February 10, 1912.] 



THE GARDENERS' CHRONICLE 



83 



t 



fruit culture in Baluchistan on a large scale. 

 Cherries, Raspberries, Strawberries, and the 

 highest grade cf Peaches will receive attention. 



indica, Mangifera indica, and Eugenia Jambo 

 lana. The basin, which is 40 feet in diameter 

 and 5 feet in depth, is planted with Papyrus, 



ferox and 



THE MARKET FRUIT GARDEN. 



January has not given us weather much better 

 than that of December. It is true that the total 

 ways for transport. Nymphaeas of sorts. The ornamental work rainfall has been much smaller; but it has-been 



Agricultural colleges have been established in around the fountain is of native workmanship, frequent, and, whereas there was a good deal of 

 Bengal, Bombay, Madras, the Central Provinces, the marble used in its construction being ob- sunshine between the falls of rain in the earlier 



C;ld-sterage vans will be supplied by the rail- Pontederia, Nelumbiums, Euryale 



Nymphaeas of sorts. The ornamental 



the Punjab, and the United Provinces, which turn 

 out scientific agriculturalists that add the degree 

 11 L.Ag." to their other qualifications. A step 

 further in the future may be to establish agricul- 

 tural schools to feed these colleges. 



The native gardener or cultivator is often 

 guided by a sort of agricultural instinct, handed 

 down to him from remote antiquity, and it is 

 difficult to put new ideas into his head. 



There has been a progressive decrease in Coffee 

 cultivation since 1896. The great Coffee-growing 

 centres are Mysore, Coorg, Malabar, and the 



tained from quarries situated at Rajitagar. J . K. month, there was hardly 



before the 27th, when 



any in January 

 frost set 



Nilgiris. 



These claim 89 per cent, of the total 

 area under Coffee. Even here Coffee is being 

 replaced by the fashionable Rubber and Tea. 

 Many people in India have a haughty contempt 

 for Indian Coffee ; they prefer Mocha. Consign- 

 ments of Indian Coffee are sent to Arabia yearly 

 and re-shipped to India as pure Mocha, to the 

 delight of connoisseurs in Army messes and clubs, 

 who protest that India is unable to produce such 

 excellent coffee ! 



The Government Farm at Pusa is experiment- 

 ing with tobacco, in order to obtain, by hybridi- 

 sation or otherwise, laaf of a quality suitable for 

 making cigarettes. 



■ 







■ 





>■*. 



Ifcto 



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""■-. ■'-'. 







■to 







FlG. 37. — ZYGOPETALUM MACKAYI CHARLESWORTHII J SEPALS AND PETALS 



GREEN, LIP WHITE. 



Last July, botanical gardens 



thair produce at the 



from Rs. 2 



were 



following 



retailing 

 : Man- 



prices : 

 dozen ; red Plantain, 



seed- 



1 



goes iruni r^s. z per 



R. 1 per dozen; Lacoate, R. 1 per seer, „_ 



less white Grapes, R, 1.8 per seer; white Grapes 



^ith seeds. R. 1 D er hjmo- . TTinrriiok Peaches. 



ZYGOPETALUM MACKAYI CHARLESWORTHII. 



Our illustrations in fig. 37 represent the very 

 remarkable albino ZveroDetalum for 



which 



Messrs. 



per seer; English 



RS. 3 ner IfiO? laanh'ia* ft Jg 



per 



Oranges, Rs. 2.8 for 25; garden heney, R. 1.9 

 per 2 lb. tin, &c. 



Zygopetalum 



Charlesworth & Co. rtceived an 



meeting of 

 on January 

 favourite 



of Merit at the 



(Note.— A rupee equals Is. 4d., plant, 



Award 



Royal Horticultural 

 Zygopetalum Mackayi 



and the old 



Society 



ecimens 



of 



and the anna a penny; thus R. 1.8 equals 2s.). 



The gardener in India has to be a good all- generally known 



round man, and be able to fit himself to the re- ~ ~ ~ % 



<juirements of the locality in which he may find 

 himself. «-*---■■•* 



more 



is a 



type is 



recent 



by far 



garden 

 the best. 



importations 

 intermedium : 



His knowledge must be general and his 

 mind elastic. 



