THE GARDENERS' CHRONICLE. 



53 



in 



be 



Toftbe measure of success 

 serviceable in assisting. *- 



the 



may u Va ifficult task of deciding ; 

 — ^ in the somewhat difficult ^ ^ 



3?K ' ■**£ g bottn- beat need not despair 

 ^•^cood S Melons without it, provided 

 "ASrtil them too early. 



^u-e, of which tnc sccuui F? -j». - 



tlSTiTlhe spring of 1842, p nncipaII> 



^"^Vfnimd useful m the win 



bat it is 



ter for forcing 



r u;„k the accompanying cut is a section, 

 Tk»«-V of * h ! ch ?A«i? nrindnsllT for a Melon- 



I 



the trellis being at 



*"*' A in the earlv spring for fctrawoernes ; 



»»2X^ » i8wei1 V' ted ' on r c 7h of 



tsbsikssica P"PV . ■ _ at suc h times replaced by a 



m 



Wsffosis 



to 



i^g^^TsTsfee'tbng, and 15 feet wide and is 

 Cj^bt means of a saddle-boiler, with four-inch pipes 

 St ^d the outside of the pit. These pipes are 

 CTL.h r«t iron troughs, for holding water, to regu- 

 £*Z t ^ tu of he atmosphere. Beneath the pit is 

 ^ S^Zlt a along the front of which runs the 



t". t^^^***™ °? e r° th v o ! 1 



. andaHo serving to heat a series of arches, c, which 

 ^ .{oog beneath the path, and are entered from ,a house 

 MwM, and which are used for forcing Rhubarb, &c. 

 la He win'er. I may also mention that the house m 

 front ii bested bt the same boiler. ■"■ . 



In ibe beginning oi June, the house was cleared of 

 Strawberries ; it then underwent a thorough cleaning. 

 JU pit was next filled, by planing first about six inches 

 of decaf ed dung and leaves, and upon this a compost con- 

 aatiag of one-balf surface-soil of a pasture which had 

 lafa far twelve months, and one-half a mixture of turf, 

 dltg, and brick-rubbish, that had been thrown together 

 far a Vine-border. The depth of the soil was about two 

 feet. The trellis being then fixed, the arrangements were 

 CtntUte. On the 15th of June the plants were turned 

 ott, one in each light, and planted about six inches from 

 tbe front of the pit. They grew most luxuriantly; only 

 two i hoot s were allowed to go up the trellis beneath each 

 U|bt, and about three Melons were left to swell in the 

 ipace. By thus limiting the number of shoots, the 

 led plenty of room to expand, and I think I never 

 •aw finer foliage. The number of fruit was twenty-one, 

 sad tbe average weight about eight and a half pounds. The 

 teaperitnre of the house was kept to seventy-two degrees 

 by fre-heat, and the heat of the bed never exceeded se- 

 fssty-fire dezrees. As the moisture of the soil and atmo- 

 Ipfcere is of the greatest importance in bringing to perfec- 

 tion U»e Persian Melon, I may add, that I never allowed 

 ssyi if ringing, or watering with a rose- pot ; but twice while 

 ttey were growing the bed received a thorough watering. 

 TV depth of the soil, and its being of a nature to retain 

 precluded the necessity of often watering. The 

 were kept full of water till the fruit began to 

 npss, wben the atmosphere of the house was kept as 

 °ry si possible. * 



Although th e soil in this house received a slight degree 



tWo^Lr,? flue , beneath ' we have Mel °ns growing in 



2t au i P C T and doin S e( l uall y ™». without bottom- 



snl e/i;! ♦ j ve 7 thing has been obtained from a good 

 J-ffisJ bent depth that could be desired or expected, 



2,? ,r !? nks u or closed ones. One of these 

 **•«. .i i i ' * here the soil is P laced "Pon the 

 •ffiof L /, XCepti0n of a thin la y er (about 

 "Suse ?J ,- e f C V The other P lace a lluued to 



^ft n do£f h l 5 e plants gnm in ^ its about 



^ksiss Medal ~~ ^ The Melon ' for which a 



s ^«P«ns!bie ntrary,f0r eady cro P s of Melons I consider 



^^^IZT^ ° f the ffiethod P urs ^ d in this 

 ** mowing in Ju *r"™ sUc <*ss those who saw the 



? k < • <<* gene al rem! ^\ m i ud ge- I shall now 

 ■^ ^e pl an ^ ° n the soil > ™ watering, and 



^TOMeW at ^i 1 be aS r0Ugh or h»Pf 



[ m -«* and &» " \ tnd that the roots deli 8 ht 



e surface 115 Tk 6Very direct ion > and protruding 

 ■ an 1 i he . com Po»t I prefer, is one-vear- 



sing things 



more 

 in a state of 



Reived by ta king g o n ° e £'!£ lump "' I 1 m ** readily 

 SWL 1 ** 11 f P r eading in - Up ' when the roots 



aV?^ * XOm an old ««.♦ tva " * F ,c,cr » is one-yea. 



