190 



THE GARDENERS' CHRONICLE. 



[Makch 30, 1912. 



notion that it differs from the rest in preferring 

 a coo] aspect — at least, it was in a cool aspect 

 that Kew possessed a great specimen of unex- 

 ampled beauty. I suspect it of exacting loose, 

 cool, peaty soil and very perfect drainage, for I 

 have known it flag and fail in a wet loam in 

 winter, and I cannot be certain as to whether 

 it is a lime-lover or no. In moraine, like D. 

 neglectus, it has failed here completely. I 1< ng 

 for the day when I shall see it on its own hills 

 and learn a little more of its character and likin ;s. 

 It does not seem free of seed, but grows readily 

 enough from cuttings. Slugs, which dislike 

 D. alpinus and D. neglectus, are rabid gluttons 

 for D. callizonus. There is a plant in cultivation 

 called D. calalpinus, which declares itself to be a 

 hybrid of D. callizonus and D. alpinus. In my 

 eyes, and as I have had it, D. calalpinus has all 

 the characters of D. alpinus, and not one of D 

 callizonus, and seems, in fact (I do not know its 

 history and authority), simply a good, well- 

 freckled form among the countless good, well- 

 freckled forms of pure D. alpinus which you can 

 find in half-an-hour on the high limestones cf 

 Styria. Reginald Farrer. 



THE ROSARY. 



NOTICES OF BOOKS. 



Vegetable Culture for Profit.* 



This book, originally designed chiefly for 

 small -holders, has been expanded and improved 

 until it constitutes a practical and excellent 

 manual for all classes of growers. 



The author is the manager of the French garden 

 at Mayland, and the superintendent of the small 

 holdings which Mr. Joseph Fels has created on 

 the same Essex estate, all of which have been 

 developed under his charge. At a meeting of 

 the Royal Horticultural Society last year, Mr. 

 Smith gave a review of the possibilities of small 

 holdings under a judicious system of manage- 

 ment, and at the same time stated the difficul- 

 ties attending such enterprises. This should be 

 read in conjunction with the book here dealt 

 with, by all who are interested in the important 

 subject of the sub-division of land in rural dis- 

 tricts. 



The preliminary chapters are devoted to a con- 

 sideration of the soil and its treatment, manures 

 and fertilisers, small holdings and market-gar- 

 dens, methods of business, rotations and cropping, 

 with cognate matters, all treated in a lucid and 

 practical way. Six chapters are next appro- 

 priated to French gardening, which is dealt with 

 exhaustively. The disadvantages and the pos- 

 sible losses are enumerated, as well as the gain, 

 so that readers may gain a clear idea of the 

 chances before launching out upon an expensive 

 enterprise. 



The cultural details concerning the different 

 vegetables fill about 220 pages, and each crop is 

 dealt with through the whole period of its de- 

 velopment, from the sowing of the seed or the 

 planting until the time of use, sale, or storing. 

 To this is appended a section giving reminders of 

 the work to be done month by month, a con- 

 densed form of calendar; and another portion 13 

 allotted to grading, packing, and marketing, 

 which is useful, but might have been extended 

 with advantage. 



In a long chapter on M Miscellaneous Informa- 

 tion/* a store of facts has been accumulated 

 that will be of substantial service for refer- 

 ence. One of the most interesting portions of 

 this section is that giving the average amount of 

 produce of each crop per acre, the cost of produc- 

 tion, and the gross returns, from which may be 

 deduced the probable profits. Thus, for early 

 Potatos, the produce is estimated at four to six 

 tons, the cost from £15 to £20, and the returns 

 at £30 to £45 per acre, while of late Potatos the 

 crop is reckoned eight to ten tons, the cost the 

 same as the preceding, and the returns £25 to 

 £35. A Grower. 



