ing is quite out of the question, and even very hurtful; but care should be taken to prevent moisture as much as possible. Cover more or less according to the severity of the weather; and keep the lights uncovered in the day, whenever and as much as the weather will permit. By this treatment the Dutch gardeners produce cabbage lettuce during the whole winter till the month of April, when they are succeeded by the early forced. I have followed this method for forty-five successive years in the Royal Gardens at Rosenburgh, but never so successfully as it is done in Holland. It depends greatly on the soil: a light leaf mould is considered the best, and it is not to be had in large towns. I know the Roman lettuce is preferred in England, but I suppose it is scarce in the winter; therefore it might be of advantage to some of your readers to get acquainted with a method of producing salat pommé (cabbage lettuce) in the middle of the winter. P. LINDEGAARD. ART. XVIII. Notice of the Culture of Wheat in the Neighbourhood of Ardress, in Ireland. By G. ENSOR, Esq., Author of The Independent Man and other Works. Sir, I AM induced to send you the following remarks, in consequence of seeing some lost crops of wheat this year in the Isle of Wight, from the mode of tillage in that wet land. The practice in my immediate neighbourhood, where the land is strong and retentive clay, is as follows:-Wheat is generally sown after potatoes, sometimes on fallows; in both cases the land is harrowed flat; then the plough superficially marks the ridges, which are sown broad-cast. The ridges vary from 41 ft. to 5 ft.; the furrow 1 ft. wide, which is dug about 14 in. deep in thin spadefuls, and cast on either side on the grain. The furrows are shovelled as they are dug, one shovel to four spades. This practice has various benefits: less seed is required, all being on the same level, no grain being buried, none lost on the surface. It can be executed any day that men can work out; it deepens the land, and keeps land and grain dry during the wettest seasons. Ten men should dig and shovel an acre in a day. Perhaps I should add, that the furrow made by digging should be necked on either side the ridge; and the spade I speak of is the Irish spade. I am, Sir, yours, &c. Ardress, Loughgall, Sept. 19. 1830. GEORGE ENSor. ART. XIX. On a Method of forcing Strawberries. By R. T. Sir, As I have just been preparing a quantity of strawberries for forcing, and as I have had an opportunity of trying all the different ways I have read or heard of respecting them, perhaps you will allow me to lay before your readers an account of my mode of culture. During the last few years the forcing of strawberries has very much improved, and a great many methods have been tried in order to find out the best to obtain a good crop. Since it is pretty well known that young plants force best and bear most, and that the stronger the plants are the more fruit they will bear, it is, of course, important to know how they may be obtained. Some people have planted the young runners as soon as they could procure them, in a shady situation, and then potted them in the autumn; others have potted them at once, and shaded them till they had begun to grow, and by this means have had tolerably good crops: but, though in wet summers, like the last three, runners are to be obtained tolerably early, yet in dry summers it is very cult to have them soon enough to acquire strength before winter. The method I practise, and recommend to others, is this: Some time in March, or in the beginning of April, take up of the last year's runners as many as will fill the requisite number of pots: but instead of planting them in a continued bed, as commonly practised, let them be planted in single rows around the quarters of the garden, and as much exposed as possible; by which means, instead of having weak drawn-up plants, with very small hearts to produce fruits, they will be strong and firm from exposure, and produce abundantly. Any time in September let them be taken up, with as much earth as will adhere to the roots, and potted in good loam; that from the old melon beds will do very well, with about one fourth of the old dung mixed with it. It is a common practice to put them three in a pot (size 32); but plants treated in this way will frequently be so strong as to allow of only one: this must, therefore, be regulated by their strength. I have sometimes planted one plant in a pot (size 48), and for early forcing I prefer it; as the fruit will soon reach the rim of the pot, and hang over, instead of lying on the damp mould among the leaves. Ι I forgot to state that, when the plants are taken up to pot, the leaves ought not to be cut off, except any very straggling ones, Sept. 21. 1830. I am, Sir, yours, &c. R. T. ART. XX. Remarks on the Treatment of Fruit Trees. Sir, I HAVE just read with pleasure another soundly practical paper by Mr. Hiver, in your last Magazine, and must say I have for some time been very nearly of the same opinion, especially with regard to the too prevalent error of making deep and highly manured borders, and also of the necessity of a perfect admission of heat and light to the embryo buds to elaborate the sap; and I think it will not be long before these matters are admitted universally but, as I think I can offer a few remarks on fruit trees in general, which have not come within the scope of Mr. Hiver's subjects, and which, nevertheless, I flatter myself may be of some trifling service to the uninitiated, I trust I may venture to do so. I must first premise, that it frequently happens that a gardener, in changing situations, has to take to a lot of trees troubled with that vegetable plethora long since described by Mr. Hiver. I am one, and of course can speak feelingly. I have a wall of peaches, which produced such wood as Mr. Newington calls basket rods, and which I described to you in a former Number as having been planted in a very porous soil, in a highly manured state. What could I do? I was as sparing of the knife as possible, as far as shortening was concerned, leaving some of the shoots from 4 to 5 ft. in length, knowing they had a superabundance of sap, which would have vent