Oct. 20, 1S55.] 



THE GARDENERS' CHRONICLE. 



098 



selves, are impregnated with brown matter acting as a 

 putrefactive ferment, the evil spreads so rapidly that 

 every cell is involved, and no subsequent change of 

 cireumstauces will materially check its progress. M.J. B. 





MR. UNDERHILL ON STRAWBERRY 



GROWING. 



My mode of cultivation is to fix on a piece of ground 

 entirely free from shade ; about the beginning of July, 



1 commence preparing it by manuring it thoroughly, and 

 if the soil be light I add some marl, as most Strawberries 

 are fond of a stiff loamy soil, and it tends to throw them 

 into bearing instead of leaf. When the ground is dug and 

 the plants are ready tread the soil hard and well where 

 they are to be planted. Choose runners with short 

 roots, indeed, th se that have scarcely tasted the soil 

 are preferable, as they more readily shoot into the 

 ground, and there is nothing afterwards to check their 

 progress. Though care should be taken to plant them a 

 little below the surface, pressing the soil firmly to the 

 roots, yet the heart must not be covered with earth ; if 

 the weather be not rainy they will require water, and if 

 they could also be protected from the heat of the sun 

 for a few days it would be all the better. The second, 

 third, or fourth runners, or even runners from either of 

 them, will bear fruit as well as the first runner, though 

 many consider the latter as the only one that will bear. 

 The great object is early planting, so as to get your 

 plants well and deeply rooted before the frost sets in, 

 otherwise the frost by raising the soil would>aise the 

 plants with it ; then comes a thaw, the soil "sinks and 

 leaves the plants worse than freshly transplanted, nay 

 almost out of the ground ; again, by early planting you 

 obtain the finest and largest fruit the first year, and the 

 greatest crop the second. Then directly root up your 

 plants, on no account keep them a third year, for after 

 having gathered two good crops from your plants their 

 strength and vigour must necessarily be exhausted, and 

 no more fine fruit can be obtained from them ; indeed 

 for size and quality an annual cultivation is best. 



Strawberry beds should always be kept entirely free 

 from weeds, and the roots as distinct as when first 

 planted out. In the autumn, when you have taken suf- 

 ficient runners for your new plantations, clear the old 

 roots of all the remaining runners together with the old 

 straw which has been laid under the fruit, but the leaves 

 of the plants are not to be taken off. When the beds 

 are cleaned in the spring, some rotten manure should be 

 spread over the surface from which great advantage 

 will arise, as the rain will wash the goodness of the 

 manure to the fibrous roots, or you may give some weak 

 liquid manure. Guano is certainly one of the best, but 

 this must be used sparingly ; perhaps few persons will 

 be found who will apply it with a sufficiently light hand. 

 April is the best time for removing the old leaves off the 

 plants, for if cleared earlier in the spring, a severe 

 frost, which sometimes occurs in March, cuts off the 

 tender shooting leaves, which otherwise would be 

 sheltered and protected by them. 



Strawberry beds must never be dug or forked amongst, 

 for by doing so you destroy a number of fibrous roots, 

 which the plant requires to mature fine fruit, and the 

 soil is also so disturbed that in the fruiting season the 

 hot sun more easily penetrates it, to the great injury of 

 the fruit, for the roots should be kept cool. As a con- 

 vincing and certain proof of the injury sustained by 

 forking or digging amongst the plants, let me call the 

 attention of my readers to what they must have often 

 observed, though perhaps ignorant of the cause, that 

 however well and abundantly their plants have blossomed 

 in the spring, in the summer, to their surprise and dis- 

 appointment, they have scarcely produced any fruit 



The method practised by many persons of putting the 

 mowings of the Grass plots round their plants should 

 be avoided as decidedly bad, for if rain should fall how- 

 ever slightly, or even with the natural dampness of the 

 earth, the Grass will mould and taint the berry, and it 

 is better to have the fruit damaged by grit than spoiled 

 hy the unpalatable flavour of mould ; even the very 

 name of the plant suggests the use of the straw. The 

 proper distance for planting the best and largest sorts is 



2 feet each way. 



