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Now, root-pruning, lifting, and all the other manipulations attendant upon the artificial management of fruit trees have this very object in view, and are but so many means by which that condition of growth is brought about, because by those operations we disturb the tendency in young trees to excessive development of wood, and threaten, as it were, the life of the tree, which at once sets about the work of reproduction by seed.

The means to be adopted for inducing this habit of growth are various both in mode and application, but all tending to the same end:-In one case severe root-pruning may be necessary; in another, it may be best to lift the tree entirely out of the ground and replant it in fresh soil; and in another, the disturbance of the action of the roots by defoliation, or the constant and continual removal of all superfluous growth may be resorted to, or, in other words, the system of stopping and pinching back the growth during the summer, by which the roots are greatly influenced, and in most cases a fruitful habit induced. I should also observe in passing, although I shall have to refer to the subject again, that excessive fruit-bearing has a very great influence on the roots and growth of the tree; and when by our operations we have succeeded in bringing the tree into a good bearing state, we possess in the fruit a most powerful auxiliary in the work of maintaining the balance between the roots and branches.

If a fruit tree is planted in generous soil, and is otherwise favourably situated, it proceeds forthwith to the development of a strong and vigorous growth, and if left unchecked it will continue to do so as long as the roots can find food in sufficient abundance, but when the store is exhausted the necessary check is produced, and fruit-bearing follows. But previous to arriving at this point, we often see such trees produce a fair amount of bloom, which expands and to all appearance sets very well; but, except on the very weakest branches, it never advances further, but drops off abortive, because the strong shoots possess so great a power of attracting the sap to themselves, that it is diverted from the incipient fruit to the formation of more woody growth. Before these things came to be better understood, this state of matters was sought to be remedied by a resort to severe winter pruning; the strong wood was cut out, and the weaker and apparently fruitful was left or laid in, as the case might be; and the result was very often a state of things worse than before, because of the great amount of sap which the strong growth of the preceding year had sent down in readiness for the future development of growth, and the result was the continued development of strong and vigorous wood, in even a larger proportion than before, because the effect of cutting back strong shoots is to produce a greater number of equally strong shoots; and this is a tendency of which we always take advantage when we wish to obtain a supply of young shoots to fill up vacancies. Redleaf.

JOHN COX.

THE NUNEHAM PARK ONION.

THIS remarkably fine Onion was exhibited by Messrs. W. Cutbush & Son, of Highgate, at the recent International Show of Fruit and Vegetables at South Kensington, and it was fitly awarded a first-class certificate for its excellent qualities. The bulbs are very large, and remarkably solid and heavy, and it has all the appearance of being an extraordinarily good keeper. From a small plot of ground a great weight of bulbs can be obtained. Those who claim for it an identity with Danver's Yellow, must have been struck with the essential difference in the appearance of the bulbs; as seen at South Kensington,

not only did it lack similarity of shape, but also the agreement of colour of the outer skin, while the smoothness of Danver's Yellow was wanting in Messrs. Cutbush's variety, the last having a rougher and hardier-looking outer covering. T. K.

THE FLORAL DECORATION OF DWELLINGS. FEBRUARY, whatever may be said to the contrary, is a trying month for those who have much decoration to provide for, unless they have a great amount of glass and plenty of fuel at command. Most of the useful autumn plants are over, and there are few to be had from the cold houses. It is a great sacrifice to use Camellias, Heaths, or Epacrises, for these are seldom worth much after having been in the house for any length of time. Azaleas must have heat to bring them out in February; and Primulas and Cinerarias must also have had a little, otherwise they do not expand a sufficiency of blooms at one time to be effective in single vases or looking-glass cases. Bulbs must also have a good brisk heat to bring them into bloom by the beginning of the month; and many persons, too, object to Hyacinths as being too sickly for rooms.

Where it can be done with proper effect, it is a good practice to make a distinction in the different rooms. At present we have for the dining-room neat dwarf plants of Otaheite Oranges in miniature tubs, with a good sprinkling of fruit, the old Ardisia crenulata, Dianella cœrulea with its beautiful blue berries, Rivina humilis, and Solanum pseudo-capsicum. The last is very effective; good examples of it might be seen in the conservatory at South Kensington both last season and this. The Ardisia is also a good plant for decoration, from its clean glossy leaves and numerous bunches of red berries. We also find, from its having been standing in conjunction with Ferns, that great numbers of these spring up all over the surface of the soil in the pot, and they diminish the length of the stem, and save the labour of mossing the vase over, without doing any apparent injury to the plant.

