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816 THE 
GARDENERS 
CHRONICLE. 
[May 13, 
consider for sowing it is the autumn; however, in the case 
of imported seed the time should be determined, if possible, 
from the period of its ripening in its native country ; for 
I feel confident that many foreign plants might be more 
readily acclimatized if attention were only paid to this one 
thing. How many plants are there that will not endure 
the rigour of our climate on account of the seeds not 
being sown in time to cause the young wood to ripen 
before the approach of winter. The soil for raising seed- 
lings should consist of two-thirds loam and one of silver- 
sand, placing the pots or pans containing them in a dry 
and airy part of either house or pit, as near the glass as 
possible. The front of a curvilinear house would answer 
admirably for this purpose, observing to withhold water as 
much as possible until germination is apparent; seeds 
subjected to this treatment have been found to germinate, 
whilst others, differently placed, after receiving every 
attention, have failed. Provided seeds are sown in the 
autumn, two or three waterings would be sufficient until 
spring commences, when an increase of water will arouse 
the vitality they possess, anda fine crop of plants will 
soon make their appearance. Potting off should be 
attended to as soon as their cotyledons or seminal leaves 
are properly developed, making use of 60-sized pots. The 
soil at that period should consist of turfy loam, peat, leaf- 
mould, and silver-sand, in equal proportions, broken fine, 
placing the plants in a close frame for a few days, until 
they have re-established themselves, when air should be 
gradually admitted ; and it appears to me from experience 
that the more the plants are stunted in pots of this size, 
the better they are hereafter ; but the same thing would 
be prejudicial provided they were in those of a larger size. 
Any one having plants in the condition just mentioned 
should immediately remove them into 48-sized pots, using 
the same potting material as last described, but not broken 
so fine. Good drainage will now become of great import- 
ance ; nothing is better than the roughest of the fibrous 
soil, placed on the potsherds at the bottom ; in the space of 
six weeks, another shift would be required into 24-sized 
pots, increasing the quantity of loam a little; and, at the 
approach of autumn, place them in 8s, which will enable 
the plants, through the new spongelets they may form, 
to store up a sufficient quantity of matter in their interior 
to meet the demand when vegetation is again set in 
motion. The soil now required will be one-third turfy 
loam, one do. of peat, the other rotten dung and river- 
sand in equal proportions. In the spring of the ensuing 
year they should be again removed into 2s, making use of 
the same soil as last described. This will complete a 
period of 12 months’ growth; wherein, if due attention 
has been paid, the plants will be objects of wonder. 
Thujas, Cupressus, Juniperus, Araucarias, &c., may all be 
included under this head. To enhance their beauty particu- 
lar care should be taken to give them full exposure during 
the summer season, and to withhold fire-heat throughout 
the winter. How many wretched specimens are to be seen 
at various places from these important things not ‘being 
attended to! If kept either in pits or houses, the sashes 
should be removed during summer. What would appear 
more ornamental in any part of a garden, particularly on 
a lawn, during that season, than those very plants? 
But great care should be exercised that the pots are often 
turned round, to prevent the roots penetrating through the 
hole in the bottom. Fancy can hardly picture a more 
beautiful object than Pinus filifolia, with its leaves from 
1 ft. to 1 ft. 6 inchesin length ; and also the graceful Abies 
religiosa. After the largest-sized pots have been made 
use of, slate tubs, or those of any other material, should 
be substituted. And at a very trifling expense a build- 
ing might be erected—covered with slate, tiles, or any- 
thing convenient ; observing to make the front movable, 
so as to admit light, air, &c.—wherein the plants may be 
placed during winter. No doubt, some of the kinds 
above mentioned will endure the severity of our winters, 
if planted in the open air, in many parts of England, but 
it is not expected that others will do so.—George Bishop. 
AMATEUR’S GARDEN.—No. XIX. 
