656 



FRUIT GARDEN. 



into fruit, &c. To plant the suckers in a pre- 

 pared bed as soon as they are removed from the 

 old plant, and to allow them that space which 

 they would afterwards require, would be a waste 

 of space that few can afford, and a wasteful ex- 

 penditure of fuel equal to that which would be 

 required to ripen off a houseful of fruiting plants. 

 The soil in the bed,however well prepared, would 

 become exhausted of its best parts, and become 

 consolidated before the plants come to an age 

 to require their greatest nourishment from it — 

 namely, while swelling their fruit. Upon the 

 whole, therefore, it is most expedient to grow 

 the young stock of plants in pots, and to plant 

 them out when they have nearly attained a 

 fruiting state. Some, however, grow their plants, 

 even from the first stage, planted out in beds of 

 tan, half-decayed leaves, or soil placed over a 

 heating material below ; and when any altera- 

 tion becomes necessary in their arrangement, or 

 for securing additional heat to the roots, take 

 them carefully up, injuring the roots as little as 

 possible, and immediately transplant them into 

 another bed which has been prepared for them. 

 This, however, requires great care in the opera- 

 tion, as well as having a spare bed into which to 

 place them, for it would be highly injurious to 

 the roots to leave them exposed while that bed 

 was preparing. Of those who grow them in 

 something like this manner, M. Pelvilain of 

 Meudon claims our notice. His frames, as we 

 have described, vol. i., are boxes of old ship- 

 timber, supported on pieces of wood 24 feet 

 above the ground. In this box are placed 16 or 

 18 inches of peat soil, containing a considerable 

 quantity of silver sand — just such a soil as heaths 

 are grown in. He sticks his plants at once into 

 this soil, setting them as far apart as he judges 

 will afford them room to grow without being 

 crowded during the first season's growth. This 

 planting takes place at no stated period, but just 

 when the crowns or suckers are at his disposal. 

 Those planted in the spring, say of 1853, would 

 in the summer of 1 854 produce fruit such as is 

 reported to have been grown by him. During 

 their growth, clear water only is administered to 

 them, and the heat obtained from fresh stable- 

 yard manure (vide figs. 625, 626, vol. i.) thrown 

 in under the box, which is so closely fitted that 

 no steam is allowed to enter the frame. The re- 

 moval of the young plants at the end of the first 

 season to the fruiting-pit, is done by taking 

 them out of the bed of soil in which they have 

 been growing, and transplanting them, with their 

 roots entire, into the bed in which they are to 

 perfect their fruit. In summing up the merits 

 of this plan, "Mirabile Dictu" observes: " Inde- 

 pendently of the economy attending the arrange- 

 ment of cultivating the young plants separate 

 from those in a fruiting state, their removal has 

 a tendency to throw them more rapidly into 

 fruit. As they are, however, transplanted with 

 the whole of their roots, the constitutional 

 vigour of the plant is not thereby impaired ; on 

 the contrary, when they begin to require greater 

 support, the roots have penetrated into the fresh 

 soil ; hence they are shortly in a position to 

 supply a larger portion of nutriment than if 

 their removal had not taken place." No more 



plants can with equal propriety be grown in a 

 planted-out bed than in pots ; and the roots of 

 plants turned out of pots into a prepared bed 

 will be in as good a state, if not much better, 

 for finding their way into the fresh soil, and as 

 capable, if not more so, of supplying as large a 

 share of nutriment to the plant, as by this mode 

 of rude transplantation. 



Mr Hamilton, in his excellent little " Treatise 

 on the Culture of the Pine," in reference to the 

 planting-out system, observes : " When the pine 

 is cultivated on the common bark-bed, the fol- 

 lowing method, I have experienced, answers 

 better than growing them in pots, and will save 

 a great deal of trouble, particularly if the old 

 stools are preserved. Suppose the bed will hold 

 five rows, three of the middle rows are turned 

 out, first placing a sod of about 1 4 inches dia- 

 meter, green side downwards, under each ball, 

 then add 3 or 4 inches of chopped turf all round 

 them. The interstices between each plant are 

 then filled to the height of the ball with new tan, 

 which will give a gentle humid warmth to the 

 roots, and cause them to strike freely into the 

 fresh turf, and lastly into the tan, in which they 

 will be preserved in a healthy state for a great 

 length of time. The two outside rows are to 

 be kept in pots, which will have to be removed 

 when the bottom heat declines ; and some of the 

 old tan will have to be taken out, and fresh 

 added along the side of the bed. This will keep 

 the roots of those planted out sufficiently warm 

 for five or six months. The plants so treated 

 may remain for years, and perfect a succession 

 of fruit. After each is cut, a little fresh turf 

 ought to be added round the trunk, and filled 

 up as before with new tan; and thus a slight 

 surface-heat is obtained at each process of bark- 

 ing up, which will encourage the emission of 

 new roots without injuring the old ones. 



" This compost answers well where bottom 

 heat is supplied by hot-water pipes, &c. How- 

 ever, I would give a preference to chopped turf, 

 no matter of what texture, provided it be well 

 stored with vegetable fibre : such compost will 

 require no mixture, except it be heavy, and defi- 

 cient of grass roots, then mix with it some brick- 

 bats, chopped wood, or charcoal. The latter 

 will be the best sweetener of the compost, and 

 will equally preserve its porosity." Mr Hamil- 

 ton does not recommend " turning out plants 

 where the old system is practised, because the 

 plants will frequently make a long growth before 

 they fruit, which is a great sacrifice of time and 

 room, with no adequate advantage in the size 

 of the fruit, to say nothing of the quantity of 

 compost required to prepare the bed for another 

 stock of plants. If they are planted out with 

 the intention of adopting my system — viz., of 

 fruiting from the old stools — the most beneficial 

 results may then be expected, as the plants may 

 remain undisturbed for years, and so produce 

 one fruit annually. No destroying or shorten- 

 ing healthy leaves, no reducing the ball, and 

 consequently injuring if not destroying the ori- 

 ginal fibrous roots, is in accordance to my expe- 

 rience. Destroy the original fibres, and if the 

 growth of the plant be not materially affected, 

 the period of its fruiting will at least be much 



