191 
THE COTTAGE GARDENER AND COUNTRY GENTLEMAN, December 27, 1859. 
openings commencing at two feet from the ground. That the 
old method of giving air by letting down the roof-sashes to allow 
the hot air to escape without letting in cool air from below, was 
inefficient. That the sashes, or shutters, if on hinges, should 
open downwards so as to offer no obstruction to the descending 
heavy current of cool air. If they are made to open upwards so 
as to be suspended over the openings, they check the rapidity of 
the down current. To keep a shower of rain from a border, you 
would place a shutter sloped so as to prevent the water falling on 
to it: in like manner a sloping shutter above the ventilating 
apertures will prevent the cool outward air ivova falling into the 
house. 
4. That these light inexpensive houses may be built for about j 
one-third or one-fourth the rest of the heavy-roofed houses j 
generally built by the regular hothouse builders; and that by 
using iron for posts, and having the sides and ends all glazed, 
they may be made equally, or more, neat and agreeable to be 
looked at. Thos. Rivers. 
E.fe. I have to-day (December 21), received a letter from an 
American friend, which, bearing as it does on annual root-pruning, 
seems of much interest. He was last year deputed, by the 
United States Government, to travel in Europe to look into the 
details of Vino culture. The following extract alludes to the 
subject:—“ I have your letter on a subject which interested mo 
greatly last winter while in Zante and Cephalonia, where I found 
they not only took away the earth from the Vines, from nine to 
twelve inches in depth, but also cut off all the roots within six 
inches oi the surface close to the stem. These stumps of roots ! 
will, of course, throw out plenty of feeders into the earth, which j 
is drawn around them again after being fertilised by exposure to j 
the atmosphere, and by the usual quantum of stable manure 
spread over and mixed with it. Now, if the practice of the 
Greeks with the Zante Currant is in accordance with sound 
physiological principles, I can save at least 500 dollars an acre in 
the formation of my vineyard, by dispensing with the deep rich 
soil, have depth only for drainage, and put my manure annually 
near the surface, to feed the spongioles formed annually.” It 
will, therefore, be seen from this extract, that what has been con¬ 
sidered here a new doctrine and practice—viz., that of annually 
taking away, the surface roots of orchard-house trees in pots, and 
giving them fresh food, a practice the result of pure accident, is 
very ancient, and has, probably, been followed by the Greek 
vignerons from time immemorial. 
CULTURE OF THE VINE IN POTS. 
Not having a parlour to sit in quietly, but being among two 
or three lively bairns with their pranks, and what not, and not 
knowing whether it would be of any service to any one or not, 
I have, until now, been afraid to make the attempt of writing 
to you; bur. I will leave you to judge whether what I write is 
worth printing or not. 
In March, 1856, I put in the eyes of Vines for pot culture in 
the usual way. I took great care of them that summer, and 
repeatedly shifted them until I had them into twelve-sized pots, 
and there they remained all the summer; and when they were 
well ripened in the wood, I packed them one on another up to a 
wall in a north aspect, and lapped the pots with straw to keep | 
the frost off their roots. j 
In January, 1858,1 repotted them into six-sized pots, without ! 
disturbing the roots, employing a compost of rich soil, manure, 
and very sharp sand, with plenty of good drainage. 
In May following they had three, four, five, and six bunches 
of nice Grapes on each Vine. They ripened their wood well, 
and then were potted again on the 24th of December, 1858; 
and on Easter Monday last the Grapes [were close on being 
ripe. The first bunch was cut on that day. On fifteen Vines 
there were nearly 140 bunches. 
As soon as they were all cut and the wood properly ripe f I 
took the lights off them and gave them eight weeks’ rest. 
They are in a Dutch pit at one end, where Cucumbers and j 
scores of different sorts of stove plants are growing; and in ; 
August last I started them for a second crop ; and now I have 
a second crop of very nice Grapes, two, three, and four bunches 
on a Vine. 
The pit they are growing in is somewhere near thirty-six feet 
long and eight feet wide, and they occupy four lights at one 
end; and in the rest are Passiflora quadrangularis, Cucumbers, 
and stove plants, and I allow the heat to work from 60° to 80°. 