Frogs and toads should be encouraged, for they seek 

 the beds for shade, and feed upon snails, blackbats, and 

 other insects that so frequently disfigure and destroy 

 the finest of the fruit If a Strawberry grower will 

 observe a frog or toad gape (without doing so himself), 

 he will be convinced at once, by the formation of the 

 reptile's mouth, that it was not formed by nature to 

 injure or subsist on fruit, for more harmless and useful 

 creatures do not exist in a garden. From Mr. UnderhilFs 

 Pamphlet on the Cultivation of the Strawberry. 



tl 



I 







Home Correspondence. 



Dioscorea Batatas. — I have sent a tuber of this Yam 

 for your inspection. I have seen several statements in 

 your columns respecting it, all tending to throw 

 obstacles in the way of those who might next year try 

 the root as an esculent. The paragraph by Mr. Cramb, 

 (p. 517, No. 31), seems, however, to have more sound 

 judgment in it than those of others who have written 

 upon the subject this autumn. On the 3d of March I 

 received one tuber the size of a small garden Pea, 

 w hich I planted in a pot, and placed in a cold frame, 

 which only had the glass put on in the evening. In 

 this situation it remained until the 12th of May, when 

 the young shoots began to make their appearance. I 

 still kept it in the cold frame until the shoots were about 



*& inch in length, and, as near as I can recollect, 



le time of planting out was the first week in June. 

 du^ up about 1 square yard of ground on a south 

 border, and mixed in a little rotten leaf-mould ; the 

 plant was protected with a hand-glass raised upon 

 bricks for about three weeks ; this was all the pro- 

 tection it has received. The frost last night blackened 

 the tops, and I resolved to-day to see how far my mis- 

 fortune with this tuber agreed * ith the statements 1 had 

 already read, when to my astonishment I found that I 

 had broken the root, which in length far surpassed 

 my expectation : the top was about 1 yard in length, 

 and was eagerly consumed by a bull. This statement 

 I think will be sufficient to show that great progress has 

 been made with very slight protection ; and I have no 

 doubt that next year I shall be able to present my 

 employer (Lord Waterpark) with a dish of Dioscorea 

 (raised from this one root) in the room of Potatoes. 

 George Party, Doveridge Hall, Derby. [The tuber which 

 accompanied this statement weighed 2 ozs., and mea- 

 sured 1 3 inches in length and 3 4 inches in circumference 



at the thickest part ] 1 have had more success than 



Mr. Salter (see p. 679) with this Yam. I got 30 small 

 tubers of it in spring, the size of Marrowfat Peas, four of 

 which I planted in 5-inch pots in the beginning of March, 

 but without any bottom-heat. When they were a few 

 inches high they were planted out in the open border 

 the first week in May, and two~days afterwards they 

 were frosted down, for during all the time oi their being 

 out they never had the slightest protection. We have 

 had severe frosts for some nights past, and I have lifted 

 them to-day, when the sizes of the tubers were found to 

 be as follows : — The 1st plant had a tuber 4£ inches 1 

 long and I inch in diameter ; the 2d ditto produced one 

 5- inches long and 1 inch in diameter ; the 3d was 

 9 inches long and J of an inch in diameter ; and the 

 4th was 11 inches long and 1 inch in diameter. Now I 

 am of opinion that a Potato tuber the size of a 

 Marrowfat Pea would not have yielded much more than 

 these Dioscoreas, and looking at the above results I do 

 not entirely despair of success with this plant, although 

 my belief is that it will not succeed in very cold situa- 

 tions. Jedburgh, however, a midland town on the 

 borders of Scotland is not a warm place. Win. Deans, 

 Anna Nurseries, Jedburgh y N.B., Oct. 17. 



