THE COTTAGE GARDENER AND COUNTRY GENTLEMAN, November 1, 1859. 
67 
the quantity of moisture in tlie air and more rain than we get 
here in London, you will succeed very well with November 
planting. We have not forgotten the success of Sir Henry Stuart 
in planting large trees down that “ gate,” and many of them in 
the dead of winter. Begin at four feet from the stems of the 
Holly and Portugal Laurel by cutting a trench all round and as 
deep as the side-roots go. Erom that trench work off the ball by 
forks only, taking care of every root and ilbre till within eighteen 
inches of the stem, then pick below the ball, and cut clean off all 
descending roots ; and if you find the side-roots so old and hard 
that they would snap sooner than yield to be nearly doubled by 
turning the ball on one side, you must not endanger them, but 
get out the ball with the plant as little to one side as possible. 
Very loose, sandy, fresh soil is the best to plant them in : and 
when once the ball is in its new place the plant must not be 
shaken or allowed to be off the perpendicular for one moment 
until it is well staked after the planting is finished. We prefer 
two spades only for filling in amongst the roots, and the two 
men to keep constantly opposite one another; each man then is 
to throw his portion of the soil, not on his own side of the hall or 
tree , but past the stem and on to the opposite side—then the soil 
runs in among the roots without doubling them or stirring them 
either to the right or left. All the time the soil is being thus 
put on, a heavy -watering with or without rose to the pots 
should be going on, and every drop of the water to be plied 
against the stem, just over the ball, until every root is out of 
sight; then water all over the roots, and leave a hollow cup over 
the ball to hold future waterings, and “ stake ” each plant with 
three or four guy ropes of stout rope yarn, fastened up six feet 
from the ground, and below to stakes driven slantingly in the 
earth at six or seven feet from the stem.] 
MANDEVILLA SUAVEOLENS SEEDING. 
In your number of last week I see you mention the seeding 
of the Stephanotis foribunda as a rare occurrence. When I was 
staying with a relation in Leicestershire last year, where the 
garden and forcing-houses are very perfect, I saw the said plant 
with several large fruit on it, but the gardener told me he had 
never been able to ripen it, though he is very successful with the 
Banana, Passijlora edulis, and Phy sails edidis. 
I must mention another fact that has occurred this year in a 
garden that I take great interest in, a few miles from Rhyl, 
North Wales. There are against the house Magnolias, Myrtles, 
the sweet Yerbena, and Arbutilon, all reaching to the second-floor 
windows, and flowering abundantly. I suggested to my friend 
two yeai’s back to try in a vacant place the Mandevilla sua- 
veolens, and nothing could have answered better. I did not arrive 
early enough to see it in bloom ; but I was told it had been beau¬ 
tiful this year, scented the whole house, and has reached the 
second story. But the point I particularly wish to call your 
attention to is, that a fortnight ago it was throwing out long seed- 
pods, which it has never done in the greenhouse. They are in 
pairs, very long, something like the Vanilla, but at first joined 
together at the lower end, somewhat in this shape 0) and separat¬ 
ing as they get longer and riper.—H. A- D. 
[Your mountain plant is Prodium cicutarium , or Hemlock¬ 
leaved Heron’s Bill. The leaf is of Our Lady’s Thistle, Car- 
duus Mariamis.'] 
THE IMPORTANCE oe STIRRING the SURFACE 
OF THE EARTH 
AMONGST ALE VEGETABLE CROPS. 
There are certainly few operations of a cultural nature which 
are of the same scale of importance as the one to which this paper 
refers — 0110 which has been practised and sanctioned by the 
highest authorities and the most practical of agriculturists and 
gardeners. 
It is the lot of many to be set down in a fertile soil—a soil in 
which the earthy constituents are so proportioned that the light 
porous qualities of the one are balanced by the close retentive 
properties of the other, and they are then in the state best suited 
to vegetation. 
Soils thus generally compounded vary much in the quantities 
of mineral and saline ingredients which they contain. They 
generally have vast stores of inorganic matters, which are only 
available as food for plants when acted upon by air, and rendered 
soluble by the addition of water. Every process, therefore* 
which facilitates the entrance of air to them must be truly im¬ 
portant. 
