Febrnjuy 7, lSo.5. ] 



J0T7EXAL OF HOETICTJLTrEE AXD COTTAGE GiLRDENTIE. 



Ill 



it to prevent its bein^ blown off witli the wind, and if 

 another muner show beyond the first cut it away. Water 

 daily if the weather proves dry. In ten days or a fortnight 

 the roots will show themselves at the drainage-hole ; the 

 plant is then severed from its parent, placed in a cold frame, 

 and kept moist and shaded for a few days nntil it recovers 

 the chect consequent on its separation. In p. week or ten 

 days at the farthest the plants are potted in their blooming- 

 pots, and treated in the same manner as stated for those 

 from runners of the previous year, except that they are 

 more freely watered after removal to a warm sunny situation, 

 not diminishing the supply much until the end of Septem- 

 ber or beginning of October. These plants make good 

 forcers, but will not produce so fine a crop, nor be so early 

 or certain in their bearing as those from late runners of the 

 previous year, at least they never were so with me ; and it 

 is in a great measure due to the hard pushing of young 

 plants that the Black Prince is an indifferent setter early in 

 the season. 



A third method is to prepsire sis-inch pots for the small 

 growers or early kinds, and seven-inch pots for the late sorts 

 by placing two or three large crocks over the hole, and then 

 a little rough compost. Placing a handPal of soil in the pot, 

 beat it firm with a rammer, and continue to add more soil 

 and ram until the soil is level with the rim in the centre, 

 "but a quarter or half inch below it at the sides. The soil 

 should not be very wet, but only just moist. The pots 

 are then taken to the beds in the open garden — to those 

 only which are in an open situation — and placed near the 

 plants so that the runners can be laid exactly in the centre 

 of the jHjts, making no hole or hollow, but simply placing 

 the runner on the soil in the centre of each pot, and laying 

 a small stone on it on the side next the old plant. K there 

 is another runner above the one layered, cut i~ oil close to 

 that in the pot, and if any more are pushed pineh them off 

 as they show themselves. The mnners shotdd be vratered 

 daily in dry weather, and though they -wlU be rooted to the 

 bottom of the pot in three weeks or so, they will obtain 

 more strength if left attached to the parent until the middle 

 of September than if severed when first well rooted. The 

 pots should be raised frequently, and any roots that run 

 through into the soil rubbed off when young and brittle. If 

 the roots are allowed to take fast hold of the soil the plants 

 receive a check they never recover, besides the roots are 

 ■wanted inside the pot, which cannot be too foil of them. 

 VThen severed from the parent, the plant or plants should 

 be removed to a sunny situation, placing the pots on rough 

 ashes, or plunging them in ashes, tan, or sawdust, which is 

 better. These form excellent plants for forcing after January ; 

 Tjut they are not so good in my estimation as those treated 

 axxording to the two preceding modes. 



A fourth method, and it is the last that I shall name, is to 

 take the earliest runners in the last week in July, if they are 

 to be had, but not later than th e first week in August. Select 

 good strong runners and pot them in 60-pots, placing them 

 in a close frame and shading slightly until established. The 

 pots being crammed with roots, in three or four weeks the 

 plants may be potted, the earlier kinds into ii-inch pots, 

 and those for the main-crop sorts into sis-ineh pots. After 

 potting they may be placed in an open situation, sunny and 

 sheltered, but not shaded on any account, and if plunged 

 they are all the better. Here they may remain until the 

 last week in November, when they should be transferred 

 to a frame, orchard-house, or any cool house, and be kept 

 dry rather than wet during the winter. These make nice 

 plants for forcing after February, but they are of no value 

 for hard forcing. It is a good system for orchard-houses 

 and cool vineries, but the preceding is a still better one. — 

 G. Abbey. 



(To be continued.) 



FTILITY OF LOOSEXEfG THE SOIL. 



