Pobraary 3, 1876. ] 



JOURNAL OF HORTICULTUKE AND COTTAGE GABDENEB. 



91 



things ; but perhaps they have the same weather in the neigh- 

 bourhood of Hereford, and if so we need not complain. — 

 JoH.\ B. M. Camm, Monkton WyUI. 



HAWTHORNDEN APPLE. 



" C. H." has at least one " brother in misfortune," for I 

 have experienced precisely the same disappointment as that 

 detailed on page 74. The soil in which I have made strenuous 

 endeavours to grow the Hawthornden Apple is light in texture, 

 with a marly and not well-drained subsoil, but yet not so much 

 soddened as to prevent many sorts of Apples growing satis- 

 factorily. On this point I can say with " C. li." that " with 

 the exception of Kibaton Pippin and Hawthornden no other 

 Apple cankers here." 



My employer being particularly deeirons, I might almost say 

 determined, to establish healthy trees of Hawthornden, I paid 

 special attention to them, but without avail, and after trying 

 for twenty years to obtain healthy trees of this coveted Apple 

 the project was abandoned in despair. 



The soil, as I have said, is light ; but in an adjoining 

 parish, where the soil is of a sounder character aud deep, I 

 have seen Hawthornden trees tolerably free from canker and 

 bearing heavy crops of fruit. This is different to the experi- 

 ence of " C. K. ;" but yet after special observations indifferent 

 parts of the country, I have arrived at the conviction that to 

 cultivate this Apple successfully it must have a generous and 

 well-drained soil. 



1 am not certain that canker is not what I may term a local 

 hereditary disease, for in grafting the Hawthornden ou healthy 

 stocks the scions from cankered trees have been more speedily 

 overtaken by the disease than have others taken from trees 

 which showed little or no canker. That is a subject worthy 

 of some contideration, as being a probable source of failure 

 exhibited by certain fruits which refuse, as a rule, to prosper in 

 some localities. That fruits have their caprices is tolerably 

 certain, and it is generally well to profit by them and to plant 

 those sorts principally which seem to have a fancy for certain 

 districts. 



I may further note, that in endeavouring to establish satis- 

 factory trees of the two popular sorts named in a garden to 

 which they had clearly a great amount of antipathy I always 

 found the advantage of Paradise over Crab stocks, perhaps 

 because the roots of the former did not so quickly penetrate 

 the ungenial subsoil as those of the latter. Be this as it may, 

 the trees worked on Crabs cankered the soonest and the worst ; 

 but on neither, after many years of trial, is one really healthy 

 tree of Hawthornden to be found in the garden where the kind 

 has been so particularly desired. 



I am glad " C. E." has mentioned this proneness to canker 

 of a popular ipple which is credited with a sounder consti- 

 tution than it probably possesses. Although others may prove 

 the contrary, I am, by the light of my own experience, bound 

 to regard the Hawthornden Apple, not as a constant and 

 vigorous kind, but on the contrary one that is capricious and 

 uncertain, and not to be relied on except in particularly good, 

 well-drained, and deep soil. What do others say ? — An Old 

 Gaedeneh. 



METEOROLOGICAL and OTHER NOTES ox 1875 

 AT LINTON PARK, KENT. 



Like a tradesman taking stock of his goods at the end of 

 the year, wo may also review the past season and judge of 

 what it has bequeathed us for the current year. 



January, 1875, was nshered-in with a hard frost and a good 

 depth of snow, but which left us in a day or two, the rest of 

 the month being mild. February proved dry though cold, and 

 was on the whole a fine month. March was much the same 

 until the last week when milder weather set in, which con- 

 tinued with the usual interruption of frost until the end of 

 April. May was a dry mouth though not by any means a 

 warm one, and vegetation had not the promising look at the 

 end of it it had at the beginning. June opened more summer- 

 like, and some useful rain in the middle of the month did 

 much good, yet on the whole the prospects were gloomy, not 

 BO much from the lack of rain as from the absence of sunshine 

 so essential at this season, and many kinds of vegetables fell 

 ehort of what was expected, and also the hay crop. 



