267 
THE COTTAGE GARDENER AND COUNTRY GENTLEMAN, January 26, 1858. 
* 
frost round London; but liow far north it may bear our 
British climate we are not quite sure, It will flourish in the 
j same soil, and under the same treatment as the Yucca; and 
: both like a deep friable, or open porous soil, on a dry bottom, 
and a south sunny aspect, free from cutting winds ; but any 
soil that will do for Scarlet Geraniums, or for Barley, will 
do for this Palm on a dry bottom. If the roots are coiled in 
the pot, do not plant the ball entire, but shake all the earth 
from the roots, and spread them like the roots of any large 
tree; and if the hole is eighteen inches or twenty inches 
deep, and wide enough to take a barrowful of fresh sandy 
loam—that will be enough for the first year or two. We 
never recommend large spaces to be made at first for any 
permanent plants—not even for Grapes. Every border, bed, 
or pit, for permanent plants, should begin on a small scale, 
! and be increased every year, or every other season, till the 
tree, or plant, or climbers are past nursing. At that rate 
there is always a fresh compost for the roots to run into, 
l which is the grand secret of all such gardening. We have 
just received the schedule of a new Horticultural Society for 
Ross-shire, in the north of Scotland, from the Secretary, 
I Mr. Smith of Dingwall. And as we know something of every 
family, and every place mentioned in the schedule ; also, as 
we are going to mention some of these places shortly, and to 
recommend the Society ; and wish it success; we mean to lay 
several of the members under contribution for The Cottage 
Gardener ; and we shall begin with this question—Is the 
Chamcerops excelsa at Braliam Castle, or at Cannon House ? 
or has it been planted out there ? If so, how does it do ? 
Again, are the deep, broad edgings of the blue Gentiana yet 
in the kitchen garden at Cannon House ? or the old hedges 
of the common Berber is on the home-farm of Braham Castle; 
that is, on the way to the Castle from Dingwall ?] 
MELON HOUSE. 
“ I am about erecting a Meloft house, a lean-to, with a 
south aspect, twenty-four feet long, by ten feet wide. It is to 
be heated by hot water. I want to know, what sized pipes 
you would recommend, and what sized boiler ? I think of 
putting a flow and return pipe on the front, right under the 
Melon bed, which I intend to be five feet wide ; then a two- 
feet path ; then a three-feet bed at the back, to grow a few 
Cucumbers. Would there be sufficient heat in the back bed 
without running the flue under it ? If there should be suffi¬ 
cient heat in the house with the pipes, I should like to put a 
shed at the back of the house, to serve as a Mushroom place. 
I thought of it being six feet wide, four feet next to the house 
for the Mushroom bed, then a two-feet path; and I wanted to 
run the flue under the path, and place a few iron gratings here 
and there, along the path, for the heat to rise through.”—A 
Constant Reader. 
[For such a house, though we can hardly judge correctly, 
as you do not say its height, we suspect you will want four 
four-inch pipes, a flow and a return, for top heat ; and a flow 
and a return, for bottom heat. This, by means of a cistern or 
stops, will enable you to give top heat and bottom heat 
: separately. If you did not care about this, but resolved to have 
all your pit in heat at once, the simplest mode would be, to 
have two pipes on the level, as flues, for top heat; and these 
i to return under the bed, for bottom heat. According to your 
’ proposal, you will not have bottom heat in your back bed 
sufficient for early forcing, without a heating medium beneath. 
You might take one pipe up the one, and back the other. If 
you contemplated forcing early, you would need two three- 
inch pipes under each bed. We disapprove of your growing 
Melons in front, and Cucumbers behind. Better place the 
Cucumbers at one end; they like moisture at roots, and in the 
air all the summer, and what would suit them, would give 
you Melons little better than Turnips. A two-feet path is 
rather narrow. See what has been said in late volumes, as to 
contracting root action ; three feet and a half would be quite 
wide^enough for Melons, and then you might have both sides 
alike; or, supposing your bed is five feet, you may bank a 
part of it off. The Melons and Cucumbers planted in the 
front, would soon cover all the roof if you wished. If you 
did not place a pipe below the back bed, it would do for a 
later crop. It might also be a nice platform for growing any 
plants that required heat. Any small boiler would do, such as 
Thompson’s, Weeks’ smallest, or a conical or saddle back. 
