August I, 1864. ] 



JOURNAL OF HOKTICtTLTTOE AND COTTAGE GAEDENEK. 



85 



than 12 feet high at the back, the earliest and most choice 

 trees could be tept there, while the lower part would suit 

 admirably for lofty trees, and such as grow freely, and are 

 destined to come in later in the year. 



I should also strongly advise amateurs to build their 

 houses as wide as possible, because a clear path is needed 

 round the front to prune the trees, and especially to gather 

 the fruit without knocking down any from the surrounding 

 trees. My own house being very crowded causes us much 

 trouble in this way, and the loss of fruit is something 

 serious. 



The time will come when our present houses will not 

 suffice. The trees will become large and spread out, and if 

 we continue season after season to overcrowd, our fruits will 

 soon come to "their bitter end." We shall soon require 

 two or three houses for our work, and possibly find it to our 

 advantage to have one of these entirely devoted to resting 

 one-third of the trees each year. Another small house will 

 be needed for our young stock, and, perhaps, separate 

 houses for Cherries or Apricots, which are impatient of con- 

 fined air. All this we may be coming to, and long, wide, 

 and lofty buildings for our main crops too ; but our gain will 

 be proportionately great. 



This year the birds have left us little worth having out of 

 many good things. Our Apricots have been long dismissed 

 from out-door cultivation. I took the common standard 

 Apricot of the Touraine, which there bears like an Apple 

 tree, and which, also, near Paris is daily seen loaded with 

 fruit, and, after many attempts, failed to make it bear 

 against a sunny wall. The more delicate Plums are un- 

 certain out of doors here, and of Cherries we could not save 

 any. Of Early York Peaches none remain. This sort bore 

 from the 4th to the 25th of last month. There is no early 

 Peach equal to it. The Honey Peach from China is a re- 

 markably pointed Peach, like an almond. Pipe on the 20th. 

 Its flavour was quite peculiar. It was pale and about the 

 size of the Early Tork. We have gathered about two hundred 

 fruit already from the house. 



The high winds which prevail in this island and the cloudy 

 sky are not favourable to fruit culture. The currents of 

 air shake down the ripening crops and cause us loss. — 

 T. Colltngs Bkehatjt, Richmond Rouse, Guernsey. 



GOOSEBERRIES— RAISING SEEDLING EEUITS. 



My thanks as one of a thousand who welcome right 

 heartily the attention bestowed in your last Number on 

 the homely undervalued Gooseberry. Eilling up the gap 

 between the latest of our Strawberries, that are palatable 

 without the addition of sugar, and the earliest Jargonelle, 

 it has a value in out-door fruit-culture which its unfailing 

 excellence and certainty in cropping have led us all too 

 much to forget. Tour notice of the doings of the revived 

 Fruit Committee of the Horticultural Society must have 

 opened the eyes of many lovers of a good Gooseberry to a 

 progress in connection with this fruit of which they were 

 altogether unaware. I write now to know more of what is 

 almost all new to me. 



Some sis years ago I made a collection, numbering upwards 

 of a hundred sorts, of every Gooseberry within my reach, 

 which either the Catalogue of the Horticultural Society or 

 nursery lists classed as first-rate in flavour." Tear by year 

 I have weeded from these the less worthy, "till, with a selec- 

 tion of scarcely over a dozen distinct kinds, I have a really 

 fine plantation, whose produce I would not exchange for 

 any other fruit in the garden. Somewhat to my surprise, 

 of the long list of good, and tolerable number of extra- 

 flavoured varieties which the Fruit Committee selected, all, 

 with the exception of perhaps half a dozen, are novelties, 

 occurring neither in the Society's Catalogue nor in the 

 nursery advertisements. I hope they are comeatable by 

 others than the Fellows of the Society. Can you help 

 us to the whereabouts ? for though on the border of Lanca- 

 shire and Cheshire, none of otir nurseries here have any but 

 the stereotyped list, which the London trade have scarce 

 altered for the last ten years. 



