598 



FRUIT GARDEN. 



difficulty brought to the ground : The shoot is 

 brought through the hole in the bottom of the 

 pot filled with soil, and which for the purpose 

 must be secured to the wall, and the soil kept at 

 a proper point of moisture during the summer. 

 The bud which is nearest the centre of the pot is 

 cut away, while two buds are left on the point of 

 the shoot above the level of the pot, from one 

 of which the young shoot springs : the weakest 

 of them, should both grow, is rubbed off. In 

 August, or early in September, the layer is cut 

 from the parent plant, and either planted out at 

 once, or shifted into a larger pot, and placed in 

 a warm sheltered place till the wood ripens. It 

 is of importance to have the layers removed 

 from the parent plant before the first of Sep- 

 tember ; for it has been found, where this has 

 not been attended to, that the roots die off, 

 which may of itself explain, in a great measure, 

 why vines, from layers planted in spring, do so 

 frequently die. In general, the operation of 

 layering commences early in March, which is 

 believed by Green of Stepney to be much too 

 early ; for he has stated in " Gardeners' Maga- 

 zine," vol. hi. p. 24, that if vines be layered ever 

 so early in spring, they will make no roots be- 

 fore the middle of July ; thus circumscribing 

 the rooting period for layers to something like 

 six weeks — a very short time indeed, particularly 

 in a soil and climate such as that of Britain. 

 The case might be somewhat different were the 

 operation of rooting carried on in bottom heat. 



Layering the shoots of the current year. — A case 

 of this kind was, so far as we recollect, first 

 noticed by the late Dr Neill, in the " Edinburgh 

 Encyclopaedia," as being brought under his no- 

 tice by our predecessor, the late Mr M'Donald, 

 in the old gardens at Dalkeith. The practice is, 

 however, we may remark, founded on what has 

 been done in nurseries in rooting several exotic 

 plants, difficult to root otherwise, and for ages 

 practised in China, both on young and old wood. 

 In the end of June or beginning of July, when 

 the vines have made shoots 10 or 12 feet long, 

 any spare shoots are selected, and bent down so 

 as to form a double in a pot filled with earth, 

 taking care that a portion of last year's wood 

 containing a joint pass into the soil in the pot. 

 Within ten days roots will be found to have 

 proceeded plentifully from the joint of last 

 year's wood, at which time the layer may be 

 separated from the vine. By this method a 

 vinery might be furnished in three months as 

 completely as it would be by the ordinary pro- 

 cess in two (the Doctor says three) years. " Sup- 

 posing the layers to be made on the 1st of 

 July, they might be cut and removed to the 

 new house on the 9th ; by the 9th of October 

 the roof would be completely covered with 

 shoots, and next season the house would yield 

 a full crop of grapes." Not that it would be 

 prudent to do so if permanent plants be desired, 

 as the few roots made would be unable to pro- 

 vide the necessary supply for such large plants. 

 It is a remarkable circumstance that nursery- 

 men, such as the highly respectable house of 

 the Lees of Hammersmith, who have very ex- 

 tensive vineries, have not adopted this expedi- 

 tious mode of propagating the vine. There can 



be no doubt that such a range of vineries as 

 that alluded to would yield a much greater 

 profit from young plants than from the most 

 abundant crop of fruit that could be produced 

 in them. Those eminent cultivators, no doubt 

 aware of the great superiority of vines propa- 

 gated by the more expensive process of single 

 eyes, adopt that course in preference to a more 

 expeditious and less costly method, thereby sup- 

 plying a much better article, though at a less 

 remunerative profit. 



Propagating by seed. — We have stated above 

 the object generally had in view of propagating 

 by this process. We may here remark that 

 little success has attended the labours of even 

 the most enthusiastic in this important depart- 

 ment of pomological science. Speechley obtained 

 many seedlings, but none of extraordinary merit ; 

 and those who have succeeded him have not been 

 much more fortunate. This is the more extra- 

 ordinary considering the importance of the sub- 

 ject, and the eminent success that has attended 

 the creation of so many excellent varieties of 

 apples, pears, strawberries, &c. The rearing 

 from seed is a simple operation. Select the seed 

 from the best specimens of the fruit, separate 

 them from the pulp, and keep them in a dry 

 cool place till spring. March is a very good 

 time to sow in light rich soil, in a moderate tem- 

 perature. Sow the seeds singly in small pots, and 

 when the plants have attained the height of 6 

 inches, shift into larger pots, and stimulate them 

 throughout the growing season with abundance 

 of light, air, warmth, and weakened liquid- 

 manure ; keep them growing till the end of sum- 

 mer ; place them then where their wood may 

 become ripened, and during winter where severe 

 frost cannot reach them. Head them down in 

 December to one eye, shift early in spring, and 

 give another summer growth, with all the stimu- 

 lants necessary. The third or fourth year they 

 will fruit, and their merits, if any, may be ascer- 

 tained ; or they may be inarched in their second 

 year's growth upon established plants, and thus 

 expedite their bearing fruit. 



Propagating by cuttings. — In regard to the 

 selection of cuttings, the same rule should be 

 acted upon as recommended for eyes. The older 

 practitioners in this country, copying, no doubt, 

 from the Continental growers, used, as is still 

 done in France at the present day, cuttings a 

 foot and a half in length. For years past a 

 reduction to about half that size has been 

 adopted by British gardeners. The cuttings, 

 being selected at the autumnal pruning, are to be 

 preserved by being stuck half their length in 

 dry light soil in a sheltered situation. In 

 March they should be deprived of their two 

 lowermost buds, and planted in pots in light 

 rich soil, and placed in a mild bottom-heat. 

 The general rule appears to be to plant them in 

 the open air, generally at the foot of a wall, in a 

 warm sheltered place. This may be all very 

 well in the south of France, or even in some 

 few parts of the south of England, but would be 

 anything but well in the greater part of Eng- 

 land and most of Scotland. If Mr Green, 

 already quoted, be correct in his theory, that 

 vines, when laid, do not make roots in the open 



