204 



JOURNAL OF HORTICULTURE AND COTTAGE GAEDENEE. [ September 17, 1868. 



althoiigb, indeed, it requires no help of mine. Its high merits 

 will soon be univerEally known and appreciated. 



Another Ecedling of Mr. Thomson's, the Golden Lady 

 Downe's, is a very excellent Grape. It is juat a white counter- 

 part of the Lady Downe'.'^, whose high merits as a late-keeping 

 Grape are well known. This White variety is a very welcome 

 addition. Mr. Thomson states that it will keep fully longer 

 than the Black varietv, — Aechambaud. 



ORCHARD-HOUSE RAILWAY. 

 I HOPE I may be allowed to make a few remarks upon an 

 article which appeared in your .Journal of September 3rd, 

 signed " Aeckamdaud,'' the subject being the orchard houses 

 at Sawbridgeworth. At the latter part of the article your cor- 

 respondent is kind enough to consider an invention of mine, 

 now at Messrs. Eivers's nurseries, worthy of his notice — namely, 

 " the orchard-house railway." I should not think it necessary 

 to do more than thank him for his courtesy in doing so, were 

 it not for some inaccuracy of statement, arising, no doubt, from 

 his having taken only a superficial view of the question. I 

 hope your correspondent will pardon me for endeavouring to 

 correct this. He saye at the close of his remarks, " Granted 

 that it is beueficial to the trees to have the fr?sh air, they can 

 easily be carried out if necessary, and that at one-twentieth 

 part of the expense." Now, I hope he does not think me so 

 absurd as to deem it necessary to incur this expense meri-dy 

 for one removal of the trees into the open air to ripen their 

 fiu:t in the summer, which his comparison of figures implies ; 

 the fact being that it is used constantly through the whole 

 year, and especially for Apricots, also for Peaches, Nectarines, 

 Plums, and Pears, and biings them to such perfection in respect 

 to the flavour of the fruit, largeness of the leaves, and general 

 appearance of the trees, as I have never seen in any orchard 

 bouse. 



Now, as the outcry has constantly been want of flavour in 

 too large a proportion of the crop, this is at least worth a con- 

 sideration — a pause, before condemnation is carelessly adminis- 

 tered. There is no doubt that flavour diminishes as yon recede 

 from the ve-atilators (I think your correspondent admits this 

 in his article) ; nor will top ventilation remedy this. Cut even 

 taking the position " AncHAMBAun " assumes, that the railway is 

 only required for one removal, and that the expense in conse- 

 quence is twenty times as much, the summing-up of his statis- 

 tics in the next sentence rather contradicts it — " It just resolves 

 itself into this, whether a tree is to cost 5s. a-year or oO,< , as 

 by this plan." But this is only ten times as much. If he 

 were to halve it agsin he would be beside the mark. I hope 

 he will forgive me for saying that firing off these random figures 

 like grape shot is calculated to do mischief by mi.->ieading ; but 

 I quite acquit him of any such intention, and will at once give 

 him credit only for wishing to be understood to say in round 

 numbers that the expense is great, 



I am perfectly aware that the first cost is considerable, but 

 he is wrong in stating that it is a yearly expense, exactly the 

 reverse being the case, for after the railway is once made it is 

 guaranteed to last as long as the house, and the yearly saving 

 of labour is very great. Take the ease mentioned of removing 

 the trees annually by hand. My gardener engages to say that 

 in the same number 6f minutes which it would occupy two 

 men to remove the trees by hand from a large house, and plunge 

 them in the garden (where, be it observed, they must continue, 

 whether the weather be good or bad), one man could move the 

 trees in and out 0! the house fifty times in the course of the 

 year, and this without disturbing the roots in the pans from 

 first to last. These pans all turn upon their axes to expose 

 any side of the tree to the sun, or for pruning also, without 

 disturbing the roots. 



It takes a man a considerable time to water all these trees ; 

 -whereas the time required to give them the benefit (as much 

 or as little as ycu pleased), of any showers that occurred through 

 the year, to say nothing of the dews in summer nights, would 

 be five minutes ; and a strong boy, the lowest help in the 

 garden, could do it without the possibility of making a mistake, 

 unless it were in running the wheels over his toes, and even 

 that little error he would not commit twice. Now, whether 

 natural showers or artificial watering be best for the trees I 

 leave your readers to decide. 



