776 



PRACTICE OF GARDENING. 



Part III. 



which should be fimshed in April, water at the root, and morning and evening sprinkle a Lttle over the 

 tops to assist in causing them to break freely. Apply fires, and keep the house close night and day, with 

 a moist heat of from 55'' to 60° till the plants have made shoots of three or four inches ; then begin to 

 give a little air, gradually increasing it, but still keeping up the heat till the growth of the shoots is 

 completed, when the sashes should be taken off to harden and color the shoots and leaves. It will be 

 necessary to attend to the above directions annually, for three or four years, in the growing seasor, in 

 order to procure as much wood in a short time as possible. Keeping the heads open and regular, with the 

 common routine culture, is all that is necessary at other seasons. 



5915. On walls and espaliers. Prepare the plants and the border as before, and plant about ten or twelve 

 feet distance, allowing a larger space for the citron, lemon, and shaddock, than for the common orange, as 

 the former grow faster and more luxuriantly. In the growing season, obsen-e the directions already given, 

 continiung them annually. The fan manner of training is that generally adopted. 



• 5916. Pruning. The French pay great attention to this part of the culture of the orange tribe; and, in- 

 deed, display greater art in pruning every sort of tree, than the British. They have their winter taille, and 

 their ebourgeonnonent, or summer pruning, of the orange-tree, as of the peach and vine. Tliose at Ver- 

 sailles and the Tuilleries are looked over everv year, and receive a very elaborate pruning every sixth or 

 eighth year. The object of this pruning is to keep the head proportioned to the capacity of the box con- 

 taining the roots. The heads of these trees, notwithstanding the annual prunings, become too large and show 

 indications of suffering for want of nourishment every sixth or eighth year. The shoots are then shortened 

 to within an inch or two of the old wood, and the tree, thus almost completely deprived of leaves, does not 

 produce blossoms during the two next years : it pushes, however, vigorous shoots, which are trained to 

 form a bushy well furnished head of the' same shape and size as before. Such has been the practice of the 

 late M. Pethon, who was head gardener at Versailles for forty years. The form of the heads of the trees 

 at Versailles is that of a cvlinder, spreading out at top, of which the height is greater than the breadth ; 

 those in other places are oVate, globular, or mushroom-shaped, and some are even square and triangular. 

 (See Van. Osten. c. xi.) The blossoms of the orange-trees in the royal gardens of France, and in most 

 gardens of Holland and the Netherlands are carefully picked off as they appear; as well to prevent the 

 tree from being exhausted by bearing fruit, as for the use of the flowers in perfumery. Those of the 

 Tuilleries, Neill informs us [Hort. Tour.), are farmed at the rare of 200/. a-year ; and those of Versailles 

 are let annually, in lots, and produce 125/. a-year, or upwards. In Holland the flowers are commonly the 

 perquisite of the gardener. Thus the beauty of the continental orange -trees is far inferior to those of Italy 

 or Britain, which are covered with fine large fruit. 



5&17. The jjruning which orange-trees receive in England, does not differ, in general, from (hat given to 

 any green-house tree or shrub ; and the consequencels, handsome bushes or trees, %vith the blossoms and 

 fruit on the surface of the foliage. But when the orange-tree is cultivated for fruit, whether as sUndards 

 or against walls, the branches ought to be kept thin, like those of other fruit-trees, so as to admit the sun, 

 air, and water, freely to every part, and thus have the blossoms and fruit regularly distributed from the 

 centre to the extremities. This is readily effected where the trees are flat-trained, which, where fruit is 

 the object, is a great argument in favor of that mode of culture. 



594S. In pruning, with a view to fruit, it must be considered, that the most useful blossoms of most sorts 

 of citrus are produced in the form of terminating peduncles, on the wood of tlie current year"; and hence, 

 the grand object of the pruner ought to be to encourage the production of young wood in everj- part of the 

 tree ; by cutting out naked wood, and shortening vigorous shoots where wood is wanting. A powerful co- 

 operating measure is the exposition of all the parts of the tree to the light and air, which, as already 

 obser\'ed, is only to be done in standards, by keeping the trees open, or by fiat training. There are also 

 blossoms produced by various sorts of citrus, in tufts, directly from the axil'lffi of the leaves of the wood of 

 the preceding year : these expand earlier than the others', but generally drop off in plants kept mider 