Ir the reader will examine the Gardeners’ Chronicle 
of March 18, p. 173, he will there find some observa- 
tions on the arrangement of Plants in Floweg-gardens, 
according to their complementary colours. As the late 
rains have rendered the ground ina fine state for planting 
out, and as all danger from frost may now be considered 
as past, those remarks are particularly applicable at this 
time, when the plants should be bedded out as fast as 
possible. ‘To render the grouping of colours as simple as 
practicable, I subjoin the following arrangement; and, if 
each colour is considered a bed of flowers, the reader may 
form a tolerably good idea of the appearance of a garden 
thus arranged. This arrangement is supposed to be on 
grass, and hence warm colours, as scarlet, purple, orange, 
and their shades, prevail; but had it been on gravel, 
which is a warm colour, the cold colours, as blue, yellow, 
and white, which for gardening purposes, take the place 
of green, would have been placed in the beds containing 
warm colours, and vice versd. The beds are supposed to 
decrease in size from the centre one to the sides, and 
consequently the tallest plants are placed in the beds 
numbered 1 to 12, and they gradually decline in height ; 
at the sides, the plants are little more than 6 
thus the whole garden forms a regular 
ap. Annexed is a list of plants adapted 
ent ; some of them may not be of the 
yey are as near as can be got. The 
with those in the arrangement. 
be denied that colours thus arranged 
Mypre imposing appearance than when 
sty random, as is too frequently the case. 
i has its contrasting one close by; as 
NOSHO 
scarlet and white, purple and yellow, orange and blue, 
and so on of their different shades; and while they 
mutually enhance the brilliancy of each other, the group 
as a whole is far more imposing than it could be under 
an indiscriminate mixture. 
white scarlet purple yellow scarlet white 
33 34 35 36 37 38 
blue lilac scarlet white purple 
16 17 18 
scarlet orange blue yellow gan 
pink 6 7 8 rose 
yellow purple 21 
straw-co. 5 2 p.blue 
31 scarlet white scarlet white scarlet 4 
14 13 1 22 
p. blue purple yellow straw-co. 
30 ia 3 41 
rose pink 
29 yellow blue orange 23 
12 1 10 
scarlet, : scarlet 
49 purple white scarlet \Jilac blue 42 
26 27 26 25 24 
white scarlet p. yellow purple scarlet white 
48 47 46 45 a4 43 
1. Pelargonium, Smith’s Em- | 25. Verbena Iveryana 
peror 26, ” fulgida 
2, Petunia purpurea veh, fe The Queen — 
3. Calceolaria rugosa 28, 5, Hendersonii 
4. Petunia hybrida 29. pee Marryatit 
5. Calceolaria integrifolia 30. Lobelia bicolor 
6. Bartonia aurea 31, Sanvitalia procumbens 
7. Salvia chameedryoides 32, Verbena melindres — 
8. Calliopsis Drummondii 33, Nierembergia calycina 
9. Verbena, The Queen 34. Verbena melindres latifolia 
10. Bartonia aurea 35. Nierembergia intermedia 
11. Salvia chameedryoides 36. Lobelia lutea 
12. Calliopsis Drummondii 37. Verbena melindres superba, 
13. Verbena teucrioides 38. Nierembergia filicaulis 
14, Tweediana 39. Verbena melindres 
15. 4, am 40. Lobelia erinus 
16. Lobelia ramosa 41. Sanyvitalia procumbens 
17. Verbena Iveryana 42, Verbena ignea f 
18. » ign 43. Nierembergia gracilis 
19. nw Vangardii 44, Verbena melindres latifolia 
20.  ,, purpurea 45, Nierembergia intermedia 
21, ” Buistii 46, Lobelia lutea 
22. ” Tweediana latifolia | 47. Verbena melindres superba 
23. ” multifida 48. Nierembergia filicoulis 
24. Lobeliaramosa 49. Verbena ignea. 
In the planting of plants in groups there are three 
things which deserve particular notice. First, to place all 
plants with their tops pointing to the north ; secondly, 
to plant all strong growing-plants very shallow, that is, 
with the ball little more than covered with soil; and 
thirdly, to plant weak-growing plants deep so as to make 
them grow luxuriantly. 
These rules, simple as they are, are of considerable 
importance ; for if plants are not placed with their tops 
to the north, the points of the shoots, when pegged down, 
will not assume an erect position; while, if luxuriant. 
growing plants are planted deep, they grow still more 
luxuriantly, and flower but little ; and if delicate-growing 
plants are not planted deep, the roots get parched up and 
they quickly perish. ; 
After the plants are planted, the beds should receive a 
thorough soaking of pond-water, so as to make the soil 
almost like a puddle; and then, the following day, be 
hoed and raked over, so as to leave the surface loose. 
