September 5.] 
THE COTTAGE GARDENER. 
349 
the grass plot; so I have used for this last three years 
Chloride of Lime, and 1 have found it quite to my 
wishes The quantity I use is about an ounce to eight 
gallons of water, and I have never found it hurt or 
discolour a leaf, though I have frequently watered the 
beds, plants, and grass plot all over. It kills the moss 
on the latter; but what I find it the most useful for is, 
about every month, to water round the pots that it may 
run underneath them, which it quickly does, the garden 
being on a descent; and by applying the water a little 
stronger, and applying tho brush gently to cause it to 
go over every part at the same time, it effectually 
destroys all the green on the flag-stones.” 
As a fixer of Ammonia, Chloride of Lime is one of the 
most effectual applications. Half a pound dissolved in 
two and a half gallons of water, kept corked in a stone 
bottle, and a little twice daily sprinkled over the places 
wetted with the excrements, &c., of horses, cows, pigs, 
and poultry, will almost entirely remove the offensive 
fumes, and at tho same time prevent the escape of the 
ammonia. 
THE ERUTT-GARDEN. 
Early Autumn Planting. —We advise those of our 
readers who have fruit-trees to plant, to lose no time in 
making the necessary preparations. The first step of all 
others which wo practise, when possessed of an oppor¬ 
tunity, is to cut round the trees intended for removal. 
I his pro-supposes that the trees arc already in posses¬ 
sion ; and, indeed, refers more to trees of some size than 
young stock from the nursery. 
This cutting round we consider somewhat important; 
and it should be performed iu tho first week of Septem¬ 
ber at latest: it a little earlier so much the better. Its 
effects will be, to bring on an immediate disposition to 
produce a much increased amount of young fibres ; and 
we need scarcely observe, that such will the sooner 
establish the tree ; for it must be understood, that most 
of our hardy deciduous trees and shrubs carry on a 
continuous root action all the winter ; thev are, pro¬ 
bably, never entirely dormant, whilst the ground tem¬ 
perature is as high as from 40 to 50 degrees. 
Root action, then, being in some degree dependant on 
warmth iu the soil, how important early autumn plant¬ 
ing must bo to those who would gain time, which is 
generally the great object whether in planting for orna¬ 
ment or lor utility. It may also bo noticed, as a point 
in this argument, that trees cut round will of necessity 
be forced into a somewhat earlier rest: the supplies to 
the leaf being in a great measure cut off for a time, the 
action of the foliage is almost entirely claborative, and 
the latter functions soon become carried out or com¬ 
pleted. Such being the case, a tree cut round in the 
first week of September may bo considered fit for 
removal by the end of the month ; and at this period 
there still remains a considerable amount of ground- 
heat, even until tho middle of October or later,—enough 
to sot the small fibres iu action ready for the returnin';' 
spring. 
Such are some of tho reasons why early autumn 
planting is to be recommended ; but there remain 
others, tho weight of which being fairly added to the 
scale will cause a great preponderance, wc think, in 
favour of the practice. 
Let any one acquainted with gardening observe the 
immense pressure of busiuess which spring invariably 
brings, a pressure doubtless double that which exists in 
September and October. How important, then, is it 
to do all that can be done at this period, in order to ease 
the coming spring ! The young gardener who does not 
know or rightly estimate this has much to learn. 
Again, all soils are handled much easier now than in 
February, and are thereby left in a condition much 
more congenial to vegetation. Added to this, a day’s 
labour is a much more productive article at this period 
than in early spring—the days being longer, and the 
chances of bad weather much less. 
More need scarcely be said as to the expediency of 
early autumn planting: we will now, therefore, proceed 
to offer advice connected therewith. And, first, let us 
draw attention to thorough drainage, without which all 
other labours are vain. Of course we mean on soils of 
a stagnant character; such may be readily known to the 
veriesttyro by various symptoms. If unreclaimed or new 
enclosures from commons, wastes, or road-sides, the very 
character of the herbage produced should point to its 
condition. Such land, if of a damp or “ gouty ” cha¬ 
racter, will produce grasses of a peculiarly coarse habit, 
together with the Polygonum family, the lakeweed, 
rushes, &c., &c., most of which thiugs we feel persuaded 
are known at sight to the majority of the readers of 
The Cottage Gardener. 
Sometimes plots of ground are partially damp, and 
require but partial drainage. Such may be readily dis¬ 
tinguished by the colour of the surface, provided that 
no herbage exists on it; for if portions of such plots 
remain of a dark colour for days after other portions 
have become dusty on the surface, there can be little 
doubt that such portions require drainage. Let then, 
we say, no person esteem this as a light affair. How 
many pounds loss and years of disappointment have we 
known through ignorance or neglect of this fundamental 
principle. Where, however, plots evince by their general 
character that all is right below, the improvement ne¬ 
cessary, with regard to fruit trees, lies in a narrow com¬ 
pass. One of the first points is to examine the subsoil in its 
relation to the surface soil. By this we mean not only 
its mechanical character—that is to say, its power of 
transmitting superfluous moisture downwards witli 
facility,—but its proximity to the surface ; in other words, 
the average depth of the surface soil in its unimproved 
state. What we have now observed bears reference to 
the general improvement of any given plot, and we are 
hereby supposing that the object of the cultivator who 
may be enclosing a piece of unreclaimed land, and con¬ 
verting it at once into a vegetable and a fruit-garden, is 
to effect general and economical improvements at the 
least possible amount of expense. 
With regard to tho introduction of a tree here and 
there in existing gardens, the case is quite different. 
Here, if the soil be of a mellow character or improved 
state, nothing is wanted but the stations suggested iu 
previous numbers of The Cottage Gardener. Still, 
we would say, let a small amount of jealously be ex¬ 
ercised as to tho existence of stagnation below. We 
have known many old kitchen-gardens, which might 
fairly lay claim to a mellow and pulverised soil on the 
surface, charged, it may be, with a regular surfeiting of 
manures, yet anything but sound beneath. Let not 
the possessors of such gardens imagine that because 
fruits have been somehow or other cultivated in 
such plots for very many years, that they ought to rest 
satisfied with them. Let us again and again assure 
them, that even our hardiest fruits will not thrive in a 
satisfactory way, if an enemy exist beneath in the 
character of stagnating moisture. 
As The Cottage Gardener circulates north as well 
as south, wc would here remark on the culture of tender 
fruits in the cooler parts of Scotland, as also in the soft 
and damp atmosphere of the north of Ireland. If a 
regular cockney gardener—one who had never gardened 
