November 4, 1875. ] 



JOURNAL OF HORTICULTURE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. 



.397 



close, and may perhaps have some further remarks to make 

 by-and-by. — D., D,uil. 



CLAPFS FAVOURITE PEAR. 



Five years ago I had sent me a tree with this name, and not 

 knowing it, and the "Fruit Manual" in its last and larger 

 form (replete as it is with very accurate descriptions of the 

 best and most useful varieties of fruit trees, and a very valu- 

 able list of synonyms) not including it, I was content to hear 

 with it until this year, when it fruited for the first time. It 

 was sent to me as an " American Paar, early, and of high 

 ■excellence." The tree is of free vigorous growth with mag- 

 nificent large healthy foliage, very similar to that fine early 

 autumn Pear Beurrc/ d'Amanlis. The fruit is large, oblong- 

 pyramidal, very even in its outline, 1 to 5 inches in lengtla, 

 and 21 to :! inches wide; eye open with spreading segments, 

 -3et in a shallow basin ; stalk long, rather stout and curving, 

 inserted in a shallow cavity or with slight depression ; skin 

 deep yellowish green, highly reddish-brown on the side next 

 the sun, and when ripe is very beautiful. The flesh is whitish, 

 tender, melting, and juicy, with a sweet, rich, slightly perfumed 

 flavour. Ripe September 10th, 1875, Jargonelle being ripe 

 ■September 3rd. 



Mr. Rivers states in his catalogue of fruits that it was ripe 

 August 20th, 1875, or a difference of twenty days ; but then 

 there is the difference in climate to be taken into account. 

 High (over .'iOO feet above sea level), and expo?ed on the 

 north-east coast of the North Riding of York, considerable 

 difference in time of ripening between here and Herts may be 

 expected ; in fact, Pears are generally late in ripening here. 

 For instance. Summer Doyennu (Doyenne d'Etu) ripened this 

 year on August llth, and last year on September 9th; Jargo- 

 nelle this year ripe September i?rd, last year September 25th ; 

 Bearru Giffard this year September IGtb, last year September 

 23rd; Benrre d'Amanlis this year September 21th, last year 

 October 8th ; Williams' Bon Chritien this year September 

 :25th, last year October 12th ; and Louise Bonne of Jersey and 

 Comte de Lamy ripened on October 11th, which last, though a 

 small Pear or only medium-sized, is very delicious, and does 

 well as a i^ramid on the Quince. So delicious, indeed, is 

 Comto de Lamy that it is a fitting prelude to Seckle, which 

 succeeds it, and is the richest of all, and a prodigious bearer as 

 a pyramid. 



The tree of Clapp's Favourite is planted at an angle of a wall 

 and upright, part of the branches being trained to a south- 

 west, and the others to a west wall or aspect, and the tree is on 

 the Pear stock. It surpasses Jargonelle in appearance, and it, 

 or any other Pear up to Williams' Bon Chn'-tien, in quality, 

 combined with size ; it will become a favourite generally with 

 Pear-growers, as it no doubt is, or was, with tlie one whose 

 name it takes. Of autumn and early winter Pears we have a 

 goodly number ; additions are wanted in the early summer 

 and late winter kinds, and among the first of those desiderata 

 must be placed Clapp's Favourite. 



Can yon tell me what Jules d'Airolles is considered to be ? Is 

 it synonymous with Liren d' AiroUes ? [ They are synonymous. J 

 It is very handsome in appearance, not unlike Napoleon, but 

 larger and longer, and very much brighter on the side next the 

 ■snu. — G. Abbey. 



LILY OF THE VALLEY FORCING. 



No class of plant can be more enjoyable during the dull 

 winter months than the Lily of the Valley, but it must then 

 lis forced. Single crowns are greatly to be preferred to im- 

 ported clumps ; for when clumps are used you have very few 

 flowers, and these are very inferior to those produced from 

 single crowns. When single crowns are used you have the 

 bloom equally all over the pot, and the spikes of bloom are 

 •very fine, and they will well repay the little extra cost, for I 

 have known them to realise at Christmas from 10.;. to 15s. 

 per pot in Covent Garden Market. Seventeen crowns are the 

 general number used in 48-sized pots. They should be placed 

 at equal distances apart. Cut the roots off to within 2 inches 

 of the crown, and pot them very firmly in any kind of soil, for 

 they will not make any root. Care must be taken to keep the 

 crown above the soil, as it will make quite a week's difference 

 in forcing, for if placed under the soil the plants come irre- 

 gularly. Place them in a cold frame, and cover them over 

 with cocoa-nut fibre to swell the crowns. Care must be taken 

 not to over-water them, for that causes them to rot off. Bring 



them on gradually into heat, and keep the fibre over them till 

 the crowns burst, and then plunge them in bottom heat in a 

 close frame of about DO". The Lily of the Valley will stand any 

 amount of bottom heat. You can bring the plants into bloom 

 in a fortnight, but you will only have flowers and very little 

 foliage, and they look (|uite as bad without foliage as with- 

 out bloom. But where bloom only is required it is best to 

 force them quickly, as the bloom is then produced much 

 earlier. — A. Y. 