in one shape or other; but this did not sufficiently avail. I therefore threw open a trench before them, and cut with a knife what I considered to be a just proportion of the deepest roots from them. The experiment has answered my best expectations. Now I have a wall of these trees, 240 ft. in length, which I could show against any, and which are that just medium between strength and weakness which is the true criterion of fruitfulness in many trees. I must here observe, that I thought it prudent in cutting to divide them at a tuft of fibres (as I thought it probable they would heal more quickly at such parts), and to spread those in a hori zontal direction; and, I believe, by so doing there will be no danger of suckers: at any rate, I have none; and it is time they showed themselves, if the practice would create them. I have since served two walls of pear trees in the same way, and some plums also, which used to make breast wood a yard from the wall. The result is, I have little breast wood now, and the buds are forming in an excellent manner for fruit; and I must say, that this method appears preferable to all the ringing manœuvres of the day. With regard to the quince stock for pears, I can hardly agree with Mr. Hiver in this matter. He seems to make disease a necessary consequence of poverty, which I have yet to learn. I know that many injurious effects will follow from poverty in trees, but I am not aware that disease will of necessity. I think with him, that it is far better to manage them by the border; but I know also that some kinds will do well on quince stocks, and, I believe, last for many years: but these, in my opinion, should have a little deeper and better soil than the free stocks, and the strong-wooded and shy-fruiting kinds should alone have the quince. By the way, are quince trees liable to premature decay? If not, why should the pears be so when worked on them? I know it is difficult to get them on this stock in the nurseries, because they will not produce wood fast enough, and strength of wood is to many the only criterion to judge by. As for pruning, I am convinced it is ridiculous to depend upon any system to produce fruitfulness in pear trees; and should rather view it in the light of an operation forced upon us by limitation, and the necessity of light and air to all parts of the tree. As for young trees, a year or two after planting, if too luxuriant, how easy and efficacious it is to take them up and replant them! But this, of course, as well as cutting the roots, presupposes errors in the border formation. It is strange, yet notorious, that young trees are often started, as it is called, in the richest of soils; while, in the same garden, we see trees exhausted with long and hard bearing suffered to starve by inches, as though the benefits of mulching or topdressing were not known or admitted. By mulch I do not mean the highly fermented manure of the melon ground, which has lost some 60 per cent of its qualities, and has little besides bulk and blackness to recommend it; but animal manures, prepared on just chemical principles (I hope the term chemical will not give offence to any). Now, I do not contend that this is to make a tree live for ever, but that it is applicable in numerous instances where it is too commonly omitted. I think it probable that bone would be highly eligible for this purpose; and I wish some of your scientific correspondents would give us a tabular analysis of all the principal fruits and vegetables, showing us the relative value of their constituents, that we might be able to apply our manures accordingly: for, if I am rightly informed, the nitrogen of animal substances is only taken up by a few, and then in limited degrees. But here I am out of my depth. Another word on deep borders. I consider half the diseases (commonly so called) of fruit trees referable to this very point, and feel confident it keeps the branches of most kinds of fruit trees growing late in the summer, when the ripening process should be going on; and the result is, they are frequently overtaken by the frost with their leaves in a green state, when an imperfect developement of their buds and blossoms is, I believe, a sure consequence the next spring. I have little doubt it is the chief cause of that defect in the ripening of grapes so often complained of. If vines grow and bear well in warm regions on shallow banks with a rocky substratum, why give them such enormous depth in a colder climate? As for ridging borders, cropping them (unless of necessity), and some other manœuvres, they can, in my opinion, be very well dispensed with stirring the surface with the points of a fork, for the free admission of atmospheric assistance, will, I believe, do all that is requisite. I am, Sir, yours, &c. Oulton Park, June 20. 1830. ROBERT ERRINGTON. ART. XXI. Farther Remarks on training the Peach and Nectarine. By Mr. R. ERrington. Sir, I WROTE to you some time since (p. 693.) on the subject of cutting the roots of trees to induce fruitfulness; and I have since read in Mr. M'Intosh's work that this method had been tried in Scotland (I think at Lord Mansfield's garden), and with great success. Of this I was not aware when I wrote the paper in question; and as my observations thereon, to those acquainted with the matter, would appear preposterous, and might be construed into a sort of claim to novelty, I am induced to request you will destroy the paper in question, and, if necessary, I will most willingly furnish you with any particulars relative to the trials quoted at any time, especially as I am convinced it is the most eligible course that can be taken when borders have been made on wrong principles. I beg again to affirm, that no writer in the Magazine (in my humble opinion) has hit upon the prevalent defects in this affair so aptly as Mr. Hiver (a man I never yet saw), whose first paper on pear trees is, in a great degree, applicable to most fruits, &c., and should be printed and set up in every kitchen-garden in the country. I now wish to say a few words more about peach and nectarine trees, as I find there is something concerning me in Mr. Seymour's paper in your last Number. I am aware that quite |