Get one with a large surface to the fire, in proportion to the 
water it holds. You may do as you say respecting the 
Mushroom house; cover the flue with strong tiles, and it may 
form the pathway. See that the atmosphere is not too dried. 
We prefer the the latter end of October, for transplanting 
large Laurels.] 
PRESERVING VINES CULTIVATED IN POTS. 
“ I have several small houses, one of which is now given up 
to Vines in pots. My intention is not to destroy my Vines, 
but to rest them every alternate year; and I see no reason 
why, under this treatment, the Vines should not be as good 
twenty years hence as they are now : or, indeed, better, pro¬ 
vided, of course, that they are not too heavily cropped, and 
that fresh soil is given to them every year. I mean to have 
two sets of Vines: one at work, while the other is at rest. 
Be so good as to let me have your opinion of this scheme.” 
—W. C. 
[There is nothing that we see to prevent your succeeding, 
unless there might be a misunderstanding as to the words, 
“ rest them every alternate year.” We presume that you 
mean to grow , instead of rest them one year, and fruit them 
the next. This just brings us back to the gist of the whole 
matter of growing Vines in pots as generally managed, 
namely, growing one year, and fruiting the next; whilst, 
in established Vines, the growing and producing go on simul¬ 
taneously. The question of using young Vines and older ; 
Vines is chiefly a matter of convenience and of taste, if the 
Vines have not been over-cropped. This so frequently is the I 
case, when Vines are grown in pots, that cultivators generally 
prefer young Vines to retaining the old ones. Were it not 
for this over-cropping, there is no reason why a Vine in a pot, 
of good strength, should not produce fruit every year, either j 
by fresh potting, or, rather, by liberal fresh surfacings, and ' 
manure waterings. The limited quantity of fruit left vigour 
for wood, and that would be fruitful. When a* moderate > 
crop is taken, say from four to six good bunches from a pot 
some fifteen inches in diameter, there will be no great amount 
of vigour left for wood for next year. As our correspondent 
suggests, we have tried such plants again by growing them 
the following year, and then fruiting them in the succeeding 
one ; and we tried two methods. By the first, we cut down 
the plant to the lowest bud in the autumn, after the leaves, had 
all fallen; plunged the pot in decayed leaves; placed it in a mild 
heat in February; and, when the buds were swelling, shook 
the old soil from the roots, and repotted in rich fibry loam 
that had been well aired, watered with warm water, and 
set all growing with a mild bottom heat. Others had the 
pot examined as to drainage in the autumn; no disrooting or 
shaking away the soil, but as much of the surface soil as 
could be removed without hurting the roots taken away, and 
the place supplied with fresh, rich fibry soil; kept in a place 
sheltered from frost during winter, and started again, like the 
rest, in February; and, if any difference at all, these last made 
rather the best rods, with the largest, plumpest buds : but there | 
was little difference between them. By the second method, we 
left the old fruit-bearing stem; cut every shoot back to the bud 
nearest the old stem; treated the plants differently, by the two 
modes mentioned above. Still finding that the pots that had 
not the earth shaken from the roots, did, if anything, rather 
the best; w T e, during the summer, allowed each of these spurs 
to produce a shoot some ten or twelve joints long before 
stopping it; and using it all the summer, with the intention 
of cutting back to a bud or two in autumn, in order to get 
fruitful shoots from these the next year. On the whole, 
costing more trouble, these did no better than those cut down, 
and grown to a single rod. To show that, if very moderately 
cropped, such Vines would be continuously fruitful, it may be 
mentioned, that several thus spurred back to make wood only, 
showed plenty of fruit for a crop. In the case of Vines hi 1 
pots that bore heavily, say from six to twelve bunches, it was 
found that they seldom showed at all the following year, if 
spurred in ; and that, whatever mode was adopted for growing 
them without fruit, for one summer, they seldom did any¬ 
thing so well—as well-ripened young Vines struck from buds 
inserted in bottom heat at the end of December, and shifted j 
