~ their 
THE GARDENERS CHRONICLE. 
ORTICULTURAL SOCIETY OF LONDON. 
% EXHIBITIONS AT THE GARDEN.—The LAST Exhibi- 
tion will take place on WEDNESDAY, July 12, on which occasion 
His Grace the Dux or Devonsuire, the President of the 
Society, has kindly directed the doors of his Gardens and Pleasure- 
Grounds to be opened, for the reception of all persons who shall 
have been admitted into the Society’s Garden by tickets. 
Che Gardeners’ Chronicle. 
SATURDAY, JULY 1, 1843. 
MEETINGS FOR THE TWO FOLLOWING WEEKS. 
Tuesday, July 4 Bee 
{ Horeieuleural 5 7 
* * *\Floricultural . . + + 8 PM 
Friday, July 7 i 
A RE Botanical. 2°. 1 1) 8 nate 
Country Snows, Monéay, Jnly3. . Slough Pink and Heartsease. 
Tuesday, July 11. Royal Cornwall Horticultural. 
(1) Ir all the leaves which a tree will naturally form 
are exposed to favourable linfluences, and receive the 
light of a brilliant sun, all the fruit which such a 
plant may produce will ripen perfectly in a summer 
that is long enough. 
_ (2.) If all the leaves of a tree are exposed to such 
influences, all its fruit will advance as far towards ripe- 
hess as the length of the summer wil] admit of ; it may 
be sour and colourless, but that condition will be per- 
fect of its kind. 
(3.) But if all the fruit which a healthy tree will 
show is allowed to set, and a large part of its leaves is 
abstracted, such fruit, be the summer what it may, 
will never ripen. 
(4.) Therefore if a necessity exists for taking off a 
part of the leaves of a tree, a part of its fruit should 
also be destroyed. 
(5.) But althougha tree may be able to ripen all the 
fruit which it shows, yet such fruit will neither be so 
large nor so sweet, under equal circumstances, as if a 
part of itis removed ; because a tree only forms a cer- 
tain amount of secretions, and if those secretions are 
divided among twenty fruits instead of ten, each fruit 
willin the former case have but half the amount of 
nutrition which it would have received in the latter case. 
6.) The period of ripening in fruit will be accele- 
rated by an abundant foliage, and retarded by a 
scanty foliage, 
We submit these propositions to Horticulturists as 
the expression of general truths, which are applicable 
to all cases, and especially to the Vine; and we would 
beg them to ascertain experimentally whether they 
can be infringed with impunity. We do not believe 
that any quite unobjectionable investigation of this 
point has ever been made; on the contrary, as far 
as our experience, or reading, or correspondence 
goes, no evidence exists to contradict these state- 
ments, which are founded on apparently well-ascer- 
tained laws. If this be so, the system of rigorous 
summer pruning of the Vine must be wrong; on the 
contrary, its leaves should be allowed to form in 
abundance, and that destruction of laterals at an early 
period, which is so much recommended, must be 
injurious ; because all those laterals, if allowed to 
&row, would by the end of the season have contributed 
Somewhat to the matter stored in the stem for the 
nutrition of the fruit; because the preparation of 
such matter would have been more rapid; and because 
the ripening of the fruit, which depends on the pre- 
Sence of such matter, would have been in proportion 
to the rapidity of its formation. If we are not great] 
mistaken, the early maturity and excellence of the 
Tapes obtained out-of-doors by Dr. Maclean, of Col- 
skill, is entirely owing to the large quantity of wood 
wi sun; they will prepare the nutriment of the 
tape—they will feed it, and nurse it, and eventually 
] d lusci e there- 
°re submit to our Horticultural readers that rigorous 
ik Suggest that a Vine should form all the wood it 
1Xes 3 that should be provided against by good winter 
those shoots which are selected to remain should be 
ree to produce as much foliage as Possible ; 
nd that, as the destruction of laterals is the diminu- 
10n of foliage, that destruction should be discontinued. 
Weeks en, however, branches have grown for man 
» and are in the autumn beginning to slacken in 
power of lengthening, theory says it is then right 
443 © 
to stop the shoots by pinching off their ends, because 
after that season newly-formed leaves have little time 
to do more than organize themselves, which must 
take place at the expense of matter forming in the 
other leaves. Autumn-stopping of the Vine-shoots 
should therefore be not only unobjectionable, but 
advantageous ; for the leaves which remain after that 
operation will then direct all their energy to the per- 
fection of the Grapes. 
