24 JOURNAL OF HORTICULTURE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. c January 13 , iaai 
great extent compensate for any diminution of crop which may 
occur ; but employers of professional gardeners know very little 
and care very little about the details of cultural experiments. A 
good supply of everything at the least possible cost is what they 
look for, and what those of them who allow sufficient means have 
a right to expect. What signifies it to them, for instance, whether 
a Bean has a white flower or a red one if the produce is equally 
good, or both ? or whether the top of a Beetroot, which is not used 
for ornamental purposes, is black or green ? 
Possibly the craze for running after novelties simply because 
they are novelties is abating in some degree, but there are still 
many cases where novelties have the effect of pushing out stan¬ 
dard things of sterling merit. Try promising novelties by all 
means, but my advice is, Never depend on them till you have 
proved Ihern ; there are now so many first-rate varieties of every 
kind of vegetable that a wrong selection is no excuse for a break¬ 
down. Mishaps do occur, of course, in every place owing to a 
variety of circumstances under which we are at times helpless, 
but a seed order carefully made out and honestly executed will 
often do a great deal towards ensuring success. 
I generally mark out first in pencil the quantities which I think 
are required at the margin of the catalogue, to be afterwards 
revised and corrected in ink as well as copied on to the order 
form. The catalogues so marked are carefully kept from year to 
year, and it is astonishing how T the success or failure of the dif¬ 
ferent crops will rise up before one’s imagination as they are 
scanned over for the sake of guidance in the present selection. 
There is no need to refer to other memoranda, a figure signifying 
so many quarts of Peas or so many ounces of Onion seed will 
bring the whole crop very vividly before one’s eyes, when judg¬ 
ment is easily passed on them even at this distant date. Last 
year I went out of my usual track in ordering Peas, as it was 
well known that all the better class of Marrows were imperfectly 
ripened, and consequently there were doubts about their germina¬ 
tion. The splendid spring rendered these doubts almost ground¬ 
less, but we cannot yet foretell the weather with certainty, and it 
is best to be on the safe side. 
This year the seed is probably good (although I observe the 
best varieties are expensive), and if the exchequer will allow it 
we can again return to our favourite varieties. In naming those 
I grow I do not pretend to say they are the best for everybody ; 
all I can say is that they are of good quality, they succeed well 
with me, and that I like them best of the varieties I have tried. 
William I. is as yet the best flavoured of the hardy very early 
Peas, and should not be discarded by anyone till he has personally 
proved another variety to be better. Last year for the second 
early I called in the services of an old friend which I had nearly 
forgotten, and was astonished at the quality of it ; this was Elev’s 
Essex Rival, and I mean to keep to it to provide two or three 
successions to come in between William I. and the real Marrow¬ 
fats. Among the Peas for general crops there are so many good 
ones that it is scarcely possible to be wrong in ordering any of 
them. Perhaps the most important thing to consider is the 
height, for when some of them grow 12 or 13 feet high, as they 
did last year, it is awkward for a short man to gather them, 
especially if he is in a hurry. I am still satisfied with G. F. 
Wilson and Yeitch’s Perfection for the main crop. I make 
several successions of them, and at each sowing two rows of each 
sort are employed. Generally speaking the middle of May is late 
enough to sow these. 
For later crops the selection is a much more important affair, 
for good dishes of Peas in the end of October are reckoned among 
the best of dainties ; and although the two varieties just named 
will often hold out very late in autumn if the weather is favour¬ 
able, they are not quite so hardy as some other varieties to be 
specially recommended for that season. I have not yet seen a 
better late Pea than Ne Plus Ultra, but its height, which is 8 to 
12 feet in good soil, is objectionable. Omega is nearly as good 
and is only 3 feet high, but I am afraid we shall not be able to 
have it again this season, and must fall back on our old friend 
with the Latin name and keep a pair of steps near. By-the-by, 
was the name given to this Pea in compliment to its height or to 
the season in which the crop is produced ? About the 10th of 
June is the time here for making a last sowing of Omega. When 
earlier varieties are used they may be sown a week or a fortnight 
later. I do not remember seeing the Pea weevil during the past 
summer; did the previous wet year wash it away 1 —Wl. Taylor, 
King of the Pippins Apple.— In my opinion this is the best 
Apple in cultivation. This impression does not apply to any 
one particular merit, as it possesses every quality requisite in an 
Apple. In good seasons or bad seasons it never fails to produce 
a crop here. The fruit is extremely handsome in shape, high and 
beautiful in colour, firm in flesh, and excellent in flavour. It is 
ready for use by the end of October or beginning of November, 
and retains all its qualities until March. I think it would not be 
easy to name another Apple which is in season for such a length 
of time ; it is just as suitable for cooking as for dessert.—J. Muir, 
Mar gam. 
