4 



THE 



GARDENERS 1 CHRONICLE. 



[Jan. 4, 



and budding, form but a mall part of the roethodi 



which the great continental gardeners find it useful 

 to employ, one for one purpose, one for another. 

 And it cannot be denied, that superior as Win 

 cultivation II in some respects, it is very far behind 

 that of France, in whit relates to the management 



Of course, we say thi.s in a general 



of fruit trees. 



sense only ; for wo are bound to admit that in some 

 cases the English gardener is not behind his conti- 

 nental rival. These cases are, however, the excep- 

 tion, not the rule ; but we believe it is only neces- 

 sary to teach the gardeners of this country something 

 more than the meagre routine which they learn while 

 young, in order to place them at once on a level with 

 their friends across the channel* 



this ground is also filled, so that altogether, besides the 

 other crops, there must be several hundred thousand 

 he#ds of Greens for winter market AH liquid manure 



dunghills is collected into a large tank; this 



and distributed over the ground 



to 



MARKET GARDENING ROUND LONDON. 



Rotation of Crops, 



General 1',: marks 

 &cv-lf we take a live-acre piece of ground, say nl 

 November, wt shall find it full of Cabbages, which being 

 planted oat about the 25th of October, will he strong 

 healthy plants. The moment these are off, the land is 



again trenched and cropped with early Celery, in wdl 



dunged trenches 6 feet apart, with two or three rows of 



Lettuces or Coleworts in the middle ; for market gar- 

 deners do not mould up Celery until it is very large 

 (often IS inches high), so there i3 plenty of time for a 

 crop of Cabbages, Coleworts, or Lettuces to come to 

 maturity. When the Celery is removed, the ground is 



cropped with winter Greens, and again clear I off, for 



nothing pays so well as the London Greens or young 

 unhcart I Cabl 8. In November Mr. Fitch, f 



Fulham, has often upwards of 20 acres of these, besides 



20 aci i (A Cabbages; every hole and corner under 



trees, and all spare places being full. When tin 1 five- 

 acred piece is cleared of Coleworts say by the 1st of 

 March, it is again dunged and trenched and sown with 



Onions, and wry often Lettuces are plain I in the 

 beds as 1 11 as in the alley... When the Onions 

 are off, the ground is trenched and planted with 



Cabbages or < I e worts, &c. ; next spring a crop of 

 Cauliflo* r», Gherkin Cucumbers, French Be , or 



Scarlet Runners is taken off ; but the grand point in 

 the course ot rotation is to bo continually sowing and 



joyment. By this mode of propagation we can acce- 

 lerate the fructification of species or varieties of frui^ 

 which are annually obtained from seeds, without how. 

 ever increasing their size, as some have asserted, but 

 falsely, as will be demonstrated by the following expe* 

 periments. I budded annually, for 15 years, a St. G'ei- 

 Pear-tree trained as a pyramid. It received the 

 first operation in August, a bud being taken from one of 

 the lateral branches produced by the original, which 

 had then been two years grafted. This bud was inserted 

 about 10 inches from the base of the central shoot. 

 Every year, at the same period, a similar operation 

 was performed ; and when the tree had received the 

 fifteenth, it was about 19 feet high. At the age of 18 op 

 20 years, all the lateral branches from the respective 

 buddings produced an abundance of fruits, which differed 

 nothing from each other, and their flavour was the same 

 The waggons are very large, and as that of the original sort. A similar experiment was 

