204 JOURNAL OF HORTICULTURE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. [ September 2, im. 
when found they took a deal of digging. Fourthly, the crop 
is nothing wonderful considering the haulm. The tubers are 
ugly, hollow-eyed, and boil yellow. However, I do not so 
much mind the colour, and consider them superior in quality 
to Magnum Bonum. It is possible that when the seed has 
been home-saved they will do better. My man says (and I am 
quite sure that he thinks he knows much more than I do about 
Potatoes) they must have poor soil and no dressing, and then 
they will produce enormous crops. I hope this may be so, but 
am qn the look-out for more fallacies. 
Now, 1 think, for the present you will say that this is 
enough. Perhaps on some future occasion jmu will allow me 
again to keep the Potato pot a-boiling.—R. W. Beachey. 
GLEANINGS AMONGST ROSES. 
There has been no Rose harvest proper this season so far as 
I have heard and seen. Devastated, and in many instances totally 
destroyed, by the severity of the last two winters and springs, the 
ravages of the frosts and east winds have naturally been more 
apparent this season than last summer. The numbers of gaps, 
empty corners, and spaces everywhere, together with the weak¬ 
lings that have been given another chance of bloom, make a 
mournful contrast to the memories of other years, when one could 
gather basketfuls rejoicing for home use or for some beneficent 
purpose where beauty and fragrance are so prized. 
Up to August 1st, when the hot bright weather set in, it was 
difficult to cut any good Rose blooms. I never remember them 
in worse condition. Even the dark Roses, which usually resist 
wet, did very badly, and spotted and mildewed almost as exten¬ 
sively as the higher varieties. Almost all the dwarfs of the stan¬ 
dard exhibition varieties which were put in last autumn did well 
—one only died. Marie Baumann bloomed grandly and profusely ; 
and I note this the more particularly, that at the time of planting 
one plant of this Rose was so much mildewed—apparently quite 
withered, that we thought it dead. It has done the best in point 
of size and healthfulness. All these dwarfs were late in flowering. 
Madame Emma All does not show a bud yet. Capitaine Christy, 
Madame Marie Finger, Marie Louise Pernet, the latter a rich 
Rose of noble carriage and exquisite scent, gave large and perfect 
blooms. Princess Beatrice, an old plant, was very fine ; another 
put-in in autumn died. Horace Vernet, Fisher Holmes, Miller 
Hayes, Madame Victor Verdier, &c., succeeded well. 
It was amongst the old and autumn-planted standards that the 
havoc was greatest. Mabel Morrison. Eugenie Verdier, Comtesse 
de Serenye, Louis Van Houtte, Lord Beaconsfield, Comtesse de 
Paris, Due de Montpensier, La France, Duke of Edinburgh, Mons. 
E, Y. Teas, and many more have left empty spaces or are replaced 
by Stocks, Petunias, or other temporary bedding plants. Dupuy 
Jamain, Marguerite de Brassac, Abel Carribre, and one or two 
others, including Etienne Levet, this last dwarf, are only now 
coming into bloom. Taking the standards old and new there are 
very few perfect heads to be found. Some, of course, are out and 
out vigorous and promising, but many are weakly and scraggy, 
and must be removed when blooming is over. Beauty of Waltham 
is certainly one of the hardiest, earliest, freest, and latest; very 
sweet, and a rich deep cherry red. 
Amongst the newer varieties of dark Roses Sultan of Zanzibar 
deserves mention. A young standard put in the year before last 
and cut closely in this spring has done remarkably well, and I 
should think would be valuable as a climber. It is very free, and 
its dusky foliage is rich and handsome. I have just measured 
two shoots from the base of the budded part that broke late, and 
have in a few weeks made, one a growth of 68 inches, the other 
GO inches. The dwarf Sultans are not remarkable for growth, but 
some other dwarfs, where they have successfully struggled against 
adverse influences, have made very strong growths. The general 
result seems to be that the Rose season has been late, irregular, and 
scanty, but it will probably be prolongechas some compensation. 
As to weather, August brought us fourteen days of unclouded 
sunshine and high temperature. This was followed by a week of 
north-east wind and hardly any sunshine, both together most 
favourable for harvest operations and most beneficial to gardens. 
Yesterday, the 25th, the clouds gathered, the wind changed, and 
at 7.30 A.M. this morning we had a very high temperature, distant 
thunder, and deluges of rain. Soon after noon it began to clear ; 
the sun has shone out, but it looks still unsettled. Nevertheless, 
untold good and goodness have resulted from the propitious 
weather of the last three weeks.—A. M. B., MidrLincoln. 
