June 22. 
THE COTTAGE GARDENER. 
223 
Among all our numerous hardy trees and shrubs, there 
[ are none that require more attention as to soil than Hoses 
; and Pears on the Quince Stocks. Both luxuriate in a deep, 
rich, cool loam, not too light and friable ; but they may both 
1 be made amenable to culture, even in the most unfavourable 
1 soils. It is, perhaps, something more than twenty years 
since I became a cultivator and lover of pyramidal Bears on 
Quince Stocks, and soon observing that they were rather 
difficult of cultivation, and almost refused to grow in some 
descriptions of soils, I resolved to try and conquer them. I 
therefore selected a narrow slip of ground in which a strong 
white clay full of chalk stones cropped out. I was attracted 
to this spot by observing some Pear-trees on Pear stocks, 
after existing a few years, literally killed by its unfavourable ' 
nature, their leaves turning to a blight yellow ; and in four 
or five years, the trees becoming unkind and dead. Now, 
this offered a good field for operations ; about fifteen years 
ago I, therefore, made a plantation on it of pyramidal 
Pears on Quince and Pear Stocks, opening a hole for each 
tree, and filling it with about a wheelbarrowful of light com¬ 
post (rotten-leaves manure and light sandy loam); the trees 
grew well for three or four years, and then their leaves com¬ 
menced to turn yellow ; I then root-pruned them, and gave 
them a surface-dressing in the autumn of strong manure; 
this assisted them to some extent, and they made healthy 
young shoots, and bore fine fruit; hut the colour of their 
leaves continued yellowish, and they did not seem quite 
happy. I, therefore, determined to have them all lifted, and 
replanted in some fresh compost. I think it was about this 
time that I saw, in some gardens in the suburbs of Valen¬ 
ciennes, some truly magnificent pyramidal Pear and Apple- 
trees growing in a black unctuous soil, like our moor earth. 
I found something like this soil at home in a rushy, marshy 
meadow near the river; but as I knew, from experience, that 
no tree or shrub, but a willow or alder, would grow in this 
black spongy mass, I determined to have it dug and laid up 
with lime in a ridge, putting two bushels of unslacked lime 
to twenty of moor earth. In three months, during which 
time it was turned twice, it was fit for use ; I added to it 
some burnt earth from my refuse heap, and planted some 
Pear-trees, both on Pear and Quince Stocks, in it in Novem¬ 
ber, giving to each tree a barrowful of compost; its effect 
was remarkable—the yellow trees at once became green, 
healthy, and fertile. At the end of two years I removed 
some of the trees, and found their roots, like those of Rho¬ 
dodendrons, forming a complete fibrous mass. They were 
lifted and replanted, adding to each about two bushels of 
tho moor-eartli compost. They did not appear to feel their 
removal, and grew and bore well the following summer. 
The trees in the same plantation, and growing in the same 
compost, but not lifted , turned yellow, and shewed symptoms 
of not being quite at their ease; so they were also lifted the 
following year, and became green and healthily vigorous. I 
mean, that their shoots were not long and luxuriant, but 
short and well ripened, which I call being healthily vigorous. 
You may .judge that I was well pleased on being able to 
| conquer my Fear-killing soil; and the result has been, that 
1 I now remove all my specimen trees biennially; and I fully 
J believe, that in whatever part of England, Scotland, or Ire- ; 
' land, there is solar heat enough to ripen Pears on pyramids : 
1 or dwarf bushes, they may be grown, in despite of un¬ 
favourable soils, by biennially removing them, and giving 
them a light compost to grow in. In chalky, gravelly soils, 
\ I should grow them in moor-earth, treated as above; in stiff, 
I cold soils, I should use leaf-mould, or manure thoroughly 
1 decomposed and mixed with sand, or light sandy loam, or 
peat. In those deep-rich soils in which Pears on Quince 
Stocks grow with so much vigour, I should still remove them I 
biennially; but owing to our cloudy, moist climate, the 
vigorous shoots of pyramidal or dwarf Pear-trees are sel¬ 
dom properly ripened. This biennial removal (it should 
take place in November) is not at all a formidable operation. 
; After two removals, the fibrous roots become so matted as to 
require but little labour ; it is merely digging a trench 
round the tree, lifting it, and giving some compost or not, 
according to its wants. An active labourer can lift from forty 
to fifty in a day. 
