94 



THE 



GARDENERS' 



MAGAZINE. 



Feeruary 



12, 1898. 



up, would work wonders ; especially if followed by a good mulch of 



may appropriately be termed surface culture, the 



Botany and Allied Subjects are by no means overlooked bv 



Academy cf Sciences, as a reference to the recently-published list of P 



manure. What may appropriately be termed surtace cuuure, inc duri / 8 8 and the succeediDg three years will show. Those sub ° ffered 



encouragement of surface rooting, does not appear to be so .much con- ^ ^ tQ ^ ^ are inbotany ? ^ subjects and ^ 



Even on a deep gravel subsoil, with a shallow layer ^ beari on the art of heali the Desmazi , r P es priz /^f fot 



: — , n ne trfps and fine crons of fruit may be . . . . . , r t . . u.., ... , - iC 01 1 >ooo 



sidered as it should. ~. — . , 



of loam on the surface, very vigorous trees and fine crops of fruit may be 



secured by good mulchings and plentiful waterings, when necessary A 



good gardener once said that he believed that at the present time there cryptoga 



are plenty of trees in this country to produce fruit for all our requirements 

 if properly cared for, and there is a great deal of truth m the remark • 



IMPORTS OF FRUIT AND VEGETABLES. 



Although not so satisfactory as those of the opening month of 1897, 

 the Hoard of Trade returns for January last do not contain anything to 

 justify more than the ordinary degree of anxiety with regard to the com- 

 merce of the United Kingdom. The imports show an increase in value 

 of ;£ 1 40,823, equal to 0-3 per cent. ; but there was a decrease in the value 

 of the exports of British and Irish produce of ^554,832, equivalent to 2 8 

 per cent. Happily, there was an increase in the exports of foreign and 

 colonial produce nearly equal to the decrease in home products. The 

 imports in which we are specially interested show a considerable degree 

 of irregularity, and also that we continue to be largely dependent upon 



the produce of foreign and colonial gardens and orchards for much that of the ^l^^^. 



could be profitably grown at home The imports of apples were again c|ub y root in Turnips.-The disease caused by the slime fungus knowna- 



considerably in excess of those of the corresponding month of last year ; piasmodiophora brassiciv is not i ess destructive in Scotland than in England and 

 but there can be no doubt that the supplies were considerably short of consequentIy the experiments that have been made on Lord Rosebery's estate, 

 the quantities we should have received had the American crop not been near Edinburg h, are of much interest to cultivators. In experimenting uj 

 considerably below the average. The total quantities received during the fi n ger-and-toe injturnips, resort was made to the bold expedient, for the purpose 

 month were 295,551 bushels, of the value of ,£98,972 ; or an increase in 0 f testing a certain course of.treatment, of sowing turnips again upon land where 

 quantity of 14,560 bushels, and in value of .£33,366. There was a the crop had been nearly destroyed by the disease in the preceding year. The 

 drop of 380 bushels in the imports of grapes, and the values of these dressing adopted was one ton of freshly-ground lime per acre immediately before 

 fruits was lower by ^516 as compared with the imports in January, 1897, ploughing in the . autumn, one ton of ground lime in the spring, and eight cwt. of 

 the quantities received being 1,001 bushels, of the value of ,£1,476. We had kainit per acre sown in the drills. So efficacious did this dressing prove that the 

 but three bushels of plums sent us last month against none in the correspond- crop grown binder its influence was practically free from the disease. Itwai 



for the best study of cryptogams ; the Montagne prizes of ^000 francs and^ 1^ 

 for memoirs bearing on the anatomy, physiology, and development of th 1 

 cryptogams ; the De la Fons-Melicocq of 900 francs for botanical work 6 

 North of France ; and the Thore prize of 200 francs to the author of the besT ^ 

 on the cellular cryptogams of Europe. In the department of physical gee* 

 there is the Gay prize of 2,500 francs for a comparison of the marine floras U 

 Bay of Biscay and the Mediterranean. In geology, the Vaillant pr i ze 0 f ° 4 

 francs is offered for a work relating to the microscopical study of sedimenta° 

 rocks, chiefly in connection with their origin and the modifications unrU„ * 

 since deposition. 



