206 
THE COTTAGE GARDENER AND COUNTRY GENTLEMAN, January 8, 1861. 
Geraniums, or other lmlf-hardy plants kept ready in pots. By 
this mode—though the only glass I have is a common frame—I 
keep a constant succession of bloom. 
The two plots kept for vegetables are divided into four parts : 
one planted with Strawberries (perhaps this is an Hibernicism), 
two are apportioned to early Potatoes, the other to salads, spring 
Cabbage, &c., changing the crops often. I never attempt to 
grow Carrots, Onions, Parsnips, or any roots of that description, 
which you can buy as well, and not many Peas. I plant only 
those vegetables which require to be used fresh, and will allow a 
second crop. When they are off I follow with Celery, Kidnt-y 
Beans, Winter Greens, a few Turnips and Leeks for soups, 
cropping all, except the Strawberries (and occasionally I have 
Lettuce between them), tw'ice. 
As for fruit, besides the Strawberries mentioned, I fill up the 
angle with them, and by the advice of a friend, one of our mo t 
skilful professional gardeners, I have made a rockery between 
the first plot and the flowers, and planted it with Keens’ Seed¬ 
ling, Sir Harry, and others. This is 30 feet long, the centre 
34 inches high, sloping to the south about 36 inches, to the 
north 50 inches ; by this arrangement getting sun on the north 
side. To make this it took seven loads of strong turf, rotted, 
and five loads of stones. It contains between 400 and 500 plants. 
It was made last summer, is very ornamental, and from the 
appearance of the plants promises to be profitable. An Apricot, 
Kirke’s and Seine Claude Plum, with a root-pruned Glou Mor- 
ceau ocupying the south-aspect wall. On the one looking ea t 
are two Victoria Plums (though young trees they had fourteen 
dozen last year on them), two May Duke Cherries, one Wint r 
Nelis and one early Pear, on a gable ; and the rest of the wall s 
taken up with twenty-three Currants. On the gable looking 
west is a Louise Bonne and Easter Beurre ; the espalier fence is 
covered with trained Rasps. I erected a light wire fence 5 feet 
high between the Rose-border and the next plot, and turning 
also east, I have seven root-pruned Pears on it. Running down 
the west side of the garden, one foot from the walk, is a low trell s 
30 inches high, on which are trained twenty-three Currantg 
each stem 8 inches apart, and closely spurred in, as recommended 
in your manual “Fruit Gardening for the Many.” 
A slight division is made in our vegetable plot by planting 
one pyramid Pear and two Apples, filling up the line with 
Currants, also on that system. The rest of the garden, save 
a plot of twelve roots of Victoria Rhubarb, six of which are 
forced alternately, is taken up by twenty-eight Gooseberry and 
Currant trees, a pyramid Pear and Apple, and a Victoria 
Plum, the two last trained, I think you call it, en quenouille. 
All the trees except the root-pruned I planted as advised in 
your first and second volumes. To sum up, there are in this 
small spot one Apricot, two Cherries, five Plums, fourteen Pears, 
four Apples, sixty-one Currants, twenty-four Gooseberries, and 
about 60 feet of Rasps on espaliers, and there is no shading , 
besides above forty Roses and a large quantity of Strawberries. 
The trees are young, many of them bore well last year, though 
the fruit, from the cold summer, was not well flavoured. To 
produce this result requires a considerable quantity of manure 
and fresh soil; the last I can readily get, and use it freely. 
To keep the trees small the system of root-pruning, recom¬ 
mended by you and Mr. Rivers, is pretty closely attended to, 
and with good results. 
I fear I have trespassed too much on your space; but I 
thought perhaps at this dull gardening season (the snow is now 
12 inches deep here) you might have a little room to Bpare, if 
the contents are worth printing .—South Durham, 
FRUITS OF 1860 AT BURNTWOOD GRANGE. 
{Continued from gage 61) 
Much more might bo said in favour of the Musa Cavendishii; 
but I must reserve it to a future day, when I hope to give a 
much lengthier description of it, with the mode of treatment i 
will receive here, which will cause it to be of a much dwarfer 
habit than at present, and without detriment to either the size 
of its foliage or the weight of its fruit. 
1 rom this we must now pass to quite a different species o 
iruit, although it stands on equal terms as to rareness, bu 
differing as widely in the size of both foliage and fruit from the 
former as the Liliputians did from the Brobdignags. 
