Every Boy's Book: A Complete Encyclopædia of Sports and Amusements

by Unknown

Most of the operations of grafting require clay to be put round the parts. This is made of three parts of stiff yellow clay to one of horse-dung fresh as it falls, with a little cut hay, well mixed together; another kind of clay is made of a pound of pitch and a pound of yellow wax, mixed with two pounds of cow-dung. The use of them in covering the grafting posts is to keep them moist and cool till a proper union has taken place.

PRUNING.

The proper time for pruning trees is in December or January, for then the sap is down, and no injury can be done; and the art in pruning consists in cutting away the “water shoots,” or non-bearing wood, “dead wood,” and “superfluous wood.” The water shoots, as they are called, appear to be strong growing branches, but generally produce neither flowers nor fruit; the superfluous wood are those shoots which grow in the way of each other, or cross each other, which should always be removed. The great principle in pruning a fruit tree is to leave all the tree free and open, so that the air and sunshine may pass through it, and to preserve the buds of the bearing wood. The shoots should be cut off as near to the stem or branch as possible, and all growths or suckers which appear below the crown of the tree should be taken off. The present practice of thumb-pruning is very excellent; by this means the superfluous shoots, &c., are removed by the thumb nail as soon as they appear, and thus the tree does not exhaust itself by the growth of useless wood. The young pruner should be very careful in cutting away, and recollect that what he cuts off he cannot put on again.

TRAINING.

The training of trees applies principally to those that are fastened to wooden trellises, to poles, or to walls. The principle of the art is to extend the bearing branches of a tree or plant, so as to improve its growth, its beauty, and its produce. Peaches, nectarines, apricots, vines, &c., are trained against walls by shreds of cloth being placed round the branches, and the two ends nailed to the wall. In doing this, care should be taken to give the branch room to play, and yet to confine it, not to hurt the tender fruit-shoots in the operation, and to let all the branches be free of each other. Roses and jasmines are often trained round verandahs by their different parts being tied with ropes’ end or tarred twine to different parts of the trelliswork. Sometimes flowers are trained by being tied to stakes or long poles, and others are brought to pass through the round of an ornamental ladder, or through the meshes of wirework of different forms. But in every kind of training the principle is the same, namely that of keeping the branches clear of each other, and of preserving the flowering and bearing shoots. Neatness and taste are also indispensable requisites to the training and management of trees and flowers, whether for use or ornament.

INSECTS AND DEPREDATORS.

There are various kinds of depredators which find their way into gardens;—worms, slugs, caterpillars, moles, ants, birds, butterflies, snails, &c. These must be got rid of, or kept down, otherwise the gardening labours are soon at an end. In wild nature all the above “vermin,” as some people designate them, are of the greatest service in some way or other; even worms and moles, which are very destructive in gardens, are of great service on commons, and therefore in destroying them we should always do so with as little pain as possible to the individuals; and, as prevention is better than cure, the young gardener should look out in winter for the eggs of various moths and butterflies, which may be often seen encircling the twigs of trees, or under the eaves of paling, &c., and destroy them. Caterpillars are best got rid of by picking them from the plants; and slugs, and snails, and worms, are often eradicated by turning a brood of young ducks into the ground for a short time, where they can do no injury to the beds. They may also be entrapped by laying cabbage leaves in different parts of the garden, under which they will creep in the night time. Moles must be caught with a mole-trap set in the line of their march. It consists simply of a bent stick, and a wire formed into a noose, slightly attached to the neck of a peg, into which the animal runs his head and gets strangled, by the elasticity of the rod drawing up the noose when the peg is disturbed. Ants are best got rid of by destroying their nest and eggs, the latter of which are excellent food for young chickens, pheasants, &c. The most destructive insect is the aphis, which attacks the rose, and this is best destroyed by the fumigation of tobacco-smoke, either through a pair of common bellows, or by means of the whirl-fumigator, which may be purchased for a few shillings; but the most certain mode of destruction is to obtain a few “golden beetles,” and put near the plants infected by aphides; these are their natural enemies, and where they are placed the aphides will soon become extinct.

PROTECTION FROM FROST.

The common trees and fruits of the garden require but little care as regards frost in our comparatively mild winters, but many plants, trees, and shrubs, coming originally from warmer climates, require much attention during winter to keep them alive. It is useless to attempt preserving geraniums, myrtles, and a great many of our common summer plants, without keeping them through the winter in a greenhouse of some kind or other. A small greenhouse may now be cheaply erected, but for the preservation of a small number of plants the greenhouse pit is the cheapest and most convenient substitute. It consists only of a hole twelve feet by four dug in the ground to the depth of six feet, having at the top a skylight. It should if possible be dug in a sheltered situation, open to the south and well backed behind, and the glass-top, which should merely consist of one frame laid in a slanting position to the south over the top of the hole, the back of which is raised to support it, the front being slightly lowered. The entrance to the pit is at the side, to which a stout wooden door nailed over with straw bands should be attached, and two or three steps should lead to the interior of the pit, where a few shelves may be arranged upon which to place the flowers, &c. In this pit flowers, cuttings, bulbs, and a variety of other things, may be preserved through the winter, with very little cost or trouble, and it will be of a great deal of use in many other respects.