2 
JOURNAL OF HORTICULTURE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. 
[ Jaiuaiy I, I8i3. 
florist varieties have not come in so much for this, hut the border 
varieties, and especially seifs, white, yellow, and crimson, have 
become very popular. It is not to be wondered at, for they are 
very pretty and very sweet, and so long as persons who are 
enamoured of them do not deny the beauty of the more refined 
and finished florist varieties, well and good. There is room for 
both sections. Begonias have reached their climax, it would seem, 
and we hardly expect to be startled by anything that may be pro¬ 
duced amongst them, or in Pelargoniums or Fuchsias, 
In herbaceous and alpine plants I do not think we have any¬ 
thing very noticeable in the way of novelty to record, although 
some good things have been brought before the public ; and I think 
there is no diminution in the taste for them, but we have to be 
careful when a taste of this kind springs up. There is un¬ 
doubtedly a supply to meet the demand, and we must be cautious 
as to what that supply is. Because a plant is herbaceous it does 
not follow that it is worth growing, and unless a garden is very 
large it is not worth while to encumber it with things which must 
be afterwards discarded ; and it would be a pity that anything 
should check a taste which promises for us not only the old- 
fashioned flowers of our boyhood, but also many choice productions 
which the zeal of cultivators has added to our gardens in more 
recent years. 
I am sure I am justified in saying that the taste for horticul¬ 
ture in all its branches is ever increasing. A great impetus has 
been given during the past year for instance to the subject of 
fruit growing, and if people will only recoflect that we live in a 
very uncertain climate and not expect unreasonable things it cannot 
but be for the benefit of growers and the good of the community 
at large. The last season has not been a favourable one, and has 
acted perhaps as a wholesome check on extravagant expectations, 
but that a great impetus has been given to the proper cultivation 
of the most approved sorts of hardy fruits cannot be denied, and 
all wellwishers of horticulture, and indeed of agriculture, must 
hope that it may be continuous. 
And now we must look hopefully forward. We have ended 
the year with a thoroughly old-fashioned winter, and it may be, 
let us hope, the prelude of a successful season. I am but one 
out of many contributors to the Journal, although its oldest one, 
and I am sure I may on their behalf and my own offer to our 
venerated chief our fullest wishes for a Happy New Year, and 
that he and all those who so zealously work with him to 
maintain the long established reputation and position of the 
Journal they so ably conduct may see another successful year, 
and that the spirit of unity and brotherly feeling which has 
always characterised the Journal may be maintained, as indeed 
under our chief’s able and wise administration it is sure to be. 
Like him I have grown old in the service, and yet one’s love 
for flowers and one’s love for those of like tastes does not grow 
colder. I have received so many kindly proofs of their love 
and affection that I should be cold indeed if my heart did not 
warm towards them ; and I must conclude this rapid sketch of the 
past year by wishing them much happiness and blessing in the 
coming one, and to contributors and readers alike to bid them 
God speed and a 
Happy New Year, 
—D., Deal. 
GOSSIP IN A PARSON’S GARDEN. 
I WAS very much struck with the admirable papers, headed 
“ Renovating Orchards,” by my friend Mr. John Wright—who I 
hope has not forgotten my existence, as it is so long since we met 
- and published in the Journal of Horticulture, Nos. 2199, 2201-2, 
in which among other valuable advice he strongly advocates the 
unstinted application of liquid manure, especially in the ordinary 
form of sewage, wherever and whenever available. 
Now, as I have constantly used this plant food for years I 
believe it will be to the benefit of the public if I ask permission, 
Mr. Editor, in a somewhat egotistical paper to give my experience 
and its results. I will premise my remarks by stating that I am. 
like most of my brother parsons, my own head gardener, so I caa 
confidently vouch for my facts and figures being reliable. 
First I would mention the situation of my two walled kitchem 
gardens, which are several hundred feet above sea level and well' 
sheltered ; aspect facing south ; soil a calcareous clay ou’ aai' 
unusually deep and naturally drained marl, singularly poor in 
nitrogen, but including valuable potash salts and other inorganic- 
substances by the size and colour of the fruit it grows. Its surface- 
conglomerates under a few hours’ sun, and when thus seen would 
be enough to bring a look of despair even into a Scotch gardener’^ 
face. 
