598 
THE TROPICAL AGRICULTUEIST. " [March 2, 1903. 
kuow what besides, had carefnlly been hidden afoot 
or 80 below the surface. However, I manage to make 
the plants grow as I wish withoni much trouble. My 
worst enemies are the winds which often sweep like 
cyclones around here, smashing up everything in a 
glorious confusion, and the cost of pots to replace 
those broken often amounts to something serious. 
Notwithstanding such little troubles I have 
managed " fair to middling " as the saying is, with 
my pot-plants, and I wish to invite particular attention 
to the fruits in pots, especially to the little peachtree 
shown in the illustration ; indeed, this is chiefly the 
object of the article. 
Fruit in pots are but rarely grown in this State. 
Oocasionally grape vines are shown in pots bearing 
large bunches of grapes ; but this work is a dodge, and 
not worth describing here. In the countries where 
fruits in pots are chiefly grown the plants are sheltered 
generally under glass, and the pots are set in earth, 
and not infrequently the roots are allowed to grow 
through the drainage holes into richly prepared soil, 
which allows a great extension of root. 
As this sort of practice did not suit my design, I 
grew the pot-fruits in the garden, but not plunged in 
the soil, "and I prevented the roots from growing 
through the drainage holes, my object being to 
ascertain possibilites of the production of fruit-trees 
Laving limited or rather restricted root-areas. 
The little peach tree referred to has been grown in a 
7-inch pot. The plant when given to me must have 
been about one year old from the bad, and I had to 
cut away most of its roots to jam it into a 5 inch pot 
with a few broken crocks and a little soil. Here it 
grew as much as I wanted for a year, and then I 
shifted it to its present 7-inch pot, in which it has 
been growing for about two years, bearing fruit. 
The crop this year, which is shown in the photograph 
consisted of eight peaches, the average size of each 
being slightly more than 8 inches in circumference, 
the total weight of the eight being over 2 J lb. These 
peaches were beautifully coloured, luscious, and perfect 
far better than many peaches retailed in Sydney at 
one penny each at the time. 
To ripen the fruit was my greatest difficulty, for I 
was obliged to keep the plant out of the sight of the 
numerous youngsters who are constantly passing along 
the street which bounds my garden, and in whom the 
instinct to provide themselves with fruit— apparently 
inherited from our Pithecanthrops or man-ape 
ancestor, is markedly conspicuous at an early age — 
and it has been a marvel to me how my peaches 
escaped detection. 
In keeping the plant out of view as much as possible 
1 was obliged to deprive it to some extent of the sun- 
light 80 necessary for its proper development and the 
ripening of its fruit. 
Every fruit that set ripened ; not a single fruit, 
strange to say, fell off, and I attribute this to an abun- 
dant use of water as soon as the fruits became as 
large as peas. As may be supposed the evaporation 
by this plant, growing in a comparatively small pof, 
was considerable, and it quickly appealed for water, 
if needed, by its drooping leaves. 
Perhaps I have gone ahead rather too fast, for I 
forgot to describe the potting soil used. This was 
chiefly sandy loam, vegetable matter, a little charcoal 
and about a couple of handful of botie-raeal. About 
one part of vegetable matter (old cow-dung for want 
of something better) to two parts of sandy loam. A 
better mixture, for anyone who could obtain it easily, 
would be loam, coarse gritty sand, and vegetable 
matter composed of rotted leaves. However it will not 
very much matter what the soil is, provided a good 
deal of vegetable matter is used in making a potting 
soil. Vegetable matter is of far more importance for 
onUivated plants, and particularly so in the field or 
garden, than is generally imagined, and I feel sure 
that in the near future a proper appreciation of this 
important subject will effect a marked change for the 
better in agricultural and horticultural production in 
^aatralia. 
But to our pots again. The addition of a little bone- 
ireal will be found of advantage , about a handful or 
two to the soil required for a 7-inch pot is sufficient. 
If bone meal cannot be obtained burn some bones and 
use the ashes instead : you wi)l lose the nitrogen but 
the phosphate will remain. Whether the bone-meal 
or burnt bone is used for manure or not, its physical 
effects are useful, and ^o is the charcoal broken up 
into pieces about the size of wheat grains. 
When shifting the peach from one pot to another in 
the winter, I washed its roots thoroughly, and cut 
about half of them away, and pruned the branches a 
little. About an inch of broken up pots was used for 
drainage in the bottom of the pot, a layer of broken 
up old cow-dung on top of this to keep the soil from 
washing down, then a little soil on which the peach 
roots were held, and the prepared soil, rather dry, 
was shaken in amongst the roots and pressed down 
well particularly round the sides of the pots, to prevent 
water and liquid manure soaking through too fast. 
Potting can be effected very quickly and neatly by 
anyone experienced in the work, but the operation is 
not easy to describe. hen the potting was completed 
and the soil well pressed down, the surface of the 
soil was about an inch from the top of the pot to 
allow a good quantity of water or liquid manure to be 
poured in and soak gradually through the soil. 
As soon as the peaches began to grow I began to use 
liquid manure, twice and sometimes three times a 
week, filling up the inch of space once and sometimes 
twice at a time after the plant had been watered. 
I used a mixture of a handful of nitrate soda, a 
handful of ' blood and bone ' manure, or occasionally 
fiae bone-meal, a handful of sulphate of, potash, and 
three or four handfuls of fowl-dung in an eight-gallon 
water-can of water. This formed a good sort of stock- 
pot. I used this liquid diluted at the rate of a gallon 
of liquid to a gallon of water. Sometimes I did not 
dilute it at all, when it was freshly made. I think it 
is better to use nitrate than sulphate of ammonia 
because the nitrate can be made use of by the roots 
sooner than the sulphate. Sulphate of potash was 
used because 1 found that muriate of potash sickened 
to death some nice strawberry plants in pots I was 
mfking experiments with. It may do as well as the 
sulphate fruit-trees, and may be worth trying, but I 
should not advise its application for strawberries 
except for experiment on a small scale. 
I may say that I have found the use of fowl-dang for 
liquid manure alone most useful, far more beneficial, 
somehow, than chemical analysis would make one sup- 
pose. 1 used it largely, for many jears, for garden 
purposes, with excellent effect, especially when made 
into a liquid. 
Good liquid manure can be made from the dung of 
any of the domestic animals, particularly so from that 
of sheep ; and for the growing of plants in pots, such 
as the peach referred to, one could hardly use anything 
better. But it is always as well to strain it before use 
in pots. 
The appl^shown in the accompanying photograph 
is eleven or twelve years old. I brought it from 
Melbourne eight years ago where it was raised from 
the ground, and I have grown it in a 12-inch pot ever 
since, occasionally, about every two years, repotting 
after cutting back the roots rather hard. It flowers 
well, but in consequence of my confined space and 
being obliged to keep it close to a fence, and in an un- 
BTiitable position, the outside flowers only are polli- 
nated. No other apples are grown in the vicinity, so 
that the flowers have not the benefit of foreign pollen. 
Besides this the climate is not at all suitable for apples 
and 1 am rather surprised that it bears the excellent 
fruit it does. I adopt the same treatment for the 
apple as for the peach so far as the soil, watering, and 
manuring is concerned. This little tree has been 
grafted on a blight-proof stock, as well as on a dwarf 
Paradise stock, and no signs of American blight hav9 
ever appeared) but (his may be due to isolation to aosiQ 
extent, 
