i88i.] FRUIT -CULTURE. 351 



anotlier season's planting. I like to grow these also on deeplj- 

 trenched, rich soil, and though the corms are not planted till towards 

 the end of April, they make rapid progress so treated. Indeed, a 

 florist- who saw them in the beginning of June, remarked that they 

 must have been well forward in pots before being planted out ! 

 Gladioli are much like potatoes : they like the soil and the general 

 temperature warm before being planted, dryish warm weather till 

 the corms begin to plump up, then a good soaking and a fine warm 

 air to finish them off with. 



Violas, Pansies, and Siveet Peas. — These are one and all greatly 

 benefited at this time by having all seed capsules and pods removed. 

 A^ery few of the Violas bloom later than September. The only one 

 which we have this year given a prominent position to is Downie tk 

 Laird's Duchess of Sutherland. It is like the old Golden Perpetual, 

 in that, like it, it would flower continuously, summer and winter, 

 did weather permit. The great fault with most Violas is their habit in 

 this dry climate of thus ceasing to flower early in autumn. The 

 practice of removing the seed-vessels twice throughout the summer is 

 the best means of getting them to continue in a floriferous state. 



Herbaceous 2^lants. — Summer-flowering subjects, such as Pyrethrums. 

 Lupinus polyphyllus in variety, Delphiniums, early-flowering Phloxes, 

 and others, if cleared of old flower-stems when these are getting over, 

 will in most seasons throw up a second crop of flowers in autumn. 

 Where these borders are regularly attended to throughout the summer 

 — the borders being stirred with the hoe, plants tied up as they 

 require it, and seed-vessels never allowed to form,' — it is wonderful 

 what a difference it makes in the enjoyability of these plants. Well- 

 kept and well-managed herbaceous borders are a good feature in any 

 garden, but under opposite conditions they are a perpetual eyesore. 

 The great thing at present is to secure the late flowering of all plants 

 possible. R. P. Brotherston. 



FRUIT- CULTURE. 



THE APPLE. 



Dwarf Treei. — Dwarf Apple-trees are "garden toys," and they do 

 not pay. For ourselves, we never would plant them, unless in pots to 

 be grown in an orchard-house. If our ground were so limited that we 

 had no room for Apple-trees, we would certainly plant Gooseberry- 

 bushes, Currants, or Rasps, or other " small " fruit ; and if we had room 

 for only one Apple-tree, it would be one that would some day or other 

 come to something. We — that is, everybody — want Apples by the 

 bushel ; dwarfs only produce them by the dozen. When ground is so 

 limited that Apples, to be grown at all, must be borne by little bushes, 

 we think it a waste of ground to plant them, and a waste of time to 