5*^ ,0 »* hSy T\ * Bma11 »*° rti0n of rM ™ 

 SS^""'-? the ^rl Z : W ' th - a 1Utle charcoal 

 kS?*- I' should be? "7 3 t0 t ltS beiD " added to 

 Jj« aoit ^\,ir,jT deep f0r tlie P lan,s to root 



rSS?' ^ health, T e firSt .' the fibres wi H be more 

 ^*> K> Urn „. ° y :. t,u ?Posi 



JJtsle 



**'«S \ £* *• «i «s. z:\t> so much tbe be «« i 



"*«•, . n n ""^r to 8 m,?, ° f com I >ost "iUbeoccu- 

 **«ui il Ba J °e iS n y TT h DO °™1>°>ent to the 

 "•2S? 1 * aft « tUe fi,.??? d Wha , 1 ra P id Progre.* tbe 



** *^?. 5 t0e ^ m«.tt r0 ?^ WateriD 8 lhe co «- 

 PM to *" D0 «t. At this til . U ' e Same tem Perature 



*• »«*2E S U,e Mmolh, Rre f attemion should be 



Home Correspondence - 



5c^5 awrf Dutch Clover in New Zealand. — As " R." 

 has applied directly to me respecting the cause which has 

 produced the accession of Dutch Clover recently observed 

 in New Zealand, I will reply to him in the best manner I 

 can. I am inclined to think that the increased produce 

 of Clover has been rather coincident than correlative to 

 the introduction of honey-bees into the Colony, and that 

 it has arisen from some change in the culture of the soil ; 

 as such changes are well known to be capable of producing 

 such an effect. If a pasture-field be dressed with soap- 

 maker's waste, or with a compost well imbued with lime, 

 or with lime only, there will be a crop of Dutch Clover, 

 though it had never appeared, or but scantily appeared 

 before. Some attribute this to the land's being placed in 

 a favourable state for the germination of Clover-seed, 

 which had lain dormant in tbe earth, only awaiting the 

 favourable circumstances referred to, to bring it forth. 

 Others regard it as a parallel case to that afforded by 

 the celebrated Mr. Crosse, who by means of electricity has 

 brought into existence insects previously unknown, and 

 as therefore militating against the doctrine of o«inia ab 

 ovo. It is a knotty point which I shall not presume to 

 decide, but I hope the remarks I have made may call forth 

 others from some of your intelligent correspondents. — 

 Edward Bevan, Esgair Evan, Newtown, Montgomery- 



Culture of the Carrot.— Some gardeners imagine that 

 old garden soils are not favourable to the growth of 

 Carrots ; but I have produced them in two old gardens, 

 which for years had refused to produce them by the 

 common modes of cultivation. The system I pursue is 

 this : in autumn the ground is trenched to the depth of 

 eighteen inches, in tbe bottom of each trench a little quick 

 lime is sprinkled and forked up with the bottom ; the 

 surface remains quite rough until spring; previous to 

 sowing, a little river-sand or sandy earth is spread over 

 the surface, and dug in as deep as a common spade will do 

 it. I then add a little more quick lime, and rake the 

 surface level: the beds are then formed; drills are drawn 



will be prevented by the too great quantity of vapour J 

 from the newly-watered soil ; to prevent this I place dry 

 mats on the surface, and give a little extra air, keeping 

 up the temperature by the hot-water pipes. During sun- 

 shine, the mats are removed to allow the surface to 

 become dry again. By the time the fruit is half swelled, 

 water may again be required, — it must be given as before, 

 paying the same attention to the state of the atmosphere. 

