403 
THE COTTAGE GARDENER AND CO 
Rued (o papyracea, ns variety 3 of dubia , or, more properly, 
GaUica.” The reason for “ more properly ” is, that this variety 
duita g 1 ' 0 "' 8 naturally near Montpelier; while all the rest of the 
group arc natives beyond (lie Alps. The cross-bred Epimedium 
is extremely pretty—a pale yellow, and exactly intermediate bc- 
tween the parents macranthum and colchuium. To preserve the 
Gladiolus pollen for hybridising, cut off the whole flower the day 
before it would expand; cut away all the parts except the 
stamens, and place the skeleton specimen in blue or dark tissue 
paper; and then let the pollen ripen. If it scatter, vou will see 
it on the coloured paper; and it will keep good for the next 
season it no damp gets to if. But is Namaqvensis a true Gladi¬ 
olus? Our own experience would say that this natural pigmy 
will not cross with any of the present cultivated races of Gladiolus, 
even it there were a bed of each sort in bloom at the same time.] 
REMOVING BULBS DONE FLOWERING— 
RASPBERRIES ON A CLAYEY SOIL. 
“ Y\ ill you inform me which is the best method of preserv¬ 
ing bulbs, which must be removed from the beds, in order to 
make room for-summer flowers ? Is it better to replant them, or 
to dry them ? 
“ I am unsuccessful, also, in the growth of Raspberries. The 
soil in which they are now grown is clay ; and I wish to know if 
mixing sand with it would be of any use, and if it is too late to 
do so this spring.”—Yorit Constant Readeii. 
[Snowdrops, Scillas, Oroousses, and T/circ/i-blooming bulbs of 
any kind, are better it they are removed and parted just as they 
are going out of bloom. Let them be carefully planted in the 
reserve-ground, anil be watered occasionally in dry weather, so as 
to be kept green and growing as long as it is natural for them to 
do so. YpriZ-bloonung bulbs, and other spring flowers, should 
remain till the day the beds are wanted for the bedding plants. 
They should then bo taken up carefully, with as much soil about 
the roots as possible, and not be parted or divided on any account. 
Plant them carefully, and water also till the leaves of the bulbs 
turn yellow naturally, and till the others are established in the 
new ground. No bulb should be allowed to dry lor want of 
water so long as it is natural for it to be green. Sand, and 
plenty of it in a dry state, is one of the best correctors of clay 
ground for Raspberries, If you could add a heavy dressing of 
littery short dung at the same time, and with a fork work the 
sand and dung in among the roots, and down a foot deep or more 
between the rows, and then give a surface-mulching of some loose 
stuff from the dung-yard all over the ground, and cut down all 
the canes to the surface of the ground—in another year you 
ought to have a splendid crop of fruit and canes. Afterwards, 
by adding more ot the loose materials every spring and winter, 
and by digging or forking a little deeper each time, you might 
make it the best piece of ground in the garden.] 
CULTURE OF THE FIG. 
In No. 511 of your paper, I promised to write a few lines on 
the culture ol some of the fruits that are grown in this neighbour¬ 
hood, or the culture that those have had that are now growing 
on the estate of W. Stone, Esq., whoso name, as a fruit grower, 
some of your readers arc familiar with. I shall only speak of 
those kinds that are grown on an eitensivc scale, which arc— 
Apples, Pears, Filberts, and Figs, but as this is the month I 
always, or, rather, of late years, have pruned the Fig, I shall 
begin with its culture. 
Evcryono that is at all acquainted with the culture of Figs, 
must know that they arc easily propagated, cither from cuttings 
or layers, or whore there are old plants, so that they can be easily 
obtained. I find suckers grow up to trees equal if not better than 
those that are raised either from cuttings or layers. 
There are very few gardens hereabouts, although small, that arc 
without the Fig tree. I have been into a very great number of 
gardens in different parts of Somersetshire and Wilts; and in 
nearly all I saw it in some part of the garden; but amongst them 
(with few exceptions) they were long, leafless, naked-branehed 
trees, reminding me of a gigantic fan. In many pilaces they are 
allowed to grow on their own way year after year, occupying one 
of the best situations the garden affords, aud from ten to twenty 
square yards of wall, yet not producing more than from two to 
three dozen ripe Figs in the year. This is what I call poor profit; 
N TRY GENTLEMAN, Mauch 29, 1859. 
but if you say anything about it, the answer is, “ Oh ! we don’t 
grow them for profit, but only for the novelty of the thing.” I 
call it poor novelty as well as poor profit. It is everyone’s duty 
to produce as much fruit as possible ; therefore, it is nothing but 
right for everyone to try every available means in bis power to 
obtain it. 
