THE COTTAGE GARDENER. 
[July 25. 
250 
Fi RST .— Will pines stand long by this system if not 
tank-heated?—“ Pines may remain on old tan beds ten 
years (if planted out) without disturbing the plant, if 
planted in rows across the bed, leaving a tolerable space 
between the rows to fill up with new tan twice in the 
year, namely, spring and autumn. It they are to be 
(f rown in pots they may remain undisturbed—-say five 
years—by adding a little fresh tan twice a year." 
Second. —Will tan alone sustain them?—“I would 
recommend a little chopped turf put round their stems 
once a year in preference to tan alone." 
Third. —You say they do with much less water than 
by the old pot culture; say how much?— 11 They will 
not want watering above four times a year if syringed 
and grown in a moist atmosphere.” 
Fourth. — Which make the best plants for your 
system, stem-suckers or ground-suckers?—“Ground- 
suckers generally produce the best fruit, but I make a 
practice of taking two or three crops from the stem- 
suckers first, aud then encourage a ground-sucker; 
cutting the old stem down.” 
Fifth. —How is it that mossy matter is liable to be 
engendered on the leaf of pines on the Hamiltonian 
system, and what is the remedy ?—“ The green matter 
which adheres to the leaf is occasioned by constant 
moisture with little or no intermission. If the leaves 
are permitted to get dry each day only for an hour this 
will be prevented; ventilation is the remedy.” 
Sixth. —You sent me a leaf which had produced a 
sucker at its base after being torn from the parent plant; 
was the leaf from an old stool or a “maiden plant?”— 
“ The leaf, with the sucker attached, was taken from 
the bottom of an old plant.” 
Thus far our good friend Hamilton, to whom we feel 
very much obliged for so patiently and carefully answer¬ 
ing the inquiries. 
We will now offer a few comments, or advice, to young 
beginners who are obliged to steer their way through 
difficulties, promising, however, to meddle as little with 
the form of friend Hamilton’s texts as possible. 
Point First : The Renewal of Bottom-heat. —It 
will be found that old beds heated with fermenting 
material will, when of a year or two’s standing, threaten 
at certain periods to lose their heat altogether; and in 
such an event an inconvenient amount of tan may be 
required, in order to put fresh life in the bed. Now, as 
gaps will occur in the bed at times, by the total 
clearance of perhaps three or four adjoining fruits, ad¬ 
vantage may be taken of such a circumstance to remove 
a plant or two, and to excavate deeply, introducing such 
materials as dung and tree leaves, in a fermenting state, 
or even fresh tan, as the case may be; this, however, is 
a contingency not to be expected under the tank system, 
and we give it as a make-shift in extreme cases. It will 
be seen that Mr. H. recommends an increased amount 
of room between the rows, and also that the latter be 
straight across the bed, not in the quincunx manner. 
Indeed, this is obviously the only reasonable mode of 
proceeding, for it will thus be found that the tan may at 
all times be introduced with facility. 
Point Second. —Here it will be seen that although tan 
alone as top-dressing will sustain them, yet Mr. TI. 
prefers an occasional top-dressing of turfy material. He 
has, nevertheless, shewn in his book on Pines, that they 
extend their roots with the utmost freedom in fresh tan. 
Point Third : Watering. —This is a point which 
deserves serious consideration. A person who had been 
accustomed to grow Queens in pots, would be almost 
sure to do serious mischief with the water-pot to Black 
Jamaica Pines, under the Hamiltonian plan. Syringing 
must be closely attended to, and not only this, but much 
atmospheric moisture provided for, by the use of eva¬ 
porating pans, or tiles; by hot water piipies in troughs, 
or by open tanks. This done, they will seldom require 
water; it must be kept in mind that they have a much 
greater volume of material to revel in than those con¬ 
fined to plots ; their collar, moreover, is at a much lower 
level; the latter an important consideration. 
Point Fourth. —It will be seen that Mr. H. (in his 
own language), makes use of the stem-suckers for a year 
or two, or, as he says, for two or three crops. We must 
admit that this is somewhat indefinite, but as we shall 
recur to this subject again, if all be well, opportunities 
will arise for us to ascertain such collateral pioints with 
some precision. We would here point to the fact, that 
young pine stools in general make their first efforts at 
reproduction up the stem, and that the throwing up 
suckers from below the ground level is more the habit 
of the mature plant, and indeed, no doubt in part points 
to a great amount of power, through an encouraged 
longevity in the earliest formed fibres, together with an 
increased power to range in quest of food. 
Point Fifth. —This point refers to the matter of ven¬ 
tilation, and we do hope that no one will again try to 
disparage the Hamiltonian mode of culture, through a. 
fancy that Mr. H., in his strong advocacy of abundance 
of atmospheric moisture, neglects the important point of 
so far aerating the pine structures, as to thoroughly 
dispel all stagnant and vitiated lodgments of im- 
pmre air—at least once in the day. How strongly this 
coincides with our friend Mr. Appleby’s sound and 
clever remarks on the management of the atmosphere 
for orchids; lie insists, as all good cultivators do, on a 
thoroughly dry leaf, at least once in twenty-four hours. 
Indeed, nature herself in her general economy forces 
this great fact on the notice of all who will pay a close 
attention to the established order of things. 
Point Sixth. —We would direct the attention of our 
readers to the great fact, that Mr. H. has piroduced a 
sucker from the leaf of an old stool; the leaf I have bad 
possession of, and examined with much interest; no one 
could do so without being struck with the fact so often 
reiterated by Hamilton, viz.—that the whole system of 
the pine plant, even after one or two fruits are recently 
cut, is still a storehouse of surplus food of eminent 
service in getting on the young offspring, and thereby 
shortening the fruiting period by many weeks. Now, if 
this be a fact, and although to some apparently carrying 
a hypothetical appearance, it has hitherto received no 
contradiction of sufficient weight to invalidate its cor¬ 
rectness. 
Now this leaf, after producing a sucker somewhat 
after the way of a gloxinia we suppose, was, as we are 
informed by Mr. H., thrown in the sunshine, divested 
of soil in order to see whether it would still not only live 
but increase in substance ; it did both, and herein is a 
fact, as we conceive, bearing with no mean strength on 
the point before alluded to. 
Having at least a dozen letters on the table touching 
points in the Hamiltonian system, and which the great 
civility of Mr. H. has enabled us to work up, we must 
take leave of the pine for a week or two, promising to 
return to it, and to use further extracts from Mr. H’s 
letters, which will be quite as palatable to those of our 
readers who feel a strong interest in understanding the 
bearing of the subject, as any comments that we can 
make. We shall then attempt to show that the Hamil¬ 
tonian system need not be confined to the culture of the 
Black Jamaica. R. Errington. 
THE FLOWER-GARDEN. 
Cuttings. —I have said that we often plant cuttings 
of Scarlet Geraniums in hot weather, and in the full sun, 
without giving them any water afterwards. In such 
cases the most of the large leaves flag down, and some 
I of them will die, but in a week or so the cuttings stand 
