April 21, 1881. ] 
JOURNAL OF HORTICULTURE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. 
309 
turn to Strawberries, Raspberries, Gooseberries, and Currants, to 
all of which a fair proportion of his land is wisely devoted ? 
Eleven years ago in the pages of the Journal, vol. xix., page 97, 
attention was called to the fact that Black Currants under high 
cultivation were extremely profitable. The annual crop of some 
forty fine bushes was shown to be four gallons each, worth Is. id. 
per gallon, and it was computed that an acre of such bushes 
would yield in a single year the astounding sum of £322 13.5. id. 
The calculation was as worthy of attention then as it is now, for 
it was based upon the produce of bushes that I had known and 
watched for many years. It may be said that its more general 
culture upon an extensive scale would reduce the price of the fruit ; 
so it might, and yet allow a very handsome margin of profit. Bring 
down the price to a penny a quart, and you still have a total of 
£80 an acre. So, too, with other bush fruits. I once knew a farmer 
who had a long steep bank of capital loam overlaying a bed 
of limestone, unavailable for ordinary crops, which he planted 
with Warrington Gooseberry bushes that proved very profitable. 
Raspberries and Strawberries, too, always give abundant crops 
under good culture, and with both it may be asserted that within 
certain limits the higher the culture the finer and more abundant 
the crop. I may well be positive in this matter, for I have had to 
bring a barren soil into a suitable condition for the growth of all 
bnds of fruit. Another great advantage belonging to the culture 
of Strawberries and bush fruits is, that whenever a superabundant 
crop gluts the market, part of the supply can always be diverted 
advantageously to the fruit preserves. What is known as 
“ people’s jam,” is frequently, I fear, an unwholesome compound 
that would be driven out of the market by an increasing supply 
of really good fruit. 
However hard times may be it is unlikely that an ordinary 
farmer will ever turn his attention seriously to fruit culture. He 
is not wont to adopt new ideas readily, and the result of his plant¬ 
ing fruit trees is apt to be of a very speculative character indeed. 
With him it is literally a “ sticking in ” process. A hole is dug, 
the roots crammed into it, the soil thrown back and trampled 
down, perchance a few bushes are bound round the stem to keep 
off sheep and cattle, and the tree is left to its fate. I could point 
to many a man clever enough in all the ordinary duties of a farm, 
yet who is quite ignorant of the simple operation of tree-planting. 
It is a mystery past his comprehension why the young trees planted 
in the vacant spaces of his old orchard make such 6low progress ; 
why trees that have been there for five or six years are very little 
larger than when first planted. It is undoubtedly true that there 
are farmers who are perfectly familiar with all the branches of 
hardy fruit culture ; but then they are to the manner born, and 
fruit-growing has always been part and parcel of their calling. 
Apart from such considerations tenant farmers require prompt 
annual returns for the capital which they invest in their holdings. 
But too few can muster the traditional £10 per acre of capital 
at the outset, and those who can would regard fruit trees as a 
very questionable investment. Freeholders having good soil and 
a favourable situation are the men to take up this matter. If 
they do it thoroughly, in the way Mr. Roger Leigh is doing at 
Barham Court, as was explained in the Journal a short time ago, 
they will succeed in getting a better interest for their capital than 
can ever be had from corn-growing.— Edward Luckhurst. 
NOTES FROM MY GARDEN IN 1880. 
GREENHOUSE. 
It may perhaps occur to many persons that there is little to be 
said from year to year concerning a greenhouse that is only some 
20 feet long with its annexe of ab >ut 12 more, and indeed I have 
seen some remarks on it as if I were making mountains out of 
molehills and converting all my poor little ducks into swans \ but 
as I know from many kind letters which I have received that many 
who are similarly situated to myself have derived both encourage¬ 
ment and instruction from my annual records I shall again notice 
it, and the rather because I am enabled to have some new features 
from year to year. 
It was with much regret that I parted with the Camellias 
which have so many years afforded me so much gratification, but 
“necessity has no law and as they were reaching up to the top 
of the house, both taking up room and being too high up for their 
flowers to be seen, I was constrained to dispose of them. This I 
did on terms satisfactory to myself and to the purchasers, and 
I supplied their place with some excellent small plants about 
3 feet high. Some of the varieties I could not replace ; and the 
fine plant of Sarah Frost, connected as it was with sunny memories 
of Angers, I especially regretted to lose. Each year convinces 
me more and more that for those who have only a few plants it is 
much better to keep them indoors altogether than to put them 
out, as so many do, in the summer months. The shade of Vines 
is just the place for them. Cylcamens are invaluable plants ; 
they come iu so early and continue so long in bloom, arc so bright 
and clear, that there is nothing in the way of early flowers to 
compare with them. As I cannot venture on everything I have 
preferred them to the Chinese Primulas, more especially as the 
latter are of very little use for cutting, whereas the Cyclamen is 
one of the most useful plants we can have. I saved a good quan¬ 
tity of seed from the best varieties, and have quite a number of 
seedlings, which I hope will take the place of the older plants, 
which after a few years seem to wear out. As with the Camellias, 
so some of my Azaleas had grown beyond my means of housing 
them. These also I disposed of, and replaced them with young 
plants of some of the more recent introductions from Belgium. 
