6 o 
THE GARDENING WORLD 
January 25, 1908. 
Mulching Fruit and Rose Trees. 
There are two great periods of mulch¬ 
ing, one in winter, one in early sum¬ 
mer. The first is primarily employed to 
keep frost out and maintain the heat of 
the soil ; the second is used to keep mois¬ 
ture in and maintain the roots of plants 
or trees in a cool state, just now we are 
advised to mulch fruit trees and Roses, 
especially newly planted specimens. This 
consists of spreading some half decayed 
stable manure round the stems as far as 
the roots extend. The manure should not 
touch the stems of the trees, should retain 
a good deal of its latent heat, and be 
placed on about 2 in. to 3 in. thick. 
Summer mulching should be done after 
a good rain has fallen and well wetted 
the ground, as its primary object is to 
keep in moisture. The soil should be 
forked up before spreading on the 
manure, and the latter should be applied 
as in winter, only it need contain no heat. 
Manure so applied also feeds the trees, 
and if feeding is not necessary', mowings 
from the lawn, or any other close-lying, 
moisture-retaining substance may be 
used. 
Mulching and top-dressing are thus 
seen to be closely allied, and may be 
taken to differ chiefly' in that top-dressing 
is primarily undertaken for feeding or 
sustaining purposes, and mulching is 
mainly protective in its mission. That is, 
it protects roots against undue cold in 
winter and against undue heat—and 
drought—in summer. 
Food and Feeding. 
As feeding has been incidentally 
touched upon in the foregoing para¬ 
graphs, it may be well to give it a little 
attention now. In its widest sense, feed¬ 
ing is performed every time we water our 
plants. The water given may possess 
little food value, that is, if it is tap or 
spring water, but.all the same it feeds 
the plants by liberating certain consti¬ 
tuents of the Soil, or bringing them into 
a state wherein they are readily assimi¬ 
lated by the plant roots. If rain water, 
especially stored rain water, is used, then 
there is no question that it is in itself a 
food, as anyone may prove for himself 
by watering half-a-dozen plants with 
rain water, and a like number with tap 
water. 
But when a gardener or a gardening 
journal recommends feeding plants, some¬ 
thing very different is intended. Thus, 
Chrysanthemum growers are all familiar 
with the phrase, so constantly appearing 
in print: “Feeding should now be com¬ 
menced in earnest.” This means that in 
the opinion of the writer of the phrase the 
plants have all but exhausted the nourish¬ 
ment contained in the original soil, and 
that the time has arrived for giving them 
more nourishment, if they are not to go 
back instead of going forward. 
In this, or . any analogous case, food 
may be supplied by the addition of good 
loam alone, but as this cannot be given 
in quantity without also giving a larger 
pot, our previous acquaintance, top-dress- 
mg, comes in. This is really a form of 
feeding, pure and simple. But feeding by 
top-dressing is seldom the object of 
writers in the Press; they much 'mere 
generally mean feeding by sprinklings 
of concentrated or artificial manures on 
the surface soil, the use of the same kinds 
of manures in solution with water, or the 
employment of what is known as liquid 
manure, that is, water in which a certain 
quantity of horse, cow, sheep or fowl 
dung has been soaked until the manurial 
qualities of the latter have been extracted. 
1 hope to have something more to say 
about liquid manure in a future issue. 
Feeding may be resorted to while a 
plant is quite young and in a small pot, 
the object then being to keep the plant 
in good health until time can be found 
to repot it. But as a general rule, feed¬ 
ing is only commenced when flowering 
plants are plumping up their flower buds, 
or when fruiting plants are swelling their 
fruits. Foliage plants may be fed at 
almost any time when well rooted, but 
not in the winter months. The food given 
should always be as varied as possible, 
ringing the changes on the various 
natural or animal manures, and alternat¬ 
ing them with soot, simple artificials, and 
the compound proprietary manures adver¬ 
tised. 
(To be continued.) 
-4-M-- 
THE 
Giant Hemp. 
(Cannabis gigantea). 
