272 
JOURNAL OF HORTICULTURE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. 
{ October 10, 1878. 
trees. But not alone are the trees interesting from variety of 
form and growth, but they please variously at different seasons. 
Those in winter from the form of the trees; in spring from 
early leaf and blossom; in summer and autumn from fruit 
and the changing hues of foliage. 
No one can enjoy anything without bestowing care upon it, 
or as an idle man would say, ‘“ without a lot of trouble ;” but 
this is a benefit according to my view, so that the thing enjoyed 
be not too exacting upon time and attention at awkward 
times. If a man makes hardy fruits his hobby he will not 
find it troublesome in the above respects. He may leave home 
for a while and not be heartbroken by finding his trees gone 
to rack and ruin, for a few days or weeks even will not cause 
this catastrophe. Neither is the chilly rheumaticy man in 
terror when he sees the thermometer going down and about 
to touch freezing or go far below that. He need not mind; 
his petsare “hardy,” no muffling up and off to “those Grapes.” 
Sometimes when I have been coming home at night I have 
met the unforiunate owner (at such times he seemed unfor- 
tunate) going off lantern in hand, and his breath steaming 
in the frosty air before him, to “ those houses,” where he has 
been obliged to stay cold and shivering while I have been 
warm and cosy beneath the eiderdown. None of this miserable 
discomfort for me. My trees are—I repeat it—quite hardy. 
What care I for frost? Nay, I like it, for it will keep the 
blossom buds back. Spring comes, and, O ye readers of 
poetry ! have ye never read of the beauties of Apple blossom ? 
Talk of flowers, where are more lovely flowers? Rows of well- 
trained pyramid Apples are as charming to the eye as any 
bedding plants, and lines of pyramid Pear trees are like lines 
of miniature Horse Chestnuts. Then autumn comes, or in 
late summer time the fruit begins to show; and what more 
beautiful than an Irish Peach Apple when ripe, or, better, a 
pyramid well covered with these rich-coloured Apples? Then 
think of the form and colour of that beautifully striped Duchess 
of Oldenburgh. I might mention other Apples. But passing 
on to Pears: in them there is great variety of form to be found 
and difference of size, and in some richness of colouring. The 
Pear beats the Apple in the grace of form, the Apple the Pear 
in colouring. Is there no pleasure in gathering “the kindly 
fruits of the earth?” I think there is much. He who feels 
not grateful to the great Giver as he personally gathers the 
rich ripe fruit must have a hard heart indeed. 
But the pleasure is not limited to one’s own trees and fruit. 
The gardens and orchards of others have stores of pleasure for 
the man or woman who cultivates understandingly fruit trees. 
When I am driving through near villages and by gardens I 
notice what Apple is that, what sort of a Pear such a one is. 
This summer IJ paid a visit when at Stratford-on-Avon to the 
home of Shakspeare’s wife. I own the orchard attached to 
that house of Ann Hathaway had its share of interest to me, 
especially one huge Pear tree which dated back to the last 
century perhaps, and which crowds of famous pilgrims had 
seen. But this taste brings pleasure in town as well as country. 
I am quite inclined to flatten my nose, schoolboy-like, on the 
window of the fruit shops, to see better by getting a closer view 
of the treasures piled up inside. I know no shops for beauty of 
fruit more remarkable than those at Ryde in the Isle of Wight, 
though I half fear some of the magnificently coloured. fruits 
there seen are not grown in England. Bath too has splendid 
fruit in her (she is the queen of the west) shop windows. 
A few words to finish this paper in the way of caution in 
order to avoid haying your pleasures diminished in the culti- 
vation of hardy fruits. First, beware of the jobbing gardener 
if you ever employ one. He will want to persuade you to let 
him cut off the lower branches of the pyramids, for this selfish 
reason, that he can better work under them. Sometimes a 
jobbing gardener will, without asking leave, take and cut off 
tier by tier the lower branches, thus utterly spoiling the trees. 
I saw recently the whole of the pyramids in a lady’s garden 
ruined in this way: they looked like besoms stuck in the 
ground, so completely had all branches been removed except 
those growing upright at the top. Prevent such a catastrophe 
at all hazards ; and remember these trees do not want working 
under or the ground digging, as the roots are and always 
ought to be close to the surface. I allow nothing but a hoe to 
be used, and hand-weeding is even better. Then don’t over- 
prune. Cut out, of course, crossing branches—close-cut these ; 
but as to endless pinching back and the rest, all ends in grow- 
ing a thicket of useless wood. Remember trees must be kept 
thin for the light, air, and sun to get through them entirely 
and freely in summer as well as winter. 
