September 21, 1876. ] 



JOURNAL OF HORTICULTURE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. 



267 



without it; and we learn from the " H6atherside Manual" 

 that there is an avenue of Wellingtonias upwards of a mile in 

 length, with each tree healthy and vigorous, at the Company's 

 nurseries at BagBhot. 



The voids best filled with what Mason in his " English 

 Garden" (ii., 175) designates a3 "all the stately progeny of 

 Pines," the soils and situations they affect, and other such-like 

 information, an amateur planter must, after all, ascertain in 

 those visits to his sylvan nurseries whioh, if he be in earnest, 

 will be no more intermittent than a tender parent's interest 

 in his living offspring. One thing is certain, he must not 

 "coddle" them. Books and practice alike enforce that 

 Conifers only need to be high and dry in a pure air, and being 

 anything but gross feeders, enjoy their natural health without 

 askiug for a rich soil. But it is interesting, in connection 

 with this, to note the facts relative to the causes of Dropmore's 

 success as a home of Conifers, and to see how far elsewhere 

 kindred causes are leading to like results. The natural soil 

 at Dropmore was poor and barren, at all events in that portion 

 of the demesne with which we are concerned. It owes itB 

 transformation and wonderful tree-growths to the care of one 

 man, its "genius loci" in the beat of senses, Mr. Frost. From 

 the time, half a century ago, when he received commission 

 from Lord Grenville to " make his desert smile," he has never 

 failed to bestow special pains on preparing stations for the 

 Conifers before planting, and, after they have been planted, on 

 maintaining a system Of surface-dressing every autumn. How- 

 ever liberal the additional food annually bestowed, it is found 

 " that the plants root right into it," and so teach a lesson to 

 planters generally of the practical utilisation of road-scraping?, 

 which make a capital surface-dress'ing, and whioh, neverthe- 

 less, the road surveyors not seldom find it hard to get carted 

 from the roadsides. No one who has visited Dropmore under 

 good Mr. Frost's intelligent escort can miss the due to success- 

 ful Conifer-growing contained in his two precautions; and we 

 seem to see in the instance of Mr. BasBett's Pinetum and 

 Plantations, a mile to the north of Leighton Buzzard, Beds, 

 a similar though not identical process in the utilisation of 

 waste and sandy ground. The subsoil there is, no doubt, 

 richer ; but the surface soil is a thin mixture of sand and vege- 

 table matter, which has to be trenched two spits deep. The 

 mode of planting specimen Conifers here is quite novel, and as 

 follows: " When it is determined where a permanent specimen 

 is to be placed, the ordinary trees of the plantation are cleared 

 away, the ground is trenched 20 inohes deep, and formed into 

 an elevated circular platform 1 foot higher than the sur- 

 rounding surface, with a slight rim, a little elevated to prevent 

 the rain which falls on the surface from running off, and in 

 diameter according to the vigour or nature of the ground to be 

 planted. A platform 6 feet across is sufficient at first for the 

 moderate-growing kinds; but for the more vigorous and robust- 

 growing kinds a table of 10 feet is requisite, leaving the trench 

 open round the outside to receive the fallen leaves; afterwards, 

 as the roots are found to reach the outside, which generally 

 takes place in from two to three yearj, another addition is 

 made of from 3 to 4 feet all round." If in this case the modus 

 operandi is different to that at Dropmore, it is because at the 

 latter the subsoil is less available; the trenching, the elevation, 

 and the addition to the platform from time to time, are seem- 

 ingly applications of one and the same principle. 



It remains to be considered, as a practical conclusion of the 

 above survey of our arborieultural taste and triumphs, whether 

 more might not be done, both publicly and privately, to ex- 

 tend, popularise, and turn to wider national account so valu- 

 able a possession. If, as was said in the outset, trees are a 

 special passion with Englishmen, the future of our woodlands 

 and forests demands that an interest in their culture and con- 

 servation should be spread far and wide among our country- 

 men, and rise superior to utilitarian calculations or the selfish 

 pleadings of private interest. To such an end nothing could 

 b9 more conducive than the opening of private and public 

 park*, pineta, and ornamental plantations, to the view of the 

 working class, under proper limits and restrictions, and a col- 

 lateral resort to lectures by competent persons on the subject 

 of their contents and products. As education becomes more 

 widely diffused, it is not unreasonable to hope that the number 

 of artisans and labourers will increase who will feel a quickened 

 interest in the varieties and distinctions of deeiduous and 

 evergreen trees, whieh many of them already know in part ; 

 and such an interest would be cheaply fostered were every 

 proprietor of rare and diverse tree collections to have his 

 specimens legibly labelled, as is done so well at Victoria Park, 



Bath, and in other public parks we need not mention. A diffu- 

 sion of knowledge of trees and shrubs so simply facilitated 

 might not only substitute an intelligent recreation for the 

 grovelling pastimes whioh disgrace too many of our operatives, 

 but might also lead, in their measure and within their means, 

 to the embellishment and more cherishing of their homes. 

