October 12, 1876. ] 



JOURNAL OP HORTICULTURE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. 



321 



Falcot for buds, Madame Jules Margottin, Madame Margottin, 

 and Moire, Teas; and Celine Forestier and Triomphe de 

 Rennes, Noisettes. If he bag not room for all he can leave 

 out Madame Charles and Madame Falcot. If he buys these 

 this year he should not have them sent him just now, as here 

 the Teas are in full bloom. I should say the beginning of 

 December would be soon enough for planting. 



As to culture, he cannot do better than follow the capital 

 advice given by one of your correspondents a little while ago 

 in an article on pot Roses. I should, however, recommend 

 him to prune very sparingly. He must not allow his Vines to 

 shade the Teas too much, or they will suffer. A brother of 

 mine who lives in Yorkshire has a span-roofed house filled with 

 Teas, but he finds it necessary to heat it; but as " H. L." 

 lives in Somerset no doubt this will be quite unnecessary. 

 The sorts I have named are all beautiful varieties, as he will 

 find about May next year.— Wild Savage. 



CRAWFORD'S EARLY PEACH. 



The gardening periodicals speak in high terms of this 

 Peach ; the couple of dishes of it exhibited this season have 

 made a decided mark. Now, I have always held an opinion 

 that the exhibition table is not to be compared to the dinner 

 table for deciding the merits of anything in the fruit and vege- 

 table line. Some may not see this, nevertheless I find it so. 

 Few can grow Peaches merely to show onoe or twice in the 

 Beason. Most of us are expected to have a supply of Peaohes 

 for the table daily from August to the end of September from 

 outdoors, and if we have houses so much sooner must the 

 fruit be ready. To do this we must have reliable varieties. 

 To those who have room only for a tree or two it is still more 

 important to have not only good productive sorts, but also 

 varieties that will hold their own at the exhibition table ; there 

 are plenty of established varieties that will do both. 



I give way to no one for love of variety when it is good, but 

 I oannot allow that — I may call it a whim — to carry me away 

 from that which is serviceable. It is all very well to have 

 variety when room will permit, as, for instance, in large gardens 

 let there be Crawford's Early by all means. In penning these 

 remarks I am thinking of others having limited wall room, 

 and who may, after what has been written of Crawford's Peach, 

 be inclined to give it a place as a reliable variety. Well, so 

 far as my experience goes it is far from being a reliable variety ; 

 so much so, that after three years' trial after the tree had be- 

 come of a fruiting condition I find this rosy-cheeked beauty 

 only obtain applause when before a public audience ; but if we 

 look, as it were, behind the scenes— namely, in the family 

 circle, we find a very different estimate, for one good and 

 beautiful Peach will hardly counterbalance the five or six ill- 

 looking disagreeable fruit acsompanying it. 



I have always entertained a different notion of the words 

 "good" and "bad" from most people. It is generally said, 

 " Oh, give me little and good," &c, but I say, Give me plenty 

 of what is good, and as little as possible of what is bad. 



Now, it is just possible that Crawford's Peach may suit those 

 who want little and good, for they will surely have little that 

 is good, and as surely have much that is bad for the little that 

 is good. Crawford's Peach is for the few and not the many. 

 When you can obtain enough it is fine for the exhibition table, 

 but we have plenty far better varieties for the home table — 

 large, high-flavoured, good-looking, heavy-cropping sortB of 

 the same season of ripening. We may find a place for this 

 variety if it came extremely early or late, but it is neither. 

 We have our latest Peach in the Salwey, of which Crawford's 

 " Early " may be called a midseason variety. Taking the 

 two the Salwey is far the best, simply because it carries us 

 on for a few weeks after the better sorts are gone. I feel I am 

 not the only one who thinks Crawford's is not a desirable 

 Peach. If not bo, why is it we have not heard something of 

 it from those who have cultivated it ? So far as I have read 

 not a word has been Baid from them, and I may say the proper 

 quarter. On what grounds, then, has it been spoken so highly 

 of? Only, I presume, from the few dishes that have been 

 seen at the exhibition table. 



Let those unearth themselves who have found it to be other 

 than what I have said of it, and give the readers of this 

 Journal some proof that it deserves their attention as an 

 " excellent Peach." Here is my three years' experience of it : — 

 First year no fruit. A good few on most of other varieties. 

