March 7.] 
THE COTTAGE GARDENER. 
307 
wanted—is to mix soot-water with the guano-water, 
equal parts. Both these must be highly clarified; 
indeed ours is like pale porter when ready for use. 
This is easily accomplished by keeping a couple of 
vessels at work—the one guano, the other soot. Now 
admitting that one ounce of Peruvian guano and 
one pint of soot will make a large waterpotful, hold¬ 
ing three gallons of liquid manure, as strong as it 
ought to be applied to any plant when constantly 
used, it will be easy to ascertain how much of mere 
clear water should be added to a much more highly 
concentrated liquid manure, brewed thus for mere 
convenience’ sake. Thus, suppose the mixture is 
brewed ten times as strong, of course it will require 
to be diluted with ten times the amount of mere 
water. This is our practice; and our waterpot of 
strong mixture will water a whole house of plants; 
the operator, who knows the power of his mixture, 
merely pouring a little into each pot of clear water, 
•as lie draws it. We do not mean to say that this is 
the only proper way of making manure water; we 
merely say it is at present our practice, and seems to 
answer with everything to which we have applied it; 
and, in the present imperfect state of horticulture, as 
to the bearings of chemistry on it, we must be con¬ 
tent for awhile with rule of thumb work. 
Strawberries, those rising for blossom, will at this 
period require almost daily watering in this way; 
those on elevated shelves, in airy houses, requiring 
twice as much as those in low pits or frames. 
It is good practice to place a pan beneath the pots 
as soon as the truss begins to rise, especially if the 
pots are on an elevated shelf in a house. 
Thinning the Berry .—When they “set” thickly, 
it is necessary to apply the scissors; thinning them 
out as grapes. All crippled or imperfectly “ set” 
berries should be removed the moment they can be 
perceived; and as soon as a good crop of well-formed 
berries can be secured, all the remaining pips in 
course of blossoming, or just swelling off, may be 
cut away. But you will hinder the succession, 
Mr. Somebody will say : true, we shall in some 
degree ; we shall save you the chagrin of being 
obliged to eat a dozen or two of half-starved ber¬ 
ries, which would have been produced a fortnight 
later on the same plauts, had our present advice 
not been followed. There is no real gain, how¬ 
ever, in reserving all the late buds or blossoms after 
a good crop is secured; for the water necessary to get 
them imperfectly swelled off, will prove a deteriorator 
of the flavour of those colouring. It is an excellent 
plan with those, who, when they get a full crop, would 
wish to retard some of them, to remove them as soon 
as a dish or two has been gathered to a cold frame or 
pit; here they will ripen slowly, and acquire more 
flavour, and a much higher colour than they get in 
hothouses. Wo have seen fine Keen’s seedlings 
placed on exhibition tables thus managed, which 
were almost black with colouring ; and which have 
beat all competitors. It must be remembered, how¬ 
ever, that this course would not answer at an earlier 
period than the present; it would scarcely be safe, for 
a hard frost could scarcely be kept out of a cool pit, 
and frost would ruin the whole crop. 
This is an excellent period to make up a frame, to 
produce a good crop about three weeks prior to those 
in the open soil. A small bottom-heat of 00 to 70° 
would be desirable; and good strong young plants may 
be removed from the open ground, with good balls of 
earth, and immediately planted in rich soil. They 
must be frequently syringed, and kept rather close 
for a week, shading them slightly if the weather should 
prove very sunny. Their subsequent management 
will be similar to pot-strawberries, except that they 
may be allowed to carry a much heavier crop. AV e 
need scarcely add, that the water used must always 
be equal, at least, to the temperature of the structure 
they are in: this is a maxim that applies with equal 
force to every species of forcing. 
Cleansing Fruit-trees. — ’Those who have not 
looked carefully over their fruits, to see if any of the 
insect tribes infest them, should lose no time; for 
strong applications are much easier applied before 
the leaf unfolds than afterwards. For the American 
blight, spirits of tar, rubbed in with a brush, seems 
to be the favourite remedy at present. Where trees 
are infested all over, however, we would advise a wash, 
applied by the syringe or engine. Soft-soap-water, 
four ounces to the gallon, and plenty of finely-dis¬ 
solved clay, will, if applied twice or thrice, block up 
the rogues in their dens, and, if not totally destroy 
them, much impede their operations. Every portion 
of the trees should be soused with it. If red spiders 
infest them, plenty of sulphur must be added to the 
soap-water mixture. The same mixture, indeed, will 
be antagonistic to most of the insects which infest 
our fruit-trees, including the Coccus, or scaly insect. 
Grafting. —We made so many observations in 
February, last year, that we need do no more at 
present than observe, that it is absolutely essential to 
success that no delay take place in the operation. We 
consider that the best period is that when the buds 
of the stock can first be perceived to enlarge ; better 
be done too soon than too late. Of course this rule 
will regulate the grafting of different kinds indue 
succession, beginning with those which swell first. 
We hope our advice, in the Calendar and elsewhere, of 
preparing scions in due time, has been attended to ; 
our nurserymen always like to have the scion taken 
off and “ heeled,” a few weeks previous to the opera¬ 
tion,in order that the stock may be a trifle in advance 
of the scion. It is supposed, also, that the slight 
amount of perspiration, or loss of juices, which a 
scion removed from the parent-tree always undergoes,_ 
paves the way for a speedy reception of the juices of 
its new foster-mother. 
Newly Planted Trees. —A trying time is now at 
hand, when the appliances of good staking, fastening, 
shading, and mulching, will occasionally be requi¬ 
site. Of course we do not suppose that every apple- 
tree planted in an orchard can be shaded: most 
people are too busy in other ways to be able to accom¬ 
plish so much; but this we say, that the benefits 
derivable from such little attentions are of much 
import, and that our amateur readers who have 
periods of leisure will do well to render all the assist¬ 
ance in their power in such cases. Mulching we 
however consider indispensable with all iruit-trees; 
this we have already pointed outin a preceding article; 
as also staking. YVe merely advert to them here to 
refresh memories for the last time, as mere spring 
business. In fastening newly-planted wall-trees, 
much care must be taken to have the bands loose. 
We never finally train our newly-planted^wall-trees 
until the end of May, by which time they will have 
settled considerably; we merely sling a long and 
j loose strip of shreds here and there, enough to keep 
I the main branches in their place, for fear ot wind 
waving. Towards the end of the month, if dry 
weather previously, a little watering may be neces¬ 
sary; and our practice is to use warm liquid-manure, 
just such as we described for the strawberries, and 
about 10° warmer than the soil—say about 75°. 
Wo do hope before very long that our worthy co- 
