357 
THE COTTAGE GARDENER AND COUNTEY GENTLEMAN, September 13, 1859. 
of stems in full growth, and as thick as a man’s finger, 
and multiply them by about five, and that will inform 
him. 
Strawberries are somewhat anomalous in their move¬ 
ments, at least some kinds; but much may be done to 
promote the blooming principle by a proper course of 
handling. How can any man expect a strong and hearty 
bloom in the ensuing year, who allows thousands of 
runners to choke the plants during the present summer 
and autumn? I remember, about thirty years since, a 
question was raised as to whether the runners were a 
source of strength to the mother plant or not. lieally I 
almost wonder how longheads could assume so much 
gravity over what appears a very simple question. Did 
the runners never root, and never organise blossom-buds 
for themselves, the case would be widely different: they 
might then be a.source of strength to the parent plant. 
But it is evident from the first, that they want to set up 
in business for themselves, and that the parent has to 
find the needful for a commencement. Strawberries may 
be retarded and forced. The latter is, as it were, a matter 
of course; but the retardation is an affair which must be 
settled by a thorough knowledge of the formation of. 
blossom-buds. 
The Raspberry is very manageable with regard to 
succession. I clo not mean the old double-bearing 
kind, but our Eastolf s and those of the newer kinds. 
I have found by experience, that the retarding of 
these, or rather, perhaps, the promoting a succession, 
may be effected just in the same way as in certain j 
Roses. Do not be too keen with your winter or early 
spring pruning; leave them some wood to play with; 
suffer this wood to push nearly half an inch long, and 
then prune back in a bold manner, cutting away all first 
growth. By such means I have a succession of Rasp¬ 
berries until September of the ordinary kinds. But be 
it remembered, both as to the Roses and the Raspberries, 
that there is a loss of energy consequent on such liberties : 
so that he who will do such things must have a liberal 
hand for manures. 
It appears very plain in the abstract, that abundance 
of light, and that considered in the ratio it bears to the 
absorbing powers—in other words, activity of root—has 
in all cases most to do with the blossoming principle. 
We do know that there must be a period expended on 
the organisation of the bud. This principle well carried 
out, we may in many things bid defiance to seasons ; and 
to use a homely saying, turn night into day—or, in other 
words, we can both force and retard many things, which 
processes much extend the sphere of their usefulness. 
R. Eeuington. 
TREES GROWING IN OR OVERSHADOWING 
A GARDEN. 
Thebe are few things on which the owners of property look 
with more respect than old trees. Like old friends, they cannot 
well be discarded without a just and urgent reason: and even 
then the act of condemnation is often attended by such misgivings, 
that it is not until the object has been fully attained for which 
the old tree was taken down, that regrets for its absence give 
place to a feeling of rejoicing at the beneficial change effected. 
This verv justifiable attachment to old trees may, however, be 
carried to excess. Many important improvements are effectually 
checked by “ a tree in the way,” which it would be almost 
treason to destroy: while, at the same time, should any uncon¬ 
trollable agent, as a high wind or stroke of lightning, do the act of 
destruction, the greatest friend of the unfortunate tree will hardly 
express a regret that it is gone. _ _ j 
Now, there is something certainly wrong in this; and the 
veneration in which the tree is held is certainly much beyond its 
merits when it obstructs some particular view, shades some 
important border or building, or prevents the effectual accom¬ 
plishment of some interesting alteration. Many windows are j 
deprived of half their usefulness by large trees growing too close I 
to them: and it is also a certain fact that many chimnies are j 
made to smoke the rooms from a like cause. Now, it would be 
wrong to condemn that feeling which venerates old or fine trees ; 
but when such stand in the way of an acknowledged improve¬ 
ment, the proper question to ask is this, If the tree in question 
were not there, would you wish to have it in that place ? 
