444 JOURNAL OF HORTICULTURE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. 
given expression to, there is every prospect of the season being a 
good and not a late one.—D., Deal. 
CANKERING OF APPLE TREES. 
Those who have lived in districts wide apart will have a varied 
experience regarding the disease known as canker. I have found 
it attack, more or less, almost every kind of Apple with which 
I am acquainted. In the south and west of England the worst; in 
northern districts the stronger-growing kinds always appeared to 
be the readiest to suffer, but in every case I have found trees 
liable to attack which have had their roots far from the surface, 
inert soil causing the mischief as well as tenacious clay when wet 
and beyond the influence of sun and air. When trees are to be 
kept dwarf or cramped in any form, as is the case in most private 
places, they are often severely mutilated by the knife to answer 
the purpose for which they are intended. This practice, while the 
roots are at full liberty and doing duty vigorous enough to supply 
the wants of trees of gigantic size, will give plenty of canker; 
but when roots are kept from unwholesome subsoil and well 
established in the upper stratum, drainage and other requirements 
being equal, there will not likely be much cause for canker in the 
branches. 
I have frequently cleared the roots of trees which have been 
badly affected from stagnant or inert subsoil, ramming a quantity 
cf lime and brick rubbish under them, thus arresting the progress 
of downward growth, and the cure of canker has been complete. 
With large orchard trees, which have little attention with pruning, 
and growth of roots and branches are left to grow naturally, do 
not generally suffer much till they are rooted below the surface 
into a subsoil in which they cannot have a healthy existence, then 
the disease is almost certain to appear. I have often observed 
that where the substil is rocky or marly canker has been almost 
entirely absent. 
During the past season I have been dealing with a number of 
trees which have been showing canker and dying back of the 
young branches. The cause is obvious. A river flows a few 
hundred feet from the orchard and garden, and drainage below a 
certain level is impossible. In this the roots of the trees have per¬ 
meated, and are suffering. The smaller size of trees in the garden 
I have lifted and replanted, and those which cannot be safely 
removed I have cleared off all their under roots which are decay¬ 
ing, and have filled up the space with lime and brick rubbish, 
finishing with a good coating of farmyard manure over the surface 
of roots. In the orchard, which is about 7 acres in extent, 
draining as deep as practicable has been done, the roots being so 
deep and trees of a great age, we do not think it advisable to 
tamper with them by lifting or mutilating in any form further 
than the removal of dead or dying branches. Singular that in 
this orchard there were not half a dozen bushels of Apples or 
Pears gathered during the past season, while in the garden, divided 
by a wall only, every tree was loaded. But the kinds are limited 
—Stirling Castle, a certain bearer ; Lord Suffield and the Codlin 
class in general, and one called Heiton House, an immense bearer 
every season, and has given abundant supplies till lately—since 
last October. We cannot find the name in any catalogue, but as 
a kitchen fruit it is of great value.— M. Temple. 
PILEA SERPYLLIFOLTA. 
Very dwarf plants are indispensable in arrangements for table. 
The little tufts of this plant (not more in small plants than a 
couple of inches high) are very effective disposed in their pots on 
a flat surface of Selaginellas, which last in my eye always have a 
very tame appearance. This little plant is a sort of pop-gun to 
its larger relative, the “Artillery Plant,” and it is not only very 
much less but very much more dense in growth, and far more 
beautiful. It grows in very dense forms in small thumb pots, a 
half ball or not very peaked mound, and grows down the pot, 
nearly hiding it. Its leaves are less than those of Pilea muscosa, 
and of a paler and more beautiful green—lively olive. It grows 
freely, is readily increased, and needs a stove, but does well 
enough in an intermediate house or even in a greenhouse in 
summer, and is considered available for bedding.—G. A. 
