Novemljer 3, 1SC3. 



JOUENAL OF HOETICULTUKE AND COTTAGE GAEDENEE. 



353 



yet from a return now before us we see that in that year 

 duty was paid upon 182,580 bushels of Apples, 28,624 bushels 

 of Chestnuts, 101,801 bushels of Nuts, 33,298 bushels of 

 Walnuts, and on Grajies valued at £25,278. 



That the deficiency and costliness of fruits and vege- 

 tables might be reduced admits of no doubt, and Mi-. Smith 

 thus points ovit some of the modes by wliich this most 

 desii'able result might be attained. 



" If weU-meaniug noblemen and gentlemen, who take so 

 much pains in constructing what are called ' model cot- 

 tages ' for labourers, would see that these labom-ers are 

 industrious and provident, a well-stocked gai-den would be 

 insisted on ; bvit at present tliis grand accessory to the 

 cottage, this vital source of half the year's subsistence, is 

 left out of consideration, or it is made a matter of little 

 consequence. 



" There ai'e enormous ti-acts of ground tenanted by thou- 

 sands of persons less blessed than the class I have just 

 alluded to, which, with just as much trouble as would be an 

 amusement, might be cultivated, and would be cultivated 

 if the masters of these men did thefr duty. The better- 

 regulated French, even when encamped for a short tune 

 upon waste ground, will soon convert the waste into gardens, 

 which occupy their leisure time, find them wholesome food, 

 and keep them sober, cheerful, and contented. But in the 

 districts of England to which I allude (take for example 

 those of the brick-makers), squalor and wretchedness, 

 drunkenness and liigh wages, go together. Neglected by 

 their masters, who only look to the work to be done, their 

 gardenless hovels are the picture of misery. Gaining wages 

 enough to keep them mth provident care through the 

 winter, their* only solace is the beer-shop; and for most of 

 the winter months they subsist by begging or stealing, or 

 live in the workhouse. I make no doubt that gai-dens would 

 be books of instruction to them, and induce habits of fore- 

 sight, industry, and sobriety, to which they are at present 

 sliangei's. 



" But how are we to provide Apples on an extensive scale 

 to make them of general utility ? Nothing is more easy. 

 Be ever planting trees. I will give you a notion of what 

 might have been done, and could yet be done, by the du-eetors 

 of our railways. Wlio will calculate the exact number of 

 the thousands of miles of unoccxipied laud by the sides of 

 our various lines ? It is an easy task, and I here supply an 

 estimate of what may be produced in a single mile. One 

 inile would requii'e about 250 trees, the cost of which, and 

 the labour of planting, would be about £15. As good strong 

 trees should be selected, in tlu'ee years they would pay their 

 expenses, and in a few years more we may calculate that 

 out of the 250 about 200 would produce five bushels each, 

 which, at 3s. per bushel woul'.l be .£150; and, of course, if 

 both sides of the niile of railway were planted the returns 

 woidd be i;300, and for one hundred mdes we may calculate 

 ^£30,000. But make yet a deduction for contingencies and 

 the profit would be enormous. There is no reason, moi'e- 

 over, why oiu" highways and byways should not be planted 

 with fruit trees (especially the Apple), and also the vast 

 tracts of land which svu'round hospitals, fortifications, and 

 other public buildings.* One of the most absiird objections 

 that has been opposed to my suggestion is that the fruit 

 might be stolen. A highly intelligent friend of mine who 

 keeps a large and respectable school, has, or had, a consider- 

 able space of unoccupied ivall, the advantage of which for 

 fruit trees I pointed out to him. He met my persuasion 

 with the common objection — a fear of stealing. I observed, 

 ' Yoiu- boys must eat something. Let them steal, or con- 

 sider the fruit their own ; and if you want any get up in the 

 morning early and steal from them.' But where such large 

 quantities of fruit as I contemplate would be gi'own, stealing 

 to any extent need not be apprehended. How is it that in 

 France we see the road-sides for rmles lined with Apple 

 trees ? Is it that the French are more honest than we ? If 

 30, let us endeavo'or to rise to their standard of honesty." 



