M'lritosh's Practical Gardener'. 183 



rod, stuck in the ground at an angle of 45°. " It was first observed, by a 

 friend of mine, in the gardens of the late A. Bacon, Esq., of Elcot, in Berk- 

 shire." 



June. Where watering is necessarj', let it be done from four to six in 

 the morning, and let the men for this extra-labour be allowed extra-wages; 

 or, if it be preferred, let them rest in the middle of the day. In large gar- 

 dens use a small fire-engine, worked by three or four labourers, the dispersing 

 pipe being directed by a gardener. 



July. We have never found a more effectual method of destroying 

 slugs than hand-pirking very early in the morning. Powder of lime soon 

 loses its alkalescent [)roperties when laid on the damp ground, and lime-watCT 

 is attended with more trouble and less success than hand-picking. 



The Fruit-Garden. — Mr. M'Intosh, it would appear, is a believer in 

 the erroneous doctrine of Marshall and Knight, so ably exposed by Dr. 

 Fleming (supra, p. 175.)- " The necessity of renewing fruit trees by seed, 

 for the purpose of either renewing the identical sort, or endeavouring to 

 procure a new or a better one, is obvious ; as the various methods of pro- 

 pagation by grafting are, in no instance, a renewal of the sort, or, in other 

 words, making a new or young tree, for the case is wholly different. Every 

 tree so propagated is no more than a prolongation of a part of the parent 

 tree, by being amputated and made fast to another root by means of graft- 

 ing. There is no such thing as a new or young tree, excepting those which 

 are really raised from seed. Every Ribston Pippin in the kingdom, propa- 

 gated by any other means than by seed, is no other than a part, a wing or a 

 branch, of the original Ribston discovered at Ribston Hall, in Yorkshire; 

 and such trees, it is supposed, do not only inherit the properties of the 

 parent in size, shape, and flavour, but they also inherit all the train of dis- 

 eases with which the original was affected. Mr. Knight and others have 

 discovered this in the Herefordshire orchards." 



Hot ivalls. The general prejudice against hot walls is, we hope, exploded ; 

 for, if they be heated by hot water, they will give an equable temperature, 

 the want of which has hitherto been their greatest defect; the part of the 

 wall opposite the furnace being overheated, while the most remote parts 

 were not heated at all. 



Shortening the roots is a much better mode of rendering luxuriant trees 

 fruitful than ringing or wiring, " But when barrenness proceeds from an 

 insufficiency of nutriment, which is also often the case, and which is easily 

 seen by the trees getting into a stinted state, making little or no wood, and 

 the Httle that is made small and sickly, then taking up and planting again, 

 as advised above, is the only cure; and this system, while it induces tiertility, 

 produces first the principal cause of that fertility, by renewing the health of 

 the tree, and supplying it with proper food." 



" The Duration of Strawberri/-beds depends on a variety of circum- 

 stances : sometimes they will last for ten, twelve, or more years, and 

 often only for two or three crops ; and some cultivators only allow 

 them to remain on the ground one year. The Rev. Thomas Garnier, 

 of Stoke, near Southampton, a successful cultivator of this fruit, destroys 

 all his beds earl}' in August, as soon as the gatherings are over, and 

 then proceeds to form new ones, by trenching and manuring them. He 

 selects his plants from the strongest runners of the old rejected plants. 

 If the weather should be particularly hot, and the surface of the ground 

 much parched, he defers the operation of preparing and planting his beds 

 till the ground be moistened with rain. Such is the simple mode of treat- 

 ment which he has adopted for several successive years ; and such is his 

 success, that he produces a greater quantity of excellent fruit on a given 

 piece of ground than any other gardener in the country. Depth of soil, 

 he observes,! is^ absolutely necessary ; and, in his opinion, it is needless 

 to plant many of the better kinds of stra>\ berries where it is not of a con- 



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