Awards of R.H.S. Committees*— At the meeting of the Royal Horti 

 cultural Society on Tuesday the Council adopted a new mode of awarding the 

 medals at the fortnightly meetings. Hitherto each committee has made award- 

 to the collections coming within its province, but under the new arrangement a 

 sub-committee of nine, consisting of three members of each committee, was 

 appointed to determine the relative merits of groups. It is not surprising the 

 change in the method of procedure should have given rise to much discussion, aad 

 we were pleased to have the assurance of Sir Trevor Lawrence at the annual 

 meeting that he would recommend the Council to revert to the practice which has 



ing month of last year, and 2 10 bushels in January, 1896 ; and it is interesting 

 to observe that while the plums imported in the last-named month were 



returned as of the value of ^820, or equal to nearly £ A per bushel, the f T ure _ d _ rather th * n ^T^fl ^*P*f**!*.. finger-and-toe. 

 value of the three bushels received last month is given as £i, or 6s. 8d. 

 per bushel. The imports of pears were 3,060 bushels, of the value of 

 ,£1,544, or an increase of upwards of 400 bushels. Nuts used as food 

 that were received from abroad are returned as of the value of ,£24,383, 

 and with regard to these it must be said that they consist chiefly of nuts 

 that cannot be profitably grown in this country. Of unenumerated fruits 



found, however, that the use of superphosphate, or of any other manure in the 



production of which sulphuric acid is employed, had a detrimental effect, and 



Some ex- 

 periments were also made with manures for turnips, and these proved very 

 satisfactory. The land had received 35 tons of dung per acre, and grown a potato 

 crop in 1895, followed by barley in 1 896. The condition of the soil is shown b]f 

 the circumstance that the plots unmanured in 1897 yielded 24 tons 8 cwt. 

 turnips per acre. The best result — 31 tons 8 cwt. of dressed roots and three toot 

 of shaws per acre— was obtained from a dressing of 4 cwt. of superphosphate, 

 6 cwt. of lime compost, and 1 cwt. of sulphate of ammonia, at a cost of 22s. pet 



the imports amounted to 56,441 bushels, of the value of ^29,934 ; and for acre . The lime compost would contain about one-third of its weight of lime, 

 the greater proportion of these also we must continue to depend upon The profit in using this mixture, as compared with the unmanured land, wa 



£2 8s. per acre. Where sulphate of ammonia was replaced by its equivalent in 

 nitrate of soda the yield of roots was less, whilst chemical analysis showed them to 



supplies from beyond the boundaries of the United Kingdom. The 

 imports of potatos show an enormous increase as compared with 



January, 1897 and 1896. In the opening month of these two years our be somewhat inferior in quality. 



imports amounted to 23,465 cwt. and 41,672 cwt. respectively; but last 

 month the supplies jumped up to 739,955 cwt -> °f which 147,141 cwt. 



Truffle Cultivation.— At a recent meeting of the French Academy of 

 Sciences, Mons. Chatin referred at length to the researches made by many leading 



came from Germany, 122,023 cwt. from France, 1,061 cwt. from the French scientists for the purpose of discovering the mode of propagation and son* 



Channel Islands, and 469,730 cwt. from countries not specified. Our bill 

 for potatos received from abroad was necessarily a large one, and the 

 total was ,£140,050. In the imports of onions there was a material 

 drop, the. quantities received being 443,749 bushels, or about 50,000 

 bushels less than in the corresponding month of last year, and upwards 

 of 150,000 bushels in January, 1896. Unenumerated vegetables, on the 



system of cultivation of truffles. He then submitted that Due de Leparre had> 

 believed, discovered the secrets that had so long been hidden. The Due consider* 

 that truffle spores were conveyed to the leaves of certain trees by insects, and tee 

 they germinated, and with the falling leaf came to the ground to fully develop lb* 

 mycelium and complete the cycle, by fruiting or producing the edible truffle. 



