July 
THE COTTAGE GARDENER. 
183 
of water is quite powerful enough for the intended 
purpose. We are in doubt as to the correctness of 
Knight’s opinion that mere water lias a material in¬ 
fluence in the composition of such a remedy, since 
we have noticed that standard fruit-trees, around 
which, at a distance of six. or eight feet from the stem, 
we had deposited, at a depth of 12 inches, a quantity 
of salt to promote the general health and fruitfulness 
of the tree, according to the manner formerly adopted 
to some extent in the cider countries for the apple 
orchards, that these escaped the honey-dew just as 
well as those which had been watered with salt and 
water, though it infected adjacent trees which had 
been treated with neither salt nor salt and water. 
Our experience, we think, justifies the conclusion at 
which we have arrived, viz., that if the roots of a 
plant are kept healthfully moist, and its leaves are 
preserved also from excessive dryness, it will never 
suffer from honey-dew. 
The encouragement conferred upon us by the public 
justifies us in endeavouring to accomplish our wish to 
be still more useful, by adopting the increased number 
of pages which we this day and permanently intend to 
place before our readers. The Stove department has 
been confided to Mr. Robert Fisii, long favourably 
known as a contributor to the Gardeners Magazine , 
Gardeners Journal, and other periodicals, and now 
gardener to Colonel Sowerby, at Putteridge Bury, 
near Luton. Our increased number of pages will 
enable us to add this department to The Cottage 
Gardener, not only without decreasing the space 
allotted to the other departments, but leaving an in¬ 
crease of space for them. Besides, we find not only 
that many of our readers already possess little struc¬ 
tures in which they cultivate stove plants, but that 
many more could not only do so but could force fruit, 
with scarcely any additional expense, aided by the 
information wo shall be able to give them; informa¬ 
tion still keeping in view our prime object—utility, 
and the improvement of the gardening of the many. 
THE ERUIT-GARDEN. 
Perseverance Necessary to Success. —This prin- 
iple is as essential in the natural as in the moral 
world; most, if not all, of the success-crowned efforts 
of the present as well as the past times bear this im¬ 
press on them. Why, then, should fruit cultivators 
expect to form an exception? True it is that blight¬ 
ing easterly winds, cold north-westers, and those 
April frosts, which appear to carry us back to the 
apparently hopeless scenes of a dreary winter, cast a 
damp on the human mind, and, for a moment, excite 
that sort of impatient spirit which would fain per¬ 
suade us that our labours are vain, and that no sub¬ 
stantial good can be achieved in fruit-gardening. 
Such glimmerings of querulous discontent we also 
have at times felt, as years have rolled on; but we 
must also confess and bear honourable testimony to 
a multitude of feelings of a less heartless, more ener¬ 
getic, and less desponding character, when, after the 
threatening dark cloud, we have unexpectedly met 
with invigorating suns and genial showers, and have 
discovered, time after time, that our efforts, although 
frustrated for awhile, yet were marked by a real pro¬ 
gress, which only required more temper, more pa¬ 
tience, and a better mood of mind, to fully appreciate, 
j We, therefore, if we may be allowed a rather coarse 
: joke, say to all our fruit-growing friends, in the lan- 
i guage of Cromwell, “ Trust in the Lord, and keep 
your gunpowder dry.” To apply the idea conveyed 
in this strange quotation from a strange character, we 
say, still trust in sound principles in preference to 
traditional maxims, and endeavour to increase your 
perseverance in proportion to the amount of your 
temporary defeat. 
We have been led to make these remarks in conse¬ 
quence of several applications from earnest contri¬ 
butors to The Cottage Gardener, who, in addition 
to a real English spirit of perseverance, which some¬ 
how lurks at the bottom of the style of many of their 
letters, still show a shade of despondency as to the 
present prospects of fruit-trees, more worthy of east¬ 
ern fatalists than the slowly-daunted and enterpris¬ 
ing sons of the north. Many complain that they 
have no pears, although planted and managed accord¬ 
ing to the most approved maxims. Others have failed 
in their peaches, or cherries, or apricots, &c., &c. 
Now, when we take into consideration the character 
of the past April, who can wonder at ill reports? 
We think it rather strange that there is any fruit at 
all, for we never during some two score years’ practice, 
or nearly so, knew such a perilous April for fruit blos¬ 
soms. 
With regard to pears, a great many of our sub¬ 
scribers have complained, in the course of their que¬ 
ries, of pears blossoming freely yet never beari ng; 
and they naturally wish to know the cause. Now, 
we would have it understood that in this, as in many 
other cases, several causes may tend to one and the 
same result. 
One cause appears to be a kind of decrepitude, 
the consequence of premature old age, induced by 
abuse of culture combined with deleterious subsoils. 
When we say “ abuse of culture,” we mean that to 
continue for years to dig a spade’s depth and to crop 
over the surface roots of fruit-trees is sure in the long 
run to produce evil effects, more especially if the 
subsoil is of an ungenial character. Trees, in their 
earlier stages, may and will stand this foul play with 
impunity; and why? Simply because the vital 
power being strong and in vigorous play they can 
■ continue to reproduce fresh fibres, as a sort of equiva¬ 
lent to the mutilation they are made to endure. By 
degrees, however, this strong vital action becomes 
tamed ; and, at last, if the poor old tree were skele¬ 
tonised at the root, it would be seen standing on a 
few deep props, something after the manner of a three- 
legged stool. This is no strained account, as would 
be ascertained on a close examination as above sug¬ 
gested. 
The following sketch will perhaps serve to illus¬ 
trate the matter. 
