DECEMBER. 
259 
crops of fruit, and will continue to do so under proper management for many 
years. 
They flower and ripen their fruit well in vineries. During the growing 
season they should have liberal supplies of water, and occasionally liquid manure 
to the roots, especially large plants in pots or tubs, and be syringed frequently 
with clean water over the tops. 
Though the plants bear very freely in pots and tubs, they bear better crops 
and finer fruit when they are planted out in a properly prepared border. In a 
place I once lived at as foreman, we had a plant planted in the inside of a 
vinery, and trained against one end. The Vines were principally Muscats, and 
were generally started in the end of March, ripening in September, and all the 
fruit was cut by the end of December. The temperature of this house suited the 
Guava very well, as it grew well and bore great quantities of very fine fruit, 
which were used in the dessert and much esteemed by the family. During the 
winter months, when the Vines were at rest, the Guava was kept quite dry, and 
it never suffered in the least, as the temperature of the house was seldom much 
below 40 9 . The tree required very little pruning, merely thinning out the 
shoots when too crowded, and plenty of water at the roots when growing. This 
amounted to all the attention that was bestowed on it, and it furnished a nice 
variety to the dessert for several weeks every autumn. As far as my experience 
goes, it does not require one-quarter the care and attention to ensure a good 
crop of fruit, that any of the fruits that we grow under glass do. 
a Stourton. M. Saul. 
REMARKS OK FRUIT-TREE CULTURE.—No. 4. 
Presuming, then, that a careful attention to cultivation, and not a blind 
trusting to chance, is to be the rule of guidance, and that the borders for wall- 
fruit trees, or in the open quarters for espaliers or pyramids, have been pre¬ 
pared by drainage and the addition of new composts for the reception of the 
trees, and that it is intended to make a speciality of them by studying their 
habits as well as their likings and dislikings, we may now enter more par¬ 
ticularly into the practical part of the subject, and commence with planting. 
If the trees are reared at home the operator will have every chance of lifting 
his trees in a careful and painstaking manner, so as to preserve the roots as 
much as possible from being injured during the operation, for which purpose a 
wide trench should be opened out at a distance from the tree proportioned to 
its size, so as to give plenty of room for the roots to be disencumbered of the 
superincumbent soil; this should never be performed with a spade, which for 
such purposes may be more properly termed a root-lacerator. On the contrary 
pointed instruments only should be used, such as can be inserted between the 
roots so as to gently disengage the soil from them with as little injury as 
possible. Some injury cannot be avoided under any circumstances, but not¬ 
withstanding that, I am no advocate for taking up with a large ball of earth in 
order to avoid that injury, because I believe, for one, that unless there are 
powerful mechanical means at command for lifting, and the ball is securely 
and firmly boxed-up, that it more often results in a greater amount of injury, in 
consequence of the weight of earth clinging to the fibres and dragging them 
off during the necessary shaking and moving about always attendant upon the 
operation during the transmission from place to place. And this points to the 
necessity for studying the composition of the soil in which the trees are pre¬ 
pared for final transplantation, and if possible to select it of a light and rather 
sandy nature, so that there may be no difficulty in disentangling the roots from 
it. Very heavy and stiff land is so unsuitable for the purpose, and so unpro- 
