326 
THE COTTAGE GARDENER. 
are the last great improvement in the culture of our 
superior fruits. But how can these well-meaning per¬ 
sons thus settle the dispute, with the fact before their 
eyes, that first-rate Peaches, Nectarines, and Apricots are 
produced in the utmost profusion in our northern 
counties without such structures? 
We are told, however, that the northerns have their 
trees retarded much beyond the time of the southern; 
und that this is the prime secret. If so, why do we 
not hear more about retardation, as to fruit blossoms, 
in the south ? The very principle has scarcely been 
recognised until the last three or four years, and I am 
not well assured that it is so recognised at this very 
hour. 
Wo all know that shading, or screens of any kind, 
applied to a fruit-tree, in January, and continued as 
long as expedient, will, either at London or Johnny 
Groat’s, throw the blooming period some weeks back. 
Let us, then, beg of our friends in the south to either 
admit the principle, or repudiate it on sound ground. 
I find, that through a strong desire to get this point 
established, I have somewhat overshot my mark; but 
1 will at once turn back to more practical matter ; just 
observing, that these digressions all bear more or less 
on the main question. 
To Peaches and Nectarines in August, what should be 
done ? 
We may fairly suppose that the young shoots have 
gone through the processes of “ thinning out” and 
training; also, that gross shoots have been long since 
pinched or stopped. In the early part of the month the 
fruit will commence its last swelling, or, in our more 
southern counties, in the latter part of July; and this 
very period is that which I select for what may be 
termed a general stopping of the young sprays. This 
I have practised for years, and see no reason to de¬ 
part from it. One effect speedily follows this pro¬ 
cedure; that portion of the foliage which had been 
but recently produced attains a full development, and, 
of course, is in a position to add to the productive 
stores of the tree, instead of taking from them. We 
all know that good Vine-dressers do not encourage the 
very latest growth on their Vines; they pick them 
away, for reasons very similar to those urged for the 
Peach and Nectariue. 
But, Speaking of the ripening of the wood, this prac¬ 
tice has a particular tendency that way; indeed, how 
could it be otherwise ? 
It may be readily imagined that stopping the enlarge¬ 
ment or extension of a deciduous tree, in July or 
August, by checking all excessive demands for the 
ascending sap, must tend to a solidification of the wood ; 
and the latter we call ripening. 
Since, however, it is seldom that all portions of a 
fruit-tree are equally balanced as to strength, this is 
the very occasion to establish an equilibrium, as far as 
art can effect it. 
It so happens, that this stopping is highly conducive 
to this end, when managed judiciously, as I have often 
proved. Of course, as a general principle, the pinching 
a shoot in full growth has a direct tendency to stop its 
enlargement, and vice versa. If any one doubt this, 
let him take some plant, or tree, on which to try the 
experiment; let him select two boughs, and pinch the 
one, and leave the other unpinched—such, followed up 
through a couple of years, will soon convince him of the 
truthfulness of this point. 
Now, judicious “stopping” I have, for many years, 
made the groundwork of all attempts at equalising the 
power of the branches on trained trees, and, of course, 
all other trees. I have not, however, waited until the 
beginning of August this year, feeling assured that the 
principle might be pushed much further. My Peaches, 
Nectarines, Pears, &c., are at this moment (July 28th) 
\UGUST 7. 
all gone over according to the principles here suggested ; 
and in due time I will state tin?results in The Cottage 
Gardener. We have stopped the point of every shoot 
which needed no farther enlargement, and have equally 
refrained from stopping those which required an acces¬ 
sion of sap, to bring them into a position to compete 
with the superior branches. 
Again, then, 1 urge, that all pains be taken to ripen 
the wood, as well as fruit, during the month of August. 
It is scarcely too much to affirm, that on this month, 
more than any other, depends the success of the ensuing 
1 year. 
It really is lamentable to hear, on spring’s return, so 
many good-looking and well-meaning gentlemen com¬ 
plaining of their singularly unfortunate locality as to 
fruits. It matters not what latitude they are in; whether 
the South Foreland in Kent, or the Orkneys : they are 
a complaining family, and would appear to be worse 
used by far than the rest of the world. If we happen 
to talk of twenty degrees of frost, this family speedily 
quote twenty-five; talk we of damp air, why theirs is 
dry once or twice in the year. This really makes me 
desirous of naming a joke about a garden in the 
1 Highlands of Scotland, as bearing on bad climate. 
A gardener—a southern—had hired himself to a 
gentleman in the Orkneys, or Western Isles, 1 forget 
j which. Down he went from the King’s Road, or 
some sheltered nook about the southern metropolis; 
possibly he did not even ken what a “ Scotch mist” is. 
> It rained almost all the way, and sometimes “snawed,” 
just for variety’s sake; at last he set foot on this Island, 
j where, of course, he would be entertained with a cold 
collation. Being excessively annoyed by these keen 
and ill-mannered northern sleet-bearing breezes, he fell 
into a fit of Cockney impatience, and called for the 
waiter of the hotel. “ Pray,” says he, “ how many fair 
days have you in the year in this Island ? ” The waiter, 
being a true Donald, at once answered in a sort of hall 
Gaelic, “jist wan, sir.” “Indeed,” said the Londoner, 
“ then have the goodness to pack up my traps again, 
for this climate will not agree with my constitution.” 
R. Errington. 
Deadening Grass. —For any extensive surface of 
glass, s.s the roof of a greenhouse, the cheapest yet 
; very effectual application is a very little whiting, mixed 
I with a weak solution of size, and applied thinly inside 
i by means of a large whitewasher’s brush, A more per- 
1 manent, but far more expensive application, is a very 
little white lead, mixed with mastic varnish, and put 
j upon the glass, with a hard and large painter’s brush, 
! letting only the points of the hairs touch the glass. 
ROSE BLAIRII No. 2—THE GARDENERS’ 
BENEVOLENT INSTITUTION. 
I shoui.d have writen a chapter on this Rose six 
weeks since, had it not been for the reports of the exhi¬ 
bitions; meanwhile, Mr. Blair, who originated the said 
Rose in 1828 or 1829, has been elected a pensioner on 
the funds of the Institution mentioned at the head of 
these notes, and as some of the subscribers have made 
complaints against the election, 1 think it a good time 
to announce that I have changed my opinion on the 
subject of these elections, to which I am one of the original 
subscribers. I served twelve months on the committee 
the second year after the formation of the Society, and 
never missed one of the meetings that year, having 
then lived near Loudon. I have been elected on the 
committee two or three times since then, but I could 
not attend, on account of the distance. I had a notion 
