160 



JOCTENAL OF HORTICULTORE AND COTTAGE QAEDENEB. 



( Angnat 20, 1809. 



Jnlea Margottin w«?. as usual, always good— i( I conld only have 

 one Hose, let it lio Jiile?, wood, leaf, llowerBoviRorous — Madame 

 Vidot, beet of light Hybrid Perpetuals ; and William Griflithe, 

 tLe firmest and living lonr;cst as a cut flower. But who can 

 snfficiently praise Louis XIV., Lord Macaulay, Trince Oamille 

 de Rohan, and dozens c f others ? Only one first-class Rose I 

 was nnable to find, and that was Alfred Colomb. Theie are 

 also two Roses not first-class, and yet I hold they catch the 

 eye more than any others ; these are Engi^ne Appert and Em- 

 perenr de Maroc. What a pity it is that they are not so per- 

 fect as Charles Lcfebvre. 



In Ihii Kosery Strawberries are grown along the aides of the 

 paths ; although this has been in North Wilts a bad season, 

 yet those at Seend were the best I had tasted. Sir Harry was 

 good, but Dr. Hogg was better. Hero were wo five cutting 

 buds, eating Strawberries, chatting, laughing, talking Rose 

 talk ; indeed, inclined to take a rosy view of things in general. 

 Some of us were representative men ; our host represented one 

 of onr oldest and most numerous Wilts familie.'', he its head ; 

 then another was an Anglo-Indian, a third an Anglo-French- 

 man, and I represented, however humbly, "our Journal." 

 The ground of the Rosery slopes gently to the south, and a 

 summer-house is at its upper end. Hither retiring to sort 

 my buds, I could also view in its completeness this charming 

 Rose garden, the white border, the pillars and arches along 

 and across the paths, the Rose squares within them, and the 

 rich-coloured loam the ground colour. Then bear in mind the 

 scenery leyond and the dry bracing North Wilts air. Cue 

 oironmstance makes ours a prettier part of England than some 

 others, for almost all the land is pasture, oura being a dairy 

 coontry. 



Satisfied but not satiated, we next bent onr steps to the old 

 chnroh. Wonderful is the attractive power over all travellers 

 of those old churches, scattered like earthly stars all over Eng- 

 land. The builder of Seend church was a clothier, as two pair 

 of shears cut in the arch of one of its windows reveal to us. A 

 wealthy liberal clothier built the sacred fane, bringing to mind 

 the grand days of West of England cloth manufacture, before 

 the north with its coal, and, mayhap, its greater energy beat 

 na. But although the cloth trade of Wiltshire is not what it 

 once was, yet the county owes much to it, as said nn old Wilt- 

 shire man, the owner of thousands of its broad acres, " Wilt- 

 shire aristccracy is made from cloth." What a pity that trade 

 and landowning are ever thought antagonistic, for each helps 

 the other. Peeping about church and churchyard, we find our 

 good host's family burying place, which, engirdled by an iron 

 railing, he, like a good rosarian, has planted with the choicest 

 and most frtqi'eut-blooming Hoses, and there I saw Alfred 

 Colomb in all his glory. A nice thought was this, giving the 

 fairest flowers to those best loved. 



Back to " The Bell," for dinner, where pleasant chat made 

 the time seem too short, and that last train (Why was it not 

 late as well as last?) will soon, our watches tell us, come 

 groaning and panting to the station. 



Thus passed a happy duy, and which visit did I enjoy most ? 

 Well, comparisons are odious, but I must say, if I want to 

 enjoy Roses, the best plan is to go with but few friends, and 

 those gentlcnieu, for tiro kinds of flowers are apt to confuse 

 the mind. These thoughts strike me, how oveiy true lover of 

 floriculture increases not only his own happiness, but that of 

 his friends, and what a pure happiness flowers give to those 

 who love them. Hero was my host made happy through 

 much of the year by his Roses, and adding to the happiness of 

 others by opening his rosery to them. One sad thought only 

 daring this day that did one good, crossed my mind— it will be 

 my last visit to the Seend Rosery, for part of the Roses will be 

 removed to Bath, the rest sold, and the green turf will again, as 

 it had done for centuries, reign where for a few years the queen 

 of flowers has rtigned supreme. But who will not wish Mr. 

 Awdry may have as much happiness with his Roses in Bath, 

 as he has had with his Roses in Seend ?— Wii.tsh[re Reciob. 



THE EAELY ROSE POTATO. 

 Having purchased a ponnd of the above Potatoes from 

 Messrs. James Carter & Co. I eel them iu March in the follow- 

 iog manner :— I cut them into sixty-five pieces, getting an eve 

 to almos-t every set; I believe every one of thorn germinated. 

