240 
THE COTTAGE GARDENER. 
When once this is cast, all will be straightforward as ] 
concerns the fruit, and we must now direct our attention | 
to the young shoots, which will soon be ready for dis¬ 
budding, for such must commence when they are about 
two inches long, in order that it may be done pro¬ 
gressively; for we would have this process to run 
through a month at least, doing a little every three or 
four days. Strong and youthful trees which have not 
done much work, will produce abundance of foreright 
shoots. Such are not essentially different in character 
from the rest, it is merely in the amount of luxuriance 
they possess, which inclines them to assume a bolder 
position than the rest. Some of them are the central ! 
buds of groups, formed on robust shoots of the preceding j 
year, and as such, by their very position, become forced ! 
outwards. 
Most shoots of this character are not only somewhat J 
ineligible from the direction they take, but they too 
frequently produce wood of a watery character. These, 
then, are generally disbudded, some at one period, some 
at another. In the first disbudding a few of the most 
conspicuous only should be removed, repeating the 
same on others as they become manifestly in the way; 
reserving, however, even shoots of this character where 
blank spaces are likely to occur. 
We have before said, that the disbudding should 
extend over some four or five weeks ; and thus it will, 
in fact, scarcely have ceased up to the period when the 
fruit commences “ stoning" which period may be 
easily known by the fact of the fruit becoming sud¬ 
denly stationary. All this time there will be no occasion 
to deviate much from the temperature already pre¬ 
scribed, except in the case of sunshine, when, as the 
light increases through the natural advancement of the 
season, so may the solar heat be allowed to accumulate. 
Let us, however, be guarded; the word accumulate must 
be qualified : we do not mean that it must be permitted 
to interfere with the necessary ventilatory proceedings. 
Our readers will doubtless remember some old- 
fashioned advice given in previous pages, not on the 
subject of fruit alone, but advice which our clever 
fellow labourers, Messrs. Fish and Appleby, as workmen 
cunning in artificial climates, do not hesitate to advise 
occasionally, for their pets of the floral world. Greater 
liberties may be taken with the enclosure of solar heat 
in the afternoon than in the forenoon, or at least that 
such is found by experience to be the case in hot¬ 
houses, on account of the obliquity of the solar rays. 
During the stoning period, it is well to be very 
cautious in the case of artificial heat, or, indeed, of a 
sudden and great excess of natural heat. The fact is, 
that “ force ” as you will, it requires both a given time 
and a certain order in the elaborative system to com¬ 
plete the organization of the seed. Regular syringings, j 
as before, must be kept up morning and evening; for it 
will be required even as antagonistic to the red spider. 
We must here advert to a most important point, lost 
sight of since we spoke of the commencement of forcing. 
This is root management. It is barely necessary to 
observe, that the border will require watering occa¬ 
sionally, and that the water should be applied warm, 
and enriched with manurial matters if necessary. If j 
applied at a temperature of 90°, it will prove stimulating I 
1 to the root, for this ninety will be reduced to seventy ! 
immediately by the body of the soil. The quantity 
applied must be determined by the openness of the soil 
and by the energies of the trees. This no man can 
determine without seeing the trees. We may just 
remark, that if the border is well drained, and the soil 
free, they will take water liberally almost weekly. As 
soon as the fruit begins to change for ripening, a less 
amount ol water must serve, but air in abundance must 
be given night and day, if high flavour and good colour 
are desirable. We will conclude with a few good maxims. ! 
[January 16. ' 
Heat. —Through every part of the process, only use 
artificial heat as a necessity. Let all real advances be 
made under the influence of increased light. Beware of 
high night temperatures : we have had a thermometer at 
from 38° to 45° during the first swelling, without any 
perceptible harm. 
Am Moisture. — Never permit the atmosphere to : 
become dry at any time. A somewhat dry and mellow 
state of air is requisite at blooming time, and more 
especially wliilst the fruit is ripening. A dry air long 
continued, will be almost certain to produce red spider. 
Beware, however, of much moisture with very low night 
temperatures. 
Disbubding. —Not only disbud frequently, but at all 
times pinch off the points of shoots which are growing 
too luxuriantly. Disbudding should be completed by 
the time the stoniug process commences, if possible. 
Ripening Process. —The slower peaches are ripened, 
the finer and higher flavoured will be the fruit. Those | 
who think to increase the size and appearance of their 
fruit by a close course of treatment, will find themselves i 
miserably mistaken. R. Errington. 
THE ELOWER-GAIIDEN. 
Banks. — Kitchen gardeners write and talk about 
sloping banks, and flower-gardeners about rockwork, or 
rockeries, for such and such plants, but I cannot recol¬ 
lect of any one who has written about banks for flowers; 
and yet few large flower-gardens are without a bank of 
some sort or another; and I believe the first preparation 
for a rockery is a bank of earth to lay the stones or 
boulders on, in various ways; but, I confess, I know 
very little about making rockwork. I never yet saw one 
in a garden that pleased me, except one, and that one 
was certainly very good of its kind. It was in the 
Surrey Zoological Garden—a view of the old town of 
Edinburgh, and the rock on which the castle and bar¬ 
racks stand was imitated very cleverly; I never saw so 
good an imitation before or since. But, after all, if one 
had watched the raven or the eagle’s manoeuvres, build¬ 
ing its nest some two or three hundred feet above one’s 
head, on a ledge of rock, as I have done more than once, 
a chapter on banks might be supposed to be more in the 
gai-dener’s way than one on artificial rocks. 
Some years since, I had charge of a bank, which was 
both useful and ornamental. It was made on the flat, 
and in a flat part of the country; and it could not be 
mistaken for a natural bank. It was made of a large 
quantity of clay that was taken out of the bottom of 
walks, or where new walks were to be made; and the 
expense of carting it away wag thought too much, and 
that was the reason why it was formed into a useful 
bank. I have often thought since, that if ever I had 
anything to do with new ground work in a garden, 
when more earth of any kind was on hand than could 
be disposed of on the spot, the cheapest and easiest way 
to get rid of it would be to heap it up into some kind of 
shape to train fruit or flowering plants against, after the 
manner of the original bank from which I got the first 
idea. Unless in a case of this kind, I do not think that 
I would strongly advise the formation of this sort of 
bank which I shall now describe; but there is a second 
kind of bank—of which there is a very good example in 
the flower-garden here—that one might often make at 
little cost where alterations were going on, or new gardens 
being formed,—and even at times when no such oppor¬ 
tunities offered. The first bank was of stiff clay, as I have 
just said; it ran right north and south, and formed a 
division between two different styles of gardens; I forget 
the exact width of it at the bottom, but I think from ten 
to twelve feet might be the width; from this bottom 
the two sides were formed exactly like the steep roof of 
