THE COTTAGE GARDENER. 
January 29. 
204 
season for pruning ought to be regulated in some degree 
' by the strength of the tree ; for although, as a general 
! ru ] e , the operation should not take place until the fall 
| of the leaf indicates that vegetation has ceased, yet; if 
I the tree he weak, it may be often performed with ad- 
vantage a little earlier, but still so late in the autumn 
as to prevent the protrusion of fresh shoots. This re¬ 
duction of the branches before the tree lias finished 
vegetating directs a greater supply of sap to those 
remaining, and stores up in them the supply for in¬ 
creased growth next season. It the production oi spurs 
is the object of pruning, a branch should be pruned so 
as to leave a stump; because, as the sap supplied to 
the branch will be concentrated upon those buds re¬ 
maining at its extremity, these will be productive of 
shoots, though otherwise they would remain dormant, 
it being the general habit of plants, first to develope 
and mature parts that are furthest irom the roots. It is 
thus the Filbert is induced to put forth an abundance 
of young bearing wood, for its fruit is borne on the 
annual shoots, and similar treatment to a less severe 
extent is practised upon wall-fruit. 
We have been led to these observations by the 
following suggestive queries sent by a correspondent 
(C. K. C.) — “Does RoupclUa grata bloom upon the 
wood of the current year, or upon that formed in the 
previous summer? Also, at what time does it generally 
flower? Should it be cut back when starting?” The 
true name of this splendid plant is Strophanthus Stan- 
leyanus, a genus named by Decandolle, and is one of 
the finest of the stove Dogbanes which Africa has yet 
produced. Dogbanes (Apocynaceai), in general, flower 
on the current year’s growth, as Allamandas, Cerberus, 
Plumerias, Beaumontia, Echites, Oleanders, and many 
more. Yet it is not safe to trust to the general rule in 
pruning these Dogbanes. Allamanda may be pruned 
in the spring dow r n to one joint, and even the whole of 
i last year’s wood may be cut out, and yet the young 
wood will flower before the soason is out But if we 
were to apply this rule to the Oleanders, not one out of 
ten of them would flower at all. Strophanthus flowers 
at the end of the current year’s shoots, after the middle 
of summer, but it should not be .pruned close for flower¬ 
ing. Jf C. K. C.’s plant is young, we would prune it 
down to two joints of last year’s wood, in order, at first, 
to get a bushy growth, and afterwards prune from two 
to six or eight joints, according to their strength. We 
should like this experiment also to be tried:—Let some 
shoots that are neither weak nor too strong go without 
any pruning, to see if these flower more freely, as the 
experience of gardeners has not yet decided the point,— 
i seeing that Strophanthus, alias Roupelia, comes nearest 
to the Oleanders of all the Dogbanes. We incline to 
tho belief that unpruned shoots, if very well-ripened, 
will flower the freest, as in the Oleanders. The plant 
is supposed to be a shy bloomer. Young ones ought to 
! have a brisk bottom-heat of 80 ° from March to Mid- 
j summer, and, if in dung-heat, all the better.—B. J. 
Tn answer to our request for information as to local 
gardening implements, the following is a portion of 
another communication, the remainder of which shall 
appear at an early opportunity. 
No. 1.—Length of handle, including iron socket, 4 feet 
9 inches ; diameter of handle, Ip inch ; width of the head, 
6^ inches ; length of curved teeth, or prongs, Gy inches. 
At page 302, vol. vi., of The Cottage Gardener, one of 
my pet implements (No. 1) is described by a correspondent, 
and I am really happy to find so useful an instrument is 
known further a-freld. I send you a drawing of my own, 
and will entail upon you the ojigin of the idea, and how it 
came to pass. Nine years ago, and some two or three 
hundred yards from the house where I was then residing, 
a river (the Corve, near Ludlow) wended its circuitous 
course. Poor river ! good old Isaac Walton, in his piscatory 
day, I fancy, could not have inveigled finer trout, or 
conjured happier thoughts, than I have done by your ever- 
to-he-remembered sparkling streams and silent shades. 
At one part, occasioned by two stone walls, which formerly 
served to dam hack the water to work a mill, the river 
became contracted, and this circumstance was taken adv an¬ 
tage of to place an eel-basket there; this basket pressed 
the side of one of the walls, as it lay some five feet below 
the edge of the hank, and required myself with an assistant 
each time to raise it. The means adopted was to attach a 
strong rope to the smaller end, and the tines of a two¬ 
pronged stable-fork were bent to an angle for the purpose 
of hooking on to the other. One autumn morning, on my 
return from the eel-basket, when crossing the lawn with this 
bent fork in my hand, I made tise of it, upon the spur of the 
moment, to stir the surface of a flower-bed. The workman¬ 
ship) and capability of the thing was palpable, and by no 
means to he given up) so; the village blacksmith, my always 
friend, was consulted immediately, when the result was 
an instrument very nearly answering the description of the 
drawing sent. The premier implement—as I grow every¬ 
thing on tho drill or single row system—I had so con¬ 
structed that the centre tine, by unscrewing a nut from the 
top beam, could he taken out at pleasure, in order, that when 
working amongst smaller crops, where the width between 
the drills would not admit of the three tines, by relieving 
the centre one, the two spmees could be scarified by the 
outside tines, allowing, at the same time, the row of low- 
growing onions, or what-nots, to escape between them. It 
was all very well so far as this was concerned, though, and 
a great objection it was, the centre tine, by not being a 
fixture, and the constant use of the implement, became 
loosened, and made the tool disagreeable to work with. I 
therefore, when I came here, got the smith to make a new 
one, as per drawing ; it is made heavier in tho beam than 
the first, which relieves the muscles and strain upon one’s 
arms. By walking backwards it is quite astonishing the 
ground that can be scarified by this tool; as regards weeds, 
it is their most destructive enemy; they have not the 
slightest chance to grow, it worries them to death where it 
is allowed to take its repeated soil-stirring course. The 
depth required can be regulated according to the force 
employed, from one inch to seven, and no footmarks are 
left to mar the appearance of the work. For a frosty 
morning, flakes of frozen soil, very icebergs in miniature, 
can be exposed by it, in inconceivable confusion, to the action 
of the atmosphere. It stands first on my list as a useful 
implement, one that I could not dispense with. It has 
quietly placed my hoes upon the shelf, and the rake will 
soon bear them company. 
No. 2.—Length of handle, including iron socket, 4.Vfeet j 
handle of deal, and 1 inch diameter. The handle is marked 
in feet and inches. Length‘of blade, 4$ inches) breadth 
round, from edge to edge, K inches, 
