JOUKNAL OF HOBTIOULTDBE AKD COTTAGE GARDENER. 



[ September 20, 1877. 





vegetable life ; and let a man abuse what may be a sound 

 constitution by intemperance in eating or drinking for a short 

 time, and then bleed, blister, and dose him with medicine, 

 yet should an epidemic prevail he is sure to succumb, while 

 those who have acted in unison with the laws of Nature are 

 more likely to live. This is a well-known fact, and I do not 

 wonder at it. Having pointed out what I think the cause of 

 disease, and which is a serious matter for the million when 

 blight is general and one-half of the tubers are only fit for cattle 

 or swine. A farmer will not grumble from the fact that he 

 gets double or treble the value for what is good, and has leBS 

 driving with his carts to railway stations, and he has feed for 

 his cattle beside. This is no theory, it is a fact ; it is the 

 consumers that pay for the loss of the crop. 



The next point for consideration is, How is the matter to be 

 obviated ? Are we still to go on in the old use and wont 

 manner, or turn our attention so as to avoid such a dire 

 calamity as the loss of this valuable esculent ? I would suggest 

 that the Potatoes for seed should be kept in a cool exposed 

 place, and never be allowed to sprout till after they are planted ; 

 and by raising new varieties from the hardiest sorts and treating 

 them in a far more scientific manner there is every reason to 

 believe that in a few years the Potato will be restored to its 

 pristine vigour. Possibly it might be wise in the powers that 

 be to look into the matter as they do with cattle disease and 

 the Colorado beetle, and it is my candid opinion that the one is 

 as necessary as the others. — J. Addison, Ormiston, Edinburgh. 



AUTUMN PRUNING OF FEUIT TKEES. 



Again I would remind all fruit growers of the importance 

 of getting forward with such pruning as may be safely done 

 at this time of the year, so as to diminish as much as possible 

 the work left for the short dull days of early winter. Gardeners 

 are gradually coming to acknowledge the evils of spring prun- 

 ing, at least there is less of it done every year ; but as a body 

 we are very conservative in our notions, and cling to old 

 practices loug after they have been proved to be in error. I 

 should think there is not now one intelligent gardener in 

 Britain who would defend spring pruning ; if there is I should 

 like him to give his reasons for so doing. I have given my 

 reasons more than once for insisting that all pruning should 

 be done before Christmas, but being convinced that it should 

 be done and getting it done are different things ; and I believe 

 that spring pruning, where it is now practised by men who 

 deserve the name of gardeners, is simply from necessity — from 

 pressure of work at certain seasons. Now, there is no garden 

 of any pretensions where it is possible to get all pruning done 

 between the fall of the leaf and Christmas unless summer and 

 autumn pruning are thoroughly carried out, but where there is 

 not a separate staff kept for each department there is a danger 

 in these days of excessive floricultural millinery that the sum- 

 mer attention to fruit trees will be very limited, and conse- 

 quently there is the greater necessity for getting at the work 

 in early autumn. 



Although the gardener's year has no beginning and no end- 

 ing, unless it is beginning and ending every day, September is 

 the month in which there is a sort of turning point ; all arrears 

 are then brought up unless one is hopelessly in a muddle, plans 

 are roughly carved out for the following season ; we have, or 

 ought to have, a breathing space for a week or two to take 

 stock, note down our shortcomings, and if possible travel a 

 little to take a few wrinkles from our brother gardeners. In 

 any case we must begin again in earnest some time during 

 September, and work with all possible diligence before the 

 autumn gives place to winter. 



The most important thing perhaps at this season for the 

 gardener to attend to personally, unless he is so fortunate as 

 to have assistants with the requisite skill, is the getting the 

 growths of his wall trees ripened. Often he is obliged to wait 

 till the fruit is gathered before he can thin out sufficiently ; 

 but unfortunately there is little necessity for that this year, 

 and consequently there is every chance to have a thorough 

 overhauling and re-arrangement of branches. There is no 

 time like the present to cut out old branches of whatever 

 size which are becoming bare, or long unsightly spurs bearing 

 shoots too (which alas ! only bore flowers) that are not 

 wanted another season for furnishing, and stopping the points 

 of unripe growths. Bear in mind that light, air, and the 

 warmth from the wall are necessary to ripen the growth made 

 this year previous to August ; that made subsequently will not 

 ripen under any conditions, and if therefore after doing all the 



necessary thinning there is still more foliage than can be ex- 

 posed to the light, the latest and greenest growths may be 

 shortened, and this will reduce to a minimum the work to be 

 done after the fall of the leaf. — TYn. Taylob. 