If the answer be in the negative, then cut it down immediately, 
for it cannot be wanted. But it is not my purpose here to find 
fault with the propensity we mostly all have of clinging to some¬ 
thing or other, but to complain of the practice of growing large 
fruit trees in kitchen gardens ; as Apple, Pear, and Cherry trees 
are often found high enough to require a thirty or forty-rouud 
ladder against them to gather the fruit. These towering objects 
are much more hurtful in the kitchen garden than is generally 
allowed ; as then- roots, in the good cultivated mould of a kitchen 
garden, run a great distance, and the crops underneath are very 
indifferent in quality. As most gardens are more or less fre¬ 
quented by the family and their visitors, good useful crops are 
certainly much more interesting than poor ones, with an indifferent 
crop, perhaps, of Apples or Pears on the trees which overhang 
them. Besides which, it seldom happens that there is a good 
crop on trees planted so very widely apart, that it is much better 
to have all such trees growing in one place, and only so near each 
other as to occupy the ground without crowding. The ground 
on which such trees are growing might either be in tillage or in 
grass. If the former, some small crops, as Currants or Goose¬ 
berries, may be grown at distances of six feet apart; but the 
digging amongst these mu3t be very shallow. In Kent there are 
hundreds of acres of orchards of this kind; and the same may, 
with equal advantage, be grown elsewhere. The object here 
advised is to relieve the kitchen garden of those high and over¬ 
shadowing trees which injure and disfigure so many plots of 
vegetable ground. 
Now, in addition to the evil done by trees inside a garden, 
those outside it are often much too near it. High trees on the 
south side of a garden overshadow it very much in winter; and 
fruit trees against walls so deprived of the sun in winter never do 
well. Trees are also liable to send their roots long distances 
foraging; and the more robust kinds quickly devour the fat of 
the land. I have seen a root upwards of fifty feet long, and 
nearly as thick at one end as the other, where it had got into a 
line of good material, and speedily found its way to the furthest 
end of it. Trees on lawns will also search out flower-beds, and 
occupy their enriched contents, with astonishing rapidity, to the 
detriment of the proper tenants there : while peat, or bog-earth, 
of prepared American plant-borders, is especially liable to 
invasion. It is, therefore, advisable in all these cases to keep a 
watchful eye on the intruder ; and when the offending tree cannot 
be taken away, cut back its roots withiu its own territory. Sup¬ 
posing it to have usurped a flower-bed in the lawn, merely cutting 
its roots at the sides of the bed and renovating the soil woidd 
only be to invite it to another feast, which, if in the growing 
season, it would swallow up all hi a very short time. But cut 
back its roots by making a ditch about two feet or so from the 
edges of the bed, and filling that ditch with something distasteful 
to it. Chalk rammed in hard answers pretty well; or, if it must 
be earth, let it be of the poorest kind. Some run to the expense 
of a brick wall; but I do not advocate that, as it is not always 
an effectual barrier. I once knew an excellent garden wall, with 
Peach and other trees on the- south side, and on the other side 
timber trees of various kinds were growing close up to it: and 
whether the latter smelled the better material then- more delicate 
brethren had to grow in on the south side, or by the poverty of 
their own side felt themselves justified in the invasion, certain it 
is that in two years the whole of the twelve-feet-wide border on 
which the Peach and other trees were growing was filled with 
Ash, Elm, and Chestnut roots. It is needless to say the Peach 
trees suffered sadly, the evil not being discovered until much 
mischief had been done. It is, therefore, advisable for all who 
have timber trees growing in the neighbourhood of their culti¬ 
vated grounds to look well to them, that they do not usurp more 
than their share of space. It is also advisable for all who plant 
fruit trees in gardens to consider whether they are likely to 
become standards or not, and, if any danger of the latter, try and 
plant them somewhere else ; for it not unfrequently happens that 
a small tree is put in under the plea that “ it can do no harm,” 
which, growing up into, perhaps, a fine one, is then too good to 
cut down; and damage to the crops and irregularity in appear¬ 
ance are the results. 
In condemning large standard trees in gardens, I by no means 
find fault with the trellis-trained ones which form so important a 