 Second year a fair crop as regards number, but not one in six 

 came to perfection — viz., one good eatable large fruit to five or 



six small ill-flavoured, ill-shaped, worthless fruit. All other 

 varieties produced a very heavy crop of large high-coloured 

 well-flavoured fruit. The third year the tree had five or six 

 fruit, and one of them was a perfect beauty, as noble fruit as 

 ever I saw, and it had, too, four or five small, the size of a 

 good Plum — as worthless fruit as a tree could produce. No 

 one could eat them — no, not even a hungry schoolboy. It only 

 remains for me to say that the tree is in perfect health.— 

 Jno. Taylok, Hardwicke Grange. 



THE CULTURE OP LETTUCES. 



This well-known and long-established vegetable is so com- 

 mon and cultivated in such large quantities, especially in the 

 neighbourhood of London, that it might be termed the salad 

 for the million, nothing being more relished as a salading by 

 all classes of the community than a well-grown Lettuce. 



Simple as the growth of Lettuces may appear, it is not by 

 any means an easy task to keep-up an unbroken supply of 

 well-hearted, well-blanched, and crisp Lettuces, but one which 

 requires a considerable amount of forethought and attention. 

 To meet this demand it is necessary to make one or more 

 sowings of the Bath or Brown Coi (black-seeded), in an 

 open space during the second or third week in August. I 

 usually sow on or about the 20th, but sometimes the date has 

 to be regulated by the weather. From these sowings sturdy 

 plants are to be obtained during November : they must be 

 planted under hand-lights, frames, or on the border of a south 

 wall, where they will stand most of our ordinary winters with- 

 out protection. In this border I plant them 6 inches apart, 

 and during March prepare a rich piece of ground, when I care- 

 fully lift with a trowel or fork every other row and every other 

 plant in the rows remaining. These I transplant a foot apart, 

 and they form a succession to those left on the south bcrder, 

 which will furnish an excellent supply of crisp Lettuces in 

 early May. Attention must be paid to frequent hoeinga and 

 waterings should a dry spring set in. This variety if grown 

 quickly and well blanched is considered to be the most crisp 

 and best-flavoured Lettuce grown. Should any fear exist of 

 not having a sufficient early supply, the Early Paris Market 

 Cabbage variety, sent out by Messrs. James Veitch & Sons a 

 year or two Bince, is an admirable sort for quick produce, and 

 may be used very young. A few seeds sown among the early 

 frame Potatoes or Carrots, and the plants planted befora they 

 have become weak or drawn will be found to turn-in very quickly, 

 and will prove valuable where the demand is great. It will be 

 found a very good plan to sow a pinch of the seed of this variety 

 on a warm border during February, as also a sowirjg of Paris 

 White Cos, or the selected stocks of this variety the Kingsholm 

 and Alexandra White Cos, which will form a good succession to 

 the above. After this time it will become necessary to make a 

 sowing every fortnight or three weeks, and I know of no better 

 summer Lettuce than the Paris White Cos. It i3, under good 

 cultivation, Belf-folding, and has not a very hurried tendency 

 to bolt with the heat and drought. 



A plan which I generally adopt, and which I have great 

 confidence in, is to sow on a well-manured but light piece of 

 ground in drills a foot apart, thin-out before the plants become 

 crowded, and transplant the sturdiest of them, which form a 

 succession to those left remaining where sown. I am a great 

 advocate for lifting Lettuce plants carefully, for breaking the 

 roots and fibres causes a great check and predisposes the plants 

 to bolt when transplanted ; but Paris Cos, if sown succession- 

 ally and treated as advised, will carry on a supply until frost 

 sets in. 



Two sowings of the Bath or Brown Cos should be made the 

 middle of July to the first week in August. The former of 

 these will give a supply of plants during October and Novem- 

 ber, and the latter will carry us on from Christmas onwards. 

 The plants from these sowings will of course require protection 

 under glass, so they must be lifted with good balls and planted 

 in frames in an open position, for damp is a great enemy to 

 them in these quarters ; it will therefore be necessary to give 

 all the air possible consistent with keeping them dry. 



I have alwayB found that the Cos varieties are most in 

 request, but, judging from what I saw a short time ago in 

 Plymouth market, I Bhould Bay they are very little known in 

 the west, for not a creditable specimen was to be had, but 

 good Cabbage Lettuces were plentiful. On inquiry I was told 

 they had no sale for the Cos varieties. All the Tear Round is 

 a first-class Cabbage variety, and worthy of being grown where 

 the Cabbage varieties are not objected to. 