 much asa Suffolk waggon. The also made at the same time on the Reinette Franche, 



acres 



from 



is conveyed % 



before digging ; but the great objection to the use 



of sewage water after the crop is in, is that it fills up the 



pores of the earth, cements the mould, and prevents heat 



and air from acting on the roots. § 



Some market gardeners keep large herds of pigs, 

 which live night and day amongst the hot dung, and 

 subsist upon ;the corn that they pick out of the straw 

 and dung, as well as on green food. Mr. Fitch keeps 

 1 2 horses, whose whole employment is to cart goods to 

 the various markets, bring home dung, and convey it to 

 vacant pieces of ground, which occur every week. The 

 I carts and waggons in use in market gardens have gene- 

 rally broad wheels, 

 the carts will hold r 



labourers employed by Messrs. Fitch on 150 

 amount to about 70 during winter, and in summer to 

 about 150. The rent per acre is from 9/. to 10/., the 

 tithes being from 10*. to 12*. per acre. Men's wages 

 are 2s. per day ; women, from \s. to U, 6d. Some idea 

 of the amount of labour in small matters will be con- 

 ceived, when I state that the whole of the frames, 

 amounting to 1000 lights, are all painted and repaired 

 every autumn. The whole of the hand-lights, 4000 in 

 number, are also repaired ; and every description of 

 vegetable is washed before it is sent to market. When 

 men are at piece-work, they receive 2JdL per rod, for 

 trenching two spades deep ; thus an acre highly manured, 

 using cart-loads instead of barrowfuls, and trenching 

 with spa le, instead of shallow digging, or what is worse, 

 using a plough, pays just in proportion to the way in 

 which it is treated. 



I have now thrown out a few general hints as to the 

 management of a 150 acre garden. In my next and 

 following articles, I shall proceed to particularise some 

 of the leading crops. James Cuthill, CamberwelL 



with corresponding results. 



I cannot therefore say that grafting increases the size 

 of fruits. Their increase of size is always limited by 

 Nature, as are likewise all the variations which they 

 sometimes take in form. Their fertility, the greater or 

 less perfume and succulent quality of their flesh, are 

 generally caused by the influence of the stocks which 

 nourish them ; nevertheless the situation in which these 

 are placed, the quality of the soil from which they draw 

 their nourishment, &c, frequently modify the assertion 

 I have just made, inasmuch as a sort grafted on a stock 

 originally disposed to give large fruit of indifferent 

 quality, and forced to live in a bad locality, cannot 

 possibly give the result we might reasonably expect, 

 were it placed in a more favourable position. Tmnilatul 

 from the French of D'AlbreL 



BRITISH SONG BIRDS. 



No. XII, 



GRAFTING. 

 No. I. — A word on the History of Grafting. 



Many 

 them 



Much 



whatever plants are ready when the ground is empty to 

 plant these. Th land can well sustain so much crop 



Eing on account of the heavy dungings, trenching, and 

 oeiugs which it receives. If you ask a market gar- 

 iener what is to succeed this or that crop, the answer 

 is, " Don't know, it depends upon what is ready for 

 planting.'* Continued trenching two spades deep for any 

 crop w ms expensive ; but a strong Irish labourer will 

 turn over from 1:2 to H rods a day, with comparative 

 ease, and I may here state that if it were not for the 

 Irish labourer the prices of vegetables would he much 

 higher. Market gardeners know that after an active 

 crop the top soil for several inches deep is entirely 

 exhausted, and heuce the reason for continual trenching, 

 hi order to bring up the top soil, that bill a few months 

 before had been turned down, with a large proportion of 

 dung, to enrich it and fit it for active use along with the 

 half decayed manure. 



Market gardening is well conducted about London, 

 and if young gardeners were to spend ouly one year 



with such men as Messrs. Fitch, of Fulham, it would 



teach them a lesson which would amply repay a twelve- 

 mouth's hard labour. They would there be taught how 

 to grow digestible vegetables, and uot those stunted blu e 

 Cabbages and other things that are, in too many cases, 

 huddled up in walled-in gardens. 1 am almost certain 

 that the day will arrive when the latter will be con, 

 verted into forcing grounds, and when vegetables will 

 he grown in the open fields, which are their proper 

 places. If a farmer were to send his son to be a 

 labourer in a market garden for a year or two, the 

 value of such a school to such a man in after lif e 

 would be great to himself, his landlord, and to the 

 country at large. The expensive system of a market 

 garden would uot be required in a farm ; it could not 

 be maintained ; but it would show him that one acre 

 cultivated by the spade is equal to five by the plough. 

 We know that some market gardeners use the plough ; 

 hut how does it pay ! Their things are always the 

 last soil, and that for the most part to the hawkey 

 whose name will tell the price obtained. It is, how- 

 ever, neeetaary to have a scarifier plough in all 

 market gardens, in order to tear up the earth after the 

 carte in wet weather. Some years ago I took the late 

 Mr. Smith, of Deauston, over Messrs. Fitch's grounds. 

