T 



6, 1898 



GARDENERS' MAGAZINE. 



LEAVES FROM A RAMBLERS NOTE-BOOK. 



"A WAIL OF THE SEASON." 



nfrv's full of vermin, and that's the truth," said a hard-working, irritated 

 " THE C T nthVr dav folding his arms as he spoke and looking as resigned as he 

 prdcner the otnei v<ty, ^ ^ seemed to be in t h e sole possession of a 

 eooldat aplum in* - he went q ^ „ for people to make a fuss 



**** -Mwinterc saying how pleasant they are and all the rest of it, so they 

 fiSSfZS opinion is they're not natural, and the result is that grubs 

 ay beinaFense,butmyopin u ^_ u^j M it ;«<J M rl of hein^ tilled, and are 



h ^ ve ,iv€d thro ^ h k instead ° f ""^ r d a - e 



us know all about it. There's never been such a season for slugs m 

 ^S^n\ \d it's a fair puzzle to keep them at bay. It's heartrending to 

 ■ } • " nknts eaten up as soon as they are put out, and as for the usual 

 iStS^^ff such a host of the pests that they simply laugh at 



tbC rardeners as a rule, are not confirmed grumblers, and when you hear such a 

 ™ilas the foregoing, with plenty more in reserve, you may depend upon it that 

 E man who utters it is either in a bad temper or else he has a real grievance, 

 in either case it is well to approach the sore point with caution. Had I not 

 ; 'rwn 'hat the temper of the gardener in question was as good as the majority of 

 his fellows I might have hesitated before opening the conversation, but I, too, was 

 cutferiog from the effects of patchy vegetable quarters, seeds that refused to 

 germinate, or, having germinated, provided food for some dm mutive foe, and fruit 

 trees infested with vermin. To suffer alone and in silence may be fortitude, but 

 it isn't part of the human nature of gardeners, who, when in trouble, prefer to go 

 forth and see how others fare, finding some solace in the sympathy mutual to a pair 

 of fellow craftsmen. 



44 How have your small seeds come this year ? " I asked; this being one of 

 the matters of anxiety. "Come and look," was the reply, and the injured one 

 led the way across the kitchen garden and stopped opposite a carrot bed, where 

 in intermittant growth showed where the rows should have been. u Late f aren't 

 they?'' I suggested. "Well, rather; but, bear in mind, it's the third sowing. 

 The first lot never came at all, the second went as soon as they got through the 

 ground, and these are nothing to boast about. I never had such trouble with 

 eirrots before, but I hear most people's are the same, if there's any satisfaction in 

 that. Parsnips, tco, came up very badly, and as for beetroot, well, I've nearly 

 given that up as a bad job, I've sowed till I'm nearly tired of it." The patchy 

 ippearance of the beds was evidence of the truth of the assertion, and from 

 complaints received from different quarters other gardeners could testify to the 

 partial failure cf these important crops. Such failures belong to the minor matters 

 that worry gardeners. It does not seem much that a bed of carrots, parsnips, or 

 beetroot should fail, but it means something to the man who has a kitchen to supply, 

 md when these vegetables are demanded he has to own that they are not forth- 

 coming. He may blame the seeds, weather, insects, birds, or whatever he likes, 

 tot that does not relieve him of responsibility in the eyes of those who know 



' n k ; ..f the caprices of seasons, and have never had to do battle with the 

 £tideners' enemies. 44 I never knew what gardeners had to contend with till I 

 took to it myself," said a gentleman to me the other day, who has recently retired 

 mm business, and pursues the gentle art as a hobby. 



; 1 f £ er , on was a bed of stru gg lin g turnips, tiny dwindling things, 

 Jmg to look as cheerful as they could, considering that every leaf was in a coro- 



StiS 71 rfora . ,lon - The gardener uttered never a word. He had perhaps 

 to Ik T ent, ° n ° f the name (,f turni P flea ' or else h e was too disgusted 



Ihe « M- im ag T* We looked at lhe ^tilated crop and then at each 

 «ner. Mine are just ihe same," I remarked, and, human to the backbone, he 



mere was some solace in knowing that he was not the only injured one, 



»miled. 



ind 



k?Tasl^ \°- Vgh l mulu f! s > m P a,h y- " What have you done "to prevent 

 ^hnSaL was the emphatic reply, "but they're 



If anyone could give us 



seaso 



min dn^.^ r r t."*** "^ lL »*musi useless trying to er< 

 St*".* ha . d ra,n - and «hey seem a little better no?. 