 This will probably suffice till tbe fruit is ripe ; but if 

 water should be again required, it should be given at the 

 sides of the bed of soil, where the extremities of the roots 

 will be, and so as to wet the surface as little as pos- 

 sible, as the atmosphere cannot now be kept too dry 

 for the flavour of the fruit. I may here observe, that 

 the best way to give water is to pour it from the spout 

 of a pot without a rose, and as much between the lumps 

 of soil as possible. In very hot weather the red spider 

 will be troublesome, and I find it necessary to puff sul- 

 phur and snuff on the under-side of every leaf, which is 

 easily done in our Melon-house, as the trellis is so much 

 above the soil that a boy may get to nearly every leaf 

 without touching them : this plan is much better than 

 steaming and sprinkling for the Persian Melon. 



] now come to the management of the shoots and 

 leaves, which is a point of great importance, as, unless the 

 leaves are allowed plenty of room, by retaining but few 

 shoots, and are kept green and healthy till the last, the 

 fruit will not be good in flavour. My rule is to allow no 

 more than two shoots to be taken up under each light, and 

 no laterals allowed to grow except those on which the 

 fruit are. When the shoots reach the top of tbe trellis 

 they are stopped, in order to throw strength into the late- 

 rals, on which the young fruit will now be forming. When 

 three of the most promising fruit are set, the rest should 

 be cut away with the laterals, and the plants should be 

 examined daily for some time, to see that not a leaf over- 

 lays another, and to pinch all laterals that appear. 



The Hoosainee Melon may be known to be about ripe 

 wh?n a sweet juice exudes from the stalk near the fruit, 

 which will generally happen in about thirteen or fourteen 

 weeks from the time of planting out. — G. Fleming, Tren- 

 tham Gardens. 



in the usual way ; the seeds, being mixed with river-sand, 

 are then sown, and covered in with the back of a rake. 

 The width of the drills varies according to the sorts ; for 

 small-growing kinds, such as the Early Horn, eight inches 

 is about the width ; for the Altringham, ten inches ; and 

 for the largest sorts one foot is not too much ; and they 

 are thinned out to about the same distances in the drills. 

 Thinning is of the greatest importance : the allowing 

 them to remain too thick is not unfrequently the cause of 

 disease. By the above system, I produced last year 

 on one hundred and twenty square yards nine cwt. of 

 picked roots (varying in length from one foot to eighteen 

 inches), one cwt. of small, and three cwt. of tops, all per- 

 fectly free from speck, the sort being the Altringham. — 



P. Elliot. 



Cucumbers.— A correspondent, " P. Cope," informs us 

 that at an obscure place in South Salop there was a 

 Cucumber cut on the 3d of December, measuring 13 ins. 

 in length, and l|in. in diameter. He inquires if any of 

 our correspondents have outdone this. 



Oaks.— Seeing that you recommend Quercus sessih- 

 flora, I shall be obliged by your stating under what cir- 

 cumstances, since it is considered very inferior timber. 

 There is not, I believe, a neighbouring woodman here who 

 is not aware of the extreme softness of the Durmast 



P r oper or™ • " 7™~ WJ > U1 " 0ak when felled » or of its ver y fra 8 iIe character wheQ 



gamsation of the leaves applied to ai.y of those uses for which the tenacious pro- 



perties of the Q. pedunculata are esteemed. The know- 

 ledge of this by the Commissioners of Woods and 

 Forests induced their sending particular instructions to 

 the late Mr. Turner (their then surveyor of the New 

 Forest plantations), to cultivate only the Quercus pedun- 

 culata. These instructions were accompanied by drawings, 

 which are, 1 believe, kept in the office of the present sur- 

 veyor, Col. Thornhill, at New Park. My motive for ad- 

 dressing you is the endeavour to prevent any error that 

 may be likely to accrue upon a subject of such import- 

 ance as the cultivation of the proper sort of Oak for tim- 

 ber. I have for some years directed my own attention to 

 this subject, and I should be very glad to possess any in- 

 formation that you may be able to afford. It is not many 

 days since that the proprietor of an estate in the Forest 

 directed my attention to a large tree of Q. sessiliflora upon 

 his property at Minstead, saying, *' There is a Q. sessili- 

 flora, it is very brittle timber." This gentleman is a large 

 possessor in the Forest, and is, perhaps, more conversant 

 than many other persons with this subject. Contiguous 

 to this propeity, and upon the open Forest, stands a large 

 tree of O^trya virginica (supposed to have been planted 

 there by Lord Delaware) ; it has by many persons been 

 considered an Elm, and branches of it in flower have often 

 been shown a? such. There are likewise two fine trees of 

 Quercus alba near the same place, but they do not produce 

 Acorns. — JRufus, Lyndhurst. [After having occupied so 

 much space formerly with discussions concerning the po- 

 pular prejudices against Q. sessiliflora, we must refer our 

 correspondent to our Volumes for 1841 and 1842, espe- 

 cially the former. This is certain, that the wood of Q. 

 sessiliflora is in no respect inferior to that of Q. peduncu- 

 lata. Both are affected by soil, and are occasionally of bad 

 quality. The name Durmast Oak is, apparently, applied 

 in the New Forest to different plants, and therefore fur- 

 nishes no evidence against Q. sessiliflora.] 



