THE GARDENERS' CHRONICLE. 



239 



strong 4* P* r gallon, sufficient to make four (Jang 

 #>»)• in Bottles, l*.3e/. and 2s.6d. each. Directions 



PAGE S9D 



^?!^^ M forV8rded." 10 Gallons and upwards Carriage 

 1m t0TT^ Should be in the hands of all Plant and Fruit 



*' Chronicle, March 3, 1855. It can now 



rntwUmto* 



totfctii*ed of 



jugate Street, Chester. 

 14, Corporation Street, 



Mr. W. F. Smith, Rivershead 

 Nursery, Sevenoaks 



Messrs. Fisher. Holm* s, & Co., 

 HandswortliNurserv. Sheffield 



Mr. Thos. Cridiand, Willetoi 

 near Taunton 



Mr. E. Taylor, Malton, Yorksh. 



Mr. S. Smee, Halstead, Essex 



Mr. Henry Home, Henley-on- 

 Thames 



Mr. Thomas Pierpoinr, "War- 

 rington, Lancashire 



Mr. W. Garraway, Welwyn, 

 Herts 



Mr. George "Wheeler, Nursery- 

 man, Warminster 



Messrs. Wood & Ingram, Nur- 

 series, Huntingdon 



Mr. R. M. Mills, Market Place, 

 Bourn 



Mr. Husbands, Talbot Street, 



Nottingham 

 Mr. Caparn, Seedsman, Newark 

 Mr. John Cattell, Seedsman, 

 Westerham [minster 



Mr. Morgan, Nursery, Kidder- 

 Messrs. lvery & Son. Nursery- 

 men, Dorking and Reigate 

 Messrs. Leake & Smith, Biidge- 



^^^^^^^^^ , | — — ~ ^~ ^~ ^~ ^ ' " " — ■ » W "- "~ - ~~ ^~ ~ » ^^^"t^^^^ 9 ____________ 



CO/s BLIGHT COMPOSITION- j coping, screen, or any other inclined body used for 



~" *~~ ** protection. Supposing it to be opaque, it is evidently 



immaterial whether it forms the usual angle with 

 the wall, or is horizontal ; but if it is composed of 

 net- work, or any other open material, then it is 

 equally clear that it should be hung at such an 

 angle as will enable the meshes to form among them 

 an unbroken roof when viewed from b c. 

 ^ No better illustration of this principle can be 

 given than that of Mr. Harrison, formerly men- 

 tioned in our pages, and which we here reproduce 

 without its explanatory letter-press. In this case 

 the application of the above diagram to an excellent 

 kind of shelter is self-evident. 



_mk Brown, Sudbury 



M*e k torn, Reading 



IjJ G. D»vi_on, St. Peter's 



Arete &*&** w 

 Hotter** & C°-> Pine-apple 

 >, London 

 It Co.. Plymouth 

 ft Sea, Canterbury 

 ___ Dtffci & Co., Waver- 

 trte, Liverpool 

 \ir. Freeman. Wobnrn 



J Ftertina, Northampton 



I . Derby 

 W. Btrratt, St. Johns, 

 ' Wakefield. 

 „ Ba^karriBe, Bristol 



Jktr. Burham, Hastings 



KlBif.Cbandler& Son, Wands- 

 worth Road, Lond n 



tfj. Jftroae Ve4tch, Exotic Nur- 

 nrjr, Cbalaea 



Uem. Wheeler & Son, 



McflTR. I>*irm. & Laird, South 



' Frederick Street, Edinburgh north 



aid ft/the Inventors and Manufacturers — 



1;. PAGE & Co., Seed Merchants, Oxford Street, and 



Above Bar, Southampton. 



v B.- Other names will shortly appear, as the agents are 



iffotated 



GERANIUM-' 4 ENGLAND'S GLORY." 



BAlNiiRlDGE and HEWISON have purchased this 

 beaatiful bedding Geranium. The colour of the flower is 

 ih, or maiden's blush ; the leaf of the horse shoe kind, and 

 rtry gloasy; the individual flowers are smooth, of great sub- 

 itum, and of exquisite form. It is an abundant bloomer, an 

 tcaadtag iargB trusses and throwing its flowers well above' the 

 jape. It resembles much the Hydrangea, and is considered 

 th*» best Geranium out for bedding or conservatory. 



Plants in A e, 1S"."», 5s. each. The usual allowance to the 

 hade when H. nts are taken.— York Nurserie s, April 14. 



rjRAftS SEEDS for PERMANENT PASTURE, 



24s. to 30s. per acre. 

 IM RTED ITALIAN KYE-GKASS, 6_. per bushel. 

