548 
JOURNAL OF H0RTICUL1URE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. 
[ December 17, 1885, 
“ improve ” is that which reformers and, we may add, enthusiastic young 
fruit-growers are wont to use in their discussions of the treatment of 
old fruit trees. At various periods of our life we have had all sorts of 
such trees under our care, and they have afforded us many a useful 
lesson. Among the best and most prolific of such trees we may mention 
a Green Gage Plum and a Peach tree, both with old hollow stems, and both 
bearing really fine fruit year after year. The most prolific Apricot tree 
we ever had was an old wide-spreading tree trained against an east wall, 
the bark of its stem and main branches being rugged and hard. We have 
in our garden now a huge standard Beurre Capiaumont Pear about 
50 feet high, with a large spreading head, the stem and main branches 
being clothed with a thick rampant growth of Ivy ; yet this tree had this 
year a heavy crop of many bushels of excellent fruit. It has been sug¬ 
gested to us that the Ivy ought to be taken off the stem, but we decidedly 
object to that, knowing as we do that it would do the old tree serious 
injury. To those who wish to improve old trees we may say, then, Be 
cautious. If the tree is barren, see if the main roots have run deep down into 
a cold wet subsoil ; if so, sever them from the tree ; if not, leave them 
alone ; but in either case a top-dressing of rich soil with plenty of lime in 
it will do good. If the branches are cumbered they may be shortened 
to induce fresh healthy growth, or shortened and grafted next March. 
We have so grafted old Pear trees with excellent results, and commend 
the plan. If, however, old fruit trees continue bearing fruit in every 
favourable season, leave stem, spur, and branch altogether alone ; never 
mind a little crowded or misshapen growth so long as you get plenty of 
useful fruits. Old Peach and Nectarine trees, on the contrary, may derive 
much good from severe pruning if the branches are cankered and are 
dying. In such cases it answers best to cut down the head to within a 
foot or two of the stem, to shorten the roots, and to renovate the soil with 
sweet, fresh, rich loam. The usual result of such treatment is a sturdy 
robust branch growth, so vigorous as to rival that of younger trees, with 
which it is equally fruitful. 
BRUIT FORCING. 
Cheeky House.— The trees having been attended to in dressing as 
advised in a former calendar, the house should now be closed. The treat¬ 
ment should be such as will not excite growth prematurely, therefore 
only a slow progression should be allowed ; a temperature of 40° to 45° 
at night and 50° in the day will need to be maintained by artificial 
means. When the external conditions, however, are favourable a few 
degrees higher may safely be permitted, but anything calculated to bring 
on the trees too quickly should be carefully guarded against, as undue ex¬ 
citement at the commencement is likely to prove injurious to the crop, 
Ventilation should be given at 50°, just a little at the apex to insure a 
change of atmosphere, ventilating freely at 55°, allowing an advance 
to 65° or 70° with sun, and closing at 55°. The atmospheric condition 
should be moderately moist, which will be attained by syringing occa¬ 
sionally, but an over-moist atmosphere should be avoided, and in all 
cases allow the trees to become dry before night. It is highly important 
that the borders be thoroughly moist, as when the trees are excited into 
growth fresh roots will speedily be formed, and to encourage them 
moisture is absolutely essential. 
Vines. — Late Grapes. —Examine these at least twice a week for de¬ 
cayed berries, and keep the house as dry and cool as may be consistent 
with the safety and preservation of the fruit. When thoroughly ripe and 
the Vines are leafless a mean temperature of 50° is suitable until the time 
arrives for bottling. Anything much below this is liable to foster mould 
and decay ; and fire heat to maintain aTight temperature, especially at 
night, will undoubtedly cause the berries to shrivel immediately after the 
fall of the foliage. No further time should be lost in getting the Grape 
room ready for the reception of the stock of keeping Grapes, which 
should be cleared off the Vines not later than the first week in January, 
and a week’s steady firing and ventilation is necessary to draw out damp 
and expel it. The certainty with which Grapes keep bottled for four 
or five months in better condition and at less expense has given confi¬ 
dence in a system which gives relief to the Vines, insuring that perfect 
rest so essential to their after well-doing. Gros Colman requires the 
longest time of any on the Vines, as it lays on colour after the ioliage is 
ripe, and owing to the soft fleshy nature of the footstalks, which are liable 
to decay, it is best kept in the driest and warmest part of the Grape room, 
by which means it parts with its earthy flavour and improves in quality. 
To do it well it requires to be started at the beginning of February—not 
later—as it needs a long season of growth, and the fruit ought to be 
finished by the end of September. 
Midseason Houses. —Pruning the Vines in these should be pushed 
forward, as the Vines break and show better when they have a good season 
of rest. The Vines should be dressed, and the house thoroughly cleansed 
ready for a fresh start when the proper time arrives. The loose inert 
surface soil also should be removed down to the roots, and a layer given 
3 inches thick of fresh turfy loam, to which has been added a sprinkling 
of bonemeal and charred refuse. The houses should be kept cool and dry 
until the time arrives for closing. If they must be used for plants keep 
them cool, or 40° to 45° by artificial means, and as dry as practicable. 
Young Pot Vines. —Those intended to be grown into fruiting canes 
may be cut down to a couple of eyes or close to the pots, and dressed 
with styptic, and placed in a succession house, which will be started early 
in January. Single eyes may also be placed in small pots, or in pieces of 
turf, and kept cool for two or three weeks before they are placed in 
bottom heat. 
