General Notices. 419 



cannot press too strongly on you the necessity of excluding the sun's rays 

 for eighteen or twenty days after grafting. In the month of October, re- 

 move the plants to a pit, there to remain for the winter. The heat of this 

 pit must be kept up with linings, mats, &c. 3d year. — Now, supposing 

 we are in the month of April, eight months after grafting, let the plants be 

 shifted into forty-eight sized pots, and in the following compost: — Three 

 barrow loads of loam, two of garden mould, three of peat, two of rotten 

 dung, and half a barrow load of dried night-soil. The potting finished, 

 again plunge them in a hot-bed, at good distances from each other, to keep 

 them from growing weak ; give plenty of air in fine weather ; and from June 

 till September take the lights off, (except in wet weather.) to let the plants 

 have all the benefit of sun and air. 4th year. — In the spring of this year I 

 would recommend that the plants be turned out of their pots, and put into 

 square boxes, with peat about two inches high, which I consider superior to 

 pots, because the air has freer access to the roots, and there is less danger 

 of the ball becoming sodden, which is, in nine cases out of ten, the cause 

 of the ill-health and ultimate death of the orange tree. In conclusion, I 

 recommend that pump or spring w ater never be used for watering with, be- 

 cause such water often holds in solution substances deleterious to the health 

 of plants. Always use rain-w ater, and try to have it about the same tem- 

 perature as the ball of the plants. This is what nature gives, not only the 

 orange tree, but the whole vegetable kingdom, and we ought to imitate 

 nature as near as we can in our horticultural operations. 



The majority of the gardeners present considered M. Martine's directions 

 excellent, and returned him a vote of thanks. A vote of thanks was also 

 returned to Mr. John Hughes, Jr., for translating the essay from the 

 French.— (Garrf. Jour., 1848, p. 294.) 



Cultivation of the Cabbage. — Mr. Taylor read a paper on the cultivation 

 of the cabbage. He said that an article in the journal had reminded him 

 that gardeners in general overshot the mark, by paying too much attention 

 to the defining of laws whereby to attain perfection in the higher depart- 

 ments of horticulture ; and, in great measure, neglecting the more humble, 

 though not less useful parts. As to the best and simplest means of culti- 

 vating the cabbage, he had frequently witnessed in gardens, where every 

 thing was at hand requisite to grow them to perfection, that they were a 

 disgrace to the ground they occupied, not because the gardener was not 

 familiar with their culture, but because they are grown so easily that excel- 

 lence is never thought of. The kinds of cabbage he preferred were those 

 least liable to run to seed early, and which formed a small head, and as it 

 enlarged, became unfolded rather than split, so that if not wanted for im- 

 mediate use, it would improve rather than deteriorate. The variety he 

 considered the best in cultivation is the paragon, a name given to it at 

 Paragon Nursery, Brixton Hill; 2d, Atkins's Matchless; 3d, Nonpareil ; 

 these three kinds he considered sufficient for any garden, although market- 

 gardeners preferred larger varieties, such as the Battersea, &c. He then 

 described his mode of culture as follows : — From the twelfth to the twen- 

 tieth of July is the time he usually sows ; in about six weeks the plants 