Orchard Houses. — I congratulate the Horticultural 

 Society on the success of its orchard-house. Allow me, 

 however, to ask the following questions : — 1. How were 

 the Plums as to quality \ In my orchard-house I find 

 them more or less acid, even when dead ripe. The 

 only exception is Jefferson, which is always sweet both 

 at stone and rind ; but even this is inferior in flavour to 

 the same variety out of doors. As to Greengages, 

 I have never had a specimen so luscious as may often 

 be gathered from a wall. 2. Were the Peach trees 

 syringed when the fruit was ripening ? This year I left 

 off syringing at that period, in order to improve the 

 flavour of the fruit, but was immediately eaten up with 

 red spider, and compelled to recommence. From ob- 

 servation I am convinced that (cateris paribus) the 

 larger the house the greater the success. A large house 

 has currents of air within itself; besides, in small 

 lean-to houses, there is a sad deficiency of light, 

 from the sides being boarded. It is only in the 

 centre where plants really thrive. For the back, 

 the best plant I find to be the Fig ; the best sort the 

 brown Turkey. If a few extra plants are kept in a dark 

 place until the spring is somewhat advanced, then plunged 

 in the open ground under a N. W. wall, (with a canvas 

 covering till May), and brought into the orchard-house 

 after the Figs there have fruited, a second crop may be 

 had in succession from the same space, and the house 

 made to do double duty ; as to a second crop from the 

 same plant?, I have sometimes had a few, very late and 

 worthless. Late Plums, which were flowered in the 

 orchard-house, turned out and plunged, and replaced in 

 the middle of September, ripen of course under more 

 favourable circumstances than out of doors. I have 

 now a tree of St Martin's Quetche thus ripening. One 

 great blessing of the orchard-house is that Peaches are 

 not troubled with the green fly, though I cannot say so 

 much for Strawberries. Ought purple Gage Plums to 

 ripen perfectly on a standard near London, but on ground 

 200 feet above sea level ? [Yes.] S. B. [No fruit could 

 be of finer quality than that ripened in the Orchard 

 House of the Horticultural Society. The Peach trees 



were syringed to the last.] 



Lightning Conductors.— Your 'correspondent, "who 

 is building a house by the sea," need not apprehend that 

 his high tower will be more likely to be struck by 

 lightning because a metallic weathercock is on the top 

 of it. High buildings are more liable to be struck than 

 those less elevated, and it is a wise precaution to place 

 a continuous metallic path for the lightning from above 

 the highest point of the building down some feet into 

 the earth away from the foot of the tower. If the 

 building lies at any time in the lightning's track it will 

 be sure to follow the metal, and if it be large enough, 

 will pass by it harmlessly to the earth. Excepting that 

 metals afford the readiest passage to electricity — offer- 

 ing it least resistance in its course — it does not appear 

 that they attract lightning so as to bring it where it 

 would not otherwise be inclined to come. A copper 

 wire of given size will convey a larger amount of elec- 

 tricity than one of iron of the like diameter ; but if the 

 size of the wire or rod be ample, one metal would form 



as good a conductor as another. W. 



Columbia Plum.— At p. 661c your correspondent says 

 of this Plum, " it is the worst we have proved, being 

 coarse, and without flavour/' In Mr. Rivera's catalogue 

 of fruits I find the same Plum, reported to be « rich 



and sugary," As 



Iook 



Ri vers 



ve look upon Mr. 

 authority in these matters perhaps he will let us know 

 whether this Columbia and the other American Plums 

 have not turned out as well as was expected. It is not 

 very pleasant to plant a fruit tree, and when it comes 

 into hearing to find the fruit fit for nothing. A. R. 



Cucumber Crowing, — At p. 549 of your paper for 

 August 26th, 1854, 82 very fine Cucumbers are stated 

 to have been obtained from four plants of Evans's 

 Conqueror. This may bo very well ; but from a last 

 year's plant of Sutton's Berkshire Champion growing in 

 a small two-light pit, 8 feet by 9 feet, the plant occupy- 

 ing but one light, 1 have cut from May 4 of this 

 1 1 2 feet of fine fruit, and there are six growing on the 

 plant at the present tim< that measure 1 1 feet 2 inches 

 in length. The pit is heated by dung linings only. I 

 cut two fruit the latter end of March from the same 

 plant which measured upwards of 3 feet in length. 

 Thos. Pollivgton, Gardener to Wm. 

 Brad well Orove. 



