THE COTTAGE GARDENER AND COUNTRY GENTLEMAN, Januaby 19, 1858. 
anti we may safely infer, that if they were destroyed 
under a close system of pruning, as is the best practice 
under the long-rod system in the open air, the Vines 
would soon yield up their vigour, and he of very little 
use. The landlord of the “Fountain” was then my 
Grape-grower, and the accident was under my own 
practice. B. Beaton. 
TREATMENT OF UNHEALTHY ORANGE 
TREES. 
“ I shall be greatly obliged if you will give me a little 
advice about an Orange tree, of which I enclose some leaves 
and tops. I have two Orange trees in the same house. Both 
have, as far as I know, had the same treatment; but the 
results are very different, as you will see by the enclosed 
specimens. 1 have just entered a new situation, and find 
everything in a most deplorable condition, with the exception 
of one Orange tree. By what I can learn, the tree was put 
into a new box about two years ago. The box is two feet deep, 
and two feet five inches square. I think it was over-potted, 
as I took out four barroviuls of stiff loam till I came to the 
old ball, and it had not made new roots : it was also without 
drainage. I have now put nine inches of crocks at the 
bottom, and a course of bricks all round the box, to make it 
smaller, which reduces it to twenty inches square of mould. 
I have now planted it in the soil of an old Cucumber bed, 
mixed witli a little very rotten manure and leaf mould. I 
have planted it with the old ball: would it have been better 
to have shaken it out entirely ? The tree is old; has a good- 
sized head; measures ten inches and a half round the stem ; 
in many parts the leaves are curled back, and the points of 
shoots dying back, as you will see by what I have sent. The 
house they are in is nearly new', as it has been up about four 
years. The ends to the east and west front to the south; the 
back and ends being brick : the front is glass to the ground : 
also the top lights all glass. I found all sorts of vermin in 
the house, for which I have used the remedies recommended 
in The Cottage Gabdeneb. Would it do any good to 
paint the stem of the Orange tree with anything ? 
“ I also want a little advice about the Vines in the same 
house, for which a new border was made; and they have had 
two summers. They made a tolerably good shoot last summer, 
when they w r ere attacked with mildew. The border is made 
on a solid chalk bottom; and I think there is no drainage. 
The border is quite flat: the house is used as a promenade : 
the floors are kept as dry and white as possible.”—L. M. 
In a previous volume will be found a fidl account 
of how to treat such trees, under a sort of hospital 
regime, until they are again restored to perfect health. 
You have, no doubt, suggested the chief causes of the 
unhealthy state of the plant, and have done so far 
what was right, as remedial measures ; though our 
modes of treatment might have been somewhat dif¬ 
ferent. The case presents much that is likely to be 
generally interesting ; and, therefore, may furnish the 
basis of a few general remarks. 
The blanched appearance of the foliage, and the 
dying of the points of the shoots, would seem to show, 
not only that there was no reciprocal action between 
roots and branches, but that the roots were in a 
most unhealthy state, by being surrounded with stag¬ 
nant moisture. Want of sufficient drainage, and want 
of due care in watering, would alone occasion the 
j mischief. The over-potting, or over-tubbing, to which 
you refer, would form, or not form, an auxiliary cause ; 
just in proportion to the treatment adopted. The 
want of sufficient drainage, careless potting, and more 
careless watering, were the primary causes. 
For beginners to see through this thoroughly, they 
must perceive, that a plant in the open ground, and 
in a pot or tub, is placed in entirely different circum¬ 
stances. In the one case it is comparatively in¬ 
dependent of our attentions ; in the other it is wholly 
dependent on them. In the one case, if at all favour¬ 
ably situated, the plant is comparatively independent 
of drought and moisture; as, in the first case, it 
absorbs for itself moisture from the general mass of 
ground by which it is surrounded ; and, in the second 
case, extra moisture is just as freely distributed and 
got rid off. Shut off in a pot from this great earth- 
regulating medium, a plant gets little moisture, except 
what you give it. If the drainage is imperfect, it 
cannot part with an extra supply: and even if the 
drainage is not so very bad, yet, if the vessel is so 
large, as to contain a considerable portion of soil, 
into which no roots have penetrated, that soil, when 
extra watered, will be apt to become sour and marshy ; 
because its isolated, enclosed condition prevents it 
being acted upon, as it would have been, whilst re¬ 
maining a portion of the surrounding soil. This 
understood, will lead to two inferences. First, that 
there is least danger in over-watering pots or tubs full, 
or nearly full, of roots. In their case, the rule of 
watering may be, not merely water sufficiently to 
moisten every root, but water so as to moisten every 
bit of soil: and water again only when required. 
The second inference is, that there is great danger in ' 
over-watering, when the vessel contains a good pro¬ 
portion of earth near the sides of the vessel into which 
no roots have entered. The unerring rule here, is, 
“ water only so as to reach each root, but do not 
deluge the unappropriated soil, as that will be kept in 
a healthy state, as respects moisture, by absorption from 
the soil thoroughly watered.” These matters con¬ 
sidered, it will be perceived, that success in frequent 
small shifts, and success in one or two large shifts, 
depend more upon watering than anything else ; and 
where liap-hazard watering can alone be depended 
on, the large-shift system should never be attempted. 
Attention to this watering given, and provided your 
plants were healthy, it would be a matter of little 
moment, whether you gave a small shift or a large one. 
In your circumstances, I think you acted wisely, so 
far as giving nine inches of drainage, and the re¬ 
ducing your box from twenty-nine inches square, to 
about twenty inches, by placing a row of bricks on 
beds all round the inside. The same object might 
have been gained, by a temporary rough box of one- 
quarter or threc-eights-of-an-incli wood, kept by 
brackets from the sides of the box. The top of this 
opening might be stuffed with moss to prevent the 
sides of the temporary box being so much dried. 
Whatever mode is adopted, you thus, so far, guard 
against saturating unappropriated soil, with extra 
watering ; and after your soil is filled with roots, you 
can thus give one or two additions of fresh compost, 
without disturbing the plant or its roots to any extent. 
Two parts of your process, however, you w ill excuse 
me for saying, I do not approve of. The first is— 
planting the old ball without disentangling the roots. 
In such a case, very likely the roots are as unhealthy 
and decayed as the tops. Shaking the old effete earth 
from it, might cause some of the good roots that 
remained to be broken, or fall off*. After removing 
what earth would come away safely and easily, I 
would place the remaining portion of the ball into a 
tub of clean water, at a temperature from 50° to 60°; 
and by moving it gently, and using my fingers care- 
fully, I would get rid of every bit of the old soil, j 
Then taking the roots from the w ater, I would care¬ 
fully remove all the decayed parts ; and then draw 
them, so as to thoroughly clean them, through another 
vessel of clean water, allowing them to remain in it 
ten minutes or so, so that the roots might imbibe a 
fair portion of w ater. I would then prune off all the 
worst parts of the top, not minding if the diameter 
of the head were thus greatly lessened. I would then 
transfer the roots to a vessel that would just hold 
