THE COTTAGE GARDENER 
195 
January 10.] 
than any manure; and the next best application for 
them is very rotten cow-dung. However, if you pre¬ 
fer cutting down your beautiful shrubs, April is the 
best time, and you need only cut down every other 
plant the first season. You may cut them to any 
degree, even to the ground, for no plants bear the 
knife better. 
THE FRUIT-GARDEN. 
Fruit-forcing. —Having, at page 72, assisted in 
launching the amateur on the somewhat perilous 
voyage of fruit-forcing, it is next our duty to warn 
him of the rocks and shallows which will, of neces¬ 
sity, beset his track. We before merely dwelt on a 
few abstract principles; now it will be best to com¬ 
mence handling the subject in its details. 
The Pine-apple. —The mouth of January is a dor¬ 
mant period with this fruit. Early fruiters cannot be 
urged forward, as yet with safety, by means of a sud¬ 
den increase of heat; and successions do not, by any 
means, require it. Light—increasing light—wuth the 
natural advances of the seasons, is the signal for an 
increased temperature. Our London commercial gar¬ 
deners, however, contrive to “ sail against wind and 
tide” in these respects; for, unless they produce ripe 
fruit very early—that is to say, before Parliament 
rises—the value of their produce becomes so much 
depreciated, that it scarcely pays for culture. Hence 
they grow principally the Queen varieties of the 
pine-apple; and, by contriving to grow them up to the 
very showing point in the autumn, the plants start 
early in spring with even a moderate increase in 
temperature. With the amateur grower, the case is 
widely different. If he happens to possess surplus 
fruit, for which there is no immediate demand in his 
own family, why, of course, they would be turned to 
account in this way: such, however, would be the 
exception to the rule. 
We have digressed thus much, in order to make 
one fact plain, which is, that the amateur’s course of 
culture, and that of the commercial gardener, do not lie 
precisely the same way, although the main principles 
of culture are strictly the same. There has been 
so much misconception in this, as in other cases, 
that we are very anxious clear views should be taken 
at the outset; and, although it may be that many of 
our readers are perfectly aware of such facts and fea¬ 
tures in pine culture, yet we can but crave their pa¬ 
tience whilst endeavouring to guide the tyro ; it is a 
duty to endeavour to assist the rising generation in 
taking their first steps in gardening. 
The amateur, then, we will suppose, is not confined 
to season in his pine affairs. He is, perhaps, not a 
Parliament man, and, therefore, we must suppose 
him thoroughly domesticated, and that, from the 
gooseberry upwards, he desires to enjoy, at all sea¬ 
sons, all that Pomona can afford, backed, as she is 
in Britain, by an artificial clime. We before said, 
that in our humble opinion, the Hamiltonian mode 
of culture is the best for the amateur. We repeat 
this recommendation. If, however, we happen to 
ride our hobby too hard, some kind friend must 
nudge our elbow, and we shall then, doubtless, relax 
our whipping and spurring, provided sound reasons 
can be shown. We are quite aware that, in adhering 
so tenaciously to the Hamiltonian method, we shall 
lay ourselves open to severe remarks from those who 
strenuously advocate the Meudon plan, amongst 
whom is a friend we highly respect, as we may well 
do. It will bo seen that allusion is here made to the 
gentleman who has assumed the euphonious title of 
“ Mirabile dictu,” than whom, nobody is more com¬ 
petent to form a good estimate of the comparative 
value of the various modes in use. The Meudon 
plan, for aught we know to the contrary, may be the 
best for tumbling a host of pines into the market at 
once; it also may be the means of producing larger 
fruit; the latter point, however, is scarcely secured by 
the Meudon advocates as yet. And, again, we are 
quite ready to admit that it looks somewhat more sys¬ 
tematic on the face of it. We, however, feel, that if the 
culture of pines, and other exotic fruits, is to be placed 
within the reach of thousands (which they will one 
day), that economy both of labour and material must 
be the polar star of our calculations. By the Hamil¬ 
tonian method we do think that a house might be so 
constructed, that the amateur, or those engaged in 
professional duties, might at any period be absent 
for a whole week, and their pines, thus established, 
unlooked at, and unattended, save a servant of some 
kind to keep the fire in. We really do not want to 
give the amateur the trouble of removing or shifting, 
for these things are a serious drawback to their ex¬ 
tended culture. Thousands of amateurs, and keen 
cultivators too, cannot afford to keep a very expen¬ 
sive staff, yet they are perfectly ready to widen their 
horticultural views, and to embrace more objects, 
provided the purse-strings are not drawn too wide. 
Now, we would so have it, that such gentlemen 
should be so far relieved from potting, shifting, &c., 
of pines, as to be able to attend well to the potting of 
their floral pets; for our worthy and clever coadjutor, 
Mr. Fish, would doubtless be very cross if the shifting 
of his crack fuchsias, or achimenes, must be compelled 
to stand over a week or two because our pines must be 
shifted. If, however, any one is really desirous of 
having merely the largest pine-apple at the exhibi¬ 
tion, he will, perhaps, do as well to adopt the Meudon 
plan, or some modification of it. 
We have thus trespassed much, for once, on the 
patience of our readers, in order to be well under¬ 
stood ; for, in these carping times, it behoves us all 
“ to keep our gunpowder dry.” 
In a succeeding paper, we will go farther into 
detail about Hamilton’s plan; and, in the mean time, 
we must proceed to other in-door matters. 
Vine-forcing. — It happens, with most of our 
amateur readers, that the roots of the vines they 
intend forcing are outside the house. This is some¬ 
what unfortunate, and, as a question of principle, 
should be examined a little closer by those inte¬ 
rested; for it so happens that excellent grapes are, 
in reality, produced under such circumstances, in 
certain situations. As this will seem perplexing, we 
must beg to say a few words about it. A few years 
since we called, in the course of a gardening tour, on 
a much-esteemed old friend, Mr. Holland, gardener 
to the Misses Timms, of Taplow Lodge, near Maiden¬ 
head. It was either at the end of April, or at the 
beginning of May; and Holland had a house of 
Black Hamburghs just ripe, certainly as fine as it 
was possible to imagine. A discussion immediately 
arose about inside and outside roots, and Holland 
astonished us by observing, that one half the house 
were from an inside border, and the other from an 
outside one, at the same time challenging as to the 
difference. And truly no difference could be per¬ 
ceived; all were equally fine. Mr. Holland, how¬ 
ever, always covered the border outside with leaves 
and rakings of the woods in the autumn; we think 
he said about six inches in depth. Now, we do not 
suppose, for a moment, that any fermentation heat 
