July 6, 1871. ] 



JOURNAL OF HOETICULTURE AND COTTAGE GABDENEE. 



9 



and the novelty which always attends the introduction ot every 

 kind of produce to table for the first time will have worn oil, 

 and high prices will be no longer likely to be realised. 



For the reasons given as above, against planting early fruits 

 with the hopes of profit, I would say there is a good one for 

 planting for the late season, for ihere is less likelihood of com- 

 petition here. An English Apple in March, when good, far 

 exceeds those of any other country I am acquainted with, al- 

 though those from abroad look better, but the hot summer of 

 the Continent would seem unfavourable to the Apple attaining 

 that juicy condition which renders it palatable at table as a 

 dessert fruit, or a favourite in the kitchen for its cooking 

 qualities, and I am ot opinion we must in future depend on 

 those of home growth for all that is useful in this fruit. Buyers 

 who like an article to look at may be tempted by the more 

 showy appearance of Apples of foreign growth, and it is possible 

 a better class of fruit from the north of Europe may eventually 

 find their way here in quantity, as I have seen very flue samples 

 of Apples from Sweden and Norway at a fruit exhibition, but 

 of their quality I have no knowledge. If they be good, and 

 ■obtainable in quantity, I see no reason why they should not be 

 sent here as well as fish and other perishable articles from 

 these countries. Once let it be shown that a profit can be 

 •made, and the merchaut will furnish the article required, be it 

 from the antipodes or the interior of the largest continent, yet 

 I somehow think the home grower will always have the late 

 market season in his own hands, and I would advise his planta- 

 "tiong to be regulated to meet that requirement. 



It will be easily perceived, that what I have said on the pro- 

 priety of aiming at the growth of the best keeping Apples in 

 preference to early ones in future, relates to other fruits. Only 

 iu the matter ot Pears it is likely France and the Channel 

 Islands will compete with us in the late kinds, as well as those 

 in the middle ot the season. Plums seem already to have 

 been too extensively planted of late years. The glut of last 

 year will, no doubt, check further increase that way. Dimsons, 

 •especially, will, I think, be more than are necessary to mc et 

 the demand half a dozen years hence ; but it is difficult to 

 foresee the public requirements; and were I called upon to 

 plant a large area at the present time, I would certainly have 

 a large portion of it in soft fruits, as not likely to have to 

 -compete so seriously with the foreigner, and, if the soil and 

 situation suited, I would plant early Pears and late Api-des, 

 omitting altogether both Plums and Oberries, the latter fruit 

 being, in my opinion, likely to be superseded by a superior 

 arlioie from the south of Europe. Of Plums there seem to 

 be plantations enough already. Fuitber, I would again say 

 here, what I commenced with, that I would not recommend 

 the planting ot an orchard on any but the best ot soils and 

 sites, for, although it is quite possible to make a soil, it is 

 ■another thing to make a purse, fend in the growth of an article 

 where there are so many chances ot a failure, it is prudent 

 to make them as few as possible, by selecting only the best sites 

 for an orchard, and it it does not pay on these it will not pay at 

 all ; certainly it will not do so on one of an adverse kind. 



One more remark may be made on the subject of making 

 orchards pay, and that is one of some delicacy, but it ought 

 not to be omitted, as a remedy may perhaps be found. Can- 

 not the middle man, or men, who stand between the grower 

 and the consumer, aijord to live with a less profit than at 

 present received ? Fur the difierence between what the con- 

 •sumer has to pay and what the grower recfcives is certainly out 

 ■ of all proporti(m to what it ought to be. True, the article is a 

 perishable one, and must be used-up in some way, but it is not 

 more perishable than the carcase of a sheep or bullock, and yet 

 •the diiierenca between what the.producer receives and the con- 

 sumer pays in this trade is but a fraction of what is the case 

 in the fruit trade. Why this should be the case I am at a loss 

 to know, unless it be that a reformation in the fruit trade is 

 wanted; for, unless I be wrongly ioformed, it is in the late- 

 keeping kinds ot Apples that these discrepancies are the 

 greatest, and not in the soft fruit. This matter requires ex- 

 planation at other hands, as well as some other apparently un- 

 accountable transactions in the fruit trade; for, however goo 1 

 the crop of Apples may have been iu ihe country, and the 

 prices accordingly low, it is a notorious fact that an Orange 

 can be bought cheaper in the streets of London after January 

 than an Apple can. The one has to brought some 2000 or 

 3000 miles, the other 20 or 30, or more, rarely 100, and at 

 the time alluded to the one seems about as peiishable an 

 article as the other. One thing must be considered by the 

 home-grower, and that is, it it will pay to import Oracgea such 



a distance to sell in the streets as cheaply as Apples grown iu 

 Kent are sold there, what may not competition do when it 

 more especially settles into the Apple trade ? Perhaps the best 

 answer to this is, that the trade in Oranges ij in a more healthy 

 state ; the various parties through which they find their way 

 from the grower to the consumer are each satisfied with a 

 moderate profit, hence the reasonable rate tbay are retailed at. 

