Novombor 21, 1867. ] 



JOUBNAL OP HOBTICOLT0BB AND COTTAGE GABDENEB. 



383 



" childishly "-called "Insecticide" is said to do, and which, 

 from the resvilta of experiments I have made, I am satisfied it 

 will. The simple manner of applying; the article would alone 

 commend it to any earnest person's notice, it being possible to 

 either dip, syringe, or sponge the plant infested. — W. Kniout, 

 Jliiilsliuvt. 



FRENCH AND ENGLISH GARDENING. 



In The Journal of HouTicDLxnuK for the 12th of September 

 there is an article on this subject by Mr. Thomas Rivers, and 

 to that article, although a couple of months have now passed, 

 I wish to reply. Since its appearance I have been continually 

 engaged in travelling both in the British Isles and iu France, 

 which must be my excuse for not having noticed it ere this. 



To put the matter clearly before your readers I had better 

 state that the article which gave rise to the discussion in the 

 Times contained a concise account of such few points in French 

 horticultiuo as it seemed to me were worthy our attention. In 

 it I lirst stated that the French horticulturists were on the 

 whole less advanced than our own, but that there were some 

 points in which they were superior. I spoke of their fresh 

 and tasteful way of decorating rooms and halls for ordinary 

 and festive occasions by using a profusion of graceful-leaved 

 as well as flowering plunts ; of their successful culture of the 

 Apple, Pear, and Peach ; of their vegetable, salad, and espe- 

 cially Asparagus culture ; of their sj-stem of framing, excellent 

 market gardening, itc. Next day there appeared iu the 'Tiiin'.i 

 a letter from " A London Mauket Gaiidexek," in which the 

 public were told that everything French was bad and contempt- 

 ible ; that the Asparagus was like " the Atlantic cable ;" the 

 Pears "as a rule coarse, granular, and insipid ;" one Itibston 

 Pippin or Sykehouso Kusset " was worth a host of their Calville 

 Blanche," A-c. ; the Apricots were mealy, the Green Gages 

 waterj-, the Peaches woolly, and the Pears had another good 

 quality added to those alreadv quoted — they were " flaccid." 

 To that letter I felt bound to reply. 



I took the statements in detail, and replied to them in full. He 

 said the cordon system of Apple-growing was only suited for 

 amateurs, and that it was liable to canker and every other ill. 

 Now, I am no advocate for the cordon system except in special 

 cases ; but there is one variety of it that I believe most excellent, 

 and that is the Apple as a low horizontal cordon, trained along 

 a galvanised wire, so as to form an edging to the squares or 

 borders in the fruit or kitchen garden. I said, in defending 

 this particular system in the 'Times, " It is merely a carrying 

 further of the best principles of grafting and pruning — a wise 

 bending of the young tree to the conditions that best suit it in 

 our northern climate. The simple fact that by its means we 

 bring all the fruit and leaves to within 10 inches or a foot of 

 the ground, and thereby expose them to an increase of heat, 

 which compensates to a great extent for a bad climate, will 

 surely prove a strong argument in its favour to every intelligent 

 person." I believe it to be the best and soundest of all forms 

 of the cordon system (this opinion is only given after having 

 seen it alTord a good result iu very many gardens), and that 

 the day will yet come when this fact will be patent to every 

 British gardener. In a contemporary gardening journal Mr. 

 Bivers has stated this form to be only suited " for small gar- 

 dens, and no others!" the "wire tripping one over into the 

 Cabbage^" itc. The answer to him on that special point may 

 serve to explain to your readers why I thought the horizontal 

 cordon worthy of notice and defence in the Times. " Well, if 

 this cordon bo no better developed than to be invisible, the 

 less we have to do with it the better ; but where it is thickly 

 and regularly set with a stubby spray of fruit buds, and a dense 

 crop of noble fruit, as I have seen it at Ferricres, at Chartres, 

 and at many other places, then it becomes a thing which catches 

 the eye for its beauty and utility. If I were making a garden 

 to-morrow as large as Frogmore, I would run a line of wire 

 round every plot of it at a foot from the ground, and on that 

 train the best kind of Apples, believing this cordon to be much 

 bettor, more useful, and more easily lianaged than either the 

 bush or pyramid on the same stock ! The following are my 

 reasons for this assertion : It may be placed round the squares 

 of a kitchen or fruit garden, so as to act as an edging, and thus 

 in numbers of gardens it may be adopted to an extent suflicient 

 to supply the fruit-room with splendid Apples without devoting 

 a special quarter te them, or, in fact, losing any space thereby. 

