45G 



JOURNAL OF HOKTICULTURS AND COTTAGE GARDENER. 



[ Jane 21, 1877. 



many tenants would do wisely to plant frnit trees as many 

 have planted them and found the advantage of having done 

 so ; indeed were it not for the enterprise of the rent-paying 

 portion of the community the supply of fruit would not be 

 nearly equal to what it is at the present time. It is the 

 tenants, as a rule, and not the landlords who have planted the 

 trees which supply our markets with fruit : and yet the trees 

 which the tenants have planted are the landlord's property, 

 and for which, at the expiration of his term, the tenant has no 

 claim for compensation, even though the trees, which may have 

 cost him much, have yielded him nothing in return. 



It is fortunate that, as a rule, English landlords are both 

 just and coueiderate and rarely disturb a good tenant ; but 

 that is not a sufficient reason that there should be a law of 

 tenant right for agriculturists and none under which planters 

 of fruit trees can obtain compensation for the outlay which 

 they have invested in trees — trees which they have to leave 

 behind them, and which enhance the value of the freehold to 

 which they belong. 



" Wiltshire Rector" has taken a just view of the case, and 

 arrived at the conclusion that as the trees become the property 

 of the landlord the landlord should plant the trees. If they 

 cost but little to the tenant their cost is certainly not greater 

 to the landlord, while they add much to the value of a home, 

 however large or small it may be. In country districts where 

 tenants have planted trees their holdings are regarded almost 

 with envious feelings by their neighbours, and when a vacancy 

 occurs of such holdings there is no difficulty in letting them 

 at an increased rental. This fact is becoming more and more 

 acknowledged, which is a great advantage, for the evil of the 

 scarcity of fruit trees will be the more likely to cure itstlf. 

 Landlords are more disposed to plant a reasonable number of 

 fruit trees in the gardens of cottagers and others than was 

 formerly the case. This is a hopeful sign. Fruit trees im- 

 prove the freehold, and henea benefit the landlord ; they also 

 certainly benefit the tenant and make him more home-loving 

 and contented. 



An instance not long ago came under my notice of the 

 benefit which a landlord received from his tenant — a cottager 

 — having planted a good collection of Apple trees. The tenant 

 died, and the holding was vacant. Applications were made 

 lor the holding, and double the original rent would have been 

 gladly paid for the home, but the landlord preferred to let it 

 at the old rent and reserve that portion of the garden con- 

 taining the trees to his own use. Those trees produce more 

 useful fruit than do the private garden and orchard of the 

 landlord, who is lord of the manor, and employs a gardener 

 and half a dozen assistants. The man who planted the trees 

 lived long enough to have received the reward of his enter- 

 prise.— the fruits of his labour, and the landlord neither did 

 him nor no one else any wrong in the course which he adopted ; 

 but had the landlord in the first instance planted the trees — 

 they would not have cost him £5 — he would have had a moral 

 as well as a legal claim on the trees which are yet so valuable 

 to him. An instance like the one quoted proves the great 

 value of fruit trees and of the advisability, if not the obliga- 

 tion, of landlords planting them, charging, of course, if they 

 choose, interest on the capital they have invested. Several 

 landlords, us I have before observed, do provide a reasonable 

 number of fruit trees for the gardens of their tenants, and 

 many others would no doubt do so if they could see their way 

 clearly as to the right kinds of trees to plant and the best 

 varieties. 



On this point I submit that when a landlord plants a tree 

 in the garden of his tenant his object is to plant a permanent 

 and an useful tree — not an experimental and fancy tree. The 

 trees which are the most permanent and useful, I hold with 

 Mr. Robson, are orchard standards. They only require to be 

 well planted, securely staked, and they will bear immense 

 quantities of useful fruit without either summer pinching or 

 winter pruning. Those are the class of trees, I submit, which 

 should be planted by landlords ; and it any tenant has a fancy 

 for pyramids and is able to manage them, I think it is not 

 too much to expect that ho should plant them himself. They 

 may be the more profitable trets, or they may not : that is 

 not the question. They are artistic treep, while the standards 

 are natural trees. None can deny the usefulness of a fruitful 

 standard tree which nearly manages itself ; but there are many 

 who are nnable to keep a pyramid tree in a satisfactory 

 condition. 