July brought heavy rain, but not too much in our neighbour- 

 hood, as we had not any of the disastrous floods recorded 

 elsewhere, although on the 15th aud 10th of that month wo 



had 0.95 and 1.15 inch of rain, less than one-half of which 

 would have given us a flood in winter, but which on this 

 occasion only filled our rivers ; and as rain was much wanted 

 everywhere, the copious downfall of July was of much service 

 all the rest of the summer. Some forebodings, however, of an 

 ominous kind were net wanting of how it would affect the 

 crops, but the last ten days being dry and fair, and August an 

 exceptionally fine month throughout, the harvest was on the 

 whole well secured, and fruit ripaned satisfactorily, the fine 

 weather continuing up to the 2l8t of September, the 18th of 

 that month being the hottest day but one we had durmg the 

 summer, and, in fact, from the 20th of July to the same time 

 in September might be said to be the only Eettled summer wo 

 had ; after the latter time the autumn rains gradually set in. 



October was a wet month yet not remarkably so, nothing like 

 the same month in 1872. November was wetter, and the last 

 week of that month ushored-iu winter in the shape of several 

 inches of snow, which received fresh accessions the first 

 week in December, with sharp frost, making an early winter ; 

 but milder weather set-in after the 10th, and we had no frost 

 at all after the 14th, up to the 5th of January of this year, an 

 unusual thing in the shortest days, while it was remarkably 

 mild some days, the thermometer recording 51 ' on Christmas 

 day, and 51' on the 22nd. This mild weather was, never- 

 theless, not without its inconvenience, the lack of sunshine 

 the whole of the autumn and up to the end of December has 

 told sadly against forcing, and it has been no easy matter to 

 prevent Geraniums and similar plants damping-ofi' in greater 

 quantities than usual, which the reviving influence of sunshine 

 does more to prevent than any amount of fire heat. One re- 

 deeming quality, perhaps, the expiring year has bequeathed to 

 us, and that is, the ample rainfall is likely to tell on our springs 

 and other sources of water supply for the current season, and 

 we may look hopefully to the future, for as will be seen by the 

 following table, the total rainfall has been an ample one on the 

 whole. 



No. of ^stio^ No. of Frosty 



Rain iu ius. Days. Days. 



1875 80.35 .. 157 .. 72 



1874 23.49 .. 143 .. 98 



1873 2.3,99 .. 169 .. 73 



1872 39.10 .. 215 .. 62 



Average tor 20 years . 20.39 . . 165 . . 83 



— J. EOBSON. 



HORSERADISH. 



This is an important, yet frequently is a very abused or 

 neglected crop. Horseradish is always iu demand in winter 

 and summer, but the beds, as a rule, receive but scant atten- 

 tion. Common is it for a man to grope half an hour, per- 

 haps, in frost and snow picking and digging for a " stick " that 

 he is ashamed to show the kitchen maid, spoiling, probably, 

 twenty crowns in his endeavour to find one or two useful bits 

 of roots. By the loose mode of culture often adopted much 

 ground is wasted ; in fact, the beds frequently have no culture 

 at all. The crowns exist because they refuse to die, and spread 

 over a five times greater extent of ground than would suffice 

 with good cultivation. 



I used to trench the ground 2 feet deep and place the crowns 

 nearly at the bottom of the trenches, and so obtained good 

 roots, but not, I thought, worth the labour they had cost. I 

 then made holes with a crowbar to the same depth, dropped in 

 sets or crowns, and filled-up the holes with leaf mould, and so 

 saved much labour, and had equally good " sticks." But both 

 those plans entailed much labour iu taking up the crop. The 

 Journal then came to the rescue, and a mode of culture was 

 given by Mr. Wills which I at once adopted aud have never 

 departed from. That is some years ago, and time has proved 

 the value of the plan. 



I now form a ridge of soil — garden refuse, old tan, manure, 

 indeed any vegetable refuse that is handy. The ridge may have 

 a 3-feet base and be 2 feet high. In the sidej of this the roots 

 are planted slantingly. Boots are selected about a foot long 

 or more, and of the thickness of a tobacco pipe. These are 

 slightly scraped (as if for the table, but more lightly) to remove 

 the ejes, and are inserted perfectly straight, their crowns just 

 being level with the soil. These smooth straight roots thicken 

 and form splendid roots that can be dug with comfort and be 

 carried through the garden iu broad dayhght without any 

 sense of shame. 



I have found no plan comparable to the ridge mode in rais- 

 ing Horseradish, none so economical, effectual, creditable, and 

 comfortable. I generally make a fresh ridge every two or three 



