Encyclopaedia Britannica; or, A dictionary of arts and sciences, compiled upon a new plan … > Volume 2, C-L

GAUD
The feed will come up in about three weeks ; and in
the July following the young plants will be big enough to
tranfplant into beds, where they mult be let about ten
inches dillant from one another, and Ihaded from the fun
with mats for about three weeks.
You may find many varieties from the feedling plants
in the fecond year; and whatever rarities appear, they
mull be laid down as foon as pollible, by cutting half
.through a joint, and fplitting the internode upwards, half
way to the other joint above it; then the wounded part
muft: be buried in the earth, and fafteneddown till it takes
root, which, provided the earth is light, will be in about
two months.
The moft proper feafon for laying down the layers of
the feedlings is in July ; and when planted they mult be
carefully guarded, botli from the intenfe hekt in fummer,
and the chilling frofts in winter.
The flower Items will begin to put forth about April,
■when each flower mult be fupported by its Item being
tyed to a Itick about four feet long ; and as foon as the
flower-buds appear, leave only one or two of the largelt
upon each flower Item, to bloflbm ; and about ten days
before the flowers open, the round poded kinds will be¬
gin to crack their hulks on one fide, when you Ihould
fplit or open the hulk on the oppofite fide to the natural
fradtion with a fine needle; and three or four days before
the complete opening of the flower, you mult cut off the
points on the top of the flower-pod, and fupply the va¬
cancies on each fide of the hulk with two fmall pieces of
vellum, which may be eafily .flipped between the flower-
leaves and the infide of the hulk, by which means the
flower will make an equal difplay of its parts, and the
form of it, confequently, be entirely regular.
When the bloflbm begins to Ihew its colour, you Ihould
fix a piece of flat board upon the flicks, to Ihelter it from
the fun’s extreme heat.
The feeds of the carnation muft be gathered towards
the end of September, in dry weather, and be expofed
for a month or two, through a glais, without opening the
-hulks till the time of fowing the feeds comes round again.
The feeds of the columbine are fown in the nurfery
this month, from whence you may remove the choice
plants to the garden, and next year they will yield flow¬
ers : the roots of this flower will hold good for three or
four years, when you muft have a fupply of frelh ones.
The feed of the fcarlet bean is annually fown in good
ground, well expofed to the fun; and flicks Ihould be
fixed in the ground, round which they will twine, and
make a very agreeable Ihew.
The amaranthus is an annual, fown on a hot-bed; and
the feeds being fown in this or the preceding month, in
the hotteft part of your garden, are to be raifed under
glaffcS' . .r . ~
The African marygold is alfo an annual, raifed on a
hot bed.
Fruit-Garden.
You Ihould now carefully weed your beds of ftraw-
berries, and take off their runners; and if the feafon is
D K 1 N G.
dry, it will be proper to water them, for they produce
hut little fruit when this is neglefted.
Lay the branches of the peach-tree horizontally, and
keep them free from great wood, and perpendicular fhoots
in the middle, that the fap may be carried in fuch due pro¬
portion as ns neceflary ; and it fhould be ever obferved,
that too much vigour is as pernicious as too little, with
refpeA to the tree bearing a fuflicient quantity of fruit.
When a pear or apple-tree is ungovernable, and will
not bear frnit, (trip off the bark of the ftrongeft branches
half an inch, or an inch, according to the bignefs of the
tree, and take it entirely away to the wood.
Thefe branches will continue to bear fruit for feveral
years ; and when they die, there are always in a pear-tree
a fufficient number of others to fucceed them, efpecially
in the middle of the tree ; which, if ungovernable, ought
to undergo the fame kind of difcipline.
This work, which ftiould be pradtifed only on'low
dwarfs, or waH-trees, is heft done in March or April.
Cherry-trees, not in a thriving condition, (hould now
be flit perpendicularly down with the point of a knife,
juft entering the bark of the ftem of the tree, to prevent
being hide-bound ; after which operation they will thrive
and profper wonderfully, when, for want of it, they will
continue almoft barren for ten or fifteen years.
At this time you fliould look carefully to your young
fruit-trees which were planted in the fpring, obferving to
water them in dry weather; and if you obferve the leaves
beginning to curl up, you {hould water them gently all over
their branches; which may alfo be pra&ifed to great ad¬
vantage on old trees * but it muft not be done in the heat
of the day, left the fun fliould fcorch their leaves, nor
too late in the evening, efpecially if the nights are cold.
Where you obferve the fruit-trees tobe greatly infefted
with infedls, you (hould wafli the branches with water, in
which a great quantity of tobacco ftalks have been fteeped;
which, if carefully done, will infallibly deftroy the in-
feds, and not do any any injury to the trees ; or if the
leaves which are curled are taken off, and fome tobacco-
duft thrown on the branches, it will deftroy the infeds,
and may, in a day or two, be wafhed off again.
Towards the end of this month, you muft look over
your efpaliers and walls of fruit-trees, training in the re¬
gular kindly (hoots in their proper fituation, and difplacing
all fore-right and luxuriant ones.
In the middle of this month uncover thofe fig-trees
which were fcreened from the froft in the winter ; but do
it with caution, as the young fruit, which now begins to
appear, may be greatly hurt by being expofed to the air
too fuddenly.
Kitchen-Garden.
The middle of this month is the proper time to plant
out melons, which are to be raifed under paper: in ma¬
king thefe ridges, if the ground is dry, the dung fliould
be but a half a foot higher than the furface of the ground,
and the earth {hould be laid at leaft a foot and a half thick
upon the dung, that the plants may have depth enough
to root; they will require no watering, after they are