458 JRemarJcs and Observatiojis suggested 



quantities of breast wood annually pruned off. Some of our best 

 gardeners now lay in much more of the shortest of the young 

 wood than formerly ; it gives extent to the tree, and produces 

 better fruit than long spurs ; and will prevent the necessity of 

 the tree pushing young shoots from below. When trees get too 

 indurated and dense in the tissues, the old practice of peeling 

 off the outer bark should give^relief. The trees so peeled of old 

 by Dr. Lyon, in his garden at the bottom of the Canongate, 

 Edinburgh, were very healthy, and had always plenty of blossom 

 and fruit ; it was his practice to smash off the greater part of the 

 blossom with a broom, having always more than the tree would 

 carry ; his trees were principally standai'ds. The effects of walls, 

 in producing a better climate, and consequently better-ripened 

 wood, and more fruitfulness, are fully entered into ; and their effect 

 in bettering the quality and size of fruit chemically described. 

 The advantages are most felt in fruits abounding in juice : some 

 dry fruits are rather made worse than better. The proposals of 

 some, to increase the heat in walls by blackening the surface, are 

 noticed ; but as those substances, as black, which absorb heat 

 most readily, also radiate or part with it most readily, the black 

 wall, though warmest through the day, will be coldest at night, 

 which is very prejudicial ; and, as the fruit and leaves of trees 

 trained to the wall are always at a small distance from the wall, 

 they should get more heat from reflection than absorption, and a 

 white colour I should think best. As noticed, however, in the 

 section Temperature, the best way to have the heat kept up at 

 night, is to get as much confined air generated about the wall as 

 possible, and the upward radiation as much prevented as we can : 

 for this purpose, walls built hollow, of the most porous brick or 

 stone, and broad wood copings, as formerly recommended by 

 Mr. Loudon in this Magazine, are, next to covering, the best 

 devices. Much of the good of coverings is often lost, and even 

 harm done, by allowing them to be too much on. 



In the section Potting, the bad effects of pots in cramping the 

 roots of plants, exhausting the soil, exposing the fibres to drought 

 by the sides of the pots, for which double pots as a remedy are 

 pointed out ; the bad effects of potting pines, and other forest 

 trees, by giving a spiral direction to the roots, which may con- 

 tinue afterwards, and prevent the roots from spreading and get- 

 ting a firm hold of the soil, and render them liable to be blown 

 down by winds; the good effects and necessity of complete drainage 

 in the pots, and frequent shifting ; the tendency to cramping the 

 roots, and stinting the plant in producing flowers ; and the effects 

 of exposure of the fibres of the roots at the sides of the pots, 

 in improving the quality of some fruits, are pointed out ; all of 

 which will be found very interesting. 



In the section Transplanting, the theory of the process is cor- 



