May 31, 1883. ] 
JOURNAL OF HORTICULTURE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. 
445 
to a certainty that it would prove a great success both to the 
Fisheries Committee and the Royal Horticultural Society ? 
A great fruit show would at the least be as appropriate as a 
flower show in the Gardens during the present season. Fruit is 
food, and the more its wholesomeness and importance as such 
becomes recognised by the million the better it will be for all—for 
consumers and producers alike. The million, too, take quite as 
much interest in a fruit show as they do in an exhibition of choice 
plants and rare flowers. This may be seen at any time when a 
general exhibition is held, the crowd being usually the most dense 
round magnificent dishes of Apples, Pears, and Grapes. These 
the public understand and can appreciate the'r merits, but they 
are not educated in the points of plants with names they cannot 
pronounce. Roses they know, and Potatoes they know and flock 
round them, but they pass with a wondering stare the Orchids 
and other valuable plants which the trained eye admires so much. 
These plants and flowers cannot well be retained in a show for a 
week, but fruit can ; and a week is necessary in London for a 
show to command the maximum number of visitors. 
And why, too, should it not be something more than a mere 
‘•show ”—n sight to be seen ?—just as the Fisheries is something 
more. Fish is on sale there, and properly so. Why should not 
fruit be sold too ? Let the producers of fruit, also fruiterers, 
bring their wares, provide a great exhibition, and let the public 
have a more substantial share than merely looking at it with 
hungering ej r es, and yet with the means in their pockets for satis¬ 
fying their wants. If satisfactory arrangements can be made for 
doing so, the Royal Horticultural Society can produce a great 
show of fruit; and if in connection with it a fruit fair were 
arranged a step in advance, and a most useful one, would be made 
over the stereotyped shows, while an important addition at a time 
when it would be welcome would also be made to the great Exhi¬ 
bition now being held in the gardens—an addition that would, as 
before suggested, be equally advantageous to the Fisheries Com¬ 
mittee and the Royal Horticultural Society. Is this matter worthy 
of any further consideration 1 —J. Weight. 
UNPRUNED ROSES, 
Dr. Watts speaks of the Rose as “ the glory of April and May.” 
Either it or the seasons have changed in this respect. Except the 
Banksians it is hard to mention many Roses of May, much less April. 
Between the time when Roses under glass go out and Roses in the 
open come in a gap occurs—a regretable interval, which it has 
occurred to me may be in some measure bridged, and that is by 
leaving certain Roses unpruned. In this way, especially after a 
mild winter, blooms may be obtained certainly a fortnight earlier 
than they can come upon bushes pruned secundem artem , after 
the orthodox fashion. Not, indeed, flowers that would do for the 
“ box,” 
“Their manners have not the repose 
That marks the caste of Yere de Vere,” 
but still quite good enough for domestic decoration. 
Impressed with this idea, and favoured by the season, I have 
left various plants trained up against a wall almost untouched, 
and am now expecting to see after the first warm shower (this 
May 19th) Reine Marie Henriette in abundant bloom, with Gloire 
de Dijon, the Duke of Edinburgh, and Cheshunt Hybrid close on 
her heels ; also Fisher Holmes and Sultan of Zanzibar are coming 
on favourably. At the same time my orthodox plants, pruned at 
the end of February and breaking very correctly all down each 
shoot, are perfectly innocent of any such intention, and, as I trust, 
are reserving themselves for the end of June or July. As I have 
alluded to this rather early pruning, I may add that the garden of 
Mr. Baker of Reigate (whom I have mentioned on a former occa¬ 
sion as a special advocate of this) is looking at this date in the 
highest possible promise. The large round bed of Charles Lefebvre, 
the rows of A. K. Williams, and other celebrities, his various “ big 
batallions ” are advancing towards their midsummer goal iu most 
admirable precision. The surface of the ground when I called 
was somewhat obscured by a comfortable mulching they had just 
been receiving ; but if the present promise be realised it will be 
by mid-June a veritable feast of Roses, respecting which I will 
end as I began with Dr. Watts— 
“ Come, and I will show you what is beautiful— 
It is a Rose fully blown I” 
—A. C. 
The Best Potato in Use now. —The Journal has done good 
service in trying to ascertain the best Potatoes for market, garden, 
and general purposes by publishing the results and opinions of so 
many competent to form correct judgments for some months past. 