SCIENCE IN HORTICULTURE. 
As the Potato disease has been ably and sufficiently discussed 
recently, and the matter remains very much the same as before, 
I will at present only refer briefly to the subject, which still 
remains a puzzle ; and well it may do, for it defies all calculations 
and upsets all theories. Thus nothing has been more strongly 
insisted upon than change of soil. How, it is said, can ground 
which has become Potato-sick by having Potatoes grown on it 
year after year ever be expected to be free from disease ? yet a 
short time ago I saw a man digging up in this parish, on a piece 
of ground which has grown Potatoes for thirty years and perhaps 
more, one of the largest healthiest crops of Potatoes I have seen 
this year, the ground, moreover, being moist and well manured, 
and in which last year there was considerable failure ; while on 
my own ground, higher, of lighter texture, less manured, and 
after another crop, the failure was great. Does not this upset all 
the fine theories that have been set afloat concerning the Potato 
disease and the way to prevent it ? If Science be all that it asserts 
itself to be, surely by this time we ought to have had something 
more certain than conflicting statements and fantastic directions 
as to culture. 
I was very much amused the other day by reading in a contem¬ 
porary a short statement on electricity as applied to horticulture. 
It was there stated that if a band of perforated zinc were placed 
round a plant and tied together with copper wire, a stream of 
electricity would be created which would shock the snails and 
slugs and prevent them doing anything so wicked as eating the 
plant enclosed by it. But this piece of cheap science is all fan¬ 
tastic. I have for years used the zinc collar without the copper 
wire and have found it quite efficacious in preventing their ravages. 
They seem to have a great objection to crawling over the rough 
surface of the zinc, and so, without even a chance of trying the 
electricity, keep clear of the plants. 
Amongst the things which were impressed upon me from my 
earliest days of horticulture was that all pots in which plants were 
to be grown must be porous. Various scientific reasons were 
adduced why this was absolutely necessary. I was a little shaken 
in this when I recollected the slate tubs which Mr. Beck of Isle- 
worth used ; but all my early teachings were shattered when I 
saw this year the largest and healthiest collection of Auriculas 
I ever saw grown in highly glazed pots. Now the Auricula is not 
the easiest grown plant, yet here it was flourishing under con¬ 
ditions that were pronounced fatal to it. “ Oh, but you will not 
find the roots coming out to the sides.” Yes, I did, and apparently 
enjoying their position quite as much as in unglazed pots. I leave 
on one side the advantage or otherwise of this mode of treatment; 
but this is incontestable, that the plants flourish as well by this 
treatment as in the ordinary way, and here again science is at 
fault. 
There was a great stir some time ago about carnivorous plants. 
We were assured that Dionaeas, Sarracenias, Droseras, and such¬ 
like were furnished with a wonderful mechanism by which flies 
were caught; the plants fed upon them, increased in vigour as 
human beings would do on a meat diet, &c. This was denied by 
others ; but as an ignoramus I should very much like to state that 
in going over Mr. Bull’s wonderful establishment a little while 
ago I saw quantities of Sarracenia flava and Drummondi; the 
pitchers had indeed caught the bluebottles and other flies, but 
they had succumbed themselves, for they were all dead. Then, 
again, everyone who grows Heaths knows how the viscous varieties 
catch any number of flies—in fact more than any of the so-called 
carnivorous plants, and I never heard that anyone attributed any 
remarkable effect on the health from this strange diet. 
Amongst other plants of which I have written a great deal in 
the Journal is the Gladiolus. Now here again I have been over 
and over again assured that I must not expect to grow it success¬ 
fully in the same soil a second year ; yet the most successful 
grower of them on a small scale I ever knew grew his for seven 
years on the same spot. 
These are a few of the instances which have occurred to me, 
and which have certainly led me to the conclusion that when 
anything is very dogmatically put forward as to be accepted on 
scientific grounds I must “’bide a bit.” The story is well known 
of Charles II. puzzling his courtiers by asking why it was that a 
vessel of water weighed precisely the same when a two-pound fish 
was put into it as it did before. The savants set themselves to 