EOSE DIFFICULTIES. 



Yeae by year the number of amateur gardeners increases, 

 notably the growers of Koses. It would be an interesting 

 document which should exhibit the various pursuits out of 

 office of the clerks of this great City. I think gardening would 

 be found to occupy one of the largest, if not the largest section. 

 And why ? Because there is nothing which gives so great an 

 amount of pleasure, exercise, and subject of thought. Many 

 of us, I am afraid, cannot say with Bacon that gardening is 

 the purest of hnman pleasures, because we have only a limited 

 portion of time in which to pursue it, and we all feel s. certain 

 _amount of disappointment at something which we try at but 

 do not accomplish. But it is not to write about the delights 

 that I wish, but to pour into your willing ears some of the 

 many troubles of my garden. Before I begin let me thank 

 our friends " Wyld Savage," Mr. Hinton, and others for the 

 many excellent hints which we get from your columns, for I 

 am glad to Bay the Journal of Horticulture is always held up 

 as a great institution with us. 



I am a City clerk — not much leisure except early morning 

 and a stray hour on the Saturday, but I do what I can. Last 

 September I purchased a cottage and garden of about a quarter 

 of an acre ; and a third of this I have planted with fruit trees, 

 another third is occupied with miscellaneous subjects, and the 

 other third is given up to Roses, for you must know this is 

 the flower I love. My garden had been shamefully neglected 

 for several years, and presented when first I went into it a 

 forest of weeds, but these were well cleared out, and have, 

 thanks to the Dutch hoe, been kept under. I chose the very 

 best quarter I could for the Boses. The ground is situate 

 twelve or fourteen miles from London and stands high. It is 

 well protected on the east and north by trees which break the 

 wind, and a good wood fence protects it from the west. The 

 soil is a strange mixture. The surface looks a moderate 

 garden soil ; taken in the hand it binds together, and therefore 

 cannot be called sandy : in places the subsoil is clay, in other 

 places sand, but the whole garden is well drained, yet cannot 

 be called dry or thirsty. I planted fifty standards in a bed, or 

 rather a portion, for mine is not a place of fancy beds ; and 

 these had but little manure when planted and afterwards had 

 a fair mulch of stable dung, which was forked-in carefully in 

 the spring. Afraid that my soil was rather light I also planted 

 about sixty on Manetti, not choosing variety so much in the 

 selection of sorts, but such as I thought would give an abun- 

 dance of flowers — Monsieur YVoolfield, General Jacqueminot, 

 Senateur Vaisse, John Hopper, Paul Neyron, Madame Charles 

 Wood, Etienne Levet, Alfred Colomb, Paulin Talabot. These 

 Manettis had all a liberal supply of cow dung, or rather cow 

 droppings (no straw), which was fresh. Pruning was effected 

 rather closely on the standards and very moderately on the 

 Manettis. June came, I lost my Gloire buds first crop with 

 frost, and the first Bose out was Paulin Talabot. I quite 

 astonished my fellow clerks who grow Boses with the blooms 

 I was enabled to bring of this Bose, which deserves to be grown 

 a great deal more than it is. 



At the end of June, after keeping clear of grubs and green 

 fly, a pest which has baffled all I can do broke out — mildew. 

 Paulin Talabot commenced. I got soft soap, mixed it with 

 soft water, applied it to the leaves with a large paint brush, 

 washed it off ; the result was blistered or discoloured leaves, 

 and for a day or two a victory — but ah I Etienne Levet, Alfred 

 Colomb, The Duke, and Edward Morren are all affected. I 

 am recommended sulphur, and forthwith get a flour-dredger 

 and sulphur; it has but little effect. Then I tried sulphur 

 and soft soap together ; no use. Then I hear that soot is the 

 remedy, and forthwith instead of yellow showers out of my 

 dredger, black is the favourite. I syringe, I groan — all no use, 

 though I spend hours of toil. By the end of July the whole 

 of my Manettis, with the exception of a row of unbudded 

 stooks which seem to triumph over their brother slaves who 

 are budded, all are more or less covered with mildew. Leaves 

 are white, bloom buds are thoroughly encrusted on the stems, 

 the thorns on vigorous shoots Beem to be storehouses of the 

 white substance, and the enemy has become so strong that it 

 is almost impossible to do anything, and yet these diseased 

 plants have shot up vigorously Bhoots 7 feet high are on 



