300 
JOURNAL OF HORTICULTURE AND COUAOE GARDENER. 
[ October 1, 1835. 
without them. This ought not to be so. Fruit must be recognised 
as a staple article of diet before fruit-growing will claim its proper 
place in the national economy, i do not plead the claims of the 
Vegetarian Society, but I would strongly urge those who have oppor¬ 
tunities for moulding the thought and practice of others to give some 
amount of study to the principles advocated and facts adduced by 
that Society. They constantly invite and urge the attention of all 
earnest patriots and politicians and of all holders and occupiers of 
land to the importance of the cultivation of fruit as an auxiliary food 
supply, and urge the planting of fruit trees in all gardens, hedgerows, 
and on waste lands as a suitable, profitable, productive, and healthful 
industry ; and in these times of scarcity of food, diseases among 
oattle, and great national distress, especially commend to landed 
proprietors and public corporations, on the grounds of both utility 
and beauty, the systematic planting of fruit trees along railways, 
roadways, river ways, canal ways, and wherever practicable. Jt is 
to be hoped that fruit will be made so popular as to be found not 
only upon the silver salvers of the wealthy, but upon the everyday 
table of the middle classes and upon the plates of the poor. 
But in conclusion, to return to the more immediate work in which 
you are engaged. I have asked myself the question what a local 
pomological society ought to do. Well— 
1, It ought to make a kind of survey of its district, indicating 
upon a map and noting on its record the places where fruit is grown 
and the areas of such places. 
2, It ought to have a reliable record of the kinds of fruits grown 
upon these farms and gardens, under what conditions, and with 
what results. 
3, It ought to see that the horticultural papers and the standard 
gardening works are readily accessible to the public as far as this 
may be possible, say through the medium of the free library or 
otherwise. 
4, It ought to keep a kind of meteorological journal, giving 
reliable data of the weather and climatic changes, so that obser¬ 
vations could be made and facts of so much importance reliably 
registered. 
5, It ought to encourage fruit culture through the medium of 
local exhibitions, offering prizes, not in money, but in fruit trees of 
good kinds, for the best exhibits. 
6, It ought to undertake the naming and classification of fruits 
submitted to its officers by growers. 
7, It ought to educate the cottage population and families of the 
poor in the matter of food and household thrift by means of leaflets, 
pamphlets, and lectures, pointing out how fruit may enter much more 
generally into daily use as an article of absolute dietetic value. 
8, It ought to experiment as to different modes of treatment and 
methods of cultivation, carefully noting and recording results. 
9, It ought to endeavour to establish centres of sale. This should 
be one of the most important and helpful of its duties, as under 
existing circumstances fruit is carelessly gathered and picked up in 
the country districts at a price which cannot be remunerative, whilst 
it is sold in the large towns at prices placing it beyond the reach and 
free use of the poor. 
10, All these facts ought to be carefully embodied in periodical 
reports and journals, to be circulated amongst the members of the 
society, and the book would thereby become a valuable work of 
reference and guidance for all interested in pomology. 
I hope your Society will recognise the importance of its work, 
the extent of its mission. The extension of these principles is the 
extension of what Bacon has designated “ the purest of human 
pleasures whilst the diffusion of these principles among the poorer 
classes will be adding materially to the most important of the benefits 
of a rightly directed occupation. There are few who will not readily 
engage in the work when convinced of the comfort, health, and 
gains derivable from it. There is in the principles we have been 
advocating everything that tends to endear a man to his home and 
make him patriotic in the best sense of that much-misunderstood 
term. Therefore the success of every such Society as yours means 
direct gain not only to the social but to the national economy. 
[The lecture was illustrated by specimens of fruits of most desir¬ 
able kinds for the district, and by a series of beautifully executed 
drawings of Pears and Apples. The Chairman, Thomas Chilton, 
Esq., of The Elms, Gresford, complimented the lecturer, and gave 
some most interesting particulars bearing upon the subject before 
them ; and remarks were afterwards made by several gentlemen, 
including Mr. T. Bennion, Acton, Mr. Humphries, Mr. G. Cromar, 
Mr. Jones, Secretary of the Society, and others. The usual votes of 
thanks brought a most interesting meeting to a close.] 
NOTES ON PLANTING SHRUBS. 
