February 22, 1908. 
THE GARDENING WORLD 
13 1 
between them and the plants 1 ft. between 
them. This operation can be performed in 
the same way as planting Potatos. You can 
dty them up after the stems or leaves die 
down in autumn. Those tubers which you 
wish to keep must be stored in moist sand, 
otherwise they will soon become discoloured 
and lose greatly in weight owing to their 
thin skins. The tubers will probably be no 
larger than those you obtain for planting, 
as the thickest end seldom exceeds the thick¬ 
ness of the little finger. Their exact size 
will, of course, depend upon the quality of 
the soil, which should be rather rich and 
light. 
2619. Dividing: Garlic Bulbs. 
Do I divide Garlic bulbs into their pips 
for planting? When may I do this and 
what distance apart? (West, Berks.) 
You can divide the Garlic bulbs early in 
March into as many cloves as you can readily 
separate without cutting live portions. The 
soil ought to be well manured and dug in 
the autumn in the same way as for Onions. 
Then in March it can be forked over and 
the cloves planted in lines 1 ft. apart with 
g in. from clove to clove. When the tops 
die down in summer you can lift the bulbs 
and dry them in the sun as you would 
Onions. 
2620. Parsnip-Rooted Chervil. 
I planted some Parsnip-rooted Chervil in 
August. When will the roots be ready ? 
Should they be treated as Parsnips for the 
table? The foliage smells of Aniseed. 
(West. Berks.) 
The usual name for this plant is bulbous- 
rooted Chervil. The roots may be lifted and 
stored like Potatos in a dry shed when the 
leaves die down. This usually takes place 
. in July. The tubers should be protected from 
frost to the same extent as Potatos. You can 
treat the roots as Parsnips if you feel so 
- inclined. They are cooked and eaten as a 
vegetable by those who grow them, but the 
. plant is not much cultivated in this country. 
2621. Tomato Seed Not Germinating. 
I sowed some Tomato seeds on the 16th of 
last month and put them in a greenhouse, 
where there is from 50 degs. to 60 degs. of 
heat, and there is no sign of them coming as 
yet. Dees Tomato seed require a long time 
to germinate, or is there something wrong 
with the seed ? I got it fresh from a large 
nursery firm last month and have kept the 
soil moderately moist. It is important here 
that I should have a large stock of them 
- early. I should be obliged if you will fur- 
■ nish me with a reply in next week’s paper. 
(G., Blackpool.) 
If the conditions are favourable we should 
■ be looking for Tomato seed to germinate in 
the course of ten days. You have had to 
wait for twenty-six days, which is rather a 
long period even at this season of the year. 
■' We suspect that the temperature of the house 
is at fault. It should have been sufficient 
if the pots were placed in a position to get 
the full benefit of 60 degs. of heat. With 
this object in view, if you have not a 
regular propagating case you might have 
placed the pots near the hot-water pipes and 
covered the pots with a pane of glass. You 
can still do it and if the seeds have not been 
injured by the long delay they should soon 
come up. The pots should not be stood on 
the het-water pipes, but possibly you could 
get 'them on beards a little Way above the 
pipes. The glass on the top will economise 
the moisture and the heat close to the pots 
should act like bottom heat on -'cuttings. 
Tomato seeds should keep good for some 
little time, so that we scarcely think that the 
seed was tco old when you had it. A good 
plan, however, would be to make a second 
sowing, so that if only a few of the first 
lot of seeds come up you will have more to 
form a succession to them. This sowing 
' should be made at once. 
2622. Carrots and Parsnips in Heavy 
Soil. 
Could you inlorm me how to get Carrots 
and Parsnips of good shape in a heavy clay 
soil that gets dry and hard during summer. 
If 1 dig down deeply 1 ccme upon stiff clay 
'that is very difficult to dig and comes up in 
solid lumps. (R. C. Thomas, Oxon.) 
It takes some^vears of good cultivation by 
trenching, digging and manuring heavily to 
get the who’e body cf soil into a suitable con¬ 
dition for producing shapely Carrots and 
Parsnips. The ground should be trenched 
3 ft. deep if you want to get the full ad¬ 
vantage of it, and what manure it gets 
should be placed well down, so as not to 
interfere with the Carrots or Parsnips. Then 
in springtime you should make a compost 
consisting of sand, leaf mould, wood ashes 
and soil. All these materials should be 
sifted through a £ in. sieye to get out all the 
lumps, stones ana other rubbish. Then get 
or make a very large dibber shod with Iron 
on the point that can be pushed into the 
soil to the depth it has been trenched. For 
Parsnips these holes should be 15 in. apart 
in the lines and 18 in. between the lines if 
you want very large specimens. Carrots 
may have 12 in. from hole to hole, and the 
lines may be 15 in. apart. Having made 
holes with this dibber, fill them up with the 
sifted compost and press it down quite 
firmly. Then on the top of each hole sow 
three to five seeds rather thinly. After they 
have germinated and show which one is 
going to grow most strongly, the best one 
should be left and all the rest pulled out. 
By this contrivance you will get roots per¬ 
fectly' fit for exhibition purposes, even al¬ 
though the whole body of soil is not in good 
condition for the purpose. 
2623. Early Potatos in Heavy Soil. 
When is the best time to plant early Po¬ 
tatos in heavy soil, and what varieties would 
you recommend? (R. C. Thomas, Oxon.) 
