156 



JOUBNAL OF HOBTICULTUBE AND COTTAGE GABDENEE. 



[ August 19, 1875. 



rosy pink. Mr. Turner, Slongh, exhibited a box of twenty-four 

 very fine varieties of Verbenas, also bouquet Dahlia Triumph, a 

 red variety of faultless shape ; and Boses Kev. J. B. Camm, 

 one of the most sweetly scented of all Roses, and of good form 

 — it is of a full rose colour, and the perfume is that of the old 

 Cabbage Rose ; and Miss HasBard, a variety somewhat reeem- 

 bling Marguerite do St. Amand. Mr. Reed, gardener to J. H. 

 Johnson, Esq., Mountains, Tonbridge, exhibited flowers of a 

 buff seedling Carnation. Mr. G. Smith, Hedge Farm, Edmon- 

 ton, exhibited blooms of a seedling Dahlia Bridesmaid. It is a 

 delicate lavender-tinted flower of considerable promise, but the 

 blooms sent were not quite perfect. Mr. Smith, Hornsey Road, 

 Islington, had blooms of his new sport from the well-known 

 Pelargonium Vesuvius. The blooms are semi-double, and the 

 trusses are as freely produced as those of the normal variety. 

 It has had a firet-class certificate awarded, and will become a 

 favourite for market and bedding purposes. From Mr. R. Dean, 

 Ealing, came a plant of Phlox Drummondii splendens grandi- 

 flora, a rich crimson-scarlet variety with a white eye and 

 ■very effective; also cut blooms of dwarf Tropaeolums in four 

 varieties of T. compactum— viz.. Lustrous, scarlet; Coccineum, 

 scarlet; Aureum floribundum, yellow; and Carminatum, car- 

 mine, all useful for bedding purposes. Foliage of a Golden 

 Poplar came from Mr. Parker, Tooting, the variegation being 

 very blight. It is a variegated form of Populus angulata. 



The condolences of the Committee were expressed towards the 

 friends of Mr. Taylor, of the well-known flrm of Messrs. Webber 

 and Co., fruiterers of Covent Garden Market, whose death was 

 announced. Mr. Taylor was a member of the old Pomological 

 Society, and subsequently of the Fruit Committee. He was a 

 first-rate judge of fruit, and an estimable man. We join in the 

 expressions of regret at his sudden demise. He was seized with 

 paralysis a week ago, and never rallied. 



EARLY YORK AND EARLY ALFRED 

 PEACHES. 



I HATE always been led to believe that Early Alfred Peach 

 is far snperior in all reepeets to any of our previous early 

 varieties. I had not before this season a proper opportunity 

 of testing its merits in this respect, but this year I have a 

 tree of each of the above-named varieties growing close to- 

 gether, and of the same age. Now, if anyone were placed in 

 front of them they would have no hesitation in saying from 

 their appearance that they are the same variety of Peach. 



The Early Alfred has disappointed me, for the old Early 

 York still keeps in the ascendant. 



I gathered my first fruit from Early York on the 4th inst., 

 and to all appearance the Early Alfred will not he ripe for 

 another fortnight ; bat then it will come with all due honours, 

 for it is a good and noble Peach ; a most worthy second. A 

 wide gap will take place after them before any of the other 

 Tarieties are ripe. 



We have an exceptionally good crop of Peaches and Necta- 

 rines. We have had to thin out hnndreds ; I believe every 

 blossom set its fruit. 



Of all Nectarines let me bear my testimony in favour of 

 Lord Napier. It is far in advance of all others. I find it the 

 hardiest, setting its fruit when most others fail, the most pro- 

 lific, and by far the largest and handsomest Nectarine in cul- 

 tivation. May the Rivers long continue to nourish many more 

 anch Nectarines as Lord Napier is the wish of — John Tatloe, 

 The Gardens, Uardwicke Grange, Shrewsbury. 



SUMMER PRUNING.— No. 3. 

 Plumb require to be gone over at the end of June or early 

 in July ; those against walls being earlier than those in the 

 open. The modus operandi is the same as in that recom- 

 mended for the Cherry, therefore it need not he repeated 

 here ; the only difference is in the small twiggy shoots, which 

 do not grow more than 3 or 4 inches in length. These, if on 

 the side of the branches, should not be shortened, but left 

 their fall length ; but if forerights or uprights, in the case of 

 pyramid or bush trees, should be cut back to two leaves. The 

 short shoots will mostly form fruit hude at every leaf, and 

 have wood buds at the ba«e of the shoots or at their points. 

