September 6, 1877. ] 



JOURNAL OF HORTICULTURE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. 



191 



Lord Kenyon's Favourite, and Munro's Bake of Edinburgh. 

 — A Retibed Gaedeneh. 



A GOOD SUMMEB APPLE. 

 In the last volume of the Journal (pages 226 and 267) I 

 mentioned an unnamed early Apple. I now send some fruit 

 for your examination. I have had a very good crop on my 

 tree this summer, notwithstanding the unfavourable season 

 for most other sorts. In the spring this variety gave a suc- 

 cession of blooms extending over a long period of frosty 

 weather ; the last blooms, however, had a few fine days to 

 set the pollen, and so a crop was saved. By the way, all my 

 varieties which have this habit of- long succession of blooms 

 are bearing heavy crops, such habit being, I consider, of great 

 value in an Apple, giviDg the variety a good chance of escaping 

 the spring frosts which readily kill the pollen, while such a 

 variety as Scarlet Nonpareil, for instance, which has all its 

 blossoms out at once, has but one chance in the season. 



Fig. 42. 



But to return to our Apple. Its refreshing juice has been 

 very welcome during the hot weather, a rich perfume and 

 handsome appearance being among its attractions. In regard 

 to its ripening period I have had it ripe in the middle of July 

 in former seasons, but this year it was not ripe till the end of 

 the month, in consequence, I suppose, of the failure of the 

 first blossoms and the backwardness of the season. My ground 

 will not produce early crops, and the tree is in a cold place 

 partly shaded, and is on a deep-rooting stock. 



I cannot say what would be the result of grafting on the 

 Paradise stocks and planting on a warm soil, but I certainly 

 must call this a very early Apple. I have some dwarfs on 

 Rivers' Nonsuch Paradise stocks, and intend to try a better 

 soil and position. 



I do not know the origin of this variety. I purchased it 

 among some unnamed trees and plants of a nurseryman, who 

 believes that the Apple tree came from Norfolk. It has a 

 drooping habit of growth, and would therefore not make a 

 good pyramid. — W. Gkoves, Shortlands, Kent. 



[Fruit small, of the size and shape of Early Bed Margare 

 but not so distinctly striped as that variety ; conical, with 

 obtuse ribs on the sides. Skin smooth, covered nearly all over 

 with a dull livid red, which is marked with crimson stripes on 

 the Bide next the sun, and on the shaded side it has a greenish- 

 yellow tinge mixed with the red. Eye with erect somewhat 

 divergent segments, Bet in a narrow basin. Stalk short, about 

 a quarter of an inch long, inserted in a pretty deep cavity. 

 Flesh pale yellow, tinged with green just Lefore it ripens, but 

 becoming quite yellow, firm, very juicy, and with a brisk 

 aromatic flavour. Cells closed. Calyx-tube funnel-shaped. 

 Stamens median. It belongs to group 30 of Dr. Hogg's New 

 Classification of Apples. 



The fruit is remarkably fragrant, and as a good market 

 Apple we cannot suppose any to be more attractive.] 



MILDEW ON ROSES. 

 Can and will any of your experienced Rose-growing correspon- 

 dents tell me what will prevent or cure mildew on Roses ? I 



am utterly baffled by it, though I am familiar with Rose cul- 

 ture from long practice and the frequent perusal of all the 

 best treatises on the subject, and also all that is said in " our 

 Journal ; " therefore merely referring me to sulphur is useless. 



The soil is stiff loam mixed with stones and crocks with hot 

 sun and drought, the situation near Barnet, ten miles north of 

 London. Roses grow here after pruning in April with mar- 

 vellous vigour until the flower buds are many and large, but 

 then there seems a halt, and full Roses, like Dae de Rohan 

 and Madame Victor Verdier, this year and last, open badly or 

 not at all, and with brilliancy of colouring gone. 



After the first flowers are past and growth begins again 

 mildew appears and is irrepressible. I have tried removal or 

 transplanting, also leaving the trees in one place for some years, 

 also with rotten manure below the roots, and planted without, 

 with mulching, and with merely hoeing, but all mildew as I 

 have described above. 



Now, what is the remedy ? for I have both watered and 

 left others unwatered, and as yet have not found a cure for the 

 pest.— S. S. 



THE POTATO DISEASE. 



Although several writers, myself amongst the number, have 

 recommended the lifting of Potatoes immediately they have 

 ceaBed Bwelling, even if the haulm were Btill green and the 

 skins of the tubers not set, no one that I am aware of has ad- 

 vised their removal from the ground when the tubers were 

 only half swelled, as implied by Mr. Muir on page 172. That 

 tubers will keep well when dug in an unripe state I have, be- 

 sides my own experience, the evidence of such cultivators as 

 Messrs. Luckhurst, Abbey, Gilbert, and Wright. I know the 

 tubers will not only keep weli, but will mature as well out of 

 the ground as in it, and will become of splendid quality if 

 they are properly managed. I think I know a good Potato 

 when it is cooked, and I can aBsure Mr. Muir that I had Vic- 

 torias last year which were lifted when the haulm was still 

 green, and when the skins ruffled with the Blightest touch, 

 which were of splendid quality throughout the winter. Mr. 

 Muir conveys the idea that tubers thus lifted are " never good 

 for food ;" he should have said never as he manages them. It 

 is not necessary to repeat the right mode of management ; Mr. 

 Luckhurst has recently stated the system fully and well, and 

 I can vouch for it that the plan he described is Bafe, sound, 

 and certain. If the tubers have ceased swelling they may be 

 taken up, and they will mature as well out of the ground as 

 in it, and often very much better. Mr. Muir also states that 

 tubers when taken up in an unripe Btate are " not fit for plant- 

 ing anywhere." He is in error there. I have tried them for 

 ten years consecutively with the special object of testing the 

 point, and the stock which has been so treated is as productive 

 now as ever it was, and I believe as any Potatoes possibly can 

 be. I care not what theory is advanced to prove that this can- 

 not be the case when I have the fact before me that it can 

 and is. 



It will not do to let the haulm remain to be blackened before 

 the crop is dug ; but if the tubers attain a full size before the 

 malady affects the haulm, and the crop is then taken up, it is 

 safe. I agree with Mr. Muir that if the crop is actually 

 diseased it may as well remain in the ground as be piled in 

 heaps above it. I agree with him also that " wet weather is 

 the sure propagator and promoter of disease." On this point 

 a recent visit to London has enabled me to obtain the best 

 evidence on that point that I think has ever been placed before 

 the public. I am indebted to Mr. Wright for what I am about 

 to submit, and why it has never appeared before is to me not 

 a little surprising. The compiler of the following table, which 

 must have cost a considerable amount of labour, has evidently 

 never been at a loss for a subject to write about, or he would 

 not have kept the matter in his desk for four years. However, 

 it is at my disposal now to do as I like with, and my decision 

 is to send it to the Journal, where it ought to have been before. 

 It was in combating some vague electricity notions that I ad- 

 vanced in conversation that the proof was adduced that ex- 

 cessive wet is the real cause of the Potato disease. I will now 

 append from what Mr. Wright has placed in my hands. 



" Heavy and continuous rain in the warm summer months," 

 he has written, " is the primary cause of the Potato disease. 

 Other contingencies have their effect, but summer rain falling 

 in extreme quantity is the great disease lever and governor. 

 The overpowering influence which rain exerts in connection 

 with this perplexing visitation is strikingly demonstrated in 



