July 5, 1877 ] 



JOURNAL OP HORTICULTURE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. 



17 



July 4th will find Surrey about at its best ; at least a Reigate 

 friend in whom I place much faith jubilantly threatens a 

 thirty-six box for St. James's Hall, to replace bis first for twenty- 

 four at last year's Aquarium Show. Speaking of Reigate I 

 may remark that the Reigate Committee, with its popular 

 President Mr. Baker, had reBolved on offering this year an all- 

 EDgland prize for thirty-six, in hopes of attracting some 

 Hercules and Leviathan ; however, the seizure of our day by 

 the Alexandra (all honour to them otherwise for their most 

 liberal schedule) has caused this to be deferred at any rate to 

 another year. Plaisir remis n'est pas perdu (Pleasure delayed 

 is not lost), as a lady friend of mine has just written to me. 

 It would be great convenience if we could have two Julys. 

 Could not our ingenious American cousins contrive this for us ? 

 That I doubt ; but with reference to Rose results I will take 

 one idea from them, ' It is never safe to prophesy unleBS you 

 are sure ;' but I venture to predict that in the great contest 

 impending the best horse will win, and that a good horse (or 

 Rose) cannot be of a bad colour. — A. C." 



Mr. Jessop, writing from near Chertsey, says, " The late 

 cold wet spring has very much retarded the growth of young 

 wood. The ground was sodden, and then came continuous 

 east winds, which dried up into a hard crust the clayey soil of 

 this neighbourhood ; afterwards in May came the cruel froBts, 

 stopping the growth and cutting off the shoots that had started. 

 In some quarters, where the ground had been stirred about 

 the roots of the Roses and then heavily mulched, the growth 

 has been satisfactory, some of the shoots being surprisingly 

 strong — viz., Chesbunt Hybrid, Etienne Levet, Comtesse 

 d'Oxford, Richard Wallace, Capt. Christy, Camille Bernardin, 

 Peach Blossom, Emilie Hausburg, Comte de Nanteuil, and 

 many of the old favourites. Reynolds Hole, Horace Yernet, 

 Marie Cointet, Charles Rouillard, Duke of Edinburgh — 

 straggling growth. Xavier Olibo is, I believe, constitutionally 

 weak, and always seems as if making an effort to exist. Dwarfs 

 on the Manetti are generally bad hero. In some quarters, 

 where the soil is lighter for the Manetti, grubs have played sad 

 havoc, many of the Btocks being killed outright, the fibrous 

 roots being entirely eaten away ; the Briar on the clay escap- 

 ing this pest. Sultan of Zanzibar, Dr. Hooker, Duke of Con- 

 naught, Miss Hassard, and Mons. E. Y. Teas are doing fairly 

 well. La Roeiere is of a splendid colour ; I think much of it. 

 Of its form and texture another week or two will tell better. 

 It is a poor affair thus early." Mr. Moorman communicates 

 similar experience from Coombe, and from Buckinghamshire 

 we have tidings of the same nature. 



Going "further a-field" Mr. Camm writes as follows: — 

 " I live just on the borders of Dorset, and the district I allude 

 to extends from here to Exeter. I should say the prospects in 

 this district are rather bad. My Roses have not done at all 

 well. There is no growth, no vigour, and no likelihood of it 

 either, so far as I can see. Mr. Baker's Roses are very back- 

 ward, particularly his young plants and his maidens; in fact, 

 up to this date he has cut all his prize blooms from old plants. 

 Tea Roses here are very backward. The severe weather in 

 May destroyed moBt of the early buds, and as I never leave a 

 faulty bud on a tree numbers of my Teas have not yet bloomed. 

 I believe there will be a great scarcity this year of standard 

 Roses in the market. One or two of the great houses are very 

 badly off for them, but I hear there are wonderful prospects 

 for next year, and in those nurseries which I have visited I 

 have been much struck with the grand growth of the Briars. 

 On the whole, then — judging from my own garden, from exhi- 

 bitions, and from what I have been told by the leading 

 rosarians — I am inclined to think that the year 1877 will not be 

 reckoned as a good Rose year." 