Many of your readers will be ready to say, What will he do 
next year for his crops ? I have fresh Vines to take their places 
this Christmas, when I cast these on one side. They are easily 
raised from eyes in the way The Cottage Gardener tells and 
explains very often.— John Cornwell, Gardener, West Cliff, 
Preston. 
THE PLANTING SEASON FOR FRUIT TREES. 
Autumn I consider the best time for planting fruit trees, 
although any period is eligible from October to the end of March. 
People should take into full consideration the conditions requisite 
to ensure success. Before proceeding in detail I will just rifn 
over them. The very first thing is a proper soil; the next, 
scarcely secondary, a due regard to the management of the sub¬ 
soil, and, by consequence, a proper consideration of the levels-— 
in other words, the relation roots bear to the surface of the 
subsoil. As to soils I have little special to recommend: what is 
termed a good sound loam is in the main a match for any hardy 
fruit we possess. We have all heard of the ill effects of bad 
subsoils, as also bad soils; and what I seek on this occasion is to 
direct the attention of the fruit-tree planter to the “ breakers 
a-head.” Some people will advise that deep holes—“God save 
the mark ”— must be dug in the globe itself, I suppose as pots to 
hold water. But before people dig holes they should well con¬ 
sider what the hole is for—it should have a meaning. Suppose 
a case in which the surface soil w r as about a foot; and that, say 
they, is too little to establish a permanent fruit tree in. Well, 
below it the subsoil is ill-natured, coarse, rugged, ungenial— 
perhaps wet, and what the practical world terms sour. Only 
fancy a hole dug in such a spot, and the roots of the unhappy 
tree imbedded in this unfeeling prison. The fact is, that in many 
such cases the tree is in an earthen or clayey pot, with no hole in 
the bottom or sides. Then, forsooth, good folks write for advice, 
saying that the tree had excellent soil provided and much cere¬ 
mony made over it, yet, strange to say, it would not thrive. 
In all planting, of whatever kind, it is nonsense to descend 
into a retentive subsoil; and what people dare not perform below 
a certain level they should do upwards, for there is plenty of 
room overhead; so that, if there are only nine inches of true soil 
before we get into a retentive pot and we want half a yard, it is 
evident that we must raise the ground level nine inches. In 
this there is no harm whatever, so long as the compost is sound ; 
for in proportion as we go above the ground level, so should the 
soil in like proportion be more adhesive and a largor volume. 
With regard to subsoils, the best way is to bid them defiance as 
to the descent of the roots by adopting impervious bottoms at the 
desired level. 
About platform-planting abundant advice will be found in 
back numbers of The Cottage Gardener. But then many 
soils require thorough drainage ; for even platforms and higher 
levels are not a match for some soils. Wherever water is known to 
accumulate occasionally, there drainage is the first step. Every 
one cannot plant with the extreme care of the regular gardener, 
with his prime loams and compost-heaps ; but there are certain 
economic shifts which may be adopted,— many of them a match 
for the gardener’s fancy trees. For instance : in many a fresh 
enclosed plot there is plenty of turf. Now this, whether it is 
first-rate loam or no, tumbled into the holes, will in most such cases 
grow fruit trees well. Or put a case in an old kitchen garden 
where there are old stations from which some tree has been 
removed. We all know that trees do not like the exhausted soil 
of a hard-worn predecessor; but how easy it is to exchange this 
for soil which has been under vegetable culture. 
The period of planting is worthy of consideration. Some prefer 
spring, some the autumn. I give my vote in favour of the latter. 
A judicious choice of kinds is, of course, of high importance. 
Oiu 1 catalogues and the country possess such a multitude of varie¬ 
ties, that the utmost caution is requisite. People should well con- 
sidertheir object before selection. And again climate must receive 
full consideration ; and it is well to look over the district and take 
notes of both those good kinds which have succeeded and those 
which have failed. Common orchard fruits intended to make 
trees must be well distinguished from those intended for the 
kitchen garden. To plant a huge growing kind in the latter is to 
provide for certain failure. Huge trees in the garden are now 
entirely repudiated by all persons of sound views ; and to reduce 
them to dwarfs would lead to such a snubbing system that they 
would produce little but coarse shoots. 
After selecting proper kinds, the nex consideration is planting 
them. For trees on a dwarfing system, all downward roots 