The Fig tree, to be in a good fruit-bearing state, should have 
ils branches from three to ten inches in length, with as many of 
these branches, in proportion, close against their stems as there are 
at their extremities ; but good crops of this fruit depend on the 
nature of (lie soil, situation, drainage, and the treatment the trees 
are subjected to. 
We have them, here, planted on all kinds of soils, and in almost 
all kinds of situations, growing against walls, and as open stand¬ 
ards, pyramids, and a row which even now forms a hedge about 
fifteen yards in length, which, last summer, ripened between two 
and three hundred dozen of Figs. Theso aro planted on the 
side of a hill, which lias a declivity of. about one yard in four, full 
south, and at about 130 feet above the level of the river Avon. 
These are planted on very shallow ground, not having more than 
six inches of not-over-good soil. Under that, small stones and 
lime rubbish, which make excellent drainage for them, and the very 
thing they seem to delight in. I do not think that there is a shoot 
of last year’s growth on this row that reaches a foot in length. 
They, at present, seem to be promising to double last year’s crop. 
Four years ago, these trees were growing against an old wall; but, 
losing all their fruit before it was ripe, by different kinds of insects, 
I determined to take the old wall away, which I did with wonderful 
success, in the saving of the crop. These that are grown on this 
shallow ground, are better and much richer in flavour than any 
we get from any of the walls where the soil is deep and rich. 
The sorts mostly cultivated 1 1 ere are a small green Fig, Black 
Genoa, Black Ischia , Brown Turkey, and a large green one. All 
of these do well ; but there aro other sorts planted here, on 
a clayey soil, which do but very indifferently, the fruit dropping 
before it is ripe. 
My mode of pruning the Fig, to keep the fruit-bearing wood 
short-jointed, is, in March, to take the point out of every shoot 
with a sharp knife. I choose a dry day for this ; because, then 
the bleeding will stop in a few minutes, and the cut dry over ; and 
the wliolo of the sap is then forced into every part of the tree 
equally. Through the points being taken out they do not come 
into leaf so soon by from ten to twelve days, which I think is 
rather in their favour (because of our spring frosts) ; and, instead 
of getting one long, lanky, ungovernable shoot, they produce two, 
three, and sometimes four, just the desired lengths for bearing 
fruit. 
I prune wall trees and pyramidals in a similar way, but always 
find them bear much more abundantly when grown two or three 
inches from the wall; and this is where the grand point lies—in 
keeping the lower part of the trees well supplied with short-jointed 
wood. 
If you have a tree that has its lower branches, or all the lower 
part of its branches, leafless, and they are nailed in thickly, cut 
back every alternate one to where, the branches are wanted ; there 
will be several shoot out of each one that is cut back. The side- 
shoot that is nearest to the end of the cut branch should bo 
nailed to the wall. Follow this rule all over the tree, but let the 
others project from the wall, which, in the following year, will all 
be fruit bearing shoots, provided all the points are taken out at 
the same time the larger branches are pruned. 
By pruning Fig trees that are grown against walls in the manner 
here described, in two years they would become full of short- 
jointed fruit-bearing wood, all projecting from the wall regularly 
from the place the head of the tree starts from, whether it is a 
dwarf, half-Btandard, or standard. The Figs, too, will be saved, 
in n great measure, from the attacks of numerous insects which 
are fond of feasting on these dainties, and which insects lie snugly 
behind the branches, especially when they are grown against old 
walls. 
I have not the least doubt but that the same mode of pruning 
forced Figs, would be attended with equal results ; but not having 
proved it, I must leave that to be tested by others. —J. Ashman. 
Phenomena of the Season. —A small Cabbage Butterfly 
(Pontia rapcP), was caught on the 15th instant, at Gringley-on- 
thc-llill, on (he extreme northern borders of Nottinghamshire; 
another, and a Peacock Butterfly, at Winchester, on the 17th; 
and a Wasp, at East Retford, on the 16th. 
