346 
THE JOURNAL OP THtl aoftTlCUtTtJilAL SOCIETY, 
this is so, the plants should not be pruned so 
closely as when heat can be had, for the young 
shoot will not in that case grow so long, and 
will consequently ripen sooner. The plants 
should never be turned out of doors at any 
time, except when they have been grown in 
heat and the wood brought to maturity early ; 
then a few weeks out of doors will be of benefit 
to them, rendering them more liardy for the 
greenhouse in winter. The advantges of grow- 
ing epacrises in heat, consist in the certainty 
of having every shoot covered with flowers ; 
and by placing the plants in heat at different 
times, a constant succession of flowering plants 
during the winter and spring will be obtained. 
By carefully attending to pruning and grow- 
ing them in heat, epacrises may be kept hand- 
some in appearance, and in good health, for 
many years, and will never fail to produce a 
regular crop of bloom in due season. It is 
well known, and perhaps still believed by 
many, that E. grandiflora was considered a 
shy bloomer : the reason of this is, that being 
always grown in the greenhouse, and the 
shoots allowed to attain any length without 
stopping, they never got properly ripened, and 
the few flowers that did expand were only on 
the smallest and shortest 'shoots, which ripen 
eai'ly ; this shows the necessity of having a 
supply of these short shoots on every part of 
the plant. The more weakly growing kinds, 
such as pulchella, will not require to be so 
severely pruned as the stronger kinds ; judi- 
cious stopping will mostly be found sufficient 
for them. Watering should be carefully at- 
tended to during their season of growth ; they 
require a good deal at that time. 
Hints on the proper Management of Fruit- 
Tree Borders, having for their object the 
attainment of early and permanent pro- 
ductiveness. By Henry Bailey, Nuneham. 
In making a communication to the Society 
upon a subject of so much interest to every 
lover of a garden, I may be allowed to say 
that I do so with great deference to the 
opinions of others. In treating the subject, it 
"will be my endeavour to advance nothing in 
practice which cannot be accounted for by 
science, being well assured that no disserta- 
tions, in this enlightened age, can be really 
valuable to the community which do not unite 
theory with practice. 
The walls of a garden are amongst the 
largest items of expense in its first formation, 
but Ave may travel long distances without 
seeing (however complete in other respects 
gardens may be) these expensive provisions 
adequately furnished with well-trained ^nd 
fructiferous trees, or if we see them now, in 
a few years they will have vanished. How 
often do we see trees growing in the wildest 
luxuriance during one season (perhaps a wet 
and sunless one), doomed to perish the next 
from their crude and immatured condition! 
Various have been the suggestions of mo- 
dern gardeners conversant with horticulture 
as a science, to control the vigour of their 
trees within certain limits, and to establish 
that desirable balance in them which, while 
they possess all reasonable strength of growth, 
does not prevent their producing abundantly. 
In old times it was said, 
" He who plants pears, 
Plants for his heirs ; " 
but in these days, thanks to Mr. Rivers, root- 
pruning, shallow planting, and the quince 
stock, where it flourishes, eveiy lover of this 
valuable fruit can now look for and have 
immediate results. 
Equally diverse have been the modes of 
planting trees on walls. • In former times, 
when the imfortance of drainage was less 
understood — when the revivifying powers of 
atmospheric air in penetrating soils were che- 
mically unappreciated — deep excavations were 
dug out, without provision for the water to 
escape, and filled with soil ; the trees were 
planted, and left uncontrolled, save by the 
periodical prunings, till nature caused them 
to fruit, which they generally did in the most 
sparing and uncertain manner. It seems to 
have been an established principle in old 
times that the roots should penetrate deeply 
into the earth, no one reflecting that from 
this cause proceed late and immature growths, 
the sure preludes to decay and death. 
It has been reserved for modern gardeners 
to appreciate the importance of the temper- 
ature of the soil in connexion with the growth 
of plants. I mean, of the temperature of the 
soil being in advance of thai of the atmo- 
sphere. Mr. Reid, of Balcarres, " found that 
in a cankered orchard the roots of the trees 
had entered the earth to the depth of three 
feet ;" and he also ascertained " that the aver- 
age heat of the soil, at six inches below the 
surface, was 61°, at nine inches 57°, at eighteen 
inches 50°, and at three feet 44°," Surely, 
then, when we take into account the manner 
in which the earth's surface is heated \>j the 
sun in the native countries of the fruits which 
British gardeners cultivate, and when we 
understand the advantages which the com- 
'paratire bottom heat confers on trees, in 
causing early and advanced root action, mode- 
rate growth, and early maturity of the wood, 
at the same time endowing them with pro- 
tective properties by diffusing through their 
air-vessels that temperature which the sur- 
face-roots absorb, it cannot but be wise practice 
to adopt shallow platforms of good sound loam, 
on well-drained bottoms impervious to the 