Of these I had amongst others Charles Leirens, a dark salmon ; 
Apollo, a splendid large white ; Madame de Grevc, deep rose 
edged with white ; Imbricata, a very curious Balsam-like flower, 
but unfortunately the plant seems to be not so good a grower as 
some of the others ; but in size, freedom of bloom, and brilliancy 
of colour these modest Belgian varieties are far in advance of 
either the older foreign or English ones. 
I had some new Show Pelargoniums from Slough. It may be 
difficult to see the advance that is made, but on looking back to 
those of a few years since the increase in size and excellency of 
form, and now and then a new break in colour, is at once recog¬ 
nisable. Two of these have a melancholy interest—Amethyst and 
Bridal, raised by the late Rev. T. Br6baut of Guernsey, or rather 
by his wife, who died but a short time before him. He wrote to 
me a couple of years ago telling me of her success in raising 
these varieties, and the severe wrench that her death made so 
depressed him that his own soon followed. Amethyst is a beau¬ 
tiful rich purple flower with deep maroon top petals. Bridal is 
pure white without any spot whatever, very free, and with 
slightly scented foliage. Douglas (Matthews) is rich crimson ; 
lower petals dark glossy maroon ; top petals, white centre ; fine 
shape and substance. Goliath (Foster), crimson, with purple 
maroon spots on top petals ; clear light centre. Invincible (Foster), 
rich crimson top petals, lighter centre ; free, dwarf habit. Magician 
(Foster), top petals dark maroon with crimson margin ; lower 
petals rosy crimson, white centre. Queen of Scots (Foster), top 
petals orange with rose edge ; lower petals rose, white centre. 
Valiant (Foster), crimson, with dark maroon top petals, shaded 
crimson, and rose edge. Sensation (Foster), top petals black 
maroon with crimson margin ; lower petals bright rose. Mr. Foster 
of Clewer still keeps at the head of all raisers of this very beauti¬ 
ful but comparatively speaking neglected class of flowers. There 
is no class of flowers so satisfactory for winter blooming as the 
Zonal Pelargonium and its hybrids, for there is now such an 
intermixture of the Nosegay blood that it is hard to tell them. 
The various shades of colours are so beautiful—scarlets, crimsons, 
pinks, white, salmon—that even when you get a bloom here and 
there on a plant it tends to enliven the house wonderfully. I have 
grown many varieties, most of which are so fine as to make us 
wonder where the improvement is to come from. I never keep 
up the temperature of my house to any particular point, my sole 
object being to exclude frost, but yet this gives me quite a bright 
display of flowers. 
Of miscellaneous plants I may say that I have found the Li- 
bonia floribunda most useful, giving bright colour to the house 
and useful for cutting, although it has the bad property of soon 
fading. Primula cortusoides amoena and Primula pulcherrima 
have also been of great use ; while the Lachenalias, both pendula 
(which is early) and tricolor, are excessively gay and do famously 
for cutting. I am, perhaps, prouder of a fine pan of Disa grandi- 
flora, the only greenhouse Orchid I possess, than of any other 
plant in it. It is this year throwing up, I hope, several blooms 
and looks very strong. I keep it close to the door and a syringe 
near to it, and every time I go into the house give it a sprinkle. 
It is planted in a shallow pan about 8 inches deep in some good 
peat and sand, and nothing could be more satisfactory than its 
progress. The plant does not require rest. As soon as the bloom 
is over I repot it : the young shoots for the following year will 
then have pushed through the soil at the base of the old, and it 
is ready to commence again. Francoa ramosa I have also found 
a most useful plant for cutting from ; its graceful sprays of white 
flowers are very charming in a tall vase. Ixias I did not succeed 
with, as I depended on my own bulbs, and experience has taught 
me that this is a broken reed to depend upon. Like the Hyacinth, 
it almost seems as if we must look to imported bulbs for good 
blooms. 
Later on in the season Fuchsias, Lilies, and other plants kept 
up a succession of bloom ; and during the earlier months of the 
year, when flowers are the more valuable, I was always able to cut 
