September 27, 1S77. ] 



JOURNAL OF HORTICULTURE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. 



247 



which Mr. Rivers will doubtless be glad to know as tending to 

 prove the greater usefulness of his valuable seedling. 



If oHmatic influences were in question I might agree with the 

 teaching which points to oertain localities for certain sorts, but 

 that is clearly not the question ; it is simply one of soils, all 

 of so pliant a nature as to be susceptible of any improvement 

 or chaDge, and I submit that to regard such a simple matter 

 as an insuperable difficulty is not only wrong but decidedly 

 mischievous. Such obstacles we must expect to encounter 

 and resolve to overcome. To those who think the doing so is 

 likley to prove costly or difficult let me recommend a second 

 perusal of a paper by "Essex" on page 170; it abounds with 

 good sense, and enforces better than any argument could do 

 the perfect results attending an intelligent method of culture. 



More fault has been found with British Queen and Dr. Hogg 

 than with any other kinds — not about the quality of the fruit, 

 for that is so excellent as to be above criticism, but about 

 growth and crops. Has the fact that both of them, like cer- 

 tain other high-class fruits, require that high culture of which 

 they are so worthy, not yet obtained that clear recognition 

 which it merits ? It is many years ago that I was taught 

 this lesson — taught it too by a pupil of my own whom I had 

 taken from the plough, and who is now gardener to a Marquis. 

 In a garden which I sent him to take charge of, and where I 

 in really good soil had had crops of British Queen of only 

 medium excellence, he by superior culture had subsequently 

 abundant crops of magnificent fruit. All kinds of Strawberries 

 like sewage, or in fact any liquid manure ; those of the British 

 Queen type will not perfect their fruit without it, the yellow 

 hard-tipped fruit affording as distinct an indication of starva- 

 tion as do the pinched features and attenuated limbs in a 

 human being. Give liquid manure plentifully to the Straw- 

 berry, and, other things being equal, you may have abundant 

 crops in pots as well as in the open ground of fruit full-sized 

 and superior in every respect. 



Surely it is somewhat premature to pronounce the new kinds 

 Exquisite and Traveller as "capricious, only doing well in 

 certain seasons and places," as somebody has done in reply to 

 my recommendation of them. Perhaps the best answer I 

 could make would be to inquire, For how many seasons have 

 these novelties been tried, and in the hands of how many 

 clever men ? My opinion rests solely upon what I saw and 

 tasted in a single garden where they were growing side by 

 side with some dozens of other sorts new and old, and there 

 I was so much pleased that I intend growing both of them. 

 I may add that both the gardener and his employer thought 

 much of them, and letters have come tome from other quarters 

 all speaking highly of them. Will my critic tell us why they 

 are capricious, and in what places, or rather soils, they do not 

 answer, and thus afford us a hint which may prove more useful 

 than a mere vague stricture can do ? — Edwabd Luckhuest. 



THUJA OCCIDENTALIS. 



This, the American Arbor-Vitaa, makes a capital hedge, and 

 is well suited for many positions, especially where not exposed 

 to strong gales ot wind. It answers better in partially shaded 

 places than many other shrubs do, and with those who under- 

 stand its nature and the kind of treatment necessary to make 

 it accommodate itself to certain positions very pleasing screens 

 may be formed to hide unsightly walls. I have seen Buch 

 screens, and have dressed some of them. For hedges of this 

 shrub to have a pleasing appearance they should never be 

 clipped with the shears, as by doing so you give them a 

 stumpy appearance, which it is desirable to avoid. 



This Arbor- Yitaa is employed in many nurseries to form 

 screens for giving shelter to plants while they are in a young 

 and tender state, and for this few shrubs are better adapted 

 when judiciously managed. They can be kept very thin 

 and green down to the ground for many years, while they 

 are devoid of that stiff and shorn appearance which most 

 hedges have. They occupy very little space, and to prevent their 

 roots spreading out them with a spade at about a foot or 

 15 inches from the stem. By doing one side one year, and then 

 the other side the following year, the roots will be kept from 

 impoverishing the ground or from injuring young plants whioh 

 may be near to them. When planted against walls the leader 

 and main branches as they grow up should be fastened to the 

 wall by meanB of iron staples passing round them and into the 

 Wall. When the Arbor- Vitse is judiciously managed in such a 

 position, and having all the unnecessary breaatwood cut off with 

 a knife, it can be managed so that it may retain a graceful and 



Fern-like appearance, which is especially pleasing when the 

 wind ruffles its feathery sprays; indeed, under the manage- 

 ment of a person who understands how to train and manage 

 the Arbor- Vitae, it is so accommodating that it can be turned 

 to many useful and ornamental purposes. — G. Dawson. 



