September 6, 1877. ] 



'JOURNAL OF HORTICULTURE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. 



189 



WEEKLY CALENDAR. 



Day j Day 



of 1 of 



Month Week. 



SEPTEMBER 6—12, 1877. 



Average 



Temperature near 



London. 



Sun 

 Rises. 



Sun 

 Sets. 



Moon 

 Rises. 



Moon 

 Sets. 



Moon's 

 Age. 



Clock 

 beiore 

 Sun. 



Day 



of 



Year. 



6 



7 



8 



9 



10 



11 



12 



Th 

 S 



SUH 

 M 

 Tu 

 W 



Carlisle International Show opens. 

 Wellingborough Show. 

 Sale of FlantB at Burntwood, Manchester. 

 15 Sunday after Trinity. 



Boston Show. 



Royal Caledonian Horticultural Society's Autumn Show. 



Day. 



70.2 

 70.3 

 69.4 

 69.1 

 69.7 

 68.7 

 69.1 



Night. 

 46.8 

 47.5 

 48.0 

 48.1 

 45.5 

 47.0 

 44.8 



Mean. 

 58.5 

 58.9 

 58.7 

 58.6 

 57.6 

 57.8 

 57.0 



h. m. 



5 22 

 5 24 

 5 26 

 5 27 

 5 29 

 5 SO 

 5' 82 



h. m. 

 6 84 

 6 32 

 6 29 

 6 27 

 6 25 

 6 22 

 G 20 



h. m. 

 3 S3 



5 6 



6 87 



8 6 



9 35 

 11 8 



0a28 



h. m- 

 6 6 

 6 21 

 6 84 



6 41 



7 4 

 7 24 

 7 51 



Days. 

 28 



o 



1 



2 

 8 



4 

 5 



m s. 



1 51 



2 11 

 2 81 



2 52 



3 12 

 8 S3 

 3 54 



249 

 250 

 251 

 252 

 263 

 254 

 255 



Fromobservationstaken near Londonduring forty-three years 

 46.8'. 



the average day temperature of the week is 69.5° ; and 



its night temperature 



HINTS ON HARDY FRUIT CULTURE. 



GARDEN without fruit, and plenty of it, 

 is unworthy of the name ; it is a source of 

 vexation rather than of pleasure — occasions 

 much disappointment to its owner and of 

 some to his friends, the pleasure of whose 

 visit is wonderfully enhanced by the enjoy- 

 ment of a juicy Peach or other fruit which 

 may be in season. 



I know full well that failures but too fre- 

 quently spring from causes beyond our con- 

 trol. Cold cutting winds, untimely frosts, hailstorms, and 

 dull, cold, wet weather when the blossom expands, are 

 all sources of mischief hard to encounter and difficult — 

 often impossible — to overcome. But when the difficulties 

 are grappled with as they best may be, and due care and 

 skill are devoted to each process of culture, not a year will 

 pass without some success. 



This year we have had abundant crops of Strawberries 

 and of bush fruits ; Nuts are plentiful, and some few 

 varieties of Pears and Apples are laden with fruit. Next 

 year, with a favourable spring, we may hope for fruit of 

 all kinds in abundance after this season of rest, so favour- 

 able to the formation of strong plump fruit buds. 



Before planting fruit trees of any kind weigh well the 

 requirements of your family, your own tastes, the space 

 at your disposal, and your ways and means. Avoid any- 

 thing like a collection unless you possess an almost un- 

 limited amount of space ; rather select a few really good 

 sorts and try to cultivate them well. Avoid crowding ; 

 never forget that a large tree will bear more and better 

 fruit than half a dozen small trees. Do not let the term 

 " large" mislead you, for I do not refer by it to the huge 

 standards of orchards but to garden trees ; and if your 

 garden is Bmall, far better would it be to have a fine 

 Pyramidal tree at each corner of the quarters, or at 

 intervals of 10 feet, than to have a crowd of scrubby 

 dwarfs, stunted, unhealthy, unsightly, and bearing some 

 half dozen, or may be a dozen, under-sized fruits — a 

 miserable return for all your pains and care. 



