August 28, 1884. ] 
JOURNAL OF HORTICULTURE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. 
187 
one, and three than two; but the “ marks ” applied to objects at 
Chiswick can hardly have that significance, and it is perhaps 
more likely that the brewers’ method of estimating merit is 
adopted, XXX meaning strong, X X medium, and X small 
beer. Be that as it may, 1 cannot help thinking that the report 
itself is a very small-beerish one, and there I leave it, hoping for 
a better next time. 
I MUST now think a week back again on the veiy practical 
subject of close cropping in kitchen gardens, as referred to on 
page 136, for the purpose of recommending it to the attentive study 
of young gardeners. This, I think, is a matter on which they 
are not so strong as they ought to be. They must think, not 
only when the different crops should be put in, but must have a 
clear idea when they will be off again, as they may be doing 
what a smart young man did not long ago—plant Brussels 
Sprouts, Kales, and late Broccolis between the early Potatoes 
and Peas on a south border, and then have no sheltered place for 
the choice early crops when the time comes round again for 
sowing and planting. It is observable that Mr. Iggulden makes 
no such mistake ; possibly he bought his experience as I bought 
mine on this subject many years back, when such useful teach¬ 
ings were less common than now in the press. I have another 
thought on close cropping—quadruple cropping it may be tei'med, 
or taking four crops off the same plot in one season, but it will 
“ keep.” _ 
There has been a trio of useful notes on a very tiseful crop— 
winter Onions—and my thought on the instructions given is 
this. “ B,” on page 138 told best how to grow large bulbs, only 
he plants too thickly; Mr. Muir, page 144, gave the most useful 
selection of varieties; and the “man of letters,” “ Y. B. A. Z.” 
suggests the best methods of preventing the attack of the maggot 
and destroying the fungus that attacks the leaves and often 
ruins the crops. By taking the points out of these three articles 
a person must be dull indeed if he cannot grow the crop in 
question. _ 
Mr. Waiting is “in for it again,” I thought when I read his 
note on the results of non-pruning on page 138. Tour corre¬ 
spondent's argument is not easy to follow. “ Early autumn and 
summer, as well as winter pruning, is the chief cause of disease,” 
he says ; yet he appears to have pruned “about the21st of July.” 
Is not this summer pruning? Dogmatism on this subject is 
rarely indulged in by persons who have had many years of expe¬ 
rience, because they find that the results of a given practice are 
not the same every year. The condition of the trees and the 
characteristics of the season are important factors that must 
never be overlooked in the pruning of fruit trees. 
Then the quick production of fruit blossom I thought would 
not be passed silently. Nor has it. “A Non-Believer” justifies 
his name. The growths that Apple trees produce this year do 
not bear fruit next, as a rule; but there are exceptions, and it is 
the same with Pears. These exceptions are perhaps more nume¬ 
rous than your correspondent imagines. As to Dr Bindley, we 
may leave him out of the question on a matter of fact; and it 
is very m uch a fact that I have gathered both Apples and Pears 
from growths of the previous season. They were exceptions, 
nevertheless ; and the “ close pruning ” of standard Apple trees 
every year, or pruning them to even a fourth part of the summer 
growth, would not, I think, result in bountiful harvests of fruit; 
on the contrary, when the head of a standard Apple tree is 
formed, and a sufficient number of branches provided, I am 
inclined to think that the less pruning is indulged in the better 
will be the crop ; but at the same time, 1 think that to leave a 
tree unpruned from the first — from the time it leaves the 
nursery—is one of the gi*eatest mistakes that can be made. Mr. 
Waiting’s one year’s experience is not sufficient to establish a 
theory, and “ Non-Believer ” must not ignore facts, even with 
Dr. Bindley to help him._ 
There are several other articles in the last two numbers of 
the Journal worth thinking about, but I cannot dwell on all. 
Some, in fact, are above me; that on writing for the press, for 
instance. I thought 1 was hit rather hard for my jerky unsys¬ 
tematic thoughts. It is all very well to think consecutively, 
arrange ideas in “natural progression,” and all that sort of 
thing. I did not start young enough to make myself such a 
perfect thinking machine, and must go on in my own way or not 
at all. If my style is rugged it will better display the easy flow 
of the experienced writer’s polished sentences. Still if I am too 
old to change my habits, the advice given should not be lost on 
younger minds. 
