3G7 
THE COTTAGE GARDENER AND COUNTRY GENTLEMAN, Mabch 16, 1858. 
Altogether, I was much gratified to see how well the 
gardening part of the Palace turns out, after all the prophecies 
we heard to the contrary, when the first start was made. Mr. 
Ayles, the curator of this department, must be very much 
pleased also, and to him I owe a long debt of gratitude for 
his kind permission to see everything I inquired after.— 
D. Beaton. 
A CHAPTER ON GRAFTING. 
To hasten on, and get everything done easily, is one of 
those maxims which everybody think themselves entitled to 
urge on their neighbours. It is sure and good advice; and, 
in gardening matters, is offered quite as much as in any other 
pursuit. Seeds, for example, are often advised to be sown, 
and other operations performed, quite as early as is consistent 
with their well-being. The fact of the matter is, that to be 
j able to get work done early, sounds so like being done 
properly and well, that few think it can be done too soon. 
There is one important garden operation which, in many places, 
is certainly done too eatly in. the season—that is, grafting of 
fruit trees, which is performed in many places much sooner in 
the spring than it ought to be; and when not so successful as 
wished for, the cause is laid to anything rather than being per¬ 
formed too early. Let us take an ordinary case. 
.Supposing, for instance, a farmer, or amateur, had some 
healthy Apple, or Pear trees in his orchard, of indifferent kinds, 
which he would like grafted afresh, his usual course is to head 
l them down in winter, leaving a number of forked limbs as 
j thick as his wrist or so, to work better kinds on. In the 
midland counties, and even near London, I have seen grafting 
of this kind done early in March, in an ordinary season. It 
is needless saying which way the scion may have been put on, 
but the ordinary crown, or cleft grafting, is the usual way; 
and being tied up and clayed over, is very often left to the 
tender mercies of cold withering easterly winds, which usually 
blow for a long tune at this season, withering everything (not 
having an established hold of the ground) completely up. To 
prevent this, some careful cultivators encase the grafts in a 
rough covering of moss, which, being tied upon all the heads 
so grafted, give the tree a grotesque appearance, and having 
frequently to be watered, is attended with much trouble; but, 
without this precaution, it is likely very few of the scions 
would have grown. Now, if the party putting themselves to 
all this labour, had but known that their efforts would have 
been equally, and, most likely, more successful, had they 
delayed the grafting a whole month or more, they would have 
saved themselves all the trouble of mossing and watering. The 
operation of grafting would have been performed in fine 
weather, and if the operation was well done, they would have 
very few that would miss. 
I have been induced to offer the above remarks on fruit- 
tree grafting, which, as a branch of the calling, has not received 
the attention it ought—since budding became the more 
fashionable pursuit—and, as that' is done in various ways 
throughout the whole summer, its sister art has been much 
neglected, and the oldest instructions we have, on grafting, 
remain still in force. The various modes recommended by 
Abercromby, and others, cannot well be found fault with; 
but it might be a month or more later with advantage. In 
making this assertion, I claim no new idea, or the result of 
any single experiment; it is the almost universal custom of 
the neighbourhood I live in, where there are extensive orchards 
of all kinds of fruit trees. Many old trees worked on the 
crown grafting system, are not grafted until May; and some 
growers, who have had much experience in that way, do not 
begin until the last week in April; and I need only observe, 
that no crack nursery knife-men, or propagators, are more suc¬ 
cessful, in a general way, than the farm labourers are in Kent, 
who have the management of the fruit plantations. Tongue 
grafting, which is usually performed on smaller stocks, is 
usually done somewhat earlier; but the whole is put off later 
in the season than is usual in most other places. 
In connection with the above, it is necessary to say, that 
the trees to be operated on are cut down, and the scions taken 
off some tune before the process of grafting is carried out. 
