[October, 1908. 



383] 



Miscellaneous. 



constitution. Pillbasket is another good 

 late strawberry, bearing fruit shaped 

 like an inverted pear, bright glossy 

 scarlet in colour. Its flesh is juicy, 

 sweet, and luscious, but firm and solid. 

 Trafalgar, a rounder shaped strawberry, 

 is a good variety. It fruits very late, 

 and its fruit has a flavour of the pine, 

 piquant and pleasant. It is a free-grow- 

 iug plant. Latest of All bears large 

 fruit of fine flavour to the latest day one 

 can reasonably expect to gather straw- 

 berries. In the suggestions we have 

 given for land preparation for straw- 

 berries, we have had in view chiefly the 

 circumstances of the amateur grower. 

 The grower for market, who produces 

 strawberries on a great acreage, does 

 not, it is true, prepare his fields in such 

 elaborate fashion. It is not practicable, 

 in the present scarce condition of rural 

 labour, to cultivate a wide extent of 

 land by spade or fork industry. The 

 plough must suffice in &uch cases, but 

 the professional grower takes care to 

 cultivate strawberries only . on land 

 specially suitable for the crop. The 

 amateur desires to grow strawberries 

 wherever his garden may chance to be 

 placed, hence the desirability of the 

 amateur expending extra cultivation on 

 his strawberry beds of limited extent. 



A comprehensive view of the disas- 

 trous effect of the bitter Spring weather 

 of 1903 upon our British fruit crops, is 

 presented by a tabular statement just 

 published in the Gardeners" Chronicle. 

 Totalling the whole of the kingdom, we 

 find from the tables given, that out of 267 

 reports on apples, no less than 218 are 

 adverse. From England, Wales, Ireland, 

 and the Channel Islands, not a single re- 

 port records a crop over average. Scot- 

 land only yields two such reports. 

 Pears are even worse. Not one over- 

 average report has come in from any 

 section of the Kingdom, and only seven 

 cases report an average result. Of these, 

 six are in Scotland. Plums tell the same 

 doleful tale. One single over-average 

 crop alone is recorded. In England 

 there are 176 under-average to one 

 average. Cherry reports are some- 

 what less monotonously gloomy. There 

 are five good crops and 67 average ones 

 to 176 bad results. Peaches and apri- 

 cots run neck-and-neck in a race to 

 disaster. Only one over-average crop 

 of peaches is reported, and two of 

 apricots. The under-averages are 147 

 and 137 respectively. Strawberries, as 

 might be expected, have done the best. 

 In a bad fruit year they come out with 

 74 over-average and 150 average crops 

 out of 262 reports, an unexpectedly 

 favourable result. Currants and other 

 small fruits, taken as a whole, do not 



show nearly so well. " Never," writes the 

 Editor, "since wehave made a practice 

 of recording the condition of the fruit 

 crops, a period of nearly forty years, 

 have we had occassion to present so 

 disastrous a record. From John o'Groats 

 to the Land's End, from Galway to 

 East Anglia, the tale is the same, With 

 the exception of strawberries and small 

 fruit, the words ' total failure' best ex- 

 press the condition of affairs." 



If the fruit crop has mocked our pains 

 the vegetable department of the garden 

 has given us some returns for the 

 labour expended upon it earlier in the 

 year. Most of the usual Summer crops 

 have made a fair show of plenty. The 

 hard skin-surface of the beds, induced 

 by the alternate rain-beating and sun- 

 baking, has been a bane; but for this 

 the Dutch hoe is the effective antidote in 

 the hands of the industrious cultivator. 

 The month of August is the chief time 

 of preparation for Autumn, Winter, and 

 Spring crops of vegetables. Plantlets, 

 already raised from seed and not plant- 

 ed out in July, will require to be got 

 into their permanent quarters, and 

 many seeds must be sown at suitlable 

 dates for various crops. Garden culture 

 differs from farm cropping in the per- 

 petual succession which demands atten- 

 tion. Whilst we are in the time of 

 greatest plenty, we must be laying out 

 our plans for the next crops on penalty 

 of finding our results fall behind the 

 measure of success obtained by provi- 

 dent and foreseeing growers. 



The crops to be planted out include 

 the later stocks of Winter greens, such 

 as borecole or kale, broccoli, cabbage 

 for coleworts, and endive. The ground 

 for these crops will have been prepared 

 some time ago, except for broccoli, which 

 grows hardiest, is most valuable, and 

 gives the best returns when grown in 

 very firm, undug soil, not freshly 

 manured. To make the holes a crowbar 

 is used, and the plants are planted very 

 firmly. For the others, the land 

 ought to have had a generous dressing 

 of good, natural manures, thoroughly 

 incorporated with the lower spit of 

 earth. A little extra manure is given 

 to the surface soil, and the whole made 

 firm before the planting is done. Plenty 

 of space should be allowed between the 

 plants, which should be put in very 

 firmly; 



The frequent sowings of seed to be 

 made to the end of August, and even 

 later, involve careful attention to ap- 

 propriate dates. This is more of import- 

 ance now than in the case of Sprng sow- 

 ings. A week too soon may mean the 

 running to seed of the plants. A week 