For this progress in fruit culture, it would seem, we are 

 entirely indebted to the huiabler population of this district, 

 who, whilst aiming at little else than increase in size, stum- 



bled, as it were, on something far more valuable. What 

 might we not look for, and not in the Gooseberry only, from 

 well-directed imitation of the good works of these real 

 cottage gardeners ? I have sometimes, whilst mourning 

 over the flavourless burlesques of your south of England 

 Golden Pippins, which our northern orchards produce, wished 

 to see a Seedling Fruit Society started, with the JotBNAi. 

 op Hokticttlttxre as its organ, embracing the whole country 

 in its operation, to further the production of new native 

 varieties of our hardy fruits. I would have just one quali- 

 fication of membership, the borl& fide sowing of a mininmTP 

 of one hundred seeds per annum, the seedlings therefrom to 

 be reared till fruiting, and samples of the material results 

 forwarded for commendation, or otherwise, to the Journal's 

 Pomologieal Editor. Is not something of the kind practi- 

 cable ? See what one man has done for the Strawberry. 

 What would this delicious fruit have been but for Myatt 

 and those who have, not too late, followed in his steps ? Not 

 to speak of Knight and Williams, and our Belgian pomolo- 

 gists, to how much are we already indebted within a year or 

 two back to the quiet labour of Mr. Huyshe ? (By-the-by, 

 you promised us, so far back as January, a paper on the 

 Huyshe Pears, for which I have looked very often in vain.) 

 Experience would seem to indicate that out of several thou- 

 sand seedlings a few splendid prizes are almost a certainty. 

 A society for the special purpose might fruit fifty thousand 

 every year with a very little effort. Say the word, Shall 

 we begin ? — Fkuit-Eatek. 



BEDDING GERANIUMS. 



(Continued from page 72.) 



The next best system of raising a supply of bedding Ge- 

 raniums is to place a cold frame in an open situation so that 

 the rights may face the north, previously laying down a 

 layer of rough ashes from 3 to 6 inches thick for the frame 

 to rest on, and to keep out worms. Place within it 6 inches 

 of compost formed of turfy loam one-half, leaf mould one- 

 fourth, and river sand one -fourth; and having made the 

 surface level, put in the cuttings in rows 3 inches apart, and 

 2 inches from cutting to cutting in the rows. This done 

 gently, press the soil round the cuttings, giving a gentle 

 watering afterwards to settle the earth about them and to- 

 refresh the foliage. The lights are then drawn on close, 

 and kept closed for a period of a fortnight if hot dry weather 

 succeed the operation, opening them only for the purpose of 

 watering, which should be done so as to keep the soil con- 

 stantly moist but not wet. Should dull weather follow, the 

 frame may be opened for an hour or two in the morning to 

 afford a change of air and to prevent damp ; but if all be 

 well there is no necessity for this, nor for shading the frame 

 unless the air be hot and dry. In the latter case a thin mat 

 or two placed over the frame at 10 a.m., and taken off again 

 at 3 p.m., will be all the shading needed ; for, owing to the 

 frame sloping to the north, more than half of the sun's rays 

 will be reflected by the glass, hence there is not that scorch- 

 ing heat that there is in a frame facing the south. The 

 cuttings will be rooted in three weeks, when air may be 

 admitted, moderately at first, gradually increasing the open- 

 ings daily, so that the lights may be removed altogether in 

 seven days more, or a month after the cuttings are put in. 

 The frame may then be removed altogether and placed in 

 some suitable situation, and the process repeated on another 

 lot of cuttings inserted in it by the 1st of September: but 

 this time the lights should slope towards the south, for TO 

 must now endeavour to catch as much of the sun's heat as 

 possible. 



The cuttings struck by the 1st of September will be nice 

 plants by the end of that month, when they may be potted 

 into 48-sized pots, or 60's if small plants, and be placed in a 

 house with a greenhouse temperature ; but if room be scarce 

 it may be worth while considering whether it is better to 

 pot the plants or transplant into boxes, which will hold 

 double the number in something like one-third the space. 

 Strong plants, however, in my opinion are best potted at 

 once; but such as are only just rooted may be wintered in 

 boxes much more economically as regards space. The boxes 

 used for this purpose are those narrow shallow ones such as 

 we very often see employed for growing Mignonette for 