The bird trouble is sadly on the increase. All fruits this 
year have been attacked, and outdoor Grapes devoured. Bird 
protection has been romantically carried too far. Sense, not 
sentiment, should rule in this as in all other matters. Let me, 
however, not damp any ardent fruit-grower’s spirits, for we 
have comparatively few troubles to face and few disappoint- 
ments tomeet. If you feel discouraged remember the beautiful 
fruit on the table cooked and uncooked : wives are pacified, 
children delighted, and papa’s hobby voted capital for all. 
Winter is coming on. - Procure fruit catalogues from the 
leading fruit nurserymen; study them, you may learn much 
from them. Make yourself a present of Dr. Hoge’s “ Fruit 
Manual,” and work at that of an evening: ‘tis a bulky book 
and requires study, and will pay for close attention, Then 
when next year comes with its spring, summer, and autumn 
you will the better understand the pleasures in store for you 
in cultivating hardy fruits——WILTSHIRE RECTOR. 
FORCING VEGETABLES. 
ASPARAGUS. 
THE time is again at hand when vegetable forcing will call 
for attention. With good appliances it is an easy matter to 
have a supply of nearly every kind of vegetable throughout 
the winter that will submit to forcing ; and even where there 
is no grand forcing house a fair quantity of produce may be 
secured by a little scheming and some trouble. Those who 
study to make the most of their conyeniences always try to 
fill up every available corner with something or other, and by 
this means a large quantity of stuff may often be had with 
little expense. 
In forcing it is very necessary to haye one light and one > 
dark place, and both heated in some way. Hot dung and hot 
water both serve good purposes. Asparagus may be forced 
with either ; we do it with both with equal success. The hot- 
bed is that which could be most used as a rule, because there 
are few people who have a kitchen garden of any extent but 
who have something or other with which to make a hotbed, 
and there are many good gardeners with no hot-water-heated 
forcing house. j 
Where the hotbed will be resorted to during the coming 
winter no time should now be lost in preparing the bed if very 
early Asparagus is wanted. As the leaves are beginning to 
fall off the trees vow all the best of them should be secured 
and placed in a heap. Grass cuttings should be secured in the 
same way ; and just when the Asparagus growths are beginning 
to assume a withered appearance a quantity of stable litter 
and manure should be added to the leaves and grass, the whole 
being well mixed together and then made into a bed to suit 
any sized frame thut it is desired to place on it. The bed 
should be made very firm, and the less of it exposed to wet 
the better. Indeed the margin of it outside the frame should 
be closely covered over with boards to throw off rain, as the 
heat of all hotbeds declines too fast when exposed to the cold 
winter rains. A one-light frame will hold as many roots as 
will supply several dishes, and where the demand is small no 
more than this should be put in at once. The bed may be 
made up about a week before the roots are lifted, and about 
2 inches of soil should be spread over the surface inside the 
frame. When the roots are lifted they are simply packed 
close together on the top of this soil and covered over with 
about 2 inches more of light soil; they are then watered, the 
lights put on, and further than putting the lights down a little 
to let the steam escape on a fine day they require no further 
attention. The produce may be had ready for cutting in a 
month after the roots have been placed intheframe. We have 
cut in November twelve days after lifting the roots, but then 
they were in the bed of a Cucumber pit with hot-water pipes 
underneath them. In forcing the roots in this structure they 
are treated in all respects as in the hotbed, only they require 
more water, as the bottom soil is spread over the dry stones 
at the bottom of the bed. Some vegetables do not give so 
much produce when forced in autumn and winter as they do 
when the days are lengthening in spring; but the Asparagus 
is not one of them, as it yields just as much in Noyember and 
December as in March and April. This was our experience 
of it last November and in previous years. Good roots from 
four to twelve years old force readily, but we do not prefer 
them either younger or much older than that. 
We never make use of any roots after they have been forced, 
as we do not think it is profitable ; and considering the ease 
with which Asparagus plants can be raised from seed, the best 
ee 
