1878.] 
FRUIT PROSPECTS.-VILLA GARDENING-MARCH. 
45 
Mignonette. —This is grown most exten¬ 
sively for market, and some growers excel 
in producing it in superb condition. They 
have a peculiar strain of seed, best fitted for 
the purpose, and they take care to preserve it. 
From the time of sowing to the time of mar¬ 
keting, Mignonette occupies but one pot; for 
it is sown in that in which it blooms, namely, 
48-size. The seed is sown from the end of 
August until the end of March. Mignonette is 
marketed some eight or nine months in the 
year, extending from early in January up to 
September. The pots are well drained, and 
then filled with good and rather light soil, a 
few seeds scattered over the surface and pressed 
into the soil, a very light covering added; and 
the pots are then placed in low cold frames, in 
which the pots are brought near the glass. The 
seed cpiickly germinates, and when large enough 
the plants are thinned out to about eight or 
nine, and then as they attain height they are 
put into frames a little deeper, till they are 8 
or 9 to 12 inches in height, and in bloom. 
The process is very simple ; and here, again, 
constant attention lies at the root of success. 
A pot of well-grown Mignonette shows several 
well-grown, robust-looking, finely-branched 
plants, with good spikes of deliciously fragrant 
flowers. It is in great demand in the market, 
and growers of good stuff find a ready sale. 
What in slang language, as in correct English, 
is known as “ knack,” is largely possessed by 
the men who grow for market: and there is 
this substantial reward lying in store for them 
—the best plants always command the highest 
price.— Bichard Dean, Ealing , W. 
FRUIT PROSPECTS. 
GwDT is almost too soon to write of these, 
p Fruit cultivators are, in fact, much given 
to counting their chickens before they are 
hatched. Well, pei'liaps that is better than not 
counting at all—the miserable fate of those who 
have no anticipations, and have had to live for 
the past few years—writing broadly—on the 
empty husks of barrenness. True, “ hope 
deferred maketh the heart sick.” But it is 
equally or more true, though seldom stated, 
that the heart would be still more sick without 
hope. And it is thus with fruit-growing and 
the seasons. If once more we are doomed to a 
fruitless season out of doors, let us at least 
snatch the fleeting pleasure of anticipating a 
harvest. Possibly, too, this will prove the 
likeliest means of reaping one. Despair is no 
match for hope as a stimulus to exertion. The 
former weakens effort; the latter inspires with 
strength, and quickens even lethargy into 
diligence. 
It is a pleasure, and it may also prove profit¬ 
able to announce that the fruit prospects are 
propitious. The trees not only rested, but 
recruited last summer. The majority of them 
bristle with fruit-buds, not quite so plump 
and large as usual, perhaps, nor so forward. 
There is a world of meaning and of hope¬ 
fulness in the phrase, “ Later than usual.” 
A cold time towards the end of February and 
throughout March would prove the salvation 
of the Apple, Pear, and Plum crops. Peaches, 
Nectarines, Apricots on walls, while more 
exposed to danger, alike from their greater 
precocity and their tenderness, are also far more 
susceptible to efficient protection. Glass copings, 
in fact, 18 in. or 2 ft. wide, draped with woollen 
netting, or canvas hanging down to within a 
yard of the foot of the wall, forms practically 
an impenetrable barrier against ten or twelve 
degrees of frost. Beyond that, we are powerless 
to protect our superior fruit-trees without glass, 
or even something more. Let us hope, however, 
that as the season has been thus far exceptional 
throughout, so also severe late spring frosts 
may not succeed this mild and wet winter; 
and if not, there is good prospect of a fruitful 
season.—D. T. Fish, Harclwicke. 
VILLA GARDENING.—MARCH. 
TILL does winter stay its threatening 
hand, and unless some very unusual 
break in the weather occurs, it may be 
assumed that the winter is past, and the spring 
is at hand. There is yet much need for watch¬ 
fulness on the part of the gardener for 
experience shows that springs are fickle—late, 
cold, and inclement; and however much the 
gardener may desire to retard his crops, he 
finds himself unable to arrest the progress of 
that irresistible force which nature exerts, 
“ Wlien all Earth’s buried beauties have new birth.” 
Greenhouse. —A very useful old gardening 
book contains the following good advice to 
amateur gardeners at this season of the year :— 
“ Follow up the old maxim that 1 prevention is 
better than cure,’ and fumigate about every 
nine days or fortnight, but do not proceed to 
extremes ; moderate doses frequently repeated 
will be found most efficacious. Or you may 
fumigate as soon as you see a single insect 
