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JOUBNAL OF HOBTICUIiTORE AND COTTAGE GAEDENEB. 



[ July 29, 1876. 



than ever convincecl of its importance, especially in the case of 

 overluxuriant trees. It is not desirable to allow the shoots to 

 grow until the trees are a thicket of young wood, and then to 

 begin and thin the growths out all at once. I have done this 

 when trees had been neglected rather than allow the growths 

 to remain until winter, and the crop has not in the least 

 suffered ; that is apparently, because it is not reasonable to 

 suppose that the check the tree would receive by having eo 

 much young wood removed at one time would not act unfa- 

 Yonrably in some way or other. 



If continuous crops of excellent specimens are to be pro- 

 duced it will not do to neglect the trees. In shallow soils 

 they often suffer for want of water at a time when moisture 

 at the roots is most required. A good plan is to mulch round 

 the roots with short manure ; this not only retains the soil's 

 moisture, but, if it is necessary to water, evaporation is arrested. 

 It is also a good plan to syringe the trees daily during the 

 hottest of the summer weather ; this is a great aid to the 

 swelling of the fruit, and is even more necessary when the 

 trees are grown upon a wall.— J. Douglas. 



AN INQUIRY ABOUT FOREIGN PINES. 



Allusion having been made by Mr. Douglas to the good 

 quality of the Pines now imported from St. Michaels or else- 

 where, and which to a great extent have supplied Covent 

 Garden for the last year or two, and which seem by their 

 good appearance to be likely to have an important influence 

 on the trade of those who grow such fruit for market in this 

 country, and possibly may also induce some who grow this 

 valuable fruit for private use to give up doing so. In fact, I 

 am much mistaken if their growth be not already partially 

 abandoned. It would be well to ask the question. In what way 

 are these fine-looking Pines grown, and what are their merits 

 at table as compared with home-grown fruit of fair quality ? 

 This latter question is not the least important one, for al- 

 though we know the Pine is very often placed on the table to 

 look at, its merits when cut are invariably criticised. It is 

 only fair, therefore, that a comparison between imported and 

 home-grown fruit be made known. Doubtless the former 

 is not 60 good as it would be if allowed to fully ripen before 

 being cut, as it must of necessity be separated from the plant 

 say a fortnight or more before it is quite ripe ; but taking into 

 account the brighter sun and more agreeable climate it enjoys 

 during its growth to what it does in our confined hothouses, I 

 expect it can afford to give a certain number of days that may 

 be fully said to be blank in its ripening period, and still equal, 

 if not excel, ours. How far this is the case remains for those 

 to decide who have the opportunity of tasting several fruits 

 of both kinds. One thing certainly must be said in favour of 

 the foreign production — they are exceedingly well managed, 

 and they differ widely from those we were in the habit of 

 seeing years ago ; in fact, the sudden change is such as to 

 puzzle us to know how quickly they had arrived at such good 

 cultivation in the quarters they are now grown at. Moreover, 

 one or two of our choicest home varieties are amongst them, 

 that the question arises, Did they take the stock from here? 

 Certainly we never heard of Pines being grown there before 

 the last two or three years, and now they seem to be produced 

 in abundance. 



Coming now to another feature of the inquiry, which is 

 Under what circumstances are they grown — in the open air 

 or under shelter of some kind, and in what way ? I confess 

 being not a little curioua this way, for Pines have been a 

 favourite fruit with me, and to see them growing in an open 

 field and tbrowing-up their fruits like heads of Khubarb 

 running to seed must be a rare sight to those who have not 

 seen such things. Moreover, when we bear in mind the small- 

 sized fruits we used to be accustomed to see arrive each sum- 

 mer from the West Indian islands, and knowing the tropical 

 character of these islands, we were not prepared to see such an 

 advance in quality from another island not so favoured in 

 tropical heat by several degrees. It would be wrong to sup- 

 pose that the whole thing is only a trading trick, and that 

 only a few of the very best are sent here at a loss to those who 

 sent them, but merely to serve some other end, an, I believe, 

 the first Australian preserved meats were sent here at a loss 

 to obtain the cubtom. But these Pines are too numerous for 

 that. Neither do I for one moment expect that any dodge is 

 practised or attempted, but that an exceedingly good mode of 

 managing them has been discovered and acted upon ; hence 

 the result. 



