332 
THE COTTAGE GARDENER. 
[February 27. 
feels an interest in the rearing of his own fruits, lie will 
do well to set apart a plot of ground for this purpose. 
Unless the ground is pretty good, however, it is scarcely 
worth his while, as stunted trees or plants are seldom 
profitable. He can, of course, combine the useful and 
the sweet—the things belonging to the ornamental, with 
those of the culinary or fruit department. For the latter 
he will require to procure a lot of stocks, and they should 
be planted immediately. He will need quinces for 
dwarf or trellised pears; the ordinary pear stock for 
orchard pears; the Paradise for apples under a dwarfing 
system; and the ordinary crab for common standard 
apples. For weak growing plums, the Brussels stock, 
and for the coarse growing kinds, the Muscle stock; the 
latter he may also use for peaches. For the apricot, our 
nurserymen use, we believe, the “commoner” stock, 
which is of a thorny character. 
Thus equipped, and the stocks planted out two feet 
apart between rows, and fifteen inches between the 
plants, he will be able to bud on them this summer, or 
graft the following spring, if planted carefully, and the 
soil is good. It must he observed, however, that as to 
the quince stock, it is little use planting this in dry or 
sandy soils. The quince loves a permanency of mois¬ 
ture; but when we say this, we do not mean that the 
soil must bo wet, only that it must not be liable to 
sudden drought. Of course this is not a question of 
manures, but of the mechanical texture of the soil. The 
subject has been repeatedly bandied in these pages; but 
we may repeat, that the clayey principle should form an 
important part of all soils or composts intended for the 
quince. We have known the quince-trees in the neigh¬ 
bourhood of London thrive exceedingly on a coarse 
gravelly loam, or dirty clay, of about a foot in depth, 
resting on a watery and dirty white sand. Soils of' an 
alluvial character, such as the sediments of ditches on 
clay soils, will he found to suit the quince well, if plenty 
of ordinary sand of a fine character he mixed with it. 
If the clayey principle is present in sufficient quantity, 
the dryer and sounder the bottom for this the better. 
It must here be observed, that the latter niceties refer 
to our fancy pears ; that is to say, to the quince, after 
being worked with them, and planted out finally. 
Retarding Blossoming. —As a little sound advice 
to the readers of The Cottage Gardener, who take 
an interest in fruit culture, we heg to suggest a due 
attention to the protection of the blossoms of their pet 
fruits already established; and this, as we have before 
remarked, consists not only in warding off frosts, but in 
endeavouring, by all fair means, to retard the opening of 
tne blossoms. This we have repeatedly proved to be 
sound practise in proper hands; and, if we mistake not, 
we were the first to urge it strongly, in the pages of 
The Cottage Gardener. 
We are glad now to see the subject taken up, and its 
importance recognised, by other gardening periodicals; 
and indeed the whole thing is such a common-sense sort 
of an affair, that it needs but pointing out, with its conco¬ 
mitant arguments, as a principle, together with the colla¬ 
teral proofs of practice, to be at once enlisted into 
modern practice. Still, here, as in everything else, 
some caution is necessary. If any one should suffer 
their covering, of whatever kind, to remain constantly 
on until the blossoms become what we gardeners term 
“ drawn,” we most earnestly beg they will not impute 
the failure which will in all probability follow to our 
advice. 
When once the blossom buds commence expanding, 
we little fear the roughest storm during the day, avoid¬ 
ing frost, and, generally speaking, drenching cold rains 
or sleet, and for this purpose, where canvas or bunting 
is used, it becomes expedient to lower it every evening, 
taking care to uncover next day if possible. 
R. Errington. 
THE FLOWER-GARDEN. 
Transplanting. —Before we plant the largo tree refer¬ 
red to in my last letter, let me run over the heads of the 
instructions given in it. A large shrub, or tree, is in the 
way of something, and it must be removed, but no one is 
l at hand who understands the process of transplanting, 
i therefore, to insure success, the roots are prepared—the 
spring before—not by cutting round the surface roots as 
is generally practised, but by cutting a passage under 
the tree to get at the top roots, which are cut, and the 
passage is then filled up. At the proper time for re¬ 
moval, the passage is opened again, two wheeling planks 
laid down, and a truck on two rollers is passed in over 
the planks and fixed so that the roof of the passage 
rests on the truck ; the plant is then disengaged in the 
usual way, and now rests with a large hall on the truck, 
just as if nothing had been done to it; horses are new 
hooked to the truck, which, being on the planks, runs 
j easily out of the hollow, and when on the surface may 
! be carried in any direction, like a garden roller. The 
last account left us in the middle of the pit for trans- 
j planting; the one end of the truck down in the pit, aud 
| the other end on planks, or on the edge of the pit with- 
j out the short planks. If we consider it—this is a very 
odd way to see a tree in—it is placed on a truck which 
is now standing on a steep incline, like the roof a house. 
How can it stand on the truck? It does not stand on 
it, only rests against it; as soon as the one end of the 
truck was brought to the centre of the pit, the ball 
slipped down to that end, or was pushed down by raising 
the back end of the truck ; the horses are now unhooked 
from that end, and one of them is hooked to the other 
end of the truck, to pull it backwards, which must be 
done very gently, and as the truck slips away from under 
the ball, the tree or bush comes to the perpendicular, 
without the least violence to any part of it. If it should 
happen that the ball is not got to the centre of the pit, 
hut is more to one side, and, therefore, the roots cannot 
find room on that side, it is better to widen that part to 
let in the roots, than to endeavour to shift the ball to 
the centre of the pit. 
Now, I affirm with confidence, after seven years ex¬ 
perience of this system, that it is the simplest, the safest, 
and best of all the ways that have hitherto been bit 
on for removing, or preparing for removal, large trees 
or shrubs—tunneling under a tree, or half way under 
one, is the only way to get at, and cut short off—loots 
which have gone down into the had bottom-soil; or 
when we wish to make the best of the root-pruning 
system, without reference to transplanting. When the 
plant to be removed is of a size that four men can carry 
it away on a hand-barrow, the barrow, owing to the legs, 
cannot well be got under the centre like the truck, in 
that case I would use the mason’s hand-barrow, which is 
without legs, or what would be better still, I would lay 
down two handspikes, two feet or more apart, and nail 
boards across them in the middle, and make my carrying 
barrow on the spot to suit the size of the ball to be re¬ 
moved. A planting truck, sufficiently strong to carry 
five or six tons weight, and running upon two rollers, is 
nearly as easy to make as the simple hand-barrow, with 
handspike handles as above ; if one were near a turner 
or wheelwright, who could make the rollers, any one who 
can drive a hand-saw and a hammer, could make the 
body of the truck in less than an hour. First of all get 
three pieces of oak quartering, as long as the truck, or 
say from three to five feet, according to the balls it is 
intended to carry; our’s is four feet six inches long, and 
three feet nine inches wide ; the three pieces to be three 
inches thick one way, and two or two aud a half inches 
the other way; lay them down at equal distances from 
each other, and at the width of the truck; then nail 
strong boards an inch tlpck across the three pieces, till 
