November 10, 1881. ] JOURNAL OF HORTICULTURE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. 431 
and comparing a great variety of Apples during the season, I have 
seen none of this year's crop to compare with the above-named 
sort. In appearance it is most handsome, somewhat resembling 
a huge King of the Pippins in form and colour, with a large 
and open eye like that of the Blenheim Pippin. If grown to the 
same perfection as the samples lately seen at Tunbridge Wells 
(said to have been grown in Kent), it would be an invaluable ex¬ 
hibition variety. Upon making inquiries as to the price of this 
very striking Apple, not believing my own eyes neither the card 
in the window, 1 was politely informed that there was no mis¬ 
take, and in all sincerity the moderate charge of £6 for the six 
fruits would not be deviated from upon any condition. This is 
fruit-growing at a tremendous pace, it must be conceded.— 
W. H. Chisholm, Oxon Ileath, Tunbridge. 
James Yeitch Strawberry. —It is a question if this becomes 
a standard market variety, and “ F. W.” will act wisely to grow 
it on a small scale at the first for proving its merits. The fruit is 
large but generally flat, by no means rich in flavour, and, what is 
a defect for market purposes, it is deficient in colour. It is firm, 
and travels well, and that I think is its greatest recommendation. 
—A Salesman. 
Firm Soil for Fruit Trees.—M r. Elliott’s note on page 403 
is significant. Much injury is done by digging amongst young 
fruit trees injudiciously. Surface fibres produce firm and fruitful 
wood, but by destroying or preventing such fibres strong roots 
inevitably penetrate the subsoil, and strong succulent growths 
necessarily follow.—R., Berkshire. 
Late Ripening of Marie Louise Pear. —Like “ H. B.,” I 
am growing Marie Louise upon the Hastings sand formation, but 
I do not find the fruit from trees fully exposed to the sun at all 
behind the usual season in ripening. All the trees of it had an 
abundant crop of fruit this year, and with one exception it 
ripened early in September, and was in high favour for several 
weeks. The fruit which did not ripen with the others, and is in 
point of fact still green, is from a tree against a north wall, and 
affords agreeable proof of the value and importance of planting 
trees of such a well-tried favourite in various positions, so as to 
prolong the time during which it is possible to enjoy its delicious 
fruit.— Edward Luckhurst. 
Our Strawberry Beds. —The dull wet autumn has induced 
Strawberries to make growth of extraordinary vigour, which, if it 
be not destroyed by a winter either exceptionally damp or cold, 
may yield fruit of large size and great abundance next summer. 
After the crop of the current year was gathered no time was lost 
in securing the requisite number of runners for potting, and new 
beds. This done, runners, weeds, and rubbish were forthwith 
cleared from the beds, a heavy dressing of manure spread and 
dug in between the rows, and subsequently Strawberries and fresh 
weeds grew so fast that hand-weeding had twice to be resorted to. 
Where the soil was not so broken up there will be considerable 
risk of loss should the winter prove very wet and mild, the com¬ 
pact mass of soil about the roots being apt to retain the super¬ 
abundant water too long.— Sussex. 
Late Currants. — I observe in jour Journal for the 6th of last 
month, on page 316, that a correspondent residing in Surrey 
mentioned having gathered Red Currants “ as late as September 
21st.” A quantity of fine Red Currants were gathered in my 
garden in the north of Yorkshire on the 2nd of November, and 
were in flavour quite equal to the fruit in summer. The trees 
had, of course, been netted to keep off the birds.—N. S. N., Ripon. 
Apples and Pears at Cranmore Hall. —Apples and Pears 
have been both abundant and good. The former are principally 
standards, and in great variety. The best twelve varieties this 
season, and which are invariably found to be the most profitable, 
are Cellini, Stirling Castle, Hawthornden, King of the Pippins, 
Domino, Lord Suffield, Keswick and Manks Codlins, Royal 
Somerset, Spice Apple, Devonshire Quarrendeu, Hollandbury, and 
Golden Reinette. Of Pears Marie Louise on west and south walls 
has perfected excellent crops of fine fruit. Winter Nelis on a 
south wall is unusually large, and when ripe will be equalled by 
few and surpassed in quality by none. Beurre d’Amanlis and 
Williams’ Bon Chretien, both on south walls, have produced good 
crops, and the early little Doyenne d’Ete proved very serviceable. 
Josephine de Malines invariably crops well, as does Zephirin 
Gregoire ; but the quality of the latter is not considered first-rate. 
