406 
JOURNAL OF HORTICULTURE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. 
[ November 4, 1886. 
as he observes, he is “ a little familiar with the subject,” and 
has taken first prizes for years Id Edinburgh and Glasgow, and 
in a recent letter he writes : “ I will send you before long a few 
words on raising Yiolas. We have had a bed of fancy Yiolas— 
not bedders—which have been a great attraction here and invalu¬ 
able for cut flowers. The spotted sorts come cleaner when not 
in too rich a soil.” He further observes: “ As the Journal is 
duly appreciated in the West of Scotland, and as I am often 
asked to state which, in my opinion, are the best twelve varieties 
of Yiolas for competition in bunches, it may save me some trouble 
and be useful to mauy others if the Editor will kindly allow me 
through its pages to give the following:—Archie Grant, Bullion, 
Countess of Kmtore, Countess of Hopetoun, Dawn of Day, 
Duchess of Sutherland, Ethel Baxter, Ebor, Merchiston Castle, 
Mrs. Baxter, Skylark, and York-and-Lancaster. This selection 
will stand them in good stead when the day of trial comes, but I 
would remind my juvenile frn nds that there is a little thought 
and taste required to set up a stand properly, and beg them to 
keep steadily in mind in staging Viola blooms to ‘ Wear his 
beaver up,” like Hamlet’s father’s ghost. There may be better 
sorts in cultivation than some of those I have named, but the 
list I have given will be an excellent one to start with. Now for 
a few words with regard to my method of preparing beds for 
Yiolas during the winter. We gather cow droppings in the 
fields, even when they are as hard as a frozen turnip, and store 
them in a corner until wanted, and, being thoroughly frozen, 
insects in the manure and their belongings are destroyed. If 
i4he bed is on the lawn, we lay down a cloth and just as much 
soil on it as will cover the bed 3 inches deep. On the bed we 
place a good barrowful of this dry cow manure (say the bed 
4 feet by 4 feet) and add a large shovelful of hot slicked lime 
and mix it thoroughly to the depth of 18 inches, using a fork for 
that purpose, and if the bed is likely to be a bit too high with the 
manure added, trample it down a little and then put on the 
3 inches in depth of soil previously taken out. The manure being 
buried underneath the surface prevents the birds from making 
holes in the beds, and it is judicious to prepare the bed fully a 
month before planting. The beds can be planted at the same 
time if preferred, hot lime notwithstanding. We use an old 
Potato dibble, which makes a hole the required depth and about 
4 inches in diameter, and fill round the plants with clean fresh 
soil, and by the time the roots grow out of this there is no danger 
from the lime. We leave a small basin round each plant and 
fill in with a handful of sand, which fills up crevices and prevents 
resting holes for slugs and snails. I find the sand to be very 
beneficial, and in planting we keep the plants down to the first 
green leaves. As Yiolas are much larger in the flowers than they 
were some years ago, they require manure accordingly. The 
writer on Yiolas (Mr. E. Jenkins) in a recent Journal, does not 
put half enough manure in the ground. As to sorts, Bullion is 
by far the best yellow extant for bedding. Ardwell Gem looks 
too much to the ground. If Yiolas could be seen in some of our 
great public parks grown freely as I have recommended, there 
would be much less talk about disease in the Yiola. The present 
treatment tends tp starve the poor things off the face of the 
earth. In any places where the Yiola shows a tendency to die 
off during the summer, I strongly recommend, say, a tablespoonful 
of hot lime into a canful of water and pour it in at the neck of 
the plant as soon as any tendency to ‘ go off ’ is shown.” 
These words are from a thorough cultivator of the Yiola, 
and he is right as to “ Bullion,” a grand yellow of excellent 
habit and constitution. I must confess that yellows do bother 
us in going off. All the lutea section stand well. Golden Prince 
Improved is another A1 yellow, and Ardwell Gem (known in 
some places as Hardwick Yellow) is a very valuable primrose 
yellow. I havei been working away at the “ Queen of Spring ” 
section because I wanted yellows without any markings at all, 
and I obtained some lovely things, notably Yellow Dwarf and 
Yellow Beauty, but their constitution was too fragile and they 
are lost. We must have good constitutions in our Yiolas. A 
description of Mr. Baxter’s new sorts from two lots of blooms he 
sent me must close this paper. 
Countess of Glasgow. —Rich violet bottom petals and silvery 
lilac top petals, fine form and substance. Mr. Baxter describes 
this as better than Countess of Kintore in summer, and it 
obtained the first prize in Glasgow in 1886 for the best seedling 
Yiola. It is certainly a very beautiful variety, and distinct from 
the Countess of Kintore. 
Clipper. —A very telling variety, light top petals, lower petals 
violet with lighter-shaded margin ; fine. 
Crimson Gem. —A crimson tinted purple, medium-sized and of 
good form, but not distinct enough in colour to be regarded as 
an acquisition. 
Dawn of Dags. —A lilac shaded lavender; a large and very 
effective variety, distinct and evidently a telling bedder; a decided 
acquisition. 