I allude to the Eugenia TJgrii , which is a highly fragran 
delicious fruit. But this has its drawback, and only one—the 
smallness of its fruits: this deficiency, I firmly believe, will be 
surmounted ere long. As an ornamental plant it is quite as 
handsome in foliage as any of our Myrtles, although not quite so 
fragrant when in bloom ; but its elegant Campanula-shaped 
flower is quite as pleasing to the eye as the blooms of its twin 
sister the Myrtle. And when its fruit is ripe the above-named 
plant has not the remotest chance to cope with it, for it is 
impossible to adequately describe the fragrance of this recent 
acquisition to our fruits. Here it has been the most attractive 
plant of the conservatory for several months, and certainly not 
without deserving it. It is about two feet six niches high by 
three feet in diameter, and something the shape of a well-grown 
Scarlet Geranium. By-the-by, this is just the kind cf style in 
which this plant should be grown to make a good specimen. 
Recourse must be had to stopping, or what is called pinching 
back the shoots. If this is not commenced when the plants are 
young they will become similar to two that were exhibited at a 
great public exhibition of fruits this autumn—their branches 
few and far between, just like the sunny days of this past summer 
have been. 
It is of such easy culture that any cottager might keep it in 
his window through the winter months, provided it was saved 
from the frost. The treatment that will do for the Myrtle will 
do for this plant as well. A rich soil, with plenty of air and 
moisture given through the spring and summer months will 
insure an abundant supply of flower and fruit. Cuttings struck 
early in the sprung and potted off into 90-pots, then placed in a 
gentle heat until they are well rooted, and inured gradually to 
the open air. In June they will require another shift, and in 
the March following a rather liberal one, when they will both 
bloom aud fruit well that season. 
I cannot see why they should not be grown in the west of 
England out of doors in the same manner that Myrtles 
are—trained to a wall, but covered in the winter with 
thatched hurdles, so as to protect them from some of the severest 
frosts. 
Melons come next in rotation, which this year have been very 
good here. My favourites are Turner’s Scarlet Gem for scarlet 
fleshed, and a cross betweenCarter’sExcelsior and theBeechwood 
Melon—two free-setting, highly delicious varieties, the latter of 
which is green fleshed. Those grown on dung-bed3 were finer 
and much richer in flavour than those that were grown in the 
hot-water pits. The reason why they were so I must state in a 
separate article. 
Our wall trees, one and all, were overabundantly supplied 
with fruit. The wall was a perfect picture from one end to the 
other. It is nearly 100 yards in length, 12 feet in height, and 
with 18 fine trees growing against it, which cover seven parts 
out of eight of the south side of the wall: 6 Peach, 6 Nectarine, 
5 Plum, and 1 Moor Park Apricot. We commenced gathering 
from the last-mentioned tree Sept. 10, and finished gathering 
Oct. 11. The number gathered was twenty-nine dozen. 
The Peaches are Late Admirable, Early Newington, Noblesse, 
Royal George, Salway, and Vanguard. We commenced gathering 
Sept. 7, and gathered the last on Oct. 26. Number gathered, 
fifty-seven dozen, being nine dozen and a half per tree. 
Of Nectarines we have the following kinds: —Elruge, Early 
Newington 2, Pitmaston Orange, Violette Hative, and New 
White. We commenced gathering Sept. 7, and gathered the 
last on Oct. 17. The number gathered from the six trees was 
fifty-two dozen, or eight dozen and eight per tree. Total from 
twelve trees, 109 dozen. 
Plums were equally abundant; for from the five trees there 
were above 100 dozen gathered, besides what were used for 
culinary purposes. They consist of the following kinds :— 
Green Gage, Magnum Bonum (white), Orleans (Smith’s), 
Purple Gage, and Washington, each of which seemingly vied 
with the other for the mastery; but, as I have above stated, 
through the sunny days of this summer being so few and far 
between, there has not been that peculiar flavour imparted to 
any of our out-door fruits as there would have been had the 
weather been otherwise :—had it been similar to the heat of 1857 
there would have been a different tale to have been told. Let 
us hope that the summer of 1861, which will so soon be here, 
may be more genial than the past one has been. If it is, it will 
gladden the hearts of many who are in any way connected with 
horticultural pursuits. We may then look forward for a far 
less number of cracked Melons, which have been too plentiful 
this year, and less water-w'ashed fruit. The best-flavoured Peaches 
here were Early Newington, Royal George, and Vanguard. Of 
