August 24, 1876. ] 



JOUBNAL OP HORTICULTURE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. 



163 



and thoae who are competent to judge affirm that the flavour 

 of Strawberries which are grown in open fields is much supe- 

 rior to that of fruit which is produced in enclosed gardens. 

 The soil between the rows is kept quite loose with a view of 

 preserving the moisture in the Boil ; and although there had 

 been scarcely any rain for months, and much of the soil was 

 composed of sand and gravel— soil which one would consider 

 to be totally unfitted for Strawberry cultivation— yet the 

 plants were fresh and vigorous to a much greater degree than 

 is usually seen in gardens — in fact, it is little short of mar- 

 vellous to see the luxuriance of the plants in a soil apparently 

 so Tght and poor. In some fields the surface is quite covered 

 with gravel, and when moved little beyond pure sand can be 

 seen ; but below the loose surface the soil is moist, and it is 

 this moisture, with the full sweep of wind, which probably 

 keeps in check red spider, to which the remarkable condition 

 of the plants must be attributed. The site of the Strawberry 

 fields is elevated, and the crops are generally better on the 

 hills than in the valleys. The finest pieces of all are on 

 ground from which the copses have been cleared. As the 

 scrubby profitless "wood" is cleared off, Strawberries are 

 planted without any manure, and they flourish in a manner 

 which. is quite astonishing. Sir J. Paxton and Eleanor are the 

 favourite sorts. 



A visit to this fruitful district suggests how land which may 

 have for many years been almost unremunerative may be 

 turned to profitable account by placing it under fruit cultiva- 

 tion. Strawberries are considered to be the most lucrative 

 erop that can be grown in this district, and their culture has 

 contributed in no small degree to make the fortunes of those 

 who have entered on their cultivation in a spirited and in- 

 telligent manner. It is instructive to note the extensive and 

 successful manner in which fruit is cultivated around Swanley, 

 and especially is the value of deeply working the soil and con- 

 stantly moving its surface most strikingly manifested by the 

 healthy appearance of the crops during a season that has been 

 remarkable for extreme heat and drought. — J. 



NOTES- OF A SCOTTISH TOUR.— No. 3. 



CASTLE KENNEDY. 



Befoee entering into any details of this moEt interesting 

 place it may be well, as I have said something of the situation 

 of the place, to add a few words as to its climate. It seems to 

 be one peculiarly adapted for the classes of plants which have 

 been used in laying out the grounds ; for although lying so 

 far north it is far more mild than many of the southern parts 

 of England — in fact approximating more to that of Devonshire 

 and Cornwall. This is to be attributed, I suppose, in great 

 part to the influence of the Gulf Stream, which divides off the 

 western coast of Ireland, one portion of the current running 

 northwards. Hence the mildness of the coast, snow seldom 

 remaining long on the ground, severe frosts being rare, and 

 moisture abundant ; and hence the pinetum at Castle Kennedy 

 passed unscathed through that terrible Christmas eve of 1860, 

 which laid low so many hopes of the landscape gardener in 

 less favoured districts, and this must be borne in mind by any 

 readers of these notes. They may say the statements are 

 entirely opposed to their own experience. It may be so, but 

 then the position and climate of Castle Kennedy are peculiar, 

 and have enabled the noble proprietor and his excellent gar- 

 dener to achieve results which are impossible in many places. 

 As an instance of this let me note the remarkable manner in 

 which the Sikkim Rhododendrons flourish. They are planted 

 in all directions, flourish as well as the more common kinds, 

 and equally by the beauty of their foliage and inflorescence add 

 wondrously to the effect ; and it would surprise many people 

 to see varieties such as Thomsonii, campanulatum, campylo- 

 carpum, barbatum, nobilis, niveum, and lanceolatum, which 

 we have been accustomed to associate with greenhouse culture, 

 flourishing vigorously in the open air; also one the name of 

 which Mr. Fowler has been unable to ascertain. It grows aB 

 rapidly ;is R. ponticum ; has long pointed leaves of a mahogany 

 colour on the under side, the upper side dark green ; the young 

 wood of a dull red colour. The flowers are white, with dark 

 spots inside, and black anthers. Mr. Fowler iB eo impressed 

 with the extreme beauty and usefulness of these noble plants, 

 that he is gradually extending them all over the place, and 

 they will soon be quite a feature of themselves. Of the hybrid 

 Rhododendrons there are immense quantities growing on banks 

 and in every available place. Driving along by the loch one 

 sees whole banks of them on the other side, mixed as I have 



said with Fuchsias, and these latter were all ablaze with their 

 brilliant scarlet flowers. The species used is F. discolor, intro- 

 duced from Port Famine in 1830, and believed to be the parent 

 of one more generally used and known as F. Riccartonii ; it ia 

 even hardier and earlier than that, and attains here quite a 

 grand size. It is not uncommon to see them 12 and 14 feet 

 high and as many feet through ; and as they are freely planted 

 amongst the Rhododendrons and do not come into flower until 

 the Rhododendrons have gone out completely, give a great 

 brightness to what would otherwise be a dense mass of foliage 

 alone. 



