120 
THE COTTAGE GARDENER. 
[May 29. 
now and then a daub on tlio sunny portions. In addi¬ 
tion, if the insect appears, use syringing as frequently 
aait can he dried away again, taking care that the plants 
and surface aro dry once every day. As for the thrips, 
they are always puzzling rogues; we are not aware that 
any sure mode of totally extirpating them exists, unless 
it he our friend Appiehy’s mode, as practised with 
orcliideous plants, which is to fumigate with tobacco, 
and slightly stove with sulphur in combination. We 
have tried this with orchkls for the extirpation of the 
minute thrip, which infests such as the Dendrobiums, 
Nolile, and Coerulescens, and it has certainly destroyed 
them. We venture on dangerous ground, nevertheless, 
to recommend such practice to the inexperienced, who, 
ten to one, will “burn their fingers” in the very first 
attempt. If stoving is resorted to, it will, perhaps, he a 
good plan, in a frame, to make three or four bricks pretty 
hot, and to plaster them with a sulphur paint, intro¬ 
ducing them in front, and shutting close up with mats. 
We leave it, therefore, to the discretion of the operator, 
with a strong recommendation of caution. 
The aphides are, as is well known, easily destroyed 
with the fumes of tobacco. We advise all our melon 
friends'* to practice fumigations in a ■preventive sense, 
commencing with the plant just before blooming, 
whether the aphides appear or not. Such may he 
repeated nearly once a fortnight, using moderate doses, 
hut shutting up close with mats, &c., for several hours. 
The Persian Melons. —The Hoosianee, the Ispahan, 
and their varieties, with some others, require peculiar 
treatment. Mr. Fleming, of Trentliam, is well known 
to be one of the most successful cultivators of this 
section in the varieties; and it is not the only thing he 
excels in. He has raised hybrids of his own, which are 
said to combine the hardiness of the finer old kinds, 
with the delicate flavour, thin rind, and exquisitely 
juicy character of the Persians. All, however, are too 
tender for those of limited means to rely on; and if they 
will try them, extra attention will be requisite. The 
best of glass is necessary, and a very high temperature 
must be secured. They, moreover, evince more im¬ 
patience as to confined atmospheric moisture than the 
ordinary melons, albeit they enjoy a considerable amount 
of moisture at the extremities of the roots. Those who 
desire further information concerning them, with a view 
to next year’s culture, will do well to consult the Cottaye 
Gardeners Dictionary when it arrives at the letter M. 
If we mistake not, this cheap work will prove the hand¬ 
book of thousands. R. Errinutox. 
THE ELOWER-GARDEN. 
Planting Trees and Shrubs out from Pots. —There ! 
i are two reasons in favour of the plan of planting single j 
| choice specimens out from pots on mounds twenty inches 
! or two feet above the general level, a system of which | 
| I disapproved in my last; the first of which is a damp, 
| cold bottom of clay lying in such a way as to be difficult ! 
to drain it properly; and the second is—a very general ; 
practice with planters—to make large wide holes at 
once, and filling them with fresh soil, or compost, in a 
. very loose state, without pressing it down, an excellent 
plan for very hardy trees like our oaks; but the very 
reverse for any plant that is at all tender, or for one 
whose natural habit is to begin to grow with us early in 
spring, as some of the Indian iirs do, or whose habit is 
to go on growing late in the autumn, as many of the 
Cypress tribe exhibit, and the reason is this: On a 
mound of loose soil you encourage the roots to go at 
once to the bottom. Right enough for the oak; but for 
the early riser in the spring you aggravate the evil of 
shooting too soon for our climate by encouraging the 
roots away from the influence of surface temperature. 
At the end of a long winter our soil is never so cold at 
two feet from the surface as it is on the top, so that the 
deeper you have the roots, if the bottom is dry, the 
warmer they are, and, therefore, the more readily do 
they assist your plant to grow away at the top, and the 
sooner it does that, the more liable it must be to be 
injured by a late frost. The same causes are at work 
late in the autumn, to encourage the late-growing kinds 
to go on in their own way until they are overtaken by a 
sudden hard frost, which, perchance, may cut oft' their 
aspiring leaders. In November we may have the sur¬ 
face so chilled down as to stop vegetation ; but at two 
feet below, the influence of the warm summer showers is 
still in operation, as I have just remarked. Therefore, 
those who have studied all this properly, object to the 
practice of encouraging the roots to sink deep into the 
earth. When they put in the new soil in a pit, they 
press it hard down until they come within a foot or so 
of the surface ; therefore, as this soil cannot afterwards 
settle down much, they have no cause to raise the collar 
of the plant more than a few inches above the level. 
When the young roots come to the pressed earth they 
are more likely to search sideways where the soil is loose, 
and thus keep nearer the surface, or if some of the 
strongest do find their way deeper, the more useful ones 
are sure to spread on either side. When the roots of many 
trees grow long and fast, as they surely will in a wide 
pit, they do not make nearly so many small feeding 
roots as those which are stinted for room. Hence it is 
that narrow pits at first planting are better in the long 
run than wide ones ; besides, in a wide pit filled at once 
with good soil, some of it at least will be inert, or say 
not good for much, by the time it is all occupied by the 
roots. On the whole, therefore, the best practice is to 
begin with narrow pits, and to enlarge them by degrees 
as the tree gets on. 
A few years since, Mr. Ayres, one of our very best 
gardeners, and also amongst the hest writers on practical 
gardening, founded a new plan of making Vine borders 
on this very principle which I am contending for. First 
of all he only allows the Vine about four feet wide to 
spread in, and afterwards adds to the width of the border, 
by degrees, as the roots increase, the Vine being notorious 
for making long bare roots in a wide border. 
The next step in successful planting is to see that 
roots that have coiled in the pots are laid out or trained 
out in straight lines, which we have so often insisted 
on; but the whole ball need not be disturbed in doing 
this. Fatal results have often been experienced from a 
false notion that it is necessary to shake away the whole 
of the soil in the ball before the roots can be got at. 
Roots never coil in a pot until they reach the sides; 
therefore, to do the thing properly, all that is necessary 
is to unloose the first inch or two on the outside of the 
ball, and then all the coils may be easily uncoiled, the 
centre, or the greater portion of it, beiug left just as it is 
so that very little risk indeed is incurred—not much 
more than that in changing a plant from one pot to 
another. Then, if the plant is loosely tied to a firm 
stake in the middle of the pit, I can see no reason why 
the youngest amateur in the country may not plant the 
rarest tree from Mexico or Peru as successfully as the 
most experienced gardener ; but the best planter in the 
world, if he ventures to plant out without thus releasing 
the roots, but merely putting in the ball as it turns out 
of the pot, is as sure to be defeated in the long run as 
my name is Donald. 
There is another side to this subject well worthy of 
being put in practice in many instances; an old plan, it 
is true, but not a bit the worse for that. Let us suppose 
one has a fine lot of rare things in pots, and that it is 
high time they were planted out permanently, but some 
how or other the grower lias no place ready for them, or 
his situation is too bleak to turn them out just yet, or, 
