209 
THE COTTAGE GARDENER AND COUNTRY GENTLEMAN, July 3, 1860. 
breeds for our turf; and I shall in future confine myself 
to the very best kinds. 
There are hundreds of bedding Geraniums, thousands 
of Verbenas, Petunias, Calceolarias, and all the rest of 
them, now on experimental trial at Chiswick and the 
Experimental Garden. Chiswick is so much larger 
than my Experimental, and, therefore, so much more 
■worth seeing. Go and and see it, for a Eellow of the 
Society can give orders to any respectable person to view 
the Society’s Experimental Garden, and the Fellows arc 
all over the country ; and when you go home you can tell 
your neighbours the principal reason why I made my 
Experimental quite private at first. In every large place 
in the three kingdoms there is an experimental-ground, 
Commonly called, the “ reserve-ground,” because every 
good gardener who has one keeps it reserved from all 
visitors, because he is ashamed to let anybody see it. 
The place is always in a muddle from one thing or 
another. Families, friends, and foreign travellers never 
cease from the seedomania —from gathering, sending home, 
and receiving every trash of seeds from every quarter of 
the known world. The gardener has his drawers full of 
them, his reserve-ground is stuffed with trumpery—an 
experimental with them ; and he is so much ashamed of 
it, of them, and of himself, for having so many and such 
mixed things under proof, while he is perfectly conscious 
that all the expense, the patience, and the trouble about 
them are not worth a Cabbage stump. All the new seeds 
from the shopB must first be tried and proved in theso 
experimental^ before they can enter the lists of approved 
things 3 and of all things under the sun these new seeds 
are the greatest botheration to gardeners, for not one out 
of ten of them is ever worth sowing, or being shown to 
any living mortal after they are up and in bloom. Then 
there are .the whole race of stop-gaps, gaping all over the 
“ reserve,” some up, some half planted, some just coming 
in from the flower-beds, some going out to stop that gap, 
and some in some of the stages all the way to desolation, 
making the experimental the only eyesore-garden round 
about. And yet people are so innocent in their ideas of 
things of which they have no real idea at all, are found 
in every age ready and pushing to see the very and the 
only thing about one’s place which is not worth seeing, 
as I can fully testify from my old practice and present 
experience. 
Notwithstanding all that, every garden worthy of the 
name, however small, ought to be so far au experimental, 
as to have a piece of reserve-ground—not fit to be seen 
at all times. I shall give an instance in point from last 
week, when I was caught passing the garden-gate of Mr. 
Walton, the author of the Waltonian Case ; and nothing 
Would do but I must go in and see the experiments. 
Mrs. Walton had the original Waltonian Case full of 
fresh-planted seedling bedding Geraniums, which are now 
springing up out of doors in the beds where different 
kinds were planted together last year—another proof that 
no amount of cold will hurt exotic seeds lying the whole 
winter in well-drained ground, and a refutation of the 
assertion that the Waltonian Case is fit only to strike 
cuttings in. Long-stemmed old plants of Nierembergia 
gracilis, or ftlicaidis, from the greenhouse, planted to 
trail down over the vases, are also a good experiment; 
and the Sj>ergulapilifera is just taken in hand in earnest. 
D. Beaton. 
PEACH AND NECTAEINE TEEES SHEDDING 
THE IB LEAVES. 
UroN entering my present situation in 1851,1 found the Peach 
and Nectarine trees in a very unhealthy state, the original trees 
had died from natural decay, and young ones had been planted 
without removing the soil; consequently they did no good. 
