November 25, 1886. ] 
JOURNAL OF HORTICULTURE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. 
475 
just above the surface, and thus treated the exposed portion of the roots 
soon become of a more woody nature and clothed with bark similar to 
the stems. Ido not wish it to bethought that this high planting will 
prevent injuriously deep root-action, but I do assert they are much less 
liable to strike down, and even if they do they can be brought nearer the 
surface and the trees’ health restored without actually lifting the trees. 
This style of planting is particularly to be recommended in the case of 
choice transplanted trees. Net unfrequently the ball of roots and soil 
previously well on the surface are buried deeply in a fresh site, too often 
in holes double dug it is true, and for that reason little better than drainage 
k°^ e, i/ 0r 8 P rroun ding subsoil. In every case a newly transplanted 
tree should be given a better position than it previously occupied, or the 
chances are it will be a long time in recoveiing from the check unavoidably 
given it, and the less the roots come into contact with a cold subsoil the 
better. Some of the finest transplanted Conifers, including several Cedars 
of Lebanon, are to be seen in the grounds surrounding Elvaston Castle 
near Derby. They were in many instances very large when transplanted, 
individually taking many men and horses several days to move them to 
their present site. They were not buried deeply, but deposited nearly on 
the surface, the old balls being still plainly discernible. Failures in 
transplanting were unknown, and in spite of the cold indifferently drained 
sites those trees have grown splendidly. Buried balls are apt to get too 
dry at times, and are not easily moistened again, whereas near the surface 
they are more under observation, more easily moistened when necessary, 
and newly transplanted trees must have much water during the first 
spring and summer following their removal, while shallow culture and 
shallow planting is one of the means of keeping the roots within reach of 
the air and any food that may be given them from the surface. 
The advocates of deep culture attach much importance to giving trees 
and plants a deep root run, this being especially advantageous during a 
dry season. For a time this may be the case, and short-lived vegetables 
do sometimes appear to delight in it. So also do trees frequently grow 
more stroncly on newly trenched ground, and while the vegetable matter 
introduced into the bottom spit are sufficiently durable to keep the soil 
divided to such an extent as to admit the air to the roots, fibre is formed 
and food transmitted upwards. Later on the subsoil becomes more or 
le c s impervious to the air, the fibres perish, and the food supply is cut off. 
Even if the fibres continued to be formed at any depth below 12 inches. 
I ask how long they are enabled to find any fertilising matter? In very 
many cases not a dav longer than the decaying vegetable matter dug in 
lasts. We may top-dress with manure or give plentiful supplies of liquid 
manure to deeply rooted trees or vegetables, but not a tenth part of it 
ever reaches them. Light sandy soils do not retain, while heavy soils 
filter it, whereas when planted on the surface of ordinary dug ground, 
and encouraged by mulchings to root near the surface, they have easy 
access to everything that is offered them. There is no comparison 
between the growth and fruitfulness of trees rooting deeply and those on 
the surface and attended to. In the former case very unnatural and very 
severe remedies have very frequently to be applied before fruitfulness 
results, but a healthy surface-rooting tree has only to be “ severely let 
alone,” and it soon produces good crops of the best fruit, as in the case 
above cited. It is generally understood that the ground about Rasp¬ 
berries, Strawberries, Gooseberries, and Currants ought not to be dug, a 
destruction of surface roots militating against fruitfulness. These are 
mulched with manure, and well repay for the treatment. On the opposite 
side of the walk perhaps are growing various wall trees, or the borders 
adjoining are occupied with pyramid or bush Apple, Pear, and Plum 
trees, and these, one would suppose, merited similar or even better treat¬ 
ment. Not so, they must be driven to root, principally in the subsoil, 
and the surface be frequently dug and cropped with Cabbages, Violets, 
Parslev, and other gross-feeding crops. Whit sense is there in this ? 
Many a good crop of vegetables, I admit, has and will be obtained 
from trenched ground, but do not too hastily give all the credit to the 
efficacy of the spade. Is it not a fact that much vegetable matter in an 
almos' or qn ; te fresh state is worked in during the process of trenching, 
while the ordinary dug ground only gets a dressing of thoroughly rotten 
manure from the frame ground ? The former has lost none of its fertilising 
properties, but they gradually become available, while tho mass of humus, 
erroneously called manure, is, when buried, say, 9 inches deep, of no real 
assistance to a plant. The humus derives such fertilising agencies as 
carbon, hydrogen, and nitrogen from the air and not from the soil, hence 
the necessity of forking it into the surface, as well as its value as a 
mulch. Given thorough good manure, such as market gardeners use, or 
plenty of artificials, in conjunction with humus, and I will on this soil 
and with sufficient labour undertake to gr >w as good vegetables in great 
abundance as any that are sent to a gentleman’s table. 
On heavy land vegetables as well as fruit trees thrive best when 
rooting on the surface, and the old-fashioned plan of forming ridges and 
raised beds for various crops has yet much to recommend it. Not only 
do BeaDS, Lettuces, and Cabbages succeed remarkably well on the ridges 
between the Celery rows, but there is no better site for late Peas. I 
remember one instance where good dishes of Ne Plus Ultra Peas were 
gathered from rows on tbe Celery ridges as late as November 19'h, or 
long after all others had failed, no matter how treated, in the same neigh¬ 
bourhood. Mounds and ridges are warmer than the soil on the level, and 
yet being more exposed to the moist air are not so quickly affected by 
drought as one might expect. If we wish to grow fine “ sticks ” of H >rse- 
radish quickly there is no plan to equal that of planting long thin roots 
almost flatty on slightly raised beds, and raised Asparagus beds are yet 
the most profitable on heavy land. The heaviest piece of garden ground 
we have has this season produced heavy crops of Potatoes, first-class as 
regards quality.’giThe sets were placed on the surface and moulded over, 
and anyone else can grow good Potatoes in the same way. No one 
thinks of forming a Vine border on the level with a mass of cold soil, and 
all are very anxious to keep the roots out of the unkindly subsoil. Even 
plants do better in pots than in boxes, the former beiDg more perous, and, 
all things considered, am I not justified in arguing at length against 
absurd practices still thought to be the “ right thing ” by so many 
gardeners ?—W. Iggulden. 