For general decoration, we have in large single vases Azaleas, Canarina campanula, Thyrsacanthus rutilans, Persian Lilacs; and for the largest vases, by the middle of the month, a plant or two of the Guelders Rose and Laburnum come in for a change. The old-fashioned Canarina is too well known to require description; it is of easy growth, and has a light handsome appearance in rooms. The Lilac, Guelders Rose, and Laburnum are kept carefully to one stem, and make a good change: the Lilac in particular is a great favourite, and blooms profusely when so treated. Thyrsacanthus rutilans is much improved by tying the shoots out at the top to a circular wire or hoop, which keeps the long pendulous flower-stalks well out, and shows the flowers to greater advantage. For smaller vases, or tables, and bronze stands, we generally use a few of the best sorts of plants, as Amaryllis and Deutzia gracilis; and one stand is of Eucharis amazonica, and others of Fern-leaved Primulas. A very good plant for this month on a drawing-room table is the Ipomoea bona-nox: it opens its large white blooms about seven in the evening, and they remain open all the night, scenting the whole room with their delicious odour. It is a mistake to dry Amaryllises; they are continual bloomers if carefully treated. The Eucharis is, perhaps, the most easy stove bulb that we have to grow and bloom at any time with certainty; it is, besides, the most beautiful plant for a room table that I know, as it opens its blooms freely, and stands long. In large tile-boxes inside the windows, where the plants require to be from 18 inches to 2 feet in height, we have Browallia, Begonia nitida, Eranthemum pulchellum, Gesneras, Salvia splendens, Justicia, Poinsettia, and the beautiful white Prunus. The Eranthemum and Justicia are not good house plants, as they soon lose their

bloom. In small cases under looking-glasses, &c., we have Begonias, as insignis and others of the best winter-blooming sorts, grown in pots of the proper size to fit the boxes. Four or five cuttings are put into a 60-sized pot in August, and shifted at intervals into the proper size, which is generally that called 48's. When no longer serviceable the plants are thrown away. The red and white Primulas and Cinerarias are also grown in the same size, and thrown away when done with, as they are seldom of any use afterwards, as we find it better to push on a fresh stock than try to recover them. The best Tulips for very early work are the Duc Van Thols, particularly the yellow. In niches round the entrance-hall, or on each side of busts, the Calla æthiopica is most useful, and can be had during most of the winter and spring months.

No taste which has sprung up of late years is so beneficial to the gardener as that for fine-foliaged plants; they not only add to the summer variety, but many when properly treated are most useful for winter house decoration. Supposing that we are in the midst of a run of company, and anxious to make a change from the flowering plants, we put in the large vase, where the high Azalea is, a plant of similar height of the Canna discolor; in the next size, Latania borbonica and Seaforthia elegans. The former of these is a most graceful Palm for a room or entrance-hall; and when large the Seaforthia is more stately in habit, and requires a few Ferns round the bottom of the stems. For the other places we have Dracaenas, Croton pictum, Ferns, &c.; and for the small boxes, Centaurea argentea and candidissima. Coleus Verschaffelti, and the yellow-variegated Geraniums. Centaurea candidissima is a most beautiful plant for decoration; its long, feathery, frosted-looking, silvery leaves are very handsome in vases, and the plants come in for the garden in spring. Many of the new yellow-variegated-leaved Geraniums are much more beautiful and effective in pots with a little heat than when planted out in the garden. All the variegated-leaved Begonias are unfortunately very dull, and make no show in a room, which is the more to be regretted on account of their easy culture; they want a more decided mixture of white and red. The Coleus requires a little bottom heat to keep it moving into leaf for the winter months.

J. F.

PEARS.