Although the sulphates, the muriates, the nitrates, and the 
phosphates occupy but a small proportional bulk of the soil, yet 
their influence on vegetation is most important, and upon their 
solubility much of the success of the crop depends. Hoeing, 
then, or, better still, stirring the soil by the points of a fork, 
admits the air, and renders soluble those inorganic elements of 
vegetation, facilitates the entrance of ammonia and carbonic acid 
from the atmosphere, and greatly benefits the plants. 
We will suppose a piece of ground sowm with seeds and nicely 
levelled and raked, a heavy shower has fallen on it; and the 
land, although of medium quality, appears to be caked together. 
The vegetation of the seed begins ; and at this time it is important 
that the intervals between the drills be deeply stirred by the hoe 
or fork, leaving it in a loose and open state to admit the oxygen 
of the atmosphere for the nourishment of the embryo plants. 
Erom this time till the crop is fit for use this operation cannot be 
too often performed, and additional vigour will result to the crop 
after each performance. The superficial hoeing which serves to 
destroy weeds is very different from what it should be to promote 
the growth of a crop, and they should form distinct operations. 
In the former case the slashing superficial cut of the sharp hoe is 
sufficient: in the other, the ground should be picked up with the 
point of the hoe, or, better still, the fork. 
Trifling although the practice of hoeing seems to be, it is, 
nevertheless, one of the most important of cultural operations; 
and no one of our routine operations can be omitted, the result 
of which is more fatal to our crops. 
In hoeing ground to kill weeds, it is difficult to get men to do it 
well and clear their ground as they go. A good hoer should clear 
his ground about a foot wide all the way, and not leave a growing 
weed behind him. When the ground is only half hoed it soon 
requires hoeing again, and makes much more labour. Let no 
garden cultivator, therefore, grudge the use of this implement j 
for it is a key to those hidden treasures of mineral stores which 
are locked up in the bowels of mother earth, and makes them 
available to supply man with nutritious food. They are ours, if 
we choose to employ them and exercise the talents which God 
has given us ; and if not, we lose them. 
Looking at the large percentage of mineral salts which plants 
absorb, it has always appeared to me to be very desirable that 
their ashes should be returned to the soil which grew them, as 
the withdrawal of the haulm of every crop must considerably 
lessen the amount of some particular salt in the ground, which, 
if not replaced, must tell most materially on some future crop of 
the same or other kinds of plants. 
In cropping, the great problem which the gardener has to solve 
is, How can he contrive to raise the most luxuriant crops of vege¬ 
tables with the smallest diminution of value, or, as it is termed, 
“ heart,” to the land ? A good gardener is very grateful for a 
good supply of organic manures ; but he will not fail at the same 
time to recognise the value of those inorganic matters which his 
soil contains, and which are as fully at his command. 
I fully think that those who would reach the climax of good 
gardening must do so by trenching deeply, by mixing the mineral 
ingredients from the bottom of the trench with the surface soil, 
and by unceasing application and attention to surface-stirring. 
That there are many crotchets belonging to the culture of 
vegetables, I admit, and those who experiment on these matters 
find it so ; but I think all experienced men must agree in my 
recommendation to do things well. 
The advantages of surface stirring are also most apparent with 
plants in pots. How different is the rude state of health of that 
in yonder pot, which has been carefully loosened up and surfaced, 
to that of the plant which has been neglected, and whose surface is 
covered with green slime and Marchantia! The one lives and 
grows while the other merely exists. In this the principle of 
vitality reigns absolute; in the other those of helplessness and 
decay. Let our window-gardening friends not forget the import¬ 
ance of this practice. 
"VVe have now noticed the advantages which accrue from giving 
the mineral salts an opportunity of being commixed with the 
soil and taken up as food by plants : but these are not all. When 
heavy rain descends, the loose surface allows it to be absorbed 
gradually along with its concomitant ammonia ; whilst the hard 
one is quite impervious to its access, and it hurries to the nearest 
drain to be carried away. 
It has been said in olden times that “ there is nothing new 