Though grown as an ornamental foli¬ 
age plant under the above name, it is 
practically certain that this plant is none 
other than the Common Hemp, C. sativa, 
or a slightly larger form of it. The 
plant is an annual and grows wild in 
Central Asia (Persia, etc.), and the 
Northern and Western Himalayas. As a 
cultivated plant it certainly cannot be 
compared to anything we are acquainted 
with. Some people, however, have seen 
a resemblance in well-grown specimens to 
the Cypress, and perhaps this is as near 
as can be got when trying to fix a simi¬ 
larity. It is well to remember, however, 
that a hedge of Cypress 10 to 12 feet high 
would take 15 to 20 years to grow, while 
the “ Giant Hemp” will attain that height 
in about as many weeks. It is a grand 
subject to form temporary screens. 
The growing, however, must be begun 
early. About 200 seeds may be obtained 
for a penny in January, and these should 
be sown about the end of that month in 
boxes of light sandy soil placed In gentle 
heat. As soon as the young plants pro¬ 
duce a pair of true leaves, about double 
the quantity ultimately required should 
be placed in 3-inch pots. The plants 
must be kept in a genial atmosphere, and 
the greatest care must be taken to avoid 
giving a check. Watering must be very 
carefully attended to, and the required 
number of plants must be potted on into 
larger pots as often as .is necessary to 
prevent the plants becoming pot-bound. 
In the meantime the position selected for 
them must be prepared and thoroughly 
enriched with manure if the soil is at all. 
inclined to be poor. Planting out may be 
done as soon as all. danger from frost, 
is past. As soon as the mots take to the 
new soil, very rapid progress will be made 
and the plants must never lack ample 
supplies nf water and weak liquid raa,* 
nuro, 
Very soon the plants will begin to show 
their true character, and the grower will 
be amply repaid for all the trouble he 
has taken. First, the foliage is of a 
lovely shade of bright green, and each 
leaf is divided into six or seven paits. 
Each leaflet is beautifully serrated with 
20 to 40 teeth, and they vary in length 
from 2 to 4 inches. The 6 or 7 leaflets 
all spring from the end of a foot stalk 
some 3 to 6 inches long, and droop grace¬ 
fully when growing luxuriantly. the 
whole secret in growing this plant is 
plenty of water and an abundance of food. 
It is a good feeder, and applications of 
manure, either in a liquid or dry state, 
may be freely given. 
Erica. 
Ripe Blackberries were gathered m the 
neighbourhood of Falmouth in the early 
part of January. 
A Cypripedium Show. 
The exhibitions of Orchids arranged by' 
the Manchester and North of England 
Orchid Society deserve^to be better known, 
remarks the “Manchester Guardian.” 
They' are held everyIhird Thursday in the 
Coal Exchange, and for sixpence one 
may pass from the drab and cold of the 
old Market Place to a pleasantly warm 
room where hundreds of flowers—some 
beautiful, some merely curious, some de¬ 
liciously fragrant—make brightness even 
on a winter’s day. Just now is the season 
when the Orchid called Cypripedium is 
at its best, and the display of January' 9th 
was very largely a Cypripedium show. 
Royal Caledonian Horticultural Society. 
At the annual general meeting of this 
society, held at Edinburgh on January 
8th, Mr. P. Murray Thomson, secretary 
and treasurer, read the report of the 
Council for the past year, in which it was 
stated that owing to the opening of the 
Scottish National Exhibition in Edin¬ 
burgh in May, 1908, the Council had re¬ 
solved to revert this year to April as the 
month for holding the spring show, which 
will be held on the 15th and 16th of that 
month. The Chairman, Mr. W. H. 
Massie, then said that members of the 
society would learn with regret that they 
were soon to lose the services of their 
excellent and indefatigable secretary. 
The accounts showed the funds at Novem¬ 
ber 30 to be £1,152, an increase of £g$- 
The decrease of membership due to deaths 
and resignations had again been heavy, 
and the Council renewed their appeal to 
every member for support in endeavour¬ 
ing to keep up the membership of the 
society. The report showed an excellent 
year’s work, and was unanimously 
adopted. Lord Balfour of Burleigh was 
re-elected president; Mr. J. W. M’Hattie 
was elected as vice-president; and Messrs. 
John Alexander, The Gardens, ISfiddrie, 
Craigmillar; D. W. Thomson, nursery¬ 
man,-Edinburgh ; and Gordon Caldwell, 
Duddingston’ Cottage, Portobello, coun¬ 
cillors. . Mr. Massie intimated, that a 
new secretary had been appointed in the 
person of Mr. Donald Mackenzie, of the 
firm, of - Henderson -and Mackenzie, solici¬ 
tors, Rutland’ Square—a very' active 
young man, who they thought would carry 
on the work of the society well, 
