448 
JOURNAL OF HORTICULTURE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. 
[ June 16, 18»J. 
observation, careful experiments, and just reasoning powers. 
The greatest difficulty in gardening is to be quite sure of our facts 
before we deduce or build up a course of practice upon them. 
When we are not quite sure of our facts, we do what Darwin 
advised—?.e., we try “ fool’s experiments," or index trials, so as to 
get nearer “guesses at truth.” The difficulty is not only the 
intricate complexity of Xature, but that her facts and figures often 
form a shifting index from year to year, or from one year to 
another. Thus gardening becomes an intellectual game, far ahead 
of the Sirdah’s chessboard or the German Kriegspiel, since both 
her squares and her counters are different every time, and so not 
only every garden but every season becomes a special study of 
itself. 
We have been told that the gardener’s art is an empirical one ; 
but this is a statement only half true. All arts are empirical up to 
a certain point, but become more and more exact and scientific as 
accurate knowledge is gained. Again, we are told that gardeners 
must be taught by actual work in a garden, just as carpentry is 
best taught at the bench, smith’s work at the anvil, or surgeon’s in 
a hospital. This, again, is a half truth, dangerous in its subtlety. 
Up to a certain point actual practice is truly the best way, but 
work in a garden, if well directed and supplemented by good 
reading and good lectures in addition to the work, must in the 
long run be better than either alone. 
I should be one of the first to admit that books and lectures 
are merely the reflex of actual things, but by them we gain 
concrete knowledge, and life is, as we all know, too short to 
allow of our testing or experimenting on all things for ourselves. 
As Huxley says, “ Science not only teaches us how to act rightly, 
but is especially valuable as often preventing our making useless 
experiments.” Any one man’s practice is necessarily limited, 
and books are as valuable to the gardener, if well used, as they 
are to the lawyer, the architect, or the engineer. If it be 
thought that they are not so, I must ask the objector for his 
reason why books are considered a help or aid to one artist or 
craftsman and not to another ? 
Speaking of the natural limitation of any one man’s power 
reminds me of my once speaking to the late Mr. John Dominy on 
this very subject. Everyone knows how much Dominy really did 
in opening the way of hybridisation amongst Orchids and 
Nepenthes, and he always felt that “ Art is long and time is 
fleeting,” “ Ah ! ’’ said he to me, “ The fact is, a gardener should 
have nine lives like a cat, and three or four pairs of hands like a 
Hindoo idol, and then something might be done in a lifetime.” 
We must use books as aids to knowledge, just as all wise men 
use them, and young gardeners may well treasure up Sir John 
Lubbock’s words, that books wisely bought and rightly used are 
a good investment, and not an expenditure. 
(To be continued.) 
GRAFTED APPLE TREES. 
I HAVE seen in various directions very many old as well as 
young Apple trees, and indeed Pear trees too, which were grafted 
this recent spring, and do not present just such satisfactory aspects 
in the grafts as could be desired. That appearance has been attri¬ 
buted to the very dry weather which prevailed during May, 
the very month when grafting is subjected to the severest test, 
for if the weather then be favourable, the stocks full of vigour, 
the grafts healthy and properly worked, then by the end of May 
such complete growth should have been made as to render the 
future of the tree assuredly successful. It may be that much of 
this doubtful growth of grafts is due to the somewhat imperfectly 
ripened wood of last year. Something may be due to indifferent 
working, but of course that could not be the case in every instance ; 
and something, perhaps very much, due to tho dryness of the 
weather. I rather think the wood may have been largely at fault, 
perhaps chiefly so. But I have noticed that a good deal of the 
claying has hardly been done to my satisfaction. It does not 
seem to be sufficiently recognised that clay, however tenacious it 
may be naturally, requires some artificial aid in its composition 
when used for grafting, and the best constituent usually is found 
in fresh horse droppings well beaten up so as to thoroughly dis¬ 
integrate them, then well mixed with the clay. The proportion 
may well be about one-fourth of the former. Plenty of trouble 
should be taken to have the fibrous matter well incorporated with 
the clay. Then in putting the mixture on to the grafts I have always 
found that a bucket of water at hand, in which to dip the hands 
after the clay covering had been roughly fashioned, was a capital 
help to the complete finishing of the work. The smoothing off of 
the clay with wet hands makes a surface so close and smooth that 
the clay bakes or dries free from all roughness or crack, and 
thus even through the wettest or dryest of weather it will long 
remain. 
