December 19.] 
THE COTTAGE GARDENER. 
177 
prune better such kinds as we have, if only for example 
to guide us in managing plants having the same mode of 
j showing then- flowers. A flowering barberry, if looked 
to now, will be seen with the remains of the stalks on 
which the fruit was borne this autumn,—not unlike a 
j currant-bush after the tom-tits have stripped the berries. 
All the shoots with these remains were grown in 1849, 
and they will never bloom again ; neither will they grow 
away from the points next summer, if left, as peach 
shoots of the same age would do, but bend over among 
the rest of the confused branches in the head of a mis¬ 
managed plant, and two, or three, or more young shoots 
from the lower eyes of these bearing shoots will be seen 
to shoot upwards, to flower next year. They, also, in 
their turn, will bend over in the same manner, and pro¬ 
duce another succession from their lowest parts : thus, 
without pruning, a barberry-bush gets so thick in the 
head from these bearing shoots that some of them must 
get smothered, and therefore so many of them die every 
year, although the bush is known to be as long-lived as 
the oak. Now, without going farther, an ordinary 
, pinner would see exactly how this bush ought to be 
pruned, although he had never seen it nor lieai'd of it 
before. The first thing to be done, is to get rid of every 
one of those arched shoots which have carried fruit this 
season: if you only see but the remains of one cluster 
on a branch, take my word for it, that branch will never 
show another cluster of fruit; and so out with it at once, 
and cut as low as where a young branch of this season’s 
growth has started from. And on the supposition that 
no such branch did really proceed, and your cluster¬ 
bearing branch is free of other shoots from end to end, 
you must cut it back to the very last bud of it—if you 
only leave an inch of stump to tell the tale of its being 
there. That over, the whole head of the bush will now 
be made up of very old looking and, may be, very 
crooked branches, bearing a host of very young ones, 
probably a great deal too thickly—or crowded on each 
other, and one false cut with any of them is sure to 
make the crowd more crowded next season. If you let 
the knife touch one of these young shoots of this season’s 
growth, the chances are, that it will not bear a single 
flower next season: they are so excitable that all the 
buds would grow into shoots instead of only fruit clus¬ 
ters. Therefore, every young shoot that is necessary to 
form a well balanced head must be left at full length, 
and all those that crowd or cross others must be cut as 
close to the old branch as you can. The leaves beiug 
not very big, you need not make the young shoots very 
thin ; if any two of them stand six inches apart, about 
the middle, it will be enough, now that all the useless 
branches are got rid of; and, on the whole, I would have 
the lie'ad of young shoots rather crowded for the first 
two years after so much cutting, to see wliat effect it 
would have on the whole plant, as, no doubt, the roots 
being as strong as ever, they will cause young growths 
to issue from some of the bare branches below, and too 
many bottom shoots will become as difficult to deal with 
as too many in the head; but such of them as come 
from the outside of the bush all round will be very use¬ 
ful in a year or two, as furnishing bearing wood from 
the bottom upwards, like a well managed peach-tree. 
But if you are in earnest, let no more suckers come from 
the roots, or from any parts within a foot of the ground; 
as soon as you see any of them rub them off; and if 
ground suckers come up you must clear away the soil 
down to the roots in May, and get at the very places 
where they issue from the roots, and cut them clean off 
with a chisel, without wounding or mauling the roots in 
the least, as that would be sure to increase rather than 
diminish their natural disposition to sucker. 
There is another, and a very scientific process winch 
might be resorted to at the winter pruning with great 
advantage. It is disbudding; and f shall take good care 
the real meaning of the word is properly explained in j 
our beautiful new Dictionary, with which I am highly j 
delighted, and which I hope will soon be in the hands I 
of every man, woman, and child who cares a snuff about i 
gardening; for, apart from all considerations of fame or 
profit, I am quite convinced already, that since the day 
Philip Miller sent out his Gardening Dictionary, that we j 
have not had so useful, or so cheap a book. Errors 
there will be, no doubt,—and where is there a compiled 
work without them ? for 1 have discovered a few in the 
best work of that class in the English language, after i 
going through the ablest hands in Europe in successive 
editions for more than fifteen years. Therefore, it would 
be the very height of folly in us to expect to escape the | 
common lot; and we shall take it in good part from 
cynic or critic who will point out auy errors to us, in 
whatever spirit they may be offered: our aim is to 
render the work as useful as the present state of our 
accumulated knowledge can make it, and no more or 
less. D. Beaton. 
GREENHOUSE AND WINDOW 
GARDENING. 
The Orange Tribe. —Following up the remarks of 
last week, I am uow to advert to their treatment when 
kept altogether, or almost constantly under glass. First, 
When planted out in Conservatories .—Here the centre 
plants should be standards of large size; those nearer 
the paths may be reared at home by any of the 
methods hereafter to be mentioned. Few things are 
more imposing than a house of oranges or camellias so 
planted, when they are in robust health. To realize the 
greatest amount of pleasure, how.ever, unity of ex¬ 
pression must not be marred by studding among these 
turned-out plants lilliputian, specimens in pots and 
boxes. When it is not intended, therefore, to plant at 
least one division of the centre of a conservatory either 
with oranges or something else of a kindred nature, the 
attempt should not be made at all. Hence I previously 
advised, that in limited space the planting out should 
chiefly be confined to the covering of the back wall, and 
creepers for the rafters. Even when the plants are large 
it is better to have them all in the centre of the house, in 
pots or boxes, in preference to having some one way 
and some another. As a consolation for those who 
cannot well make an orange grove at then- library door, 
it is well to know that no plants flourish better in large* 
pots and tubs. For the sake of those, however, who 
wish to plant, I will give an outline of the proceeding. 
The soil should be well drained, with a firm bottom 
sloping to the drain; and if six inches or a foot of open 
rubble over the bottom all the better. Few plants suffer 
sooner from saturated soil or from drought. I have 
seen some plants sickly just because, though the surface 
soil was moist for six inches, the remainder was tho¬ 
roughly dry. Oranges, or any other plants, ought never 
to be watered, unless so that they get enough to reach 
every fibre. 
The soil in which they are planted should be open i 
and rich, and from 18 to 24 inches in depth,— i 
the following will answer admirably:—One-third good 
fibry loam, obtained little more than one inch thick from 
the top of an old pasture, built iuto stacks a yard in 
width—the air allowed to circulate through it, but no 
ram to fall upon it; to stand at least a twelve-month, 
and then chopped down with a spade, but into no very 
small pieces, when it will be found tough, fibry, and as 
sweet as a nut;—one-third of the following as a whole, 
the relative proportions being regulated by circum¬ 
stances : sandy road-drift, broken freestone, charcoal, 
lime and brick rubbish from which the mere dusty 
matter has been sifted, and one-third altogether of 
