March 27. 
THE COTTAGE GARDENER. 
501 
standards in favourable seasons; but such trees were not 
planted for profit. If you plant dwarf bush trees, the 
Apples, Pears, Plums, and Cherries, will cost you from 
T5 to £.1 10s, per 100; the Currants from 30s. to 40s.; and 
the Raspberries from 12s. to 20s. per 100, according to the 
sorts ; but if you buy trees already trained for espaliers, 
they will cost you from T10 to AT5 per 100. Taking a large 
quantity, you may, no doubt, obtain them at lower prices 
than these; but we are supposing that you apply to a 
respectable nurseryman, who is careful what and how he 
cultivates, and who has his own reputation and your interest 
in view; and in taking such a step as you contemplate, 
you cannot be too careful in this particular, otherwise, when 
your trees come into bearing, and you take your fruit to 
market, you may have to rue that ever you planted an 
orchard. 
We shall continue the answers next, week.] 
CHOICE PLANTS FOR A SOUTH WALL.— 
EMIGRATING. 
“ Please to name a few choice evergreen and deciduous 
shrubs for planting against a south wall at Clifton, that will 
stand the winter without protection, or with only a mat over 
them. 
“Which colony do you recommend, New Zealand or 
Canada, for a gentleman, thorough master of modern agricul¬ 
ture and horticulture, who has a wife and nine children, of 
ages from two-and-a-half to twenty ; girls and boys ; all the 
elder were well-educated; the three eldest, two girls and a 
boy.—L. T.” 
[Of deciduous shrubs for the south wall, take Spiraea 
Liudleyana, the best hardy wall shrub we have. Ceonothus 
azureus, to be pruned as close as a red Currant bush every 
November, and to have a single mat over it in such winters 
as the last; Ceonothus rigidus, papillosus, dentatus, divencutus, 
and verucosus, all evergreens, and pretty well suited for a 
cold wall. Forsythia viridissima, deciduous ; Myrica Cali¬ 
fornia!, a kind of sweet Gale and evergreen; Viburnum 
suspensum, a kind of Laurustinus, evergreen, and to have a 
mat in winter till it gets old and hard in the wood. Bignonia 
grandijlora major, deciduous; to be pruned close, like a 
Vine ; Cydonia Japonica, deciduous ; Robinia ldspida, or Rose 
Acacia, deciduous; IVigelia rosea, deciduous; the double 
crimson Peach and Buddleya Liudleyana, deciduous. 
We never, purposely, advise Emigrants as to this or that 
colony, but there cannot be two questions as to the colony 
most suited to the gentleman you name. Let him not think 
of going to New Zealand, or to Australia. Canada is by far 
the most suitable of all our British Colonies for him and 
his family.] 
TO CORRESPONDENTS. 
*** We request that no one will write to the departmental writers of 
The Cottage Gardener. It gives them unjustifiable trouble and 
expense. All communications should be addressed “ To the Editor of 
The Cottage Gardener, 2, Amen Corner, Paternoster Row , London .” 
Sebright Bantams Eggs.— A Subscriber wishes to know where he 
can procure good ones. 
Nightingale {A Subscriber from the first). — Apply to the bird 
dealers in St. Martin’s Lane. Have you Bechstein on “ Cage Birds”? 
Hogg’s Edging Tiles (A Reader ).—Write to Mr. Hogg, 13, Gilston 
Road, Broinpton, and ask him to give you permission to make them. 
Ayrshire Cows. —A Clergyman wishes to know where he can pro¬ 
cure some of the true breed. We cannot tell why you failed in endeavour¬ 
ing to enlarge the plan, for we do not know how you went to work. If 
straight lines are struck through the centres of the circles on each side, 
and if you draw your plan quadruple, or any other arithmetical increase 
of the plan we had engraved, you ought to have no difficulty. If you 
find it insuperable, our artist will do it for you if you enclose five shillings 
worth of P.O. stamps. 
Name of Plant (If. W .).—The plant so abundant in Corsica, and of 
which you sent some very badly dried specimens, is, we think, the 
Mediterranean Heath, Erica mediterranea. 
CALENDAR FOR APRIL. 
ORCHARD AND FRUIT GARDEN. 
Apples, cleanse from blight; protect blossoms. Apricots, protect 
with care. Cherries, finish training. Currants, finish dressing. 
Damsons may yet be planted 1 ; thin out the crowded spray in the interior. 
Figs, remove all covering; prune at the end. Grafting, see that the 
clay is safe, and rub oft* wild spray betimes. Gooseberries, beware of 
the Caterpillar. Insects, check vigorously early. Mulberries may 
be planted. Nectarines, see Peaches. Plums, finish pruning those 
which blossom on the young wood. Pears, as Plums; protect 
l blossoms. Peaches, use the cleansing mixture named in former 
calendars ; still protect, and disbud at the end. Pruning of all fruit- 
trees may still be done, if neglected at proper time. Raspberries, get 
tied if not done; top-dress. Strawberries, spring-dress if delayed. 