Orcharding is now too much neglected, yet might most 

 profitably be pm-sued, especially in the south of England 



* since -writing tbe abovt; I ht;ve hud an opportunity of laying: my view's 

 on tiiis subject before tlie Chairman of the London, chuthiim, unci Dover 

 Railway, and I have hopes that, in con.'-equence, :ny suj-^fjestions will be, at 

 least, partially adopted. If so, it is probable we may suun Fee the waste 

 ground of our lines of ra-lways yielding tbe shareholders a good prolit from 

 an unlouked-for source. 



and Ireland ; and we go further, now that glass and timber 

 and other building materials are so cheap, tor we know that 

 they enable any one who vrill devote the money and time to 

 the pursuit to grow the rarer ft'uits very profitably. We 

 are acquainted with several persons who have erected very 

 extensive orchard-houses, and sell the Black Hamburgh 

 Grapes from them very remuneratively. We would go even 

 further, and observe that in hundreds — nay, in thousands 

 of instances, similar extensive glass struetiu'es might be 

 erected against parts of some of our manufactories and 

 heated by their waste steam or waste hot water. Such 

 structures by ripening stiU earlier the Grapes and other 

 fruits grown within them, would be projiortionately more 

 highly renumerative. 



DEESSING- FRUIT TEEES WITH GISHTJEST 

 COMPOUND. 



As the season approaches when gardeners begin to think 

 of winter-dressing their fruit trees, and as Sir. Sivers and 

 other authorities have recommended the use of Gishurst 

 compound for this purpose, I now ask permission to give the 

 result of some trials with Gishurst on mj trees last winter 

 and spring. 



For several years past all the orchard-house trees when 

 fully at rest — say in December, have been drenched with a 

 solution of Gishurst, eight ounces (8) to the gaUon of soft 

 water, without any after-washing v,-ith water. This oc- 

 casionally caused a few buds from v/eakly trees to fall, but 

 left more tlian sufficient for any crop, and made the trees 

 look very healthy. However, last year I heard several ac- 

 counts from thoroughly good authorities, of many buds 

 having been destroyed, in some cases owing to too strong- 

 applications of Gishurst. I wished to test whether this had 

 been caused by the dressing having been applied too late, 

 when the trees were no longer at rest, so, when giving most 

 of my trees their usual eight-ounce solution, I left a few for 

 exjjeriment later, when the buds should have begun to swell. 

 Some of these were washed with eight-ounces strength of 

 solution, and a few minutes afterwards the trees washed 

 with water ; others with four-ounces strength with no after- 

 water-washing. The residts were, that some buds were 

 injured by the strong solution, notwithstanding t'ne after- 

 washing, which was not the ease (except in the case of some 

 half-dozen buds), with the weaker solution mthout water- 

 washing. 



The conclusions I have come to are, that eight-ounces 

 solution to fairly strong trees thoroughly at rest is the best 

 strength and safe for buds except, possibly, those of early 

 Pears. That if this strength be apijlied after the wood 

 begins to grow, some buds may be injured. That 4 ozs. to 

 the gallon is safe even when buds have begun to swell, and 

 is, perhaps, the best strength for not strong trees and Pears, 

 especially early ones. 



These remarks apply enly to pot trees in orchard-houses, 

 of which only I have any considerable experience. For friut 

 trees on walls I believe a pound to the gallon, drenched over 

 the tree and waU by means of a plasterer's brush, to be the 

 best strength. Last year I was allowed to experiment on 

 some trees on an old wall, which year after year had been so 

 eaten up with blight that their fruit came to nothing. 1 

 operated on three of the trees. Plums, with strong solutions 

 of Gishurst, with the result that the trees so treated were 

 much improved in appearance, and bore some fine fruit. The 

 good summer may have helped, but they looked healthier 

 than their unwashed neighbours, and now the whole wall 

 has been abandoned to me to have a strong Gishm-st treat- 

 ment, the result of which I will communicate on a future 

 occasion. — GsoKaE Wilson, Gishurst Cottage, Weybridge. 



Ammonia in Aib op Plant-eouses. — I qnite agree with 

 Mr. D. Thomson as to the beneficial effects produced by the 

 introduction of ammonia into om- forcing-houses. I have 

 for several years been in the habit of using in the evapwat- 

 ing-troughs a small quantity of liquid manure from the 

 farmyard. I have used it dvu-ing the past season for Pines, 

 Vines, Peaches, and Figs, and I consider it one of the best 

 preventives against red spider. — J. Ckoss, Gardener to Lord 

 Ashburton, the Grange, Alresford. 