Bullfinches and Fruit Blossom. —About three years ago the 
servants here took to rearing cage birds, and the Bullfinch was very 
much sought after owing to the unusual richness of its plumage 
for exhibition purposes. This was a mean3 of very much reducing 
our stock, and the result is an order that no more Bullfinches are to 
be destroyed or taken while young. On the strength of this it would 
appear that Bullfinches have made themselves very notorious. Not 
content with the opening buds of early spring they have made a 
second attack; this is on the opening and expanded blossom of 
Apple trees. I was astonished to see the blossoms lay so thickly 
under the trees. I could not have believed it had I not noticed the 
mischief done, and the men have also called my attention to the same 
thing. There may be no real harm in singling the blossoms so much 
where they are thick ; but where they are only few and far between, 
what then ? To say the least of it, it is rather sharp practice if we 
are to be subjected to this sort of thinning twice in one season, and I do 
not think the change is for the better.—A. 0. W., Biggleswade. 
SHOWING AURICULAS. 
Though I do not exhibit Auriculas, I nevertheless take an 
interest in the Auricula shows, and consequently in the letters 
which have been published as to the unfairness of large growers 
competing against those who have only a few plants to select from. 
The reasonableness of this proposition is apparent in the case of 
plants which take up much space to cultivate in quantity, and of 
which on that account it is impossible to have a large collection in 
small gardens ; but the Auricula has this great advantage in its 
favour for growers with little space, in so far as a large collection 
can be grown in a very small garden. Mr. Meiklejohn, the veteran 
grower of Stirling, flowers over 2000 plants, yet be could easily 
stow them away in the space occupied by a cottager’s best room. 
Then there is this further point to be taken into consideration, 
and that is the skill of the Auricula fancier in the propagation of 
his plants. It is well known that some people are always buying 
plants and losing them, just as persistently as they purchase or 
beg them. Now, it is hardly a fair proposition to handicap a 
man who is capable of doubling or even increasing his stock three¬ 
fold year by year by stepping in and saying immediately he dis¬ 
tances growers who remain stationary as to number of plants, that 
he must not compete for the smaller prizes because it is unfair to 
these small growers. Looking at the question of propagation as 
being as much a matter of skill as other points in Auricula 
culture, I do not see auy unfairness in the practice indicated.—B. 
THE HARVEST OF THE SEA AND FRUITS 
OF THE EARTH. 
Not only was the Exhibition of last week one of the most 
attractive that has been held at South Kensington, but it was 
attended by a much larger number of visitors than usual, and 
in consequence of the arrangements with the Fisheries Committee, 
was presumably a financial success. May 1 suggest that the 
ensuing autumn appears to be peculiarly favourable for holding 
a great national fruit show in connection with the Fisheries Exhi¬ 
bition ? Some years have elapsed since the Royal Horticultural 
Society had a great autumn show of fruit; and perhaps acting 
alone, the Council of the Society would not be justified in having 
one this year ; but jointly with the Fisheries Committee, might not 
an exhibition be arranged that would be mutually advantageous ? 
The fruit crops promise to be better than the crops of recent 
years, and undoubtedly sufficient would be forthcoming in three 
months after a good schedule was issued to make a magnificent 
show. By the middle of September the Fisheries Exhibition will 
have lost its freshness, and interest in it will have begun to wane 
more or less. If a display of fruit could be added, such, for 
instance, as that provided at Edinburgh last year, it could not 
fail to be powerfully attractive, and a great inducement for 
thousands who had inspected the permanent exhibition, repre¬ 
sentative of the “ harvest of the sea ” to visit the gardens again 
to admire at the same time a show representing in the best 
possible manner the “ fruits of the earth ; ” and besides, the fruit 
show would attract thousands more, who but for it would not 
“ pay their way ” into the gardens at all during the season. 
A vast number of the millions of London have never seen a 
great fruit show, not because such an exhibition has not been 
provided, but because they did not know of its existence. In a 
provincial city or town any great event worthy of patronage can 
be brought to the notice of almost every individual in a day or 
two ; but this cannot be done in London. Time in proportion to 
its vastness in area and numbers is requisite to “ permeate ” the 
enormous mass of individuals who have a thousand other things 
to divide their attention. The Fisheries Exhibition will teach 
perhaps millions of persons “ the way ” to the Gardens at South 
Kensington who were to all intents and purposes ignorant 
of it before. This is a most important point; and if at the 
opportune time suggested a really great Exhibition, showing the 
fruit resources of the country, could be arranged and maintained 
for a week or more, is there not a probability amounting almost 