It is very important that air be thoroughly excluded from the 
grafts, indeed that is largely the raison d'etre of claying, and it is 
all the more important during such a dry spring as that has been 
through which we have just passed, for few grafts could have 
retained vitality long if their cut surfaces were exposed to strong 
sunshine and keen drying winds. Then in relation to success in 
grafting, very much depends upon the nature of the work put into 
the operation. I have noticed that even on large stems the grafts 
or scions have been from small growths. It is not possible that 
these can in any way do justice to the duty imposed upon them. 
My own rule in other days in grafting old stocks was always to 
select clean stout wood fully two years old, thus ensuring ripeness 
as well as substance. Such grafts as these would have ample youth 
and sap to soon become attached to the stock, and greater power 
presently to take up the strong flow that would soon result. 
Grafts of this stout kind rind-grafted, and driven in beneath the 
bark very firmly, need little tying, but should be securely tied in 
all the same. The exceeding firmness with which they are driven 
home, however, greatly helps to bring the cut portions of the scion 
and the wood of the stock into perfect touch or accord. After 
the tying is performed it is well just to lightly damp the portion 
of wood to be clayed over first, as that damping assists the clay to 
attach itself to the wood, whilst the damping over the outside ball 
of clay to give it a good clean finish, and close smooth surface, 
helps to render the whole impervious to air and rain. Even now, 
where clays have become broken and are admitting air ere the graft 
union is perfect, it is a good plan to go over them with some 
fresh soft clay and a bucket of water, and mend all such broken 
pieces thoroughly. 
Some divergence of opinion seems to exist even amongst 
experienced men as to the need for some outlet for the abundant 
flow of sap which comes up as the season becomes warmer, for I 
have noticed that in one case on all old trees grafted one branch 
of the trees was left uncut, presumably to enable the sap to find 
a free outlet. That is, however, a solitary case, and the plan is 
not warranted by my experience. I have always found by using 
these stout scions on large branches that the growth the first year 
was remarkably robust, fine heads being soon produced. I prefer 
cutting even very large trees back quite hard rather than to have 
a quantity of small grafts on many branches, as these are less 
easily protected from wind, whilst the first season’s growth is never 
robust, so that it takes far longer to make a strong fruiting 
head to a tree. The art of grafting is far from being an abstruse or 
difficult one, and yet it is surprising to find how few can do it 
well. Perhaps the same may be said of budding, and such simple 
processes as inarching and layering. All gardeners, amateur or 
otherwise, can usually manage to make a cutting, but still cannot 
always strike it, as its success in that direction is more dependent 
upon after conditions than on the mere making. In the case of 
grafting, budding, and lavering the chief success of the operation 
is to be found in the excellence of the work put into the operations. 
—A. D. 
Saccolaihum miniatum. 
Saccoeaihum miniatum (fig. 77) is a Javan plant introduced 
by Messrs. Veitch, and is figured in the “ Botanical Register” for 
1847. This Orchid is worthy of cultivation for tho lino colour of 
its flowers and its dwarf habit. The stems are slender, bearing 
several distichous, channelled, leathery loaves. Tho short racemes 
are produced from tho axils of tho leaves, and carry many very 
pretty orange-coloured flowers. The sepals and petals spread 
horizontally, while the lip is slightly recurved. Plants should bo 
grown in small teak baskets in sphagnum and crocks. If suspended 