Some few years

No fruit, perhaps, has made more progress than the Pear. ago, with rare exceptions, Pears were little better than a dish of Skirving's Swedes! The difficulty now is how to select good Pears, and the best. The Pear catalogues are nearly as extensive as the Rose catalogues, the reader is bewildered, and ends by ordering none. I have pleasure in recommending the following. All not asterisked are on the quince stock. The best two here, and the best I have ever tasted, are respectively the two first-named:-1, Joséphine de Malines; 2, Beurré Superfin; *3, Marie Louise; 4, La Vineuse; 5, Doyenné d'Alençon; 6, Beurré Diel; 7, Duchesse d'Orleans; 8, Dr. Trousseau; 9, Baronne de Mello; 10, Bergamotte d'Esperen; 11, Beurré d'Aremberg; 12, Beurré de Rance; 13, Beurré Defais; 13, St. Michel Archange; 14, Marie Louise d'Uccle ; 15, Williams's Bon Chrêtien; 16, Beurré Beymont; 17, Napoléon Savinien; 18, Glou Morceau; 19, Doyenné Gris; 20, Beurré Bachelier; 21, Peach; 22, Beurré d'Amanlis; 23, Comte de Lamy; 24, Passe Colmar; 25, Beurré Mauxion; 26, Duchesse d'Angoulême; 27, Beurré Sterckmans; 28, Doyenné d'Eté, first early. These lost their crop by the frost. I removed the sheet over them a few days too early. On the 7th of May, the water in the stable-bucket was frozen. Madame Millet, Barbe Nelis, Fondante de Mars, Comte de Flandre, Fondante d'Automne, Beurré Giffard, Winter

Nelis, Iris Grégoire, Avocat Nelis, Bezi d'Esperen, Thompson's, Aglaë Grégoire, Louise Bonne of Jersey, Prince Albert. Such are my stock. Such were my kind friend, Mr. Rivers's gift. These little trees are the delight of all who come here. I have two other gifts of his which I can most highly recommend, the Transparent Gage and the Royal Victoria Nectarine. The last is late, very large, handsome, very excellent, and the tree is very healthy. It is by far the best Nectarine that I ever saw. It is round, a little flattened at the apex.

These Pears were sent to me to taste by my friend, Charles Ingram, Esq., of Blandford (not grown on the quince stock), and they are very good-Van Mons Léon le Clerc (extra good), Dunmore, and Napoléon.

If your readers buy some of the above Pears, I think they must be pleased. Except the first two, I have not put them in the order of merit. With the exception of 28, they may all be called "delicious." Doyenné d'Alençon is very superior, but tender in its blossoms. In fine, I may observe, that is impossible to define the seasons of ripening. I never knew Pears and Apples rot so fast. Tarrant Rushton. W. F. RADCLYFFE.

ON SPARROWS EATING GOOSEBERRY BUDS.

I OBSERVED with some interest Mr. Tillery's account in Vol. IV., page 122, respecting rooks eating Crocus bulbs, and also his remarks on sparrows; but I differ from him as to sparrows eating Gooseberry buds. During a long experience I have never detected them doing so, although I have watched them closely amongst damaged bushes. I may have mentioned this before in these pages, and also that bullfinches did the damage, and that sparrows were wrongfully blamed. I likewise differ from Mr. Tillery's statement, where he says "Who ever saw a sparrow eat a grub or caterpillar if it could get anything else in the shape of grain, seeds, bread, or potatoes?" I have encouraged a small colony of sparrows for several years, and it is surprising to see the quantity of both grubs and caterpillars which they carry to feed their young. Other writers mention the same thing. In the "Naturalist's Magazine one person speaks of a sparrow dropping grubs from its bill into a cage to feed a canary, which a lady at Chelsea had put outside her window; and Bishop Stanley states, on the authority of another writer, that a pair of sparrows during the breeding season may destroy 3400 caterpillars in one week. I may have said enough to show that my own statement stands not alone, to which I may add, that there are many different kinds of birds that feed their tender young with food of very different quality from that of the old ones. In fact, this is considered to be one, if not the chief, cause which gives impulse to the migration of birds.

