THE COTTAGE GARDENER. 
[June 0. 
144 
this is an operation frequently requiring an inconvenient 
amount of labour; and, moreover, unless the water is in 
a tepid state, its utility, as sometimes applied, is some¬ 
what questionable. 
Under such circumstances it is that we advocate 
mulching ; but where there is doubt of a proper amount 
of porosity in the soil, or a fear of water lodgment 
below, or in cases of very adhesive soils, we own that 
mulching should be resorted to with some caution. As 
to the matter of temperature in the soil, little harm need 
be apprehended from applying it in the course of the 
month of May, for the ground has by that period ac¬ 
quired a sufficient amount of warmth from the atmo¬ 
sphere to carry on the purposes of vegetation. 
To all those, then, who have doubts on the subject, 
and who can find time to water and duly attend to their 
trees, we would say—do not mulch until May, and then 
only in cases where injurious droughts are apprehended. 
At the same time it is necessary to observe, that we 
practise mulching systematically with most fruit-trees ; 
but then the trees in question are on shallow soils, 
j possessing a dry and sound subsoil of clear red sand, 
i On such we mulch newly planted fruit-trees in Novem¬ 
ber, in order to prevent any sudden and injurious 
vicissitudes; for, strange to say, what prevents the soil 
from becoming too hot in summer prevents it from 
i becoming too cold in winter. We mulch all fruits 
| carrying unusually heavy crops in May, in order that 
sudden droughts should not affect them injuriously, and 
also to the end that all rains passing to the roots should 
1 be compelled to carry with them an extra amount of 
! nutritious properties from the manure. 
Again, we mulch at various periods merely to en¬ 
courage surface roots; being assured that fruit-trees are 
ever more prosperous the more the latter are encouraged 
and protected. But then, be it remembered, that we 
never dig near to such trees, and that most of our fruits 
are planted on the platform system, with a depth of 
only fifteen inches to two feet of soil, as the case may 
be. Our peaches and nectarines were mulched over 
four inches deep in the second week of May, and a 
thorough soaking of water immediately applied; they 
have now (May 26th) made nearly enough wood for the 
whole summer. * R. Errington. 
THE FLOWER-GABDEN. 
Property of Roots. —There is one property belong¬ 
ing to the roots of many trees which is seldom taken 
into consideration, either in laying out a new flower- 
garden, or in planting in or around an old one. Yet, of 
all the difficulties incident to flower-gardening, those 
which arise from this property, or peculiarity, in the roots 
of certain 'fine trees are the most difficult to contend 
with. 
I happened to be in the company of some scientific 
people the other day, who I found, on joining them, were 
in “ deep consultation ” on this very subject—the pro¬ 
perties of roots ; and an observation that was made by 
one of the party, a practical man, tickled in my ears for 
two or three days afterwards; owing, as I suppose, to its 
originality—for in these days of reading and writing one 
seldom hears or meets with an original idea. Before 
the tickling faded away, I fixed on the subject as a good 
text to write a lecture on tree roots for The Cottage 
Gardener. I need scarcely say this practical man is a 
good gardener. He and one of our greatest architects, 
together with a lady and gentleman high in the garden¬ 
ing world, seemed much perplexed, at the time I joined 
them, about a certain beech-tree, under whose full spread¬ 
ing boughs they were sheltered ; not, however, like Vir¬ 
gil’s Tityrus, from the heat of the sun, but from a keen 
easterly wind. As far as I could make out, this beech- 
tree was very much in the gardener’s way, and ho coidd 
see no great harm in having it removed, root and branch 
—a feat in which the architect seemed very willing to 
assist him; but the owner of the tree (and he might be 
proud of it) thought very differently, and seemed to have 
it settled in his own mind that, come what would of new 
fancies in architecture and in gardening, this fine old 
spreading beech-tree should be spared to shelter and 
shade the owners thereof for the next two or three gene¬ 
rations. But he, the said owner, knowing that what¬ 
ever the result of the consultation might be, it must be 
paid for in hard cash, had no great objection to see the 
gardener and architect come into a mutual collision, if 
there is such a thing, about this tree; inferring all the 
while that a spark thus produced, though on the old 
principle of steel and flint, might not only save the 
beech-tree, but redound to their own credit and fame in 
after generations, and to his own comiort and pleasure 
in the mean time. I found also that it was a settled 
point with them all, that some kind of ornamental and 
permanent fence must pass under the boughs of this 
beech, and within five feet of the trunk. The architect 
had much objection to allow this fence to be constructed 
of such materials as came under his department of the 
“ fine arts,” and the “ practical man” could not perceive 
how a live fence could be established under and on 
either side of such a tree “ anyhow.” The arguments for 
and against this dead or “alive "fence brought out, I 
should think, the greatest portion of all the light which 
vegetable physiologists have hitherto employed in ex¬ 
amining and describing the properties ot the roots of 
large trees in general. 
I could see that my friend the gardener was, by this 
time, well nigh losing the day, and that a hedge ot tree- 
box, seven or eight feet high, at once must and would be 
planted on this disputed site; and whether this box- 
hedge should be planted by the gardener or by the archi¬ 
tect was all that remained to be settled, when the gar¬ 
dener exclaimed, “ Man alive! the roots of the beech 
would not only come to the surface of the new border 
for the box the very first year, but they would go up to 
the top of the tree itself and down again on the other 
side, take a new lease, and thus girdle the tree like a 
girl’s skipping rope.” This was new and sufficiently 
startling to all of us, but I believe he was not very far 
wrong. 
I have since learned that they have decided on the 
following ingenious plan :—A trench eight feet wide is 
to be opened in front of the beech-tree, and within five 
feet of its trunk. This trench will be as deep—or a little 
deeper—as the roots have gone down. The whole of the 
soil within the influence of the roots of the beech is to 
be carted away, and a four-inch brick wall, built in 
cement and carried up to the surface of the ground, is 
to keep back these voracious roots from a new border, 
in which large box-trees or bushes are to be planted 
next August or September, according to the state of the 
weather, as thickly as they can stand, and then to be 
dressed or pruned on one side into the shape of a hedge. 
Before the new soil is put into the trench, the bottom is 
to be strongly concreted with a slope from the brick 
division; and should the roots pass under the wall, they 
are met and stopped by the concrete. 
Now, any gardener of common experience can seo the 
impossibility of establishing a live hedge close to a full- 
grown beech, ash, or elm tree or trees, without some 
such expedient as that resorted to in this instance, be¬ 
cause the roots of these and similar trees will imme¬ 
diately occupy whatever good soil may be used to plant 
the hedge in; so that the newly planted things have no 
chance but to pine and starve by inches. Hence the 
reason for my own tar-barrel system for planting climbers 
and choice plants against old trees, or in the front of 
established plantations. What shall we say, therefore, 
if our own flower-beds just planted with care and the 