Cattleya crispa. —Mr. Lane’s note (page 140) on my plant 
of this Cattleya referred only to the number of blooms on the 
plant when he saw it. Before this some had decayed and others 
been cut. I do not know the total number of flowers this year, 
but last year there were 132, and I think I must have had more 
this year, but the plant did not make so grand a show, as it has 
always previously expanded all its blooms at once instead of 
having an interval of nearly a month between its earliest and 
latest blooms, as this year. I may add that it is not now in my 
possession, as my hothouse was not large enough to accommodate 
it.—H. T. Frere, Hurston Rectory. 
FRUIT CROPS. 
So much have the effects of the late severe winters and the almost 
sunless summer of 1879 been felt by vegetation generally, and 
the fruit crops in particular, that we have had in the gardening 
periodicals almost unvarying reports of general scarcity. There is 
no doubt that this year’s crops are, as was anticipated last autumn 
by several of your valued correspondents in the Journal, very far 
indeed below the average. The later and colder the situation the 
more this will naturally be observable. We might consequently 
expect in localities more favourably situated as to climate a cor¬ 
responding, or at least a partial, immunity from this scarcity. I 
think it would be interesting to many of the readers of the Journal 
besides myself to know if this reasonable expectation is at all 
borne out by facts, and the effects of exceptional seasons alle¬ 
viated by certain local circumstances which ought to be stated by 
correspondents, so that the cause and effect may be recognised, 
and, if possible, information drawn therefrom. 
In mild winters the variation of temperature between north and 
south, or between districts with wet and those with dry subsoils, 
may be about the same as in a severe winter. In a mild winter, 
however, the difference is perhaps more noticeable, as we may have 
just sufficient frost to check any premature starting into activity 
of the buds of fruit trees 'in a cold situation, while in a warmer 
one, the temperature being above the freezing point, this pre¬ 
mature starting is not checked, and is frequently the cause of loss 
of fruit by spring frosts ; for unfortunately these are not confined 
entirely to cold and late districts, but are frequently as destructive 
in early localities. Of the ill effects of wet sunless summers, 
such as that of 1879, there can be but one opinion ; but severe 
winters may, and under certain circumstances it is my opinion do, 
conduce to the advantage of the fruit crop. 
After an experience of seven years on naturally well-drained 
land in Glamorganshire, I can testify that however much we have 
suffered in ornamental and other departments from the frost, the 
fruit crops have been most plentiful after severe winters, the fruit 
blossom being too early after mild winters. If the rainy summer 
of last year draws the attention of cultivators to the more effec¬ 
tual drainage of fruit borders combined with shallow planting, 
its experiences will not have been endured in vain. Only by heavy 
drainage—excessive I had almost said—can a crop of stone fruits 
be insured in the season succeeding a wet one. This drainage if 
thoroughly done may occasion much labour in watering during dry 
seasons, but where can we find unmixed good in any operation ? 
As bearing out the opinion expressed earlier in these notes that 
severe winters are in some cases in favour of the fruit crops rather 
than otherwise, and as illustrating the power of shallow soil and 
heavy drainage to reduce the ill effects of much rain and little 
sunshine, I may state that stone fruits, especially Peaches and 
Apricots, were very plentiful and fine in size with us last season, 
but the less said of flavour the better. Last autumn the wood of 
Peaches seemed unripe, although better than might have been 
expected, and the bloom proved thin on most trees, but still there 
is again a fair crop ; indeed, trees of Red Magdalen and Noblesse 
are carrying heavy crops. Of Nectarines, a tree of Brugnon (an 
old variety too seldom seen considering its good qualities) is carry¬ 
ing a full crop, while others are more noticeable for the size of 
fruit than for quantity. Apricots are very plentiful, more being 
borne by the trees than is perhaps good for them in spite of 
repeated thinnings. Plums are just as numerous, especially the 
Gages, Kirke’s and others of the finer dessert varieties ; even trees 
of Transparent Gage, which I have always found succeed bi t 
poorly, are loaded with fruits. Cherries of the sweet section and 
Morellos are equally fruitful. Pears, however, have been almost 
a total failure with the exception of Jargonelle, which is the only 
variety carrying a crop, and those the wasps seem determined to 
have. How is it to be accounted for, that after such a season as the 
last, when scarcely a wasp was to be seen, we seem invariably to 
have a perfect plague of them ? Over ninety nests have been 
destroyed by the garden men in our immediate neighbourhood, 
yet there seems no abatement, so that sweet traps and hexagon 
netting are in constant request. Small fruits have been plentiful, 
as are also Apples in gardens, but thin in orchards. 