This is, in fact, returning to the practice of the 
Romans:— 
At dum prima novis adolescit frondibus ztas, 
Parcendum teneris ; et dum se letus ad auras 
Palmes agit, laxis per purum immissus habenis, 
Ipsa acies nondum faleis tentanda, sed uncis 
Carpendze manibus frondes, interque legend. 
Inde ubi jam validis amplexa stirpibus ulmos 
Exierint, ¢wm stringe comas, tum brachia tonde. 
Ante reformidant ferrum : tum denique dura 
Exerce imperia, et ramos compesce fiuentes. 
‘ 
Which we venture thus to translate :— 
But when the shoots with new-born leaves are gay, 
And scrambling Vines are struggling into day, 
O mar not then their first sweet taste of life 
With the rude edges of the cruel knife ; 
But if the crowding shoots more room demand, 
Just pinch them gently with judicious hand ; 
Then when with powerful grasp the full-grown Vine 
Shall round the Elm its vigorous arms entwine, 
The steel no longer dreaded, trim the spray, 
Stop the weak shoots, and bend the strong away.* 
Havine shown the foundation of all the operations 
of manuring land, we will now say something of the 
management of the grass land. This must vary with 
the nature of the soil. Although feeding cows entirely 
in the stable, winter and summer, be the most profit- 
able, on the whole it may not be so well suited to a 
family which has few out-door servants, perhaps only 
one gardener and an occasional labourer. Two cow: 
are essential to the comfort of a family. They should 
be of a small breed, and selected for the richness more 
than the quantity {of their milk: a well-bred Jersey 
or Alderney cow is a treasure. The Suffolk polled 
cow and the Ayrshire are also excellent, when well 
chosen ; and a cross between either of these breeds 
and an Alderney often produces very good cows. There 
is one rule which should never be lost sight of : if a 
cow does not give a reasonable quantity of milk, and 
this produce a fair quantity of butter weekly, get rid 
of her, whatever you may lose on the price. Eight 
or ten quarts of the milk of a good Alderney cow will 
make a pound of butter, while it will often take fifteen 
or sixteen quarts of the milk of a large Yorkshire or 
Durham cow to do the same. An Alderney cow will 
give from eight to fourteen pounds of butter every. 
week, for three months after calving, if she have rich 
pasture, and will average half that quantity after- 
wards. ‘he difference between one cow and another 
is so great, that no difference in price can compensate 
for the keeping an inferior one; but a cow must not 
only be well fed when she gives milk, but also when 
she is dry and near calving, which will be for two or 
three months in the year. If she go dry three months 
before calving she is of less value ; but if, on the other 
hand, she should continue to give milk too long, she 
should be dried up, if possible, six weeks before calv- 
ing. ‘This is done by leaving some milk in her udder 
at each milking, and then milking her only once 
a day, she will soon be dry in this way ; at the 
same time she may have some hay and less grass 
till she is quite dry. Many an excellent cow bas been 
spoilt by the carelessness of the person who milks her, 
in not extracting every remaining drop of milk every 
time she is milked. It is often useful, when the pas- 
ture is very fresh and the cow very full of milk, to 
milk her three times a day—at five in the morning, at 
twelve, and at seven in the evening, in summer ; in 
winter this is not necessary, 
To have good butter in winter the cows should eat 
nothing but the sweetest hay. This is not the most 
economical plan, but good butter is such a luxury that 
economy in this case may be dispensed with. ‘These 
particulars are well known to every person conversant 
with the dairy; but they are not always sufficiently 
attended to in private families, and our observations 
are intended more as memoranda than as instructions. 
If the grass-land is rich, three acres will be sufficient 
to keep two cows in summer ; the remainder may be 
made into hay, and if the after-grassis abundant some 
sheep may be fatted on it before winter, if they are in 
good condition when put in. The cows should always 
have the first bite of the grass and the sheep after. A 
ony turned out with the cows will not hurt their 
feed, provided there is sufficient grass ; for horses will 
eat what cows refuse, and vice versé. In very hot 
weather, especially when the flies sting, the cows 
should be in the stable ; they will not feed if they are 
out, and the flies make them run about, to the great 
* Altered from the Rev. J, M. King’s new and spirited version 
of the ‘‘Georgics,” which we trust to be able soon to examine 
critically, 
October, and this lattermath hay be well got up, it 
will be excellent for the cows in winter ; it should not 
be given to horses, as it is apt to affect their wind, 
especially those which are driven fast. 
