THE COTTAGE GARDENER. 
184 
[January 3. 
unity of purpose, that, once established on proper 
principles, the most ignorant jobber could not get 
wrong, a matter of some satisfaction to the em¬ 
ployer, who, if a commercial gentleman, has, of 
course, little time to attend to his garden. If this 
course he adopted, there would be a variety of aspects 
for the marginal espaliers or bushes, equally adapted 
to their respective habits with that of the walls. 'The 
subjoined sketch will show what we mean. 
S 
E 0 
W 
N 
Thus for the margins. 
1. flemish pears. 
2. Black currants ami rasps. 
2 . Cherries and plums. 
4. Apples. 
5. Red and white currants. 
Ci, Gooseberries. 
7. Pears. 
8. Gooseberries. 
For the walls. 
1. Peaches and Nectarines. 
2. Morellos and late plums. 
3. Cherries and plums. 
4. Pears. 
5. Apples. 
6. Pears. 
7. Apricots. 
It may be observed that the numbers, as above, 
refer both to the wall-trees and to the trained or 
dwarf espaliers on the margin of the border. The 
numbers 3, 4, 5, (i, may be transposed if necessary ; 
for it is not very material how they are changed, 
provided Nos. 1, 2, 7, 8, are kept for the objects here 
specified. 
Admitting, then, that the walls were nine feet in 
height, and the borders six or seven feet wide, the 
wall-trees might be fifteen feet asunder. We would 
then plant one bush fruit or one espalier fruit-tree 
in the angle on the margin, at about three feet from 
the front walk; thus there would be just as many 
marginal trees as wall-trees, and the roots of the one 
jutting in between the other two; the whole border 
ultimately would be a mass of fibres. Such being 
the case, spade-culture must be dispensed with ; and, 
in lieu thereof, a top-dressing might be applied every 
May, close on the heels of a rainy period; this woidd 
long preserve a steady moisture, and be the means 
of annually inducing a net work of fresh fibres close 
beneath the surface. 
It must here be understood that the pears must be 
on the quince stock, the apples on the Paradise, and 
the whole root pruned at whatever period they might 
become too luxuriant. This, however, would scarcely 
happen above once, and that would be after they 
had been planted a couple or three years, and before 
they were taxed through heavy bearing; afterwards, 
the shallowness of the soil would prevent undue luxu¬ 
riance. As to depth, that will be explained in 
future communications under the head “ station 
making,” indeed, it has already been pointed out. 
1 Ialf-a-yard we consider a very proper depth to carry 
out such objects, all other matters receiving proper 
attention. Those who can understand this view of 
the matter, will see the whole, taken together, form 
a system based on the thorough ripening of the wood, 
and the necessity for dwarfing trees in small gardens, 
both these objects lying the same way. The whole, 
therefore, must be kept intact, and unmixed with 
other plans, or, otherwise, the whole rejected. 
R. Ekringxon. 
THE FLOWER-GARDEN. 
IIaruy Climbers. — Every book, magazine, and 
newspaper which treats of gardening, has given lull 
directions how to manage hardy climbers tor many 
years past; and one would think that, as far as our 
readers are concerned, what Mr. Appleby wrote on 
the subject would be enough for some years ; and 1 
like his advice on climbers better than nine-tenths of 
what I formerly read respecting them. If we had 
not been yoked in the same plough, I should be jea¬ 
lous of him about climbers, for in that department 
they say I have been very successful, but I was an 
old gardener before I could hit upon the right way 
of dealing with them; and I am quite sure that there 
is no part of out-of-door gardening which is more 
likely to puzzle a young beginner than the right 
management of climbers; indeed, our weekly corres¬ 
pondence is the best proof of the fact. 
When climbers are planted in a good rich border, 
they grow away so rapidly after the first year or two, 
that before one finds out the best way to train them, 
or prune them, they get so inextricably entangled 
together, that the amateur fears to touch them, lest 
lie should do more harm than good; and if they are 
thus allowed to have their own way for a few seasons, 
they are sure to get naked below, and top heavy; so 
that, comparatively speaking, they do not produce 
one half of the effect they are capable of doing under 
a proper system of management. On the other hand, 
when little stunted climbers are turned out of pots, 
in which their roots have been much cramped, or 
from layers insufficiently rooted, into an ill-condi¬ 
tioned soil, they exhaust one’s patience before they 
do much good; and of all the plants we grow, that 
gorgeous climber, the Glycine sinensis, or, as it is 
often called, the Wistaria, is the worst to move on if 
once it gets into a bad condition. I have known this 
fine plant make nearly twenty feet of growth the 
second season after planting, and I have seen it seven 
years without making a yard of growth. I have been 
more often called in to doctor this plant than any 
other, and the best plan that ever I found to cause it 
to push along freely, was to unnail it from the wall, 
and, without cutting off any portion of it, to bend it 
down gently, so as to make a sharp turn just above 
the surface of the ground, and then nail it in that 
position along the bottom of the wall. Before 1 
thought on this plan, I had cut them into various 
lengths, and down to the last eye at the collar of the 
plant; and I am quite satisfied now, that no mode of 
cutting this plant, with a view of getting it round 
from a stunted to a vigorous condition, is half so 
effectual for the purpose as that of bending it at the 
collar, and laying it along as 1 have said. The rea¬ 
son for this seems to be this : when a languid, hide¬ 
bound Glycine is cut down, the sympathy, which is 
well known to exist between the roots and branches 
of all plants, being cut off, the circulation of the sap 
is too sluggish to cause the dormant bud or buds at 
the collar to push; whereas, by bending down the 
shoot, this sympathy is merely arrested in part; and, 
when the bent shoot conies into leaf, the leaves im¬ 
mediately draw the sap towards them, and, as it rises 
from the roots, the passages for it are much con- 