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I fully concur in the account of sparrows eating off the tops of early Peas. Perhaps the best preservative is to cover them with nets or branches, or to draw a little soil over the tender crop until the attention of the sparrows is drawn off to something else. They seldom attack the pods of early Peas, though sometimes they injure late ones. They are often blamed for greater damage done by tomtits or oxees" of the Scotch. There are four different kinds of the Parus or tomtit that frequent gardens, all of which destroy insects, but at times some of them are very mischievous. P. major, or saw-sharper, called so in Norfolk from his shrill notes, like the sharpening of a saw, is the one which in winter taps on bee-hives and snaps up the bees, and it is remarkable that Forster in his "North America," Vol. I., speaks of its having been met with in "latitude 40° north, and longitude 48° west, about 920 miles from land." I leave this curious fact to notice that it is the P. cœruleus, the blue-cap, which does most damage to late Peas, and also picks holes in the stalk ends of Pears. Mr. Knight, who raised some of the best kinds of new Peas, had much

trouble in preserving them from those little plagues. It is rather difficult to entrap or shoot the little depredators, and perhaps it is best to defend the Pears with nets; and to keep these birds from Peas it is good to grow plenty of Sunflowers and Poppies, whose seeds they prefer to green Peas. I may state, that during the past season a small covey of hawfinches, or grosbeaks, attacked my Pears, which was the first time I had seen those rather rare birds alive. As some of them were young they may have been bred in this locality. Cossey Hall Gardens. J. WIGHTON.

THE CULTIVATION OF THE PRIMULA.

WHERE is there a plant which during the autumn and winter months is so gay or beautiful as the Primula? It is also very useful for exhibition or decorative purposes, or for filling the flower-vase cr bouquet. By artificial light some of the varieties are very brilliant. During the last season a number of very beautiful double seedlings have been brought before the public, especially those of Messrs. Windebank & Kingsbury, of Southampton, who at the present time possess some very splendid seedlings.

Where high cultivation is aimed at, care must be taken to keep the plants healthy at all times. I generally sow the seed early in March, or in April, in pans placed on the front shelf of the greenhouse or vinery. I find that to bring the seedlings up well nothing is so good as putting a square of glass over each pan, and as soon as the plants appear I remove this to prevent their being weakened. When strong enough, I pot them into small 60's, using for soil half leaf mould, loam, and a little silver sand. I keep them in a close frame for a few days till well established, when I give air freely on all favourable days. Early in May I repot the plants into 32's, using the same description of soil as before. I now plunge them in a cold frame in a shady situation for the summer months, and in the end of July I repot into their blooming-pots, 24's, using a mixture of half loam, leaf mould, and a little rotten dung and silver sand. I then replace them in the frame as before, and am always very careful not to allow them to get dry during the summer, as nothing is so injurious to them. Early in September I remove them to the greenhouse, and I thus secure a good supply of bloom for the autumn and winter months. Crabwood, Southampton.

OUR MONTHLY CHRONICLE. ROYAL HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. - Al-, though the Fruit Show held from the 9th to the 16th of December had but little claim to the title of "International," there was, nevertheless, a very respectable display both of fruit and vegetables, good without being remarkable. Especially worthy of notice were the fine collections shown by Mr. Lewis Solomon and Messrs. Webber & Co. of Covent Garden, containing, as they did, numbers of those magnificent Pears which are to be seen at this season decorating the shop-windows of the Grand Row of that market. Pears are purchased at almost fabulous prices from French growers, who must derive a good profit from their cultivation, but for the most part the only recommendations which they possess are their size and beauty; indeed one of the kinds, Uvedale's St. Germain, known

Such

J. C. HIGGS.

also at Paris as Belle Angevine, is a stewing Pear. It seems that at Paris these Pears are let out by the fruiterers for dinner parties, and one of the French gardening periodicals relates that a gourmand, after fondly eyeing a dish of them for a long time, much to the dismay of his entertainer requested that one of them should be cut. However, there was no escape, a Pear was cut up into a number of pieces, the party tasted, and but tasted, disgust was depicted on every countenance, they might as well have eaten a Turnip; but whatever their disgust might have been that of their entertainer was greater, for when the fruiterer's bill came in one of the items was an Angevine Pear, 70 francs." Our lively neighbours have, perhaps, a little exaggerated the price to improve the story, for these Pears may be had in London for about half that sum and

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