578 Garden Calls : — Pchiwih House, 



on Fruit Trees, 1825, 8vo. p. 187.) On some pear trees a few branches, 

 with the old spurs, are allowed to remain, which renders the increased size 

 of the fruit on the reduced spurs very apparent. There are two rows of fig 

 trees against east and west walls; the wood of which has been thinned out, 

 and they are now covered with a most abundant crop, which began to ripen 

 in the end of July. A vine wall, lio yds. long and 14ft. high, the sorts 

 chiefly the white muscadine and black cluster, shows a good crop. When 

 ripening they are covered with leno, as are at this time the plums and 

 cherries, and the openings for air to the vineries and peach-houses. There 

 is a large bed of cranberries on peat earth kept moist ; but Mr. Harrison 

 finds the plants bear better when the shoots are raised on bricks or stones, 

 and he intends placing small ridges of these at regular distances of about a 

 foot over the whole bed. The crops of pines, grapes, and peaches were 

 abundant. Mr. Harrison thins away the leaves from his lemons, oranges, 

 figs, grapes, and sometimes from peaches and other fruits when they are 

 full grown, but only so far as to admit the direct influence of the sun a 

 part of the day, and no leaf is ever taken from those embryo buds which are 

 to come into use in the ensuing season. This operation is of the greatest 

 nicety, and none are more frequently over-done by gardeners, if the men 

 with blue aprons may be so named, who do not know the use of leaves, 

 and that the bud at the base of a leaf-stalk depends entirely on the leaf of 

 that stalk for its perfect formation, and can never be perfected by the ad- 

 joining leaves, however numerous these leaves may be. Every master and 

 mistress who does not keep a scientific gardener, that is, a reading one, 

 ought to bear this in mind, and keep an eye to what is done with the leaves 

 of all manner of plants, and especially of fruit trees. A plant can no 

 more thrive with its leaves injured, than a warm-blooded animal with 

 diseased lungs; leaves performing the same office to the sap of plants which 

 lungs do to the blood of animals. 



Cockscombs. In the pinery we observed 60 pots of cockscombs of uni- 

 form size, the comb about 22 inches in length, and the height of the flower 

 not more than 10 inches. The art of raising them with such large combs 

 on so short stems, Mr. Harrison says, is after transplanting them for the first 

 time out of the seed pot, to let them remain in a small sized pot till the 

 comb has made its appearance, and then, and not before, to begin to trans- 

 plant, as in the case of balsams, into larger pots, and thus supply as much 

 rich earth, liquid manure, and moist heat, as they can make use of. The 

 rationale of this practice is, that after the comb or flower has made its ap- 

 pearance, the stem ceases to increase in length, and consequently all the 

 nourishment supplied by the transplanting goes towards increasing the size 

 of the comb. 



Melons. But what struck us above every thing under Mr. Harrison's 

 management was his abundant crops of melons, all growing on plants raised 

 from cuttings. We have already described this practice (Vol. II. p. 415.) 

 as adopted by Mr. Harrison, for the purpose of obtaining a second crop; 

 but as he has here adopted it for almost the whole of his main crops, we 

 shall give an outline of his present practice, subject, if we should err, to 

 his correction in a future number. In the beginning of the season one hill 

 of seedlings is planted of each of the sorts it is intended to cultivate during 

 the summer, and from these seedling plants, or their offspring, cuttings are 

 taken for all the crops. A one-light frame is set apart expressly for striking 

 the cuttings, and in it a stock of rooted plants, but never of more than 

 three or four days' growth, are kept all the summer. A bed or pit being 

 ready to plant, rooted cuttings are chosen, on which fruit blossoms have 

 already appeared, and these are distributed over the beds at distances so as 

 to allow one or from that to two square yards of surface to each plant, ac- 

 cording to the size of the leaves and the mode of growth. In five or six 

 days after planting, if the cuttings have been taken at the right time, that 



