BOOK II. THE GARDEN. (continued 2)

You will see from these observations that there are styles marking different periods in gardening, as well as in architecture; and, in some cases, it is advisable to preserve a certain degree of similitude between the style of the garden and that of the house. Of course, however, this can only be done as far as is consistent with modern comforts; and the fact of your house being partly Elizabethan does not entail upon you the necessity of having a formal garden with high clipped hedges, and trees cut into a thousand fantastic forms, any more than it obliges you to sit in rooms darkened by stone mullions and small-paned casements, because the courtiers of Queen Elizabeth were obliged to submit to such inconveniences. With regard then to the back-front of your mansion, I would leave the terrace in its present form, with its stone alcoves at each end, as it corresponds so well with the style of that part of the house which appears to have been added in the reign of Anne or George I.; and I would preserve and repair the stone balustrade with urns at regular intervals, and the stone steps leading from the terrace, which are all in the same style as the house; I would also have them lead into an architectural garden below. The form of this garden should be quite regular, or, if you prefer the term, quite formal; and it should be ornamented with fountains, urns, and statues. The natural boundary of this garden is the piece of water before alluded to, the borders of which should be planted with a few tufts of shrubs to break, but not disguise, the regularity of the outline. On the other side of the water these tufts must be continued, but in a much wilder and more natural manner; and here and there the plantation must take the character of a clump, and consist of low trees, mingled with shrubs of the largest size. This will unite the house and garden with the park scenery as regards the view from the drawingroom windows, and on the side of the garden, gravel walks may be carried on through the various scenery of the park, a stone bridge being thrown over the water on the side nearest the entrance-front; and, farther on, a rustic bridge may be thrown over the stream in a situation where it is not seen from the house.

I think it very desirable that openings should be made in several places through the mass of wood, to admit views of the distant scenery from the drawingroom; as, for instance, if there is a church or a tower, or any other object that would form a suitable termination to a vista. In the reign of William and Mary, when the Dutch style of gardening was fashionable, nothing was more common than long vistas of the kind called patte d'oie, all springing in rays from one point, and each terminating in some ornamental object, such as a temple, an obelisk, or a statue. Some slight approximation to this style, by cutting long vistas through your woods, might therefore be very consistently introduced wherever a suitable occasion for it may occur.

In planting your architectural garden, you must observe that it should have rather a different character from the small garden in front of your sitting-room window. The architectural garden should contain standard rose trees, almond trees, double-blossomed peaches and cherries, the Chinese magnolia, or yulan tree, and other showy-flowering trees, planted in company with arbutus, phillyrea, Minorca box, and other evergreens of a similar character. In the shrubbery, at each end of the garden, but not forming part of it, these trees should be continued, and mixed with variegated hollies, the different kinds of Cratæ'gus, and other trees that are ornamental, and that never attain a large size.

I have already suggested that in various parts of the pleasure-grounds advantage should be taken of any natural inequalities that may exist, to form different scenes; and I have now only to add that advantage may be taken of singular peculiarities, should you wish to form in your grounds one of those arboretums which are now so fashionable.

An arboretum is a collection of trees and shrubs, in which all the different species of natural order are planted together; and it does not necessarily imply that these orders should be arranged in any particular manner; as indeed botanists are not agreed as to how they should be placed, Jussieu having adopted one plan, De Candolle another, and Dr. Lindley another. The only essential point is, that all the plants which agree sufficiently to form an order should be placed together; as, for example, all the Coníferæ or cone-bearing trees, such as the pines and firs, the cedars, the cypresses, and the junipers; and all the Cupulíferæ or nut-bearing trees, such as the oak, the chestnut, the beech, and the hazel. Thus in your grounds, where there is a valley, it may be formed into what is called an American ground, consisting of the shrubs allied to the heath family, and planted with rhododendrons, azaleas, kalmias, and other similar plants. A glen may be planted with pines and firs, so as to form it into a kind of pinetum; and an open space among trees may be turned into a rose-garden or rosery. In this way most of the exotic trees and shrubs that will stand the air in English gardens may be planted in groups, without going to much expense, and with less formal appearance than that of a regular arboretum. Besides, the beautiful colours which some of the exotic trees will take in autumn give them a splendid appearance, when they are backed by other trees with verdant foliage.

The rose-garden will be a very beautiful object if skilfully arranged; and, by thus forming your park into a succession of scenes, you will not only increase its beauty in the eyes of strangers, but add very materially to your own enjoyments by increasing the objects of interest within your reach.

I do not suppose you will have any occasion to renovate the turf in any part of your park; but, if you should, the best way is to get a mixture of the seeds of several sorts of grasses, such as the fox-tail meadow grass (Alopecùrus praténsis), the sweet-scented vernal grass (Anthoxánthum odoràtum), the crested dog's-tail grass (Cynosùrus cristàtus), and other valuable kinds. If ever you find a patch of grass has become bare, have an iron rake drawn over the ground two or three times, so as to loosen it, and then sow a few seeds of the grasses I have mentioned, when the ground is in a tolerably moist state from rain. This will generally be sufficient; but if it should not, as the seed of the fox-tail meadow grass is very often bad, you have only to add a little seed of the common white clover, and the ground will appear green in a few days.

LETTER X.

LAYING OUT A KITCHEN-GARDEN.—MAKING GRAVEL WALKS.—BOX EDGINGS.—CROPS OF CULINARY VEGETABLES.—CUCUMBERS, MELONS, AND MUSHROOMS.

I had not intended saying any thing about the kitchen-garden, as it hardly comes within a lady's province; but as you tell me you are so much annoyed by your old gardener never having the things you want when you want them, that you think of forming a small kitchen-garden near the house, I shall be very happy to give you my advice as to what appears to me to be the best method of doing so.

Every kitchen-garden ought, if possible, to be either square or oblong, for the convenience of planting the beds, and you will find a garden of one acre in extent quite as much as you will be able to manage. I would advise you to have it surrounded by a wall about ten feet high for fruit trees; and in front of this wall there should be a border ten or twelve feet wide; beyond which should be a gravel walk four feet wide, leaving a square or oblong plot of ground in the centre for culinary vegetables. This central plot may either have a main walk up the centre, and two or three side walks, or be left all in one bed, which may be divided into compartments, with paths between, to suit the convenience of the gardener. The best situation for your kitchen-garden will be as near the stable as possible for the convenience of manure; and, of course, it will join the reserve-ground. The surface of the ground should be level, or gently sloping to the south, and there should be no high trees near it. The whole of the garden should be well drained, and you should contrive it so as to have easy access to either pond or river water. A valley or a hill is a bad situation for a kitchen-garden; as the valley is very liable to injury from frost on account of the damps that hang over it; and the hill is not only cold, but exposed to injury from high winds.

I have already mentioned that the form of a kitchen-garden should be either square or oblong; and I may add, that the walks should always be straight, as, if they were serpentine, it would be difficult to wheel a barrow of manure along them without overturning it. The square form of the garden, however, is not only on account of the walks, but in order that the compartment in the centre may be divided into oblong beds, as it is most convenient to sow vegetables in straight lines to allow of weeding and hoeing between them, earthing them up, &c. The best soil for a kitchen-garden is a sandy loam, and the surface soil should be from two to three feet deep. You will find it very convenient to have a vinery or forcing-house close to the kitchen-garden; and you can either have a small separate garden for melon and cucumber-beds, called a melon-ground, or this may form a part of your reserve-ground.

