42 
JOURNAL OF HORTICULTURE AND COTTAGE GARDERER. 
[ July 15, 18£6. 
potted up they are benefited by occasional supplies of weak liquid 
manure of any kind. At the same time they may be easily over¬ 
watered. All kinds of insect pests are troublesome, but mealy bug 
is the worst enemy to Bouvardias. Petroleum is the best remedy 
for bug, this being applied at the rate of 2 ozs. to a gallon of hot 
water. This should be kept well stirred as it is being used, and 
those who are at all nervous about its injurious effects on the plants 
may syringe it off in the course of an hour. Syringings will keep 
down red spider, and occasional fumigations destroy green and 
black fly. 
The most useful variety is Yreelandii, and at least half the 
stock may well be of this valuable white sort. Hogarth and Elegans 
are good scarlets, and the pink Delicatissima is very free but not 
in much demand. Humboldti corymbiflora, jasminiflora, and jas- 
minillora longipetala are handsome white varieties, useful for 
bouquets, but are not so durable or profitable as Yreelandii. Alfred 
Neuner, white, doutle, is of good service, but I do not much care 
for the pink double President Garfield.—I. M., Somerset. 
CUTTING ASPARAGUS. 
Opinions are invited bv " A Thinker ” on cutting the weak growths 
of Asparagus. Here is mine-rather Mr. “ Thinker ” shall do it himself. 
Did you ever have “twitch” in Asparagus beds, or somewhere where it 
could not he forked out? or Bindweed and Bishop’s-weed in bush fruit 
plantations and beds of Lily of the Valley respectively ? If so, how did 
you kill it ? You pulled up the twitch every time it got large enough to 
lay hold of, and the other weeds were served the same. Just so. The 
weeds got weaker and weaker, until at last they died. Keep on cutting 
Asparagus until late in the season, and you will find it also gets weaker 
every year. Late cutting gives late growths ; the growths have not time 
to store up sufficient nutriment in a strong bud or buds at the base, and 
Bingularly these come late the following spring ; and, more remarkable 
still, they are mostly without flowers and without fruit — i.e., berries. 
The young weak growths allowed to grow away in May transmit nutri- 
ti< n to the buds at the base in such quantity and over so long a period 
that they become stout and thoroughly solidified, store sufficient nutri¬ 
ment to insure early and good heads the following spring large enough 
for cutting. I will have a “ cut in ” on the greater subject of the for¬ 
mation of fruit buds and ripe wood another day.—G. Abbey, 
SHRUBBERIES AS SCREENS. 
“ Do print something about evergreens. They once made 
my garden cosy and private, but it long ago ceased to be so 
owing to the shrubs losing their leaves, and we are now over¬ 
looked from a public thoroughfare, as about all that is left of 
the evergreens is above the line of vision.” In answer to that 
letter of a “ Suburbanist,” we print a communication from an 
experienced gardener, who has had precisely the same subject 
under his consideration, and who writes:— A few days ago I 
called upon a gentleman residing in a villa, with pleasure grounds 
of some extent, formed by himself some twenty years ago. In 
speaking of the bounding shrubbery, which he said he had 
planted to screen his garden from the public view, he lamented 
most pathetically the gradual death of the evergreen shrubs 
which were originally planted, not half a dozen of which were 
alive, and even those were dying by inches, or I might say feet, 
every year. “ What can be the cause,” asked he, “ that whilst the 
Elms, Poplai-s, Sycamores, &c , have become good sized trees as 
you see, the Laurels, Bays, Hollies, Box, &c., have nearly all 
perished? It must be the soil or the blight that has desti’oyed 
them.” After a moment’s thought I said “ No, it is neither the 
soil nor the blight that has done the mischief; it is owing to 
planting forest trees amongst the shrubs, and allowing them, 
which they were sure to do, to choke the evergreens by over¬ 
shadowing them, and taking up the nutriment for their support 
which the shrubs ought to have had. The consequence is, as 
you see, what was intended for a permanent living screen is no 
screen at all; the forest trees have not only destroyed the shrubs, 
but have also lost their lower branches, so that there is nothing 
to keep out the prying eyes of the public excepting the naked 
stems, or protect our garden from the rude blast of cold winter 
or hurricanes of summer winds.” “ In such cases what is to be 
done. I do not like walls, they give my place the appearance 
of a prison or union yard. What should have been done at the 
outset ? ” 
These queries, and the patent fact that the shrubs had 
nearly departed and the trees become useless as a screen, have 
led me to observe m my places since in some cases in quite as bad 
a plight, and many moi’e rapidly approaching to it. 1 purpose 
in this paper to give my ideas on the subject, both prospective 
and retrospective; or, in other words, to plant so as to avoid the 
evi 1 , and where it exists to adopt the best means to cure it. 