Ifervcv, 



People's Park, Sunderland. — In your' Number for 

 Sept. 26, ■ J. S." criticises this park unfavourably, 

 <c Medicus," (Oct. 6,) comes to the rescue ; and as I con- 

 ceive * J. S." to be in the right, and he has not replied in 

 your Number for last week, 1 may perhaps b* allowed 

 to offer my opinion in the matter. In the first place, 

 it is not a park ; the name park gives an idem of some 

 extent, and of a carriage drive at least, but of neither 

 of these can it boast ; nor is it a garden. In June it 

 contained one bed of Dahlias ; it is in fact a piece of 

 ground which was formerly an old quarry, laid out 

 without taste or judgment ; the rubbish heaps are 

 rounded, smoothed, and grassed over to a nicety ; the 

 walks are carried along the lowest levels and intersect 

 each other in all directions ; beds of nondescript outline 

 are formed here and there. They are similar in size to 

 those generally occupied with bedding stuff, and are 

 planted with Poplars at from 1 to 2 feet apart—such is 

 the people's park at Sunderland. By the account of 

 c< Medicus," the inhabitants are, however, satisfied with 

 it ; be that as it may, I can only say that they deserve 

 something better, if 1 may judge from a hasty visit 

 which I paid it one beautiful evening in June, when I 

 was delighted to see crowds of both young and old enjoy- 

 ing themselves so rationally in the pure air of that 

 locality. I understand that 70007. have been already 

 collected for a proposed Crystal Palace ; why not 

 expend it on a park worthy of the name ! This would 

 be of more real benefit to the inhabitants than a useless 

 and expensive toy. Jfortulanus. 



Stocfcwood Golden Hamburgh Grape.— I have sent you a 

 small bunch of this Grape for your third opinion of its 

 flavour, although it is now, as you will find, much past its 

 best, whileat the July exhibition it was hardly ripe enough. 

 It was in fine condition in August last, but owing to being 

 kept so long this hot autumn its juice has become con- 

 siderably diminished, leaving the skin thicker than it 

 should be ; for when used in season it is a thin skinned 

 variety. I have observed Mr. Reid's remarks in your 

 last week's Number, page 678, and I would ask why does 

 not the person spoken of by Mr. R. exhibit his Grape ? 

 I showed the first maiden bunch of mine at the October 

 meeting of the Horticultural Society in 1853, when it 

 was awarded a Certificate of Merit, and the Vice-Sec- 

 retary spoke favourably of it at that time. Last year it 

 was not shown at all ; this season I have exhibited it 

 three times— 1st, at the Chiswick July Show, where a 

 large Silver Medal was awarded it ; 2d, at the meeting 

 of the Poraological Society, on the 2d of September, 

 when it was highly approved of by all present ; and, 3d, 

 nt the Caledonian Horticultural Society's Show at 

 Edinburgh, where it received a First Class Certificate, 

 and a very flattering letter on its merits, signed Dr. 

 Balfour. M. Busby, Stockwood Park, Luton, Beds. [The 

 Grapes were rich dull cane colour ; oval, fleshy, and 

 although not having either a Muscat or Frontignan 

 flavour, deserved all that can have been said in favour 

 of their quality.] 





With 



Foreign Correspondence. 



Naples, Sept. 6, 1855.— I am now staying in the 

 midst of a wine country, and am therefore in a position 

 to speak of the prospects of the year's vintage, at least 

 in the neighbourhood of Naples. Alas ! nothing can be 

 more discouraging ; for, instead of luxuriant bunches 

 of luscious grapes, we have nothing around us but 

 foliage which crumbles in the hand, and beads of ashes. 

 It is difficult for a people to whom wine is a luxury to 

 understand the full extent of the distress which is 

 entailed upon this country by the failure of the grapes; 

 but what the Potato disease was to the Irish may the 

 Vine disease be regarded in reference to the Neapoli- 

 tans. The produce was their meat and drink ; their 

 medicine in illness and their comfort in sorrow, 

 a bunch of grapes and a slice of bread a man formerly 

 made his u merendia,* and with a caraffa of wine would 

 undergo as long a fast as your Yankee with a m chew of 

 tobacco." All this, however, is now at an end, and the 

 masses are reduced to lemonades, or to bad spirit— to 

 acid stomachs and tempers, and headaches. As I have 

 paid particular attention to the malady and its remedies, 

 and watched their progress and operation up to the 

 present moment, my observations may be of interest to 

 your readers. I send them, therefore, for what they 

 are worth. Early in the spring our hopes of a good 

 vintage were raised very high — every one was 

 to have u a pocket-full of money and a cellar-full 

 of wine." The trees looked healthier and were throwing 

 out long vigorous branches, so that some almost 