It seems to me that 



kimself 



g 



P°dded row 

 **tween thei 



his heel on the turnips. " Peas 



slugs 



parrows to begin with, 



P« this SS^F&TS^ IOWS - 1 AS 1 Said before ' slu g § hav ^ been a 



*k to watch runnt?o ^ ^ d 1 ^ Ve never known so ma *y. " 

 « *ery one T^?* French . beans after they came up, 



It's been a man's 

 or we should have 



^n at the peas 



tk " ; . : — every aay 

 tney re fairly numerous about here. 



f of ^ Sm a A^S^^ t ^° ng -Pf as than ^ese short-beaked 

 IjL?"* >* cxtrS^ ThSt^r th ^ rapidity with which they will destroy a 

 ft** wcids they ar e teiV 1 ? P ° dS 15 r ^aUe. In gardens sur- 

 * attack from the n * tZ 1 I a ™ m > Wend had every reason 



J"*** word alK>ut the sE rZt ' ?° ^ are 0,her gardeners who 



.Pwhably the late milj . ■ ^ Cen , tly ^ a PP eared an ^le on the 

 5?^ sl "gs and snails which thT efS ^ to do with the 



J. ,,nc< ; crops began T „Tnw tK u Sea f° n are a n ^nce in many gardens. 

 to5SL jud P n g Kn trS^rtS h ^ been a general scattering of soot and 



"* oW fme regies have 0 r?l v K ^T Kd p,ants ™ d mutilated foliage, 



ve on, y partially successful. 



;VV: r ^nonionin , neh h " 1 WOr K l 'T hen 1 P erceived ^ guide coming 

 JftSLri -ions JAca IS? 1? i« « b« -m in thS 



^\Z^ r ^Xr d i h ,f l°P 0?aT -ad bean stem in the 



•SSie,. »*ans have bo V !! h fu thumb an<1 "nger, he extracted a 



*"5rT kn J. have ,h e 8 U D s nff ^' mu "«ed, holding up ,he other 



1 thou 8ht my onions weL ^fc \\} I* the <** a ^ simplest 

 S" Si itf ^ s Poile<l wi°h ' ^ Ugh 1 hear there are a good 



« thk J^ 1 P^ked out n7~r "!..™ agg0t ' The y talk about onions raised 



and if 



507 



The subject was changed a little from the vegetable section by the presence of 

 a woolly-backed caterpillar which fell from an overhanging apple tree Under the 



^Tnr^T w - ; he , creature J wouid have deve W int ° * »«S 2 



rZ/ u t 'i 16 misfortun e to drop in close proximity to the gardener's 



SSSfSS " ? CrUShed - t0 a jel, y' whi,e a ma,icious look Passefover tL 



Td a /fK \- Fl f mt treCS f K , alive with vermin '" he went on ! "look up there!" 

 and a the tips of many of the shoots were masses of web, in which hundreds of 



wriggling Iarvre of the small ermine moth were full of life and vigour. In other 



places brown and seared tips, with leaves eaten to shreds, showed where the work 



ot destruction had been going on, and the marauders had passed the web state of 



their existence and escaped. A close look round found the caterpillars crawling 



about on the ground beneath before changing into their next state. " There was 



a grand show for fruit, but I think it will be thin now," said my informant. 



Fears are nearly all gone, apples are scarce, and I am afraid most of them will 



be spoiled by the codhn moth. There appears to be a good crop of plums and 



damsons, but the trees are in a filthy condition." A glance at the trees confirmed 



this statempnf-- Utr^ .11 j.'.i. j _ * * .% - 



masses of 

 Many 



aphis infesting them, though a fairly good set of fruit was apparent, many 

 weakly-looking apple trees were badly attacked by American blight, and stronger 

 specimens near at hand appeared to be quite free, which seems to point to the fact 

 that this pest either makes it a rule to attack weakly trees or else has the effect of 

 making unhealthy those on which it locates. "You have dressed them, of 

 course ? I suggested. " Several times," was the reply ; u but I shan't get fruit 

 enough to pay me for my time and trouble." And this appears to be an argument 

 raised by many fruit growers in respect to washing trees. 