The first thing to be done when you have fixed upon your ground is to form the walks, marking them out by two garden lines, and then digging out the space between in the shape of an inverted arch, which should be from one to two feet deep in the centre. The arch is then partly filled in with brick-bats, stones, or any other hard rubbish which can be procured, leaving a little hollow space exactly in the centre to serve as a drain. Care must be taken, when filling in the rubbish, to put the largest pieces in first, then pieces somewhat smaller, and then pieces broken very small, which are rammed down as hard as possible, so as to make a smooth surface immediately under the gravel. The gravel before laying it down should be sifted, and all pieces larger than a moderate-sized gooseberry should be thrown on one side. As soon as the small gravel is laid down and evenly spread it should be rolled, and this rolling should be repeated occasionally till the walk becomes quite hard and firm. If the gravel does not bind well, it may be improved by mixing with it powdered burnt clay, in the proportion of one wheelbarrow full of clay to a two-horse cart load of gravel. The clay may be burnt by making it into a heap, intermixed with, and surrounded by, faggot wood. Gravel walks should always be slightly raised in the middle, in order that the water may run off on each side. If you should have an old gravel walk that wants renovating, the gravel should be loosened with a pick, turned over, raked, and firmly rolled, adding a coating of fresh gravel if necessary. If weeds should appear on a gravel walk, they are best killed by watering them with salt and water, and this liquid will prevent any other weeds from appearing.

Box edgings are the best for gravel walks, and March or April is a good season for planting them. The following is the mode of performing this operation, which requires some attention, as the beauty of the edging depends on its regularity. The margin of the bed for about a foot in breadth should be watered, and afterwards beaten firm and level with the back of a spade; a garden line should then be stretched along close to the walk, and a shallow trench opened, sloping towards it at an angle of rather less than 45°. Some dwarf box having been procured from the nurseryman, it should be divided into separate plants, and the branches and roots trimmed, so that the plants may be nearly of a size. These are laid along the sloping face as regularly as possible, with their tops rising about an inch above the soil, and the earth is drawn upon them, so as to fill up the trench and make them quite firm. The plants are then watered, and nothing further is required but to supply the place of any that may chance to die, and to keep the tips neatly trimmed.

The crops of culinary vegetables are of two kinds, those that are permanent, and those that are temporary. Of the permanent crops, the most important are the asparagus beds, on account of the great length of time they take in preparing. The ground must be first trenched three or four feet deep, and plenty of stable dung buried at the bottom of the trench. The beds are then marked out four feet wide, and paths left between them; and the plants, which must be procured from a nurseryman (as they should be two years old when they are first put into the bed), must be planted in rows nine inches apart, and deep enough to have the crown of the root two inches below the surface of the ground. The beds are covered with rotten manure during winter, which is forked into the ground in the spring. The asparagus stalks are not cut till the second or third year after planting; but after that the beds continue to produce for twelve or fourteen years, or even more. All the shoots that push up from April to Midsummer may be cut off and used for the table; but those that spring after Midsummer should be suffered to expand their leaves, in order that they may elaborate their sap, and thus strengthen the roots.

Sea-kale is planted in beds in the same manner as asparagus, when the plants are a year old. The first year the plants will require little care, except cutting down their flower stems whenever they appear; but the second year, each plant must be covered with river-sand, and then have a sea-kale pot turned over it, on which must be heaped stable dung fifteen or twenty inches high, in order that the heat may make the young shoots grow rapidly, and thus make them tender and succulent.

Artichokes, tart-rhubarb, and horseradish, are other permanent crops found in kitchen-gardens, but they do not require any particular care in their culture.

The temporary crops in kitchen-gardens require a constant change, as it is found from experience that the same crop cannot be grown on the same ground for two years in succession, without becoming of an inferior quality; and thus it is found necessary to fix what is called the rotation of crops, and to arrange that in each compartment a fresh crop shall be grown every year, as different as possible from the one that grew in it the year before. Thus, onions may be succeeded by lettuces, carrots by peas, potatoes by cabbages, and turnips by spinach. These plants may of course be varied according to circumstances; but the principle is never to have two fleshy-rooted plants like the carrot and the potato succeed each other; but always to let a plant cultivated for its leaves or seeds follow one cultivated for its root, and so on.

The cabbage tribe is very much improved by cultivation, but the plants contained in it require a great deal of manure and frequent watering to make them succulent and good. It seems strange that such different plants as broccoli, cauliflowers, cabbages, Scotch greens, and savoys should all spring not only from one genus, but from one species (Brássica oleràcea), which is, in fact, a British plant, and which I have no doubt you have seen growing on the cliffs at Dover, though you would have no idea that a tall straggling plant, with alternate leaves and very pretty yellow flowers, could be the wild cabbage.

The first change from this loose-leaved plant appears to be to what are called Scotch Greens, Borecole, or Kale; and these plants accordingly require the least care in their cultivation. They are generally sown in April, and transplanted in rows into the kitchen-garden, where they only need to be occasionally hoed and earthed up. There are a great many sub-varieties of these greens, all of which generally come true from seed.—Cabbages properly so called have a fine head or ball formed of leaves folded closely over each other; and when eaten young, before the heads have formed, they are called coleworts. Cabbages are sown three times, for the spring, summer, and autumn crops. The spring cabbages are sown in the first week of the August of the previous year, and in October or November they will be ready for transplanting into rows twelve inches apart, where they will remain till they are wanted for use the following spring. The summer crop is sown in February, and transplanted in April, the plants being eighteen inches apart every way; and the autumn crop is sown in May, and planted out in July. All kinds of cabbage require a soil well enriched with animal manure, frequent hoeing-up, and abundance of water, or they will become dry and tasteless instead of being succulent. The stalks of the summer and autumn crops are generally left standing to produce what are called sprouts; and some gardeners only grow one crop of regular cabbages, leaving the stalks standing during the rest of the season for sprouts.—Savoys are large cabbages with wrinkled leaves, which are sown in March, and transplanted in May or June to a bed where they stand two feet apart every way. The crop is generally ready in November, but savoys are never considered good till they have had some frost.—Brussels Sprouts are a variety of the Savoy cabbage, and, as they are said to be very inferior in quality if raised from seed ripened in Britain, you must inquire if the seed you purchase has been procured from abroad.—Broccoli should be treated like cabbage, the soil should be deeply trenched and manured before the plants are transplanted.—Cauliflowers require too much care in their culture for me to advise you to have any thing to do with them.

Peas and beans should be grown in an open sunny situation, and in a light soil that is tolerably rich, but not freshly manured; and hence they are well adapted to succeed the cabbage tribe, the soil for which is always well manured.

Some sow their early peas in November and December, but very little is gained by this; and, if the winter should be severe, the crop is sometimes lost. The best time, therefore, for sowing early peas is in February, and the late ones in two or three sowings from April to July. Before sowing, the ground should be marked for drills, by stretching a garden line along the length of the bed, and then making a drill or furrow along it with a dibber, pressing the earth firm at the bottom of each drill. As soon as the drill is prepared, the peas are regularly dropped along it, two or three to an inch, if they are small, and an inch apart if large, and then they are covered with the soil, which is firmly pressed down over them with a spade or roller. The drills should be an inch and a half deep, and from two to three feet asunder, according to the size of the peas, the marrowfats and blue Prussians requiring more room than the early kinds. A pint of peas will sow from twenty to thirty yards of drills, according to the size of the peas. Dried furze is sometimes put over peas when they are sown, and before they are covered with earth, to save them from mice. If the weather should be dry, the drills may be occasionally watered; and when the young plants are two or three inches high they should be hoed up, the earth being carefully drawn up to their roots. When about six inches high, they should be stacked with two rows of sticks to each row of peas, care being taken to have the sticks higher than the expected height of the peas, and not to let them cross at top. Many persons do not grow any early peas (which are always inferior to the larger kinds), but sow a crop of dwarf marrowfats and green Prussians in March and April for the principal crop, sowing the tall marrowfats and blue Prussians in June and July for a late crop. In this manner a supply of fine-flavoured peas may be obtained all the summer, and in open seasons till the end of September or October.

Beans are sown at the same time as peas, but they should be grown in stronger soil; they do not require sticks, and they are generally topped, that is, the upper part of the leading shoot of each plant is cut off; an operation that would be fatal to peas.

Kidneybeans are of two quite distinct kinds. The dwarf kidneybeans are annuals, which should be sown in drills about two feet apart, the first or second week in May; but the scarlet runners are perennials, the seed of which should be sown two or three inches asunder, and very lightly covered; and the rows should at least be three feet apart. The plants will require sticks like peas. Kidneybeans are generally eaten in England only in an unripe state, the pods being eaten as well as the seeds; the ripe seeds are, however, commonly eaten in France under the name of haricots blancs.