Mr. Inglis has put me right on the Bothian Stock question, 
and 1 am much obliged to him. 1 can see what he said can be 
done; it is just a question of means and conveniences. As some¬ 
times gardeners are expected to produce things with no suitable 
provision to enable them to fulfil expectations, 1 think 1 did not 
do very wrong in asking for further particulars on the matter 
and obtaining them._ 
“ A. J. B.” differs from me in my estimate of the relative 
merits of the Troveren Frontignan and Muscat of Alexandria 
Grapes. I have no objection, especially as he differs so pleasantly 
on this matter. I think gardeners generally are not bad judges, 
and they plant at least a hundred canes of the latter to one of 
the former; and if the Frontignan is as good as the Muscat it 
is a wonder they have been so long in finding it out. “A. J. B.” 
is to be congratulated in growing a little-grown and not gene¬ 
rally prized Grape so well. __ 
There appears to have been a little play as well as work in 
pr eparing the last two numbers of the Journal. “ D., Deal,” and 
his friends have had an “ outing,” and some “ spirited ” indi¬ 
viduals a “day in the country.” No doubt the “dinner” at 
Beatherhead (what a name!) was a good one, and I thought I 
sh »uld have been “at home” there; but the Dropmore wine! 
May 1 say that 1 thought not a drop more was needed, at least 
by the chronicler who wrote so jauntily and so merrily ? He 
carried me with him in “spirit” to what I hope some day to 
see in the flesh—Mr. Octogenarian Frost and his celebrated 
Conifers. 
It is estimated, according to a note on page 142, that the 
Jersey Potato crop will weigh 45,000 tons and realise £300,000. 
That will be nearer .£7 than £6 per ton, including the “ little 
’uns.” When I read that “ note,” I thought I should like to be 
a Jersey Potato grower, bat there is no such luck for—A 
Thinker. 
EIGHT AND WEONG—“ SOFT SAWDER.” 
As I often see useful hints to young gardeners in your columns, may 
I be allowed to offer a serviceable bit of advice to them ? 
If you take a situation under a master—employer, I mean (I was 
nearly using quite an old-fashioned word)—who takes an interest in the 
garden, do not speak, to him at least, of “ my” garden, “ my ” Straw¬ 
berries, “the way I manage ‘ my’ Peaches,” &c. Because, first, it is apt 
occasionally to produce “friction” if thema-employer should hajipen 
to have had anything to ruffle his temper just before ; and the whole 
machine will work far more harmoniously, as you have doubtless learned 
if friction be avoided as much as possible. 
Secondly, Because it will not do you any good, or make your import¬ 
ance any greater in his eyes, as it might do in those of your fellows. 
And, thirdly. Because, if you come to really think it over, it is his 
garden, not yours. Even Mr. Parnell or Mr. Arch would tell you so; and 
we are told, you know, by an old proverb to give even a very bad 
character, whom nobody owns as an employer, his due. 
However much you may have of your own way in the garden, depend 
upon it it will please the gentleman who does himself the honour to pay 
you your wa-salary to hear it spoken of as his garden. And you will 
find a little “ soft sawder ” of that description go a long way towards 
making your situation agreeable.—A. F. M. 
THE INTERNATIONAB EXHIBITION AND BOTANICAB 
CONGRESS AT ST. PETERSBURG, 1884. 
The following report of the above Exhibition has been sent to the 
Secretary of the Science and Art Department by Mr. H. J. Elwes, F.L.S.:— 
I have the honour to report to you for the information of your Depart¬ 
ment that, in accordance with your request in March last, I proceeded to 
St. Petersburgh on May 17th to attend the International Horticultural 
Exhibition and Botanical Congress. I was extremely well received, in 
common with the official representatives of the other Great Powers, by 
the Russian authorities. General Greig in particular, the President of the 
Imperial Horticultural Society, doing all in his power to make our stay 
iu St. Petersburgh both agreeable and instructive. I regret to say that 
Great Britain was absolutely unrepresented at the Exhibition, which was 
noticed by the Czar when he opened it, hut I can only attribute this to 
the difficulty and expense of transporting living plants so far ; the restric¬ 
tions imposed by the Phylloxera Convention; and the commercial failure 
which I believe attended the English exhibitors at the last similar exhibi¬ 
tion. Considering the great difficulties under which horticulture labours in 
Russia the Exhibition was remarkably good, but I observed nothing calling 
for particular notice on my part, or likely to affect English horticulture. 
The Botanical Congress was well attended by some of the most distinguished 
scientific men in Europe, and held seven meetings, at which many subjects 
of economical and scientific interest were discussed. Nothing, however, 
took place to make a detailed report from me necessary, as most of the 
papers read were rather of local or technical than of international inter¬ 
est, With regard to the cultivation of Tea in the Trans-Caucasian pro- 
