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JOURNAL OP HOBTICULTURE AND COTTAGE GARDENEE. 



[ NoTember 1», 1BC8. 



A market gardener has to consider the wants of the many, and 

 not the tastes of the few ; he requires a sure and not a precarious 

 demand. J. have seen baskets of French salading in Covent 

 Garden consigned to the outer circle, although they have been 

 imported by the first-rate merchants of the Central Arcade, 

 showing that there is no such overwhelming demand for them. 

 Again, in the matfer of Asparagus, of which more must be said 

 by-and-by, it is decidedly more eaten in France than in Eng- 

 land ; during the season it is in general demand, and this not 

 so much because of its greater cheapness as of a matter of taste. 

 It might then, perhaps, be of advantage to English market 

 gardeners to grow it more extensively, but there are other crops 

 which are more sure of finding a market than it. Can there 

 be any doubt as to the possibility of the Cornish growers, who 

 so regularly supply the London markets with early Potatoes 

 and Cauliflowers, being equally able and ready to send up any 

 quantity of Asparagus, if it paid them to go in for it ? 



I do not think that in the mass French folks care so much 

 •for the quality of the fruit they eat as for the quantity. With 

 them size is a most attractive feature, and a large Dachesse 

 d'Angonleme Pear, gritty and coarse-grained, from its great 

 size, even finds favour. What can be more insipid than the 

 Abricots de Midi and Pt-ches de Midi which find their way into 

 the Paris markets :' and yet how eagerly they are eaten ! Even 

 the far-famed Peaches of Montreuil are to my mind very 

 astringent, owing, probably, to the quality of the soil, and by 

 no means to be compared with those which are grown in some 

 of onr most favoured localities. 



The Parisian market gardener is in some respects like, but in 

 others very different from, his English confrere — both have the 

 same facilities for procuring large supplies of manure, without 

 which, indeed, in neither place could the crops be obtained ; 

 like bira, too, he is being jostled out of his holdings by the 

 extension of the city on all sides ; but I believe he enjoys a 

 greater advantage in the cheaper rate of wages. Much has 

 been said pro and con. on the matter. I con only say that I 

 entered into this question with some of the men themselves. 



The very intelligent foreman at 's, at Clichy, told me that, 



including everything, his etrennes at the New Year, &c., the 

 whole sum that he obtained in the year was 800 francs. Com- 

 pare this with the foreman of a London market gardener, and 

 I think the advantage will be seen. Tlie men themselves earn 

 about 15 francs a-week ; and then most of these market gar- 

 deners are very small holders, they work themselves like their 

 own men, and in a holding of a couple of hectares (between 

 4 and 3 acres), it is not nsual to find more than two men in 

 constant employment, besides the owner, and probably his son : 

 hence they can more cheaply send in their supplies. And these 

 men work hard ; the foreman alluded to above told me that in 

 summer he worked for eighteen hours, and that without any 

 additional " over-hours' " pay. All this gives a considerable 

 advantage to the French market gardener ; and yet I very much 

 question with all this, whether there is that superiority in him 

 that some have seen, and whether the method of culture in 

 and about London does not pay quite as well there as the 

 French system in Paris ; and this is, after all, the great ques- 

 tion. No mere dilettanti notions of what is pretty or neat 

 must enter into the question, it will be simply what pays best. 



These facts, for such I believe them to be, will explain much 

 that has been said on the subject, and it is essential, I think, 

 to the proper understanding of it that they should be borne in 

 mind, for we can thus without prejudice look at the whole 

 subject, and derive, it may be, both instruction and amusement 

 from it. — D., Deal, 



A LARGE FRUIT GARDEN. 



Some time early in October last I had the great pleasure of 

 visiting Mr. Tarden, of Seaford Orange, to look over his young 

 plantation of fruit trees, quite enormous in extent. The en- 

 tire estate consists of 250 acres, with a charming, well-built, 

 and ornamental dwelling-house in or about the centre. One 

 hundred and twenty acres of the estate are formed into a fruit 

 garden, intended to supply the wants of the " black country " 

 — i.e., the coal and iron districts to the north of Pershore. 

 The plantation was fini.^hed in the year 1858. Tbe soil was 

 drained and prepared asdeicrilied below. This garden contains 

 from iO to 50,000 Gooseberry bushes, and from 00 to 100,000 

 Currants, mostly Ked, only some few thousands being the Black 

 Currant. 



Tbe fruit trees, arranged in rows from 15 to 18 feet apart, 

 lovi fiom row, and about 12 feet apart in the rows, were for 



the most part planted aa dwarfs, maiden and two-years-old. 

