274 
THE COTTAGE GARDENER. 
[February 21. 
it is this desire for novelties which has raised the 
standard of the dealers in seeds and plants from 
being petty chapmen at stalls in Westminster Hall, 
and elsewhere, to the position they now hold among 
the best informed and most enterprising merchants 
of our times. 
At present we will restrict our observations to the 
numerous lists of Kitchen Garden Seeds now before 
us; and though in these lists there are under each 
vegetable particularized a long enumeration of varie¬ 
ties, there are very few, we may say almost none, 
that ought to he omitted. But though the omissions 
need he few, yet particulars relative to each variety 
should be much more full. We gave an example of 
the information we consider a seedman’s catalogue 
ought to contain, by giving (at page 194) a list of 
41 peas, with the particular characteristics of each ; 
and we are well pleased to see that since then the 
Gardener's Chronicle has given a similar list, and 
added the additional useful information as to which 
varieties so closely resemble each other as to he 
considered synonymous. 
If a seedsman’s catalogue contained such guiding 
information as this, the more numerous this list of 
varieties the better; for the taste of purchasers varies, 
and the soils they cultivate will produce some va¬ 
rieties in perfection, whilst other varieties on the 
same soil are unproductive, or uncharacterized by 
their usual excellence. We will take the selection of 
peas made by our contemporary above quoted as an 
example. He recommends the Prince Albert, Au¬ 
vergne, Bishop s New Long-Pod, Bedman’s Imperial, 
Knight’s Tall Marrow, and Fairbeard's Champion of 
England, —all good peas; but the three we have 
marked by italics will not succeed, except on a soil 
much more tenacious and richer than the others. 
For a light, moderately fertile soil, such as charac¬ 
terizes the majority of gardens, we can recommend, 
from long experience, Prince Albert, for the crops to 
produce from the end of May to the middle of June ; 
Ringwood Marrows, for those from the middle of 
June until August; and Knight's Dwarf Marrows 
for the remainder of the season. All tall-growing 
peas should be excluded from small gardens. Partly 
in the place of the Knight’s Dwarf Marrows we 
mean to try Hair's Dwarf Green Mammoth Knights, 
which have a high character, but we cannot speak 
of them from our own experience. 
Then, again, as to shinless peas, those varieties 
which are eaten like kidney-beans, pods and seeds to¬ 
gether. So much do tastes differ, that in France they 
are largely cultivated, and in England are scarcely 
known; yet if our readers will try them, and we re¬ 
commend the Tamarind variety, we think they will 
grow some every year afterwards. 
We will, next week, proceed with an enumeration 
of the various kitchen-garden varieties of vegeta¬ 
bles which we prefer; and will conclude to-day with 
a warning to the seedsman against selling, and to 
the purchaser against sowing, seed too old or im¬ 
perfect from any other cause. No purchaser cares 
whether he pays a few pence more, so that he may 
be secured from this grievous disappointment; and 
every seedsman may so secure him by trying whether 
each sample of seed will germinate before he begins 
to distribute it across his counter. 
Tt is quite impossible for seedsmen to be absolutely 
certain of keeping each variety quite pure, or “ true 
to stock,” for bees will bear farina from crop to crop, 
though separated by miles of intervening space; but 
seedsmen need not serve their customers as one we 
know did last year, by selling Short Horn Carrots 
for Altringhams, and Mangold Wurtzel seed for that 
of the Red Beet. Such conduct as this is unpardon¬ 
able, and needs no comment. 
THE ERUIT-GAKDEN. 
Pruning, &c. —It will be remembered that, at page 
100, we entered into the subject of pruning hardy 
fruit-trees, more especially as to those general prin¬ 
ciples which are, less or more, applicable to all. A 
promise was then made to carry out what remained 
of the subject at an early opportunity; with such, 
then, we proceed. 
Rough Espaliers, or Dwarf Standards. —The 
apple is to be found in this character in most 
English gardens; for the ornamental trellis, on which 
in some form we think all these ought to be pro¬ 
duced, is too expensive at present to be within reach 
of every one. Still, there can be little doubt, that as 
the management of fruit-trees in general becomes 
better understood (and as our amateur cultivators in 
investigating and understanding first principles will 
set aside all rules, merely as such), that the trellis 
will ultimately almost entirely supersede the rough 
espalier. Higher modes of culture, based on sound 
information, will insure the production of crops with 
much greater certainty, and of a superior character; 
and thus the trellis will be made to repay the outlay 
of first construction, and also of coverings, which 
surely nobody will grudge after the expense of the 
trellis. 
Our business now, however, must commence with 
the dwarf standards. The first thing we would point 
to here, is the tendency of such to outgrow the limits 
intended for them; hence we frequently see fine 
apple-trees cut down in what should be considered 
their prime, merely because from their spreading 
character they disarrange a plan which has for its 
object systematic neatness. We may here diverge 
so' far from the course of our text as to say, that 
most of these over-growing trees may be saved, by 
submitting them to a very severe course of branch- 
pruning, provided root-pruning is resorted to. With¬ 
out the latter in a corresponding degree to the amount 
of pruning carried out with the branches, a profusion 
of wild and unfruitful spray will be the same result. 
We have known persons continue year after year to 
close-prune in this manner, and wondering the while 
that they cannot induce a bearing habit; little con¬ 
sidering bow they war against the necessary con¬ 
dition of fruitfulness, which is a highly elaborated 
state of sap. 
In pruning rough espaliers, the age of the tree 
must be taken into consideration, together with its 
