THE COTTAGE GARDENER. 
October 31. 
75 
injuries complained of. This is done, however, with a 
full intention to prune away in April all supernu¬ 
meraries, providing the fruit has escaped the mischiefs 
complained of. I must confess that this is not the most 
systematic pilau, hut it sometimes proves a serviceable 
one. As to the birds destroying the buds in the act 
of germination, I feel tolerably assured that some 
nauseous mixture applied by the syringe, or by hand, 
will keep them at hay for this spring. I had several 
bushes syringed with soft-soap water, in which was a 
little sulphur, and then dusted with lime, and I am not 
aware that the birds visited them after; this was done 
the moment the birds commenced their attack. 
Rut, to return to my pruning; the thinning bcingdone, 
the shoots should be shortened, and that for several 
reasons. In the first place, the points of the shoots are 
apt to be immature, and, of course, the buds of a trivial 
character. Secondly, if left unshortened, they dangle 
so low, in many kinds, as to produce confusion, and to 
impede the gathering, and many of the lower shoots 
will get their produco splashed with mud in rainy 
weather. Besides this, shortening stimulates to a smarter 
kind of growth in the ensuing year. All these reasons, 
doubtless, may be considered as concurring in a re¬ 
commendation of the shortening system ; but all kinds 
need not ho shortened alike, neither all of the same 
kind. The pruner must judge by the character of the 
wood, remembering what he shortens for. As a tolerably 
safe maxim with fair growing trees, about one-fourth of 
the length may be removed ; our readers will, notwith¬ 
standing, have to take considerable liberties with this 
rule, when the bush is not exactly of ordinary character. 
It may hero bo observed, that bearing wood should not 
be loft so near the ground as wo sometimes see it; no 
point after pruning should bo within six inches of the 
soil, if possible; upright growers excepted. For this 
reason, I think it is an error to put out short cuttings, 
every one should be quite a foot above ground after 
insertion. We all know that the Gooseberry may be 
trained to a tree with a stem four to five feet in height; 
then why such short stems, at all times perilling the 
character of the lower fruits ? 
Those who want to propagate for future stocks, should 
collect carefully the very finest shoots as soon as the 
thinning is completed. They may bo at once named, 
tied in a bundle, and “ heeled; ” or, what is better, 
trimmed and planted-out at once. It is customary with 
some to put them in a shady place, but this is bad 
practice, and only justifiable when the cuttings are made 
late in spring, and scarcely then. I am well aware that 
they may occasionally root with more certainty, but the 
shoots they make are puny, and it is essential to the 
future welfare of the tree that the young bush make a 
sturdy effort from the first. 
By planting the cuttings directly they are pruned, 
however, not one in a score will miss, and by means of 
a generous soil, and an ojien situation, they will make 
two or three uico robust twigs the first summer, and 
these, with a little pruning, will form permanent heads 
in the following year. Let me, however, caution our 
readers against planting the cuttings too thickly. If in 
rows, they should be allowed six inches betweeir each 
two cuttings, and eighteen inches between the rows. 
This is my practice; and in the next year I take out 
alternate plants in the row, and transplant them, and 
those left make excellent bushes forthwith. It is 
nonsenso for gardeners to imitate nurserymen as to 
planting cuttings thick ; with them it is a quostion of 
how many plants can bo got off a given space of ground. 
Not so, however, with our amateurs and others. In 
trimming the cuttings, every eye or bud but the four 
topmost should bo scooped clearly out, or “blinded” 
(before insertion); the four are left to form the head, and 
if three or four break, it gives a chanco of selection at 
pruning time. The lower eyes are blinded in order to 
destroy the power, of the bush to put up suckers, which 
are ruinous to the welfare of the bush, and if it possess 
this habit, there is no getting rid of it. Let this point, 
therefore, be carefully attended to. And now I may as 
well offer a little advice about other autumnal pro¬ 
ceedings. 
As soon as the bushes are pruned, and the ground 
raked, a surface-dressing should bo thought of, for I 
strongly advise a slight annual addition in this respect, 
if only old thatch, or any decaying material which will 
not produce weeds. It must bo a poor bush that will 
not return about twopeuco in manorial applications; 
and if persons will persist in this, and keep the spade 
away, they will find their bushes last for a score years, 
or more ; providing, also, the caterpillar and other pests 
are kept under. As for digging amongst them, we might 
take a lesson from the hedge Gooseberry. Who lias 
not seen and admired those little mimic, come-by- 
chance, hedge Gooseberries, and observed, on each re¬ 
turning spring, the unassuming little bush budding 
and blossoming away in spite of the gigantic monopoly 
attempted by his more powerful neighbours, the White¬ 
thorns of the hedge ? So it is plain they will thrive 
without so much fussy digging. As for those of the 
market-gardener, they are no rule for private gardens; 
he depends as much on his crops between for profit as 
on the bushes; and, indeed, the amount of manorial 
matters buried by these high-farming gentry, doubtless, 
compensates for that root-cutting which must take place 
by a freo use of the spade. 
But these things admitted, we should consider whether 
we cannot, according to the adage—“Kill two birds.” 
There is the fearful caterpillar, which, unless destroyed, 
may neutralise all our efforts. Now, I remember, that 
about a scoro years since, the late Mi-. Loudon had 
concluded that the very best plan was to dig a trench 
around each bush, and to scrape or rake all the decaying 
foliage together with the surface of the soil, for two or 
threo inches, into the trench, stamping upon it, and 
covering it with fresh soil from the bottom of the 
excavation. 
I, for one, believe this to be good practice, having 
had better success when I did this, than, occasionally, 
since; and I have here to confess, that with me the 
practice had fallen into disuse through pressure of work, 
for I am not coward enough to bend to the imputation 
of indecision. But it is not really necessary so to dig 
the holes as to injure the bushes; os for scraping off 
three inches of the surface, why all I can say is, that it 
involves the necessity of a surface-dressing as an 
equivalent. So far, so good, for the system I suggest. 
Let, therefore, our readers revive this reasonable 
practice, which is, or professes to be, based on the 
natural habits of the Gooseberry caterpillar, with which, 
practically, every Gooseberry cultivator is but too well 
acquainted, it so happens, that the mode of destruction 
proposed is calculated to act in concert with the mode 
of applying an annual surface-dressing, as here recom¬ 
mended. R. Errington. 
FLOWER-GARDENING. 
There never was a better autumn for the flower- 
garden, everything ripened to perfection, and nothing 
was hurt by the frost; no equinoctial gales to knock 
about Hollyhocks, Dahlias, and other tall plants; the 
hot, dry weather through August and September kept 
the ground so warm, that the first October rains made a 
hotbed of it, the short grass began to grow afresh, as if 
it were spring, and now is the time to feel the luxury of 
a mossy lawn, morning and evening. If moss could 
have been destroyed by the short-sightedness of well 
