1880. 



AND HORTICULTURIST. 



45 



Gardener's Monthly or otherwise. I re- 

 ceived tlirougli a friend in England, in Febru- 

 ary last, a packet of Cyclamen seed, procured 

 from a reliable firm, viz: Veitch & Son, of 

 London. I sowed the seed at once, and I be- 

 lieve every seed germinated and grew. I potted 

 and repotted as they required shifting, till they 

 occupied five-inch pots, in which I intended and 

 expected them to bloom nicely, as the majority 

 of them had formed quite large corms, but all 

 through their growth the foliage more or less on 

 all of them had a crippled appearance, which 

 I hoped they would outgrow as they be- 

 came larger and stronger, but there is no im- 

 provement in them in that respect, and the flow- 

 ers which are now being produced, are imper- 

 fect and worthless on account of their deformity. 

 I never experienced any ditficulty of the kind 

 before in Cyclamen growing, neither has any 



disease of the kind come under my observation, 

 and therefore would be glad to be enlightened' 

 respecting it. I would add, the root action ap- 

 pears to be all right, potted in soil, as I have 

 always found satisfactory in the culture of the 

 Cyclamen, viz: half loam, and half leaf mould 

 and sand in equal parts, with a moderate 

 amount of decomposed manure, covering the 

 drainage. I have got my old Cyclamen corms 

 potted in the same mixture of soil, and they are 

 perfectly healthy, although six and seven years- 

 old. There are a good variety of colors in the 

 Cyclamens alluded to, but the trouble is they 

 produce deformed flowers. I enclose a few 

 leaves and flowers complained of for your in- 

 spection." 



[The Cyclamen is subject to what is known as- 

 the Verbena i-ust, and this is what ails your 

 leaves. — Ed. G.M.] 



Fruit and Vegetable Gardening. 



SEASONABLE HINTS, 



At no time within our recollection has fruit- 

 growing been on a more substantial footing than 

 now. In amateur fruit growing it is well under- 

 stood that the kinds which may be best for a 

 market gardener, are not the kinds for him ; and 

 indeed the whole method of procedure in grow- 

 ing the fruits is very different from that which 

 the market man pursues. It is a great gain that 

 this distinction has been generally perceived. 

 And there is another gain which is to the advan- 

 tage of the market grower. About the time the 

 Gardener's Monthly came on the stage, the 

 teaching was rather general that anybody could 

 make money at fruit growing. Hundreds of 

 people wei'e induced to embark in the business, 

 who hardh' knew a peach tree from a gooseberry 

 bush, and who were ignorant of the very first 

 principles of business success. It was thought 

 a good thing by short-sighted people that money 

 was being invested in this way as tending to 

 clean out extensive stocks of trees. Things 

 seemed active. But the ignoramuses had to go 

 down, and those who gloried in the early deple- 

 tion of stock, found that in the downfall of their 

 customers they were swamped. When the re- 



action came, nurserymen were caught with im- 

 mense stocks and no buyers, and the prices of 

 trees fell below cost, and all had to suffer. But 

 the weak fruit growers are now mainly gone. 

 Those only remain who know just what thej' are 

 doing. The weaker nurserymen have also failed,, 

 and the " surplus " stock is about used up. The 

 business of those who supply fruit trees will be 

 healthy, and those who plant will reap success- 

 in what they do. Altogether the outlook is- 

 much more encouraging for permanent success 

 in fruit growing than we have known it for a long 

 time. 



Passing to practical matters of immediate im- 

 port it may be noted that all fruit trees like a 

 rather dry, rich soil. On a cold, clayey bottom, 

 diseases are usually frequent. Do not plant 

 deep ; cut oflf tap roots, and do all j-ou can to- 

 encourage surface fibres. Surface manuring is 

 the best way of doing this after the tree is plant- 

 ed. Do not allow anything to grow vigorously 

 arpund your trees the first year of planting, nor 

 allow the soil to become hard or dry. Let trees 

 branch low, and prune a little at transplanting. 



Pruning of fruit trees, when required, should 

 be proceeded with at favorable opportunities. 

 "We write when required, for in our climate more; 