Mailing Vine Borders. —Where young Vines have to be planted in 
spring, advantage should be taken of suitable weather for mixing the 
compost, and the borders made up ready for their reception. Drainage 
being the first essential, this part of the work must be well done. Three- 
inch tiles should be placed with proper fall and outlet to carry off the 
water passing the drainage, and if the bottom of the border be wet or the 
strata unfavourable it ought to be concreted, than which nothing answers 
better than two parts gravel and one part lime formed into a mortar-like 
mass. The gravel should be fine as for garden paths, or passing through 
an inch-mesh sieve, and should be 4 to 6 inches thick. The drainage 
should be clean, and not less than 9 inches thick, better a foot, coarsest at 
bottom and finest at the top, covering it with a layer of turves grass side 
downwards. Thirty inches depth of border is sufficient— i.e., of soil, 
which may consist of the top spit of a pasture where the soil is a medium- 
textured loam, light in preference to heavy, and chopped up roughly. To 
this add a tenth of old mortar rubbish, a twentieth of charcoal, and a 
fortieth part of half-inch or crushed bones, the whole thoroughly incor¬ 
porated. It is advisable to keep the border well above the surrounding 
ground level, especially in low damp situations, and give the surface a 
good slope to the front, so that when covered rain and snow is thrown off. 
A 6-feet width will be sufficient to start with, and should be inside, the 
roots being confined to it by closing the apertures in the front wall, as it 
is advisable to have the inside border well filled with roots before admit¬ 
ting them to the outside one. 
Stkawbekkies in Pots. —Forcing operations have been delayed by 
the severe weather, and it is useless striving to push vegetation under 
conditions that can only end in failure. Therefore, proceed cautiously 
(and there is not greater need for it than in Strawberry forcing) in frosty 
dull weather, allowing the temperature inside to fall corresponding to 
that of the outside, seeking only progress when there is sunshine or at 
least gleams of it, when the heat may be turned on early in the day so as 
to rise and maintain a temperature of 50° to 55° through the day, and the 
walls and paths may be damped, but only when there is a prospect of sun, 
so that the moisture by its action and that of a little air will have dried 
up before night, and the temperature should fall to its minimum of 40° to 
45°. This should be continued under adverse circumstances until the new 
year, after which it is surprising how the plants progress with compara¬ 
tively little aid. The system of starting Strawberries on beds of leaves 
and dung in a fermenting state is a bad practice, as it starts the roots into 
activity for no purpose, Nature itself being the best prompter in this 
respect, and unless the plants have already a sufficient quantity of roots 
they are unfit for forcing, It is a good plan to start an equal quantity of 
two kinds, so that one variety will come in after the other in successional 
order. Be careful to allow the plants sufficient water at the roots, 
examining the plants daily. 
PLANT HOUSES. 
Fuchsias .—A few of the plants that rested early in the season may 
now be started into growth for early flowering. If the plants are well 
formed and as large as required when grown, they should be pruned 
closely back, leaving only on6 eye or two at the most of the last season’s 
wood. If larger plants are required the ripened wood need not be pruned 
so closely. The soil should be soaked with tepid water, and tho plants 
syringed twice daily until they break into growth. If this is done the 
one watering will prove sufficient until they have started and are 
ready for potting. A good place to start these plants is an early vinery 
or Peach house. The remaining plants at rest in sheds and other similar 
positions should be protected from frost by covering them with dry straw, 
fern, or other material. Young autumn-strack plants now in small pots 
must be kept moving slowly, which they will do on a shelf close to the 
glass in a temperature of 45° to 50°. If this is done they will be ready 
early in the new year for placing into 5-inch p ts. 
Zonal Pelargoniums .—Plants that have become tall and ceased to 
flower may be placed on a shelf and kept dry at their roots for a few 
weeks, when they may safely be pruned and started again into growth. 
Others of a bushy nature, that may have discontinued flowering tbiough 
use in the conservatory where the temperature is rather too low to keep 
them growing and flowering, should be given a light place close to the 
glass, and if carefully watered they will fl >wer again freely in early 
spring, proving very useful for various purposes of decoration. These 
should occupy a moderately dry airy structure, where the night tem¬ 
perature can be maintained at about 45°. In order to keep conservatories 
gay with these plants the whole of the winter months, it is necessary to 
devote a house to these plants, where a moderately dry atmosphere can 
he maintained with a night temperature of 55°. As plants are removed 
from this house to the conservatory it should be refilled with others that 
have been reserved for the purpose in cool houses. If these plants have 
been carefully watered since they were housed they will be in good con¬ 
dition and quickly unfold their flowers in the temperature named. After 
these are introduced they may be watered with weak stimulants, or given 
an application of artificial manure on the surface of the soil. Plants to 
follow these as well as young stock for spring flowering should be watered 
with great care and kept in the temperature indicated above for those 
intended for flowering at that period. All plants in flower must be kept 
in a moderately dry atmosphere, or the flowers are liable to damp. 
Heliotropes .—These plants will continue flowering more or less the- 
whole winter if they can be given a temperature of about 50°, with a 
circulation of air daily whenever the weather will allow of this being 
done. Young stock in small pots for flowering early in the season will 
remain in good condition in a temperature of 40° to 45°, according to the 
temperature. The points of the shoots may be pinched if the plants 
are not sufficiently bushy, and when they have started again into growth 