It is impossible for me to give any adequate idea of the ex- 

 treme beauty of the planting of the pinetum and ground adjoin- 

 ing. It is not — as one has seen pinetums in other places, 

 where single specimens stand out from all other surroundings 

 — to be admired alone. Here they are in groups and avenues 

 intermingled with other trees. Here, for instance, is an 

 Araucaria avenue, in which the trees are in the most flourish- 

 ing condition — no scorched and naked Btems, but all in the 

 rudest health ; then we come on a Box avenue, of which the 

 same may be said ; then there is a scarlet Thorn avenue. Here 

 again are groups of Irish Yews, and close by an avenue of the 

 Golden Queen Holly. Then again we come on an avenue 

 of Cupressus macrocarpa with trees 16 to 28 feet high ; while 

 whole quarters of Pinus cephalonica, Picea nobilis and P. in- 

 signis met the eye in every direction, together with fine single 

 plants of P. Webbiana, Abies Morinda, a moBt lovely Conifer 

 from the Himalayas of drooping habit, A. orientalis, very fine, 

 Abies Douglasii, a king among Conifers in respect of vigour, 

 habit, and dense dark foliage, and a very beautiful varie- 

 gated form of it raised here and called by Mr. Fowler Stairii. 

 I saw this in all stages from the tiniest plants in the nursery 

 ground np to largish trees, and in all stages it was good and 

 the variegation most constant, and I have little doubt that 

 when better known it will be found as useful as Acer Ne- 

 gundo variegata in lighting up plantations, with the addi- 

 tional advantage of being evergreen instead of deciduous. 

 Then Pioea lasiocarpa and P. Larioio were to be seen in 

 great numbers, the latter outstripping in growth the native 

 Firs. The Japan speoies, A. firma, also does well, so does also 

 P. muricata, and in fact every speoies Beems to thrive. 



There are some conclusions which Mr. Fowler's experience 

 has led him to, about which there have been in some cases 

 sharp controversies. It has been said amongst other things 

 that home-grown seed is not as good as the foreign. Now Mr. 

 Fowler totally denies this. He showed us in the seed ground 

 large quantities of Buch kinds as P. insignis, P. Webbiana, and 

 P. nobilis, which had come up in the greatest regularity and 

 gave promise of becoming sturdy and healthy plants. Then, 

 again, it has been questioned whether grafted trees would 

 stand ; but here were trees of P. nobilis, perhaps the most 

 majestic Fir of all, grafted on the Silver Fir, twenty years old, 

 and as vigorous as any tree could be. The value of some of 

 these Californian Firs may be seen from the fact that they 

 stand the storms better than the Scotch Fir, and the storms 

 on this coast are well worthy of the name. In one exposed 

 part of the ground Mr. Fowler was anxious to get P. insignis 

 to grow freely, and he planted as shelter for it some Scotch 

 Firs; but now in twenty years' time the former has so grown 

 as to be 7 feet in circumference, while the Scotch Firs are not 

 half the size : so that both in an ornamental and economical 

 view we may expect to see in course of time these Californian 

 trees entering largely into the planting of some of the more 

 favoured parts of Scotland and Ireland. 



The appreciative writer in the " Quarterly Review," No. 283, 

 page 83, Beems to have had more experience of the southern 

 portion of our islands, and in the matter of Conifers refers 

 with justice to the grand results obtained at Dropmore by good 

 old Mr. Frost. He deprecates the use of Araucarias for avenue 

 purposes, and in the ordinary sense of an avenue — i.e., an 

 approach to some grand residence, perhapB he is right. The 

 Elm, the Lime, the Beech, and the Spanish Chestnut may be 

 more suitable for such purposes, but I hardly think that he 

 would complain of the avenue of Araucarias here. Evergreen 

 trees are unsuitable for such avenues as I allude to, not merely 

 for the reasons he gives, that " they do not possess the charms 

 of deciduous trees, the different guise of the trees in summer 

 and winter, in and out of leaf," but there is an amount of 

 sombreness about them all which would lead one in such a 

 case to imagine you were entering a cemetery rather than a 

 private mansion. In gathering lessons from the experience of 

 such men as Mr. Fowler and such plantations as those which 