From more northerly districts we gather from two letters 

 from Yorkshire and one from Lincolnshire that spring frostB 

 have only slightly injured the young growths, that the Roses 

 have Beldom looked better than this year, and have never been 

 known so late. One writer says that the great Rose Society 

 that is " called national " is only " half national," and that 

 " it will not be worthy of its name until it is strong enough to 

 hold two shows in each year — one in the south and one in the 

 north ; and until that is accomplished growers in the north, 

 however " warmly " they might support the Show, must be 

 " left out in the cold," because Lincolnshire, Notts, and Derby- 

 shire are a fortnight and Yorkshire three weeks later than 

 Devon, Dorset, and the southern counties." 



From Scotland we learn that the Rose prospects were never 

 better than this year, and that growth is advancing rapidly 

 Tinder the genial influences of fine weather. 



From Wales (South) We have an interesting letter giving a 

 favourable account of that district for Rose culture, and that 

 Roses generally are now looking well. As we cannot well 

 abridge this letter, its publication muBt be postponed, as must 

 also several other interesting communications on the same 

 popular subject, although we have afforded this week additional 

 space to Rose articles. 



FRUIT-TREE CULTURE. 



I have read the interesting remarks of your correspondent 

 " Northern Gardener," but do not propose at present to 

 consider all the points he has brought forward. With regard 

 to the law on the subject, I am still of the same opinion 

 that I was some time ago, that a grand result would be pro- 

 duced by an alteration in the way suggested ; and my principal 

 object in now writing to you is to say that I do not intend 

 to let the matter drop, but am collecting information on the 

 subject. 



On consideration I came to pretty much the same conclusion 

 as " Northern Gardener," that the preBent moment, whilst 

 the war between Russia and Turkey was proceeding and the 

 fag-end of the session approaching, was not very opportune for 

 the introduction of the subject. 



There was an extract in the Journal the other day from an 

 American newspaper which stated " that fruit to the value of 

 millions is imported here which might be just as well grown 

 at home." That, no doubt, is true, and I hope before long 

 we shall do it. 



Besides the articles in this Journal alluded to by your cor- 

 respondent, there have been several important papers and 

 essays lately elsewhere. A paper by Mr. Webb on fruit-grow- 

 ing, read before the Institution of Surveyors ; a paper in the 

 " Society of Arts Journal," January 19th, 1877, on the culti- 

 vation of common fruits from a social and economical point of 

 view; and quite recently an essay in the " Royal Agricultural 

 Society's Journal" on fruit-growing in Kent, by Mr. White- 

 head of Maidstone ; so that if something is not done before 

 long to extend fruit cultivation in this country it will not be 

 from the want of attention being drawn to the subject on tho 

 part of the literary community. 



I do not think landlords here with their present ideas would 

 care to supply fruit trees to the tenants. The cottages are no 

 profit now ; very often a cottage and a quarter of an acre of 

 garden ground let for Is. a-week and the landlord expected to 

 do repairs, and the interest put on for a few trees he would 

 think infra dignitate. Perhaps they may be induced to change 

 their ideas on the subject, if not disposed to grant the small 

 concession of allowing their tenants to take away what were 

 originally their own trees. 



I think there is a great deal to be learnt yet with regard to 

 Apple cultivation by observing the time in which the various 

 kinds come into bloom, and the result on the produce of the 

 trees. I took a few notes this year, which I may send at a 

 future time if thought likely to be interesting. — Amateur^ 

 Cirencester. 



[Please do so ; your letters are always interesting. — Eds.] 



ROSES AND THEIR ENEMIES. 



Amongst the answers to correspondents in your last week's 

 edition I note an expression of opinion that emmets are not 

 destructive to Rose buds. Permit me to Bay that my expe- 

 rience of growing Roses has taught me that these insects do 

 as much injury to the buds as the caterpillar; and having 

 regard to the great numerical strength of- the emmets to the 

 caterpillars, the former, in my opinion, do by far the most 

 injury. From my observation of the emmets' work of de- 

 struction I am able to say that they attack the extreme point 

 of the bud. Here they soon make a small hole downwards in 

 the centre ; in a few dayB the top half of the bud will be entirely 

 eaten away, and instead of looking at a bud which a few days 

 ago promised to turn out a fine Rose, one has now to look 

 upon a mass of emmetB comfortably lodged on the remains of 

 the bud. 



The above short record of my experience of the emmet, and, 

 so far, its habit of destructiveness, may perhaps be interesting 

 to some of your numerous readers who are fond of a good 

 Rose. I grow a good many of them in my villa garden, and 

 pride myself that I can cut a good one for a button-hole every 

 morning from about the middle of May to, I might say, the 

 end of the year, besides furnishing my house and numerous 



