ON DIGGING ESTABLISHED SHRUBBERIES. 53 



the bottom and plunge them in heat without shifting. When I can 

 get any offsets rooted I treat them in all respects similar to seedlings. 

 I have a plant of C. Ovid, very strong, which I thought when I ob- 

 tained it would have died, being so weak and small, but now is a fine 

 strong healthy plant, very thick of bloom, with fine large and thick 

 foliage. If any insects infest the plants, I fumigate with tobacco, 

 lighting it with a candle instead of coals or cinders, for the gas of 

 coals is disagreeable, and coals are more dirty and troublesome. 



If these remarks are worth insertion in the Cabinet, I shall feel 

 highly gratified to aid the culture of flowers in any degree, and will 

 forward to you the method I use with an Arnott stove for heating 

 with less trouble than what I have before read in the Floricultural 

 Cabinet, and where I can keep up any desired heat required with 

 perfect success. 



[We shall be glad to receive the specimens, as well as the remarks 

 on the stove. — Conductor.] 



ARTICLE IV. 



REMARKS ON DIGGING ESTABLISHED SHRUBBERIES, 



BY A SUBSCRIBER, OK GRIMSBY. 



In perusing the pages of your Cabinet, I consulted a gentleman on 

 the advantages or disadvantages of digging amongst shrubs, whose 

 opinion is, that digging amongst shrubs has a tendency rather to do 

 harm than good; so it has if not done by those who thoroughly 

 understand it, such as bankers and ploughmen, but observation and 

 long experience has sbown me, that if performed by people who 

 know what tbey are doing their growth is much accelerated rather 

 than retarded. 



In 1841 I took up a great many shrubs in the autumn which had 

 been planted five years but had made no progress at all, but quite 

 stunted in their growth, owing to the hardness of the soil on which 

 they were standing ; during that time they had only been once dug 

 amongst, but great pains had always been taken to eradicate all the 

 weeds as they made their appearance. The land was trenched and 

 all the shrubs immediately replanted, and to the great surprise of all 

 who saw them, they made more wood the following summer than 

 they had done for three preceding summers, and are in a most 

 flourishing state up to the present time. 