 PA«TS PERENNIAL RYE-GRASS, 4s. 6d. to 5s. 6d. per 



LAWN GRASS SEED, Is. per lb. 



THUS PI EXNIAL RED CLOVER, os COW GRASS, lOd. 

 per lb.— Delivered carriage free, 

 i. C. Wheeler & Sex. Seed Growers, Gloucester, Seedsmen 

 toaiGlotjeestershire Agricultural Society. 



Established in the early part of the 18th century. 



dispersion of pollen is practically arrested. When- 

 ever close screens are used, then, the space between 

 d and c in the diagram ought to be amply sufficient 

 to allow abundant indraughts of air, and the visits 

 of as many insect ad irers as the flowers can attract. 

 Ihis is perfectly provided for in the Harrison 

 screen, as will be seen by comparing it with the 

 diagrams. 



SATURDAY^APRIL 14, 1855. 



The mode of securing wall fruit against spring 

 mtfuis now engaging the attention of gardeners, as 

 ^Uitniay for if the end of this present April 

 •JM be at all like that of the last five or six, our 



JkJmw will again be deprived of their most va 

 produce. 



*S fr l H n ' must be P^tected, and imme- 



£5 ; i m r hat wa y ? -° r rath « r > ** *hicb of 



^K rf. nS i haVe been suggested ? Should it be 



^thT 18 l ° r ^\ th * ettin S ? or with & las * fronts ? 

 K^T 8 ? or co l ,in g boards ? or Fir twigs 



Wrl* P I 'I lhat a11 wiU answer more or less 



W«? J - P 5 Iledj and none wiU be effidrat if care 

 W«d of judgment is all that the gardener can 



*^\*f l xr e ° bject of this sheIter? 

 «c wind off ? No. To 



'£*?»• ?° %D0 - II is si ^yand purely 



^f^t nocturnal radiation, or to stop 



Beyond this no purpose is served. 



this from a general point of view. 

 Let a b represent the front of any 

 ^all, and b c a border on one 

 side 





It is known to every one that the only reason 

 gardens cannot be kept in beauty in threat c ies, 

 especially such as London, consists in the impossi- 

 bility of guarding them from the effects of smoke. 

 a ™,™ k«*i - •* • _*.-.,,! , Uther inconv emences are susceptible of remedv - 



-, wyhttle ingenuity is sufficient to show how against smote it is hopeless for a gardener Scon- 

 tend except at a cost that few 

 care to incur. Lord Palmeil- 

 ston's Smoke Prevention Bill 

 is however working so well, 

 and has already purified some 

 of the worst districts to such 

 a degree, that the great metro- 

 politan horticultural difficulty 

 is^ rapidly diminishing. From 

 Limehouse to Blackwall the 

 atmosphere has become ;is pure 

 as at Hammersmith, and if 

 smoke ins; ectors did their duly, 

 which they do not, the Isle of 

 Dogs might even now become 

 the site of a botanic garden. 



Rjfir steamers, indeed, still 

 continue to poison the air, and 

 iwelling houses to assist (hem ; 

 but Pride.ux's furnace door, 

 concerning which we hear the 

 best accounts, promises to 

 render the former smokeless, 

 and Dr. Aunott's ingenious 

 fire grate, now coming into 

 general use, will by degrees 

 enable Lord PalAehston's Act 

 to be extended to 

 houses, should their owners not 

 find it their interest — as they 

 surely will — to employ it with- 

 out compulsion. Under these 

 circumstances metropolitan or town gardening as- 

 sumes new importance. 



It is not, however, to be supposed that coal smoke 

 is the only obstacle to gardening in the midst of 

 acres of houses ; other enemies are in the way, as 

 fatal as smoke, but fortunately more easily guarded 

 against. The first of these is the general dryness of 

 the atmosphere. Wherever large areas are deprived 

 of trees the air ceases to be charged with moisture, 

 and vegetation languishes or perishes. Wherever 

 trees abound, as in natural forests, the atmosphere 

 is incessantly supplied with vapour by the insensible 

 perspiration of their leaves, and luxuriant verdure 

 is the result. A great city is therefore like a great 

 desert, and equally incapable of supporting vegeta- 

 tion in the absence of artificial supplies of water. 

 It is even worse, for the dry brickwork of houses is 



and 



dwelling 



keep the rain 

 Certainly not. 



To keep 

 off ? No. 