My wail of the season must end here. It has been a grumble from the 

 beginning, but a justifiable one, as it is a true state of affairs in many gardens this 

 season. We have now passed the meridian of summer, and the longest day is 

 behind us, therefore we may review the months of sowing and growing, blooming 

 and setting, that have passed, and hope for the ripening and gathering in. The 

 spring and early summer have been anxious times for gardeners, and it would be 

 interesting to know how that mysterious philosopher, " Peter," has passed through 

 the ordeal. With his quaint knowledge of things in general he has doubtless used 

 that stump of lead pencil in making notes about the enemies against which he 



II. 



wages war 



The Rose Season of i89& 



The remarks made by Mr. Mawley in your issue of last week, 

 page 488, will, I am sure, interest many more than myself, as his 

 experience, which agrees with my own, is no doubt identical with that of 

 many others. To judge from the exhibits of some rosarians, milder 

 climates or sheltered (natural or artificial) situations, have acted favour- 

 ably to their plants and roses, as they evidently did not suffer so much 

 as I and others, from the north winds, to whose cold blast my garden is 

 gi eatly exposed. Although Mr. Mawley seems doubtful on the point, 

 the season has most undoubtedly been a late one. In one part of his 

 letter Mr. Mawley says, "I do not think myself that the season has 

 been as exceptionally late as generally supposed," but later on he 

 satisfactorily proves that it has been late by his showing that the exhibits 

 improved in number as the season advanced. 



To show how the cold winds and nights affected me, I may say that 

 my standard teas did not begin to bloom until about the lothof July, and 

 I had no good exhibition flowers off them until about the 15th of the 

 month, having to show at the Crystal Palace and Royal Horticultural 

 Society's show from dwarfs off which I never get good blooms. My best 

 boxes of teas were shown on the 20th and 2 1st at Leatherhead and Ashstead, 

 where there are no classes for rose competition. I could cut no good 

 dark red roses earlier than I did the standard teas, and my experience of 

 Horace Vernet, A. K. Williams, C. Lefebvre, Earl of Dufferin, and the 

 other first-rate dark reds is that they are infinitely finer in very hot and 

 early seasons than in late ones. 



Until this year I thought that a late season might suit my garden, 

 but I am now convinced that if it be accompanied by winds from the 

 north and cold nights, it is fatal to the chance of my plants throwing good 



I also think that an early season bas the advantage of giving 



everyone Vchance, as in recent years we have had good flowers from 

 the Midlands at the Crystal Palace shows, whereas this year Mr. 

 Machin and others were unable to shovv a flower. . 



My view of the exhibits agrees with Mr. Mawley's ; the professional 

 growers have shown remarkably well, and the amateurs indifferently. 

 We always expect, and I may say are never disappointed in the exhibits 

 of Mr. Lindsell and Mr. Orpen, although their good fortune in having 

 typical rose soils, and in Mr. Orpen's case a good climate, this year may 

 have materially helped them, but with the exception of their exhibits and 

 teTSrBm ^En! (whom I am delighted to see so well to the 

 M I do not think the amateurs were at all in good form this 



W^SS^SS their misfortune, and not their fault, as ike 

 & f ^dc& could not blame themse ves for any want of atten- 

 tTon or care for their plants. The experience^ other jose growers would 



be SSfe Charles J. Grahame. 



\» • o Whikt havins the profoundest sympathy with those who would 



, • W ??h«TKhoESE despoiling the rural districts of beautiful wild plants 

 strive to < check that wjol^ai p ^ ^ q{ ^ ^ ^ 



x U ? a M tt i J? wish St our P pamh councils were armed with compulsory 



1 d ° ^We SiemTo destroy the coarse noxious seeding weeds which are just 

 powers to enable them o ^ / ^ wherc - 



now seen m «*^2L a jS»ne intoleaable nuisances to all who cultivate the 

 he country. These fae rQadsides that otherwise would be so delightful 



Tkt Tfhould S go e«n further, and see these local authorises armed with 

 Then I should nk e .w SP fermers or Qthers tQ ^ all such weeds m their 



powers to compel Uzy, negi * ^ ^ ^ & ^ Je tQ 



helds or other land ■ «™ 0 ^ lion y of wee d dissemination to go on all over the 

 thus allow «we £ «u^«* P Qn of al , otments one or tw0 p i ots 



covf eT witl^dlngwSs doing innnit/harrn. Weeds should be as ruthlessly 

 rohibited as is the diffusion of animal epidemics.— A. D. 



