26 



JOUBNAL OF HOBTIOXJIiTTJKE AND COTTAGE GABDENEB. 



( July 9, ises. 



only grew the variety known as Purple Queen. Tbia year, on 

 Ihe strong recommendation of Mr. Wills, who was kind enough 

 to Bend me a lot of Mauve Queen, I have tried it, but with 

 little better result. It succeeds a little better than Purple 

 Qneen, but the plants of both varieties have nearly all gone off 

 after I have taken every possible care that I could think of. 

 !rhe beds were filled with fresh rather heavy loam, together 

 •with plenty of leaf mould, and some of them were covered 

 with cocoa-nut fibre refuse, but all to no purpose. Purple 

 Queen I have planted in different situations, including shady 

 cues, but in all it is much alike. Such being my experience 

 of this Viola for the last two seasons, it is wholly condemned 

 here. — Johk Bryan, Audley End Gardens, Saffron Watden, 



LADDER FOR FRUIT-GATHERING. 



I SEND you a slight sketch of a contrivance (fig. 1), which 

 I have found very convenient for pruning and gathering fruit 

 from some pyramid Apple and Pear trees from 12 to 16 feet 

 in height, and which are too high for the tops to be reached 

 from the kitchen steps, and not strong enough to bear a ladder 

 with me upon it. 



Having a light ladder 

 12 feet long, I had two 

 deal props made of the 

 same length, with slits at 

 Ihe tops, and pointed at the 

 feet like clothes-line props. 

 They are of deal, li inch 

 ihick by 2i or 2J inches 

 wide at the foot, tapering 

 iowards the top, and the , 



comers are taken off. About 

 32 inches from the top of 

 ihe ladder two T-shaped 

 pieces of iron are inserted, 

 projecting 14 inch. These 



tf- 



Pig.2. 



jpins are made to screw into 

 pieoes of iron let into the 

 %vood of the sides of the 

 ladder so as not to project, 

 and to allow of their being 

 lemoved when the ladder is 

 wanted for other purposes 

 ihan fruit-gathering. See 



In using the ladder it is 

 first set up against the 

 tree, the props are then 

 adjusted one after the 

 other, so as to form a tri- 

 ifmgle. The whole is easily 

 lemoved ; and the props, being loose, can be inserted between 

 the branches of the tree. — Amatedb. 



GRAPES SETTING IMPERFECTLY. 



I PLANTED three years ago a Royal Vineyard Vine, which has 

 grown vigorously. Last year I allowed one bunch to remain 

 and ripen. On one part of the bunch the berries were large, 

 i>at on the other only about the size of Bed Currants. It hung, 

 and the berries continued plump nntil about Christmas. This 

 year I have sixteen good bunches, but out of them only two 

 have set properly. Unlike the other shy-setting Grapes, the 

 i)srrie3 adhere and ripen. Of course I did not intend to leave 

 more than six bunches if they had set properly. 



My Muscats set well by simply drawing a dry hand over 

 them when in flower. I had four bunches of Muscat of Alex- 

 andria 15 inches long. Only four years since I put in the eye 

 of this Vine. When I grew the Muscat Hamburgh on its 



own roots it sometimes set like the r.oyal Vineyard. — 

 C. M. McC. 



[We think yon left far too many bunches of the Royal 

 Vineyard on the Vine. One-fourth the number would have 

 had a better chance to set well. We can do nothing to help 

 you, as you are so successful in setting Grapes that are generally 

 shy setters.] 



THE ROYAL HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY'S 



CHISWICK GARDEN. 

 As a member of the Fruit Committee, it has struck me for 

 some years that the great want of the Royal Horticultural 

 Society is a good orchard house ; not a little paltry place like 

 the one shown at Chiswick as an orchard honse, but a really 

 good large house, where trees could be grown in a satisfactory 

 manner. 



To prove and give a really reliable opinion on the new frnit 

 not generally known is, I think, one of the first duties of the 

 Society ; but before such an opinion can be formed at Chiswick, 

 a fruit may be elsewhere well known for years. Take the new 



Cherries, for instance. I 

 have had a house 100 feet 

 long by 30 feet wide full of 

 fruit this season. If such a 

 collection had been planted 

 out in the open air at 

 Chiswick spring frosts 

 might have prevented the 

 trees fruiting for years, in- 

 sects might have rendered 

 them unhealthy, and even 

 if they had borne fmit, 

 birds would have consumed 

 the crop before the Com- 

 mittee could have de- 

 scribed the varieties. 

 Then, again, a new Pear 

 or Plum might be fruited 

 almost to a certainty if it 

 were kept in a pot till the 

 danger of frost were over, 

 when it might be turned 

 out into a well-prepared 

 border to ripen its frnit, 

 or, if preferred, the pot 

 might be merely plunged 

 in a suitable situation. 



It must be nearly twenty 

 years since I built my first 

 orchard house, and in that 

 time I have had only one 

 really bad crop, though my 

 houses have no artificial 

 heat. Trees which have 

 been bearing for the teens 

 of years are this season 

 looking better than ever. 

 Difficulties of cultivation 

 experienced at first have all 

 disappeared, and I am more 

 than ever convinced that 

 all tender fruit ought to be 

 grown under glass. Whether frnit trees are to be planted out 

 or kept in pots, grown as standards or as dwarfs, trained 

 or grown more naturally, is a mere matter of taste and 

 convenience. Whether the building should be heated or 

 nnheated must be determined by climate and the time the 

 fruit are required to be ripe. All I would insist upon is, that 

 they can only he produced with certainty, and of uniform 

 and good quality, by being grown in glass houses. I have 

 received Peach trees, for instance, with the highest characters, 

 and in one or two years have proved them to be worthless. 

 Now, if these had been largely propa'^ated and sold, what an 

 injury it would have been to my customers, and eventually 

 to me. If these trees had been trained to a wall it might have 

 been years before they would have shown a fruit. 



I believe no Society in the country is better served than the 

 Royal Horticultural Society is by Mr. Barron ; but he ought to 

 have a proper structure in which to grow new fruits in perfec- 

 tion, not a crowded low place of which he must be ashamed. 

 Then, again, the young gardeners ought to have the advan- 



