JULY. 
157 
front. These pot trees consist of Cherries, Plums, Apples and Pears ; and having 
had them potted and prepared two years ago, they are now bearing an excellent 
crop for the first year. It is impossible to have a greater pleasure in fruit-growing 
than watching the progress of these little bushes, and in the evening Garibaldi- 
like, walking down this long range, puffing a cigar or pipe, and setting the 
blossoms, picking off insects, or thinning the fruit. 
I have always found Apricots a precarious crop when forced or protected in a 
house of any kind; and means are taken here of protecting a long Apricot wall 
with old hothouse lights. By this mode the Apricot crop has never failed for the 
last five years, the date of the new kitchen garden. The lights are only put on 
as soon as the blossoms begin to expand, and taken off when all danger from frost 
is over. They are not put closely together, small oxienings for air being left in the 
sides, and the ends are open. A rope fastened to strong nails in the wall secures 
the lights in the middle from being shifted by strong winds. 
I have long been convinced, now that glass is so cheap, that the best and 
cheapest protection for our tender fruit trees on walls is 'to cover them either with 
fixed or temporary lights. Canvass, netting, frigi domo, tree branches, Fern fronds, 
and other expedients are obliged to be resorted to by some ; but where glass can be 
had for the purpose it will be found the most satisfactory. Last year a severe frost, 
on the 1st of May, did much injury to the blossoms of wall fruit not protected; 
and this year a sharp frost, on the 1st of June, has been the most disastrous to 
the fruit crop that I ever remember. Wall fruit of all kinds, of course, are safe ; 
the fruit being some size, and protected by plenty of foliage, and the latent heat 
given out by the walls at night, after the hot sunshine in the day. 
In this locality (North Notts) the thermometer denoted 2° of frost 4 feet from 
the ground, and on grass 6°, on the morning of the 1st of June ; and its effects 
were soon apparent on Potatoes, Scarlet Runners, Asparagus, and other tender 
vegetables. Hardy fruits, such as Apples, Pears, Cherries, Plums, Raspberries, 
Currants, Gooseberries, and Strawberries, being well covered with foliage, it was 
hoped would have escaped, except where exposed. Unfortunately the days after 
the frost were very hot, and shrivelled the fruit up which the frost had touched. 
Gooseberries and Currants, on the upper part of the branches, looked as if they 
had been boiled, and are now lying thick on the ground. All the young Apples, 
Pears, Cherries, and Plums are likewise dropping in showers, especially on young 
trees in exposed places. Strawberries have likewise been much injured, and the 
crop of Raspberries is quite destroyed, and we will have to depend on the 
autumnal sorts. The destruction of the foliage of Pinus, Abies, and other 
coniferous trees is very great in low situations, likewise Walnuts, Ashes, and even 
young Oaks. Rhododendrons, Laurels, Magnolias, and other deciduous shrubs 
were making their luxuriant summer growth, and have therefore suffered a check 
seldom experienced in the beginning of summer. 
Nottinghamshire is generally reckoned the most noted in England for 
extreme cases of low temperature; and the same may be said of heat and drought, 
arising, no doubt, from its central position, and exemption from the sea currents. 
Summer or late spring frosts appear to be local, and to affect low and flat districts 
much more than the higher and drier parts of this country. Within a few miles 
of this, on the borders of North Derbyshire, where the land is high and dry, the 
frost of the 1st of June did not injure vegetation in the least. 
Welbeck. William Tilleky. 
VERBENAS FOR POT CULTURE. 
It is not generally known how well adapted are many varieties of the Verbena 
for the autumn decoration of the greenhouse or conservatory. If suitable kinds 
are chosen, the houses may be made gay with the flowers and sweet with the 
perfume during the months of August, September, and October, at which periods 
there is always an absence of flowers in the conservatory. Strong healthy plants 
should be at once selected, and potted into five or six-inch pots. The compost 
should be composed of good loam, old frame manure, and leaf mould in equal pro- 
