September 26, 1872 ] 



JOURNAL OF HORTICULTURE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. 



245 



land of strangers ; their children, perhaps, also are helped out 

 in life. 



3rd. I have noticed that pride in and a love of the profes- 

 sion are most felt by those who are sons and grandsons of 

 gardeners. Old family gardening books are treasured and 

 read. A man is proud of his calling; he delights in it; he 

 will constantly be endeavouring to excel, and if so, is happy 

 in his work, and does it well. This is, of course, a benefit to 

 the master. 



4th. When a gardener has sons, teaching them keeps up 

 and increases his own knowledge. His mind does not grow 

 rusty. He will be pointing out to his boy the best plans, 

 noticing results of the experiments of others ; will say, 

 " Now, my boy, let us see what The Journal of Horticulture 

 says this week," &c. This will be also a gain to his master. 



5th. There is frequently the necessity of a boy in a garden 

 in addition to the men employed, and boys without a turn for 

 gardening are useless and a great trouble to gardeners, but a 

 gardener's son would have a turn for the business; also, boys 

 being indiscreet, are apt to carry much gossip into the village, 

 often. utterly untrue, from what they see and hear at the great 

 house. This all masters and mistresses naturally object to. 

 If, however, a gardener introduces his own son, no member of 

 a village family is brought in, and he will, if wise, teach his 

 boy that his business is to learn his profession, and that he is 

 to see and hear, bat carry no gossip from his masters. This, 

 then , is a gain to man and master. 



6th. A married gardener is more likely to be a keeper at 

 home ; he will not depend upon others, perhaps residents in 

 the town or village near or distant, for what all people must to 

 a degree have — viz., society. He will, therefore, be at hand 

 when wanted ; he will be near when a sudden frost sets in, 

 and the fires must be lighted, aud lighted quickly too. Here 

 also is a source of advantage to the master. 



Gardeners desirous of getting and keeping good situations 

 should take pains and manage, with their wives, their children 

 discreetly and well. If their cottages be in or near the gar- 

 den, the children should be kept from playing in or straying 

 into any part of the grounds which may cause annoyance. If 

 the management and bringing-up be good, I cannot see that 

 a gardener should be " punished" by loss of place, or failure 

 in obtaining a place, because he has a family. On the con- 

 trary, I believe that, for the above reasons, the fact of his 

 having a family will be a benefit both to himself and to his 

 master, and the unsteady men of the profession that I have 

 personally come across have been invariably single men. I 

 hope Mr. Fish and others will give their advice. And finally, 

 as a clergyman, a father of a large family, and a friend of 

 gardeners, I protest against the word " incumbrance " being 

 used to describe those who are helps, not hindrances, remember- 

 ing in what Book it is written, that " children are a heritage 

 and gift that cometh of the Lord." — Wiltshire Sector. 



APPLES IN AN OBCHABD HOUSE. 

 The finest specimen of the old Golden Pippin (perfectly 

 true), we have ever seen, has been sent us by Mr. Bass, of 

 Moat Bank, Burton-on-Trent. This was accompanied by a 

 very handsome fruit of Cox's Orange Pippin. The Golden 

 Pippin was in flesh most delicate, and in flavour exquisite. 

 We do not know if any intelligent person lives who believes 

 the popular fallacy that the old -Golden Pippin died-out in 

 Thomas Andrew Knight's time. Literary Bohemians now and 

 then unearth the old fallacy, and, doubtless, find some to 

 believe it. There is no truth in the statement. The old 

 Golden Pippin flourishes as vigorously as ever, and Mr. Bass 

 whose great success in orchard-house culture has discovered in 

 that treatment, that one of the fruits best worth cultivating is 

 the old Golden Pippin. Not less beautiful, and not less ex- 

 quisite in flavour, was a specimen of Cox's Orange Pippin 

 grown in the same house. 



CAN PLANTS COMMUNICATE DISEASE TO 

 THEIE CONSUMEES? 



