408 JOURNAL OF HORTICULTURE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. [ November s, issi. 
causing it to settle down. Through the summer months the plant 
is supplied with water when it is required, the basket and the 
roots being syringed twice daily. I seldom syringe the foliage, 
only occasionally after a very hot day.” 
[We congratulate Mr. Llewelyn on the possession of such a 
splendid specimen, and his gardener on his skilful cultivation.] 
SCRAPS ABOUT FRUIT. 
Strawberry James Yeitch. —Can any of your readers who 
have grown this Strawberry tell me if it is a good bearer and a 
good-flavoured fruit, and suitable for growing for the market 1 I 
should feel much obliged for the information.—F. W. 
Brown Beurre Pear. —With us this Pear on a west wall has 
not afforded us an eatable fruit for the last three years. Is it the 
same in other gardens ? I believe this variety requires a warm 
locality, and then perhaps there are many better Pears at this 
season ; it decays so soon.— J. Taylor, Shrewsbury. 
Keswick Codlin and Lord Suffield in Cornwall.— 
Of the many varieties and number of Apple trees planted in Corn¬ 
wall every season, none are in so much demand as the two above. 
Indeed they are two of the best culinary Apples I know of. Lord 
Suffield is now much more extensively planted than the Keswick, 
and is preferred, it being a very good improvement on the old 
sort.— William Roberts, Dersingham. 
La Delicieuse Plum. —I send you an account of this Plum 
wffiich may be of service. We have a tree here, planted Nov. 
26th, 1838, which now covers a wall 30 feet long by 10 feet high. 
This tree invariably bears good crops of fruit, and is still in a 
healthy condition. The fruit in shape is like the Victoria, but is 
larger and of a darker colour. It is excellent either for dessert or 
kitchen purposes, and if “A Country Surgeon ” is in want of 
another good Plum I would advise him to 'plant La Delicieuse.— 
F. Hopkins, Oxon. 
Prolific Apples. —About eight years since I planted several 
varieties of Apples, and have found the following the most prolific. 
Espaliers —Lord Suffield, Prince Albert, King of the Pippins, and 
Wormsley Pippin. The last named is an extraordinary bearer. 
Standards —Pott’s Seedling, a first-rate kitchen Apple, and Court 
Pendu Plat, a good dessert Apple. From old trees I get the best 
crops from Keswick Codlin, Dumelow’s Seedling, Blenheim Pippin, 
Wyken Pippin, and Rymer, commonly called Caldwell. This 
should be in every collection, as it is a good cooking Apple and 
suitable for sauce or baking.—F. J. 
Knight’s Monarch Pear. —Some few years since a discussio 11 
was carried on for some time as to the cause of this variety prema¬ 
turely dropping its fruit. So far as I can remember nothing 
definite seemed to have been arrived at. Every year since a 
healthy tree of some ten or twelve years’ growth has performed 
this same phenomenon. Can anyone give an instance of its 
better behaviour, and how situated? I remember seeing this 
grand Pear (when you can get it) at Stackpole Court, Pembroke¬ 
shire, very fine some years since. A misprint occurred in my 
note on Ecklinville Seedling and Cox’s Pomona Apples last week. 
I desired to say they were good bearers, especially the latter, and 
the fruit is large, but turns mealy and soon decays.—J. Taylor, 
Shrewsbury. 
Marketable Fruits. —There are two fruits which invariably 
realise remunerative prices—viz., Damsons and Black Currants. 
Few nurserymen near London have a stock of either remaining 
on their hands, the numbers of the latter especially that have 
been planted of late years being really remarkable. Black Currant 
jam is very popular in this and probably other countries, as much 
fruit is annually exported, and this may account for the ready 
sales. Damsons, in addition to making good jam and “cheese,” 
are also extensively employed in dyeworks. Shropshire appears 
to suit the Damson, and from that county immense quantities of 
them are in favourable seasons bought up for the manufactories. 
There is no doubt the Prune Damson is the best in quality, but 
for a heavy crop grow the Farleigh or Crittenden’s Cluster.— 
Essex. 
Root-pruning and Mulching. —Those who periodically root- 
prune their fruit trees with a view of keeping the roots fibry and 
close to the surface do well; but those who root-prune periodically 
and mulch heavily the ground underneath the trees every autumn 
with solid half-decayed cow manure—not disturbing the surface 
in any way—do better. We have no patience with those who 
keep encouraging faggotism by thoughtless pruning. “ Cantab’s ” 
ideas are excellent about pruning Apple trees, or Pears and Plums 
either. If the roots were more attended to and the growths left 
alone they would become wreaths of strong flowers—at least such 
is the case with ours.—H. Elliott. 