The Commons Preservation Society, meeting under the presidency* 



w i)u,uuu uumici5 in January, 1090. unenumerated vegetaoies, on trie , . , — " --- . - ^^ntedbv»ts 



other hand, have been sent us in largely increased quantities, and our ^^t Hon G. Shaw Lefevre, recently considered a 

 bill for them is somewhat heavy. hon - sohcitor > Mr - P ' Birke "> u P on Prions °f th*-* 



J commons, open spaces, lights of way, and roadside waste. It appeareu w 



had been given of the proposed introduction of fifty-four private Bills under ^ 

 powers are sought to acquire, in the aggregate, nearly 1,700 acres of comm °*^ 

 other open land, and to extinguish a large number of rights of way in 1 

 parts of the country. It was determined to make further inquiries concerQ ^ 

 number of the Bills, and should the promoters be unwilling to agree 0 gn» 



Primula obconica Hybrids.— During the early spring months of 1897, 

 Mr. C. E. Shea devoted a considerable share of his attention to the hybridisation 

 of Primula obconica with P. sinensis, and it is with much satisfaction that we 

 record the fact of his having been successful in obtaining crosses between these 



rccora me iaci or nis naving been successful in obtaining crosses between these ^ " 1C anu snouia f^«-^» » => Bills in P^' 



two distinct species. A small proportion only of the plants obtained from the ^ouxsblt terms to the public the society determined to oppose the 



crosses have yet flowered, and of these two have come under our notice which ment " lt was resolved to support in the High Courts an appeal 



afford unquestionable evidence of hybrid origin. In one case the yellow belt the ownership of a large tract of turf fuel allotments in Cornwall, 



surrounding the tube of the corolla of the Chinese primula has been transferred to t0 a PP eal t0 the public for further support 



& 1_ ii r.lll'T mm - _ _ _ _ 



It was 



deed* 



the flowers of the hybrid, and in the other the flowers have the overlapping con- 



lobes, characteristic of the flowers of the higher types of P. sinensis. In . - 



the second of the two hybrids there is evidence also of the influence of the last- to the culture and treatment of vegetables 



Dean tlole stated at a, .recent meeting of the Worshipful Coni^ 

 of Fruiterers, that we are the most ignorant of any civilised nation 1 ^ 



named species in the calyx of the flowers. The seed-bearing parent was P. 

 obconica, and so far there does not appear to have been any material change in 

 the foliage or in the colour of the flowers, but now that a break has been obtained, 

 changes in the form cf leafage and the colour of the flowers will follow as a matter 

 of course. Since writing the above, we have learnt that the Scientific Committee 



w We certainly do not agre^ ^ 



the former part of the statement, °but, as the Dean remarked, 

 behind our neighbours the French in the matter of cooking the veg^ ^ ^ 

 have cultivated. Dean Hole concluded his remark with the story o 

 who dined at a lord's table, and, on being asked to partake of some ^ 

 artichokes, exclaimed, « If I couldn't grow better 'taters than them 



of the Royal Horticultural Society arrived after a close examination of the plants reason why." 



at the same conclusion as ourselves, and consider that across has been effected Fn „ n p . v . . , . interested in fungi will be 



between the two species in question. Fossil Fungi.— Mycologists and others interested in & neX tB><*» 



Mr l„ m< » c h v u u tear that Dr - L - Meshcinelli, of Vicenza, proposes to issue during in ^ 



m . James n. yeitcn has consented to preside at the smoking concert to cr two an Iconograph of All the Fossil Fungi known. The work m ^ 



be held at Andertons Hotel, Fleet Street, on Monday, February 14. The form of a quarto volume, will contain an atlas of over thirty plates, and 



concert is m aid of the funds of the National Chrysanthemum Society. published at thirty francs (25s. ) 



