing a crop of some varieties. 



I have long come to the conclusion that very little good 

 comes of pinching in summer, or pruning these weak shoots 

 in winter, to within an inch or so, with a view of inducing 

 them to put forth other growths. The eyes are so weak, that 

 before they have time to collect energy sulficient to start 

 into growth thek stronger neighbours have run away with the 

 food. Hence the numerous small dead spurs we find clustered 

 together in trees that have been under a person who gives 

 Uttle attention to the subject. We have but two things to do : 

 one is to take them clean out the first year ; the other is to 

 leave them until they have fruited and then clear them off, 

 but never shorten them. 



According to my idea, as soon aa (he choot with the bloom- 

 buds has performed its duty it is to be cut out, and the following 

 year another young one laid in, and so keep up a succession of 

 young shoots, having the tree full of one, two, and three, or, in 

 certain chance cases, four-year-old wood. We may then reason- 

 ably expect a continued supply of fine fruit. Thrs is no theory. 

 I have carried the system out for some time with the best results 

 in renovating old or neglected trees. So certain am I of the 

 utility of the practice, that I can strongly recommend it to any 

 person wishing to grow high-class fruit. It must be borne in 

 mind that to keep up a good stock of young shoots to lay-in 

 there must be a guuti border for the roots, otherwise, after a 

 few years, I find the trees cease to produce shoots. Cut-off a 

 shoot, and it wiU at once commence to form another; but lay 

 it in, and fruit is produced and but little growth. Budding 

 and grafting iu theii- different forms to fill-up naked parts I 

 presume are well understood. — John T.4Vlor. 



VALUE OF POULTRY DUNG AS A MANURE. 

 Colonel WAEixti, in his "Elements of (American) Agricul- 

 ture," says : — " Poultry manure is nearly equal in value to 

 Peruvian guano, except that it contains more water. If granted 

 that a hen will consume, of the different kinds of grain, meat, 

 and vegetables, during the year, the equivalent of two bushels 

 of corn, which weigh 120 lbs., then it is certainly low enough 

 to place the excrement — the result of the digestion of these two 

 bushels — as equivalent to 15 lbs. of guano. As the manure from 

 one hundred fowls during a year would amount to 1500 lbs. of 

 guauo, taking the above supposition as at least safe, and as 



