The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1853-01-04 00:00:00

OPERATIONS FOR THE WEEK

Stove, Conservatory, Greenhouse, Bce.—Few gardeners
can remember a worse season than that just passed for
plants in houses ; the dull, sunless, damp days, have had
their natural effect upon vegetation, which has suffered
accordingly. Mildew has defied all remedial measures in
the conservatory and greenhouse, and the stove plants
have become, in most cases, sadly etiolated ; the only
remedy for this evil is, in the former case, to give plenty
of air wherever it is practicable, and in the latter, to place
the plants as near the glass as possible, frequently turning
them round, so that all parts receive their due proportion
of light; besides this, take care not to raise the tempera-
ture too high, especially at night, when there should
always be a diminution of at least 5 deg. over the day
temperature. If proper care has been taken, the con-
servatory should now display considerable attractions.

Flower and Kitchen-Gardens.—ln this department
the continuance of wet prevents any other operation than
pruning being carried on beneficially ; respecting this
latter operation, we present our readers with the following
valuable suggestion from the Gardeners' Journal:—

Tree Nailing.—Among the common operations of
gardening practice there cannot be said to be more urgent
necessity for change and improvement than in the general
system of nailing and fixing trees to walls and other
-
permanent buildings. It is rather astonishing that the
old system of using cloth bandages and nails should be
kept so long in practice, when it is considered that there
is scarcely one feature in the system to recommend its
continued adoption. It will seldom be found an easy
matter to draw iron nails from the wall without doing
considerable damage to the bricks or unfixing the mortar
between them; this hole-making system is attended with
many disadvantages, not only defacing the wall, but
forming the hiding place and safe retreat for a countless
number of insects; and every gardener is acquainted
with the fact, that often the finest fruit of the peach and
other stone fruits, that look tempting and lovely on the
side exposed to the sun, when taken from the wall are
found to contain a busy brood that have eaten their way
to the centre of the fruit, rendering the fruit entirely
useless, only to be thrown to the ground and pressed
under foot, for the certain destruction of its inmates. I
may mention a system that was adopted at the place
where I am employed, in the meantime, which, I think,
goes far to obviate the evils above stated. The wall had
been in use a considerable time for peaches, and taking into
account the amount of summer nailing, spring pruning,
drawing the nails, and again nailing, it will be found
that the peach wall suffers to a greater extent than other
walls. The fact is, I have seen the peach and apricot
walls so much damaged by a long process of nail-driving
and drawing, as to allow the smoke to escape from a flued
wall ; this is anything but desirable, especially while the
trees are in blossom. But the present case was different,
as it was not a flued wall, but the trees were taken from
the wall while it underwent a thorough repair, entirely on
the score of neatness of appearance, as it formed the
boundary of the principal wall leading to the mansion ;
after filling all the crevices with mortar, pointing and
squaring the bricks, cast-iron nails were procured—what,
I believe, are termed lathe nails, about an inch in length,
which can be had at any ironmongery establishment ;
when the mortar was dry enough to receive the nails, they
were fixed in at regular distances, forming lines each way ;
the surro.c., waz then washed over with cement, which may
be of any colour, as taste may dictate ; the trees were then
tied back, and when; finished presented a much neater ap-
pearance than when fixed to their places with different
coloured cloth shreds, as before. And on the score of
economy, these nails do not require to be again replaced,
while it is very evident more than half the time is saved, a
consideration not trifling in gardening matters, when it is
borne in mind that the pressing operations of spring make
a demand on all hands, making nailing, as a matter of
course, a by-job, to be done when the ground is frozen.
or perhaps too wet to allow the men to work it. But I
am strongly of opinion, if anything can be done to lessen
the time spent in nailing, it would be much to the pre-
sent comfort and future health of those so occupied.
This system led to the adoption of another, which I think
is still preferable. On a wall which is kept expressly for
plums the same work was done, with the difference only
that instead of nails, drilled circular-headed studs or
hooks were used, which cost but a trifle more than nails.
I would prefer them for any purpose, especially for trees
which formed a stronger growth of wood than peaches
do, and would have them no larger than just admit the
tie to get through their heads. It occurs to me that this
would be a very neat and judicious plan for training
flower garden plants, shrubs, or climbers, against orna-
mental buildings. How clumsy it appears to put cloth
shreds around the slender branches of a trailing plant, or
to crush within the shred the leaves of those plants, the
branches of which are covered with foliage. Over stone
buildings lines of wire would be preferable, and it is rather
surprising that such materials should not be oftener found
in use. It is not costly, especially when compared with
the clumsy system of driving nails into valuable walls of
wrought stone work.—B. C. E.