PAPERS AND PROCEEDINGS OF THE HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 
479 
Wall trees. — In training wall trees there 
is much in the modern practice which ^appears 
defective and irrational : sufficient attention 
has never been paid to the form which the 
species or variety naturally assumes ; and be 
its growth upright or pendent, it is con- 
strained to take precisely the same form on 
the Avail. — Knight. 
Glass-houses. — The construction of forcing 
houses appears to be generally very defective, 
and two are rarely constructed alike, though 
intended for the same purposes ; probably not 
a single building of this kind has yet been 
erected, in which the greatest possible quan- 
tity of space has been obtained, and of light 
and heat admitted, proportionate to the capital 
expended. It may even be questioned, whe- 
ther a single hot-bed has ever been made in 
the most advantageous form ; and the proper 
application of glass, where artificial heat is 
not employed, is certainly very ill understood. 
« — - Knight. 
Manuring. — Every gardener is well ac- 
quainted with methods of applying manure 
with success to annual plants ; for these, as 
Evelyn has just observed, "having but little 
time to fulfil the intentions of nature," readily 
accept nutriment in almost any form in which 
it can be offered them ; but trees being formed 
for periods of longer duration, are frequently 
much injured by the injudicious and excessive 
use of manure. The gardener is often igno- 
rant of this circumstance ; and not unfre- 
quently forms a compost for his wall trees, 
which, for a few years stimulating them to 
preternatural exertion, becomes the source of 
disease and early decay. It is also generally 
supposed that the same ingredients, and in 
the same proportion to each other, which are 
best calculated to bring one variety of any 
species of fruit to perfection, are equally well 
adapted to every other variety of that species: 
but experience does not justify this conclu- 
sion; and the peach in many soils acquires a 
high degree of perfection where its variety, 
the nectarine, is comparatively of little value ; 
and the nectarine frequently possesses its full 
flavour in a soil which does not well suit the 
peach. The same remark is also applicable 
to the pear and apple ; and as defects of op- 
posite kinds occur in the varieties of species of 
fruit, those qualities in the soil which are 
beneficial in some cases will be found injuri- 
ous in others. In those districts where the 
apple and pear are cultivated for cyder and 
perry, much of the success of the planter is 
found to depend on his skill, or good fortune, 
in adapting his fruits to the soil. — Knight. 
Onions. — The seed is sown on a slight hot- 
bed in the second week in March ; the plants, 
when up, are exposed to the air whenever 
the weather permits, and in the last week in 
April they are planted out in the following 
manner : — Deep drills are made on a piece of 
well-dug ground, fifteen inches asunder, and 
the drills are filled with good compost of equal 
parts of sandy loam and rotten dung ; the 
plants, being drawn carefully from the bed, 
are placed in these drills, at twelve inches 
distance from each other, their fibres only 
being covered with the mould, and the entire 
bulb kept above ground. When planted they 
receive a gentle watering, which is continued 
daily, unless rain falls, till the roots have 
got hold of the compost ; they are after- 
wards hoed, when necessary, and occasionally 
watered till they are fit to take up. — Mr. 
Thomas James. 
Preserving Grapes till very late in 
the season. — The grapes are ripened in the 
vineries under the glass, but without any arti- 
ficial heat. In the autumn, as soon as the 
weather becomes damp, light fires in the flues 
about nine or ten o'clock in the morning, 
giving plenty of air at the same time. The 
fires are put out in the afternoon, and the 
houses are closely shut up at night. This is 
continued daily, as long as the crops of grapes 
remain in use. The fire in the day, aided by 
the circulation of the air, renders the whole 
interior of the houses perfectly dry, so that no 
damp exists in them when shut up; a night fire, 
on the contrary, with the houses closed, creates 
a vapour, which causes the fruit to become 
mouldy, and to decay. — Mr. J. Thompson. 
Grafting Pears upon Quince stocks. 
— One great improvement in the cultivation 
of the pear, is a method practised many years 
ago, but not generally enough adopted; that of 
the choice sorts being grafted upon the quince, 
by which they come several years sooner into 
bearing, and produce much better crops than 
those upon the common or free stock. I have 
had opportunities of seeing the superiority of 
the quince stock in three different counties, 
and with as many different sorts of soil, and 
have not found any disadvantage whatever in 
it, although some disapprove the use of it. I 
think the objections are made only by those 
who have not given the two sorts of stocks a 
fair trial. Pears on the quince require less 
wall room at planting ; but an equal space of 
wall, occupied by trees on quinces, will pro- 
duce from three to five times the quantity of 
fruit which could have been obtained from 
trees on free stocks, and in some cases still 
more, and the fruit will be in no respect infe- 
rior. — Mr. T. Tororon. 
Late Celery. — John Wedgewood, Esq. 
has stated that he made a plantation of celery, 
late in the year, from the seedling plants which 
had remained in the seed-bed till they had 
gi'own to considerable size. The plants thus 
removed not only took well, but had the ad- 
