IRISH GARDENING. 



2^ 



Gooseberries are a g-ood crop all over the country. 

 They appeared to suffer least from the hot weather. 

 The bushes flowered well and escaped any severe 

 weather there was, and set well, They began to swell 

 rapidly, and green gooseberries were in the market very 

 early this j'ear. Growers who make a practice of 

 mulching their bush fruit plantations are gathering- very 

 heavy crops of fine, large berries, and I feel certain 

 that these men will have more profit from gooseberries 

 this year than they will from any other kind of fruit. 

 Bullfinches did much damage to the bushes last winter, 

 especially in the south, by eating- out the buds, leaving 

 many of the young- shoots bare of leaves and fruit. 



Black Cl-rr.\nts in general are an average to good 

 crop. On low lying land, or where the ground is well 

 manured and kept free from grass and weeds, the crop 

 is a very good one, and excellent prices are being 

 obtained. Where the bushes or ground have been in 

 an}' way neglected the crop has not been so heavy, nor 

 have the berries been so big. In general the crop is 

 not so large as last year, nor are the berries so large 

 individually. The varieties doing best are Boskoop 

 Giant and \'ictoria. 



Red and White Currants are a good crop, though 

 many dropped because of the continuous dry weather. 

 Currant sawfly caterpillars did much damage to the 

 foliage this year, many of the plants being almost 

 denuded. 



Raspberries in most cases came through the winter 

 well, and broke away strongly in the spring. They 

 flowered freely, and the early flowers set well, regard- 

 less of the continuous heat and drought. As the 

 drought continued, however, the later flowers on 

 plants in dry ground failed to set and swell, thereby 

 reducing the crop. The berries were ripe about a 

 week earlier than usual, and the season promises to be 

 a short one. Good prices were obtained for early 

 berries. The young canes are not making such strong 

 growth as they ought to do. and unless we get a good 

 growing autumn next year's crop is almost certain to 

 be a light one. 



StRjWVBERRIES gave every promise of being a very 

 heavy crop. They flowered well and set well in the 

 early part of the season. On damp soils, where the 

 plants were mulched in spring, or where they were well 

 watered, very good crops have been gathered. The 

 fruit was also of excellent quality. Owing, however, 

 to the large consignments of fruit shipped from France 

 and England, the prices ruled rather low. On dry 

 soils exposed to the winds, and where the plants were 

 not watered, about half a crop has been secured, the 

 plants failing to set the late flowers and to swell the fruit. 

 The late fruiting varieties have suffered most from the 

 continued drought, the rain, coming at the very end of 

 the season, being too late to benefit the plants. The 

 season was a very early and short one, the fruits 

 ripening up very rapidly. 



Insects have been very severe this year, especially 

 apple sucker, caterpillars of winter, codlin, tortrix'and 

 ermine moths, American blight, and blossom weevil on 

 apple trees. Sawfly caterpillars were bad on red and 

 white currants and gooseberries ; in some cases, 

 where the bushes were not treated, the leaves were 

 almost all eaten oft the bushes. Greenfly were very 



severe, especially on plums, damsons, cherries, 

 black currants, and gooseberries. They damaged 

 black currants very much this year. Raspberry blossom 

 weevil was very prevalent in some of the large planta- 

 tions, and there was also a case of raspberry sawfly. 

 Black currant mite appears to be almost stamped out of 

 the country. The warm, dry spring weather was very 

 much in favour of the spread of many insects attacking 

 fruit trees, and much damage was done where spraying 

 was not thoroughly and persistently carried out at the 

 right time. There was not much trouble with the pests, 

 however, where this was properly done. 



Fungoid pests are very troublesome this year, and 

 growers are taking much more interest in them, and 

 much more spraying materials are being used now 

 than former!}'. Apple and pear scab and apple canker 

 are more or less prevalent all over the country, they 

 being recorded by the majority of the correspondents. 



Silver leaf on plums, brown rot on apples, and Ameri- 

 can mildew on gooseberries are given as affecting the 

 fruit growing in many districts. A rather rare disease, 

 " Eutypella prunastrii," which does much damage to 

 young trees, is causing the death of many young plum 

 trees in different parts of the country. The best way 

 to deal with it is to pull up the affected trees and burn 

 them. Gooseberry cluster cup was very prevalent in 

 many plantations this year. 



Apple mildew did not appear to be so prevalent this 

 3'ear,the only variety showing much of it being Bismarck. 



On some plantations raspberry rust was verj' pre- 

 valent. 



5^ a^ 5^ 



Pl.ant.s in Relation to Soil Acidity. 

 Bearing upon our remarks of last month on peat 

 plants and lime is an interesting article entitled 

 "Taming the Wild Blueberry" in T/ii- Nittii)nn/ 

 Geographic Maga3i>n'{\\a.sh\n^ion), written by Mr. F. \'. 

 Coville, a well-known plant physiologist and experi- 

 menter. As an example of the method of culture 

 pursued by Mr. Coville we give the following : — The 

 plants were potted in brown acid peat (the natural soil 

 of the blueberry), and then given a topdressing of lime 

 equal to 25 tons of lime an acre. The expectation was, 

 of course, that the plants would die, but they did not ! 

 Examination of the soil showed that the lime formed a 

 surface crust, and that for half an inch under the crust 

 the soil was black, but below this the soil had retained 

 its natural brown colour. It was only in the brown 

 peat that the roots looked alive, normally developed, 

 and functionally active. Chemical tests proved that the 

 black layer had lost its acidity, but that the underlying 

 brown soil still retained its normal acidity, and hence 

 the growth of the microscopical fungus, so necessary for 

 the feeding of this peat-plant, was not interfered with 

 as it certainly was in the non-acid black layer. .As 

 .Mr. Coville points out, this experiment has an 

 important bearing upon the liming of meadow or other 

 grass lands. Unless the soil is of an open, sandy nature 

 the eftect of liming as a corrector of acidity would only 

 have a very limited range— so very limited, indeed, that 

 it is exceedingly unlikely that it could do much good in 

 the way intended — that is, neutralise the acidity of soil 

 within the root-range. 