INDIAN EXPERIENCES. 
(Continued from page 43 2 .) 
Before proceeding further with my journey northwards I may 
mention that before leaving South Wynaad I had the rare opportunity of 
seeing extensive tracts of the large Bamboo (Bambusa arundinacea) in 
flower and seed, which, from subsequent inquiries, I found does not 
happen more often than once in fifty years. Although the Bamboo, in 
both the northern and routhern divisions of the Wynaad and the province 
of Coerg, seemed to be very much of the same age, yet it did not flower 
and seed at the same time, and it is a rather curious fact that this flower¬ 
ing began as far south as the jungles of Travencore some time about the 
year 1858 or 1859, travelling southwards, till in the year 1861 nearly all 
ths Bamboo jungles in the province of Coorg flowered and died out. In 
the district in which I settled in the northern division of the Wynaad the 
plant flowered in the year 1863, I had consequently every opportunity of 
seeing and noting the phenomenon. My estimate of fifty years’ growth 
before the plant seeds is founded upon information derived both from 
Europeans long resident in Malahar and from natives born and resident 
in the Bamboo jungles all their lives. 
Scatteied at intervals over the whole of the Bamboo jungles of 
Wynaad were small communities of a certain caste of natives called Jain 
Coorumbers, or Honey Coorumbers—that is, men, part at least of whose 
occupation was to climb the high trees and rocks and collect the honey¬ 
combs f ir their own use and for sale. This they effected without the use 
of veil or gloves, and indeed with hardly anything to cover their naked 
bodies. The work was always done at night, but even then, how the men 
escaped beiog stung to death by the huge swarms of bees hanging from 
4 to 5 feet from the branches, was always a puzzle to me. Some huge 
trees contain as many as from ten to twelve swarms of these bees of the 
above length, and from 2 to 3 feet in diameter, the individual insects each 
two or three times larger than the English bee. These people, although 
frequently assisting at the religious ceremonies of other native castes, had, 
so far as I could ascestain, absolutely no religion, and were sunk in the 
deepest degradation and ignorance, but exceedingly lively and good- 
natured, and in appreciation of fun and humour exceeded any other 
caste of natives I met in India. These people were exceedingly simple 
and unsophisticated in their natures, and consequently the victims, in 
many ways, of their more cunning f dlow countrymen, who were never 
over-scrupulous as to the extent to which they levied black mail in the 
shape of the produce of their small grain clearings, honey, and forced 
labour. 
These communities had no fixed residence, but kept moving from place 
to place in the jungle periodically, and rebuilding their villages, consisting 
of low huts constructed of branches of trees and roofed wiih large leaves 
sewn together with strips of the inner bark of jungle saplings. Their 
food consisted chiefly of the grain produced on their small armual clearings, 
wild fruits, wild yams, dug from the jungle with pointed sticks, and which 
they roasted over wood fires ; and the produce of the chase, there being 
always plenty of dogs in each village, and a gun or two, of very primitive 
workmanship certainly, but used with deadly effect on deer and wild pig, 
with which the jungles at that time abounded. After the advent of the 
speculative English planters in the district this timid race of Coorumbers 
began gradually to approach the clearings, and eventually to do a little 
work, and as time went on and confidence was established they would 
come in large gangs and do all the felling, clearing, and building work of 
an estate in a much quicker and superior style to the nat've of Mysore, 
which composed the bnlk of the labour employed on the Coffee estates. 
It was surprising to see how quickly they would cut their way up the 
formidable and thorny clumps of Bamboo, knife in hand, lop off the great 
canes a third of the way up, trm, cut, and dress the pieces, and woik 
them into the framework of the 1 net of huts being built for the accommo¬ 
dation of the Mysore coolies, who resided on the plantations during the 
wojking and crop seasons. They did this kind of work admirably, and 
yet in their own villages, with such abundance of material close at hand, 
they never attempted to build comfortable houses. 
The outer rkin, smooth and polished, and the wood of the Bamboo 
contains, I believe, some 50 per cent, of silica, and is very diffiiult to cut 
in consequence, especially in a dry state. Knives of the very best tempir 
are required in dealing with the Bamboo. Native knives of this description 
were always brought by the Coorumbers for their own use, they declining 
altogether to work with those imported from England, which almost 
invariably proved useless in comparison with those of native make. It 
was from an old man, from one of these villages, of over sixty years, who 
used to act for me as superintendent of a gang of meu, that I had what 
I considered the trustworthy information that he remembered when a boy 
the Bamboo flowering and seeding all over the country, and that he was 
employed for weeks collecting the seed for the purpose of f rod, and from 
that time until the time I write of, the plants that had sprung up fr mi 
the seed then shed had not flowered till the time of which I am writing. The 
plant sheds its leaves annually, so that at the time of seeding it was qu t3 