GRAPES AT THE EDINBURGH SHOW. 

 I CANNOT go the length of supporting a public testimonial to 

 Mr. Dickson, as " A. K." proposes, though I should be glad to 

 hear his ability and success were recognised by the Royal Hor- 

 ticultural Society — or the " CUedonian," for instance (!) ; but 

 if he fails to obtain redress from the Edinburgh Society, or 

 rather to get an investigation instituted, I shall be pleased, 

 as an English gardener who is wholly disinterested in the 

 matter and entirely unacquainted with either party, to sub- 

 scribe my mite to any decided legal action he may be disposed 

 to take in the matter. If, as stated in the letters furnished 

 by Mr. Dickson, the two footstalks of Mr. Curror's cluster 

 were between 2 and 3 inches apart, it can be no hair-splitting 

 problem as to whether it was two bunches or not; they might 

 as well have been cut from different limbs. As to what is a 

 bunch of Grapes, I have my doubts about a fasciated footstalk 

 constituting a legitimate bunch, as I have doubts of fasciated 

 Cucumbers — i e., two adhering together, constit'itingone fruit ; 

 but when the bunches come to be the length of one's finger 

 apart there are no subtleties in the question. — A Gbape-Geoweb. 



Mr. Dickson by implication brings a charge of either inca- 

 pacity or dishonesty against the Judges, and in his letter of 

 the 23rd of September he complains of the conduct of the 

 managers of the Show because he could not commit them to 

 a like imprudence. They knew that they had selected men as 

 judges who had European reputations for both skill and in- 

 tegrity, and to have asked such men to go over their work 

 again in Mr. Dickson's presence that he might see whether 

 their decisions were reliable or not, would have been offering 

 them an insult which every man of them would have repelled 

 with indignation ; and because a sense of honour on the part 

 of the managers protected them from such a disgraceful step 

 Mr. Dickson writes, " This seems very strange procedure, and 

 I leave the public to judge from the facte." 



Mr. Dickson and those who sympathise with him seem to 

 be under the impression that during the time the buuchea 

 were being weighed others than those who had a right to be 

 present were there while he was excluded. This was not so. 

 Dr. Hogg, Mr. Moore of Chelsea, and myself were present as 

 the trustees of the Veitch Memorial Fund, awarding the prizes 

 and medals from that source to the object for which they 

 were offered, and happened to be in the neighbourhood of 

 the two large bunches when they were about to be weighed ; 

 Mr. Curror's bunch being close to where I stood, I and my 

 son, who was acting as clerk to the Judges, stepped forward 

 to remove it from the board. I found the bunch attached 

 wholly by one stem to the lateral on which it grew, and 

 not by two, as soma writers, who, from the position in which 

 it lay, must have had an imperfect opportunity of observing, 

 else they never could have made the statement that it was 

 attached by two stems. I examined this single stem carefully 

 to satisfy myself that it was hard and fibry enough to admit 

 of a piece of cord my son had in his hand being put round it 

 to form a loop by which to hang it on the hooks of the balance 

 that was to weigh it. This done I lifted it clear off the board 

 with the T piece of wood in my hand and the single stem 

 between my fingers, and held it till it was suspended at the 

 end of the balance, while 20 lbs. made up of various weights 

 were at the other. It turned the scale with that weight 

 against it, and 1 oz. was added. This was its exact weight. 

 It had only lost 3 ozs. of the weight rendered by Mr. Curror 

 during the twenty-four hours it had been cut, the greater 

 part of which time it had been in a hot dry room. When this 

 was noted there was a slight cheer, led I think by Mr. Rust 

 of Eridge Castle, near Tunbridge, by way of marking his 

 sense of the honesty displayed by its exhibitor, of whose very 

 existence he had till that moment no knowledge. I removed 

 the bunch from the beam, and replaced it on the board. 

 While this was being done Mr. Dell of Stoke Eochford, one 

 of tie Judges, with some one assisting him, removed Mr. 



