JOURNAL OF HOBTICULTUBE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. 



[ August 9, 1877. 



border fork with advantage. The fork went into the ground 

 deeper in the centre of the alleys and very shallow close to 

 the plants. Even this small disturbance would be injurious 

 to one-year-old plants. 



The newer sorts I have tried are Early Prolific, Sir J. Pax- 

 ton, President, La Constante, Eleanor, and Wonderful. 



Early Prolific is a fine good-flavoured Strawberry, but is 

 not robust enough in growth to please me, and rather uncer- 

 tain ; but it is about a week earlier than Keens' Seedling, so 

 that either the Prolific or Black Prince must be grown. A very 

 good plan is to plant them side by side and see which will 

 answer the purpose best. 



Sir J. Paxton and President have done exceedingly well this 

 year. The former is a noble Strawberry and worthy of all the 

 praise given it at the election. President is also a good Straw- 

 berry, rather later than the other, but not equal to it in my 

 estimation. La Constante is a fine-flavoured fruit of dwarf 

 habit, very useful for a shady part of a garden. Wonderful, 

 alias Myatt's Prolific, I have seen well spoken of by some 

 people and very much found fault with by others. I have 

 given it a fair trial, and planted out a long single line running 

 east and west. The plants were manured in the autumn, and 

 the fruit branches supported with little forked sticks and kept 

 apart from each other, and some wire pea guards put over all 

 to keep the birds off, which by the way are excellent for the 

 purpose. There certainly was a wonderful quantity of fruit 

 showing at one time, but the performance was not equal to 

 the promise. There was a fair crop of fair-flavoured fruit 

 without any green tip. It is only a second-rate Strawberry, 

 and I should not care to grow it as long as better kinds succeed 

 well ; but it is quite possible it may be useful in gardens where 

 manure is not available. 



Of the late kinds I need not say much, but I wish we had 

 some later still. The Elton Pine I have had a long time and 

 it does very well ; it is the best late Strawberry here. Frog- 

 more Pine and Eleanor have been recommended; the former 

 is a very good-flavoured fruit, but it is not late enough, or I 

 have the wrong sort. Eleanor I do not very much like at pre- 

 sent, but must give it a further trial. It may turn out rather 

 later than the Elton ; if so, it will be an acquisition. 



I gathered the first dish of Strawberries on the 30th of June, 

 Early Prolific and Keens' Seedling nearly together this year, 

 and the last on the 3rd of August, principally President. There 

 will be a few more stragglers. 



Since writing the above I have seen the remarks of " W. S. P." 

 I regard the annual renewal of beds as only a last resource, 

 and is certainly not desirable except in a few places. I do not 

 think with any amount of care I could obtain half the crop I 

 can from established plants. Two feet apart I think a very 

 good width, but when there is a very large crop, like there was 

 this year, you cannot gather the fruit very well, and have to 

 pick the fruit all round you and clear a space with your hand 

 before you can set a foot anywhere. I think it would be better 

 to leave a foot of extra space between each third row to enable 

 you to gather on each side. Keep the plants at all times free 

 from weeds, but on a light soil beware of letting in the rays 

 of the sun too much. In a very dry season I do not cut off 

 the runners in early summer, or trim up the beds in autumn 

 unless the soil is sufficiently moist, but wait for rain. — 

 Amateub, Cirencester. 



THE ROSE YEAR. 



Amongst the Bose lore of the Journal I am gratified by 

 finding that Boses for garden decoration as well as Boses 

 for exhibition are still cherished by many. Yet, we have a 

 rosarian — a modern orthodox advanced rosarian — who grows 

 hundreds, perhaps thousands of Bose trees : — no, "plants," 

 and who on the 23rd of July writes a valedictory account of 

 " the year that is just over" — the Bose year of 1877. With- 

 out applying a stronger term, I will say that the admission of 

 "'Wild Savage " is a libel on the Bose. He has told us that 

 he was not " in " at the Crystal Palace Show (June 23rd), and 

 " out " a month after that date. Thus he has had about three 

 weeks of Boses for forty-nine weeks of preparation. Fancy 

 the drawing-room of a rosarian being destitute of Boses for 

 forty-nine weeks out of the fifty-two ! If Mrs. Savage can 

 endure that without a murmur she must be possessed of 

 anything but a savage disposition — must, indeed, be angelic. 