The scions are usually kept buried three-fourths of their 
length in the ground, and a very good reason for the delay, 
is the withering influence of the east and north-east winds we 
often have at this season, which would shrivel up the scion 
before it received any of the ascending sap. Whereas, by 
delaying the operation until the sap is in motion, it receives it- 
at once, and quickly becomes part and parcel of the tree it is 
inserted on. I strongly advise, then, not to be hasty in 
executing it, and the probability is, that grafters will find 
themselves more lucky than they expected. Even experienced 
gardeners, in grafting a wall Pear, very often do it earlier than 
they need do, only they have the means of partly guarding 
against the evils of so doing. But in giving the above advice 
on grafting, it is also necessary to caution the amateur against 
cutting down old, or unhealthy, trees to graft afresh, for he 
will find, probably, that after the grafts have grown some 
three or four years or more, the tree will either die off, or 
become sickly as before. This is more especially the case with 
standard Pears.—J. Robson. 
DOINGS IN WOODSTOCK AND DOINGS 
IN CHINA. 
“ W. M. Knowsley requests information concerning the 
application of diluted ammoniacal gas liquor, or any other 
particulars which may be thought necessary; feeling sure it 
would confer a great favour on your many readers, as well as ! 
himself.” To which I reply with the greatest pleasure, l 
“ Go and fetch me several pailsful of the ammoniacal liquor 
from the gas works, and then put at the rate of one pailful of 
the liquor to six of water into the copper, and make it boil as 
soon as possible. I will syringe every tree in the garden with 
the mixture, scalding hot! Something must be done, kill or 
cure; for soapsuds appear to have no more effect upon this 
desperate blight, comparatively, than plain water.” 
Such were the instructions I startled my odd man with in 
the summer of 1856; and the result was marvellous. My 
poor trees were fast bounding towards that fate from “ whose 
bourne no traveller returns to tell a tale j” but the application 
saved them. I applied it in the evening with a syringe; and 
warm work it was. I believe my man and myself were never 
so hot in our lives before, and he is an old Indian soldier ,* for 
the action of the boiling gas water created a floating substance 
worse than pitch, which clogged the syringe, and made it no 
joke for the arms, after two hours of such an amusement. I 
borrowed the housemaid’s pail, as being an utensil agreeably 
suited to the mixture; but I became rather anxious about 
my idea, as I observed the paint dissolved from its interior 
by the strength of the liquid, and it made the foliage on the j 
trees look most preciously blue, and my man exceedingly ; 
dubious. 
However, as one does not like to lose caste with one’s own 
people, I made no sign, but steamed away, and only desisted j 
when the last drop was served. Standard Apples, Roses, 
Gooseberries, Currants, and all the wall trees, were drenched I 
with the “ stinking stuffand I used it so hot, that I could 
only just bear my hand in it—say 160°. 
The gas liquor could be proportioned into the water, when ! 
taken from the copper, though I have never mixed it that way. 
I arose anxious and early next morning, and a heavy weight ; 
seemed to be taken from me, for the trees looked green and 
refreshed; they continued so all the season, and I have had j 
no cause to use the mixture in so wholesale a manner since. | 
I have, thanks to the application, had better crops of fruit j 
than my neighbours; and, I really think, not a single cater¬ 
pillar lias ventured to make its home on the trees wliicli were j 
washed. Syringe on the second evening afterwards with plain 
warm water. 
“Ah!” said my chef \ next day, “you have saved the trees ; 
but you have killed the copper! The women will be in a 
fine taking when washing-day comes round again.” 
“ Oh, really! Well, never mind the women ; and as to 
the copper, fill it with water, and toss a couple of shovelsful 
of cinder ashes, along with a pound of soda or pearlash, into 
it; put in the syringe, and the iron lading bowl also, and 
boil rampantly for half' an hour; that will put a lively face 
on any copper. Pour the lukewarm contents on to the 
Asparagus bed to-morrow morning, and you will find, after 
that, if you ask of the women, ‘ the copper looks brighter 
than ever.’ ” 