Potatoes are propagated by what are called sets, that is, pieces into which the tuber is cut, each of which contains a bud or eye. Before they are planted, the ground should be trenched and rotten dung dug into it. The early potatoes are planted in March, and the late ones in May or June. When the potatoes are to be planted, a garden line is stretched across the beds, and holes are made along it with a dibber, about six inches deep, and nine inches or a foot apart. The sets are then put into the ground, one in each hole, with the eye upwards, and the earth firmly pressed down on them. When the plants come up, they are frequently hoed and earthed up; and as soon as they come into blossom some cultivators cut off the tops, to prevent the formation of the seed.

The Jerusalem artichoke is propagated by sets, like the potato; and the turnip, the carrot, and the parsnep are propagated by seed sown in drills about March.

Red beet is cultivated in the same manner, and plants that are sown in March will have roots ready for the table in September or October. Great care, however, must be used while taking them out of the ground, not to wound the outer skin; and in the kitchen they must be only washed and not scraped, as, if the outer skin should be removed, all the colouring matter will escape when the root is boiled, and the root, instead of its being of its usual bright red, will be of a dingy whitish pink.

Radishes are sown at different seasons; generally every fortnight, from January to July or August.

Spinach is of two kinds: the round-leaved variety, which is generally sown for the summer crop in January or February, and the roots of which may be pulled up and thrown away as soon as the leaves are gathered; and the Flanders spinach, which has triangular leaves, and which is sown for the winter crop in August. This last kind should have only the outer leaves pinched or cut off; and, thus treated, it will continue producing fresh leaves all the winter, as it is quite hardy, and not injured by frost. The seeds of this plant will keep good four years.

I do not suppose you will attempt to grow onions, as they will require a great deal of care; but you can sow a few in March for salads. If you wish to grow onions of an enormous size, you should raise the seed on a hotbed in February, and transplant them into the open ground in April or May. The soil into which they are transplanted should be very rich, and mixed with charcoal roughly powdered. The onions should be planted a foot apart every way, only the fibrous roots being buried in the soil, and they should be watered regularly every day. All the onion tribe require a very rich soil, which is very much improved for them by mixing charcoal with it. When it is wished to grow onions to a very large size, a hollow space or cup is made in the ground, in the middle of which the onion is placed when it is transplanted, the fibrous roots being buried in the ground at the bottom of the cup. The bulb of the onion, when thus treated, and well watered, swells to an enormous size, and becomes extremely delicate.

Lettuces are of two kinds: the cabbage lettuces, which may be sown broad-cast at any time from February to August, and require no after care, except thinning out and watering; and Cos lettuces, which are generally blanched by bending the tips of the leaves over the heart, and tying them in that position with a bit of bast mat. Endive and succory are blanched in the same manner, and mustard and cress only require sowing, as they are cut for salads while in their seed leaves. In France, lettuces are often cut for salads in their seed leaves like mustard and cress.

Celery requires a good deal of care in its culture. The seed must be sown in March or April, in a bed the soil of which is formed of equal parts of loam and rotten dung. When the young plants come up, they are transplanted into another bed of very rich soil, and when they are about a foot high they are removed into trenches for blanching. These trenches are made four feet apart, eighteen inches wide, and twelve inches deep, and they are filled nine inches high with a rich compost of strong fresh soil and rotten dung. The plants are taken up with as much earth as will adhere to their roots; and, their side shoots having been removed, they are set in the centre of the trench nine or ten inches apart. As they grow, the earth is drawn up to them, a little at a time, taking care never to let the earth rise above the heart of the plant; and this earthing up is repeated five or six times, at intervals of about ten days or a fortnight, till the plants are ready for use.

The potherbs, as they are continually wanted in cookery, are much better in a garden near the kitchen. One of the most important is parsley, which is generally sown in a drill in February or March, and the plants of which do not seed till the second year. Fennel is a perennial, which, when once introduced, requires no further care, except to prevent it from spreading too rapidly. Thyme, sage, pot-marjoram, and winter savory, are all dwarf shrubs, which require no care after they have been once planted. Mint, winter marjoram, and the common marjoram, are perennials; but the sweet or knotted marjoram, summer savory, and basil require sowing every year like parsley.

I would not advise you to grow cucumbers or melons; but, should you feel inclined to try your skill, you have only to have a hotbed made like that for raising flower seeds; but with a two- or three-light frame, remembering that it will take a cart-load of stable dung for every light. The plants are raised in pots, and, when they are about five weeks old, they are planted three together in little ridges of earth made under each light. When the plants have produced two rough leaves, the ends of the shoots are generally pinched off, and this is called stopping the runners. When the plants come into flower, the pollen of the male flowers should be conveyed to the female ones, as otherwise the fruit very often drops off as soon as it is set. Seeds for the first crop of cucumbers are sown in December or January; but the principal crop is sown in March. The great difficulty is to grow the cucumbers long and straight, and to keep them green, and with a beautiful bloom. For the first purpose a brick may be placed under the fruit, and for the second, abundance of leaves should be left on the plant; and the ground in which it grows should be kept quite moist, as it is found that the plant succeeds best when it has abundance of heat and moisture, and has grown in the shade. Melons require the same treatment as cucumbers, with the exception of their beds being about 10° hotter; as, for example, the seed-bed should not be less than 65°, and the fruiting-bed should not be less than 75°.

Gourds and tomatoes should be sown in a hotbed in March, and planted out in May, the latter against a south wall.

Mushrooms are generally grown in the back shed of a vinery or forcing-house, in beds made of fresh horse-dung, which has lain in a heap under cover, and been turned over several times for about a fortnight or three weeks, till every part has thoroughly fermented. A bed is then marked out about twelve or fourteen feet long, and five feet broad; and, if it is on the earth, a pit is made of that size by taking out the soil about six inches deep. The bottom of the bed should be formed by a layer of long fresh stable manure about four inches thick. On this several other layers must be placed of the prepared dung, each being beaten flat with the fork, so as to make the bed as close and compact as possible, till it is about five feet high, when the top should be finished off like the ridge of a house. In this state the bed should remain about a fortnight, and then some bricks of mushroom spawn having been procured from a nurseryman, they should be broken into pieces about an inch or an inch and a half square, and strewed regularly over the bed, each piece of the spawn being buried by raising up a little of the dung and inserting it. After this, the surface of the bed must be beaten flat with the spade, and the whole covered with a loamy soil, and beaten quite smooth. The bed is then covered about a foot thick with oat straw, and again with mats, and it will require no further care for a month or six weeks, by which time the mushrooms will be ready for the table. Care should be taken in gathering them to twist them up by the roots, as, if they are cut off, the root, which is left in the ground, will decay, and be injurious to the young plants. Mushrooms may be made to grow in lawns, by procuring some bricks of mushroom spawn, and, after breaking them into pieces about an inch or two inches square, burying these pieces by raising a little of the turf wherever the mushrooms are wished to grow, and placing the spawn under it. This is sometimes done in April or May; but if the season should be dry, the spawn will not germinate. Others put the spawn into the ground in August, or in the first week in September; the lawn is afterwards rolled, and no other care will be requisite until the mushrooms are ready for gathering, which will be in a month or six weeks after the spawn is buried.

LETTER XI.

THE MANAGEMENT OF FRUIT TREES.—PLANTING.—PROTECTING THE BLOSSOMS.—STONE FRUITS.—FIG TREES.—GRAPES.—MANAGEMENT OF A VINERY.—GROWING PINE-APPLES.—FORCING PEACHES AND NECTARINES.—STANDARD FRUIT TREES.—KERNEL FRUITS.—FRUIT SHRUBS.—STRAWBERRIES.—TART-RHUBARB.