Orchids, exotics, florist flowers, and many occupants of the vegetable 
garden have their devotees, and are more or less specialities as com¬ 
pared to the Potato. There is a phase of the matter I would suggest 
—namely, what Potato your correspondents find the best at present— 
that is say, during the past fortnight or during the month of May ?— 
W. J. M.. Clonmel. 
FRUIT PROSPECTS IN THE NORTH. 
Notwithstanding the very cold weather in March (the ther¬ 
mometer on the morning of the 10th having been as low as 8°), 
the prospects of fruit are by no means discouraging. Pears are 
setting well, especially on the walls ; and the show of Apple 
blossom is very great, some of the earlier sorts are setting. Plums 
have failed on the whole ; there was very little blossom, and much 
of that has fallen off. Apricots are rather partial, though some 
of the trees have better crops than lately. Peaches and Nectarines 
do not thrive here out of doors. Thirty or forty years ago we had 
abundance on the walls, but now the crop is always precarious, 
and never really good. Cherries promise well, especially Morellos. 
Gooseberries, Currants, and Raspberries are a full crop. Straw¬ 
berries, for which this soil is well suited, show a very full bloom, 
and must be a good crop unless the weather should be extra¬ 
ordinarily dry.— George Knight, Gardener , Conyngham Hall, 
Knarcsboroug h. 
As you invite reports with reference to hardy fruits, I may in¬ 
form you that in this locality the prospect of obtaining good 
crops are on the whole favourable. Tears, Plums, and Cherries 
promise to bear heavily, especially Pears, which have set unusuafly 
thick on a south aspect. There is a brilliant display of Apple 
blossoms on wall and orchard trees alike. Bush fruits are 
promising remarkably well, especially Gooseberries and Black 
Currants.— D. Mackie, Montgomery Gardens, Ayrshire, 
VIOLET CULTURE. 
To dwellers in pure fresh country air, away from the smoke of 
towns and the noxious fumes of factories, the culture of Violets is 
simple, provided timely care and attention are given to the very 
few details which together insure success. For so many years 
have I grown Violets in considerable quantities, with an amount 
of labour about equivalent to that bestowed upon a Cabbage bed, 
that I had come to regard it as an ordinary matter about which 
everybody knew everything ; when recently, to my surprise, a 
clever energetic gardener, who for the first time is required to 
supply Violets in quantity, wrote to me somewhat to this effect— 
“ Pray give us a paper on Violet culture in the Journal; it is quite 
certain to be useful, and I have no doubt that others will be as 
glad to turn your plain hints to account as I shall ? ” Such an 
appeal is so certain of favourable attention from the Editors, that 
I do not hesitate to crave space for my reply. 
Devoniensis bursts freely into bloom by the beginning of 
September, and is soon followed by the old Russian. The first 
week in October the plants are lifted from the open beds and 
planted as thickly as possible under glass wherever space is avail¬ 
able. Garden frames, pits, Peach house, or orchard house, are all 
turned to account for such a purpose ; but the best place for 
obtaining a brisk continuous supply throughout winter is a light 
airy house or pit, with a flow and return pipe or flue, solely to 
exclude frost and promote air-circulation on dull, wet, or foggy 
days, but not by any means to maintain a forcing temperature. 
Frost may undoubtedly be kept out of frames and pits by means 
of mats and litter, but bunches of Violets are not to be had by the 
dozen in midwinter from plants kept in darkness and damn. As 
the plants cease flowering in March, and before spring growth 
begins, they are pulled to pieces and the runners or side shoots 
having rootlets, as most of them have, are planted in open beds of 
such soil as will grow good vegetables, in rows a foot apart, and 
9 inches apart in the rows. To facib'tate watering, a border is 
divided into beds 8 feet wide, with narrow paths between. As 
the plants gain size in summer a liberal surface dressing of arti¬ 
ficial manure tends wonderfully to invigorate them, and its bene¬ 
ficial effect is soon visible in the colour, size, and substance of the 
foliage. When the weather proves unfavourable for the spring 
planting it may be kept back till any time in April, only the later 
it is done the greater is the subsequent amount of watering re¬ 
quired to sustain the flagging spring growth which usually comes 
soon after the middle of March. 
This year the planting was late, but the young plants, nearly 
2000 in number, are fast gaining size and vigour. The sorts 
grown in addition to the two already mentioned are Marie 
Louise, Neapolitan, The Czar, and Victoria Regina, all good and 
distinct, tho two last being of espiecial value for size of flower and 