Although, in the general routine of gardening operations, each 
season has its peculiar duties, which, if not done then, often tell for the 
remainder of the year, or rather until the return of the same period again, 
yet there are periods in which certain operations seem to call for more 
special attention than others, as those relating to the spring and early 
summer. The progress then making renders it imperative for good culti¬ 
vation that every seed or plant then requisite to commit to the earth 
should he done without delay, in order to meet the requirements of after¬ 
times ; and a little more than the usual energy displayed at that time will, 
in most instances, be rewarded with corresponding success, and more after 
leisure. Now, though it would be wrong to say that the present season, 
September, has not important duties of its own to be performed, and 
these increased, too, by the wet weather we have had, and may still have, 
yet, when circumstances render any extensive outdoor alteration neces¬ 
sary, this is not a bad season to get on with it; for the most of our shrubs, 
especially the evergreen ones, move and plant with the best chance of 
success just now ; and when we consider the many advantages which 
early operations have over late ones, it behoves all those contemplating 
such change to be on the alert, in order to avail themselves of all the 
advantages tine weather commands, which is certainly more likely to 
occur in this month than the two succeeding ones. 
Wherever, therefore, new shrubberies are to be made, old ones 
altered or remodelled, or solitary specimens taken up and replanted, the 
present is certainly better than a later season. 
Turf may also be included in the same category. Flower beds, how¬ 
ever, that are perhaps under a heavy crop of plants, still ornamental, 
must be left alone for some time, unless under special care, when they 
might be sacrificed to the sweeping effects of a change ; however, the 
arrangement of them, and the remodelling of a flower garden, whether on 
the geometric or desultory plan, I willingly leave to others; suffice it to 
Bay that the more formidable work of making new walks, roads, shrub¬ 
beries, or of levelling and laying down turf, cannot be done at a more 
suitable time than the autumn ; besides which, the commencement of such 
things sufficiently early in the season gives greater hopes of their being 
finished in time, should adverse weather or other circumstances intervene ; 
but it certainly is advisable to get all the planting of shrubs and trees 
done as early as possible, in order to gain all the benefits which the 
autumn affords to their attaining fresh roots ; and being in other respects 
established in their proper quarter before winter sets in. In addition to 
this, turf that is laid down now will unite and grow before winter pre¬ 
vents it, and present that uniform appearance so much desired. Deciduous 
trees had, however, better remain until their foliage be a little more ripe ; 
it is not necessary that it should all have fallen off, but sufficiently 
matured to drop off without force ; but the whole class of hardy ever¬ 
green shrubs might be planted now with a better prospect of their doing 
well than if the operation was done at any other time, other things being 
the same. 
Prior to the commencement of any large alteration it would be 
advisable to consider well the various points on which such alterations 
bear, as it would be gross mismanagement to bury all the good soil in a 
large hole or hollow place merely for the purpose of rendering a certain 
spot of ground level, or otherwise agreeable to the eye ; such an altera¬ 
tion might suit the purposes of a road surveyor or builder, but not the 
cultivator of plants. This point may therefore be borne in mind at the 
beginning, so that by arranging the trenching, all the good soil be re¬ 
tained at the top, and if it be in turf or pasture some of the bulk might be 
preserved for any purpose it may be wanted for, whether that be to relay 
again or decay for use on the potting bench. Of course its removal is 
so much loss to the ground it came from, and it need not be done in 
those places where it is wanted for the benefit of the plants, &c., intended 
to be taken there. However, these matters must be determined by the 
nature of each respective case ; only one thing we would strongly urge, 
that when it is removed for any purpose its place ought to be supplied by 
something else that is good added to the ground, for if the well-being of 
the shrubs, &c., be an important point (and it often is so) a liberal 
allowance of substantial food must be allowed them to grow in ; this may 
often be secured to them without the importation of much fresh material 
when the. most is made of what is there. This we therefore strongly 
urge on our young friends to see to without delay, and before they com¬ 
mence operations, for it will otten happen that ill-directed labour buries 
and destroys much valuable matter before it be aware of the uses it might 
be applied to. However, on ground approaching the extremes of stiffness, 
or dry, hungry lands, the addition of matter of a contrary description 
will be attended with a beneficial result, while in these extreme cases 
the selection of plants suitable to each ought also to be carefully studied, 
in order that the best may be made to meet the individual cases. 
Thus, certain plants delight in a dry, gravelly, or chalky soil, others 
preferring a stiff loam, while the beautiful class called American plants 
like moist peat, but do not object to grow in a cool soil of another 
description, but have a decided objection to chalk, or soil in which lime 
predominates. This latter substance, being directly opposed to that in 
which they thrive, ought never to form an item in the same mixture as 
peat, for, though a peat bog may be ploughed up and the admixture of 
lime may do much for destroying that fibrous matter with which it is 
bound together, yet we are far from certain whether this is not affected 
by the annihilation of some of its properties most necessary to retain for 
the purposes of plant culture ; if, therefore, your gardening operations 
extend over any tract of ground of this description, you may rest assured 
that you have found out the best possible site for the most beautiful 
class of flowering shrubs we posse's, and before anything else is done, 
consider well how much of it you can allot to this section, for some 
expensive alterations will be necessary to make it available for other 
plants, which, after all, would not look so well. 