Staking, attend to. Training, complete in all fruits. Walnuts 
may yet be planted. Vines, train and plant. Planting of all kinds 
may yet be done, implying, of course, neglect or omission at the best 
period. But every winter arrear must be brought to a close forthwith. 
R. Errington. 
FRUIT-FORCING. 
Air-giving, attend regularly to, avoiding cold draughts. Bottom- 
warmths renew; 75° to 80° are safe points. Cucumbers, attend closely; 
stop often ; use liquid-manure, and sustain a moist and warm air—70° to 
85°. Chilies and the Capsicums, pot off and hasten. Cherries, 
avoid strong heat; keep a moist air. Fires, moderate, according to 
season; let solar heat do its work. Figs, much as Peaches , as to tem¬ 
perature, water frequently, and pinch young wood. Floors, wash down 
frequently. Grapes, ventilate freely where ripening; remove crowded 
laterals ; succession crops, follow up the usual routine of disbudding, 
stopping, training, and thinning, Insects, exterminate—Aphides by 
tobacco, Red Spider by sulphur. Kidney Beans, apply liquid-manure, 
and get in successions. Melons, keep thin in bine early, set blossoms, 
and stop and train weekly; provide successions. Nectarines, as 
Peaches ; pinching-off waste or watery shoots, remember. Pbaches, 
train, and top thin fruit. Use the syringe freely, and a free ventilation. 
Shading use occasionally in case of need. Syringe, do not lay it by; 
use it frequently; it is a capital cleanser, and an enemy to insects. 
Strawberries, attend to daily, water liberally, and give abundance of 
air, keeping down runners. Tomatoes, cool down ready for planting-out 
in the second week of May. Vines, attend well to in the ordinary routine 
of stopping, training, and berry-thinning; pray do not leave extra 
berries for a rubbishy tart or two. Watering must be a daily affair 
now; every thing examined. R. Errington. 
ORCHID HOUSE. 
Air. —The days are now considerably longer, and the sun has more 
power, consequently more air will be required to keep the heat moderate. 
Baskets, continue to renew, if not finished last month; dip them in 
tepid water once a week ; put in baskets plants to ornament the house, 
such as JEschynanthus , Achimenes , Hoya bella , Agalmyla stuminea, and 
any other drooping freely-tiowering plants. Blocks, syringe daily. 
Dbndrobiums, and other plants in flower, remove into a cooler house ; 
they will then last much longer in flower, but as soon as the bloom is 
over, return them into the warm house to finish their annual growth. 
Heat. —As the plants will now be growing freely, they require the maxi¬ 
mum of heat; in the Indian house, 75° to 99° by day, 65° to 70° by 
night ; the Mexican house should be 10° lower. Insects will now 
multiply rapidly; use every means to extirpate them, and prevent their 
increase. Potting, continue to all such as require it: the grand rule is 
to pot orchids as soon as new growths are apparent. Syringe freely in 
dull weather in the mornings only, but during sunny weather, syringe in 
the evenings also, shutting up the houses close previously to syringing ; 
a moist growing atmosphere will be the consequence. Water. —As the 
growths advance, increase the quantity of water at the root; dash it freely 
upon the platforms, walks, and walls daily, to keep up a large amount of 
atmospheric moisture. T. Appleby. 
PLANT STOVE. 
Aciiimenbs, repot and divide, if required, the first potted batch; 
specimens may now be made, by placing several plants in a large shallow 
pot in leaf mould, chopped sphagnum, and turfy loam. yEschynan- 
tiius, pot and train to a globular trellis; these make fine showy plants. 
Air, give freely on all favourable occasions. Amaryllises, pot and 
plunge in a bark-bed in a pit, to start them into flower and growth. 
Bark, renew, by sifting the old bark, removing the fine particles that 
pass through the sieve, keeping the rough in the pit, and adding sufficient 
fresh bark to raise it a little higher than the level; do not plunge the 
plants till the heat has moderated. Climbers, dress, tie, and train 
neatly. Hbat. —Keep up a brisk heat by day, but more moderate during 
the night. Ixoras, attend to specimens of, and tie them out so as to form 
dense handsome bushes. Moisture, give to the air of the house by 
dashing water about upon the floors, walls, and hot-water pipes. Pot¬ 
ting, general; finish the first early in the month. Red Spider, and all 
other insects, diligently destroy ; wash the flues or pipes with water and 
sulphur mixed together; lay it on with a whitewash brush. Water, 
give abundance of to growing plants ; keep every part clean and sweet; 
all decaying leaves remove, and syringe the leaves of the plants daily, 
especially as a day’s bright sunshine. T. Appleby. 
