December 4, 1873. ] 



JOURNAL OF HORTICULTURE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. 



435 



that attention shoulJ be given, and in two days, on an aver- 

 age, tlie Fern takes-up just as much as it likes, and keeps moist 

 without being soaked. I never could grow in my little ama- 

 teur way Pteris tricolor until I managed it in this way ; and all 

 my Adiautums, of which my little collection is principally com- 

 posed, are flourishing, including farleyense, on this system. — 

 W. T. F. M. ISGAU., Grecnhiihe, Kent. 



POTATO DISEASE AVOIDED. 



The addition of a single fact bearing upon an important, 

 bnt obscure subject may tend to let in a ray of light. That 

 problem which far wiser heads than mine have endeavoured to 

 solve is the Potato disease. Now, I claim to have made no 

 leap, but certainly have been groping in the dark, seeking a 

 remedy for a widely ilifferent complaint to which the plant is 

 liable — " snpertnberating " is, I see, the correct term ; wo here 

 call it " second growth." 



I planted about twenty perches of Potatoes, consisting of 

 Rocks, Jersey Blues, and a late sort of kidney. Favourable 

 weather through the spring and first half of the summer 

 brought the plants rapidly forward ; then followed an interval 

 of dry weather of sufficient duration to parch the ground ; a 

 short time suffices for that. Chalk being but 2 feet beneath 

 the surface, the warmth and drought, of course, checked growth, 

 the tubers ripening fast ; when, towards the latter part of sum- 

 mer, a succession of showers altered this state of things, the 

 plants assumed so much renewed vigour that I became alarmed, 

 knowing what it is to dig up a crop of Potatoes the starch of 

 which has travelled from the root end into the crown, or per- 

 haps out of the tuber altogether, leaving merely water and 

 cellular tissue. So, with no other idea than that of preventing 

 Bueh a disaster, I with a stout broad-pronged fork took-up and 

 replanted the whole of my crop, beginning at one end of the 

 furrow and moving each root in succession, not injuring the 

 haulm, and detaching but few of the tubers, covering them 

 again to prevent greening, my aim being to check growth and 

 aid ripening. That I succeeded in the first may be easily con- 

 ceived ; as to ripening, on taking-np the tubers in the last week 

 in September, although the skin at the crown end was a Uttle 

 tender, still they are now keeping sound and good. I simply 

 notify this fact, because, while I enjoy an immunity, the Pota- 

 toes of my neighbours are all more or less affected by the dis- 

 ease. — A Cottage G-vkdenee, Broadstairs. 



A SEEDLING APPLE— EELATIVE HARDINESS 

 OF BLOSSOM— GRAPES. 



I SESD herewith samples of a seedling Apple for examination 

 and comparison, with a view to determining its distinctness or 

 otherwise. Certainly it is a variety of great value as a culi- 

 nary Apple, being an excellent keeper, great bearer, and hardy 

 — in the matter of blossom perhaps exceptionally so. There 

 are unquestionably varying degrees of hardiness in the blos- 

 soms of fruit trees, and in this matter alone there is room for 

 much useful investigation. A variety of fruit may be excel- 

 lent in itself, and it may be withal a free-spurriug and blos- 

 soming kind, but if the blossom is exceptionally tender this 

 circumstance detracts from aU other good qualities on a vital 

 point. Nothing in fruit culture can be more disappointing 

 than to see trees, brought with much care into a fruit-bearing 

 state, clothed with blossom rich in promise, and then all to 

 drop under the spring frosts common to every year. It can 

 hardly be denied that by this more than all other obstacles 

 put together are the fruit crops ruined. It is impossible to 

 prevent this injury in dealing with large trees which in the 

 future, as in the past, must be relied on to produce the sup- 

 plies to meet rational and market demands. We can neither 

 stay the frosts nor protect the blossoms, but is there not a pos- 

 sibility that the dire effects of frost may be in a useful degree 

 evaded by special attention to kinds of inherent hardihood of 

 blossom or naturally late in opening ? 



Few can have failed to notice in a mixed orchard of fmits, 

 where all the trees may be covered with blossom aUke, the 

 great difference in bulk of fruit perfected. There may be 

 other causes affecting this, but the primary one is the rela- 

 tive degree of hardiness of blossom of one kind comjiared 

 to another. I feel quite certain that on this point much 

 valuable information may be given by those who pay special 

 attention to fruit culture, who have in hand a hundred or 

 more varieties, and who are careful to note pecBliaritiea in in- 



dividual sorts. I remember, in looking over a great plantation 

 of cultivated fruit trees in the summer of last year, being struck 

 with the very few varieties that had battled successfully 

 against the severe frosts -of the preceding spring. There were 

 at least ten blanks to one prize, ten barren trees to one fruitftil. 