Finding such to be the case with them, I had the top spit of a 
good loamy pasture dug up and laid in ridges in August of that 
year. In November I had the soil from the Peach-border re¬ 
moved. This border is about 220 feet long by 10 feet wide (the 
wall being 9 feet high). I had this removed to the depth of 
21 feet, and had it replaced by the soil above described to the 
depth of 3 feet, to allow for sinking, having first made a drain 
the length of tho border (the subsoil is mostly red clay). Upon 
this I planted new trees which have done remarkably well until 
this season, having scarcely a diseased branch upon them ; and 
last season, when Peaches and Nectarines were almost a total 
failure in the majority of places, with the assistance of Hay thorn’s 
netting I had an abundance; and when Messrs. Low & Co.’s 
traveller called upon mo last summer, he told me that he had not 
seen such a crop anywhere. Now I come to the worst part of the 
atfair, and one which distresses me very much. This spring the 
trees presented the usual appearance, they broke and blossomed 
well, with every appearance of a full crop. All went on well until 
they had made shoots two or three inches in length, when they 
began to lose their foliage, the young w-ood began to get spotted, 
the sap began to exude from the branches; and now several of 
them have scarcely a leaf upon them, and all are more or less 
affected. I now ask your opinion and advice. How can I restore 
my wall of trees ? I cannot but think that all this has happened 
from an inactive state of the roots, arising from the excessive 
cold, wet spring which we have had (our soil being naturally 
heavy and cold). Some of the young wood was not quite so 
ripe last pruning time as I had hitherto seen it, which I attributed 
to the early frost which wc had last October depriving the trees 
of their foliage before the usual time.—L. A. 
[Two causes have contributed to the unhealthy condition of 
your trees. The one being the frost of last October, and the 
other arising from the roots having penetrated into the red clay 
subsoil. For the former there is no remedy now. In autumn 
dig a t rench rouud the roots, and cut off all those which have ex¬ 
tended into the subsoil; make a platform of hard material 
between the roots and the subsoil, so as to prevent them again 
running down, and then fill in tho space.] 
GREENHOUSE STAGE. 
I SHALT, take it as a favour, if you will give me yottt Opinion 
as to the best plan of stage for a lean-to greenhouse ? _ My 
present arrangement is as follows—viz.: — Greenhouse ininiddlS 
with a vinery at each side, but separated by doors and glass!. 
The entrance to the greenhouse is in the centre at the front, 
and the stage is a kind of pyramid, having shelves all round, 
and gradually lessening to tho top, where there is only one 
shelf. 
Now, I find there are several inconveniences attending this 
arrangement. In the first place, the plants are very much 
drawn, some plants being nearer to the glass than others; and, 
again, those on tho back side get very little sun, if any, as also 
the sides. The situation is south. 
What I propose to do is, to take the stage down and recon¬ 
struct it in the following manner. (I should mention, the house 
is about 12 feet wide aud 10 feet from back to front, and the 
same in height at the ridge). 1 propose to make a path 
straight through the centre, 0 feet wide from the door, with a 
stage at both sides rising step by step until sufficiently high to 
allow a person to pass underneath, then I would carry it across 
the entire width step by step. A plan of this kind, it appears 
to me, would have a much better effect in showing off the 
plants and flowers than the present arrangement, and they 
would also be nearer to the glass. 
Another idea struck me—viz., instead of the stage sloping 
towards the frout as I have just stated, to slopo towards the 
palli all round, something in shape like a horseshoe ; but I am 
inclined to think the former plan the most desirable for the 
good of the plants. 
What I want to know more especially is, the distances be¬ 
tween each shelf, and the different heights, so as to accommo¬ 
date fair sized plants ?—A Subscriber. 
[So far as we understand, the size of the house is somewhat 
awkward—twelve feet in length, and sixteen feet wide from back 
to front. If your plants arc thin enough on the shelves, and you 
give plenty of air, and there is no shading of the roof by climbers 
or otherwise, we do not see how the distance from or closeness to 
the glass will cause or prevent drawing of the ^plants. The 
Crystal Palace pretty well settled all that. Drawing takes place 
chiefly from shade, and too much heat and too little air.. Wo 
can imagine plants drawing when kept long on the north side of 
the stage; but by having part of your stage facing the north, 