The fruit trees in a kitchen-garden should be all trained against the walls, and those trees which are grown as standards should be in a separate garden or orchard. The walls are best when about eight feet high, and they should have strong hooks or holdfasts built into them at the top, for the convenience of supporting a wooden coping, or of suspending mats or nets. Some persons recommend the walls to be built on arches; but this is a bad plan, as it is of importance to the gardener to confine the roots as much as possible to the border within the garden. The roots of fruit trees should never go deeply into the ground, as, if the roots are suffered to get so deep as to be out of the reach of the air, the trees will produce more leaves and branches than fruit. On this account care should be taken that the soil should not be more than eighteen inches deep; and the easiest and most effectual mode of doing this is, to dig out the border to the depth of two feet, and put a layer of brick-bats and other rubbish covered with gravel well rammed down to the depth of six inches, and to fill up the remaining eighteen inches with a fine rich mould. When a fruit tree border is in its proper state, the gardener should always be able to show the fibrous roots of his trees by removing a little of the earth with his hand. When the trees are planted the roots should be carefully spread out to their full extent, and care should be taken always to keep the collar of the plant above the earth, as when it is buried the tree is very liable to become cankered. As the blossoms of peaches, apricots, and nectarines appear early, they are very liable to be injured by spring frosts, and many plans have been devised for protecting them. All, however, are liable, more or less, to objection, as it is extremely difficult to put up mats without knocking off the blossoms. The best way is to have a deep wooden coping placed on the holdfasts that were let into the wall, with hooks in front, from which a curtain of bunting may be suspended, which should be kept up night and day during frosty weather; as there is quite as much danger from the sun during frosty weather, as from the frost. In fact, in most cases where plants are injured by frost, it is in consequence of a warm sunny day having succeeded a severely cold night.

Peaches and nectarines are the most valuable of our wall fruit trees. They should be grown in tolerably rich soil, but which has been enriched with decayed leaves rather than animal manure; as, when they are manured with dung, they are very apt to produce what are called water shoots or gourmands, that is, strong vigorous shoots without any blossom buds. Peach trees are generally kept in the nursery till they are three or four years old, and they should be removed about the latter end of October, or the beginning of November. They are best trained in the fan manner, that is, with the branches spread out regularly against the wall in the shape of a fan; and, as they always bear their fruit on shoots of a year old, those shoots must be left on in pruning, and the old wood cut out. The pruning should be performed either in November or February; but the trees should never be cut during a severe frost. When the fruit has stoned it is thinned out, and never more than two should be left growing together.

Peaches and nectarines are generally grafted close to the ground, so as to make dwarf trees, and they are considered best planted about twenty feet apart, with some kind of plum or cherry, grafted standard high, placed between them.

Apricots are trained somewhat horizontally, and they bear not only on the shoots of the last year, but on close spurs formed by the two years' old wood. Apricot trees are very apt to have large limbs die off without any apparent cause; but this may be prevented by covering all the principal limbs in October with hay-bands, and letting them remain on till all danger is over from frost. Apricot trees should be five and twenty feet apart on the wall, as they spread rapidly, and do not bear cutting in. The fruit should be thinned in May, or the beginning of June.

Plum trees will bear a little manure being laid on the surface in autumn, and slightly forked in in spring. They are trained horizontally, and they bear on what are called spurs; that is, short rugged-looking little branches, jutting out from shoots two or three years old, and which will continue fruitful for several years. Plum trees, in consequence, require very little pruning; and, in fact, as they are apt to gum when they are wounded, they should be very seldom touched with a knife.

Cherry trees resemble plum trees in their culture, and, when grown against a wall, most of the kinds are trained horizontally, and their branches kept six or eight inches apart. The morello cherry is, however, an exception to this rule, as it requires pruning and training, like the peach.

Fig trees should never be pruned, except to remove shoots that cannot be trained, as the fruit is produced on the young wood at the extremity of the branches. Fig trees should be planted thirty feet apart, and trained horizontally, their long branches being bent backwards and forwards, in order to make them throw out side shoots for bearing fruit, which they will generally do where the bend is made. Fig trees require to be well supplied with water, though they will not grow if any stagnant water be suffered to remain about the roots.

The pomegranate resembles the fig tree in producing its flowers only on the points of its shoots, and on short twigs projecting from its trained branches. Pomegranates require a rich soil; and when it is wished to throw them into fruit, the blossoms should be shaded during the time of expansion, as otherwise the pollen will dry up without fertilising the stigma.

Grapes are frequently grown against a wall in the open air; and in some cases, as, for example, by Mr. Clement Hoare, near Southampton, with very great success. Grapes have been also produced of excellent quality against a flued wall; that is, a hollow wall heated by means of flues in it, as at Erskine, near Greenock; but as, in both cases, extraordinary care is required, I would advise you only to have a common sweet-water vine or two in your garden on the open wall, for the purpose of using its leaves in garnishing, and to grow vines in a vinery to produce the grapes you require for the table.

A vinery is a common hothouse or bark stove, heated with hot-water pipes or flues, and with a pit in the centre, which is generally filled with tan for pines. This appears a very simple and economical arrangement, but it has one great disadvantage; namely, that the pines require heat at a season when the vines should be in perfect repose, unless very early crops of grapes are desired. In other cases the centre of the vinery is planted with peach and nectarine trees for early forcing, the branches of the trees being trained over a curved trellis, and other peach and nectarine trees or vines, planted in the house, being trained against a trellis at the back. The vines for the main crop are, however, planted on the outside of the house, in a border prepared like that for the fruit trees, but richer; and their stems are brought into the vinery, through holes left for that purpose in the front wall. Several compositions have been recommended for making a compost for a vine border; but that most approved is, two parts of turfy loam mixed with one part of very rotten dung or decayed leaves, one part of lime rubbish, and one part of road drift. On the Continent they frequently bury the parts cut off the vine in pruning, in the border, and this is said to make excellent manure.

Vines are generally not planted in the border till about a year old, and they are best struck from cuttings of one bud or eye each, with about half an inch of stem left above and below the eye; the cutting is then planted in a small pot (60), and covered with soil half an inch thick, after which the pot is plunged to the rim in a common hotbed, or into the tan-pit in the centre of the vinery, covering it in the latter case with a hand-glass; the object being to keep the young plant growing in a moist heat of 60°. The young plants should be afterwards shifted into larger and larger pots, as they require it; and their stems, which will grow rapidly, should be trained either to a single stick or to a framework of sticks tied together, according as the plant is wanted to be spreading or trained to a single stem. If the eye has been a large and healthy one, and the wood of the stem from which it was taken firm and well ripened, the cuttings will grow rapidly. Care must be taken to give the young plant a gentle sprinkling of water every four or five days, and to let it have plenty of air, and not too much heat from the bed. The water should be given at night, and the glasses of the frame should be shut close immediately, as the steam thus generated is found very beneficial to the young plant. As when the plant is shifted the first time the stem, or cane as it is called, is generally six or eight inches long, great care must be taken not to injure either it or the spongioles of the roots in shifting; and, as the stem or cane is of course always longer every time the plants are shifted, additional care is required every time of performing the operation. While the plant is in the hotbed, the wires or tendrils, and also the weak lateral shoots, must be pinched off as fast as they are produced.

If the cutting was made in the first week of March, and has been properly treated, it will have a strong stem of ten or twelve feet long, and perhaps more, by the middle of June or the beginning of July. Many gardeners advise planting the vines out at this season, as they say they grow more vigorously, and form better wood, with only their stems in the hothouse, than when they are confined to the moist close heat of the bed. Other gardeners, however, keep their young vines in the pots till the following February, when the canes are generally five feet long, and as thick as the little finger.

When the plants are put into the ground there should be one vine to each hole; and, as every hole is made opposite a rafter, there is thus one vine allotted to every sash or light. A shallow pit is made in the ground for each vine, and, the pot being either broken with the spade or the plant carefully turned out of it, the ball of earth containing the roots is placed in the pit, in such a manner as to leave the cane as nearly as possible in the same position as it occupied when the plant was in the pot. The ball of earth is then covered with light rich mould about two inches thick, and the stem of the vine is brought through the hole in the wall into the house. This is an operation of some difficulty, particularly if the cane be long, and it is carefully wrapped up in matting or in hay-bands, to prevent it from receiving any injury. While the vines are in pots they are pruned, so as to leave only the main shoot, or at most two shoots, in case one should be broken off; and in the latter case, as soon as the main shoot has been safely introduced and attached to the rafter, the other is removed. The side shoots are also taken off as they appear till the main shoot has reached nearly to the end of the rafter, when its point is pinched off, and the strongest of the side shoots are allowed to develop themselves.