Fio- 



are 

 as Z. intermedium ; indeed, 

 Messrs. Charlesworth obtained their plant under 

 this name in 1910. Plants of a portion of the 

 stock, which flowered last October, were the true 

 Z. Mackayi, and amongst these the white variety 

 appeared. The flowers have sepals and petals of 

 a pale emerald green, but without any trace of 

 the purple-brown marking of the type ; the 

 labellum is pure white, there being not the 

 The trees in the background slightest trace of the blue veining of the ordinary 



"• ~* a ■ m a> 



.36 affords a view in the Sajjan Niwas 

 Gardens, at Udaipur, India, which are under the 

 care of Mr. T. H. Storey. The fountain includes 

 105 jets, and is surrounded by a carriage drive 

 24 feet in width. ~ ' 



include Ficus indica, F. reiigiosa, Tamarindus forms. 



Indeed 





sunnv 



in my own district, although 

 south/ * the sun was not so 



in. 



in the 

 much 



as seen more than about eight times during 

 the month up to the 26th, and there were only 

 three sunny days, 

 cast 



sky 



was common. 



A gloomy mist under an over- 



Under such 



circum- 

 stances the land has not dried at all, and all 

 work in the orchards has been done under un- 

 pleasant and disadvantageous circumstances. 



Here we had none of the snow which fell heavily 

 in some parts of the country on the 8th and 18th 

 of January, and we had less rain than fell in 

 many places. This is only by way of reasonable 

 compensation, as we had a good deal more than 

 our fair share in the last three months of 1911. 

 [Since the preceding remarks were written, one 

 of the most severe visitations of frost ever ex- 

 perienced here has come and gone.] 



Digging in a Wet Season. 



Should fruit plantations be forked over in such 

 a wet winter as the present one? In my opinion 

 they should not be " dug," as the operation is 

 described. If they are so foul With weeds that 

 they must have the soil turned over, it w T ill be 

 better to wait on the chance of the land being 

 sufficiently dry in February or even in March. 

 According to a good authority, the operation has 

 been discontinued in recent years by many Kent 

 fruit growers, who trust to hoeing alone to keep 

 the land clean, or to horse cultivation and hoeing. 

 My own plan, where the trees have not branched 

 out too much to allow of the horse cultivator 

 being used, is to dispense with what is called 

 digging. The horse work is done many times 

 during the spring, summer, and autumn, and as 

 late in the autumn as possible for the last time 

 if the land is dry. Then a double-breasted plough 

 is run between every two rows of trees and 

 bushes, making shallow furrows, across which 

 water furrows are made. These furrows afford 

 surface drainage to the soil, which would be mud 

 as left by the horse cultivator in the event of 

 the winter being a wet one. 



A word of warning is necessary to anyone who 

 is disposed to try this plan. It is a fatal 

 mistake to use the horse cultivator too late 

 in the autumn when the soil is wet. The 

 machine leaves the soil in so fine a mechanical 

 condition that if it is not dry at the time or if 

 rain falls soon afterwards, the condition of the 

 orchard will be very bad, and only a hard frost 

 succeeded by some fine weather will dry the soil 

 before the spring. But when land is in a dry 

 state at the time of cultivation and rain holds off 

 for a day or two afterwards, it will withstand a 

 good deal of rain later on without becoming 

 waterlogged. Corn farmers are perfectly familiar 



with these facts. 



Now, if the digging, or rather forking, is done 

 in the autumn when the land is dry, it must be 

 admitted that the land lies in better form for the 



the winter than it does after horse cultivation or 



23. 



hand hoeing ; but more often than not, if all the 

 orchard land is forked over, half of it is dealt 

 with when it is wet, and then I believe the opera- 

 tion does more harm than good. Besides, the 

 saving of the expense of that w r ork is a considera- 

 tion of no slight importance. 



The Colouring of Apples. 



Nearly all the letters which have appeared on 

 this subject in these columns support in effect 

 my impression that the colouring of Apples is 

 partly induced by anything which tends to check 

 growth in wood and fruit. Even the letter of 

 Mr. W. H. Johns (see p. 60) I submit does this, 

 although ho thinks that " all factors w T hich tend 