Piping Carnations. — This has been successfully prac- 

 tised by removing the mould from a Tulip-bed, placing the 

 leaves of the Tulips underneath, and passing the mould 

 through a coarse riddle. The pipings stuck in thi3 mould 

 are covered with a hand-light, exposed fully to the sun ; 

 but in hot weather, in the evening, water is poured over 

 the hand-light. It requires an active person to pick out 

 worms and slugs. If the pipings are placed in a box, 

 covered first with a bell-glass, which is to be exchanged 

 for a small hand-glass, or a larger bell, as the pipings 

 begin to grow, the boxes placed on a stage on a N. side 

 of a tree, and the stage resting on feeders»filled with lime- 

 water, there is less trouble with insects, and the pipings 

 will grow very well, but not so rapidly nor so strong as in 

 the former method. — O, 



Mildew.— \ wish to add a few facts to those already 

 stated with regard to mildew, and I hope to suggest a 

 remedy. Having in my conservatory, which may ▼ary 

 in temperature from 38 deg. to 70 deg., an Aimee Vibert 

 Rose, a Hymenee, The do., and a Microphylla do., ex- 

 tremely subject to the mildew, I begau about a year ago 

 to try a remedy which I think I must have met with in 

 the Gardeners' Chronicle, viz., to water them with nitre 

 dissolved in water. The effect is, Aimee Vibert is quite 

 cured, and Hymene'e, whose wood was almost destroyed 

 by the disease, is tot illy free, and making beautiful young 

 wood, the Microphylla, though much improved in health, 

 has still a little of it left. I used 1 oz. nitre to 1 gallon 

 of water (the best I could get at a chemist's), and about 

 once in 10 days during the summer, and am just begin- 

 ning again to do so. I should think if the Peach-trees 

 were well syringed with the solution, taking care there 

 should be enough to water tbe roots, it would be effectual 

 there also. I tried sulphur without the least effect. — 



Omeya. 

 On Summer-Pruning Fruit-trees.— In summer-pruning, 



"Tyro" says at p. 5, u We deprive the tree' of its digestive 

 organs without at all diminishing the absorption at the 

 roots ; the juices consequently not meeting with a proper 

 surface of exposure, which if no summer-pruning had 

 been performed tbey would have done, are returned to 

 the tree in a crude and unprepared state, the wood 

 thereby is not of a natural texture, and the fruit is deprived 

 of its proper flavour." Many, however, do not so much de- 

 serve blame for pruning as for not pruning. The wall-trees 

 in many places grow as they may, and rows of fruit-trees 

 in the quarters of the garden are never pruned during the 

 summer; all are generally left for the winter-pruning. 

 The luxuriant growth of wood in summer robs the fruit 

 of nourishment, and increases the extension of roots to 

 supply the increased extent of branches on the following 

 season. During winter, the knife removes a great por- 

 tion of the branches, and the equilibrium that Nature has 

 established between them and the roots is partly de- 

 stroyed, and a luxuriance of fruitless branches continues 

 to be produced on account of the increased powers of the 

 roots. u In summer pruning," it is said, " we deprive the 

 tree of its digestive organs without at all diminishing the 

 absorption at the roots." I imagine that summer-pruning 

 does diminish the absorption at the rools, and that it 

 establishes a uniformity of circulation between roots and 

 branches. There is such a mutual action existing be- 

 tween these, that whatever is done to curtail the one will 

 affect the other ; a judicious summer-pruning of crowded 

 and luxuriant young shoots will allow a free circulation of 

 air, and the genial influence of the sun will better mature 

 the wood that remains, it will also moderate the ac- 

 tion of the roots, and the reciprocity between them and 

 branches will thereby be better established without the 

 necessity of pruning much in winter. The use of a strong 

 pair of scissors is all that is necessary for pruning fruit- 

 trees in summer, when the wood is solt. By this practice, 

 the juices supplied from the roots and the gases received 

 from the atmosphere will be concentrated in the branches, 

 and better fruit be obtained.— IF. P. Bamboo.— Another 