Ethel Baxter. —Shaded light rosy purple, good form and the 
best of this colour ; a fine desirable variety. 
Ebor. — Excellent form, but running very close to Crimson 
Gem in colour. Mr. Baxter describes this as a fine bedder. 
Goldfinch— A decided novelty, pa ] e yellow with a medium 
margin of deep lilac ; quite distinct. 
Mina Baxter.— Crimson shaded light purple, with lighter top 
petals ; a charming variety. 
Mrs. Baxter. — Rich rosy purple, of fine form and substance, 
with a white blotch in the top petals ; a very fine variety and the 
best of this type. 
Merchiston Castle. —Truly a gem, rich crimson maroon with a 
wire margin of cream running around the flower, very distinct 
and beautiful, resembling a miniature fancy Pansy. 
Rosebud. —Somewhat resembling Ethel Baxter. 
Ravensicood .— A small well formed flower of good substance, 
rich violet with a bluish grey small blotch at the bottom of the 
lower petal, and blue tinted top petals; very pretty. 
Spotted Gem. —Crimson tinted violet, rich in colour, with a 
white spot at the top of each top petal; distinct and fine. 
Skylark Improved. —Creamy white with a good border of dark 
coerulean blue. It beats “ Skylark ” in the breadth and density 
of the blue margin. 
York and Lancaster. —White, distinctly striped ; and clouded 
with rich maroon and rosy purple, a vigorous grower, a great 
beat upon “ Clown,” a striped variety, a very fine competition 
flower, and in every respect Al. Has been awarded three first- 
class certificates in 1886. 
There notes were not taken when these Yiolas were at their 
best ; far from it, for the blooms came by post after the recent 
storms Scotland has known so well The greater portion of 
these varieties are scarcely in commerce yet.— William Dean, 
Walsall. 
MUSHROOM GROWING MADE EASY. 
This was the title of a paper read at the bi-monthly meeting of the 
Birmingham and Midland Counties Gardeners’ Mutual Improvement 
Association, October 20tb, by Mr. J. Crooke, a well-known gardener in 
ihe neighbouihood and the librarian of the Society, who, in the course of 
his interesting paper, remarked that “ In the culture of the Mushroom 
some are successful and some are not, at times failing to produce them 
even in Mushroom houses erected purposely for their culture, whilst 
many gardeners and amateurs, with very restricted accommodation at 
hand, obtain good supplies all the year round. I have grown Mushrooms 
for several years, adopting several plans, but with the simple plan I work 
upon now I rarely have a failure. The only accommodation I now have 
for cultivating Mushrooms is underneath a stage in a cool greenhouse 
without the aid of heat from hot water pipes. This house is 20 feet long 
by 14 feet wide, span-roofed, with a path through the centre. Underneath 
one side of the stage are six divisions for six beds, each 3 feet long by 
41 feet wide, and with a depth of 18 inches, a single brick wall dividing 
the beds. Wooden shutters are used in front, and moveable board divi¬ 
sions from the stage above the beds, so that manure can be easily got in 
and out. Three large zinc pans, each 6 ) feet long by 4J feet wide, with 
a hole at one corner for the water to pass away when watering plants, 
prevents any dripping of water on to the Mushroom beds. Manure is 
gathered every morning from our stables, and the droppings and short 
straw placed under an open shed, care being taken to prevent its heating 
itself into a too dry state, and when sufficient is obtained for a bed it is 
turned over every day for a week, and when it has lost all its deleterious 
fermentation and the heat is on the decline, it is put into any of the beds 
which require making up, and two or three days after the spawn is put 
in and 2 inches of good soil put on the top, and in six weeks we are 
cutting a good supply from these newly made beds. With regard to 
beating the soil hard, as some recommend, I give it only a moderate firm¬ 
ness, as I well remember failures from excessive treading and failure of 
the spawn to germinate. I spawn when the beds register a heat of 
about 80°, for it is a great mistake to spawn a bed with the heat over 
100 °, and from this cause failures frequently arise. I have found so 
constantly that my Mushrooms are firmer in the flesh, tenderer, and more 
juicy, grown under such conditions as I have indicated than when grown 
with fire heat. With the plan I adopt, and making a new bed directly 
one gives out, I keep up a good supply for a small family, and the heat 
from the manure of the new bed penetrates the wall on either side and 
gives renewed vigour to the other beds. I seldom water, but if I do I 
use water from 80° to 1 ) 0 ° in temperature with a good-sized piece of salt 
dissolved in it. Just a word or two with regard to the enemies we have 
to deal with in Mushroom culture. I have used as a simple remedy for 
catching woodlice a rotten piece of wood placed close to the side of the 
bed, giving just sufficient space for the woodlice to harbour, taking it out 
each morning and clearing off the woodlice. I made up on August 22nd 
two beds, each 3 feet long and feet wide, and I began cutting the last 
week in September, and these beds have already produced over 50 lbs. of 
fine Mushrooms. My chief object to-night is to show what can be done 
on so small a scale, and I recommend the culture of the Mushroom to all 