We should not plant early' Potatos early 
in the season, especially' in heavy soil. The 
best plan is to put the tubers, with the top 
. end uppermost, thickly' into a box, and the 
latter placed in a greenhouse or other warm 
place. They, will soon be sprouting, and even 
if they', are so exposed after the sprouts- are 
. green and short, this is advantageous rather 
than otherwise. By this means you need not 
plant the Potatos until the beginning of 
April, although it would largely depend 
upon the character of the season. In early 
seasons with plenty' of sunshine to dry the 
ground and make it suitable for planting 
you could get them in earlier. All the same 
these early-planted Potatos are alway'S liable 
to be injured or cut down by' frost in May 
or June. You would, of course, have to take 
precautions on suspicious nights, taking 
means to cover up the stems and foliage to 
guard against late frosts. Early varieties 
of Potatos are hot particularly suited to 
heavy' land, and if you were not compelled 
to utilise what land y'ou have got the ground 
could be otherwise occupied. Clay soil is 
alway'S a late one as the sun cannot pene¬ 
trate it to warm it up until the season is 
well advanced. The chief variety we should 
recommend vou to plant is Sir John 
Llewellyn. Two older varieties might also 
give you satisfaction, namelv, Myatt’s Ash 
Leaf and Magnum Ronum. The latter, how¬ 
ever, is not a very early one. 
FRUIT. 
2624. Greengage Plums Not Fruiting-. 
I have two large Greengage trees about 
fifteen years -old, planted close against a 
wall 6 ft. high, but the branches are above 
the wall. They. blossom well, but give no 
fruit, They are not cramped up, but in the 
open and the sun can reach them all day. 
I should like to know what I can do to 
make them bear. (W. Croydon, Surrey.) 
We expect that your trees have made too 
much top growth, that they have not been 
properly and regularly pruned to give them 
a chance of ripening their wood properly. 
Possibly, the shcots are extending too far 
away from the wall, and if those shoots are 
numerous, they serve to shade those portions 
which ought to bear the fruit, and as wall 
plants they are, of course, useless because 
they do not get the heat of the sun. We are 
presuming these points by way of suggestion. 
On the other hand, it would probably be ad¬ 
vantageous to root prune the trees at the 
end of September to reduce their excessive 
vigour and bring them into a more fruitful 
condition. Then, again, stone fruits like 
lime in the soil, and this could be applied 
in the form of mortar rubbish from old 
buildin’gs or cn the form of chalk. We do 
not know whether your garden is on chalk 
or on the gravel. If the latter possibly your 
trees are starving in an old exhausted soil. 
In that case manure, as well as lime rubble, 
would be of advantage. Wood ashes would 
also prove highly beneficial. It could be 
pointed into the ground any time during 
winter. Greengage trees upon walls should 
be spur-pruned, and if these happened to be 
nttmerous on your trees you could thin out 
the longest of them. These are various 
plans which you could adopt to induce fruit¬ 
fulness according to the circumstances of 
the case. Means might also be taken to pro¬ 
tect the blossoms from late frosts. 
2625. Seedling Apple. 
The tree that bears the enclosed Apple was 
grown from seed and has never been grafted. 
It is a splendid cropper and good cooker. 
Is it like any well-known variety, and what 
would you suggest as being its parent? 
(F. B., Yorks.) 
From what we can see of it, and experts 
have said the same, your Apple cannot be 
distinguished from 'Carlisle Codling. It 
might have been raised from a tree of that 
variety, or it might have been the result of 
crossing the two other varieties from which 
■the Carlisle Codling was originally raised. 
At first sight the fruit resembles Tower of 
Glamis, and it also shows peculiarities met 
with in Keswick Codlin, as if the variety 
had been raised from those two parents. In 
any case, it agrees well with Carlisle Cod¬ 
ling in being a mid-season cooking variety, 
in being angular, greenish yellow and 
flushed with red. 
2626. Pruning Young Apple Trees. 
As a constant reader of your paper, I 
shall be much obliged by your advice on the 
following points as to pruning young Apple 
trees. Last year I grafted a scion from Blen¬ 
heim Orange on a young Paradise stcck. 
This has made two good shoots (one on each 
side of the top of the scion) about 2^ ft. long 
and nearty as thick as one’s little finger. I 
see in most books on pruning young trees 
'that say for first year’s pruning, cut the 
voung shcot right out, but one is also told in 
pruning a Blenheim Orange (owing to the 
shoots it throws, out) to only prune very 
little, and just take off the ends of the shoots. 
Can you help me as to this? I also have two 
Cox’s Orange grafted in the same way. The\' 
have also made one strong shcot about the 
same length, with a lateral on each side (like 
a miniature espalier). Should this shoot be 
cut right out? (Sawyf.r, Beds.) 
In an}' case you cannot -require two shcots 
from the base of an Apple tree. You should, 
therefore, cut away the weakest one close to 
its place of origin, leaving the other to form 
the stem of the tree. It all depends as to 
what form of tree you intend making as to 
what pruning you wil 2 give it. The prun¬ 
ing is done with the object of getting a tree 
to suit a certain purpose, either as a stan¬ 
dard, bush or pyramid in the op>en, or as an 
espalier for wires, or to make a wall tree. 
For most of these forms of trees, except the 