 1 placed them lu a n.w coveird wiih about 2 inches cf Foil • 

 ■wjien the tups were about inches high I drew about two moie 

 ^ooheB of soil over the root. The toil is of a light sandy 



character. Thinking they were a first early Potato I cooked 

 2 lbs. in the middle of June; they were sad, very white, and 

 sweet. I took up the remainder of the crop en the 10th of 

 August, and have carefully weighed them. The 1 lb. of seed 

 has produced 4i lbs., and I believe that had the whole of the 

 sets been in equally favourable positions, I should have bad 

 t)0 lbs. at least. I may say that in si:!o and shape, the sets 

 were something like a Filbert. One of these sets produced fivo 

 Potatoes weighing IJ lbs. There are at least twenty that weigh 

 half a pound each. I cooked some more yesterday (August 

 17th), and found them splendid. I never tasted anything to 

 equal them. — A SoBScniBEB, Nottingliam. 



NOTES OF NORTHERN PRODUCTIONS. 



I pehceive it would never do for Mr. Btfhaut and myself to 

 have a Peach house in common, for wo should both be wanting 

 to eat the same fruit. I quite agree with him that Early 

 Rivers is by far (ho best early Peach we have. It ripened with 

 me in the middle of July in a perfectly cool house with an 

 open door and open ventilators within (i feet of it. A tree in 

 the heated house ripened on the lOlh of June. 



Iu this house I can add from .30' to ■lO^ to the external tem- 

 perature, but in practice I use just enough to keep frost out 

 at night, and with sunshine to allow 80°. My house is divided 

 into three compartments, respectively of 40 feet, HO feet, and 

 50 feet in length ; the first is heated both above and below the 

 surface, the middle only below, and the west end is unheated, 

 though it has the pipes laid for use if wanted. The form of 

 the house is a lean-to with a hip-roof, having 7 feet and 

 H-feet rafters, and the pitch such as to have the midday gun 

 perpendicular to the glass on the 15lh of April. The back 

 wall is covered with Peach trees en cmdon ohliqiic ; all the rest 

 of the trees are in pots, and stand on the slate bed beneath 

 which the hot-water pipes run. The potted trees were packed 

 closely in the cold end, and kept dry till the middle of January; 

 the ventilators, which are very largo, btiiig for the most part 

 always open, tboso at the top invariably so. The early Peaches 

 were showing blossom early in January, and I feared I should 

 be obliged to light the fire sooner than I wished ; however, the 

 trees were not moved into the other comp'irtments till the 

 middle of the month, the earliest forts going to the warm end. 

 The bottom heat was allowed to work for ten days, with abun- 

 dant ventilation, before any surface beat was given; by that 

 time the blossom was well out ; and here I may remark, that 

 both this year and last Parly Beatrice was a fortnight later in 

 opening its flowers than any other tree iu the house. In tha 

 middle compartment bottom heut alnne was !;iven, and the cold 

 end was still very crowded wiih potted trees, but kept ns cool as 

 possible. All the trees set most abundanily, but as there 

 were no insects about I used a brush to ferlili.^e, and, perhaps, 

 the quantity of pollen in the bru.-h, wbiuh I kept dry, may 

 have made up for the cloudiness of tin- season ; but on this 

 point I have my doubts, beoiuse the fi-w trees I have outside 

 on the walls have very fair crops, and I left them entirely to 

 nature. Apricots outside failed cc^mpletely, but then we had 

 frost every night in June, and often ii w»» severe, so severe as 

 to take the leaves off the AopIh tiees, and to theae June frosts 

 I attribute the failure of the Apricot ori'p. 



To return to the Peaches. 1 he eurliest to ripen were Early 

 Beatrice and Early Louise simultaneuui-ly on the 3rd of June; 

 of the two, Early Louise is tlie )arg>-r, aijd fur in-door work is, 

 no doubt, the better; but ilmt rmuiikahle properly of late 

 blossoming seems to mark Eaily Bt^Hliice as the sort for us 

 northerns out of doors; at any ra'e I Imve worked some for 

 the purpose of putting iuto my neiglilioiuD' purdous, and by 

 this time next year 1 hope we kIihII knew how far it will 

 answer. The next after ihese two ve?y early Peaches was 

 Eaily Rivers, on June IG li ; then Emlx Silver, Hales' Early, 

 followe^l closely by Early Y.iik, Riveis' E..ily York, and Eariy 

 Crawford. Of these HsI'k' E^rlv i« h \eiy large handsome 

 Peach with little flavour ; E nly SiUvr and Rivera's Early York 

 very fine. Eaily Alfred and EhiI,\ AHieit ci-ine next, and then 

 Early Grosse Mignoune niid the ordinary vaiieties. 



The warm compartmnn' had fre.'.li trees brought into it to 

 take the place of those wh')>e crops weir, gaihered, and it has 

 now (.\ugust 17lli), a tew licr», m,.silv N.-^irarines, cf its third 

 set ripening fruit. By tl]i< nipibml of ebifiing the potted trees, 

 it is quite amaziog to see the qimnnry i>t fiiiit a small house 

 can be made to produce. Tlie trees aie hardened-off and 

 plunged iu a warm piecu of ground, and as they have plenty 



