October 21,1880.] JOURNAL OF HORTICULTURE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. 373 
its characteristics the Potato murrain, but it is much more virulent, 
the Grapes affected by it becoming rapidly putrid. Several vine¬ 
yards have been completely devastated by the malady, which is 
believed to be of American origin. 
- From a Japan paper we learn that at the Botanical 
Garden in Aichi, hen, an Indian.Tea-plant, has Been planted 
as an experiment. The leaves have lately been gathered and 
treated in the same manner as the Uji Tea, and it has been found 
that the product of dried Tea is greater in proportion to the 
quantity of leaves used than in the case of Japanese plants. 
Tea-growers are, in consequence, said to be devoting their attention 
to the new plant.— {Nature.) 
- A correspondent (“ W. F. M.”), who desires to form a 
lawn tennis GROUND, asks what extent of lawn is necessary 
for carrying out his object. Perhaps some of our readers can 
supply the information required. 
- After several days of fine weather that was generally 
very favourable to gardening operations, a change occurred on 
Tuesday last, when rain and snow fell in many places ; yesterday 
(Wednesday) snow, raiD, and sleet fell for a considerable time in 
the metropolitan district, quite putting a stop to planting and 
other outdoor work. 
- Mr. W. Roberts, writing in reply to Rev. A. Fitch, states 
that after much research he has found the ORIGIN of the Ash- 
leaf Potato. “ The old Ashleaf,” he writes, “ was raised from 
the seed of the Mouse Kidney at Retford, Nottinghamshire, in 
1801 by a John Holberry, a shoemaker of that town.” 
- There were, says the “ Prairie Farmer,” 249 varieties of 
American Grapes exhibited at the recent fair of the Mississippi 
Valley Horticultural Society at St. Louis. This was probably the 
largest and finest show of Grapes ever made in the United States. 
We not unfrequently hear it remarked that we have too many 
varieties of Grapes in this country, but the Americans appear to 
excel us, for at our greatest fruit shows seldom more than a dozen 
varieties are exhibited. 
- There has been issued the official report to the Indian 
Government of Dr. King for the year 1879-80, regarding the 
Cinchona Cultivation in the Government Plantations in 
Bengal. In 1879-80 the extended cultivation reached about 
750,000 young trees, and a crop of 361,590 lbs. of dry bark was 
harvested. A new kind of Cinchona yielding the Carthagena 
bark of commerce was successfully brought into cultivation. At 
the close of 1879 a consignment of Calisaya bark was made to 
London for sale in the market. The amount of febrifuges used in 
Government hospitals and dispensaries in 1879 in substitution of 
quinine was 5,400 lbs. The average price of quinine in Calcutta in 
1879 was 90 rupees per pound, and at that figure the saving 
effected by the native-grown substitute has been nearly £40,000. 
The saving in former years from the like substitution of the cheap 
and equally effective native for the imported and costly drug was 
about £80,000, so that to the end of 1879 the total saving was 
about £120,000, or about £15,000 more than the plantations have 
cost from their origin, including compound interest on outlay at 
4 per cent, per annum. These results are gratifying, and in the 
future even larger savings are expected from the successful culti¬ 
vation of the valuable Cinchona species (obtained through Kew) 
which yields the Carthagena or Columbian bark .—{Pall Mall 
Gazette .) 
- A correspondent of a daily contemporary writes :— 
“ We have been spending the week rambling on foot among the 
market gardens OF the midlands. They are situated on the 
estates of Sir Francis Burdett and Sir John Harpur Crewe, in the 
neighbourhood of Melbourne, Derbyshire. Hereabouts the farmers 
are not agriculturists in the strict sense, but gigantic gardeners. 
All the produce to be seen any day of the year at the shops of 
the hucksterer and greengrocer are here grown wholesale, acre 
upon acre. ‘ Long fields of Barley and of Rye,’ as spoken of by 
the Laureate, are here transformed into vast enclosures of Cauli¬ 
flowers, Cabbages, Celery, Onions, Potatoes, Carrots, Leeks, Goose¬ 
berries, Currants, Raspberries, Strawberries, and so forth. Splendid 
Cauliflowers, Cabbages, and Celery may here be purchased whole¬ 
sale at less than a penny a head, thirteen to the dozen. Straw¬ 
berries which have been known in the open market to fetch 8 d. 
per pound have here been sold by the ton at 2 \d., while Raspberries 
have frequently proved such a glut that the growers allow them 
to rot on the trees rather than be at the expense of employing 
labour to pick them. The Celery rows here just now are a 
positive sight to witness. Earthed up as they are for bleaching 
or blanching purpose, the key is given to the mystery of successful 
cultivation—deep, loamy, friable soil. The landlords charge a 
good price for the land, but it grows good stuff, and the tenants 
do not complain. Their only present grievance is ‘ foreign com¬ 
petition,’ which they say is eating them up, though judging from 
their portly persons and the establishments they maintain, we are 
rather inclined to believe that in this matter at least the farming 
mind is given to exaggeration.” 
- W. McCorquodale, Wood Surveyor, Scone, Perth, writes 
as follows to the “ Journal of Forestry” on the utility of Abies 
Douglasii :—“I have every reason to believe that this will become 
the most remunerative tree of all our Conifers. One valuable ad¬ 
vantage which it has over Larch and Spruce is, that in dry sandy 
subsoils, where those trees are generally affected with dry rot, 
the Douglas Fir will luxuriate admirably. Its healing power 
after receiving injury is very extraordinary. I have seen trees 
barked halfway round the stem in a manner that would prove 
fatal to any other Conifer, whereas in the Douglas Fir it heals 
over in two or three years. It is, too, a very accommodating tree, 
as it may be planted successfully at any season of the year. We 
have transplanted these trees from 6 to 10 feet high during the 
months of April, May, June, and July without a single failure. 
In 1857 we prepared, and enclosed with a fence proof against 
hares and rabbits, 13 acres of poor moorish soil, which had been 
cultivated as arable land. It was planted with Douglas Firs at 
9 feet apart, and the intermediate spaces were filled up with 
Larch and Scotch Firs in equal numbers, as nurses, to 4 feet apart 
all over. The plantation is now twenty-three years of age, 
and the nurses are pretty well thinned out. I have just had some 
of the Douglas Firs measured, and many of them stand 40 to 
45 feet in height, by 4 feet 3 inches in girth at 3 feet above the 
ground. We have now begun to use the thinniugs of Douglas 
Fir as wire fence posts. In April 1878, upwards of twenty of these 
posts were put into a new wire fence, and were marked to test 
their durability, alongside some Silver Fir posts ; the remainder 
of the posts forming the fence being of Larch. The Douglas 
Fir posts, although only of twenty years’ growth, stood the driving 
into the ground as well as Larch of the same age could have 
done. They are wearing well, and show every indication of 
making durable posts.” 
- In an excellent article in the Cultivator Mr. H. B. 
Ellwanger, the able rosarian of the Mount Hope Nurseries, 
U.S.A., has recently discussed the respective merits of English 
Roses as compared with the same varieties grown in America. It 
appears that many of our finest dark Roses do not succeed well in 
America, neither does Madame Lacharme. After many instruc¬ 
tive observations Mr. Ellwanger concludes thus :—“The National 
Rose Society has accomplished very great good, but we hope it 
will branch out into something wider, and use its influence to 
greatly shorten the immense list of varieties with which we are 