 Till then he had no knowledge of the enormous c nsos 

 Of keeping a large garden. *I have not seen," said he, 

 "on the whole 1 50 acres, a weed ; all the ground exhi- 

 bits a fine level surface ; every inch is cropped ; all the 

 paths regular; the cart-roads in good order; the hedges 

 of the boundaries very dwarf; no ditches, and all the 

 large plantations of Apples, Pears, and Plums, amounting 

 to 50 acres, with every young shoot made during th e 

 summer, pruned down to a couple or three buds from 

 last year's wood." Pruned after the manner of Currant 

 bushes, they look well, and bear enormous crops. The 

 ground under the trees is all cropped with Rhubarb, 

 Currants, Gooseberries; and during the winter with 

 Coleworts and Cabbages. I have seen eight acres of 

 Cabbages in seed beds, after the rest are all picked out 

 for spring Cabbages. Every spare piece of ground i 8 

 filled; when the Asparagus haulm is cut down, th e 

 ground is forked over, and all planted with Coleworts, 

 alleys and all; and when the Rhubarb leaves die down, 



authors have written on grafting, and some of 

 have treated the subject with great clearness, 

 has been contributed to it by the celebrated A. Thouin, 

 who published in 1821 an excellent monograph, in which 

 we find the best documents on its history ; after his 

 death that work was incorporated with his " Cours de 

 Culture," published in 1827 by his estimable nephew, 

 Oscar Leclerc Thouin. The author of this monograph 

 states, that the discovery of the art of grafting is of the 

 highest antiquity, but its inventor is not known. The 

 Phoenicians transmitted it to the Carthaginians and 

 Greeks ; the Romans received it from the latter, and 

 spread the knowledge of it in Europe, where it has 

 become such as we find it at the present day. He adds, 

 that the authors who have treated of the art in some 

 detail are Theophrastus, Aristotle, and Xenophon, 

 among the Greeks : Mago among the Carthaginians 



In speaking of the Proper Food necessary 

 to be provided for an aviary, I shall take it for granted 

 that the season of the year of which we are treating is 

 summer ; and that the united tribes of granivorous and 

 insectivorous birds are together, under one roof. When 

 they are separated and collected into distinct families, 

 in the autumn, of course there will require some altera* 

 tion of diet ; but of this, we shall speak in its place. 



Having so large a family to provide for, and so many 

 tastes to consult, it is sufficiently obvious that there 

 must be an ample supply of provisions that may suit the 

 whole. Nature will teach each bird to partake of that only 

 which is easiest of digestion, and best adapted to its 

 constitution. Yon need be under no apprehension on 

 this head. As for physic, which some bird-fanciers 

 prate so much about, I say — * throw it to the dogs** 

 Even they, however, will refuse to swallow it. 



Medicine need very seldom be resorted to. There are 

 extreme cases where a little Saffron may be serviceable ; 

 but it never cost me more than one penny for Saffron 



life : and that was, one half it, not used. 



m my me ; ana tnac was, 



Alterative food with the feathered race, as with us, is 



Ll ii^ fe ««« **»~w»» , v,- *w« e •»* v Wi ^ ....«^ , far more efficient than physic. The one acts gently, 



Varro, Pliny the naturalist, VirgTl, Agricola, in Italy, and naturally ; the other deranges the system for several 

 and Sickler, in Germany ; Bradley, Miller, and Forsyth days, and if often repeated, injures the entire system 



in Kngland ; Olivier de Serres, La Quintinie, Duhamel, 

 Hosier, Cabanis, and the Baron Tschudy among the 

 French ; and to these we now add, with veneration, the 

 name of the late Andre Thouin, whose remarkable 

 monograph contains all the principles and details essen- 

 tial for the guidance of writers and practical men with 

 reference to the art of grafting ; for my part I could 

 wish for no other. During the last 13 years of his long 

 and honourable career, he entrusted me with the execu- 

 tion of all the models of grafts which he had collected, 

 to the number of 119,* in his "School of Practical 

 Agriculture," founded in the Jardin des Plantes of 

 Paris in 1707. This fine and judiciously-formed collec- 

 tion is altogether admirable ; but I shall here demon- 

 strate only such portions of it as I consider most essen- 

 tial to amateurs and to practical men, who daily expe- 

 rience the necessity of propagating plants, either for the 

 agreeableness of their flowers or for the quality of their 

 fruits, produced by species or varieties which frequently 

 cannot be propagated except by grafting them on wild 

 stocks, or on such as are, in other respects, of little value 

 or interest ; but they must naturally belong to the same 

 family, as we shall subsequently explain. 



