130 



JODBNAIi OF HOKTICULTUEE AND COTTAGE GABDENEB. 



[ Aasnst 12, 1875. 



Pear of Eecoud or third-rate quality; but with rue it is not 

 only an txtraordinary bearer, but of first-rate quality, although 

 when in perfection it keepa but a very ehort time. When I 

 first fruited it I stored it in a cool fruit room, and it always 

 remained turnipy and tasteless. Now, as soon as gathered, it 

 is hanged up in a warm room where the temperature is never 

 below 60° Fahr. and frequently 70', and in about ten days or 

 a fortnight it is perfectly melting and high-flavoured, but very 

 soon decays. The tame treatment applies to Bturru Clairgeau, 

 which with me is very good eo treated, whilst its fertility is 

 as remarkable as is that of Benrrij do Capiaumont. I learn 

 also (although I have not proved it) that Beurrs d'Amanlis is 

 much improved by the same treatment. 



Eeurre de Eance. This Pear requires peculiar treatment 

 here. My first attempts to mature it were failures. As I had 

 found that warmth was efsential to the maturation of the 

 Beurre. de Capiaumont, I tried it with the BeuriG de Eance, 

 and found that it dried up without melting. The next season, 

 I put the crop in a large earthenware jar and put on a cover, 

 and set it in a warm room. At Christmas, thinking my Pears 

 ought to be ripe I opened the jar, and then ditcovered that the 

 moisture which evaporated from the Pears had condensed on 

 the cover and falling back on the Pears had rotted them all. I 

 now adopt a modification of this plan. I put the Pears in the 

 jar, but only allow them to remain there a month, and the 

 maturation having then fairly begun it goes on, and they are 

 very good about Christmas ; but my neighbour (the vicar of 

 Whallej) by keeping his in a cool fruit room has them in per- 

 fection in March. Whether the soil has anything to do with 

 this I do not know, bnt my trees grow in something like a 

 clay puddle. 



Beuri6 Boso, Benrrc Snperfin, and Marie Louise are always 

 good, and eo is Thompson's, but this last is a shy bearer with 

 me out of doors ; in the orchard house it boars profusely. All 

 my previous remarks refer to trees against east and south-east 

 walls. As standards they would be worthless, even the Seckle 

 and the Beurtu de Capiaumont as standards are mere Crabs. 

 As wall trees, and adapting the treatment of the fruits after 

 being gathered to the varieties, I manage to have some good 

 fruit everv year, but shall be glad of a few more wrinkles. 

 — T. G., Clitheroe. 



A VISIT TO PILTDOWN. 



Having often desired to visit the Messrs. Mitchell's well- 

 known nurseries I have at length accomplished this during a 

 visit to Eastbourne. Uckfield is their railway station, from 

 which Piltdown is a pleasant drive or walk of two miles and a 

 half. I was surprised to see so many fields of Hops on the 

 roadside. 



" Until St. JameR is past and gone 

 There may be Hups and there may be none." 



St. James is now most unquestionably past, and it is happily 

 also certain that there will be Hops. 



The first object that catches the eye on approaching the 

 nurseries is that magnificent Araucaria, one of the finest in 

 England (two stand together by the roadside), thirty-two years 

 old ; of which the finest, with the figure of its late owner 

 standing beside it, was at one time very familiar on the cover 

 of the Mitchell catalogue. It was a melancholy feeling, having 

 to pay a first visit and to find him gone who had so often 

 invited it. 



" Kedit OB placidum moresque benigni." 

 (Bemembeied is the calm tace and manners kind.) 



The portly form and pleasing manners seemed brought irre- 

 sistibly back to me. 



After a most hoepitable reception and excellent luncheon, to 

 which I was welcomed by the widow of my old friend, I sallied 

 forth with the two young proprietors on our tour of inspection. 

 The Eose Farm, as Cheshunt was happily entitled by a relative 

 of my own on a late visit there — the Eose-growing space here 

 is about forty acres — not, of course, that the whole is under 

 Bose culture at one time. The soil ie sandy, with clay under- 

 neath, I apprehend an unusual but very convenient combina- 

 tion ; while on one side three acres bordering on a large ad- 

 jacent common are chiefly peat, and appear to grow very excel- 

 lent BhododendrouH. 