If the vine was planted in May or June the same year the cutting was struck, and nothing else is in the vinery, it should be allowed to remain all summer with the glasses off, and without fire heat; in September, however, the glasses should be put on, and enough heat applied to keep the temperature of the house at 55° or 60°, but always giving air in the middle of the day, in order to ripen the wood. In December, when the leaves begin to fall, the vines should be pruned, and they should then have a season of rest, till the leaf-buds begin to swell in spring. When only vines, or vines and peaches, are grown in a vinery, it is easy to give this season of rest by leaving off all fire heat, except what is necessary to keep out the frost, till the middle of February; but, when pines are grown in the same house, the stems of the vines are generally drawn out of the house during part of December, January, and February, and kept on the outside carefully wrapped up in mats and hay-bands, or laid along the ground and covered thickly with dead leaves and straw. The vine border should always be covered in the same manner during frosty weather, as neither stems nor roots should ever be exposed to a greater degree of cold than 40°. When the vines are planted out in June, they should not be suffered to bear any fruit that year; but, when they are not planted out till the February following, they may be allowed to bear one or two bunches each the following summer.

In pruning the vine great care should be taken never to cut close to a bud or eye, but generally to cut through the stem just in the middle of the internode or space between the buds, or at least half an inch from the bud left. The sap of the vine rises with great force; and if the pruning be delayed till spring, or if the cut be made too near the bud, the sap will flow profusely, and will very seriously weaken the plant. English gardeners call this overflowing of the sap bleeding; but on the Continent they call it the tears of the vine. There are three modes of pruning and training the vine; but the best for vineries is what is called the spurring-in system. This consists in training the plant with one long main shoot, which is always suffered to remain, and shortening the strongest of the side shoots to one or two eyes every winter, and removing those that are weakly, or that grow too closely together, as the shoots left, which are called the spurs, should always be about twelve inches apart.

The time of beginning to force grape vines depends upon the season at which the grapes are wanted, but the usual season is February. The cane of the vine is then taken into the house, if it has been wintered outside, and carefully trained to the rafter, the part next the ground being still kept wrapped round with hay-bands, and the hole stopped close round the stem, so as to prevent the vine receiving any check from the cold of the external air. Want of attention to this particular is very apt to produce a disease in the vines, which ends in what is called shanking, that is, a shriveling of the short stems of the grapes after they have set. The vine border has then its winter covering removed; and, after being forked over, a coating is laid on of rotten dung, two or three inches thick; or, what is better, a coating is laid on of turfy loam chopped up, and old lime mortar, about two inches deep, and on that a coating of rotten dung, two inches thick; over these may be replaced the coating of decayed leaves a foot thick, and straw or reed mat, which was laid on the bed during the severe frosts of winter. The grand point is, to keep the roots and part outside the house in the same temperature as that within, or even warmer.

When fire heat is first applied, the thermometer should be 55° at night, and 60° or 65° in the day; but the heat should be gradually increased as the buds begin to swell, keeping the heat at night about 10° lower than that of the day till the flower-buds appear, when the spurs are generally stopped about one bud beyond the flower-bud, and the leaf-shoots, which are opposite the flower-buds, are each stopped at a single leaf. The bunches must also be thinned, and not more than nine or ten allowed to each vine, if trained in the spur manner. The heat of the house should now be about 80° by day and 70° by night, and a little air should be given for half an hour every day, whenever it can be done without lowering the temperature below 74°. The hot-water pipes or flues should be frequently sprinkled with water when the vines are going out of flower, and the grapes beginning to swell; and the grapes in each bunch should be thinned out with a pair of scissors, and the shoulders of the bunches tied up to allow the grapes to swell. The house should now be at its greatest heat, viz. 85° by day, and 74° or 75° at night; air should be given freely, whenever it can be done without lowering the temperature below 77°; and the hot-water pipes should be sprinkled with water six or eight times during the twenty-four hours. When the fruit begins to change colour for ripening, this sprinkling should be left off, and air admitted freely, even at night, whenever it can be done without lowering the temperature too much. During the whole of the forcing, the border should be watered with dung water; and, as soon as all danger from frost is over, the leaves and straw should be thrown off, and the bed slightly forked over, to admit the warmth of the sun to penetrate the earth, and the air to reach the roots of the vines, as unless the air is allowed to reach the roots the grapes will not set well.

If the forcing was commenced in February, the grapes will be ripe in July and August; the Sweetwaters ripening first, the Hamburgs next, and the West's St. Peter's and Muscat of Alexandria last. When grapes are wished to be ripe in May or June, the forcing must begin the first of December, and pines may be grown with the same heat as will be required for the vines; but, when this is the case, the vines must have an artificial winter given to them, by ceasing all fire heat as soon as the fruit is cut, and taking off the sashes; the stems are afterwards kept in the shade, and as cool as possible through September and October, and they are pruned in November. When, on the contrary, grapes are not required before September, very little forcing is requisite; but the bunches of grapes must be carefully thinned, and not more than ten or twelve bunches should be allowed on each vine. When the vines are in flower and the fruit setting, the house should be kept close, and the pipes or flues frequently sprinkled with water; as a hot dry air makes the calyx shrivel up before the pollen has reached the ovary, and, when this is the case, the grapes will be small and frequently without stones.

It would take too much space to explain to you the other methods of training and pruning, and I need only say that the long method, which is the only one except the spur system in general use, consists in cutting out the old wood every second year, and supplying its place with wood of the previous season's growth.

You will thus see that the principal points to be attended to in the culture of the vine are:—1. To prune the plants so as to prevent them from forming too much wood, but not to cut too near the buds; 2. To keep the roots and collar of the plants, when forcing begins, at the same temperature, or nearly so, as the upper part of the stems; 3. To admit air to the roots as soon as all danger is over from frost; 4. To thin both the branches and grapes properly and in due time; 5. To keep the air of the house moist when the fruit is setting and swelling; and 6. To give the plants a proper season of rest.

Pines are propagated by crowns, that is, the bunch of leaves on the upper part of the fruit; or suckers which form by the side of the old plant. These are potted in small pots in proportion to their size, in a soil composed of seven eighths of pure loam and one of silver sand; and plunged about two thirds of their depth into a bed of tan, at the heat of about 95° in the bed, and the usual heat of a forcing-house in the atmosphere, if grown in the vinery. Young plants are sometimes grown without pots in propagating-pits; from which they are transferred, after being repotted, to what are called succession pits; and, after remaining there a long time, they are either removed to the tan-pit in the vinery to fruit, or to fruiting-pits. I shall not attempt to give you directions for their culture during all these changes, which take up a great deal of time; Jamaica pines being two years before they are ready to cut, Providence pines about twenty or two and twenty months, and Queen pines sixteen or eighteen months. Your only chance of growing pines is, therefore, not to have them till they are put into fruiting-pots; these are plunged into the tan-pit in the vinery in February or March, when the forcing of the vines begins; and afterwards they will require no other care than watering them frequently, and keeping the atmosphere moist, to make the fruit swell. Pine-apples are sometimes grown without pots, in peat soil, through which pipes of hot water are carried so as to heat the earth to 95°, while the atmosphere is kept moist, and decayed leaves are laid on the surface and drawn up round the plants. In this way, Queen pines have been grown to the size of five or six pounds, and New Providence pines from twelve pounds to fifteen pounds.

