August 21.] 
THE COTTAGE GARDENER. 
317 
some trees, productive of symmetrical trees, and, by ! 
consequence, an equal and uniform distribution of the ; 
fruit. The peach and the nectarine may come in for 
the first operation, and the sooner the better. Our 
practice is, to pinch the point from every strong-growing 
shoot all over the tree, taking care, however, to leave 
unmolested every shoot below the proper medium. On 
the last point we lay particular stress, and the reasons 
for, and utility of the proceeding, will surely he manifest 
on the least consideration. No sooner are the stronger 
shoots stopped, say in the middle of August (and these 
will in general comprise two-thirds of the spray), than 
the influx of sap has a tendency into the weaker shoots, 
and these enjoy this advantage for at least three weeks 
longer; this tends to feed their hitherto half-supported 
buds, and to give them an impulse, in the succeeding 
spring, of eminent service in opposing any blight, and, 
as before observed, of equalising strength. The fruit, 
moreover, will he larger, and better flavoured, and the 
wood on such shoots will be by far better ripened, 
because ripened earlier. Let any one observe, at 
winter-pruning time, the difference in texture between 
shoots of this kind and those which have continued 
growing some three weeks or a month later; the 
pruuiug-knife is a pretty good criterion of ripeness in 
the wood. 
The superior pears we would operate on next, and in 
a similar way; also the apricots. As for plums, cher¬ 
ries, and such-like hardy fruits, they require much less 
assistance this way. About vines and figs we will offer 
advice in our next. 
Neither is stopping alone all that remains to be done, 
as to the ripening of the wood. Tliinning-out, or 
shortening back any superfluous shoots which may 
have been missed at former operations, must be attended 
to; indeed, the maxim must be, to admit sunlight 
to all the embryo fruit-buds as far as possible, for this 
is the period in which their formation is actually 
completed, they are, in fact, in a position somewhat 
analogous to seeds or grain three parts ripe. 
Let peach-growers remember, also, to remove the 
leaves from before their ripening fruit about a fortnight 
before they are ripe, pulling some entirely away, and 
pinching others half away. It is impossible to give 
them that fine colour for which a fine peach is so much 
admired without attention to this. R. Errington. 
THE FLOWER-GARDEN. 
The summer of 1620 was drier and hotter than any 
we gardeners have had to put up with ever since. 1 
was then but a young gardener, but I well recollect that 
in the neighbourhood of Inverness the leaves dropped 
off the pear-trees against walls for want of moisture, and 
I read in the newspapers that prayers were offered up 
in the churches for rain in the midst of the corn-harvest. 
That summer 1 had the charge of a border of fine and 
very expensive Geraniums, which were planted in the 
pots, and plunged an inch or two above the rims, on a 
border, in front of a conservatory which was attached to 
the mansion. What with the shelter of the mansion, 
and the glare from the conservatory lights, the border 
was as hot as any border could be out of Bengal itself. 
Here I then burnt my fingers so completely, but not 
from the heat of the border, that even now, when I 
think of the practice 1 was charged to carry out, it 
makes my hair almost stand on end ; and the adage of 
the burnt child being afraid of the fire has been well 
illustrated in my case ever since, for whenever I hear of 
a proposal to plant out geraniums in pots, as on that 
memorable border, I shudder all over. 1 recollect, as 
well as if it was done but yesterday, that more pains 
were bestowed in blending the colours and shades of 
those geraniums, at the time they were planted, than is 
done even now in some of our best gardens. When the 
whole was finished, and Mr. Temple, the gardener, was 
told that “ Donald must look to them,” I thought I 
could never have a longer feather in my cap ; but very 
shortly it was all over with me, nothing but the “ white 
feather ” could I show. The more I watered the gera¬ 
niums, and the more yellow leaves I picked off them, 
the more dry they became, and still more yellow did the 
rest turn out, till, at last, the case became so desperate 
that I really began to think of doing something that I 
dare not tell at this length of time. It was the fashion 
in those days to pot plants only once a-year, and the 
unfortunate geraniums were just eleven months in the 
same pots they were plunged out in; it was also the 
practice to have every pot nearly brimful of earth. This 
will explain how my efforts at watering them burnt my 
fingers, all the water passed into the border, and some 
of them passed somewhere else in a fortnight; and I 
pass on to say, that the next geraniums I plunged out in 
their pots are noic doing remarkably well. They are a 
lot which were intended to come into use about the end 
of this mouth, but, on the third of last July, having had 
a large bed to fill, all in a hurry, after removing some 
scaffolding from it, they were put in, pots and all, and 
ever since this is the gayest bed about the place. No 
large leaves need be picked off them this season. How¬ 
ever, the plan is too newly in hand to enable me, from 
my own experience, to recommend it with confidence ; 
but I have the authority and the consent of the best 
flower-gardener in Scotland to say, that the plan, beyond 
a doubt, is a complete cure against too many leaves in 
the autumn ; that at Drumlanrick thousands have been 
so treated with the greatest ease and most complete 
success; and there Mr. McIntosh finds that, after taking 
them up iu their pots, and allowing them to get dryish, 
and cutting them down, they are much more easily kept 
all the winter than by any other method. In March he 
shakes all the soil from them, and repots them in fresh 
soil, and in the same pots; then he allows them to go 
on slowly in their own way until it is time to plant them 
out again, and still iu their pots. The beds are well 
dug, and the pots well watered, aud plunged one inch 
over the rim, aud if very dry weather succeeds this 
planting, the whole get a watering or two—that is all. 
The climate in the south-west of Scotland is so moist in 
the autumn, aggravated at Drumlanrick by the hills all 
around, that without some such scheme as this they 
could do very little good with the stronger growing 
geraniums at all out of doors. Now, this is not being 
“ convinced against the will,” for 1 am well pleased to 
find out at last that I had been for so many years under 
a false impression, owing to my first experiment on the 
hot border having well nigh caused me to fly the 
country for ever. Another very great advantage of this 
system is, that in the autumn, when the beds get too 
crowded, some of the pots and plants may be removed, 
and, by giving them another shift, to secure all the 
roots that may have found their way over the top of the 
pots, the plants would be iu a good condition to “ rig 
out a greenhouse,” as one of our foremen suggested the 
other day. The only novelty which 1 could show to 
Mr. McIntosh was the system of planting according to 
heights and colours which is adopted in the principal 
flower-gardens here, and on the value of which he put 
more stress than any gardener who called since I have 
been here. After seeing everything over and over 
again, 1 requested him to say candidly which of all our 
geraniums he thought the best, for the flower-garden, of 
course. After the Golden Chain, he remarked, which is 
far beyond anything I have yet seen tried, your next 
best is so-and-so, and fortunately the so-and-so happened 
to be a seedling without a name, and I asked him on 
the spot if he would “ father it,” the meaning of which 
