Memoirs of the Caledonian Horticultural Society. 3 1 5 



" Quinces on the Niagara river produce generally a good 

 crop. They are certainly a finer-flavoured fruit than those 

 produced in England, being free from the disagreeable smell 

 that the English quinces have, and are esteemed the best fruit 

 for preserving in that country. The trees are remarkably 

 dwarf, which I suspect is owing to the method they have in 

 propagating them, which is altogether from cuttings, and these 

 are generally branches of considerable size, and planted in the 

 spring." 



18. Hints on increasing the Warmth of Garden Walls, by painting 

 them Black ; tvith a Description of an improved Mode of con- 

 structing Subdivision Walls in Gardens, fyc. By Mr. John Hen- 

 derson, Den Nursery, Brechin. 



Painting walls black has been tried in several places, and the 

 result has been better leaves, larger and more numerous fruit, 

 and the destruction of the larvae of insects on the wall. A 

 cheap way of blackening a wall is first to paint it with boiling 

 coal tar, and, when that is thoroughly dry, to paint over again 

 with black oil paint : this would produce a jet black. 



Old ragged walls may be improved by plastering them 

 over, and attaching to them a wire trellis. " This is by no 

 means a costly expedient ; and on an old wall I lately had the 

 operation performed as follows : — Before the plaster was put 

 on, a number of nails were driven into the wall, about 3 ft. 

 apart, in horizontal lines, which lines were about 9 in. asunder. 

 After the plaster was dry, a wire of a proper thickness was 

 fastened to the first nail, and from it drawn very tightly and 

 twisted round the second, and so on with all the rest. The 

 nails were then driven home, and the trellis was perfectly 

 firm." 



The coping of walls need not project more than an inch or 

 two : any shelter which the tree might require when in bloom 

 can be supplied by movable coping boards, or netting or 

 canvass placed against the wall. 



Subdivision walls in gardens might be constructed of lath 

 and plaster, and stand at an angle of 55°, sloping to the sun 

 like the roof of a house. Mr. Henderson has been in the practice 

 of training fruit trees on a sloping bank of earth, fronting the 

 sun, and found them ripen ten days earlier than against a per- 

 pendicular wall of the same aspect. Such walls require to be 

 sheltered with thin canvass both day and night till the fruit is 

 set ; " for it is probable that the position of this wall may be as 

 cold at night as that of a standard tree : but this can never 

 detract from its claims, since it is not so much the shelter of a 