When peaches are forced in a vinery, the trees should be three or four years old before they are put into the house. The best kinds are, the Grosse Mignonne, the Royal George, the Bellegarde, and the Late Admirable; and, where only one kind is wanted, the Bellegarde is preferred, as it is not so liable to the mildew as the others. The best kinds of nectarine for forcing are the Elruge and the Violette hâtive. If the forcing begins in December, the fruit will be ready in May. The leaves should be frequently syringed with water at the temperature of the house; and, in other respects, the culture is the same as for peaches in the open air, and the forcing the same as for vines. The greatest objection to growing peaches in a vinery is, that the shade thrown by the leaves of the vines prevents the proper colouring and flavouring of the fruit.

Standard fruit trees should never be planted in a kitchen-garden, as from their drip and shade it is impossible to grow good culinary vegetables under them; while, on the other hand, the constant digging and movement of the soil required for culinary vegetables, make the roots of the trees descend so far that they get beyond the reach of the air, and can never produce good fruit. Dwarf standards are fruit trees grafted near the collar of the plants, and trained in various ways to form bushes rather than trees. Sometimes a hoop is placed inside, and the branches are trained into a cup-shape; at others, the branches are formed into a kind of umbrella; and, at others, they are trained into the shape of a distaff (en quenouille), or like a pyramid. All these and many other modes of training dwarf standards may be seen at the London Horticultural Society's Garden at Chiswick: but only pears, apples, and dwarf cherries are treated in this manner; and, though they are convenient to gather the fruit from, they are in so unnatural a state as to be subject to canker and other diseases, and seldom live long. Espalier trees are subject to the same objections, as they are in a still more unnatural state than dwarf standards. The hardy kernel and stone fruits are therefore best grown in an orchard, and I shall now say a few words on their treatment.

Apples are the most useful of all fruits, and there are three distinct kinds, the dessert or eating apples, the kitchen or baking apples which fall or become soft in cooking, and the cider apples which are good for nothing but cider. Apple trees are generally grafted on crab stocks; and, when they are planted, the collar should be raised a little above the soil, as if it is buried the tree will very probably become cankered, or affected with the American blight. Canker is sometimes cured by cutting out the cankered part, and admitting air to the roots; and the insect called the American blight may be removed by washing the tree with a brush and soft soap and warm water, or by plastering it over with a mixture of stiff clay and water.

Pear trees are very apt to send their roots down to a great depth, and then cease bearing; so that it is desirable to keep the roots near the surface by mulching with manure or dead leaves. The fruit is produced on spurs, and when pear trees are grown against a wall they are trained horizontally, with short projecting branches or spurs. Pear trees against a wall are very apt to bear their fruit in clusters, and to leave a great part of the tree barren; and this arises from their flowers having naturally very little pollen, and, where the flowers are exposed to great heat, the pollen drying up without fertilising the stigma. The best remedy is to syringe the branches occasionally, and to shade them when in blossom.

The quince thrives best near water; as does the medlar. Mulberry trees are best planted on a lawn, for the convenience of picking up the fruit clean from the grass; as it falls as soon as it is ripe. Plums and cherries require no particular care when grown as standards, except to be sparing in the use of the knife, as both trees, when wounded, are very apt to produce gum; and this, which is an unnatural exudation of the sap, similar to the bleeding of the vines, is very injurious to the trees.

The almond is a kind of peach tree, with a leathery fruit instead of a juicy one, the almond being the kernel of the stone. The bitter almond abounds in Prussic acid; but this powerful poison scarcely exists in the kernel of the sweet variety. Almond trees are generally grafted on plum stocks; and they should be grown in a dry soil and a sheltered situation, as the branches are brittle and apt to be broken off by high winds. When almond seeds are sown, the sharp end should be pressed downwards; and the young plants should not be transplanted except when absolutely necessary, as they have very long tap-roots. When the almond is planted for ornament it should have a back-ground of evergreens, as its flowers appear before its leaves.

The walnut, being a spreading tree with large leaves, should only be planted where no injury will be sustained by a deep shade being cast upon the ground; but it must be observed that its leaves are disliked by all cattle, and are injurious to cows. In pruning it the tips of the branches should be taken off, to make them throw out fruit-bearing shoots.

Sweet chestnuts are always propagated by seeds, and never grow well unless the soil contains a portion of sand. The wood is worthless when old. Both walnuts and chestnuts are generally planted in the park.

The fruit shrubs grown in gardens may be considered to include the elder, the berberry, and the filbert, though these are frequently called trees. The elder and the berberry will grow anywhere, and require no particular care in their culture; the filbert is only a variety of the common hazel, and both are generally grown on the borders of walks, where they are planted from five to ten feet apart, according as they are to be trained upright or spreading. As the fruit is produced on the young shoots, the bush should be kept open and trained in the cup fashion, in order that the main branches may throw out short young wood. Filberts are propagated by sowing the seeds; and hazel trees by suckers, which they throw up in abundance.

Gooseberries are generally propagated by cuttings, which strike easily; and they should be grown in soil which is well drained, and well manured by a coating of rotten dung being laid upon it every third year. The bushes should be planted in rows eight or ten feet apart, the plants being about six feet from each other. They should be pruned twice a year; in the winter to remove the branches not likely to produce fruit, and early in summer to remove those shoots that are not likely to ripen. The fruit is produced partly on the old and partly on the young wood, and it should be thinned when gathered green for pies and puddings, by taking only a few from each bush, instead of gathering all that may be wanted from one.

Currants are raised from cuttings generally about a foot long, all the buds from which are taken off, except five or six at the top; and the cutting is then firmly fixed in the soil about six inches deep. The currant bears chiefly on spurs of the old wood, so that these only are generally left in the winter pruning. The currant is very hardy, and will grow in any soil or situation, even under the drip of trees.

Raspberries always bear on the young shoots, so that the art of pruning them consists in cutting out the old wood. They are propagated by suckers, and thrive best in a light rich soil, and an open situation.

The cranberry is generally grown in moist soil or peat earth; but it may be grown in beds in the common garden like the strawberry. When cranberries are once planted they require no after care, except removing the runners when they extend too far.

Having now, I believe, told you a little, though I confess not much, of all the kinds of trees and shrubs usually grown in this country for their fruit, I have only to say a few words of strawberries and tart-rhubarb, and then I think I shall have given you all the information you will require for so small a garden as yours.

Strawberries are rather difficult plants to give directions for, as they succeed apparently equally well with different kinds of treatment. It is certain, however, that they like a deep rich soil, well manured; and that, when a new strawberry bed is planted, the ground should be trenched at least two feet deep, and a good deal of rotten dung (the dung from an old hotbed is best) should be mixed with the soil. Some persons make fresh strawberry beds every year, and some every third year; but strawberry beds will continue to produce for ten or twelve years, if a thick coating of decayed leaves be put on the bed every winter, and their remains forked into the bed in spring. When a new bed is to be formed, the strongest runners should be selected from the old plants; and they may be planted in beds containing three rows each, eighteen inches apart, the plants being about twelve inches apart in the line. Alpine strawberries may be raised from seed, and will fruit the first year. The Pine is an excellent strawberry for flavour, but Keen's seedling is the best for general use. The Hautbois requires a great deal of manure, and, as the male and female flowers are on different plants, nearly one half the plants in a bed are unproductive. Strawberries grow very well on banks facing the south or south-east, or on little terraces supported by walls, but in these situations they must be regularly watered twice a day. Strawberry plants never produce good fruit unless they have abundance of leaves, as shade is essential to the fruit being juicy and of a good flavour. Most gardeners take off the runners in August or September, and plant them in nursing beds for the winter, transplanting them to their proper beds in March.

Tart-rhubarb is propagated by seed or by division of the root, but the former method is generally considered the better. When beds of rhubarb are to be formed, the soil should be deeply trenched and richly manured, and the seed then sown in drills two feet apart for the scarlet rhubarb, and three feet apart for the larger kinds. When the plants come up they should be thinned out so as to leave the plants about the same distance apart as the rows are asunder. A few leaves may be gathered from each plant the second year, but it is generally considered to strengthen the plants if no leaves are gathered from them till the third year. Rhubarb may be forced in the open garden by putting pots over it, in the same manner as is done for sea-kale; or the plants may be taken up and potted, after which they may be placed in the kitchen near the fire and covered with matting or old carpet, being watered every day with warm water.

