222 THE COTTAGE 
ping, disbudding, &o., as the ease may be: the prime 
object being to get the wall itself heated by the solar 
rays. Such heat is given out, as we have before observed, 
during the night; and it need scarcely be said, that the 
benefit is immense, for it must be obvious to the most 
uninformed, that it is a matter of some import, as to 
whether a thermometer placed amongst the shoots be 
55° or 60°. Of course, the vine-dresser will attend to 
the general principles of thinning in the hunch; and 
also of the berry, if fine fruit is desired. 
Towards the end of the month the earliest Peaches 
will require thinning in the leaf, for although the chiei 
of the swelling may be carried out most beautifully by 
means of the moderate shade afforded by the leaves, yet 
it is essential that the sun should at last shine on the 
fruit itself. This renders the fruit high-coloured, and 
high-colour and flavour generally go together in the 
peach ; and herein it forms an exception to some other 
fruits, especially the grape ; for tliose will colour under 
the most intense shade, formed by a thick canopy of its 
own umbrageous foliage. 
We would never, however, remove the peach foliage 
until the fruit has nearly completed its swelling say 
about one week before it is ripe; and even then we do 
not advise any wholesale plucking away of the leaves. 
Our practice is, to pinch away portions of the leaves 
immediately over the fruit, just enough to let the sun 
shine on about a third or a half. 
The first training, as previously advised, of all the 
principal or leading shoots, will have been carried out 
by all parties who are in earnest about their affairs, and 
we must now advise a further advance in training, in 
order to facilitate the admission of light in an equal way 
to all portions of the trees. In fact, there can be no 
reason why every shoot, considered permanent, should 
not be instantly trained close. It has been before 
observed in these pages, that when peach or nectarine 
trees are managed by system, not a shoot need remain 
but what is necessary in the ensuing spring. Ibis is, 
of course, presupposing that the trees are free from 
insects, and that they are safe at the root; or, in other 
words, are in soil adapted to their habits, and on a sound 
subsoil. Those, however, who have doubts on such sub¬ 
jects must admit of a compromise; must proceed by “ a 
middling sort of systom,” by which, indeed, hard though 
the words be, two-thirds of the wall peaches and necta¬ 
rines are managed in this kingdom. 
Currants {Red and White). —Those who mat up, or 
otherwise cover, these in order to retard them, should 
do so the moment the berries change colour. It is well, 
however, to do this at twice—once immediately, and the 
remaining portion a fortnight hence. Those done the 
earliest, should be occasionally uncovered—say once a 
week—for a day or two, in order to acquire, at a slow 
pace, both colour and flavour; for those will not bo so 
high flavoured as tlioso which are encased when all the 
berrios are matured. They will, nevertheless, keep 
longer, provided a little attention be given. 
Our readers are aware that Gooseberries, and, indeed, 
all other fruits, with scarcely an exception, may bo 
retarded on similar principles; viz.,' by first slightly 
retarding the ripening; and, secondly, by retarding ripe¬ 
ness itself. The latter by far the most important affair, 
about which we shall say a little more as the autumn 
advances. 
Fruit Rooms. —To talk of the fruit room in July may 
appear, at first sight, a far-fetched theme. Wo name it 
here to suggest, that all parties get their fruit rooms— 
the place we mean for their winter stores—cleaned out 
immediately, in order that all destructive fungi, or their 
spores, may be nipped in the bud; at least, all those 
which fester on the remains of decayed pieces of fruit, 
GARDENER. [Jcly 11. 
or shrivelled specimens, which may still remain in holes 
or corners. 
Let no one suppose that these are mere ceremonious 
proceedings; depend upon it, all fruit rooms are the 
better for a thorough scouring-out once in the year in 
the John Bull fashion—we mean with plenty of soap 
and water, and also that great essential of English 
cleanliness, a liberal amount of what the country-folk, 
in their homely vernacular, term “ elbow grease. ’ Ibis 
course not only removes impurities from the shelves, 
but from the very floors. If there be but a slight amount 
of stagnant damp existing, it generates a host of fungi 
in the form of a mere crust, which, by arresting evapo¬ 
ration, engenders a corrupt atmosphere. Washing, then, 
and a most liberal and attentive course of ventilation, 
are of eminent service during the succeeding autumn 
and winter ; for the fruits themselves may, in then own 
nature, breed fungi. R- Errington. 
THE ELOWER-GARDEN. 
After all our planting, and writing, and new modes of 
filling the flower-garden for many years, we must confess 
that the largest number of our best flower-gardens are 
not what we might and could make them, from the 
middle of May to this time. When the flush of “ spring 
flowers” is over, a sudden check is allowed tor the next 
six weeks, to give time to the half-hardy and fashionable 
plants of this department to establish themselves; and 
for the sake of an autumnal display, we forego the great 
show which annuals alone, under our present system, can 
produce in June, or until the newly “ turned out things 
fill up the beds and are in bloom. When we have 
a warm May and a dripping June things are sooner 
righted, but this season the cold spring lasted later into 
May than usual; and, although we experienced a good 
planting-out season, with refreshing showers, the stock 
was hardly disposed of before a drought and dog-days 
heat ensued, and with them watering-pots, ragged grass, 
and a general languidness all over the gardens. Add to 
this, the damage sustained by half-hardy shrubs and 
climbers, and by a great portion of our best roses from 
late spring frosts, and we shall not have much to boast 
of for the June of this year. But now the worst is 
over, and the flower-gardener has reached that period at 
which he has more leisure and less anxiety than at any 
other time of the whole year. The chief work now will 
be to train out and regulate all the trailing plants, such 
as Verbenas and Petunias, where the beds of these are 
not already covered. Trailing plants which run into 
oach other in the autumn, and are liable to be beaten 
down with rain and high winds, should now have some 
supports placed amongst them. Petunias, in particular, 
are much benefited by this early attention ; and the 
small spray, or the tops of pea-sticks, are good things to 
give them the necessary support. Begin with small 
sticks for them, not more than a foot or 18 inches high; 
and as they are covered longer sticks may then be added; 
and if these are placed equally all over a bed of this 
kind, no wind, however high, can damage them after¬ 
wards. _ . 
Stakes, of suitable sizes and lengths, will also bo in 
demand now for Hollyhocks, Phloxes, Dahlias, and other 
tall plants. Most people put down the stakes lor the 
dahlias at the time they are planted out: tho worst of 
which plan is, that small birds take a fancy to perch on 
tho tops of such naked stakes, and then disfigure the 
plants below them with their dung, which is annoying 
to the gardener, and prejudicial to the health of the 
leaves and plants themselves. But thero is a simple 
way of preventing all this, which I can confidently 
recommend; which is, to stick a pin in the very top of 
the stake, and then no bird can or will sit on tho pin or 