The plants may then be pegged down, and will require 
little more attention unless the weather is very dry.— 
W. P. Ayres. 
HOME CORRESPONDENCE. 
Vines.—I beg to state, in reply to ‘A Grape-grower’s ”’ 
remarks at p. 286, as before, that the Vines at this place 
were planted in 1839, and at this time, 1843, are carrying 
their fourth crop of fruit—not light, but heavy crops; 
further, thatthe Vines when planted were neither old ones 
nor yet Vines that had been in bearing, but young two- 
year-old plants, and very weak, the strongest in the whole 
when planted did not exceed one-eighth of an inch in 
diameter. A leaf produced from one of the young canes 
the latter part of the season I forwarded to the Gardeners’ 
Gazette office, which measured 17 inches across by 30 in. 
including the footstalk: the Editor’s remarks were, ‘* The 
leaf sent is of the most extraordinary dimensions we ever 
witnessed.’”? In 1840 they bore from 6 to 12 lbs. of fruit 
on each Vine, varying in weight from near 7 lbs. to | Ib. 
In 1841 they bore a heavy full crop—the Vines from the 
growth of two years invariably pruned to 16 or 17 feet. 
In 1842 they surprised all that saw them, some of them 
carrying from 50 to 60 lbs. weight of fruit. And now, 
(1843,) they are equally “fine, which I hope will be @ 
sufficient explanation of their carrying their fourth crop of 
fruit. It was my purpose, from the course of culture 1 
intended to pursue after planting, to effect one object, vi2-s 
to bring them into a bearing state earlier than what was 
commonly practised (in conjunction with health and 
strength) ; which, I think, from the specimens of five 
varieties I showed in Regent-street, Sept. 7, 1841, with 
ir. Lindley’s remarks on them, will fully bear me out. 
They have only one fault (if it can be deemed a fault), 
viz., they are over-fruitful, which often tempts an 
avaricious mind to overburthen their too generous nature. 
I now come to explain how I get six bunches from one 
eye ; few words will suffice :—by my system of disbudding 
and spurring (which will be found fully explained in my 
treatise) at and before winter-pruning, no more buds are 
left than are absolutely wanted, and from one of those buds 
left on the leading shoot, this season produced six perfect 
bunches, and many four and five. I mentioned at p. 230, 
in a second house, six Vines had shown 422 perfect 
bunches (bear in mind, grown over Pines). Yesterday I 
had the curiosity to count the spurs upon some of the said 
Vines, which are as follow :—Grizaly Frontignan, 20 spurs, 
showed 94 perfect bunches; White Muscadine, 21 spurs, 
83 bunches; Black Hamburgh, 19 spurs, 63 bunches ; 
and last (not least, but not included in the six before 
mentioned), Black Damascus, 15 spurs, 43 bunches. If 
your correspond ‘A Grape-gri ”’ cannot content 
himself with this explanation, I will be glad to see him at 
Eshton, to give him ocular demonstration. Tue houses 
for Pines and Vines at this place are 17 feet clear in 
width at the base, 11 feet high at the back, and 2 ft. 6 in. 
at the front.—James Roberts, Eshton Gardens. 
Scotch and English Farmers.—In place of controvert- 
ing your correspondent’s statements (p. 301,) I shall give 
his own words in his first communication, in order that 
your readers may judge if I have overstated what he said. 
Concerning my first argument on climate, since your corre- 
spondent has not mentioned it at all in either of his com- 
munications, nothing need be said. Relative to my second, 
on Wheat, hear his own word “Then, as to Wheat, 
excepting in those favourite districts, the Lothians and 
the Carse of Gowrie, have not the Scotch farmers nearly 
iven up its culture? Have they not found it a loss rather 
than a gain ?’’ Does not this amount to what I have said? 