The making of hay is an important operation where 
there is only grass-land, and its success, especially in 
| showery weather, depends much on the management 
| of the grass. No minute directions can be given on 
| this subject ; but a few general cautions may be useful. 
Rain will not hurt the grass while it is fresh cut and 
green ; decomposition will not take place till the vital 
energy is destroyed ; or, as ‘one would say, till the 
grass is dead: so that in showery weather it is not 
advisable to be in too great a hurry to spread the 
grass out from the swarth ; it is as well to let it lie, 
and when the outside is dry to turn it over, without 
much dividing it, then to put it in very small cocks, 
laid somewhat hollow, that the wind may blow through 
them: thus it will bear much wet without being ma- 
terially damaged. Never hurry the stacking in wet 
weather, the hay will get more harm in the stack, when 
not quite dry, than it will even lying flat on the ground. 
If it is discoloured let it lie till quite dry, or you only 
make bad worse ; for spoilt hay put up dry may still 
be palatable to cattle, only they will waste more of it; 
butif it comes out musty from the stack nothing will 
eat it, except when pressed by hunger. If the weather 
is very fine and the glass steady, grass may be made 
into hay, and secured in a stack in three or four days. 
The only danger is from over-heating, and it requires 
some experience to know when the hay is sufficiently 
made, and will not heat too much; the larger the stack 
the greater caution is necessary. These hints may be 
useful to many who are not conversant with the sub- 
ject. We shall in another article give some directions 
about the proper attention to the quality and quantity 
of the grass.—1Z. 
ON THE CULTIVATION OF COMMELINA 
CG@LESTIS. 
Tus is a half-hardy perennial of considerable beauty, 
and well worth a place in the borders of the flower-garden, 
where it will produce a succession of its beautiful ephe- 
meral azure blossoms from July to September. 
t is easily cultivated if treated in the following 
manner :—_About the end of February sow the seeds in 
pans or pots filled with a mixture of sandy loam and leaf- 
mould, and place them in a warm pit or dung-frame. 
The seeds will soon vegetate ; and when the young plants 
are large enough to handle, pot them off singly into sixty- 
sized pots, and return them to the warm frame or pit for 
a week or ten days; afterwards admit air, and finally 
remove them to a cold frame or pit to harden, ready for 
planting out in the open border, which should be done 
about the end of May or beginning of June, when the 
danger from late frost and cold nights is over. 
In planting, they must not be put ina dry or shaded 
situation, but in a warm and rather damp one ; and ina 
rich loamy soil. They will then fiower freely all the 
summer and autumn; but, like the Dahlia, their beauty 
is destroyed by the first frost in the autumn. 
‘he plants flower freely the first season from seed, but 
they display their delicate azure blossoms in the greatest 
perfection the second season, if the roots are taken up 
and preserved like those of the Dahlia over the winter, 
which is best done in the following way :—When the 
plants have done flowering, and there is danger of the 
roots getting injured by severe frost, they must be taken 
up and placed to dry for a few days; then procure a box 
or some large flower-pots, and place a little dry soil at 
the bottom—(the best substance for packing all kinds of 
roots in during winter is dry sandy peat) 3—then place a 
layer of roots, filling in between with soil—and so on 
until you have disposed of all the roots, when the whole 
should be covered over with a thick layer of any dry sub- 
stance. Place the plants either under the stage in the 
green-house or in a dry cellar for the winter, out of the 
reach of damp or frost; they will then require no more 
trouble until the following March, when they should be 
taken out, potted, and placed either.in a warm pit or 
dung-frame, to forward them again for planting out, 
The roots will survive the winter in the Open border if 
slightly protected and kept dry, but then they are late in 
starting, and never so fine as when the roots are taken up 
and preserved through the winter, like those of the Dahlia. 
The old roots may be divided, like those of the Garden 
Ranunculus.— George Gordon, 
ENTOMOLOGY.—No. ¢ 
Tue Biack TurTLE-scaiz, Coceus testudo (Curtis). 
—The Scales, as they are termed by gardeners, are per- 
haps the most troublesome of all the insect tribes in the 
greenhouse and hothouse, and there are few conservatories, 
I believe, entirely free from them ; it will, therefore, be 
of service to give figures and descriptions of the different 
species. The scale insects vary so considerably in their 
