April 6, 1882. ] 
JOURNAL OF HORTICULTURE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. 
275 
exceeded by a -well managed system of outdoor Mush¬ 
room culture.* 
A CAUTION TO FARMERS. 
The prices enumerated above may possibly tempt 
some holders of land to devote it to vegetable culture 
even if they have had no experience in the work. Let 
them pause before changing their system. Unless they 
are so situated that they can be first in the market 
with superior produce they must not expect to obtain 
anything like even the average prices quoted, and their 
greatest chance of success lies in the cultivation of 
such root crops as early Potatoes, Onions, Carrots, 
Parsnips, and similar crops where the land and situa¬ 
tion are favourable to their culture. Before entering 
on work of vegetable farming let the inexperienced 
consider that salesmen and greengrocers have to be 
reckoned with. At present these individuals, espe¬ 
cially the latter, derive the greatest profits from 
vegetable culture. Let them also remember that the 
weather is as much likely to injure or even ruin green 
vegetable crops as it is to affect injuriously the cereal 
and ordinary root crops of the farm; and let them 
further understand that even the most experienced 
market gardeners cannot anticipate the nature of the 
supply and demand a year in advance, and when they 
attempt to do so they sometimes make great mistakes 
and incur serious loss. One instance of this will suffice. 
In 1879 Scarlet Runner Beans were scarce, and the seed 
did not ripen well. "What so likely as that after a barren 
harvest of seed the following year’s crop would be limited, 
and the prices for Beans consequently high ? Every¬ 
body thought there would be few Beans sown because 
of the scarcity of seed, and everybody made special 
effort to obtain seed, and it appears did obtain it at 
a high price. The result was that a greater acreage 
than ever was placed under this crop, and the summer 
and autumn being favourable for the growth and fruit¬ 
ing of the plants the supply of produce so far exceeded 
the demand that tons of fine fleshy pods did not realise 
more than sufficient to defray the railway charges 
and the agents’ commission. Hundreds of pounds 
were lost to the growers by this one crop. It is only 
fair to farmers who are urged to become market gar¬ 
deners that they should be acquainted with contin¬ 
gencies of this nature, and to the losses to which culti¬ 
vators are liable. It is not the fashion now-a-days to 
enunciate a doctrine of this kind, but when there is a 
danger of industrious men being misled by kindly 
advice “ fashion ” must be ignored, and both sides of 
an important question must be fairly represented. The 
only advantage farmers may possess over market gar¬ 
deners or growers of vegetables is that the former can 
feed their stock with the produce that cannot be profit¬ 
ably disposed of in the markets ; and it is the fact that 
many acres of vegetables that were produced at great 
cost have been so disposed of in Kent, on the principle 
of choosing the lesser of two evils. “ But,” it may be 
very naturally urged, “if a caution is needed against 
indiscriminate vegetable-growing under the temptation 
of high prices, there is at least equal need for caution 
against a similar rush into Mushroom-growing if the 
* The average estimated values of fruit and vegetables have been 
obtained directly from large cultivators in Kent and Essex, and con¬ 
firmed by an experienced salesman of garden produce in London. The 
“ extraordinary ” prices have been chiefly derived from Burbidge’s 
“ Industry of Horticulture.” (Stanford, Charing Cross.) 
prices that have been obtained are considerably higher.” 
This is true, and when some facts, startling facts they 
will be to some readers, have been presented on Mush¬ 
room culture, a word of caution will follow, and a 
possible danger ahead will be fully and fairly discussed, 
the object being to guide safely, not to mislead.— 
J. Wright. 
(To be continued.) 
DENDROBIUMS. 
(Continued from page 256.) 
Previous to the commencement of the present century we have 
no record that any species of this beautiful genus had been in¬ 
troduced to cultivation in England. Within, however, the first 
fifteen years four were imported, two from the East Indies— 
namely, D. Pierardi and D. cucullatum ; and the same number 
from Australia—D. speciosa and D. linguaeforme. Now more 
than two hundred species are known, and probably at least half 
this number are in cultivation, the varieties being also very abun¬ 
dant. All are epiphytal in habit, and the majority are found in 
India and neighbouring islands. Some are inhabitants of Austra- 
Fig. 53.—Dendrobium Falconeri. (See page 276.) 
lia, while a few are natives of Japan, New Zealand, and the Pacific 
Islands, but they are quite confined to the eastern hemisphere ; the 
great western continent, so rich in the representatives of other 
Orchid genera, being without one Dendrobium. It will thus be seen 
that nearly all Dendrobes are natives of climates distinguished 
by their high temperatures, and where abundance of moisture 
at certain seasons stimulates growth of the customary luxuriant 
tropical character, and at others a period of drought induces a 
partial rest. The chief difficulty in imitating these conditions 
artificially is that naturally the highest temperature prevails at 
the time of drought, whereas we have to reverse this and induce 
the plants to rest in a cooler temperature. This applies to all 
natives of similar climates, but practically the plants soon become 
accustomed to the changed conditions if they receive sufficient 
attention in other respects. 
Much diversity prevails in the habit of growth amongst Den¬ 
drobes. Some, like D. linguteforme, are very diminutive, not ex¬ 
ceeding 3 or 4 inches in height, and have small thick leaves ; 
others, as in D. Dalhousianum, have long bare stems or pseudo¬ 
bulbs. Some are club-shaped, others have strangely-formed pseudo- 
bulbs, alternately swollen and compressed like D. crassinode. 
Some are of erect growth, as D. nobile ; others, like D. Pierardi 
and D. primulinum, have pendulous or drooping stems. The 
flowers are borne either singly upon the pseudo-bulbs in clusters 
of two or three or in dense or lax racemes, and these characters 