On my third, respecting ploughs— Next,” says he, “let 
me introduce their ploughs—their far-famed ploughs, of 
which they boast so much. Were they not tried at the 
great Agricultural meeting the year before last at Liver- 
pool, and last year at Bristol, and in both instances found 
wanting—requiring nearly twice the draught of the poor 
despised English plough?’? The word weight, I admit, 
is not here ; but otherwise the meaning is the same. Again, 
with respect to Turnips, he says—‘ Witness the effect 
of Jast summer’s heat on their roots in Scotland, where 
they were as much injured by blight as usually they are 
in the south of England; and, no doubt, were the Scotch 
farmers annually subject to such summers, they would be 
glad to resort to broadcast tillage to have a crop at all.’” 
Where is the difference between your correspondent’s 
meaning and mine? I asserted, and do still assert, that 
the crops here, in the centre of Scotland, were good; nay, 
very good, and gave him proof of it. Now, in his last 
letter he says, —‘‘ My observations of the crops of last 
year extended to Roxburghshire, Dumfries, Lanark, and 
Galloway ; where the farmers anticipated a total waste of 
the bulbs, which were abundant, from the injury done by 
blight, until the rains came in October, when a new 
foliage sprung from the crowns, and the bulbs were saved.” 
What was only an anticipation in September, 1842, was not 
so in March, 1848, when your correspondent wrote. Besides, 
he should have kept in mind, that these four counties 
are but a small part of Scotland, while what he said applied 
to Scotland generally. These counties, moreover, do not 
contain the best soil in Scotland, which renders it still 
more unfair to compare them with the south of England. 
With respect to several other remarks in your correspon- 
dent’s first communication, which I have passed over, and 
therefore he thinks I have nothing to say upon them ; I 
beg now, to remark that, among these the size of the 
acre figures; but I must inform him that this is known 
to the landlord as well as the farmer, and paid for by the 
latter. To the English farmer the tithe and poor-rate 
are known, as well as to the landlord ; and not paid aboye 
the rent by the farmer, any more than tiend (another name 
for tithe) is in Scotland. From the great competition in 
farming, I fear that land, both in England and Scotland, 
pays fully as much asit should do, and from this cause 
also it will not be cheaper in the one country than in the 
other for any length of time. Your correspondent in his 
last letter approves of the team of three or four horses ; 
saying, in substance, that it is only training young horses. 
Now our Scotch farmer finds it more advantageous to 
work two mature horses, which do as much work, and yet 
do not consume so much food as three or four young 
inert ones, But this is not all; for he adds, ‘‘ they re- 
quire nearly twice the draught of the poor despised Eng- 
lish plough.’? It follows then, that it requires from five 
to seven English horses to do the same work which two 
do in Scotland ; and there is as stiff clay in the Carse of 
Stirling, as in any part of England. I say again, if this 
be true, the English farmer labours under a real disad- 
vantage, requiring from five to seven horses to do as much 
work as the Scotch farmer gets from two; and horse-food 
is neither rent, tithe, poor-rate, nor tiend, but a real tax 
upon thefarmer. At p. 209 he says, “I might go farther, 
and show the deficient practice of the Scotch farmer in 
breeding and feeding.’”’ Granted ; but for this plain rea- 
son—he finds that without greater skill in breeding and 
feeding, ‘* prime Scots”? bring in Smithfield Market more 
money than English beasts, however skilfully bred and 
fed, and therefore he finds it labour in vain to attempt to 
improve upon the best. When this is needed, he may, 
perhaps, be able to meet the times. I conclude by say- 
ing; that tithe, poor-rate, tiend, large or small acres, &c., 
may figure well enough in a theory of rent, but they have 
no placein the practical question of paying it. Land, both 
in Scotland and England, like everything else, will bring 
to the landlord, and demand from the farmer, its true values 
and it will do no more for any lengthened period, with- 
out injuring all parties. I once intended to say nothing 
upon draining, subsoil-ploughing, &c-, but as your cor- 
respondent asks what great discoveries the Scotch farmer 
has made, I answer, that he has discovered this fact, that 
draining, &c., in order to be useful, must be put in pracy 
tice; and he has done it, while the English farmer who, 
according to your correspondent, has known it for one 
hundred years, has dreamed over the knowledge of it all 
this time, until now that he is beginning to awake, he 
finds it more valuable than his dream. Noman pretends 
to have discovered Christianity, yet every one who believes 
it as the discoverer enjoins, enjoys as much benefit from 
it as if he had discovered it ; and this is the exact state 
the Scotch farmer, and it js that which constitutes him 