 This, it must be confessed, was a very unsatisfactory state of 

 things, and the disappointment was the greater knowing that 

 the great proportion of the barren trees were in all respects as 

 healthy, and were at the same time equally furnished with 

 blossom with the very few fruitful ones. The greater number 

 exhibited a calamity by frost acting on tender blossom, the 

 lesser number an escape by hardy blossom. At any rate, if 

 this was not the reason of escape, what was? At that time, 

 as far as I remember, whenever we came to EenrrC d'Amanlis 

 Pear it was loaded with fruit ; so also was the early Citron des 

 Carmes. Louise Bonne of Jersey was another which escaped 

 fairly, as it frequently does. Bergamotte Espereu is a valuable 

 late Pear, and reUable from its hardy blossom. How seldom 

 is the old Moorfowl's Egg made barren by frost. A Pear 

 seldom seen, yet useful in autumn — the Green Pear of Yair, is 

 under my care unfailing as a cropper, frost or no frost. By 

 its side Marie Louise is ruined four years out of five. In the 

 same garden Autumn Beui-re and Hacon's Incomparable are 

 commonly made barren by spring frosts ; so also is Beurr6 

 d'Aremberg, a Pear, however, of no great value. My facDities 

 of comparison are limited, but I am satisfied by what I have 

 seen that there is much valuable information on this point 

 stored up somewhere. 



In the garden above referred to, the Apples which were con- 

 spicuous as having escaped frost were Beauty of Kent, Domino, 

 Duchess of Oldenburgh, Cox's Orange Pippin, and, I think, 

 Stirling Castle ; but I am open to correction by the owner. 

 This year in walking through a good garden, almost the only 

 variety carrying a good crop were young trees of Small's Ad- 

 mirable, a really admirable sort. Every tree was loaded, tha 

 blossom of all the rest, as the gardener said, being " killed by 

 frost." Two half-standard trees of " Woolatou Pippin " (Court- 

 Pendu-Plat) always escape frost by their lateness in unfold- 

 ing their blossom. My employer calls them his " wise" Apple 

 trees, because of their escaping the cold by their lateness. 

 They invariably crop, but I am sorry to say invariably grub, 

 yet I think the grub grows less by having followed out Mr. 

 Douglas's plan of picking up and off, and burning the small, 

 affected fruit. If anyone knows of a better plan it would be a 

 great benefit to communicate it. 



But what has this to do with the seedling Apple ? Simply 

 this, that it arrested my attention by the quality, which I sub- 

 mit is a valuable one — viz., its bearing heavily when other 

 trees around were fruitless owing to spring frosts. On paying a 

 visit to the town where it originated, I was struck with the 

 heavy crops of fruit hanging on certain trees in different gar- 

 dens of the town ; and on applying for information from the 

 resident nurseryman, whose splendid Eoses I had gone to ad- 

 mire, "Oh," he said, " that's our seedling; it's always so, and 

 it is without exception the very best and most useful Apple in 

 cultivation." He did not say this because it was his own seed- 

 ling, as it was not, but raised by a lady some years ago by 

 sowing pips ; nor because ho was sending it out at half a 

 guinea a-plant. He certainly had it in a goodly number, but 

 hitherto has sold it at the same price as all the other varieties. 

 Ho has, in fact, made nothing out of it. Perhaps, however, 

 he may do so, having purchased land and planted it largely to 

 form an orchard, and this is about the best testimony the 

 Apple can receive. If a fruit of any kind is proved for twenty 

 years and more under the eye of an observant nurseryman, 

 and instead of sending it all over the country he buys land and 

 plants it for fruit-bearing, it is a reasonable proof that there is 

 something good about the fruit thus honoured. 



The tree of the variety in question is a strong and rather 

 spreading grower, unsuited for bush culture, but excellent for 

 orchard trees. The haliit and outline are not unlike a tree of 

 Blenheim Orange, but covered with spurs common toDumelow's 

 Seedling. The fruit is hko neither, as you will see, but is yet 

 fine. Its period of use is November to June, but the specimens 

 sent have been on a warm mantelpiece a month and more for 

 ornament, and have to some extent lost their firmness. A full 

 history of this Apple is promised, and when my friend has 

 done digging-up and packing off lioses it will, perhaps, come. 

 But it is beyond a shadow of doubt a seedling, and a valuable 

 one. Whether it is distinct from all existing varieties is left 

 to editorial judgment. 

 P.S. — With a formw commumcation I sent Grapes grown 



