THE VEGETABLE MARROW, AND GOURDS IN GENERAL. 
177 
they will be full of flower buds, which may 
now develope themselves : this applies to all 
the tribe of double and single flowering 
peaches and almonds. It will be well to keep 
a check upon the too vigorous growth of any 
shoots, even after the third year, so as to 
keep the head of something like a uniform 
shape, and encourage all the branches that 
are inclined to grow down a little, for all 
heads of trees are far more elegant for the 
lower branches being a little pendulous. The 
double-flowering cherry is more inclined to 
be short jointed and to grow rather crowded ; 
the only thing to attend to in these, is to thin 
out the smallest shoots, that they be not too 
thick, for it is impossible to be graceful 
if crowded, though the cherry is naturally far 
more handsome in growth than any of the 
peach and almond tribe. The varieties 
of thorn will also naturally form a better 
head than many trees, and a little judi- 
cious thinning and regulating is all that 
is required. The mountain ash is like the 
almond, much inclined to grow rapidly up- 
wards, and to push vigorous branches, which 
should be shortened the first year, whatever 
may be done to it afterwards ; and it may be 
taken as a general rule, that if a standard 
tree has not a sufficiency of branches pushing 
out all ways, it is better to sacrifice one year's 
beauty altogether by cutting the two or three 
branches it may have down to three or four 
eyes. Much has been said, by a somewhat 
distinguished writer, in behalf of allowing 
trees to grow as they will, to show their 
natural habits ; but it should be remembered 
that worked trees are not of their natural 
form, and the remarks cannot apply until the 
graft has been made to form a well shaped 
head, when it may fairly be left to itself. The 
stock is deprived of its natural head for the 
purpose of substituting the graft, and we have 
at least a right to see the graft formed into as 
good a head as the stock lost before we allow 
it to grow as it pleases. 
THE VEGETABLE MARROW, AND GOURDS 
IN GENERAL. 
Almost all the gourds are eatable while 
young, as vegetable marrow, but the prevail- 
ing sorts are those which are formed like a 
thick cucumber. They are of easy cultiva- 
tion, and the principal point to attend to is 
the right period of cutting. If these produc- 
tions are taken before the seeds form, they eat 
tender and rich, but if allowed to swell too 
much, they become watery and faint. The 
seeds may be had at any respectable nursery 
or seed shop, and may be sown on heat and be 
covered to bring them early, or raised in a 
50. 
pot placed in a common hot-bed in the middle 
of April, and by the middle of May they will 
be fit to plant out, and a piece of ground 
should be selected in a warm situation, and it 
should be well dunged. When the second 
pair of rough leaves appear, while the seed- 
lings are in the pots, the tops should be 
pinched off to induce side shoots. As they 
grow in the open gi'ound, these shoots should 
be laid out so as to cover the bed and not to 
cross each other, and they will soon show 
fruit. If they come too numerous, let them 
be thinned a little, but if the fruit is cut before 
it swells too much, they will bear a gi'eat num- 
ber. The fruiting is hastened a good deal if 
the plants are placed on ridges of dung, and 
covered with a hand-glass, after the same man- 
ner as cucumbers are ridged. A trench, or if 
for one patch of plant only, a hole is dug, two 
feet deep and a yard square. This is filled 
with hot stable- dung ready prepared, and trod 
down pretty firmly. On this there must be 
six inches of soil, good loam and dung well 
mixed, and the plants put in the middle, two 
in the patch close together. A hand-glass is 
placed on the plants, close down at night and 
tilted a little in the day, but it is very much 
better to have a glass with a ventilating top, 
or a top that can be taken off altogether. By 
means of this glass the plants may be pre- 
served all through April, and during the first 
fortnight in May, notwithstanding there may 
be many frosts. As soon as the plants fill the 
glass, or rather cover the space under the 
glass, it must be propped up at the four 
corners with bricks or flower pots, and the 
plants trained under it ; the only object of 
this dung and glass is to bring the fruit in 
much sooner, and make them grow much 
more rapidly. All the gourds, from the 
monster pumpkin to the smallest orange variety, 
that will actually train up the front of a house, 
will succeed with this simple treatment, but 
with the largest kind, where size is the only 
object, as soon as any one fruit exhibits a pro- 
pensity for growing and swelling well, remove 
all the other fruit from the plant as fast as 
they appear, but it is of no use to top the 
plant, because it will not prevent the growing 
of side shoots. It is far better to let the plant 
trail on, removing only the fruit as fast as 
they show, and before they bloom. The large 
swelling fruit will take all the nourishment 
the plant can afford, and when it has attained 
a pretty good size, the plant will not be much 
inclined to grow, although it may produce 
many fruit that will require constant watching 
and removing. The orange gourd may be 
planted at the foot of a south wall or front, 
and may be allowed to ramble all over it. 
The fruit, which is light, will come all over 
the vine, and upon the wall, making a very 