The question then is. How are they managed, or rather 

 grown ? What does the climate resemble, and what the soil? 

 A great many years ago the Pine-growing world was startled by 

 being told that somebody in Prance produced very fine Pines 

 grown in pure peat, and for a time peat was all the rage in 

 England ; but that hobby quieted down, and a soil of a con- 

 trary kind is more generally used. But what do our gardening 

 friends at St. Michaels or elsewhere grow their Pines in, and 

 how do they treat them ? I can hardly expect that rudely 

 planting a few suckers in ground scarcely disturbed by cul- 

 tivation and leaving all the rest to Nature will produce these 

 fine Pines, although it will, no doubt, insure small fruit; and 

 whether they grow them in the full sun, and where that 

 luminary has the unchecked privilege of heating and baking 

 the earth to the utmost limits that roots descend, or whether 

 irrigation is practised and when ? How or when are all the 

 forces of artificial cultivation put in operation, or to what 

 extent these helps are made to assist Dame Nature in pro- 

 ducing what we so much admire? Furthermore, Are any 

 means used to ward off the plague of mealy bug and white' 

 scale we have so often to wage war with in hothouses ? 



I confess not having had many opportunities of witnessing 

 foreign fruit from St. Michaels, but what I have seen seem 

 exempt from these pests, which West Indian Pines were not. 

 In fact, if someone woald give us a chapter on the growth 

 and management of the Pines of which such good examples 

 have been sent from abroad to Covent Garden Market and else- 

 where, they will confer an interesting benefit on home growers. 

 Moreover, they need not be afraid of any trade competition 

 by our following their practice here, for the many degrees of 

 latitude as well as other conditions preclude such a thing ; but 

 it will be at least satisfactory to learn how much of the credit 

 of the fine fruit is due to the cultivator and how much to 

 climate. As it is, we can only guess the proportion accorded to 

 each ; but it may be complimentary to the grower to say, that 

 in the absence of other information we are inclined to give 

 him a larger share of the credit of producing such fine fruit 

 than is accorded to that of any other grower of tropical pro- 

 duce, whose only claim to attention is too often that they do 

 not hinder Nature in her works, but to assist her to any extent, 

 a dislike to labour were to form their only excuse. 



It would be well for those contemplating large and extensive 

 Grape houses in this country, to look round and ascertain if 

 there is not some nook or corner in this world within a few 

 days' steam of England, where Grapes equalling or excelling, 

 the best home-grown are not likely to be furnibhed at some 

 day not far distant in the abundance and good quality as the 

 Pines are which we have been so recently treated with. That 

 such a thing is possible no one who has witnessed what hae 

 been done of late years will deny ; and when we take into con- 

 sideration the popularity, not to say the absolute use of the 

 Grape in many cases of illness, we need not be surprised it 

 someone bent on discovery should not make the attempt ; with 

 what success time alone will determine. If I were disposed to- 

 make a bet it would be that such a spot would be found ont 

 yet before the North Pole. — J. Eoeson. 



SEVILLE LONG-POD BEAN. 



I WAS glad to see from "W.'s" interesting notes of the Boyal' 

 Horticultural Society's Chiswick Garden that this Bean main- 

 tained the high character formed of it in preceding trials. 

 "W.," and no doubt many of your correspondents, will be 

 interested by an account of its doings in other than its first 

 trial grounds. I hail from nearly three hundred miles further 

 north, and 500 feet above sea level. I confess to entering it 

 in the list with Early Long- pod with no httle forestalling of the 

 result. This it may be considered an unsatisfactory way tc 

 treat a new aspirant, and not likely to lead to a just estimate 

 of the merit, as compared with older varieties, of novelties. 

 The condition of culture, soU, and site being the same, certain 

 evidences of merit will in the end manifest themselves in the 

 kinds subjected to trial. Facts will result, and these are such 

 stubborn things that prejudice conceived in favour of tie old 

 or new must succumb to them. 



I will briefly state the facts deduced from a trial of the 

 Seville and Early Long-pod. They were both sown on the 

 19th of March ; the Seville had beans of a size fit to gather on 

 the 10th of .July, and the Early Long-pod on the 15th of the 

 same month. The number of pods upon a plant of Seville- 

 twelve, and the number of those upon a plant of Early Long- 

 pod fifteen. These numbers are a fair average of the pods- 