 To 



kt qs feck at 



such a sloping screen can be made with other mate- 

 rials in a temporary manner. We content ourselves 

 with pointing out one. The Harrison screen admits 

 light and air abundantly, and destroys radiation ; 

 that is its fundamental principle. Whether the 

 effect is obtained with brown calico and woollen 

 netting and neatly trimmed framework, or with far 

 ruder materials and hedge-stakes, is of no great con- 

 sequence to the crop, however much such rough con- 

 trivances offend the eye. The following scheme, 

 which has been repeatedly tried with advantageous 

 results, may be put up in any country place 

 in a few hours. Let the accompanying diagram 

 represent a b, a wall ; b c, the border ; and a d, 

 the screen as before, seen endwise. Let a d 



arlso represent a line of strings 

 stretched from the top of a 

 wall to c. Suppose haybands 

 or strawbands, the rougher the 

 better, are tied horizontally to 

 a d at the places marked -:::-, 

 it is evident that, when looked 

 at from below, a d will have the 

 appearance of a close roof, and 

 in reality will be so for the pur- 

 pose of intercepting radiation. 

 In fact it does roughly and im- 

 perfectly what the Harrison 

 screen does neatly and securely. 



. of 

 radiation 



say, loss 

 the heat 



it. When nocturnal 

 takes place, that is to 

 of heat by the 



earth, 



passes away into spac 

 m the direction of the dotted 

 lines 



perpetually 



little 



■ 



B 



C 



Its fault 

 does not 



keep 

 sufficiently. 



schemes there is 



is; that the 



off 



slope A D 



driving sleet 



a a 

 direction. 



a, and in no other 





In bright nights this 

 takes place to a degree that ie 

 total to the blossoms of fruit tree^ 

 But the lines of radiation are in- 

 tercepted by any object inter- 

 posed between them and the sky, 

 such, for example, as is shown at 

 ad ; and then the heat which 

 "ies off perpendicularly, bein 



stopped at b b b, is immediately 

 ac * to a a a, s that 



what 



lost by the 



th 



: CUL oei »g sent back aaam the next 

 effect of radiation from a to b is 



** * thl T C0Unter Nation from b to a. 

 %** of sc^ 017 ° f ******* upon winch the 



Ujjly. ^nug wall trees from night frost* 



** nt t1lat in ti»* case a d represents a 



In all these schemes there is one important 

 condition which is little thought of,al though it makes 

 the whole difference between success and failure. 

 To retain warmth (or as we say to keep off cold) 

 is not of itself enough to secure a crop* of fruit. 

 Precautions must also be taken to enable the flowers 



powerfully absorbing the 

 vapour which does exist applicable to the purposes 

 of vegetation. But in this country water is never 

 wanting in cities, and refreshing showers can be 

 administered at the pleasure of the gardener. All 

 that his home-made rain is deficient, in is that car- 

 bonate of ammonia which natural rain collects in 

 its passage through the atmosphere. But this is 



a want which a very small amount of ingenuity can 

 supply. 



Another, though less universal, difficulty in town 

 gardening consists in the general sterility of the 

 soil in such places. Whatever its original quality 

 may have been, and it was most commonly in- 



uiterlv 



to " set." Nothing is done if that is neglected. 

 We have seen most carefully and expensively 

 executed contrivances wholly resultless owing to 

 this simple matter not having been thought of. 

 Their ingenious inventors could not divest their 

 minds of the maxims of the "coddling school" of 

 cultivation, and killed their children with kindm i. 

 In order that flowers may set, it is indispensable 

 that they shall be exposed to all natural currents of 



air. Short Of Storms. »tl/1 fr» fho fnoowt ar*r*occ nf 



lifferent enough, it becomes in a few y 

 exhausted of all matters on which plant* can feed, 

 and no means are taken to rffitore or communicate 

 fertility by manure. If Grass is mown, the mow- 

 ings are removed and nothing supplies the nutritive 

 matter they have abstracted ; if leaves fall they are 

 swept up and carried away ; if the borders are 

 decorated with annual or perennial plants, the 

 gardener's first care is to cut off and remove their 

 decaying leaves in order to make the place tidy. 

 We may take our wretched London squares to be 

 gardens of a peculiar kind. In the course of 30 or 

 40 years, during which we have known them, we 

 never remember to have seen a single load of manure 

 carted into even the best of them. The inhabitants 



rust to Providence, instead of their own outlay and 



insect both which agencies are undoubtedly ! lowest poteible price, to " keep the ^mare in order " 

 natural contrivances to ensure the dispersion of that is to ty to mow the Grass and sweep up the 

 nnlW ||»i ,,W . .w :„ _„♦ «j„ . dead l T es;andriiere they stop. They would P seerl 



not to know that trees and Grass require to I 8 U 

 as well as themselves. It would be as rati nal to 



u 



pollen. But when a plant is put 

 close glass case, or bagged up in a tight canvas 

 frame, or stifled by any similar scheme, no air finds 

 free admission, no insects can visit the flowers, and the 



trust to the ac* n of a curreycomb alone for keepij 



