The decortication of vines has likewise been re vived, and has been strongly recommended of late, in a pamphlet by Sir John Sinclair, who founds particularly on the experience of Mr King, an active and industrious fruit-gardener at Teddington in Mid. dlesex. The operation is performed in the beginning of winter, with a common knife ; for the outer bark may, at that season, be easily separated from the inner concentric layer, without hurting the latter. Not only are the plants thus treated freed from nu merous small insects, which never fail to make a lodgement in the crevices of the rough parenchy matous bark, but they are observed to make strong er shoots, and the quantity of grapes is said to be increased, and their quality improved.
Analogous to this is the practice of ringing of] the branches of vines, or making a narrow annular' incision, and removing a ring of the bark : in this case, both the outer and the inner bark is removed. The consequences of this practice are said to be very beneficial. The same plan of removing a ring of bark, about a quarter of an inch in breadth, and down to the alburnum, has been practised on apple and pear trees, by different cultivators, with consi derable success; the trees being thereby not only rendered productive, but the quality of the fruit being at the same time apparently improved. The advantage is considered as depending on the ob.. struction given to the descent of the sap, it being thus more copiously afforded for the supply of the buds. The ring should therefore be made in the spring ; and it should be sufficiently wide, that the bark may remain separated for the season in which it is made. None of the stoned fruit trees are be nefited by ringing.
Pruning of Currant Bushes.
An improvement in the management of the currant-tree deserves notice. Mr Macdonald at Dalkeith, whose name has just been mentioned, prunes the bushes at the usual season of mid summer, shortening the year's shoots down to an inch or an inch and a half. Next summer the plants generally show plenty of fruit, and at the same time send out strong shoots. As soon as the berries begin to colour, he cuts off the summer shoots to within five or six inches before the fruit. For the sake of expedition, this operation is com monly performed with the garden shears. Sun and air thus get free access to the fruit, and more of the vigour of the plant is directed to it : in conse quence, the berries are fonnd to be not only of higher flavour, but of larger size.
Hot-houses.
All the different kinds of glazed houses employ ed for the production of the more tender exotic fruits, have in some respects received improvements. .But pine-Aoves have undergone the greatest change of structure. In place of the lofty wide houses of former times, small low pits are now employed. These are commonly of two sizes; one, called the Succession pit, is rather lower in the roof and of smaller dimension than the other, which is the Fruiting pit. The advantages are considerable: the atmosphere of these last can much more easily be maintained at the requisite temperature ; and the plants enjoy the advantage, well known from expe rience, of being placed near to the glass. In pro pagating ananas, some of the most successful culti vators use suckers only : these are allowed to re main long on the parent plants, so that when they come to be detached they are of a larger size and more forward growth than is usual. The suckers are planted in pots in September, and placed in beds of tan, in any common hot-house furnished with a furnace and flues. After the plants have fairly made roots, a high temperature is not wanted, and, for the following six months, if frost be carefully ex cluded, the plants succeed best in a cool house, which may be supposed somewhat to resemble the winter of their native country : pretty late in the spring, they are transferred to the pine-pits. Some times this is in reality little else than a large hot bed having tanners' bark in the centre, and being furnished with exterior linings of stable litter, or some other fermentable material. In other cases the pit has likewise a furnace and flues : in those pits, however, which depend on fermentation alone for artificial heat, the ananas are observed to grow remarkably fast during the summer season. In autumn the plants are again returned to the com mon hot-house for the winter: in the course of the following season they are brought to fruit in the larger sized pit ; and if this be not of sufficient di mensions, as sometimes happens from the spread ing of the plants, a few of the most forward are allowed to fruit in their winter quarters. In this, way pine-apples, particularly of the variety called the Queen, are produced in two years, instead of three, which were formerly thought necessary.