The very best plan for a small garden is to plant pyra- 

 midal trees at the corners of the quarters with espaliers 

 trained as palmetto verriers along the sides, thus securing 

 economy of space with strong free-growing healthy trees. 

 Whatever may be the system of culture you adopt 

 master it thoroughly, and then carry if out in its fullest 

 integrity. If you wish to indulge in a few fanciful forms' 

 of training take care that such training is well done, and 

 do not forget before turning your hand to it that such 

 work requires much attention and occupies considerable 

 time, or failure total or partial will be the inevitable 

 result. Let me earnestly urge upon the attention of all 

 having the care of young trees to endeavour to make 

 every tree a good model ; you will not succeed in doing 

 so with every one of them, but you will succeed in pro- 

 ducing well-formed trees, erect and well-proportioned, 

 pleasant to behold even when not laden with fruit. 

 Nothing affords me greater pleasure when visiting a 

 No. 8E8 — Vol. XXXm., New Seeies 



garden than to be taken among the fruit trees, to have 

 the manipulations of the pruner and trainer with its end 

 and aim explained to me, and thus to fiud an intelligent 

 method of culture united to painstaking and care. 



This attention to young trees is a matter urgently de- 

 manding much more prominence than is usually given 

 it. The young pliant growth will take any form, follow 

 any direction we may choose to impart to it ; but if care- 

 lessness and neglect once sets its stamp upon a tree, its 

 traces can never be effaced by any subsequent efforts 

 however skilful they may be. 



That fruit trees are much neglected when young there 

 can be no doubt, the leaning grotesque forms to be met 

 with in so many gardens affording ample proof that it is 

 so. Why is this ? I cannot suppose it is owing to care- 

 lessness or ignorance, but rather to want of time on the 

 part of those having the care of them ; and I would urge 

 upon gardeners the importance of pointing out to their 

 employers the irreparable mischief which must follow 

 neglect, and I would also press upon employers the im- 

 portant fact that a new garden requires more labour 

 power than an old one. Every part of it and everything 

 in it, especially the fruit trees, demands, and must have, 

 an extraordinary amount of attention ; and if the gardener 

 fails to obtain an adequate amount of assistance some- 

 thing must be neglected — usually the fruit trees, for the 

 flower and vegetable supply must be kept up to meet the 

 daily demands. 



There is one important point nothing should be allowed ' 

 to interfere with, and that is the planting : only do this 

 well, and if the trees are somewhat neglected they are not 

 likely to suffer in health. By planting well I mean that 

 there should be at least 2 feet of good soil below the roots 

 of the young tree, and that soil should rest upon 6 inches 

 of stone or other hard substance — an admirable plan 

 practised by our forefathers to prevent the roots getting 

 down to the till. Each station of this good soil should 

 therefore be 2 feet deep by 6 feet square, and drains 

 should be made if there is the slightest risk of any accu- 

 mulation of water about the roots. 



The soil of old gardens contains so much humus — vege- 

 table matter — that when replanting it with young trees 

 it should have an abundant mixtuie of lime and rough 

 gritty matter ; if this is done, and it is thrown up roughly 

 to be sweetened by the air some time before planting is 

 done, nothing more is necessary, and the trees are quite 

 certain to grow satisfactorily. 



I have the greatest respect, or rather veneration, for 

 old timber trees and would not lightly remove one of 

 them, but I never would retain a worn-out old fruit tree, 

 for nothing can be more unsatisfactory. Take, for example, 

 an old Peach tree. Why do you keep it, or rather why 

 do you retain its old branches ? " Because it is still fruit- 

 ful," do you say? ¥es. So it is, but what sort of fruit 

 does it bear ? Would your best dozen win a prize ? I 

 trow not. Cut it down, and if it put forth young vigorous 

 branches, as is not unlikely, then let it remain, and you 

 will obtain prize fruit and plenty of it ; but if it fail to 

 grow again strongly and well then up with it, for roots 



No. 1610.— Vol. LV1II., Old Seeies. 



