February 25, 1886. ] 
JOURNAL OF HORTICULTURE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. 
145 
25 
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Royal Society at 4.30 p.m. 
26 
F 
Quekett Club at 8 P.M. 
27 
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Royal Botanic Society at 3.45 P.M. 
28 
SUN 
Sexaqesdia. 
1 
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2 
TU 
3 
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Society of Arts at 8 P.M. 
SPRING PLANTING. 
HILE the winter of 1885-1886 cannot, perhaps, 
be described as of great severity, it has un¬ 
doubtedly been of protracted duration. It 
came early and appears to depart reluctantly. 
The long term of intermittent frost, snow, and 
wet has been the reverse of advantageous in 
various ways. Work both in trade, especially 
the building trade, and on the land having 
been seriously obstructed, has been incon¬ 
venient to capitalists and almost disastrous to operatives. 
The work in connection with the land that has been the most 
delayed is that of planting. No doubt the general routine of 
the farm and the garden has been more or less arrested, but 
it is to be remembered that a period of frost is specially 
favourable for the quick and economical conduct of what may 
be described as work on wheels, which can never be done in 
the cheapest and best manner in “soft” weather. The 
frost also has had a beneficial influence on land generally, 
whether pasture or arable in fields, or dug or undug in 
gardens; indeed, in the case of very light soils in gardens it 
is a question if a good frost is not as beneficial as a good 
digging, and it will be conceded it is both easier and cheaper. 
When the land is quite clean, and of such a light or sandy 
nature as to dry quickly and excessively, it will be as well, 
possibly better, for the majority of crops if it is not dug to 
any great depth, or only for the sake of appearance and 
covering any manure that may be added. Even the digging 
of much heavy land may be postponed with advantage rather 
than otherwise till dry weather in the spring, as there is 
nothing gained by forcing on such work under unfavourable 
conditions, or when the surface is wet. “Dig and crop as 
you go on,” is often the best practice in heavy soil that was 
not turned up in autumn. A great deal of ordinary digging 
may therefore be postponed without anything serious 
occurring if other work of an important character presses, 
such, for instance, as planting. 
There is no doubt that a great deal of planting both of 
fruit and forest trees would have been done during the past 
three months if the ground had been dry and open instead 
of wet or frozen. It is quite certain, too, that it is desirable 
alike in the interests of owners of estates and of the general 
community that the more extensive occupation of land with 
trees should be systematically adopted. There are thousands 
of acres of comparatively barren, and at present absolutely 
useless land, in various parts of the country that might be 
made profitable by the cultivation of Larch and other trees 
for which the soil is naturally adapted, and it must b9 very 
poor and sandy indeed if it will not grow Scotch Fir; also 
excessively wet if Ash and Poplar will not thrive. The home 
timber supply is getting scarcer and scarcer, and foreign 
cargoes will get dearer and dearer. The resources of this 
country, old as it is, are not nearly developed in the growth 
of timber, and it is not unlikely that the time will come when 
something like a panic will take possession of the minds of 
men on the question, and bitter regrets be experienced that 
No. 296. -Vol. XII., Third Series. 
planting was not extensively conducted a generation pre¬ 
viously. The planting of waste land with timber trees that 
cannot in any other manner be so well turned to profitable 
account is a matter demanding serious consideration as to 
the selection of the most appropriate kinds for the soil and 
locality, then prompt action in planting. Some far-seemg 
owners of waste land are alive to the importance of occupying 
it in the manner indicated; but the great fact remains that 
there are thousands of acres of positively no value now that 
might ba occupied with thrifty plantations that would “ grow 
into money ” in the course of a very few years. 
It is the same in respect to fruit. More ought to be 
grown at home, and grown better than at present, or rather 
the bulk of our market Apples, for instance, ought to be fat 
and juicy, like those which win prizes at shows. There is no 
fear of these waiting for customers. They are the produce 
of healthy trees in generous soil. Nothing, it is said, strikes 
American visitors to our shores as more strange than either 
the absence of orchards near homesteads or the half-worn-out 
old grandmother-like trees that happen to exist. One of 
those visitors, a most attentive observer, and an admirer of 
many things in the old country, was impelled to record :— 
“ Notwithstanding England is such a garden, neither did I 
see any gathering of Apples in October, nor orchards from 
which to gather them. ‘ As sure as there are Apples in Here¬ 
fordshire’ seems to be a proverb; yet it is very certain that the 
orchard is not the institution anywhere in Britain that it is 
in America, or so prominent a feature in the landscape.” That 
this is in great measure due to the state of the law can scarcely 
be disputed. Landowners as a rule (for there are a few excep¬ 
tions) will not plant fruit trees, not even in some instances to 
adequately meet the requirements of their establishments, and 
tenants, except under long leases, are not justified in doing 
so in any systematic manner, because they would be sowing 
for others to reap who are not of their own kin, besides sub¬ 
jecting themselves to the extraordinary penalty, the truly 
“ extraordinary tithe.” Yet, notwithstanding those natural, 
or unnatural, impediments, more fruit trees are being planted 
than formerly, and will be planted, as a set-olf against past 
negligence, and as a necessity for maintaining even a 
moderate supply of fruit, which old trees cannot much longer 
possibly afford, to say nothing about the inferior varieties 
that cumber the ground. The wholesomenes3 of fruit, its 
nutritious properties and medicinal qualities, is being more 
and more appreciated, and the consumption will increase 
all the more rapidly as the quality of the produces increases 
under better culture and the exercise of sound judgment in 
the selection of kinds and varieties that meet alike the public 
taste and that thrive best in certain localities, or in which 
they appear to be naturally at home. 
There should not only be no cessation in planting fruit 
trees so long as land remains to be occupied by them, but 
the work should be pressed on with all the force available. 
It has become almost a habit for writers to urge the import¬ 
ance of autumn planting with the object of ‘ ‘ saving a season.” 
Not a word is here said against planting fruit trees in 
November, and in the case of moving large trees from one 
position to another in the same garden a season may easily 
be gained by doing the work in the autumn ; but in the case 
of young trees, fruit, forest, or ornamental, obtained from 
nurseries, it is very questionable indeed if a season is gained 
by the practice recommended, whereas it is very certain a 
season may be easily lost by omitting to plant now—that is 
deferring the work till another year, and obstacles then inter¬ 
vening, as they do every autumn, to prevent the work being 
done in November. The advantage of planting in autumn 
consists in the warmth still lingering in the soil inciting the 
formation of fresh roots before winter; but if the work drags 
on, as it often must do, through December, there is no 
rooting before winter, and there is nothing gained over 
planting in February, or even early March in a backward 
season, provided special care is taken to prevent the roots of 
No. 1952.—You, LXX1V., Old Seriei. 