Easter Beurrd on east and south walls produced good crops of 
valuable fruit. At one time the spurs of many of the trees pro - 
jected a considerable distance from the walls, from which they 
thereby derived but little benefit. Before proceeding to alter 
this Mr. Moore, the competent gardener, on taking charge severely 
pruned, and brought up many of the deep-running roots nearer to 
the surface, working-in much fresh loamy soil at the time. The 
following season the old spurs were sawn off to within an inch of 
the main branches, the result being good clusters of fruit buds 
followed by valuable crops of fine clean fruit. The garden is 
low-lying, in a valley near Shepton Mallet, Somersetshire, and 
the soil is heavy and shallow, resting on a sandy clay subsoil.— 
W. I. 
RESPONSIBILITY OF GARDENERS. 
We are in the habit of making yearly pilgrimages to famous 
gardens to see them, and to try to gain some knowledge if 
possible. As it would not be possible, nor yet wise, in our case 
to visit all the gardens in any given district, we generally confine 
our attention to those the fame of which has reached us. Now, 
many gardens are famed because they are great gardens, and 
not always because gardening is well done. This is generally only 
found out by personal inspection. On the other hand, small 
gardens only gain fame because of the way they are kept. The 
consequence of this is that one who only visits gardens which 
are famous is very apt to come to the conclusion that gardening 
is best done in small establishments. This is perhaps our position, 
and possibly we have arrived at a wrong conclusion—a conclusion 
to which “A Many-handed Gardener” objects, and at the 
same time says what I think is unwarrantable. He says very 
distinctly, “ The very best gardening is to be found in large 
gardens, the very worst in small ODes.” That may be true, and 
the opposite maybe true if such examples are sought and searched 
for, which is what we understand your correspondent to mean 
when he uses the word “ found.” But in looking at samples 
without searching and finding we still think that plants in pots 
are better grown, as a rule, in small than in large gardens. We 
say small gardens advisedly, for we do not think those places 
come under the category where no real gardener at all is employed, 
but perhaps some improved labourer, whose dense ignorance and 
incapability is only equalled by the “cheek” which made his 
imposture possible, and which sustains it.— Single-handed. 
I think it must have been a kind of a “ birds of a feather ” 
feeling that prompted your excellent correspondent “ Single- 
handed ” to draw an invidious distinction between the produc¬ 
tions of single-handed and many-handed gardeners. I am afraid 
he is “pulling the long bow,” or “drawing a bow at a venture ” 
rather, in stating that “ fine specimens of Heaths or other hard- 
wooded plants are seldom seen except in single-handed places 
where the gardener supervises everything himself.” Has your 
correspondent been in the habit of attending the Edinburgh and 
Glasgow Shows regularly, or has he ever visited a metropolitan 
exhibition, or an English provincial show, and will he tell your 
readers where the hardwooded specimens staged at such exhi¬ 
bitions come from ? Almost without exception they come from 
gardens where all the work is done by subordinates. I quite agree 
with him that the best way to do a thing well is to do it oneself, 
but “Single-handed” is wrong in this matter. I happen also 
to know much about the locality of Eskbank, and when “ Single- 
handed” exampled an excellent gardener there, and whom all 
will acknowledge as such, whom “ competitors at local shows 
knew well ”—meaning to their cost we suppose—because “he had 
personally to attend every plant himself; ” he should also have 
stated that there was only one show in that locality, that it is so 
poor it cannot afford to offer a prize for even one bunch of Grapes, 
and that it would not be worth any gardener’s while going off 
the street to see if the room was not occasionally, as it at least 
used to be, half filled by the “ famous gardener in the neighbour¬ 
hood ” for nothing. I am speaking from knowledge, and it will 
therefore be seen that your correspondent’s statements are based 
on an exceedingly slender foundation. Then as regards wash¬ 
ing Orchids, we all have to contend with indifferent men and 
indifferent wages; but I presume “Single-handed’s” man is 
paid the market price of his labour, as elsewhere, and I should 
think there is something wrong with the superintendence which 
permits a man in spite of repeated warnings to break off pounds’ 
worth of shoots from valuable plants.— Another Many-handed 
Man. 
Autumn Propagation of Roses. —Your valued correspondent 
Mr. W. Taylor gives some excellent directions at page 350 on 
striking Rose cuttings late in autumn. We cordially endorse every¬ 
thing he says except one point, and that is for cold districts his 
date for taking cuttings is thirty days too late. That is our expe- 
