188 
THE COTTAGE GARDENER AND COUNTRY GENTLEMAN, June 29, 1858. 
effects, a first proof, or sound and lasting impression. 
Spinach happens to be extremely excitable, more so 
than most of our ordinary vegetables. Heat is the 
most exciting cause, and this, combined with much 
solar light, is doubly influential, as to the blossoming 
tendency. Thus, good gardeners sow their summer 
Spinach in shady situations, and on rich soil, in order 
that the growth may be as slow as possible in the plant, 
whilst the root is supplied with all the accessories to 
robustness. 
It may now be seen that heat and drought, and 
much solar light, are predisposing causes; and the in¬ 
fluences of these are much enhanced by checks of any 
kind, and by poor soil. Heat, of course, is highly 
exciting, as also trying to the whole system of the 
plant. Heat, with deficiency of moisture, has a strong 
tendency to hasten the development of all annual 
plants ; and those I have selected to illustrate this 
matter, may, I suppose, all be termed annuals, in one 
sense at least. Indeed, like a host of other things, they 
are annual or biennial, according to circumstances; and 
to exemplify the latter, is, indeed, the chief design of 
my remarks. Heat, with much moisture, has a tendency 
to produce a profusion of exuberant foliage, providing 
the soil is good. This condition of crops is called 
“proud” by many farmers. “My wheat is too 
proud,” they will say, “ it will go down.” 
And what makes wheat or other straw crops go 
down ? What produces this habit, causes a crop of 
Cabbage, Lettuce, Spinach, &c., to become lumbering, 
or, to use a technical phrase, “ to smother itself.” The 
fact is, that the plant is too succulent, has grown too 
fast, and assumed a character similar to that of over¬ 
fed and excited animals. I had almost said there was 
a disproportion of woody fibre. Drought in itself, with¬ 
out a superabundance of solar light, has a tendency to 
promote this “bolting,” by withholding the necessary 
supplies, and this, more especially, if the subject has 
been previously much excited by heat, moisture, and 
a fair supply of nutriment. Such a course may be 
fairly classed under the head “sudden checks,” the 
tendency of which I will further advert to. Those 
who would fully understand the character and in¬ 
fluences of sudden checks, after an excitable condition, 
may refresh their ideas by a consideration of the effects 
of root-pruning,ringing, and those other manipulations. 
Who thinks of trying to make a seedling fruit tree 
bear, when only two or three years of age ! And why 
not P Simply because there must be a fund of strength, 
or maturity, previous to any attempt at fruitfulness. 
Hut let a fruit tree of any kind, after being planted 
some three years, be transplanted at a proper season, 
and under proper circumstances, and the roots pruned 
withal, and you may feel almost assured that it will be 
covered with blossom-buds. Here, then, is the sudden 
check after high excitement; and acting in a manner 
much in analogy with checks on our ordinary vege¬ 
tables. 
Hut, to revert to drought and its effects on the 
foliage of plants, the flagging of vegetables, in cases of 
extreme drought, plainly shows what a change must 
be induced in the system. 
A lean, or hungry, soil; is another cause of bolting, 
m vegetables, as before observed. Let us, also, ex¬ 
amine this portion of the question. Such soils are 
generally “ hired,' to perform their duty by a little 
extra rotten manure ; and, indeed, without it they 
would be all but sterile. The term “ hiring ” is much 
used in our north-western quarter, to signify that the 
land m question is “ploughed out,” to use a farming 
expression, or, in order to please the gardeners, let us 
say dug out. But still these technical terms may 
need translating, to suit ladies and gentlemen of other 
localities, and it simply means, in its practical accepta¬ 
tion, that the properties the soil acquired whilst in a | 
rest state, or pasturage, are exhausted ;—there is 
scarcely anything soluble left in it, the organic 
materials especially being used up. 
Then there is the sudden check occasioned by trans¬ 
planting things after growing somewhat gross, and I 
must offer a few remarks concerning it. Plants thus 
circumstanced have already a fund of sap in store, 
nearly equivalent to the demands of the fructifying 
principle; and the only thing necessary to induce the 
habit, is a temporary and partial cessation of rapid 
growth, and that this is a sure consequence of summer 
planting is notorious to every one. But our readers 
may like to know why this result should follow, and, 
without attempting to flounder amongst abstruse 
phrases of science, I may offer a simple explanation, 
which will, I think, be borne out by both science and 
practice. We all surely know that the principal func¬ 
tions of plants may be, for an off-hand purpose, re¬ 
duced to two divisions,—absorption and elaboration. 
As for the process of assimilation, or the appropriation, 
of the elaborated sap, we may pass it by, taking it for 
granted, that as in the animal world, so in the vege¬ 
table, the frame is built up, and the general purposes 
of nature carried out by a process of the kind. How, 
there is at times, I conceive, a condition in which the 
root is unable to satisfy the demands of the branch, 
and vice versa. When the former is the case, what 
may we expect, but a tendency to produce leaves and 
branches, and a postponed fructification; when the 
latter, a precocious tendency to the blossoming prin¬ 
ciple, which soon, of course, overtakes the supplies. 
And this applies to fruits, and even shrubs, as well as 
vegetables. Thus, even a common countryman, with¬ 
out any recognition of such facts, instinctively, as it 
were, cuts off a part of the exuberant foliage of his 
Cabbages, his Greens, or his Swede Turnips ; and this, 
although performed by mere rule of thumb, happens 
frequently to be correct as to principle, inasmuch as it 
reduces the perspiring powers of the plant, thus avoid¬ 
ing too heavy a tax on the root action, now in a some¬ 
what debilitated state. I mean, of course, when trans- 1 
planting gross, or leafy, plants during warm weather. 
In some future paper, I may refer to fruits, or 
shrubs, and show how they are affected under similar 
circumstances. R. Ebkington. 
HOW BEST TO GROW EARLY PEAS. 
“ Elowebs ! Who cares about your flowers ? 
Would that you could send me a juicy Cauliflower, 
instead of these poor starved things ; or give me a 
taste of young Peas and Beans, instead of pointing 
to their blooms. Elowers ! indeed; as if one could 
eat them ! Hot so long ago, I heard, inadvertently, 
a colloquy, of which the above formed a part. The 
young gardener had cultivated, with considerable skill, 
some of the fashionable plants of the day. In all this 
he had so far pleased and met the wishes of his mis¬ 
tress, who, as most kind ladies are, was passionately 
fond of flowers. A young lady, the other evening, 
was greatly disappointed in not being able to catch a 
certain moth. 2 did not get a good view of it, but 
she described how it managed to extract honey from 
flowers, without ever resting or alighting upon them, j 
This young lady’s enthusiasm seemed, for the time, to ! 
be about equally divided between all sorts of moths 
and butterflies and the flowers. To me there is always 
a pleasing association between such sweet flowers of 
humanity and the flowers of earth, which I am privi¬ 
leged to tend, and nurture, and refresh. There is 
something of the gross and the material in thinking of 
such ethereal beings in connection with an apple- ! 