The truck at Sawbridgeworth is not placed quite to advan- 

 tage, being raised on a mound, and consequently exposed too 

 much to the wind. Bat do not let it be supposed that this 

 was Mr. Rivers's wish. Nothing could exceed the kindness 



both of himself and son in trying to find some suitable place 

 in which to fix it ; but the ground is so very undulating, and, 

 as may be supposed, in a well-arranged garden like Sawbridge- 

 worth, every available place so preoccupied, that we had great 

 difficulty in arranging it. Now, the man has no small mind 

 who cheerfully admits within his own penetralia an invention 

 which professes, in limine, to found its prospect of success upon 

 a flaw (it it maybe fairly called so), or rather want, in the 

 great work which he has devoted a long and useful life in 

 bringing to perfection. I appreciate it proportionably, for there 

 is no money question between us. He has tried it this 

 year with " fine old Apricot trees." He tells me the crop was 

 most abundant and of delicious flavour, and that everybody 

 liked it, but sighed over the first cost, which is, after all the 

 fuss made, not nearly what " Archambaud " would make out, 

 and nothing to the money John Bull loves to fritter away ia 

 cheap failures. 



One Apricot tree which had an extraordinarily fine crop o£ 

 fruit on it, Mr. Rivers hod occasion to remove from the pan, 

 and he informed me that the roots had " eaten up the soil," 

 and filled the pan with delicate fibrils. This is exactly what I 

 expected, and consider so desirable — namely, the avoidance of 

 long ropy roots striking deeply into the soil, but at the same 

 time a gentle assistance given in the most natural way from 

 good sweet earth below, unmanured, which of course is renewed 

 cverj year. This, with the open air in favourable weather, and a 

 rich top-dressing as recommended by Mr. Rivers, gives such 

 flavour to the fruit as cannot be surpassed. 



Mr. Rivers has been kind enough to allow me to append a 

 full description of the invention at the end of his new " cata- 

 logue," and also new edition of " The Orchard House." I hope 

 "Abchambacd" will pay me the compliment to read it — aye, 

 and criticise it too. for the invention must be able to hold its 

 own against that, as well as a very large amount of prejudice ; 

 but being based upon principles theoretically and practically 

 sound, it must come sooner or later as an assistant to the 

 orchard house in every gentleman's garden, where the gentle- 

 man himself understanda anything about it, and where cer- 

 tainty of crop combined with fruit of the highest quality, colour, 

 and size, is a desideratum. — J. F., Southacrc Rectory , Brandon. 



DUG DE MALAKOFF STRAWBERRY. 

 Mr. Douglas is convinced that he has the true Duo de 

 Malakofi Strawberry, in which case I cannot have it true. The 

 description given by Mr. Douglas answers better to the foliage 

 here than Mr. Radclyffe's. I received my runners four years 

 since, indirectly from an eminent fruit grower in this county 

 (Lancashire), and I had no doubt as to their being true to 

 name, as plants of the kind were largely grown, and are so up 

 to this day, for market. In general, market gardeners do not 

 like to grow fruit that is soft when ripe, and which, therefore, 

 soon spoils. I believe they are quite alive to their interests in 

 these little matters. However, I do not wish to aflirm that the 

 true variety is claimed in this locality, and it is not for the 

 name that I desire to recommend it so strongly, for a name is 

 only a secondary consideration, when you have a good and 

 useful fruit, one that can be depended upon as a general 

 cropper under pot culture, or in the open gardens. I may state 

 that the variety in question is cultivated extensively in this 

 locality, and I feel persuaded it will be grown universally when 

 it becomes better known. I have seen since I wrote the letter 

 which appeared on August 6th, a Due de Malakoff that answers 

 more to Prince of Wales, which was sent out with several other 

 varieties from one of the leading nurseries in England. The 

 gardener has received plants from me to replace his so-called 

 Due de Malakoff, which he had been cultivating with much 

 care to bring it to perfection, knowing that it was one of the 

 leading Strawberries grown in this neighbourhood. As for 

 seeing any barren plants, that is out of the question, provided 

 good runners are planted, but it is well to be always careful 

 to select runners from fruiting plants, which will amply pay 

 for care and attention. I generally plant out good runners by 

 the middle of August, and am sure of a crop in the following 

 season in proportion to the foliage. In the second season there 

 has been something like a quart on a plant, and I have seen the 

 variety equally prolific in other gardens. — W. Bioos, Sandfield 

 Park, Liverpool. 



LiLiuJi TiGWNDM SPLENDENS. — In your report of what was 

 said at the Royal Horticultural Society's meeting of September 



