772 



PRACTICE OF GARDENING. 



Part HI. 



with equal success. Although I at first began to put in cuttings only in the month of August, I now put 

 them in at any time of the year, except vnien the plants are making young wood. By giving them a 

 gentle bottom heat, and covering them with a hand-glass, they will generally strike roots in seven 

 weeks or two months. The citron is most easily struck, and is the freest grower. I therefore frequeivtly 

 strike pieces eighteen inches long ; and as soon as they are put into single pots, and taken with the pots, 

 they are grafted with other sorts, which grow freely. I am not particular as to the time either of striking 

 cuttings or of grafting." {Caled. Ilort. Jlc'/?i. iii. 308.) 



5915. Bi/ lat/ers. This mode is occasionally practised both on the continent and in England. At Monza, 

 near Milan, there is a very fine collection of lemon-trees in boxes, trained as espaliers, which were so 

 raised. The trees are five feet high, and each box has a portion of trellis attached to it of that height, and 

 ten or twelve feet long, which is wliolly covered with branches. Where laying is adopted, the plants may 

 either be laid down on their sides, and laid as stools, or pots may be raised and supported under the 

 branches to be propagated from. These branches, or their shoots of one or two years' growth, may then 

 be cut or ringed, and bent into the pot, or down through the hole in the bottom, and treated in the usual 

 manner, taking care to supply water with the greatest regularity. Shoots layered in March will be fit to 

 separate from the stools as mother plants in the September following. In general, it may be observed, 

 that the citron tribe, like other fruit-bearing plants raised from cuttings or layers, though they may prove 

 very prolific trees, yet seldom grow with that vigor, and produce such large fruit, as those propagated by 

 budding or grafting on seedling stocks. 



5916. So/7. At Genoa and Florence they are grown in a strong yellow clay, which is richly manured ; 

 and this soil is considered by the first Italian gardeners, as best "suited to their natures. At Rome and 

 Milan the natural soil is lighter ; but a strong soil is adopted generally for all the agruyni, and particularly 

 in the garden of his Holiness the Pope. At Naples, where the trees are always planted in the open 

 ground, the soil is lighter ami of volcanic origin. A strong soil, in imitation of that of Nervi, is recom- 

 mended and adopted by the Dutch. (See Van Ostcn. Nicd, Hcsperidcs, Sec.) 



5917. T/ie French gardeners, according to Bosc (in X Cours d'Ag. in loco.), in preparing a compost for 

 the orange-tree, endeavor to compensate for quantity by quality ; because the pots or boxes in which 

 the plants are placed ought always to be as small as possible, relatively to the size of the tree. The fol- 

 lowing is the composition recommended : To a fresh loam which contains a third of clay, a third of sand, 

 and a third of vegetable matter, and which has lain a long time in a heap, add an equal bulk of half.rotten 

 cow-dung. The following year turn it over twice. The succeeding year mix it with nearly one half its 

 bulk of decomposed horse-dung. Turn it over twice or three times, and the winter before'using, add a 

 twelfth part of sheep-dung, a twentieth of pigeon-dung, and a twentieth of drietl ordure. 



5918. Miller says, the best compost for orange-trees is two thirds of fresh cartii from a good pasture, and 

 one third part of neat's dung. These should be mixed together at least twelve months before using, turning 

 it over every month to mix it well and to rot the sward. Pass it through a rough screen before using. 



5919. M'PkaiL and Abercronibic recommend " three eighth parts of cow-dung, which has been kept 

 three or four years ; a fourth part of vegetable mould from tree-leaves ; one sixth part of fine rich loam ; 

 and one twelfth part of road-grit; to this may be added one eighth part of sheep-dung." (£f. Bern. 2^. 

 Pr. Gard 574.) 



5920. Mean has tried the following mixture {Horf. Trajis. ii. 295.), and with which he has " every rea- 

 son to be satisfied. Well-prepared rotten leaves, two to three years old, one half ; rotten cow-dung, 

 two, three, and four years old, one fourth ; mellow loam, one fourth ; with a small quantity of sand or 

 road-grit added to the compost, which ought not to be sifted too fine." 



5921. Ayrcs, who grows excellent table fruit of the citrus, at Shipley, uses ten parts of strong turf-loam, 

 seven of pigeon-dung, seven of garbage from the dog-kennel or butcher's yard, seven of sheep-dung, 

 seven of good rotten horse-dung, and ten of old vegetable mould, mixed and prepared a twelvemonth 

 before using. {Hort. Trans, iv. 310.) 