WORTHY NOTES AND SUGGESTIONS. 



I eeally must thank my friends S. Reynolds Hole and the 

 " Heeefobdshiee Incumbent" for their very kind allusions 

 to me. It was a great trial to me not to be well enough to be 

 present at the great Rose contests of the present year. I must 

 hope that our great authority on Roses, great I may say in 

 both senses of the word (and " may his shadow never grow 

 less,") may in the end prove me wrong about Cheshunt Hybrid. 

 He knows, however, I am somewhat firm (obstinate: some 

 people call it) in my opinion, and till I see a better bloom 

 than I have hitherto S6en, all its growth and its efflorescence 

 and the faot of its being a hybrid with a certain indefinite pro- 

 portion of Tea in it, will not make me alter my opinion 

 that as an exhibition Rose it is only second-rate, and that 

 before many yearB are over it will gradually decline in its 

 position as certainly as Marquise de Castellane and Etienne 

 Levet will advance. 



I agree with my old friend S. Reynolds Hole, it is certainly 

 bountiful, I only question whether it is most beautiful ; and as 

 he knows, I do not like to differ from him in opinion. I am 

 obliged to confess, though I have a great hankering after other 

 flowers, notably for Gladioli, and Phloxes, and zonal Geraniums, 

 and tuberous-rooted Begonias, that after all a really good Rose 

 carries off the palm. I only wish her majesty the queen of 

 flowers was less at the mercy of seasons ; or, perhaps I might 

 say, that we gardeners were less at the mercy of the elements 

 under such a season as the present. Here we have not had 

 forty-eight consecutive hours without rain since the 4th of 

 July, and the average rainfall of each week has been over an 

 inch. Roses like M. Noman and M. Lacharme glue-up their 

 petals and rot in the buds. None but the hardiest with the 

 firmest petals and best outer guards — i.e., good, well-developed 

 outer petals, could stand the weather. 



To show the backwardness of the season, Sedum Fabaria or 

 spectabile on a warm border facing south is not yet nearly 

 in bloom, and on a rockery with south-east aspect will not 

 be in bloom for two or three weeks. We have always a 

 harvest festival. Three weeks ago we issued a programme or 

 schedule for a small cottagers' and agricultural exhibition as 

 an accompaniment to the festival. Last night (September 

 14th), in torrents of rain we, the Committee, met to try and 

 decide upon a day, but the unanimous opinion was that it re- 

 quired at least a fortnight or three weeks of fine dry weather 

 before we could fix upon a day for a harvest thanksgiving at 

 all, and that possibly we might see again, what I saw in 1860, 

 a field of Wheat uncut on the 12th or 13th of November. 

 This certainly is not florists' weather any more than farmers'. 



I am glad " Wild Savage " has raised his voice anent the 

 very inadequate prizes often offered by so-called horticultural 

 societies, and the impediments they too often offer for exhi- 

 bitors. What would the Savage think of 6s. offered as a first 

 piize for three Begonias, when each plant shown was worth at 

 least £2 or £3, and were quite as valuable as the three stove 

 and greenhouse plants for which a prize of 30s. was offered ? 

 However, there were the usual aorobats, and a very fat slack- 

 rope dancer, who proved too much for the wire, which gave 

 way under her lucubrations. I dare not, as " Wvld Savage " 

 does, mention nameB, but I certainly wish with him that 

 horticulture proper was properly represented in these country 

 shows, instead of acrobats improper with all their accompani- 

 ments. I do not like going to a cricket match to Eee it bur- 

 lesqued by a parcel of clowns dreBsed-up in fancy costumes, 

 and who say you " flupid stool," instead of you " stupid fool," 

 if anyone misses a catch or has the misfortune to get bowled- 

 out ; but it is even worse to see a good horticultural show 

 gradually decaying into a second-rate exhibition of aorobats, 

 clowns, and fireworks at night, and the tents deserted to look 

 at an overdressed female, or underdressed aB the case may be, 

 exhibiting her prowess on the stage. 



One word more to the Savage. I thought his request of a 

 list of herbaceous perennials to grow in a border, if I remem- 

 ber right about 50 feet by 7, would bring him a list as long as 

 his arm. I know I am prejudiced, but I cannot Bee why every 

 possible variety of perennial should be crammed into a peren- 

 nial border, any more than that I should grow every possible 