With regard to the form of garden Pear-trees, there can 
be nothing more ornamental or agreeable than the pyra¬ 
midal ; but from some recent experience, I am inclined to 
patronise the dwarf bush, either for exposed places, or for 
those who have neither time nor inclination to train and 
prune pyramids. I stumbled on this form for Pear-trees on 
the Quince Stock merely by accident; but I am so much 
pleased with the facility with which a net is thrown over a 
bush, either to protect it from spring-frosts, or the fruit 
from birds in the autumn, that I feel assured they will soon 
come into favour. A bush as large as a full-sized gooseberry 
bush will give enough Pears, of one sort, for a small family, 
with the biennial removal. Scarcely any pruning is required; 
all that is necessary, is to shorten tbe young shoots to six or 
eight inches in August; thin them out when they become at 
all crowded, so that ah’ and light are admitted to all parts of 
the tree. 
Plums and Apples, with biennial removal, may be grown 
in this hush like form with equal facility. This is, perhaps, 
the most simple of all modes of fruit-culture, and can be 
carried out in the smallest gardens, and by the most inex¬ 
perienced gardeners. 
It is, in my opinion, the duty of all us grey-heads to 
simplify, in all possible ways, the various branches of gar¬ 
dening, so as to make plenty of real cottage gardeners. 
A well-cultivated cottage garden is, in my opinion, a more 
gratifying sight than the finest ducal garden in England. 
I have two or three articles in my gardening creed which 
I adhere to with “ pretty considerable ” firmness, in spite of 
all that has been said or written. The first is, that Pears 
on Quince Slocks are the most fertile and interesting of all 
garden fruit-trees. The second, that biennial removal for 
fruit-trees and Roses will, on the whole, (unless in the most 
favourable soils), be found to give the most satisfactory and 
favourable results. The third, that the Manetti Rose is the 
best of all Rose Stocks for light and warm soils. 
Let those who differ from me in tbe third article go and 
look at a bed of Roses on the Manetti stock, growing on a 
gravelly hill in the nursery of Mr Francis, of Hertford. I 
have possessed this stock twenty years (it was sent to me 
from Como, in 1834), and am more than ever convinced of 
its good qualities. It gives no suckers from its roots, and 
is so favourable for some varieties of Roses, that I can point 
out some bushes, several years old, on which the Roses 
budded on it have overpowered the shoots from tbe stock, 
in this way; I found some budded Roses which had been 
forgotten, and tbe suckers on tbe stem of the stock not 
removed; I was prompted by curiosity to allow the suckers to 
remain, and see which was victorious, tbe stock or the bud. 
The latter has triumphed. The budded Roses, now six years 
old, are growing with the utmost vigour, and the suckers 
have gradually dwindled away so as not to interfere with the ! 
growth of the bud. In all my experience, I have never seen 
a case like this with the Dog-rose ; for if every sucker is not 
removed from it when the bud is growing, it will be sure to 1 
overpower and destroy it in a few weeks. Let Mr. Beaton 
bud his stocks (they should be two years old, and budded 
near the ground) with Baronne Provost, Pius Ninth , Duchess 
of Sutherland, or any other vigorous-growing autumnal Roses, 
and he will soon have the finest pillar Roses ever beheld.— 
T. Rivers, Sawbridgetvorth Nurseries. 
BATH POULTRY EXHIBITION. 
The city of Bath presented, on Wednesday, the 7th inst., 
and two following days, a more lively appearance than can, 
perhaps, be remembered “ by the oldest inhabitant now j 
there living.” Many circumstances tended to produce this ' 
general holiday. The Agricultural Society held their \ 
annual meeting ; the Bath Poultry Show then took place; 
the Horticultural Society also had their usual fete ; besides i 
which, cricket matches, an assembly ball, and boating, all 
(and each) drew together so many admiring multitudes, 
that it was only by dint of obstinate perseverence strangers 
could obtain accommodation, the inns being filled to re- J 
pletion. Still, as the weather was all that could be possibly 
desired, and to the attractions just detailed, the originators 
of the Society for obtaining public subscriptions for tbe 
“ Widows and Orphans of our Soldiers and Sailors,” held a 
“ Fancy Fair” in their behalf, it ceases to produce surprise, 
when we say, that no exhibition of poultry was ever so suc¬ 
cessful, in a pecuniary point of view, as the one just held in | 
