January 1?, 18 
JOURNAL OF HORTICULTURE AND COTTAGE GARDENER, 
N ever was the planter’s work put to a more severe test than 
in the great drought of last summer, never were results of 
good and bad work more pronounced, or the cause of them more 
apparent. Undoubtedly it caused much anxiety because of its 
extraordinary duration, but a little more watchfulness than usual, 
with some extra care of the trees planted last winter, was sufficient 
to enable them to derive full benefit from the finest season 
for growth, development, and well ripened wood of our time. 
Persons who ignored the first principles of planting, or were too 
careless to apply them in practice, have been loud in their outcry 
about losses from the drought. Will they be surprised to hear 
that the long, hot, dry summer was a positive boon to those 
planters who knew how to take care of their trees, and did it ? It 
can do nothing but good to go sufficiently into particulars to make 
clear the causes ©f success or failure, in view of improvement in 
practice where it is so entirely possible, and to prevent losses of 
trees, of time, of money—often too of patience, by those who 
spend it, and who have a reasonable right to a fair return for it. 
Of work which came under my control last season two or three 
examples may be given by way of illustration. Early in November 
1892 a new kitchen garden and an orchard were planted with fruit 
trees and bushes—standards in the orchard; pyramids, espaliers, 
cordons, and dwarf trained trees around the garden quarters and 
against the walls ; Peach and Nectarine trees in the fruit houses. 
The soil had been carefully prepared by draining and trenching, so 
that when ihe trees were received from the nurseryman there was 
no waiting, they were unpacked and planted at once. Every tree, 
of whatever form or kind, had its branch growth thinned and 
shortened, bruised root ends taken off with a clean cut, the roots 
carefully spread out at full length, well packed with fine soil pressed 
firmly upon them by treading, and planted at the same depth as it 
had been at the nursery. Each tree requiring support was made 
80 secure that it could not be loosened in the soil by storms, and a 
mulching of short stable manure about 6 inches deep was applied 
from each stem outwards, far enough not only to cover the soil in 
which the roots then were, but that also into which new root 
growth would enter. 
By the end of the year the pruned roots would be bristling with 
a new growth of rootlets—feeders for the trees in the following 
spring. Therein lies an important advantage of early planting, 
and my expectations of vigorous spring growth realised. Growth 
was well sustained throughout the season and entirely satisfactory, 
that of the Peaches and Nectarints being especially remarkable, 
most of the trees at the fall of the leaf in the autumn of 1893 
having a spread of 9 feet. The wood is, moreover, well ripened, 
and much of it bristling with those plump triple buds which are a 
sure indication of fine fruit this season. With such thorough 
mulching the trees only required water occasionally, because eva¬ 
poration was so well checked by it that the soil was kept precisely 
in that warm moist condition so favourable to the free unchecked 
growth of root and branch. In the Peach houses, a constant use of 
the syringe with plenty of clean water kept the leaves clean and 
free from spot or blemish of any kind. Some forest trees and 
shrubs planted about the same time with similar care on the same 
estate also made good growth. 
In another county for unavoidable reasons a new fruit garden 
No. 708.— VoL. XXVIII., Third Skkies. 
43 
could not be planted till March, yOi by the exercise of great care 
in planting, and especially in the mulching and subsequent 
watering, growth was so satisfactory that dozens of Apple cordons 
were allowed to mature some fruit. It is unnecessary to dwell 
further upon the detiils of the planting, as it was precisely 
similar in each case. 
Of failures which came under my notice, the loss of many 
hundreds of trees and shrubs in a new public park was one of the 
most startling. How the planting was done I cannot say, but 
afterwards the trees were left to take their chance of what might 
follow. My inspection induced the conclusion that the planting 
had been done carelessly; certainly no mulching had been used, 
and for supports the trees had only single stakes, from which they 
had broken loose owing to the weakness of the string. Frequently 
in planting a large number of tx’ees much harm is done by exposing 
the roots to the air—to frost, wind, and sunshine—causing the 
rootlets to perish. This alone tells seriously against them, root action 
when growth begins being so feeble that a drought commencing 
so early as did that of last year would be fatal to them. 
In one instance some Peach trees which I saw last autumn had 
been planted two years, but had made no appreciable growth. The 
owner of them—a market gardener—said Peach trees would not 
answer with him, and he must try something else ! Apparently 
such things as watering and mulching had never been thought of 
by him, for he told me as something remarkable that he had dug a 
bole near one of them last summer, and found the soil “ dust dry ” 
to the depth of his spade ! Comment is unnecessary, but I record 
the fact, as skilful practitioners would hardly suppose such 
ignorance or want of thought to be possible.— Edward Luckhurst. 
GABDENERS’ HOLIDAYS. 
Gardeners’ holidays appear to me so impregnated with the 
working spirit pervading our lives, that a little chat about them 
may not be out of place amongst the more solid matter in the 
Journal of Horticulture, which certainly would, if they consisted of 
high junketings or boisterous revelry ; but they are so peculiarly 
different to the relaxations of other workers—bearing fruit in the 
form of notes and jottings from many pens, not the least palatable 
amongst the many good things in its pages. Pleasant reading are 
these notes, fresh and crisp as those of the “ Old Lady of Thread- 
needle Street,” though it was once remarked to me by one whose 
business lay more with the latter than the former, on reading a 
gardener’s note in which a little extra praise had been allocated to 
the visited by the visitor : “ Oh! you gardeners are like the 
Hottentots who butter one another all over.” Though not agreeing 
with him, I have since thought there was a grain of wheat amongst 
his chaff. 
The marked difference in our holidays and those of a business 
man, who in putting up his last shutter shuts up his shop com¬ 
pletely and goes off fancy free, is that, metaphorically, we needs 
must carry our shop on our back—plant houses, vineries, and other 
impedimenta which are ever crying out for water, fire, or other 
necessaries. Though young heads are left in charge, the old heads 
carry the anxiety with them. Still, if we take our pleasures 
quietly it is not sorrowfully ; and how enjoyable it is to pay a visit 
to an old friend, and after a journey of perhaps some miles across 
country and nearing his house you sniff the welcome in the air, 
certain mysterious odours from the interior mingling with the scents 
of Flora outside. It is—yes, it is really grateful and comforting. 
I cannot avoid retailing some of my experiences of what are to me 
ideal holidays. “What can we reason but from what we know ? 
An old friend and his family to meet, a hearty welcome, plenty to 
look at after, and so much to talk about. But this part of the pro¬ 
gramme is never finished. And what do we talk about? is it not 
shop ?—a vulgar simile, but expressive ; and that spoil we go 
No. 2361.—VoL. XC., Old Series, 
