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THE GA RDENER 8 ' CER ONICL E. 



[July 28, 1888. 



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THE GARDENERS' CHRONICLE, 

 Vol. III., Third Series. JAN. to JUNE, 1888. 

 W. RICHARDS, 41, Wellington Street, Strand, W.C. 



APPOINTMENTS FOR THE ENSUING WEEK. 



SHOWS. 



SATURDAY, Au 



( Liverpool Horticultural 

 ,, .) tiou ; Royal Southampto 

 "■ *) cultural (bo"- 



(, Monday, Au<r 



SALES. 



TUESDAY, Julv 31 f 0t £ ids . '"Flower, at Protheroe & 

 , L^j. ui ^ Morns' Rooms. 



WEDNESDAY Aug 1 * l m P° rtea ana Established Orchids, 

 1 I- ) at Stevens' Rooms (two days). 



FRIDAY, Aug . 3 i Imp °l te i aud Establisaed Orchids, 



( at Protheroe & Morris Rooms. 



The reports, which we "owe to the 

 Crops 1 .' kindness of our correspondents, 



on the condition and prospects of 

 the fruit crops throughout the country, will, 

 we suspect, prove a puzzle to those who seek to 

 ascertain the causes of success or failure. In the 

 South, at any rate, the fine warm summer and 

 autumn of last year " ripened the wood,'' and the 

 spring gave, in consequence, promise of an abun- 

 dant harvest. This profusion of flower was 

 marked in the case of most flowering shrubs, 

 which have this year bloomed with a freedom 

 and beauty rarely equalled. But the numer- 

 ous contingencies and risks to which fruit 

 blossoms are exposed in this country are 

 apt to create a great disproportion between the 

 promise and the fruition. In some parts of Scot- 

 land the crop is a grand one. Many of the 

 varieties are beyond average quality, and what 

 is singular is that some varieties which are gene- 

 rally esteemed "regular bearers" are this year 

 fruitless — a matter, however, of relatively little 

 consequence, as the quality is apt to be dispro- 

 portionate to the quantity. In the Southern and 

 Eastern Counties loud complaints are heard of 

 the ravages made by caterpillars, as already 

 mentioned in our columns ; and these it is evident 

 must have occasioned serious losses. In a very 

 general way the results of our enquiries, as 

 summarised in other columns, are as follows : — 



Apples are generally under average, except in 

 the Home Counties. 



Pears are also under average throughout the 

 country, unless in the South- Western Counties. 



riums show a deficiency everywhere except in 

 Wales and the Channel Islands. Apricots, 



Peaches, and Nectarines, are in the same case as 

 Plums. 



Cherries, it is singular to note, have furnished 

 a good average throughout the kingdom, except 

 perhaps, in the South and South-West. 



Small fruits are generally over average, even 

 in the counties that are most deficient in Apples 

 and Plums. 



Strawberries are abundant, but have suffered 

 from rain. 



Nuts are under average, and especially so in 

 Kent and Surrey. 



The outlook as to the supply of home-grown 

 winter fruit is hence far from good, and America 

 and our colonies will be largely drawn upon to 

 make up the deficiency. 



Meanwhile, it is satisfactory to notice the in- 

 creased attention paid to fruit culture and to 

 matters connected with it. Already two Fruit 

 Conferences are announced, one under the aus- 

 pices of the Royal Horticultural Society, while 

 another is being promoted by an independent 

 committee of private growers. 



The Fruit-conferences at Chiswick, undertaken 

 at the darkest period of the Society's history, 

 were so signally successful, and the reports 

 founded on them of such permanent value, that 

 it is fitting the old Society should once more 

 take up the work it has done so well. Whetherour 

 Scottish friends intend again organising some- 

 thing of the same kind we do not know ; their 

 success in the past may induce them also to 

 renew their efforts. One satisfactory feature 

 about these exhibitions is, that they are not 

 exhibitions only, but that endeavours are made to 

 utilise and turn to account materials which at 

 most shows are only displayed without comment. 



At Chiswick the leading work to be accom- 

 plished seems to be the determination of varieties, 

 the rectification of nomenclature, and specially 

 the suitability of particular varieties to particular 

 stocks, and to particular soils. At the Crystal 

 Palace, on September 6 and 7, other matters are 

 to be discussed — matters bearing rather on the 

 commercial aspects of the question. The ar- 

 rangements are in neither case complete ; but we 

 believe that at the Crystal Palace a beginning 

 has been made by electing that able pomologist, 

 Mr. T. F. Rivers, as Chairman of the com- 

 mittee. One of the first proposals, as laid down 

 by him, and cordially endorsed by the committee, 

 was, that the Conference should have a permanent 

 character, that its march was not to begin and 

 end with a few trumpet blasts on Sydenham Hill, 

 but that the committee should, as far as possible, 

 promote continual inquiry and discussion as to 

 the national development of fruit-culture, but 

 especially in relation to those more useful and 

 valuable of hardy fruits, Apples, Pears, and Plums. 