RANDOM THOUGHTS ON PRUNING. 



for 20 years and had received an annual pruning 

 by expert rosarians. As a result the clump 

 of Roses, after 20 vears of close rimmi-m «-~- 



If the celebrated ass who first taught the sightly thinner than when first planted. On 



the other hand, he held that non-pruning would 

 equally impoverish Roses because a Rose left 

 to itself would cover itself with blossoms, thus 

 weakening the branches " which end by dying 

 from exhaustion." and he quotes Dr. Barnier 



Athenians to prune the vine, also, as is quite 

 likely, tried his art upon the toothsome briar 

 leaf, thereby giving a practical demonstration in 

 Rose pruning as well as in viticulture, he truly 

 has much to answer for. 



Roses have been pruned from a time "when that "it is always necessary to renew a Rose 



m a _ ^ ■ a a a 



the memory of man runneth not to the con- 



and Roses are with us still, and more 



This in itself is some argu- 



trary, 



beautiful than ever, 

 ment to show that the practice is not wholly dele- 

 terious to the plant, and perhaps all would admit 

 nowadays the necessity of pruning to secure cer- 

 tain results, e.g., the perfect exhibition flower, 

 or the decorative Roses on single sprays nearly 

 a yard long as seen at the shows. Nevertheless, 

 if, now and again, we come across a Roee bush 



bush by cutting out the old branches of three or 

 four years growth, which are used up, are no' 

 getting any bigger, and will die in a short time." 

 Now if we put on one side such pruning it 

 may be rendered necessary by the position of 

 the Rose in the garden, for instance, when it is 

 grown in beds, or as an isolated bush, or in 

 places where free expansion is restricted, in all 

 of which cases the shape of the bush is the first 

 consideration, I think we may take it that our 



V a A * a - a a ■ m 



that apparently has been but little pruned for chief object in pruning is the renovation of the 



r 











FlG. 84. — ODONTOGLOSSUM JASPER. 

 Received R.H.S. Award of Merit on the 5th inst. (See p. 107.) 



• The Profitable Culture of Vegetable*, by Thomas Smith. 

 {Longtnann. Gcceix & Co.) 63. 



years, perhaps a 5-foot bush of Fabvier or Papa 

 Gontier, Roses generally seen as rather small 

 plants, or a tangle of some climber just at the 

 height of its flower season, we may well pause 

 and wonder whether pruning for the decoration 

 of the garden is really practised in the way 

 likely to lead to the production of the best spec- 

 tacular effects. 



Some years ago M. H. Vilmorin enunciated the 

 paradox that "Pruning weakens Roses; non- 

 pruning weakens them also." He pointed out 

 that if two Rose trees were taken of the same 

 variety about the same size, and planted in the 

 same soil, if one were pruned closely and the 

 other left alone and allowed to grow, and both 

 were dug up after three years growth, the 

 pruned Rose would be found to weigh much less 

 than the unpruned one, and he contrasted a 

 climbing Noisette, Aimie Vibert, allowed to grow 

 and cover the side of a house with a clump of 

 Hybrid Perpetual Roses, which had been planted 



plant by the production of fresh-flowering wood, 

 for it is true of nearly all our garden Roses that 

 flowers of first-class quality are only obtained on 

 the outgrowths from vigorous wood of the pre- 

 vious year. 



Following out the line of thought suggested 

 by M. Vilmorin, I think there is evidence 

 that Roses constantly pruned hard do not pro- 

 duce quite such strong growth as those of which 

 the root system has been fed and developed by 

 abundant foliage during the previous summer, 

 have noticed, for instance, that pegged-down 

 plants of J. B. Clark, a rampant grower, have 

 given me at the end of the season shoots 8 to 1* 

 feet in length, while neighbouring plants of the 



closely pruned each year have 



of one-half to two- 

 visit to the 



given 



a 



same variety 



young growths 

 thirds that length. Again, 

 garden of an exhibitor who, caring less for tfl^ 

 garden effect than for beautiful flowers, g*> 

 his Roses in rows after the approved nurser)- 