5922. Henderson, of Wood Hall, a most successful cultivator of the genus citrus, gives the following di- 

 rections as to soil : " Take one part of light-brown mould fi-om a piece of ground that has not been cropped 

 nor manured for many years j one part of peat-earth, such as is used for growing heaths ; two parts of 

 river-sand, or pit-sand if it be free from mineral substances ; and one part of rotted hot-bed dung ; with 

 one part of rotted leaves of trees. Mix them all well together, so as to form a compost-soil of uniform 

 quality." {Caled. Hort. Mem. iii. 302.) 



5923. Temperature. The standard temperature for the citrus tribe is 48° ; but in the growing season 

 they require at least ten degrees of additional heat to force them to produce luxuriant shoots The air of 

 the house in which the plants are kept, whether in boxes or in the ground, should never be allowed to fall 

 under 40°, for though the orange, like the pine-apple, will endure a severe degree of cold for a few hours 

 without injury, yet, as Mean has observed, the leaves once injured the trees will require three years to 

 recover their appearance. Ayres never sufiers his orangery to be heated above 50° by fire-heat, until the 

 end of February ; when the trees show blossom, it is increased to 55°, but never allowed to exceed 60° by 

 sun-heat, the excess of which he checks by the admission of air till the early part of June, when he 

 " begins to force the trees, by keeping the heat in the house up as near as possible to 75°. For I do not 

 consider (he adds) that either citrons, oranges, lemons, or limes, can !?e grown line and good with less 

 heat." {Hort. Trans. \v. Sll.) The orange, Humboldt observes (Dt- Z)/vV?r/^. P/ah/. 158.), which requires 

 an average temperature of 64 degrees, will bear a very great degree of cold if continued only for a short 

 time. This is proved by an observation of Dr. Sickler, who says, " It is remarkable how much cold and 

 snow the common lemons and oranges will bear at Rome, provided they are planted in a sheltered situ- 

 ation, not much exposed to the sun. Thus I saw in the two winters of ISOo and 1806, inider my windows, 

 on Monte Pincio, three standard orange-trees in the open ground, heavily covered with snow for more 

 than a week. The green leaves, but still more the golden fruits, nearly ripe, looked singular but beautiful 

 amidst the snow ; neither fruits nor trees had suffered, being in a sheltered place, while many branches 

 and leaves of other trees of this kind, which were exposed to the sun, turned black and died, rendering 

 the whole tree sickly." {Volk. Oran. Gart. 9.) It appears that the snow had been thawed from off these 

 trees gradually, and more by the temperature of the atmosphere than by the direct rays of tJie sun, or a 

 current of heated air. This resulted from their sheltered and partially shaded situation; and, as Dr. 

 Noehden has remarked {Hort. Trans, iii. 43.), it proves the truth of the observation of Knight, that it is 

 more the sudden transition from cold to heat, and the contrary, than the degree of either, which destroys 

 vegetables. Whenever orange-trees or any tender exotics have been touched during night by frost, they 

 should either be immediately shaded by mats from the next day's sun, or thawed by water at not more than 

 32 or 33 degrees of temperature. In the northern regions the same treatment is successfully applied to 

 animals. (See Hoi-t. Trans, iii. 42. and 144.) 



5924 Water. Orange-trees, like other evergreens which delight in a strong soil, are not naturally fond 

 of water ; but in this country those in boxes are often much injured for a want of a due supply of this ma- 

 terial ; for the earth becoming indurated, the water wets only the surface, and runs over and escapes by 

 the sides of the pot or box ; so that while the mass of earth below is dry, the surface has a sane moist ap- 

 pearance. Mean says, " When I think from the appearance of a plant, that the water does not freely 

 enter by the middle or sides of the box, a sharp iron rod, about three feet long, is made use of to penetrate 

 to the bottom of the earth, and to form a channel for the water, too little or too much of which is equally 

 injurious to orange-trees." Knight {Hort. Trans, ii. 229.) watered an orange-tree with very strong liquid 

 manure, and found it grow with equal comparative vigor to the vine and mulberry. Ayres, after the fruit 

 is set, waters with water, in which, at the rate of three barrows of fresh cow-dung, without litter, two bar- 

 rows of fresh sheep's droppings, and two pecks of quick lime have been added to every hogshead ; when 