Plums, Bad and Good Bearers. —We have many Plums, 
and several of them bear only a few fruits and others none. 
Brahy’s Green Gage is a very fine Plum, rich, juicy, and excellent, 
but the tree seldom bears for two years together, and I have never 
known three consecutive crops. Diamond, oval, purple, large, one 
of the finest culinary Plums, blooms every spring, but only once 
have I known a good crop of fruit. Washington, a very fine Plum, 
never bears freely. I have a Plum with no name, which I am told 
is Jefferson ; it bears well every year. ReineJ Claud..,-de Bavay 
seldom bears well. There are only a few varieties that bear every 
year alike, and them we depend on for a supply. Orleans is a 
good cooking and preserving Plum, and a good bearer. Victoria 
is also a good Plum, and a great bearer too. Coe’s Golden Drop, 
one of the very best Plums, is very juicy, sugary, and rich, also 
very late ; we gathered the last on the 3rd of October. I think 
this variety ought to be_ in everyone’s garden.—F. Walker, Isle 
of Wight. _ 
Doyenne Boussoch Pear. —This Pear may answer in a deep 
heavy soil, but I certainly cannot reccommend it for a thin light 
soil however highly cultivated it may be. 1 have a palmette 
verrier of it as an espalier out in the open garden, and a cordon 
against a wall; both trees are in full health and vigour, and the 
fruit is large and so handsome that I have once more ventured 
to send a dish of it to table. But it was again condemned as 
worthless, and a welcome substitute found for it in the delicious 
little fruit of Comte de Lamy. I have carefully tested the fruit 
of this Doyenne at various stages of ripeness, and as the flavour 
has invariably proved poor and insipid year after year, it will 
in future be used only for stewing.— Sussex. 
Doyenne Defays Pear. —“ A most delicious Pear, one of 
the best,” says the “Fruit Manual,” and I entirely agree with it. 
The first fruit of it is just ripe, and would evidently keep good for 
some time. The crop was a full one of fine fruit, and it is very 
sweet, rich, aromatic, and very juicy. Like so many other Pears 
it is somewhat capricious about the time of ripening, but it may 
be classed with the late autumn and early winter varieties. The 
one fault of this valuable Pear is the tendency of the fruit to 
crack, sometimes so badly that the entire crop is spoilt. This 
year there is hardly any cracking, but I would as a safeguard 
always plant it in a sheltered situation. Apart from the fruit 
cracking, it answers well as a pyramid on the Quince stock.— 
Edward Luckhurst. 
Early-bearing Apples.— I am obliged by Mr. A. H. Pearson 
for naming some late varieties of Apples that are early bearers. 
Mr. Pearson’s field of observation is so extensive that he is un¬ 
doubtedly in a position to communicate useful information, and 
letters from his pen must be generally acceptable. His father 
was one of my most esteemed friends, and I was indebted to him 
for the idea that early Apples as a rule are early bearers, and the 
produce of a number of trees obtained some years ago from Chil- 
well proved him right; but he said there were exceptions to the 
rule, and there are, but I find they are not numerous when the 
observations are taken over a number of years. Irish Peach, one 
of the very best early Apples, has with me also proved an early 
bearer; so has Red Astrachan. Court Pendu Plat came into 
bearing early, but scantily ; I regard it as a safe rather than an 
early bearer, and a variety well worth planting. The Hawthorn- 
dens I regard as early, as they attain a good size early. The other 
late varieties named on page 382 bear tolerably well in an early 
state, the most prolific in this respect being Sturmer Pippin. 
Small’s Admirable is also an excellent Apple for early profit. 
Mr. Luckhurst’s notes on page 386 on this important aspect of 
fruit culture are instructive.—A Northern Gardener. 
Influence of Soil on Fruit-keeping. —From many obser¬ 
vations I have made I find that soil has a wonderful effect on the 
keeping properties of fruits, and I am reminded by the remarks of 
“ A Kentish Grower ” on Warner’s King that this is the case. 
My experience is that Apples and Pears grown upon light soils 
and in warm situations ripen earlier, and consequently keep a 
