January 



IRISH GARDENING 



13 



lurf replaced. Where the turf is poor a dressing of bone 

 meal, i cwt. to the rood, may be sown over the surface 

 as a stimulant. Old potting' soil and wood ashes passed 

 through a half-inch riddle and scattered over the lawn 

 makes a capital dressing. Where moss is troublesome 

 and the grasses weak, a quantity of horse droppings 



i spread over the grass and left on for three weeks, to be 



again raked off, will be very beneficial, and prove a 

 wonderful reviver. An occasional run over the lawn 

 with a birch broom is useful for scattering wornicasts 

 and giving a neat and clean appearance at this time, 

 when there is not much attraction otherwise. 



Herb.\ceous Borders. — All arrears of work in this 

 tlepartment should be hurried on, and every available 

 opportunity of open weather used to complete the making 

 of new borders or overhauling those already in existence. 

 No borders of the kind should be allowed to stand an 

 indefinite period. The dutv of turning them over entails 

 much time, but it is time well spent, and when done 

 every three or four years at most these borders are 

 given new life — when all is lifted, the ground heavily 

 manured and trenched, and replanting done with a know- 

 ledge of each plant's height and colour, so that a system 

 may be carried out that will be pleasing when in flower. 



W'et-day Work. — January is not a month that much 

 in the way of flower seeds need be sown. Preparations 

 for future busy days may be taken in hand. Get all 

 potting material under cover and ready for use. Seed 

 boxes may require repairing ; flower pots, seed pans, 

 and crocks washed and assorted ; labels of different 

 sizes ready, and a small pot of white lead handy. Stakes 

 of various lengths in convenient bundles should be got 

 ready to hand, and where plenty of hazel bushes are 

 about, no better material could be used. Cut the young 

 growths from the base and take into an open shed, to be 

 made and bundled on wet days when work outside could 

 not be performed. 



The Fruit Grounds. 



By William R. Spencer, .Manor House Gardens, 

 Loughgall, Co. Armagh. 



THE year just closed has not been a very 

 profitable one for fruit growers generally. 

 Prospects early in the season were very 

 bright, fruit buds being very abundant ; but, 

 unfbrtunatel}', the severe fro.sts experienced dur- 

 ing the latter part of April almost ruined crops 

 of damsons, plums, black currants, gooseberries, 

 and pears. Hard weather was the rule also dur- 

 ing the period of apple blooming and setting, and 

 was the main cause of the scarcity of apples in 

 many places. Strawberries were a fine crop, but 

 the season of fine fruit was all too short owing 

 to the heavy rains commencing on 13th July. 

 Price of fruit generally was much below the 

 average. Apples, as a rule, sold badly, owing 

 in part to the large importations of foreign fruit 

 and to the depression in trade generally. 



Latterly there has been a brisk demand for 

 Irish apples, and at the present time (Dec. 18th) 

 they are selling at from i8s. to 20s. per cwt., and 

 probably will be more very shortly. As our Irish 

 growers do not, as a rule, store their apples, 

 there are very few to be had even at that price. 

 Some, with an eye to better prices, stored most 

 of their late-keeping varieties, consequently they 

 are now reaping a fine harvest. It is a great pity 

 that growers generally do not store their keep- 

 ing apples ; instead, they rush them on to the 

 market long before they are fit for it, and have 

 to sell them at a price perhaps not one half of 

 what could be obtained if kept for two or three 

 months. To illustrate this, the writer is 

 acquainted with a man who bought tons of 

 Bramley Seedling in October at 8s. 6d. per cwt., 

 and at the present time can get about i8s. for 

 them. I think this should be a lesson to 

 growers, and trust they will profit by it. 



Apple growing has increased so rapidly in 

 Ireland within the past few years that growers 

 of twenty or more years' standing are becoming 

 seriously alarmed, fearing that when the result- 

 ant crops come on the market prices will not be 

 so remunerative as at present, and thus com- 

 plain that even now, with only an average or 

 below average crop, high prices have not been 

 the rule. However, as planting continues (in 

 spite of gruinbling) in these same districts it is 

 evident that it inust have paid well in the past ; 

 and while foreign apples get such a ready sale 

 in our towns it is also evident that the supply of 

 Irish apples falls very short of the demand. 

 " The increase in the consumption of apples, 

 and fruit generally, has increa.sed wonderfully 

 within the past few years. Fruit shops in 

 Belfast within the past decade have increased 

 tenfold." 



The poorer classes are using more fruit now 

 than forinerly, and as its value as a food becomes 

 better known its consumption will increase in 

 consequence. There is not the slightest danger 

 of our markets being flooded for many years to 

 come (at present they are sometimes flooded 

 with rubbish) as there are at least four months 

 in which our markets are entirely in the hands 

 of our foreign competitors, when the home 

 growers might easily dispose of them if they 

 grew enough to do so. 



But I would warn growers to pay more 

 attention to the requirements of established 

 orchards, and so try and maintain the quality ot 