First, then, how to avoid committing the error in planting 
that has led to such an objectionable effect as in the case in 
question. There are tw'o methods of doing this — either to 
plant no forest trees at all, or to prune them in severely, so as 
not to shade the evergreens; and, when these latter have 
attained a height sufficient to answer the purpose, either to cut 
down the trees or remove them. I know in villa gardens near 
large towns, where privacy is desired as soon as possible, the 
owner is anxious to do so by planting trees, Limes or E ins, from 
8 to 10 feet high at once, with evergreens in front. Hence many 
nurserymen near London, Manchester, Liverpool, &c., find a 
market for their overgrown forest trees, that would otherwise 
have been cut down for stakes or other purposes years before ; 
but even this desire of privacy might be indulged and a perma¬ 
nent screen secured by obtaining tall evergreens from the same 
nurseries, and these have the advantage of being a dense screen 
both winter and summer, and have an immediate effect, and an 
increasing one from year to year. 
Many nurserymen, to oblige their customers, and no doubt 
to their own advantage, keep by them a considerable stock of 
large Hollies, Arbor Vitres, Yews, Red and White Cedars, &c., 
and even Spruice and Scotch Firs for this very purpose ; and in 
order to insure a safe removal they have them transplanted 
every second, or, at the farthest, third year. Such plants, so 
removed at stated seasons, produce a dense mass of fibrous roots, 
which, when carefully taken up and as carefully planted, will be 
almost certain to grow. They have also this advantage, that 
they may be transplanted at almost any season of the year, ex¬ 
cepting, perhaps— and it is perhaps only—during the hot summer 
months, when they are in full growth. 
Where immediate effect is not eagerly desired, then in plant¬ 
ing a new shrubbery as a screen I would recommend the ground 
to be well drained if necessary, and afterwards trenched as deep 
as thex-e may be tolerably good soil. This should be done, if 
possible, during summer, and finished by September. Then in 
October procure evergreens from 2 feet to 3 feet in height, and 
plant them rather thickly—that i3, about a yard apart. The 
reason for p 1 anting them so closely is that they may shelter each 
other and sooner cover the ground. This thick planting, however, 
must be done with this proviso —that as soon as they touch each 
other and begin to interlace their branches every other one must 
be taken up. They will either serve to plant in some other part 
of the grounds, or they may be parted with to a nurseryman, 
who would gladly purchase or exchange for them at a consider¬ 
able profit to the owner. The rest that are left in the plantation 
will now have space and air to extend their branches sideways, 
and if a quantity of fresh rich soil is put on the ground to replace 
that which was probably taken away with the shrubs parted 
with, the others would qu ckly send their fibres into the fresh 
soil, and draw large supplies of nutriment therefrom, which 
would cause them to grow astonishingly. This thinning 
might be repeated, if necessary, again in three or four years with 
great advantage. 
I have thus, I trust, proved how a dense screen of ever¬ 
greens might be obtained most effectually. If, however, the 
objects sought to be concealed should be houses or unsightly 
buildings of any kind, I would then advise the back row of the 
shrubbery to be, where they would grow, Spruce or Scotch Firs, 
intermixed with compact-growing deciduous trees, such as Limes 
or Lombardy Poplars; but where the Firs would not grow, 
owing to the smoke of a large town, then I would plant Lombardy 
Poplars only, with the evergreens in front. 
The last branch of my subject is, What is to be done with 
a place in the condition I described on opening this subject? 
The most effectual method would be, of course, to cut down the 
overgrown naked trees, stub up their riots, give the ground a 
deep trenching, adding fresh sod and dung to renew its strength 
and power of nourishing a fresh plantation. Then go to the 
nearest nursery, and procure at least one row of large, ready- 
grown, evergreen shrubs or trees, and thus obtain a screen at 
once ; or take a medium course—cut down half or two-thirds of 
the old trees, and prune in severely the straggling branches of 
the remainder; then do as before advised, trench the ground, 
and obtain evergreens to fill up the naked void This latter 
plant of preserving some of the best trees, and pruning them so 
that the evergreens would find support, air, and light, I have 
seen dune very successful y in a plantation that had been thinned 
of many naked straggling forest trees. Every evergreen was 
planted in a puddle, and very few failed. I saw the plantation 
ten years afterwards, and it was so dense and complete a screen 
that I could not see through it. The trees that were left formed 
a dense canopy overlie id when in leaf that sheltered me, and no 
doubt the evergreens, too, from a blazing summer’s sun. I can 
only say that whoever has a naked plantation, planted originally 
to render his grounds private, but now letting in every wind that 
