.THE COTTAGE GARDENER. 
July 10. 
256 
greenhouse, which they will ornament for a long 
season. 
Propagation. —I mentioned above that side-shoots 
spring from the bulb as well as the central one. These 
form bulbs, and by them the plants are increased 
numerously. At the time of potting, separate these 
small bulbs, and plant, them rather thickly in a store 
pot; grow them the same way as the flowering bulbs, 
and the second or third year they will flower equally as 
strong. 
T. Appleby. 
The Society of Arts held their anniversary dinner 
this year on the 3rd instant, most appropriately in that 
triumph of art, the Crystal Palace at Sydenham. 
ON THE CAUSES OE FAILURE IN FRUIT- 
TREES. 
Having, in a former page, promised to return to the sub¬ 
ject of the failure of fruit-trees, I now endeavour to give 
my version of the causes which tend to that result, as 
well as some hints likely to remedy that defect. At the 
same time, I beg most distinctly to state, that although 
much that I here put forth is supposition, it is based 
on facts which a fair share of experience and observa¬ 
tion has enabled me to collect together. 
In the first place, it will be best to go into some of the j 
causes of failure in the bearing of Peach and Nectarine 
trees, failures which certainly have been more frequent 1 
the last dozen years than in the preceding period. Can ! 
this arise from our island receding from the sun? If j 
not, to what other cause can we ascribe the declination 
of atmospheric heat? This is a point not necessary to 
enter into here ; leaving it, therefore, let us see how 
much cultivation has to do with the affair. 
When Peach or Nectarine trees are planted against a J 
wall in the accustomed way of supplying them at first ' 
with a proportionate quantity of fresh maiden loam, they 
are supposed to require nothing more for some time; 
i. e., supposing the rest of the border is good; and I 
believe, if w r e would then let them alone for a dozen 
years or so they would prosper, but the borders on 
which such trees are planted are the most valuable 
portions of the garden, and the temptation to plant 
vegetables and other things on such border is so great, 
and so often acted upon, as to derange the soil con¬ 
sidered so beneficial to the Peach. A wall, ten or twelve 
feet high, has a narrow border at the base of it some 
eighteen inches wide, then a hard trodden pathway 
about the same width, then the border, which does 
service, winter and summer, in the vegetable way, 
supplied copiously, or otherwise, with manure, as the case 
may be, to compensate for the loss it sustains from 
such hard cropping. Now, good dung is an excellent 
thing as a fertilizer, and I do not know, nor be¬ 
lieve, that we shall ever do without it; but there are 
many things to which it is of more use than to the 
Peach , which, not being a gross feeder, has less need of 
those juices which dung furnishes than many other 
plants. However, dung is supposed to be a cure for 
all evils in the garden, coupled with that of the water¬ 
ing pot; and though both arc useful, and a border, 
relieved of a heavy crop of Peas, Cauliflowers, or 
Potatoes, will derive much advantage from these appli¬ 
cations, yet that bonefit can but poorly compensate for 
the evils these crops have done to the Peach-trees. 
Cold spring water, impregnated, perhaps, with iron, 
lime, or other mineral matters, is poured on heedlessly 
on all things that are supposed to want water, and the 
result often is, as might be expected, a failure. 
Now, though I am often, like others, compelled in 
practice to crop such borders, and can hardly see how 
it can be prevented, still l am aware of its evil conse¬ 
quences, which, I conceive, tell at the setting time the 
next spring, when we are too apt to blame spring 
frosts and other things; my impression is, that when a, 
tree is in vigorous health—1 do not mean a gross or 
gouty condition — it will resist a much greater amount 
of frost than is generally supposed; but as we often 
hear of whole districts being a failure the same season, 
it is fair to conclude that some atmospheric agency has 
been at work either in the preceding autumn, or during 
the time the trees were in bloom in the spring—but 
most likely the former, for I conceive a favourable 
summer and autumn, with, of course, certain other 
conditions, as a not too heavy crop of fruit, proper j 
pruning, &c., to be of infinitely more importance in 1 
securing a crop than any amount of protection in the 
spring months; not but that protection may be of 
service, but it often receives the credit of securing a 
crop of fruit when that object would have been effected 
without it. I, therefore, urge on all who wish to be suc¬ 
cessful, to attend assiduously to the proper ripening of ! 
the wood in early autumn, having, during the summer, j 
secured, as far as possible, a healthy growth, by the 
destruction of insects, thinning the shoots, and, above 
all, removing every obstruction (if there be any) between 
them and that all-important agent, the sun. 
Now, it may be asked, how does it happen that trees 
growing on a dry soil are affected by a wet, cold autumn ? 
To this I apply the same reason as given above—that 
the season has more influence on the health or welfare 
of the tree than the situation ; and we all know that 
some dry lands suffer as much in a wet summer as 
some'wet ones do. Nature lias kindly endowed her 
many protegees with the admirable power to accustom 
themselves, in a certain degree, to the circumstances of 
their case, that a Peach-tree, growing in a damp soil, 
in a damp season will not suffer so very much more 
than the one occupying a dry one the same year, other 
things being the same. Now, as a tree on a dry soil 
may be too liberally supplied with water, in a natural 
way, in a wet season, it is reasonable to suppose that 
withdrawing all the moisture out of the ground, and 
rich juices, too, by a crop of Peas, Cauliflowers, or 
Potatoes, and then pouring on huge quantities of cold 
well-water, can be only a poor way of compensating 
for the injury done to the Peach-tree; and this hap¬ 
pening at a time when it has its fruit to swell off and 
ripen, and its embryo buds for another year to pre¬ 
pare and perfect, we need not wonder at one or the 
other being indifferently done. Better would it be if 
the wall border could be devoted to the Peach alone, 
and then we might expect it to flourish, with only such 
slight cultivation of the surface as might ensure the 
' roots not being meddled with. 
Having stated these as being my views in reference 
to the Peach, I may say the same, or nearly so, of other 
fruits also. Not that they suffer so much from mal¬ 
treatment in the way of cultivation, but that they are 
| equally sufferers from natural causes. We all know 
that last autumn was fine, and favoured the well ripen- 
! ing of the tissue of all hard-wooded trees. In addition 
to that, the crop was not a very heavy one ; conse¬ 
quently, the fruit-buds were perfected to a degree they 
had not been in preceding years; and it js much to that 
1 cause that I attribute the present fruitful season. L 
therefore repeat, that when a good, healthy bud is 
I prepared in the preceding season, the first step towards 
! a crop is effected ; and though ulterior causes will have 
I their due weight, still, with all common fruits, where pro- 
i tection and other helps are beyond our reach, this must 
be of paramount importance. 
I may be here allowed to observe, that 1 regard the 
Apricot as the most tender fruit-tree we have, not but 