LETTER XII.

OPERATIONS OF GARDENING.—DIGGING, FORKING, AND HOEING.—SOWING SEEDS.—TAKING OFF SUCKERS.—MAKING LAYERS AND CUTTINGS.—BUDDING, GRAFTING, AND INARCHING.—PRUNING AND TRAINING.—DISBUDDING.—MANURING.—KEEPING FRUIT IN A FRUIT-ROOM.

Digging is the first operation necessary in gardening, as nothing can be done in the way of cultivating the soil till it has been first pulverised, so as to allow the fine delicate roots of the plants to penetrate among its particles. It is also necessary that the air should have access to the roots of plants, as they depend for their nourishment almost as much on the carbon and other elements which they absorb from the air, as on those which they obtain from the soil. On this account it is necessary, not only to dig the soil well before any thing is planted in it, but also to fork it over occasionally whenever its surface becomes hardened and impervious to the air and rain. When manure is applied also, it is customary to dig it into the soil; and ground is occasionally trenched in order to bring up fresh soil to the surface, whenever the surface soil appears to be exhausted and to want renewing. The operation of digging requires considerable strength, as it requires first to be able to force the spade into the ground, and then to raise as much earth as will lie upon the blade and turn it over. It is, however, a fine healthy occupation, not only from its calling the muscles into vigorous action, but from the smell of the new earth being particularly invigorating; and you might have a lady's spade, with a smooth willow handle, that will enable you to dig a small bed without much difficulty. You will be surprised, however, to find, if you try the experiment, that there is an art in digging as well as in every thing else; and that it is extremely difficult, both to dig in a straight line, and to make the ground look even tolerably level after it has been dug over. Raking, though it appears so simple, also requires considerable skill to make the ground look smooth and perfectly level. Forking is not so difficult, as it merely requires to have the fork pressed into the ground, and then pulled backwards and forwards, so as to loosen a portion of the soil without turning it over.

There are two sorts of hoes: the draw-hoe, which is used for drawing up the earth to any plant that is to be earthed up; and the thrust-hoe, which is principally used for destroying weeds. There are many varieties of both these forms, but the common kinds, I think, you will find the best. The most useful instrument, however, for you will be a trowel, and this you will find indispensable, as, without it, you will not be able either to transplant or pot a single plant. Some persons use what is called a transplanter, to enable them when they take up a plant, to remove it without disturbing the roots; but, as far as my own experience goes, I think these instruments are more troublesome than advantageous, and I prefer using a trowel. You will also want a budding-knife, and a sharp knife for making cuttings; and you will find a pair of pruning-shears with a sliding-joint extremely useful for cutting off dead wood, or removing any badly-placed branches.

Plants are propagated either by seed, or by division. When they are to be propagated by seeds, the ground must be either dug or forked over and made level. It is then firmed by beating it with the flat part of the spade, rolling it, or in any other manner; and the seeds are scattered over it, if they are to be sown broad-cast, and covered with earth the same thickness as themselves. When seeds are to be sown in drills, a narrow furrow must be made, by drawing a stick along the ground in a straight line, or in any other way so as to make the bottom of the furrow firm, and the seeds must be dropped into it at regular distances. The furrow is then filled in, so that the seeds may be covered to the same depth as their own thickness; and the earth is slightly pressed down, and afterwards raked over. Larger seeds are sown in separate holes made by a dibber, as are the sets of potatoes; but the after processes are the same in all. Bulbs and tubers are also planted in the same manner; taking care that the eyes of the tubers are uppermost, and the flat part of the bulbs downwards. In planting Ranunculus tubers the claws should be downwards, and if any are broken they should be cut off smooth with a sharp knife.

There are several ways of propagating plants by division, viz. taking off suckers, making layers and cuttings, and budding, grafting, and inarching.

Propagation by suckers is very simple. Many plants have a portion of their stems under ground, from the buds in which new upright stems rise into the air and fibrous roots descend into the ground. It is thus only necessary to divide the horizontal underground stem by the spade, or by opening the ground till the stem is found, and then cutting it through with a knife, and to take up the young plant which has sprung from it carefully and without injuring its roots, cutting off the remains of the old plant before the new one is replanted. Suckers sometimes spring from the collar of the old plant, and when this is the case they require more care in removing them, to avoid injuring the plant from which they spring.

Runners are suckers proceeding from horizontal stems above ground, and offsets are the suckers of bulbs, as they proceed either from the root-plate, which is the compressed stem of the hyacinth, or from the main body of the corm, which is, in fact, the stem, as in the crocus.

Layers are produced by imitating the process of nature in making suckers; as, in making layers, a joint of the upper stem is buried in the ground, and kept moist to induce it to throw out roots; the buried stem being generally slit or twisted at the joint, so as to prevent the return of the sap, and to occasion it to expend itself in roots instead of circulating in its ordinary way through the branch. As soon as a layer has produced roots it becomes the same as a sucker, and may be treated in exactly the same manner.

Cuttings are portions of a plant cut off just below a bud, and buried in the earth to induce them to throw out roots; which is done most effectually by exposing them to warmth and moisture, and shading them from the light, as that has a tendency to draw the sap towards the leaves, whilst warmth and bottom heat dispose the cuttings to throw out roots. On this account cuttings always strike most readily when the pots, in which they are planted, are plunged into a hotbed, and covered closely with a hand-glass. It must be observed in making cuttings, that they ought in most cases to consist of two buds; from the lower one of which the new roots are to spring, while the upper one is to produce the stem of the new plant. Cuttings must always be made quite firm at the base; and they generally strike most readily when the bottom of the cutting, which is cut through a joint and quite flat, rests against a piece of the drainage, or even the bottom of the pot, being in both cases pressed so closely against its earthenware support as to exclude the air. When a cutting is made, most of the leaves are removed, as the evaporation from them is greater than the plant can support while it is without roots. Cuttings of succulent plants are generally laid upon a shelf to dry before they are put into the ground, as if this is not done the wounded part is apt to become rotten, and to decay. Cuttings are generally struck either in sand or very light earth, in order that the young roots may meet with as little obstruction as possible.

Pipings are portions of pinks and carnations pulled asunder at a joint instead of being divided with a knife, and afterwards planted, and treated exactly like cuttings.

Budding is taking off a single bud or eye, called a scion, from one plant, and inserting it in another plant called the stock. This operation is generally performed in July or August. In the first place, a slit is made on each side and above and below a leaf which has a healthy bud in its axil, that is, just between the foot-stalk of the leaf and the branch on which it grows. The bark of the branch containing the bud and the leaf is then detached from the branch, by passing under it the bone handle of the budding-knife, which is made flat and thin on purpose, and raising it gradually up. If the bark has been raised carefully and properly, there will generally be a little bit of wood just under the bud, which must be carefully taken out, so that not the smallest particle of wood is left on the under side of the bark. A long slit is then made in the bark of the stock, with a cross slit at the top, and, the bark being gently raised at each of the corners made by the intersection of the long slit and the horizontal slit, the piece of bark with the bud attached is carefully introduced under the bark of the stock, which is closed over it, and bound tightly with a bit of bast mat, in order that the bark containing the new bud may be pressed as closely to the wood of the stock as possible. If the operation has been properly performed and the bud was a healthy one, it will soon begin to swell; and, when it does so, it will push off the foot-stalk of the old leaf that was taken off with it, so that when this foot-stalk falls it is a sign the bud has taken. When the bud has developed itself into leaves, the ligature should be loosened to allow the branch of the stalk to expand. The operation of budding requires a good deal of nicety: first, to avoid wounding the wood of the stock in slitting the bark; and, secondly, to make the bark of the scion fit quite closely to the wood of the stock, as, if the least vacuity is left between them, the bud will wither instead of beginning to grow.