 cover. Ayres cuts away the old and .least-promising branches, in February, to make room for yoimger 

 and more productive wood, and shortens very strong branches to keep the trees in proper shape. After the 

 fruit is set, it ought to be thinned, seldom leaving more than one on a peduncle. In France they thin the 

 flowers, which, by that means, they are enabled to use for distillation. The thinned fruit is used in con- 

 fectionary. Mean observes, " In re'gard to the necessity of thinning the fruit, lest the trees should exhaust 

 themselves, it appears to me to depend on the state of the trees : if they are flourishing, I never observed 

 that it was at all required, either here or at Bromley Hill, where the orange-trees belonging to the Right 

 Honorable Charles Long are very fine, and loaded with peculiarly large fruit." Ayres thins when the fruit 

 are about the size of green-gage plums, and never leaves two fruit together. Will standard trees, pruned 

 with a view to fruit, be equally beautiful with the compact geometrical-headed trees of Paris, and the old 

 conservatories of this country? Those who prefer a full-bottomed periwig to a natural disposition of the 

 hair will not think so. The two beauties, or effects, are of different kinds; the latter has utility to re- 

 commend it ; the former, associations of the pomp and formal grandeur of past times. Quintiney, and 

 other French authors, direct the wounds or sections made in pruning orange-trees, to be covered with a 

 composition to exclude the air ; which deserves to be attended to, as the growth of the bark is otherwise 

 very slow over wounds in these trees. 



5949. Manure. About Genoa, the best cultivated orange-groves are manured annually. In France and 

 this country, the nest practitioners stir the surface and apply a top-dressing of rich compost when the trees 

 begin to grow, generally in April or May. Ayres top-dresses in June. 



5950. Gathering the fruit. In the Italian gardens, and those at Hieres in France, where the fruit of the 

 orange is raised for sale, it is gathered every year, generally in May. If not then gathered, it wiU hang 

 on the tree for one or two years longer ; but when the young fruit is green and swelling, the old ripe be- 

 comes somewhat shrivelled, and if then gathered is found almost void of juice. But as the new fruit 

 begins to arrive at maturity, the juice begins to return to the old fruit ; so that both old and new crops are 

 in perfection together the following May. In this way, at Genoa, the orange is sometimes allowed to re- 

 main on the tree three years, and being' then gathered, has a peculiar subacid sweetness and flavor, and 

 is sold at a very high price to connoisseurs at Milan, Turin, and other places. The lemon differs from the 

 orange in that it ripens irregularly, and drops off when ripe. It is therefore gathered at almost every 

 season. The orange-tree, kept in conservatories, generally requires fifteen months to ripen its fruit, and 

 hence, both green and ripe fruit are together on the tree. "Some authors assert, that the leaves remain on 

 the same period with the fruit ; but Quintiney says, " on a vigorous plant they will remain three or four 

 years." In Britain they often remain three years on moderately strong plants ^vithout fruit. In gather, 

 ing for the table in this countrj', the fruit should not be pulled with the hand, but carefully cut off with a 

 few leaves attached, and, thus garnished, sent to the dessert. By allowing them to hang two years, the 

 trees will at all times have green and yellow fruit, which, in connexion with their shining green leaves and 

 fragrant blossoms, forms, early in spring, in such a house as we have hinted at ^5929. and^^. 521.}, one of 

 the most splendid of horticultural scenes. 



5951. Insects a?id diseases. The chief insects injurious to the citrus tribe, are the coccus and red spider; 

 both to be removed or destroyed by water applied with the engine, brush, or sponge. Mean, early in March, 

 when he top-dresses his plants, appUes a copious washing with the engine ; then shuts up the house close for 

 three or four hours, which produces a strong heat, as high as 70°, which effects the destruction of the red 

 spider ; while the stems and leaves are wiped with a wet sponge to remove other insects and dirt. {Hort. 

 Trans, ii. 296.) Henderson destroys the aphis by fumigation ; the red spider by sprinkling and dashing with 

 water ; the coccus, by laj'ing on the leaves with a brush some black soap dissolved in water, or By water- 

 ing and dusting the leaves with sulphur; and the only remaining insect which infests tlje orange, the 

 thrips, he destroys with water, {Calcd. Hort. Mem. 315.) 