 To pinch-off such shoots at the third leaf is to leave them 

 ■with no means of support for the young fruit; and though 

 they may attain to the half swelling, yet they generally drop, 

 and the shoots die back to the base. The non-stopping of 

 Buoh shoots causes the trees to be full of wood, but that may 

 be put right by shortening these spur-like growths at the 

 winter pruning, encouraging those close to the branches. 



Plum trees, in fact, without the shortening and reducing ol 

 twiggy growths soon become crowded with them, and this 

 should be obviated by judicious thinning and shortening ia 

 winter. 



Pears at the middle of July in the north, and earlier in the 

 south, require to have the shoots stopped. I stop all the side 

 shoots to two leaves and the forerights to one leaf ; this keeps 

 them very near home, and admits of light and air being freely 

 admitted to the spurs. The close stopping tends to the forma- 

 tion of spurs in a much higher degree than when the shoots 

 are left with three or more leaves, the last entailing consider- 

 able work for the knife at the winter pruning, and its applica- 

 tion resulting in strong growths the following year — equally 

 barren of spurs as their predecessors. Succeeding growths are 

 stopped to one leaf, and this renders winter pruning unneces- 

 sary. The extensions are trained-in their full length, and 

 if the space is covered, close stopping is practised through- 

 out. 



Pyramids and bushes are stopped in the same way, the 

 branches being kept as near as may be I foot distance apart, 

 their extension stopped at the sixth leaf, and the leading one 

 of a pyramid at 12 inches of growth. All other shoots to be 

 stopped to two leaves, and afterwards to one throughout the 

 season. N.B. — Pyramid and bush Pear trees not unfrequently 

 have short stubby shoots of 2 or 3 inches in length, ivith the 

 leaves very close together and numerous, their points as well 

 as the next two buds being also fruit buds. Such shoots are 

 not to be stopped, but left entire, as they will in all proba- 

 bility carry fruit the following year, and in the autumn thereof 

 they may be cut-in to the spurs which will have formed at 

 their base. 



Apples require to be treated after the manner of Pears, but 

 are rather later ; therefore I need not make any remarks upon 

 them. 



I now come to the Peach and Nectarine, and I might as well 

 make a clean breast of it by stating that I am no advocate for 

 the stopping the shoots of those trees. Beyond disbudding, 

 which can hardly be termed summer pruning, the shoots re- 

 quire to be laid-in their full length, unless exceedingly vigorous 

 and prone to put out laterals. Lateral growth is of no use, 

 and is best removed ; and stopping only tends, with me, to canse 

 many eyes to start, which without the stopping it is only 

 reasonable to conclude would form fruit buds. 



Stopping may answer for growths of 14 inches or more in 

 length when we can — at least, those with only moderate experi- 

 ence may make sure of doing it — stop at a wood bud, for then 

 we are certain of wood buds even should laterals result from 

 the stopping at the upper part or extremity of the shoot, as 

 any lateral growth may be stopped at the first leaf; but should 

 we stop a shoot, especially a weak one, midway of a foot 

 growth, it may follow that its only wood bud may be at its 

 extremity (those at the base being of no use to fruit above 

 them), and the fruit setting upon such a shoot will, for want of 

 leaves beyond to draw and elaborate the sap, drop off. When 

 the shoots have leaves mainly of a triple-bud-forming character 

 stopping may, of coarse, be practised, but unless the trees are 

 in a gross state the stopping is neither necessary nor desirable. 

 Short-pruning is all very well when command is had of the 

 roots, and fruit is sought from short shoots and spurs, but for 

 trees against walls, or on trellises under glass, I see no cause 

 to depart from the long pruning as it is called, bat much every 

 way to recommend its continuance. — G. Abbei. 



MR. JAMES BUTCHER. 

 To those of us who can look back to bygone days when 

 florists' flowers held their heads high in the metropolis, and 

 the " Horns " at Kennington and the Surrey Gardens were the 

 meeting places of those who fondly loved and tenderly cared 

 for them, the name of James Butcher was well known. He 

 was one of the old school of florists, to whom the quality of a 

 flower was a great deal more than anything else, and who in 

 the matter of Auriculas and Polyanthuses could hold his own 

 with the best ; but bricks and mortar extinguished him. Ha 

 lived at South Street, Camberwell, and what with railways and 

 new buildings his garden became so hemmed-in that light 

 and air were reduced to a minimam ; and although he culti- 

 vated a few flowers, and indeed not long ago exhibited a very 

 nice seedling grey-edge Auricula called Mrs. Butcher, he mourn- 

 fully said his days for growing flowers were gone ; but he, 

 like most Auricula growers, retained his love for them to the 

 last, and acted as judge at the small exhibition of onr Metro- 