I HAVE seen at different times statements in your paper 

 from ilr. Fish, and others, that the looser the sur^e, the 

 greater will be the moisture of the soiL 



Without questioning the experience of practical men, I 

 venture to ask the reason of this. The looser and rougher the 

 soil, the larger must be the surface of earth exposed to the 

 air, audi consequently, the greater one would imagine tbe , 



evaporation to be. A block of ice, we know, is kept from 

 melting by wrapping it in a wet blanket, the rough surface 

 of the blanket throwing off, by evaporation, more moisture, 

 and with it heat, than any covering of a smoother texture 

 would do. How is it, then, that a like irregularity of sur- 

 face does not produce a like rapid evaporation of moisture 

 from a cmmbling and friable soil ? Is it that the loose soil 

 is even more quick in imbibing moisture from night dews, 

 than it is in exhaling it during sunshine? This is certainly 

 the case with tan, which for the reason above stated, must 

 evaporate largely, but which must absorb more ; for, even 

 if but an inch thick, it has always moisture underneath it. 

 This power of absorption in a loose soU may account for its 

 greater moisture, if there be no doubt about it, but I 

 should like to be assured that this is the fact. 



ily object is more than to satisfy a curious inquiry. I 

 have reason to believe that the firmer the soil is trodden 

 round fruit trees growing on a light soU, apt to be scorched 

 in summer, the more tie trees will flourish. But if it be 

 true that loose soil attracts moisture, then the more that 

 in which my trees grow is trodden, the less moisture they 

 will have, and moisture is above all things what they want. 



I have looked into Thompson, Lindley, and Johnson, for 

 information, without success. Perhaps best of all would be 

 a son beaten hard below, covered with half an inch of loose 

 earth on the surface.— Wteside. 



[Xoosening a soil by forking and other gardening pro- 

 cesses, benefits in various ways the plants grown upon it. 

 It enables the air to penetrate, and the oxygen and carbonic 

 acid of the air are requisite applications to the roots of 

 plants, and the moisture of the air is thus also deposited 

 within the soil. Being so deposited, the looseness of the 

 soil also checks its evaporation, for loose soil conducts heat, 

 or becomes heated, much more slowly than the same soil 

 consolidated, because the spaces between its particles are 

 filled with confined air ; air in a state of rest being one of 

 the worst conductors of heat. A blanket is wrapped round 

 ice to prevent its melting, because all woollens are bad con- 

 ductors of heat, and one cause of their beiug such bad con- 

 ductors, is that the spaces between their interwoven fibres 

 axe filled with air in a state of rest. That consolidated 

 earth becomes heated more readily than the same earth 

 loosened, has been proved by experiment. Tan and cocoa- 

 nut fibre refuse retain the moisture beneath them for the 

 same reason, between their fragments are spaces filled with 

 confined air. Consolidating the earth over the roots of fruit 

 trees is one of the most fatal of practices, and where it is 

 superlatively effected by having tie surface turfed so that 

 no loosening is effected for lustrums of years, weakly trees 

 with little of annual growths, but abundance of lichens on 

 the trunks and br.mches, are the usual consequences. — 

 Eds.] 



PLANS'! JCTDGIJN'G-. 



I AGBKB with itr. Findlay that plant judging, especially 

 in the country, where local inficence is brought to bear, 

 wants looking into. Here axe three judges — ^A, B, and C. 

 A and B know one another, and agree to back each other, 

 and *' snub'' down tie impertinent observations of C. A or 

 B, on arriving at a dass, says Ifo. 7 is Al. Exactly so, 

 cries the other. knows better, and will know presently 

 that he may as well hold his tongue, or agree with deaf 

 and dumb men- If you put two professionals and an 

 amateur together, C wiU probably represent the amateur. 



I cannot but think that concealing names is all moon- 

 shine. I never saw fiairer adjudications than at the Eose 

 Exhibition at the Floral Hall, Covent Garden, where every 

 man's name was attached to his box. "We want men of 

 calibre, who do not care about offending any one, client, 

 friend, or not. The maintained high character and integrity 

 of such men "will be more beneficial to them than favouritism 

 and nepotism. The names of the three judges should be 

 written on the prize card, and they should each be made to 

 ■write opposite their names " For" or "Against," as the case 

 may be. This would make them cautious ; and the people 

 ■will then see their judgment, and, if competitors are dis- 

 appointed, they •will still be better satisfiei. !No doubt such 

 a plan is open to objections; but erroneous judgments and 

 iBtentional dishonesty are open to far greater. If men ara 