 It would have the advantage of enlisting conservators for the 

 arboreta and pineta of their betters ; and the problem would 

 not be so hard of solution, how far it is safe to remove the 

 railings and fences of urban parks and gardens. The greatest 

 possible credit is due to the proprietor of the Plantation near 

 Leighton Buzzard, above referred to, for having had sufficient 

 confidence in the wayfariDg public to plant that part of bis 

 estate through whioh the high-road runs, for a considerable 

 distance, with corresponding pairs on either side of Pioea 

 nobilis, grandis, amabilis, magnifioa, Lowiana, Nordmanniana, 

 and PinBapo, as well as of the Wellingtonia and Thuja gigantea. 

 This is one of the class of cases in which familiarity is not 

 likely to breed eontempt, but will rather school the eye, as it 

 soans the turfy lawn, to 



"Expect that harmony of light and shade 

 Which foliage only gives;" 



and towards the fall to hail 



"A cauva3, which when touched by Autumn's hand 

 Shall gleam with dusky gold or russet rays." 



And so might a more compaot phalanx be organised to pre- 

 serve the rights immemorial, which the Englishman inherits, 

 to the New Forest, and Epping, and Dean, and the rest. " We 

 talk," says Mr. Wyse, in his oharming history of the first of 

 these, " about the duty of reclaiming waste lands, and making- 

 corn spring up where none before grew. Bat it is often as 

 much a duty to leave them alone. Land has higher and nobler 

 offices to perform than to support houses or grow corn ; to 

 nourish not so much the body as the mind of man ; to gladden, 

 the* eye with its loveliness, and to brace his soul with that 

 strength which is alone to be gained in the solitude of the 

 moors and the woods." — ("The New Forest; its History and 

 its Scenery," page 48). Another result might possibly be one 

 which would recommend itself to the advocates of retrench- 

 ment. Were a popular wind to set strong and stedfast in the 

 direction of practioal and profitable arboriculture, there would 

 be no reason why, a3 now, we should have to send our candi- 

 dates for appointments in the Indian Forests department to 

 perfect their arborieultural education in Germany at the cost 

 of ratepayers whose boast it is to have so many royal forests 

 and national woodlands, not likely, it would seem from recent 

 decisions, to run further risk of beiug disafforested and turned 

 to private and selfish use. In France some progress has, we 

 believe, already been made in establishing a college of arbori- 

 culture and forestry, at the instance of M. Baltet, the clever 

 author of a volume on " Grafting and Budding." The school 

 of Nancy, and thac at Tharrand in Germany, might at any rate 

 provoke this country to a peaceful rivalry. Had we space we 

 might notice how ably this project has been broached in the 

 second chapter of tho " Forester," a work to whioh, along with 

 thoseof Grigor, Prideaux Selby, and Mongredien, we have been 

 greatly indebted in the foregoing remarks. Bat in earnest 

 matter-of-fact England a hobby retains its favour and prestige 

 all the more permanently if it combines advantage and utility 

 with more asithetie and sensuous attractions. We have en- 

 deavoured to show how far this combination has been achieved,, 

 and how much farther it miyyet be achieved, in the extension 

 of the soienoe of arboriculture ; and the labour will not have 

 been vain if it help in anywise to stimulate a redoubled zeal 

 in planters, great and small, public and private, and such a- 

 fashion for planting both deciduous and coniferous trees as 

 may wax stronger and more deeply-rooted continually, 



" till Albion smile 

 One ample theatre of sylvan grace." 



— (Quarterly Review.) 



DOINGS OF THE LAST AND WORK FOE 

 THE PRESENT WEEK. 



HABDV. PEUIT GARDEN. 



We have found it necessary to keep the hoe at work amongst 

 the young Strawberry plants. Owing to continual Bhowers 

 weeds on freshly dug ground are v«ry difficult to destroy, and 

 running the hoe through them seems only to transplant them 

 from one place to another. When the weeds are numerous and 

 large it is better to rake them off and burn them, and then run 

 the hoe through the ground a few days after. All freshly dug 