 Why the same cannot be done with home-grown fruits is a 

 question I should like some one else to solve, for upon it de- 

 pends more of the success or fiilure ot fruit-growing as a 

 profitable calling than on any especial mode of culture, and 

 the sooner the poor householder in London and elsewhere can 

 buy the fruit he wants at a rate not exceeding 50 per cent, 

 more than what the grower receives, the better it will be for all 

 concerned. The butcher receives nothing like this, yet he 

 lives, and the article he deals in is quite as perishable as fruit. 



NOTES AND GLEANINGS. 

 It is most gratifying to state, that the Roial Horticultural 

 Society's Exhibition at Nottingham has been, in a financial 

 as well as in a horticultural sense, the most successful of the 

 Society's country shows. The receipts were as follows : — ■ 



£ s. d. 



Taesday, June '27th l.iO 7 6 



Wednesday,,, 2Sth 3U5 2 



Thursday, ,, 2nth e'21 7 



Friday, ,, S'Jtli 313 17 10 



Saturday, July 1st 393 13 3 



1907 1 2 

 Season Tickets 600 



Total 2507 1 2 



To this_ amount is to be added the rent of spaces for mis- 

 cellaneous exhibitions, &c. 



Lapageria rosea has in most gardens been only culti- 

 vated in a greenhouse temperature, and so far from being kept 

 cool, this lovely climber is frequently exposed to a temperature 

 more nearly approaching that of tho stove, or of wh'\t is called 

 an intermediate house. At Colston Bassett, Nottinghamshire, 

 in the garden ot G. P. Davie, E?q., it has stood out of doors 

 four winters not remarkable for their mildness, and it was only 

 in that of 1870-71 that it suSered. It was then killed down to 

 the ground, but is again springing up, and will doubtless be 

 as vigorous as ever. The experiment of planting the Lapageria 

 out of doors in the warm climates of Devonshire, Cornwall, end 

 other southern counties is well worthv of trial, but near London 

 we fear it would fare worse than in Notts. 



At the dinner given to the Judges ot the Crystal Palace 



Eose Show on the 24th ult., the Rsv. H. H. Dombrain, as 

 Chairman, presented to Mr. Wilkinson, who has for many 

 years superintended the flower shows, on behalf of exhibitors 

 and Judges, a very beautiful silver claret jug and cup, and in 

 doing so expressed his thanks on behalf of the subscribers, to 

 Mr. Wilkinson, for his unvarying kindness and courtesy, and 

 his regret that owing to the increased duties devolving on him 

 since Mr. Bowly's death, that he would not be brought into 

 such close contact with iLem as formerly. Mr. Wilkinson 

 replied in suitable terms. 



UpwARDSof fifty of the employees of Mr. B S Williams, 



of the Victoria and Paradise Nurseries, Upper Holloway, held 

 their usual summer festival on the 23rd ult., at the Eye House. 

 The toast ot the day was their worthy employer, received with 

 hearty cheers and musical honours ; this was responded to most 

 appropriately by Mr. Williams, senior, who is a very old and 

 much-respected resident in the neighbourhood, who was ot the 

 party by their special request. 



In compliance with a requisition numerously and re- 

 spectably signed by the inhabitants of Chippenham, a public 

 meeting was held at the New Hall, on the 26!h ult., for the pur- 

 pose of considering the advisability of establishing a Hohti- 



CULTURiL AND CoTTAGE GARDEN lilPROVEHENT SOCIETY. Ths 



Mayor presided. 



Mr. James Stone, who first brought the matter before the public, 

 said he had been actuated by two motives in asking his Worship to 

 convene the meeting. First, that such a Society would be the means 

 of attracting the inhabitants of neij^hhouring towns and villages to 

 come and circulate some money iu the town. Secondly, that such a 

 Society possessed claims of a much higher and nobler character — viz., 

 'the moral and material improvement of the cottagers, and his expert- 