Of the utility of Grafting. — Gardeners and con- 

 noisseurs in horticulture are aware that by grafting 

 many trees can be made to assume very picturesque 

 forms ; and it is the means of propagating numbers of 

 woody, resinous, soft, or herbaceous plants, for use or 

 ornament, of which very many give few or no seeds, 

 find are difficult to strike from cuttings or layers ; by 

 grafting we make sure of preserving the originals, 

 whether valued for the quality of their fruits, the 

 structure and form of their flowers, their colour 

 the perfumes which they exhale, or as regards 

 the nature of their wood, the aspect of the trees the 

 shades and variation of their foliage, &c. &c. Produc- 

 tions obtained ^ by chance, or by fertilisation, either 

 natural or artificial, or in consequence of accidental 

 disease, and many other sports of nature, which would 

 otherwise be lost, or could be but rarely, and after lon<* 

 delay obtained from seed— are readily perpetuated by 

 the art of grafting. It may therefore be viewed as a 

 celestial boon for increasing the amount of our en- 



* la a compilation published in 1825 we find a more exten- 

 sive nomenclature, in consequence of the application of the 

 game operations to different plants. Thi3 multiplicity of names 

 geems to hare been badly received by the public, the work 

 being still in its first edition. 



I have already mentioned the " hoppers," or seed boxes. 

 These should be half filled with a mixture of Canary, 

 Flax, and Rape seeds ; all of the newest and best. Old 

 seed is very injurious. Of these, the proportions should 

 be — Canary, one half ; the other half consisting of Flax 

 and Rape. A small quantity of the latter will suffice, it 

 being eaten principally and sparingly by the linnets. 

 Flax is good for all the seed birds, keeping their stomachs 

 in a healthy state. The "hoppers/" as I have before 

 noted, should be carefully examined, at least once a 

 fortnight, and the seed remaining in them should be 

 sifted, to cleanse it from dust and refuse matter, before 

 re-filling. 



For the soft-billed or insectivorous birds, the general 

 or u universal " food must be made as follows :— G er * 

 man paste,* lib ; 6 eggs, boiled hard; half a pint of Hemp- 

 seed, well bruised ; 6 plain stale buns ; 2 table-spoon- 

 fuls of best moist sugar. These ingredients, after being 

 placed in an earthen pan (glazed), should be well incor - 

 porated with the naked hand, till they amalgamate. 

 Throw in a small quantity of Maw-seed before putting 

 the above into the birds' pans, and place the latter on 

 the floor of the room. Above all, bear in active remem- 

 brance that the food must be fresh every day. 



In addition to the above, one or two of the pans 

 should contain grated bullocks' liver (from the part 

 called « the nut ") boiled hard, and some grated Cheshire 

 cheese, both rubbed fine, and mixed with stale sweet 



The buns 



•s 



I 



buns, of which all birds are excessively fond, 

 should be purchased of a first-rate confectioner, other- 

 wise they stand every chance of being manufacture* 

 from « kitchen-stuff." Many a school-boy's stomach, 

 at this season (" digestive " though it naturally is), w 

 give satisfactory evidence of the truth of my remark* 



All your birds, from a canary upwards, will free J 

 share in this soft food ; and they will thrive nobly on 

 it. By leaving it to their own option what to selec , 

 you will find they seldom, if ever, will have any all ^r. 



The room must be kept well supplied wi th ripe Cmcs- 

 weed and Groundsel ; Lettuces (in season), Cherry 

 Strawberries ; ripe, mellow, juicy Pears; and now a ^ 

 then a boiled mealy Potato, bruised. The * warblers 

 eat greedily of the two last ; also of soft, boiled, tenae 

 Cabbage. Nightingales and bla c k c aps are dear jyjg^ 



* The Ueraian-pasce, as M made up tor sale" in ^.^"jjf 

 horrible stuff, the whole of it. It i* marvellous bow DirQ8 ki0 * 

 be brought to eat it. I have first-rate " receipts " for m*»* 

 a genuine article, which will be given anr>n. 





' 