A few standard Apple trees of such kinds as Keswick Codlin, 

 Domino (the fruit of Led Pnfliold is often blown o3 standards), 



Hawthornden, Stirling Castle, Beauty of Kent, and Dumelow's 

 Seedling ; and of such Plums as Rivers's Royal Prolific, Vic- 

 toria, and Gisborne's planted by landlords in the gaifdens 

 of their tenants could not fail to be of great value, and would 

 aSord satisfaction alike to those who planted them and those 

 gathering the fruit. 



As summer is the best time for the discussion of such im- 

 portant matters as the planting of fruit trees I allude to the 

 subject now, trusting that it may receive consideration before 

 the time for planting arrives. Too often the considering part 

 of the question has to be done when the time for action has 

 arrived — that is, consideration begins at the wrong end of 

 the season. I ask that thought may be given to the subject 

 now. I think it was Nelson who attributed his success to 

 having always been " a quarter of an hour before his time," 

 I trust, therefore, that my remarks are not premature. — A 



NOKTHEEN GarDENEK. 



SOME HAEDT PLANTS BAISED FROM SEED. 



Fashion, ever fitful and capricious, may spurn what are not 

 novel, tender, or scarce, but it does not follow that hardy 

 plants are wanting in beauty. The great merit of hardy plauts 

 is their being at the command of a majority of cultivators. 

 Tender plants are of no use to those who cannot command 

 glass structures wherein to grow or protect them from the 

 rigour of our climate ; hence the claim of hardy plants upon 

 the attention of those with means only for growing such. But 

 fashion, it is said, like a prodigal returns, and certainly of late 

 years there has been more favour shown than formerly to old- 

 fashioned plants. Some of them, it must be said, have not 

 been entirely neglected, but, on the contrary, they have been 

 brought to greater perfection. 



There are few plants which will bear comparison for quaint 

 beauty with a mass of Columbines in early summer, the flowers 

 of Aquilegia caryophylloides being beautifully striped, the 

 variety of striped and mottled flowers being a study ; and a 

 mass of the double varieties in mixture is superb, and the 

 single very singular. There is, of course, some very fine species 

 of Aquilegia which are grand, but I now allude to the common 

 Columbine, which will grow in any open situation and in free 

 soil. It will do admirably in the open spaces of shrubberies, 

 and spring up among shrubs, by the side of woodland walks, 

 on rough stony slopes and hedgebanks, yet no one who has 

 seen them in variety would care to be without amass of Colum- 

 bines in the garden. I will notice a few other useful plants 

 which ought not to be forgotten at this period of the year. 



Rose Canqiioti (Agrostemma coronaria). — Showy and useful 

 is the least that can be said of this old-fashioned plant, the 

 flowers being deep pink or rosy purple, and varieties with 

 white centres and white with rose centres, some being a near 

 approach upon crimson. The Double Crimson is the only 

 double one that is cultivated. The single varieties are, how- 

 ever, very showy and useful for cutting. Any light soil suits 

 them. 



Canterbury Bells. — Still favourites, now coming to the front, 

 and deservedly so, for when well grown no border plants sur- 

 pass them. But a bed or mass is what tells ; and as to variety, 

 we have blue, white, and rose or pink, and double forma of 

 the two first, with acquisitions in the new varieties having the 

 calyx of the same colour as the corolla both in the blue and 

 white flowers. These (Campanula Medium oalycauthema and 

 var. alba) are very distinct and beautiful. Then in Cam- 

 panulas there is the very beautiful C. lactiflora, white, flowers 

 in branched panicles ; C. bellidifolia, with a branching pyramid- 

 like spike of violet or blue-purple flowers ; and C. pyramidalis, 

 blue, and its var. alba. AH stately plants, fine for borders, 

 and desirable when grown in pots, in which, under good culti- 

 vation, they attain G feet in height. 



Indian Pink. — The great diversity of colour, combined with 

 bril'iirey, peculiarly fit them for display in a mass. The 

 colours range from white to the deepest crimson, rayed and 

 blotched variously, and a bed of them is charming. There is 

 no need to single out varieties, all are beautiful, and ought to 

 have a place in every garden. The double kinds ought also 

 to be grown. They grow about a foot high, and should have 

 a well-drained soil and sheltered situation. 



Foxglove. — Found in every hedge ! What if they are? Are 

 they not beautiful? Even the common varieties are better 

 than none at all, and yet there is no need for them, we having 

 such a variety of spotted and large flowers very little inferior 

 to those of Gloxinias ; in fact we have Gloxinia-Foxgloves 



