General Notices. 179 



if the seeds are not picked off after flowering-, it is ten to one that the plant 

 will die. I have had excellent Tree Mignonette, three years old — very 

 bushy, and full of flower all winter. Mignonette is often neglected at mid- 

 summer, when our hands are full of other work, and yet this is the very 

 time when Tree Mignonette wants most care, for the flowers, not being 

 wanted during summer, ought then to be removed, in order to have a fine 

 winter display. To keep worms from entering and disturbing the roots, add 

 a handful of soot at each shifting, over the drainage. 



Mignonette delights in sandy loam, not too light, and, being a gross 

 feeder, a little diluted manure-water may be given once a week with advan- 

 tage. If this is contemplated, the mould need not be made so rich in the 

 first instance. 



Winter Mignonette, as it is generally called, requires to be treated differ- 

 ently from the above. It is generally sown about the 20th of August ; if 

 later, it will not acquire sufficient strength by winter for the London mar- 

 ket. I generally grow from eight to ten plants, in a forty-eight-sized pot, 

 which is six inches deep. For this sowing, it is safest to use a light sandy, 

 and rather poor mould, for, if the latter is too rich and strong, the plants 

 damp off during winter. Out of nearly a thousand pots, I have ofien 

 scarcely lost one by attending to this, by not allowing a drop of rain to fall 

 on them during winter, by never watering them unless they were flagging, 

 and by admitting at all times plenty of air. In the case of frost coming, 

 however, they are closely covered up, sometimes for a week or fortnight to- 

 gether ; and, if you have not followed the above rules, you will suffer severe- 

 ly from damp. Do not expose your plants for some days after the frost 

 breaks up, and that only by degrees ; above all things, do not expose them 

 to the sun. My anxiety to give them light, after being so long covered up, 

 has sometimes led me, for the moment, to forget this, and I have suffered 

 severely for my negligence. 



Should the winter prove mild, the plants will root into the ashes they are 

 placed on ; therefore, they must be lifted up occasionally, to break the 

 roots. Slugs will annoy you if you do not look after them ; they fat- 

 ten on Mignonette. To retard some of the pots, pinch the heads off the 

 plants ; by this means, they will not flower so strongly as those not pinched, 

 and will yield a succession of bloom. — [Gard. Chron., 1849, p. 52.) 



Gooseberries and currants. — If not done before, it will soon be time to 

 prune gooseberry and currant trees ; vegetable life is in activity much ear- 

 lier in their case, than with other fruit trees, and it is always desirable that 

 pruning should be finished while the tree is in a state of rest. Every ad- 

 vancing bud which is cut off, is so much abstracted from those which re- 

 main, and the life, thus wasted, ought to have been concentrated in the tree. 

 From the shoots now cut off, select some of the best as cuttings, which will 

 root immediately, if put in now. On the right management of these cut- 

 tings, the well-being of the future tree, and the comfort of the cultivator, 

 will depend, and therefore a little trouble should be willingly incurred. Se- 

 lect strong shoots, and let the end to be inserted in the earth be cut sharp 

 and clean to a bud ; allow 3 or 4 inches to be buried in the soil, and 8 for 