 They have now grown into trees with heads and several stems, 

 the lower branches having been pruned away. 



The following is a rough approach to the number of trees 

 planted in this very interesting fruit garden : — 1500 Victoria 

 Plums, 1100 Pershore Plums,* 700 Early Rivers, 500 Diamond, 

 COO Gisborne's, 500 Jefferson (soil and climate too cool for 

 this sort), 150 Reine Claude de Bavay, 120 Autumn Compi')te, 

 50 Damascene (a large sort of Damson). 



The varieties that have proved themselves adapted to the 

 cool soil and climate, and are likely to be a source of profit, are 

 Victoria, Autumn Compute, Early Rivers or Early ProliQc, Gis- 

 borne's, and Pershore ; the Diamond is not quite hardy enough. 

 Mr. Varden has under trial some promising seedlings, raised 

 by me some few years since. 



There are several other varieties of Plums cultivated here to 

 a small extent, but at present few seem hardy enough to bear 

 and ripen well. I saw some fine rows of trees in the most 

 vigorous growth of Saudell's Plum, but the fruit had been a 

 very, very thin crop, the climate being too cool or the soil too 

 rich for it. 



The plantations of Pear trees are for the most part remarkably 

 healthy, as far as regards freedom from canker, moss, and 

 other plagues peculiar to the fruit garden. First of all I visited 

 a plantation of some thousands of Pears on Quince stocks, in 

 which 1 have always felt a lively interest. It consists of several 

 thousands of Loaise Bonne, Beurre d'Amanlis, Vicar of Wink- 

 field, and some others, all in good health, and capable of bear- 

 ing large crops ; but although they put forth annually abun- 

 dance of blossoms, they but rarely Lear good fruit. For some 

 years after the severe frost of 1860 they seemed to have 

 been paralysed, and were quite barren. They now appear 

 vigorous and healthy, the soil seeming to be admirably adapted 

 for them, but tbey do not bear to any extent— not enough to 

 pay for their culture. I have never before witnessed so vividly 

 the effect of climate on Pear culture as with these trees, the 

 large extent of a cool soil and flat surface evidently loweiing 

 the temperature from 1J° to 2', thus making tbe climate a 

 trifling degree too cool. It is evidently not the geographical 

 position of the place, but purely the locality, for in the gardens 

 of Pershore, about three miles to the Houlh of Seaford Grange, 

 and on the banks of the Avon, where the soil is light and 

 warm, the choicest kinds of Pears ripen well on pyramids in 

 the open air. It would seem that in open-air culture the soil 

 makes the climate. 



The principal kinds and number of Pear trees grown as 

 standards on Pear stocks are the four hundred Doyenn6 d'Eto 

 (Summer Doyenno), and large numbers of such kinds as Marie 

 Louise, Knight's Monarch, &;. I was much interested with 

 these trees, the first-named in particular, for there were rows 

 of standards, some 20 feet high, forming avenues, every shoot 

 glistening with health, and studded thickly with blossom bnds. 

 Knowing well the tendency of this sort to bear with me so 

 freely as to break down its branches with the weight of fruit, 

 I at once inquired as to the crop of the past summer, gathered, 

 as I supposed, in August. The reply was, as far as I recollect, 

 they bore but very few, and have never borne any worth send- 

 ing' to market. Here was another Pear lesson, reminding me 

 of the old fable, which is one of my boyish recollections, and 

 runs as follows : — Two goldfinches, warmed by some tine 

 weather in February, built their nest and had their young 

 progeny ; then came March with frost and snow, which killed 

 their young and nearly starved the parent birds. Tliis is, I 

 think, told in verse, and the moral is — 



"Misses, tbe tale that I relate. 

 This lesson seems to carry — 

 Choose not aloue a proper mate. 

 Hut proper time to marry." 



This may be easily paraphrased : Choose not alone the proper 

 soil, but proper place, in which to plant Pear trees. 



I observed when looking closely into tbe habits of the Marie 

 Louise and Monarch Pear trees a clear shining bark and healthy 

 buds, but a seeuiing want of vital force in their structure, 

 arising from a temperature too low and moist in summer. 

 Beurre de Capiaumont, Williams's Bon Chieisn, Achan, and 

 some others, grow with a robust habit, bear fair crops, and 

 give good promise. Mr. Varden has, like all extensive fruit- 

 tree planters, had to pay a high price for the expeiicnce he has 



• Some hundreds of acres are occupied with this Plum— a variety ot 

 the White Maguum Bonum (its name in the district), of the same colour, 

 hut about half its size. Thousands of bushels are disp.tched weekly 

 from Per;hore in September to the north, and in a grean stste in sumncr 

 tor dying. 



