THE CULTURE OE THE ORANOE TREE. 
59 
are imperfectly drained, and satisfy yourself 
that the water you give a plant moistens the 
whole ball. 
July. — The gradual swelling of the fruit 
renders it very necessary to be liberal with, 
the watering ; not two days should pass in 
very hot weather without both watering and 
syringing the leaves. Air, and plenty of it, 
should be given all day. Syringing is best 
now in the evenings. The seedlings may be 
removed to cold frames, or even to the open 
air, if the place be sheltered, but the cold 
frame is the best, because they are more easily 
and securely protected against heavy falls of 
rain, and high winds, which do no good, and 
may do harm. If there be any fruit too 
close together, or rather too many on any of 
the trees, the superfluous ones should be 
removed. There will be at all times a dis- 
position in some of the trees to grow and 
bloom, even while the fruit is on them. If 
we were very particular, we should remove 
the flower-buds as soon as they came, but we 
are far from disliking these little sports of 
nature, and this tribe is so pretty in all its 
stages, that except thinning the fruit to 
prevent injuring the tree, and cutting away 
too vigorous a branch to prevent it from 
robbing the rest, we should let bloom come, 
and not disturb a bud. 
August. — Orange trees may be propagated 
by budding in the same manner as roses, 
plum-trees, cherry-trees, and the like. This 
is the season for it, and it is particularly 
applicable when there is a great stock wanted 
and but little to work from. The same piece 
that would be used as a graft, would make 
many buds ; and when the buds are inserted 
and have united, there is a plant which, with 
new sorts, is saleable, although they are 
generally allowed to have a season's growth. 
Watering must be well attended to this 
month, and the houses so closed of a night as 
to prevent the temperature going down too 
low. Checks would be injurious to the fruit, 
prevent its swelling, and spoil its flavour ; 
besides, heat will not hurt them now. The 
seedlings in the frames may, if intended for 
standard stocks, have some of their lower 
branches cut off close to the stem ; if for trial 
of new sorts, they should not be touched with 
a knife until two years old, and then be 
pruned so as to lose as little wood as possible, 
as every inch is valuable with a new sort of 
fruit; each bud that is produced, being avail- 
able for the propagation of the variety. 
September. — If you have been obliged to 
put any out of doors, return them to the 
house without loss of time, but the fruit will 
have been checked, and the tree all the worse 
for its exposure. Some of the nights even of 
our summers are too cold for an orange-tree 
and its fruit. Water must not be so liberally 
bestowed now as before. The house must be 
prepared for the resumption of fires, not only 
for the sake of keeping up the temperature, 
but to dry it. The floors should be kept dry 
and free from dried leaves, and the plants 
should be examined and cleaned, any dead 
shoots and broken parts cut out, any weak- 
growing branch cut away, and the whole placed 
in their proper winter positions, giving plenty 
of room between the plants, and so disposing 
them all that you can get at them easily. 
Seedlings must be put into their winter quar- 
ters ; they will live in a cold frame, but they 
would do better in a greenhouse or pit that you 
^k>uld heat without difficulty when required ; 
for even these should not be under forty degrees 
of heat at any period. The stocks budded 
last month must be examined, to see that they 
do not want for water, and are not too cold. 
October. — The treatment now resolves 
itself simply into the giving air in mild wea- 
ther, keeping up the temperature in the night 
and in cold weather, keeping the plants clean, 
and giving them, at proper times, the water 
they require ; but this last is not wanted 
often. Keep the house from getting damp, 
for that is injurious to all plants. 
November. — The budded plants may be 
untied, to examine whether they have taken, 
and if they have, they need not be tied again, 
but be regularly released. The grafted plants 
and seedlings must be placed in the orangery 
or greenhouse, which for their sakes ought to 
be kept up to the proper heat. 
December. — The winter months require 
but little difference in the treatment, except 
as far as it regards the presence of bad or 
good, mild or hard weather. The general 
rule never to let the temperature be under 
forty degrees, suggests that fires, coverings, 
and other ordinary means, must be used to 
prevent the inconvenience arising from frost 
and cold ; for, as we have before observed, an 
orange-tree will bear a good deal of ill usage 
before it is killed, but very little carelessness 
may do it much injury, and nothing more 
than sudden change from heat to cold ; nor 
ought any water to be given in the winter 
while the soil is at all moist ; but this must 
be made apparent to ordinary observers. A 
covering round the glass will always go a good 
way towards keeping up the temperature, but 
it may be taken for granted that there must 
very often be fires to keep up the degree of 
forty, even in the mild periods of winter. 