Grafting differs from budding, in the scion consisting of several buds instead of one. It is also performed at a different time of the year; as March and April are the proper seasons for grafting, whereas budding is never performed till after Midsummer. In grafting, sometimes the head of the stock is cut off, and sometimes only the branch, and the scion is selected according to the size of the part to which it is to be attached. When the scion and the stock have been both chosen, they are cut slantingly, so that one may fit into the other; and care being taken that the bark and soft wood of the two unite, at least on one side, the two pieces are bound together, and the ligature is covered with what is called grafting clay, that is, a mixture of stiff clay, with a fourth part of fresh horse-dung, and a small quantity of cut hay. Another kind of grafting clay is composed of equal parts of stiff clay and cow-dung. It is of very little consequence whether the scion and the stock are of the same diameter, provided they are so cut and fitted, as to leave no vacuity between them, in those parts where the union is to be effected; and, to keep them quite closely attached to each other, it is customary to form a tongue, or little projecting part, by making a slanting cut in the scion, and to make a corresponding slit in the stock to receive it. There are several kinds of grafting; but that which I have described, and which is called whip or tongue grafting, is the most common, and it is always performed with the firm or ripened wood. There is, however, another kind of grafting, now becoming common in the nurseries, which is performed with the young, or unripened wood, and this is called herbaceous grafting, because the parts of the stem with which it is performed are as succulent as the stems of herbaceous plants. In this kind of grafting, the shoot of the stock is broken off about two inches below the point, and all the leaves are taken off except two, one on each side, which are left to draw up the sap. The stock is then split with a very sharp knife between the leaves left on it; and, the base of the scion having been cut into a wedge-shape, it is fixed into the cleft made in the stock, which is bound tightly up with strips of cerecloth, or coarse cotton cloth covered with grafting wax, made of equal parts of turpentine, bees' wax and rosin, with a little tallow, melted together. Sometimes plants, especially camellias in pots, are grafted in this manner, and placed in a hothouse under hand-glasses, and the pot surrounded with moss, to keep the cutting as close as possible. This mode of grafting is of French origin, and it is called la greffe etouffée.

Inarching bears considerable resemblance to layering, as it is performed without separating the part which is to form the new plant. A branch is bent from a living plant, and partly cut through, and, the tongue thus formed being introduced into a slit made in another plant, the two are bound closely together. It is obvious that this mode of grafting, which is called inarching, can only be practised with plants in pots, as it requires the two plants that are to be united to be brought close together, and to remain so till the graft has taken effect.

You must observe that, in all kinds of grafting and budding, there must be a considerable degree of resemblance between the scion and the stock, for the graft to take effect. Thus, though one stoned fruit may be grafted on another, such as the almond or peach on the plum, a stoned fruit cannot be grafted on a kerneled fruit, such as a plum on an apple or a pear. In the like manner, an apple cannot be grafted on an orange, which was formerly supposed to be done, to produce a pomegranate; nor a rose on a black currant, which it was formerly believed would produce a black rose. It is true that plants are sometimes sold in Italy which appear to have been unnaturally grafted, such as a rose upon an orange; but it will be found, when closely examined, that the pith of the orange has been artfully scooped out, and the stem of the rose tree introduced into the hollow space thus formed, through a hole made in the stem close to the root. In this way the two plants may appear to be one for some time; as the stem of the orange tree will live and produce leaves two or three years after the pith is removed, provided the operation has been performed carefully.

The other operations of gardening are pruning and training, and, as I have already spoken of these when treating of the different trees, I have only to add here that the great art in pruning is to give a clean sloping cut without bruising the bark, as nature will make an effort to cover the wound if the edges of the bark are left in a healthy state. The use of a sloping cut is, to prevent the water from lodging on a wounded part. Trees should never be cut in a hard frost; and as little as possible in summer, as every branch taken off while the plant is in a growing state excites it to make fresh efforts to throw out new shoots. Many persons look over their trees in summer, and rub off all the buds which they think likely to produce useless shoots; and this practice, which is called disbudding, is a very good one, as it prevents the tree from wasting its strength unnecessarily. The principal object to be attained in training a fruit tree is, to make the plant produce as much fruit as possible; and for this purpose the branches are bent backwards and forwards to cause obstructions in the sap, as it is only from places where there is an accumulation of sap that flowers and fruit are produced. Another object in training standard trees is to let the air into the centre of the tree, so that it may ripen the wood; and a secondary object in training trees against a wall is, that every part of the wall may be covered.

I cannot quit the subject of gardening without saying a few words on manures. The object of manuring ground is, to supply the soil with certain properties which are necessary for the nutrition of the plants, and this is done partly by mixing with it some kind of animal or of vegetable manure, and partly by adding some earth, in which the soil of the garden may be deficient. The new manures which have lately been so fashionable are of both kinds: guano is the dung of sea birds, which has been accumulating for ages on islands off the western coasts of Africa and South America; and nitrate of soda and Humphrey's compound are mineral substances which are very efficacious in promoting vegetation. The best vegetable manure is formed from decayed leaves, and this is a manure which may always be used with perfect safety; whereas the others are very injurious if used in too huge a quantity.

No kind of animal manure should be used in a garden (except for making hotbeds) till it is thoroughly decayed and all fermentation is gone off; as while it is in process of decay the gases it evolves are decidedly hurtful to plants. Those manures which abound in nitrogen, such as stable manure and the dung of birds, are the strongest and most dangerous; as if used incautiously they will blacken and shrivel up the leaves of the plants to which they are applied. Guano and pigeon's dung are very much alike in their properties, and both are of an extremely caustic nature; so that they should only be used in very small quantities, or be very much diluted. One ounce of guano to a gallon of water is a common proportion; or the guano may be mixed with six or seven times its own bulk of loam, peat, or charcoal, and dug into the ground before the crops are sown: if applied afterwards as a top dressing, it should be either in wet weather, or the soil should be well watered. Charcoal is very efficacious in some cases, but it appears variable in its action; as sometimes it produces scarcely any effect. Nitrate of soda and saltpetre act principally by supplying a particular kind of earth to plants that are in want of it, and of course will not suit all plants; but they are also of service in keeping the earth moist, and this, when not carried to an excess, is always useful.

When it is wished to keep plants constantly in a growing state, the soil should be rendered rich, and the plants should also be watered frequently, so as never to suffer the soil to become quite dry; equal care being taken to keep it free from stagnant water, which would rot the roots. When, however, the plant is to be hardened, to stay out the winter, it should be kept as dry as possible, and no manure should be applied for some time previously to the cold weather setting in. Nothing is less generally understood than the use of manures. They are in fact food; and should not be given to plants in excess, any more than children should be crammed with food. Starving and repletion should both be carefully avoided; and the great art of the cultivator is shown in supplying plants with food only when they need it. Too much water will sometimes produce leaves and stems instead of fruit and flowers; and shoots of great luxuriance very frequently do not ripen, and are killed by the first frost.

After telling you how to grow fruit, I must next tell you how to keep it. A proper fruit-room should be fitted up with broad shelves, or wooden trays with rims in front to prevent the fruit from falling off, and divided into compartments for the different kinds. There is generally a large table in the centre for sorting the fruits, and a thermometer should be hung on one side to regulate the temperature. According to Dr. Lindley, the essential points for a fruit-room are, "a low and steady temperature; dryness to a certain point, for apples are found to keep best in a rather damp atmosphere; and exclusion of the external air:" to this he adds, that it is necessary to keep the fruit in comparative darkness, to prevent it from becoming shriveled and ripe prematurely; that the temperature of the room should not be much above 40°; and that the shelves should be of white deal, as that wood does not give an unpleasant taste to the fruit.

Fruits keep best when laid separately, so as not to touch each other; and sometimes pears may be kept by packing them in fern, and grapes by packing them in jars in sawdust. Walnuts and chestnuts should be kept in rather a moist place, and covered with fern to exclude the air as much as possible, as they are much injured if they are kept too dry.

I may here mention that when sweet chestnuts are sent to the table, they ought always to be boiled first, and roasted afterwards; as, if roasted without previously boiling, it is scarcely possible to cook them sufficiently to make them wholesome, without burning them. After they have been boiled, before they are put down to roast, care must be taken to prick the skins; as, if this is neglected, the chestnuts will fly about in all directions as soon as the outer skin becomes parched.