as they become quite insipid after being some months under ground. I have experienced also that the fruit of full grown trees preserve better, or keep rather longer, than those of young trees. I remain, Sir, &c.

Foot's Cray, January, 1827.

DAVID GIBB.

The keeping fruits, seeds, and roots in horticulture is open to as much improvement from chemistry as the management of soils. (Vol. II. p. 405.) We invite chemists who have gardens, and especially medical men in the country, to direct their attention to the subject, and we wish all gardeners would devote some of their leisure hours to the study of chemistry; a sufficient knowledge of it for their purpose may be obtained from Fife's Practical Chemistry (8vo. 7s.), and they will find this knowledge a great help towards accounting for various results which take place in gardens. In the meantime we rely on our medical readers and correspondents. It is highly gratifying to us to see the names of so many of this profession among our list of authors; our only farther wish is, that we may be enabled to increase a taste for horticulture among country clergymen, and to induce them to make experiments and become contributors. Cond.

ART. III. On prolonging the Season of hardy Fruits. By Mr. J. FORBES, Gardener to His Grace the Duke of Bedford, at Woburn Abbey.

Sir,

It is much to be regretted that the season of those summer fruits which form at our table the principal part of the dessert is of so short a duration, and that no effectual means have yet been devised to prolong it. In the course of my experiments for this purpose, I have tried various coverings to ascertain the most effective, and have invariably found a covering of bunting preferable to all others. By its use, I have successfully retarded peaches, plums, apricots, and cherries, without injuring their flavour, to a late period of the season, covering the trees just when the fruit begins to ripen. Being of a thin woollen texture, it readily admits a sufficiency of light and air for maturing the fruit, whilst it lessens the general action of the atmosphere. To these advantages is added another of yet greater consequence, that of its effectually excluding, if

carefully applied, the wasps and flies, those incessant agents of destruction.

I have practised this method also with grapes, and feel convinced from experience that, wherever it is used, this delicious fruit, the most grateful, perhaps, of all fruits to the palate, in the heats of summer and early autumn, may be preserved to a very late season. In proof of this, I may just mention that I have at the present time (Nov. 20.) some very fine fruit of this kind against the walls, which, by the process I describe, will keep admirably well till near Christmas. In hot-houses, where the trees are trained close under the glass, the entire roof must be covered with bunting, admitting at all times plenty of air into the house, by sliding down the sashes, or opening the ventilators. In damp weather, at an advanced period of the year, a little fire occasionally will be necessary to expel the moisture. As regards gooseberries and currants, which are a luxury at the latter end of the year, the season of them is prolonged by enveloping the bushes in either bunting or mats when the fruit is changing its colour. My red and white currants are thus generally in good preservation till after Christmas. The kinds of gooseberries I find best adapted for this purpose are the late red hairy sorts; the greens and yellows, with smooth skins, do not keep so long, nor retain their flavour equal to the former.

In conclusion, I beg to state that I find both gooseberries and currants keep best by not being divested of their summer shoots till the fruit is all gathered. The bunting will also be found an economical covering for wall trees when in blossom. Hoping that these cursory observations may, through the medium of your important Miscellany, be of some service, I remain, Sir, &c.

Woburn Abbey Gardens, Nov. 20. 1826.

J. FORBES.

ART. IV. On the Prolongation of the ripe Grape on the Vine. By J. M.

Sir,

IN the middle of June, 1825, I removed six three years old black Hamburgh vines from a different part of my garden, divesting the roots from all the mould, and replanting them in a green-house I had then just completed. The roots were planted outside of the house, and the stems were introduced

through apertures in the front; of course the vines were in full foliage, but the leaves did not appear to be the least affected by their removal. They were permitted to grow to about twenty feet, and in February, 1826, were pruned to about eight feet. In the spring they broke strong, but, with very few exceptions, I only permitted one bunch to remain on a shoot; some of these weighed 2 lbs. each, and they were ripe by the end of August; but I was desirous to see how long I could keep them free from decay, and in a state fit for the table. I will not trouble you with my other experiments, but that which succeeded best was tying the bunch in a paper bag, and leaving it on the vine, by which means I cut a bunch the first of March last, in a perfectly good and highly flavoured state. I send you this communication as an encouragement to other young grape-growers, and to convince them how easily, and at how little expense, they may acquire the luxury of, I think, the very best and most delicious of our fruits for the unprecedented period of six months in the year. I ought to have stated that mine is literally a green-house, having no flue; using neither tan or dung, but depending entirely on solar heat, and a pretty good vine border.

Brighton, April 22. 1827.