If a poisonous substance is placed in the earth at the root 

 of any plant — a succulent plant especially — will not poisonous 

 infection be conveyed by the juices into the body of the plant 

 itself, and impart a portion of it to any animal feeding upon 

 that succulent ? The idea has occurred to me that the abun- 

 dant use of chemical manures, so much in fashion at the pre- 



sent day, may possibly account in some measure for the 

 prevalence of the cattle disease. Before the introduction of 

 these chemicals, and when farmyard manure alone was used, 

 I believe that these diseases among cattle were unknown ; and 

 I also believe that where the latter is exclusively used the 

 animals are preserved free, except, perhaps, by contagion from 

 others already infected. — C. P. 



[It is quite certain that poisonous substances can be intro- 

 duced into plants, both by their roots and other organs ; but 

 we are not aware of any poisonous substances used as manures. 

 We should be obliged by experience-founded information on 

 this subject. — Eds.] 



PEOPAGATING ZONAL PELAEGONIUMS. 



I have been asked to give some details respecting striking 

 cuttings of Pelargoniums of the Scarlet section. 



The first consideration is the size of the cuttings. The 

 larger the cutting, the larger under like circumstances will be 

 the plant. The smaller the cutting the less room it will occupy. 

 Middle-sized cuttings are generally the best, as most medium 

 modes and ways are. I have not the least objection to place 

 a single cutting in a small pot, or a dozen in a larger one, or 

 five dozen in such a portable rough box as I have lately de- 

 scribed (see page 205). I use the latter, and place the cuttings 

 thickly, because room could not be found for them if separately 

 or thinly planted. Whether they are placed in rather large 

 25ots or these shallow wooden boxes, if we are making several 

 hundreds of cuttings at a time, they are thrown into two or 

 three heaps, according to their size ; as the future plants will 

 not only do better but look better if each receptacle has plants 

 of a similar height. Suppose some Geranium cuttings of one 

 kind to be 7 inches, some 4, and some 2-J inches long, how 

 much better they look when sized, the doing of which takes up 

 no more time. 



With regard to removing leaves from the cuttings or allowing 

 the leaves to remain, I am asked, What is my general practice ? 

 The whole question lies in a nutshell. Provided you can place 

 a cutting in such conditions of shade and atmospheric moisture 

 as to force the leaves to absorb as much as they perspire, the 

 more foliage that is left the sopner will you have a strong, 

 healthy, well-balanced plant. If these conditions cannot be 

 given, the more leaves left the more will the juices of the cutting 

 be perspired , and dropping and flagging will be the result. This 

 is hot so conspicuous in a Geranium cutting as in most plants, 

 as the succulent stem makes the cutting so much more inde- 

 pendent. In general circumstances it is best to remove a 

 portion of the lower leaves, and thus lessen the evaporating 

 surface, leaving the top leaves to carry on the natural func- 

 tions. This may be deemed the medium path of safety. In 

 the case of a large number of cuttings which must be struck and 

 wintered in a little space, say 2 inches from cutting to cutting, 

 the leaves would only be in the way, would soon damp from 

 crowding, require picking-off, and thus cause an expenditure 

 of labour. 



The cuttings are selected from the bed, taking them from parts 

 where they are least likely to be missed, and with care a great 

 many may be thus obtained without a stranger seeing where 

 they came from. If taken off with a heel all the better, but 

 with strong cuttings that must be dispensed with, as I prefer 

 each cutting to have its point left untouched. We cut through 

 at a joint in the usual way, removing the leaves and even buds 

 there. The most of the upper leaves we also remove, snagging 

 them short in, but not touching the buds at their base, and only 

 a few of the smaller leaves at the top. I lay stress on not 

 removing the side buds ; these, though the cuttings be kept 

 close together, will make a little show during the winter, and 

 will grow still faster in spring when the cutting is not stopped 

 but merely has its terminal bud taken out. The plants grow 

 freely when they are afforded more room under. protection in 

 March and April. Strong Geraniums in beds, now like little 

 shrubs, and which if taken up carefully would fill a large pot, 

 were at the end of last September just such skeleton cuttings 

 as I have described. Circumstances must regulate our opera- 

 tions. There is often so much trouble in moving these plants 

 to get them some size before finally planting them out, that 

 had I plenty of space I should be tempted to put each cutting 

 into a small pot at once. However, many a one could keep a 

 hundred cuttings in a moveable wooden box, taking up but 

 little room in winter, when he could not find room for a 

 hundred pots, and the cuttings could have more room under 



