JOURNAL OF lIORTIGULTlARi AND COTTAGE GARDENER, 
February 14, 1895. 
i36 
will be in full bearing, and will remain so if they are well attended 
to and not cut too hard for any length of time. 
The plant is impatient of too much moisture, and it will be 
noted that I have advised the bed to be a little elevated above the 
surrounding ground. The beds are benefited with a moderately 
light dressing of good short manure each winter, and when the 
spring comes round again the rough and spent part of it is drawn 
in the alley and dug in, at the same time a sprinkling of soil 
being thrown over the beds, and at a later date, about the middle 
of April, a dressing of chemical manure is recommended.— 
Owen Thomas, The Royal Gardens. 
CONFUSION IN GARDENS. 
Confusion reigns supreme in far too many gardens. In some 
instances the gardeners in charge are not allowed to make aiiy 
alterations which might safely be regarded as improvements, in 
others they appear to be content with matters as they find them. 
Much of the confusion prevailing is largely due to the indiscriminate 
distribution of fruit trees and bushes. When these are dotted 
anywhere and everywhere there is no possibility of systematically 
cropping the rest of the space with vegetables, nor is it possible to 
cultivate the ground properly. If the trees and bushes were 
arranged in straight lines with spaces of from 30 feet to 50 feet 
between them then an orderly appearance would be presented and 
much better provision made for growing good vegetables. It ought 
now to be a very well known fact that digging and cropping with 
vegetables close up to or even within several feet of the stems of 
trees is a great mistake. We want to find abundance of fibrous 
roots near the surface, as without these there is but little likelihood 
of the trees or bushes proving really profitable. Long naked roots, 
or such as strike downwards into a clayey subsoil, favour the pro¬ 
duction of rank fruitless top growth, whereas a good surface action 
means the formation of abundance of root fibres, which collect food 
of the right description for the production of short-jointed fruitful 
branches. This is an oft-told tale, but, judging from what I have 
seen going on, still unheeded by many men who ought to have long 
since realised the fact that they are so many muddlers. 
It is very much the fashion to form fruit borders alongside the 
garden walks, only in this case Apples, Pears, and Plums are grown 
as low standards, pyramids, bushes, or horizontally trained cordons, 
bush fruits occupying the rest of the space. This plan has 
its good as well as bad sides. I like it for the simple reason that it 
affords the best opportunities for the owners and others interested 
in fruit culture observing closely and readily all that is going on, 
and does not altogether prevent vegetable culture being carried 
out in good style. It ought, however, to mean an inner path between 
the fruit borders and vegetable quarters, not only because such 
paths are actually wanted, but also, owing to what ought to be 
regarded as the necessity for keeping either a spade or deep 
digging forks well away from the trees and bushes. More often 
than not the ground is dug and cropped close up to the latter—a 
great mistake. A mixture of fruit trees and flowers is common 
enough and not wholly to be condemned, but when we meet with I 
instances of huge clumps of Pyrethrum uliginosum, herbaceous 
Sunflowers, Harpaliums, Japanese Anemones, and such like plants 
growing into horizontally trained Apples and Pears, then it is time 
to plead for the fruit trees. Either keep those great hungry 
rooted herbaceous plants well away from the fruit trees or root 
out the latter altogether. 
Opinions may vary as to the best methods of arranging fruit 
trees and bushes, but all things considered it is doubtful if the 
plan of growing them all in one or more quarters is not the best in 
the end. If standards are grown, and it is these from which the 
heaviest crops may be expected when they have attained a pro¬ 
ductive state, then I would most certainly advocate keeping all 
together. When standards are dotted about garden ground they 
rarely have fair play. The attempt is nearly always made to crop 
with vegetables close up to the stems, and what chance have the 
roots under such conditions ? They would be far more likely to do 
well if arranged market growers’ fashion, that is to say in rows 
from 24 feet to 30 feet apart each way, the greater distances 
being given to the stronger growers. Between the lines of these 
may be planted bush or pyramid trees of Apples and Pears on 
dwarfing stocks, and between these again can be arranged bushes of 
Gooseberries, Currants, and single rows of Raspberries. Half¬ 
standard Plums could be planted 
midway between the lines of 
standards. 
Thus arranged it is many years 
before the standards materially 
interfere with the usefulness of 
the rest of the trees and bushes, 
especially if timely shortening some 
of the more straggling branches to 
better placed back growths is re¬ 
sorted to. It will also be found 
that, thanks to the avoidance of 
deep digging, and the applications 
of manure to the surface, the top 
spit is largely occupied by roots, 
this rendering the work of shifting 
trees and bushes overshadowed by 
tbe standards to a more open 
position a comparatively safe and 
easy matter. When all are kept in 
quarters proper attention can be 
given for keeping both roots and 
branches in the best order for the 
object in view—a good supply of 
fruit. 
The question has yet to be 
faced of the possibility of reducing 
the confusion existing in numerous 
gardens. If the trees and bushes 
are not too old, or the varieties are not of a worthless character, 
they may be transplanted, but many are not worthy of reten¬ 
tion, either in their present or new positions. The simplest 
plan is to clear one quarter at once of the garden of trees and 
bushes, reserving only the very best, and laying them in till they 
can be properly replanted. This admits of the cleared space being 
deeply dug or bastard-trenched, if need be, preparatory to forming 
into a regular fruit plot on the lines already laid down. In the 
spring, just as the buds are on the point of bursting, the lifted 
trees or bushes may be replanted with every likelihood of their 
doing well, and that, or November, is also a good time for planting 
the rest of the prepared ground with young trees and bushes. 
—W. Iggulden. 
DEAR OLD JOURNAL. 
Much have I to thank you and your able contributors for during the 
last twenty years, and I must confess to having a certain amount of bias 
whenever I take up a fresh number, for I always look at the end of 
each article before I read it to see the name or initials placed there ; and 
those articles with such old-standing signs as W. Iggulden, W. Bardney, 
J. Wright, and other old Journal fogies, including " D., Deal ”—though 
put last not least—stand well in my estimation. However, I wish to 
convey my thanks to all for the useful advice I have obtained from 
your pages. After following the advice of “W. I.” in his excellent 
little work on tbe Tomato, and finding it good, I should like to 
suggest to our good Editor that he reprints “ W. I.’s” article on " Dwarf 
Tomatoes,” of January 14th, 1886, for it is as good to-day as when it 
was written. 
This and other articles in the Journal from time to time have at last 
ended in an attack of Tomato disease. It may be called, if you like, the 
Fig. 22.—tomatoes AND MUSHROOMS. 