J. M.

ART. V. On fixing Wire against Garden Walls for training Fruit Trees. By Mr. THOMAS INGRAM, Gardener to Her Royal Highness the Princess Augusta, at Frogmore.

Dear Sir,

MAY I be permitted to offer a few remarks on the protection of walls from the ill effects of using nails in training trees. Every season thousands of holes, or, as they may be termed, receptacles for insects, are made by that practice; and the walls in the course of time, become next to useless, as is the case in many old gardens.

These evils may in a great measure be obviated, by fixing wires to the walls, at six inches apart, placed horizontally, leaving about half an inch between the wire and wall, for the

α

10

a

convenience of tying the shoots; a little matting is all that is requisite for that purpose. Small iron pins, two inches long, (fig. 10. a a) are driven into the wall, at three feet apart, and

through the holes of these the wire is drawn, and fixed at the extreme ends.

Part of a wall is wired in the above manner, in these gardens; the good effects are obvious, and the appearance is very I am, dear Sir, &c.

neat.

Frogmore Gardens, Dec. 11. 1826.

THOMAS INGRAM.

In a late visit to Frogmore Gardens, we inspected the wall to which Mr. Ingram alludes, and fully concur in his recommendation of the plan. C. Holford, Esq. has employed wire for the same purpose, but placed perpendicularly. (Encyc. of Gard. § 1575.) We have

also seen it on the open wall, in the garden of William Strutt, Esq. at Derby, applied in semicircles (fig. 11.); and on the back wall of the vinery of Joseph Strutt, Esq. of the same place. In the latter instance, an

11

nealed wire is used, and a wrinkle is left at the extreme ends of each length of wire to allow for contraction and expansion. Copper wire is generally preferred, as being less liable to rust, for training peach trees, which require so frequently to be unnailed and refixed. Wiring of walls appears a very desirable practice. Where trees are trained horizontally, such as the pear, plum, cherry, &c., it becomes less necessary, especially if the precaution is taken of boiling the cast-iron nails in oil (a practice first introduced, we believe, by William Atkinson, Esq.) before they are used, to prevent their rusting; and, in drawing them, to begin by a pop with the hammer on the head of the nail, to lessen its adhesion to the mortar, &c. In Germany it is a very common practice to drive in the nails, and either run lines of cord from nail to nail in the manner of Mr. Ingram's wires, or tie the shoots to the nails with bass, and when the shoots require to be loosened, or altered in position, the nails are not drawn, but the shoots untied and replaced by means of the fixed nails, and probably one or two in addition. This practice-leaving the nails as fixtures, we certainly think, deserves imitation in this country. The trees look a great deal neater when newly trained, and decaying strings of bass are much less unsightly than taylor-looking, ragged, rotting, black and red lists. Cond.

ART. VI. Autobiography, and various Hints.

Dear Sir,

By AGRONOME.

I HAVE got the pen in hand, and the paper and ink before me, and am determined to write something; but what it shall be I cannot determine at present. I have dropped the salt, which is said to be a very bad omen, and I rather think there must be some truth in the saying, for I cannot think what article I should pick up next; and when I have laid hold of an article, I have no notion how I ought to handle it, nor do I know how this letter will look till after I have finished it, any more than I do what my volume will be like when I have finished it. You must therefore excuse me giving my name or address until you have had the quire of paper, at least, when if I have said nothing worthy of being talked about, I will shrink back into former obscurity or littleness, and conclude that my organs are not properly formed for making any great noise in the world.

my

Ah, Sir! the want of a good education is a shocking want to such as wish to make a figure in the world. I am fearful that my attempts to become an author are little better than those of a quack-doctor endeavouring to become a learned physician. I am just now labouring under a severe fit of the spleen, and perhaps encroaching on what is forbidden in the tenth commandment, viz. "envying and grieving at the good (education) of my neighbours," &c. But I will snuff the candle, mend my pen, and pluck up my spirits. Surely I was not idle all the time that my neighbours were at college. Was I not watching the progress of the animal and vegetable creation? Was I not learning the management of horses, cows, sheep, and pigs? Yes, Sir; I learned to assist the females in their extremities, to discipline the males, and to shear the sheep according to the literal sense of the word. I have also been fortunate in setting broken limbs, or straightening such as were crooked; I learned butchering very perfectly without serving an apprenticeship to the trade, but merely by practising on such as had died, or would have died prematurely. I also learned to hold the plough without wheels, and to guide the horses without a driver; to deposit the various seeds in the earth, and to gather and secure the various crops, for the consumption of man and beast.

I learned gardening not particularly from choice, but being the youngest son of a poor old farmer, I could not afford to put myself out to any other trade. In my self-conceit, I shall