20 
THE COTTAGE GARDENER. 
October 18. 
Then, again, a soil abounding in superfluous water 
is always colder than a soil of similar constitution 
that lias been well drained. The reason for this is 
obviously that the same quantity of caloric (heat) which 
will warm the earth four degrees will only heat water 
one degree; or, to use the language of the chemist, 
the capacity for heat of water is four times greater 
than that of the earth’s. In every day experience, 
we see the low lying, and consequently the wettest, 
portions of a field arc always those on which the 
evening mist or fog first appears; for at one season 
of the year it becomes colder than the air, and the 
atmospheric moisture always precipitates first on the 
coldest surface. At other seasons of the year, evapo¬ 
ration from the wettest portion of a field is the most 
abundant; and, at those seasons, mists are formed 
by the temperature of the air being much below that 
of the earth, and consequently condensing the watery 
exhalations from the latter. The greater the differ¬ 
ence of temperature the denser is the mist, the con¬ 
densation being more complete. 
Returning to our immediate subject—the seed—we 
will observe, as on a former occasion, that the time 
will probably arrive when greater precision will be 
attained as to the time when our various seeds may 
best be committed to the soil. We shall owe that 
advance to a more complete knowledge of what may 
be termed the coincidences or synchronisms of nature. 
The attempt to attain knowledge on this subject is 
not new, for nearly a century since Harald Barck and 
Alexander Berger, in Sweden, made many observa¬ 
tions directed to this object, and in later years 
Stillingfieet and Martyn have done the same in 
England. 
The first named of these botanists thus expresses 
himself upon the subject: “If botanists noted the 
time of the foliation and blossoming of trees and 
herbs, and the days on which the seed is sown, 
flowers, and ripens, and if they continued these 
observations for many years, there can be no doubt 
but that we might find some rule from which we 
might conclude at what time grains and culinary 
plants, according to the nature of each soil, ought to 
be sown; nor should we be at a loss to guess at the 
approach of winter ; nor ignorant whether we ought 
to make our autumn sowing later or earlier.” 
M. Barck would derive his intimations from the 
vegetable tribes alone, but we think the other king¬ 
doms of organic nature might be included—as the 
appearances of certain migratory birds, and the birth 
of certain insects. For example, in the east of Eng¬ 
land, it is a common saying among gardeners—con¬ 
firmed by practice—When you have seen two swallows 
together, sow kidney beans. 
This synchronies! mode of regulating the opera¬ 
tions of the cultivator of the soil is no modern sug¬ 
gestion, but the efforts of Barck and his successors 
have only been to find such indications in our north¬ 
ern clime that would be of the same utility, and 
similarly admonitory as others adopted by the an¬ 
cients in more sunny latitudes. Thus Hesiod says, 
If it rain three days together when the cuckoo sings, 
then late sowing will be as good as early sowing; 
and in another place, when snails begin to move and 
climb up plants, cease from digging about vines, and 
take to pruning. 
That our operations may be made justly coincident 
with certain appearances in nature is supported even 
by our present limited knowledge. “ It is wonderful,” 
says Mr. Stillingfieet, “ to observe the conformity 
between vegetation and the arrival of certain birds 
of passage. I will give one instance as marked down 
in a diary kept by me in Norfolk, in the year 1755. 
‘April 16th young figs appear; the 17th of the same 
month the cuckoo sings.’ Now the word kokkv£ sig¬ 
nifies a cuckoo and the young fig , and the reason 
given for it is, that in Greece they appeared together. 
I will just add, that in the same year I first found the 
cuckoo flower in blossom the 19th of April.” 
“ Linnaeus says, that the wood anemone blows 
when the swallow arrives. In my diary for the year 
1755, I find the swallow appeared April 6th, and the 
icood anemone was in blow on the 10th of the same 
month. He says that the marsh marygold blows 
when the cuckoo sings. Accordingly in my diary 
that flower was in blow April 7tli, and the same day 
the cuckoo sang.” 
THE ERUIT-GARDEN. 
Root Pruning. —At page 331 of our last volume, a 
few maxims were laid down which had, in the main, 
reference to root pruning under all circumstances. 
We now proceed to particularise its application, for 
occasions will arise, both from kind and circumstance, 
which will in some degree modify the operation. 
In the first place, then, even old trees of some 
kinds will bear root pruning, but not all alike. We 
have within these last twenty years root-pruned pear 
trees in so severe a manner as would have been 
totally destructive of the constitution of the peach. 
The trees alluded to were of the Aston-town variety; 
they were growing against a wall having a north¬ 
eastern aspect, and were, to all appearance at least, 
thirty or forty years old. Indeed, their trunks at the 
base were, at the time of the operation, nearly a foot 
in diameter. These trees we were informed had been 
useful bearing trees some years previously, but had 
ceased to be productive; producing breast wood 
nearly a yard from the wall. A former gardener, 
lamenting their barrenness, had trenched a huge 
quantity of manure in at their roots; for, as far 
as I could learn, muck—plenty of muck—as the 
Cheshire folk term manure, was the only cure 
known to him for all vegetable diseases. The best of 
the joke, however, remains; the trees had huge old 
spurs all over them, extending six inches from the 
wall, most of them of a peculiarly remarkable cha¬ 
racter; these he, at the same time, shaved clean 
away. What, of course, might have been anticipated 
did indeed occur; the trees made what was termed 
capital new wood, and this, according to the most 