 The committee agree that it is no part of its 

 aim to discuss, or in any way to affect the mere 

 garden-culture of fruits as at present so widely 

 existing. Neither, we are glad to learn, does it 

 propose in any way to trench upon what ground 

 the Royal Horticultural Society may regard as its 

 special preserve, or to conflict with that body in 

 its operations. 



What the committee has in view in pro- 

 moting the various conferences which it is 

 hoped will result is to popularise hardy fruit 

 culture amongst agriculturists, with the ultimate 

 expectation that we may grow at home fruit as 

 plentifully and as good as is that which now 

 finds its way here in such great profusion from 

 other countries. Practically, the hope is that in 

 time hardy fruit culture may become a national 

 industry. Mr. Rivers pithily said that were 

 any one considerable county planted with fruit 

 trees in proportion to the area allotted to other 



crops, that all the nurseries in the kingdom 

 could not at one time furnish more than the 

 needful supply of trees for that one county. 



It is not our purpose here to discuss the im- 

 portance or otherwise of making hardy fruit 

 culture a part of ordinary farm operations. That 

 is practically the work for the Conference, and, 

 no doubt, in due course it will be done well. 

 Our readers may draw their own conclusions from 

 the nature of the proposals made at the recent 

 meeting of the committee with respect to the sub- 

 jects to be discussed at the first Conference, as to 

 how far that body seems disposed to take a prac- 

 tical turn ; for it was agreed that on the first day 

 papers on " Land Tenure in its Relation to the 

 Culture of Hardy Fruits," " Most Suitable Kinds 

 of Apples, Pears, and Plums for Farm Culture," 

 and the "Marketing, Packing, Transit, &c, 

 of Fruit " should be invited ; and also that such 

 able men as Mr. Albert Bath, Mr. A. Cole- 

 man, and Mr. J. Webber, be invited to deal with 

 them. On the second day the economical use of 

 fruits is to be discussed, Mr. Rivers himself 

 undertaking to deal with the interesting subject 

 of the " Drying and Bottling of Fruits, especially 

 Plums." Mr. Beech, the eminent jam-maker, is 

 to be asked to deal with " Fruit as an Element 

 for Jams, Preserves, &c. ; " and Mr. W. S. 

 Manning will be invited to take up, on be- 

 half of the Vegetarian Society, the "Adapta- 

 bility of Fruit as Human. Food." These topics 

 show that, without being ambitious, the objects 

 of the Executive Committee are severely practical. 

 Further, that body has appreciably strengthened 

 itself by adding to its numbers several well- 

 known pomologists, and it will endeavour to 

 secure the co-operation of the Royal Agricultural 

 Society, as that body, it is well known, is desirous 

 of promoting hardy fruit culture amongst far- 

 mers, if the best ways and methods be clearly 

 indicated. It is hoped that a second Conference 

 may take place when the usual October hardy 

 fruit show at the Palace is held, as then a different 

 body of fruit growers may be expected to be pre- 

 sent; and we may go so far as to suggest, that the 

 customary gathering of farmers at the Smithfield 

 Cattle Show may also be utilised for some prac- 

 tical purposes in connection with this interesting 

 subject. 



It may occur to many that it is unfortunate 

 that there should be such, a dissipation of energy 

 as is implied in two Fruit Conferences held 

 simultaneously, or nearly so, in different quarters 

 of London ; and that it is but a poor return for 

 the splendid work accomplished by the Royal 

 Horticultural Society in its Fruit Conferences to 

 organise similar meetings elsewhere ; but sentimen- 

 tal considerations of this kind must needs give way 

 in face of practical convenience and public utility, 

 and the functions of the two bodies may be so 

 sharply defined that each shall do its own share of 

 the work without touching on the preserves of its 

 neighbour. General principles and scientific 

 pomology would, according to this arrangement, 

 be assigned to the Royal Horticultural Society, 

 while their application to public and commercial, 

 as distinguished from private garden purposes, 

 might be the work of the committee at the 

 Crystal Palace. In any case, without indulging 

 in any over-sanguine expectations — expectations 

 which our climate, to say nothing of legal and 

 fiscal restrictions, would soon dissipate — we may 

 nevertheless express a decided opinion that much 

 more fruit might profitably be grown here, and 

 that fruit-culture may in some degree come to 

 the aid of the distressed agriculturist, who hither- 

 to has afforded so marked an example of the 

 folly of placing all his eggs in one basket. 

 All success, then, to those who in any degree, 



