206 THE GARDENER. [May 



dish ever since the Committee commenced its labours. In fact, it has been 

 jocularly asserted that but for it, the Phylloxera, and an occasional blistered 

 Peach-shoot, the Committee's occupation would be almost gone. It is a curi- 

 ous circumstance, as regards the Cucumber disease, that not one of the " ex- 

 perts " has ever had an opportunity of seeing it till after "the originating cause 

 had become obliterated," seeing that the disease is usually present in all stages 

 of development on the same plant ! Under these circumstances, gardeners 

 having Cucumber plants predisposed to the disease would do the Scientific 

 Committee a kindness by sending the same to South Kensington — not to speak 

 of the service they would render to science. Of course, in such a case the 

 sender would have to certify in a satisfactory manner that the disease was 

 " a-comin' on." It would be unreasonable to tax the " collective wisdom " too 

 far. As the experts themselves candidly admit, "it is to gardeners and 

 foresters, trained to observe the beginning of things, that they look for at least 

 the clue to many of these maladies." Without such aid the experts, we are 

 told, "can only wag their heads " over the subjects submitted to them ; and it 

 follows, of course, from what has been before stated, that this wagging of heads 

 must enter rather largely into the deliberations of the Scientific Committee. 



But we think the Scientific Committee might also reasonably complain on 

 other grounds. We do not by any means endorse the opinion emphatically 

 expressed on one occasion by a well-known horticulturist that the Committee 

 were " a parcel of humbugs ; " but it is not a flattering circumstance that the 

 general gardening fraternity exhibit so little faith in the South Kensington 

 body, and that, notwithstanding the troubles the gardener has to contend 

 against in the way of vegetable scourges, he rarely thinks of appealing to it for 

 help. On the other hand, it has been said, and we believe with great truth, 

 that many of our well-known horticulturists and writers for the press have 

 as many inquiries addressed to them in one season as would keep the Scientific 

 Committee employed for two or three ; and we believe the former would gladly 

 turn part of their work over to the latter if they could. As it is, we can but 

 sympathise with the " experts" in their commendable loyalty to the claims of 

 science, which they exhibit by their regular attendance at "meetings," in the 

 sustained hope that " something will turn up." 



Readee. 



THE THINNING AND SWELLING OF FORCED PEACHES. 



It is impossible to over-estimate the value of forced Peaches as a des- 

 sert fruit ; but what a difference there is in the appearance and quality 

 of fruits grown under different systems of cultivation ! 



It is a well known fact that soil, climate, and the capacity of houses 

 have a good deal to do with the success of many eminent cultivators of 

 the Peach ; and it is equally well known that there are cultivators who 

 have to do battle with the worst elements that are emitted from the numer- 

 ous factories and chemical works which abound in the great manufactur- 

 ing districts of Lancashire and Yorkshire, and yet they are equally suc- 

 cessful. Let us take, for example, the fine samples of Peach culture ex- 

 hibited by Mr Jamieson, gardener to the Earl of Crawford, Haigh Hall, 

 "VVigan, at the summer show of the Royal Horticultural Society, at Pres- 