 The wood, leaves, and fruit are more fully exposed to the sun 

 than in the case of either jiyramid or bush, or any other 

 method of growing Apples away from walls— an advantage for 



all parts of England, but especially so to cold, northern, and 

 elevated parts. The form is so definite and so simple, that 



anybody may attend to it, and direct the energies of the little 

 trees to a perfect end, with much less trouble than is requisite 

 to form a presentable pyramid or bush. It does not, like other 

 forms, shade anything, not even so much so as a low-growing 

 vegetable, for beneath the very line of cordons you may have 

 some slight crop. They are less trouble to support than either 

 pyramid or bush ; always under the eye for thinning, stopping, 

 .to. ; easy of protection", if that bo desired ; very cheap iu the 

 first instance ; and therefore this is the best of all known modes 

 of obtaining first-class garden Apples." So much for the first 

 statement of the person who wrote as " London Maeket Gar- 

 DENKii " and for Mr. Itivers's opinion and objection. Time 

 is certain to show where the truth lies in this point, for already 

 some of tny friends are giving it a fair trial, not taking for 

 gospel Mr. P.ivers's repeated assertion that the true FreiicU 

 Paradise stock is tender or sickly on moist and suitable soils, 

 but giving it a trial in competition with what is called the 

 " English Paradise." 



To contend with the "London Market Gardener," that 

 French Pears are not what he describes them, is as needless as 

 to find a fresh proof that the earth is round, or the Channel 

 impregnated with salt. He says the same may be said o£ 

 French Apples — i.e., "coarse, granular, and insipid," and 

 then talks of one English Apple being " worth a host of Cal- 

 ville Blanche ! " At page 140 of The Journal of Hortici-ltcrs 

 for 1866 Mr. Elvers devotes a short article to the Calville 

 Blanche Apple, and tells us in rather an interesting way of 

 the "many years" it took him to believe that it was the 

 " finest of all Apples for the kitchen." But eventually he 

 believed that of it, and wound up his article by declaring it to 

 be "as superior to the Normandy Beefings as a Pine is to an 

 Orleans Plum ! " We all know it is a capital dessert Apple. 

 I mention this for two reasons — to point out the nature of the 

 truths of the " London Market Gardener," and also the great 

 length of time it took Mr. Piivers to believe what one would 

 think a single trial sufficient to prove. This peculiarity of his 

 pomological sagacity may have something to do with his re- 

 peated attacks upon anybody who gives an opinion iu the least 

 at variance with his own on even the simplest matters connected 

 with fruit culture. Would it not have been more becoming 

 of me to have waited twenty years or so before pronouncing 

 an opinion upon any matters which he has taken under his 

 wing, even though they be so simple in their merits or de- 

 merits that anybody can see these in a moment ? Perhaps 

 by such time they would have been duly endorsed by the great 

 arbiter of all things pomological. I do not wish to omit a single 

 point in this objector's letter, simply that your readers may 

 judge of its merits, and they will oblige me by bearing in mind 

 that while Mr. Elvers commenced his long letter by sagely re- 

 marking that there was somethmg to be said on both sides, the 

 whole of it was an attempt to misrepresent and to counteract 

 with his name and his well-known French experiences, of which 

 he has so often reminded us, my work in French gardens during 

 the past nine months. 



The next "truth" — I am not passing by a single point — is 

 that, although " Covent Garden was crammed with the finest 

 French fruit," English fruit " of half the face " will always 

 command more money. Calville Blanche Apples of French 

 growth and moderate quality are now seUing in Covent Garden 

 Market at Is. Gd. a-piece ; while a not-first-class and bruised 

 Duchesse d'Angouli-me brings from ijd. to Is. Many thousand 

 pounds-worth of French Pears alone are brought to our markets 

 every year, while other and more perishable fruits are also sent 

 in considerable quantities, notwithstanding the difficulty of 

 packing and expense of carriage. After his sweeping de- 

 nunciation, I assured him that these fruits with " far leas 

 water, meal, and disagreeable acid in them than it has often 

 been my lot to find in England, are now (August), seUingin the 

 streets of Paris at a price which places them within the reach 

 of the poorest gamin of the to\vn. Good Green Gage Plums 

 may be had at less than •2(/. a-pound, and in the great central 

 market this morning I saw them of prime qnaUty marked 30o. 

 the demi-kilogramme. Peaches are to be seen now in every 

 little fruit-shop in Paris — their price in London confines their 

 use to the wealthier classes. It is so with not a few other 

 things in the fruit way. In the return of the Covent Gardea 

 prices for the last week I find Peaches marked from ist. to &>•. 

 per dozen. They were selUng prime quality this morning ia 

 the Paris market for 2f. the basket of eight fruit. For the 

 same quality we should have to pay more than double the 