At first, as in duty bound, I wtnt to inspect the Pinasters, 

 of which I know so little that mentioning them at all is a 

 perilous undertaking. The Araucaria avenue is a marvel, and 

 in memory a joy for ever. The trees of this class are wonder- 

 ful, and such a long double row of them, and of such size, is, 



I understand, nowhere else to be met with. They seed freely 

 at Piltdown, and a considerable number of fine young seedlings 

 are in process of raising. Fine specimens of the Pvetinospora 

 pifcifera aurea, Thujopsis dolabrata, and a variegated Welling- 

 tonia, a sport raised at Cork, are to be seen among many 

 others. 



Having thus, like the school children, disposed with all 

 haste of the bread and butter first, I come now to the cake — 

 i.e., the Eose department. I had been apprehensive that Dame 

 Flora, like most other ladies, would be taking an outing in 

 August, and that there would be comparatively little to see, 

 but my first glance over the hedge when approaching quite put 

 an end to that fancy. Nowhere and at no time have I seen a 

 more beautiful collection of Teas ; budded on the low Briar 

 they are grown to very great perfection, and were at this time 

 full of bloom as well as shooting very strongly. Among old 

 friends Madame Blacket, Moiret, Niphetos, &a., were in great 

 beauty. Belle Lyonnaise and Madame Berard I found were 

 held in great favour; they are certainly much the best seed- 

 lings we have yet had from dear old " Glory " as it is some- 

 times called. .Jean Pernet, good. Due de Magenta, an improved 

 Kubens. Le Nankin, a delightful new yellow, which everyone 

 should have. And, to mention but one more. Souvenir de 

 Paul Noron received, and certainly merits, very high com- 

 mendation. It appeared something like a much stronger and 

 more free-growing Madame Bravy. 



Among the H.P.'s Capitaine Christy was very good, Mdlle. 

 Bonnaire quite strong and free-growing as a standard. What 

 white Rose can come near her when really well grown ? The 

 Shah was well spoken of. Mdlle. Marie Finger, fine. The 

 Duchess of Edinburgh (H.P.) we agreed was disappointing, but 

 to mention all the beauties would be to transcribe half the 

 catalogue. 



English seedlings are now coming so fast to the front (at 

 Cheshunt they appear to have almost a glut of these), that 

 I made especial request to be conducts d to that depart- 

 ment. The Messrs. Mitchell have several which they have 

 worked on Briars, and which will no doubt apply for certifi- 

 cates in due course. Before long they will, I incline to think, 

 be very likely to introduce us to good English Tea Eose seed- 

 lings. In Tea Eoses their special strength lies, and of these 

 we have at present a very limited number. They intend this 

 year, if the sun allows, to have a considerable sowing. 



Alter fresh hospitalities I concluded a most pleasant day by 

 returning to Eastbourne with a box of irresistible Eoses, and 

 strongly recommend, to all who can manage it, a similar 

 excursion. — A. C. 



THE MORELLO CHEKEY SHOET-PKUNED. 



I ADHiKE Mr. Taylor's trenchant Saxon — it is straight, plain, 

 and practical. I have profited by the instructions he has 

 given, and have been able to confirm much that he has 

 advanced ; but I cannot endorse his simile at Mr. Abbey's 

 expense, that it is as reasonable to train an Oak tree on a 

 balloon trellis as to cultivate the Morello Cherry on the spur 

 system of pruning. I grant that the laying-in of young wood 

 is the mode suggested by the tree itself, and by that plan 

 immense crops of fruit are produced ; but I also know that 

 immense crops are producible when the tree is managed on 

 the spur system of pruning. 



The finest trees I have ever seen are trained on the fan- 

 shape, and the branches are regularly and closely studded 

 with spurs formed by systematic summer-pinching. The fruit 

 from these trees is also the finest I have ever seen, and ia 

 produced in great abundance, and, further, if 1 am not mis- 

 taken, a greater amount of fruit is provided at a lesser outlay 

 of labour than by the orthodox system of laying-in the young 

 wood. The tackiug-in of young wood and the cutting-out of 

 old wood is a tedious process, and, as a consequence, we find 

 in gardens where work presses that the Morello Cherry trees 

 are worse tended than any other trees. Trained on the spur 

 system the summer dressing and winter piuning is quickly 

 done, and it is certain that by this plan a satisfactory and 

 abundant supply of superior fruit may be produced. 



The trees managed on this fystem which I am acquainted 

 with are, in my opinion, models of good culture. The branches 

 are just so far distant from each other that the foliage of ono 

 branch does not overlap that of the next (a golden rule in 

 "judging distance" in tree-tri.ininp), and the branches 20 to 

 :iO feet in length are wreathed with fruit from base to ex- 

 tremity. Not a fault is to be seen in these trees, neither by 