 Why, few prisons — I mean the governor's quarters — can, I 

 think, be so destitute, and I trust no hospitals are roseless for 

 such an unreasonable time. Have I placed the matter too 



strongly? Let me quote " Wyld Savage's" own words. On 

 page 47 he haB stated, " For fifty weeks in the year the whole 

 of my front has looked hideous," and at the time of writing 

 that gloomy sentence he gives dismal emphasis to the circum- 

 stance by saying that he had then " nothing in the shape of a 

 flower," nothing for poor Mrs. Savage's drawing-room except 

 (it is only right to mention this) the lovely Teas. 



Let me ask that some spare corner, some place unfavourable 

 by site or soil for exhibition Boses, be vouchsafed for garden 

 Boses — drawing-room Boses, and so make the garden less 

 " hideous " and the room more cheerful. I can enjoy a perfect 

 bloom and an exhibition of Boses, and am willing to admit 

 that few sights are more beautiful, more imposing, but I can- 

 not admit that Bose shows should be the be-all and end-all of 

 Bose cultivation. 



I earnestly hope that there are hundreds besides myself who 

 do not regard the Bose year as being over, but hope to enjoy 

 in gardens and rooms hundreds of Boses for months to come. 

 I am happy to say that if there were no Teas the drawing- 

 room that I have catered for during several years would never 

 have been without Boses from the beginning of May, when a 

 few are produced in the greenhouse, until Christmas. Surely 

 if " Wyld Savage " can grow hundreds of " plants " for pro- 

 ducing exhibition blooms, he can afford space for a few trees 

 and bushes for yielding drawing-room flowers, and so remove 

 what I think is the reproach that now rests on his garden. — 

 A Parson's Gaedenee. 



IN THE NORTH.— No. 1. 



HOWICK HOUSE, PBESTON, LANCASHIRE, 

 THE SEAT OF T. M. SHUTTLEWORTH, ESQ. 



It will have been seen that my steps have again been north- 

 wards, and although Preston was taken in my homeward 

 journey, yet there are reasons why I should give my notes of 

 it first. It is well known that the provincial meeting of the 

 Boyal Horticultural Society is to be held there next year, and 

 that Mr. Shuttleworth is to be the local Secretary ; but it is 

 not equally well known that a Company of which he is Chair- 

 man has guaranteed the sum required by the Society's ar- 

 rangements, and that thus one material difficulty has been 

 got rid of ; and anyone who knows the indomitable energy and 

 pluck which characterise him is thoroughly persuaded that 

 there will be no fiascos as at Bath, and that the comfort and 

 convenience of all concerned will be considered. Beyond this 

 step and the securing of a place for the Show, which will be 

 held in a field of twenty-two acres about two miles from the 

 town, but little has been done ; in a short time, however, we 

 may expect to see the usual announcements and a liberal prize 

 schedule issued. Preston, like most of these northern towns, 

 is not an inviting place, and I can hardly imagine anyone 

 choosing the town itself as a place of residence, but it affords 

 many facilities for an exhibition. It is central, in the midst 

 of a dense population who are given much to holiday-taking ; 

 and there is no doubt if the one element on which everything 

 of the kind depends — if weather be favourable, that the meeting 

 will be a very successful one. 



Howick House has only been in the possession of Mr. Shut- 

 tleworth for about four years, and during that time has been 

 metamorphosed, although the alterations are not yet completed. 

 The house is an old-fashioned roomy residence with no great 

 pretensions to beauty, but pleasantly situated, and has within 

 it the elements of being, what I have no doubt it will be by- 

 and-by, a perfect place. The soil is a rich deep loam, in which 

 Boses and Strawberries grow to perfection. Two large beds of 

 dwarf Boses were wonderful for their vigour, and I should not 

 be at all surprised by-and-by to find the Boses from Howick 

 occupying a distinguished place. Of this I am sure, if once the 

 idea seizes my good friend he will not rest until he is at the top 

 of the tree, and no Hercules or Agamemnon or any other hero 

 will deter him ; and I say this from what he has already done. 

 In the course of a few years he has become one of our leading 

 exhibitors of plants, has carried off a number of Mr. Bull's 

 cups, has won the ladies' gold medal at Preston, and the gold 

 medal at the International at Dundee, and the gold medal at 

 the last great summer show of the Boyal Horticultural Sooiety ; 

 and no one who saw the splendid examples of foliage plants 

 then exhibited could doubt that the position attained by Mr. 

 Shuttleworth was rightly his due. Like many another exhi- 

 bitor he has worked his way up. He is fond of telling his own 

 story, how some years ago when he was a greenhorn he had 

 sent some twenty entries to a provincial show, and feeling that 