By dint, however, of frequent hoeings and forkings, liberal 
supplies of manure from my glebe farm (mostly in the shape of 
cow manure), and above all by copious libations of sewage all 
through the year when work is slack from a large tank supplied 
from the house and stables—without which paragon of utility T 
maintain no country establishment should be built, and against 
which if only properly trapped and upshafted the most nasally 
fastidious should have nothing to object—my naturally poor soil is. 
rapidly becoming productive, while my crops already more than 
hold their own, my fruit especially when brought into comparison 
with my neighbours, who grow them under far more advantageous' 
conditions. And now to give some details. My only failure, 
and one shared by most gardeners and orchardists in Herefordshire 
and other counties for the last two years, was in the Apple and 
Pear crops. My cordon Pear wall (facing south) I mention here 
as an exception, on which I had rather more than half a crop of 
well-flavoured and highly coloured fruit, though not so large as 
usual, mostly of the best late French varieties, which are ripening 
unusually well and seasonably. 
The following varieties have done admirably this year: — 
Durondeau (splendid colour), Baronne de Mello (always highly- 
flavoured with me), Beurre de Ghelin (richest Pear I grow); 
General Tottleben, Madame Andre Leroy (fine, but uncertain in- 
ripening), Pitmaston Duchess (several last year 14 to 16 ozs.), and. 
Marechal de Cour all produced heavy crops. The season of 
1889 was so disastrous, owing to the caterpillar scourge, that a 
crop of Apples and Pears could hardly have been expected or 
even desired this year, so terribly did the trees themselves suffer, 
in many instances to the entire denudation of their leaves. At the- 
present time I rejoice to say there is every appearance of perfect 
health and abundant promise of a crop next year, well-ripened 
wood and short-jointed fruit buds being the rule everywhere, not" 
the exception. 
I much regret that last year I received a Stott’s patent sprayer 
too late to judge with any degree of certainty as to the experi¬ 
ments I made with Paris green and his insecticides, but as ta 
the usefulness of the instrument itself when attached as mine is. 
by a hose to an ordinary garden water syringe, I cannot speak in 
too high terms. I hope early next spring to give his insecticide a. 
careful tvidX pari passu with Paris green, and report results to our 
Journal. 
I may mention that the few varieties of Apple trees and 
pyramids (about some 400), which bore any crops worth recording,, 
were Stirling Castle (enormous crop on pyramids) ; Herefordshire 
Beefing (very late keeper and wonderful bearer) ; Golden Winter 
Pearmain (perhaps the most profitable Apple grown) ; and strange- 
to say on my poor ground Cox’s Orange Pippin. Every tree and 
shrub vigorous and bearing fine crops. Apropos to Apples, Why 
is it the Britisher will go wild as a producer and consumer about' 
that mongrel variety the Blenheim Pippin, neither first rate for the- 
kitchen nor eligible for the dinner table ? but so it is. To travestie aa 
old line I remember to have seen somewhere in reference to another 
Apple, “ Omne Malum malum prseter Blenheim Malum.” What a 
thing it is to be in the fashion, or to once command the market!' 
In pleasing contrast to the almost complete failure in my Apple- 
crop I am proud to set off my east Plum wall as a complete success,, 
in greater contrast from an almost universal as well as local failure 
this year. 
When I came to my present residence five years ago I bought 
my Plum as well as my Peach, Nectarine, and Cherry trees from- 
Richard Smith & Sons’ nurseries, Worcester, and so well have 
they started and flourished that I calculate the average crop on- 
each tree, which now quite covers the wall, at fully thirty-five 
dozens of uniformly fine smooth fruit on trees looking all over like, 
having a similar good crop next year. 
The varieties include the Victoria, Magnum Bonum, Washington, 
Coe’s Golden Drop, Kirke’s, and last, but not least, Jefferson,, 
peerless among Plums, and perfect in richness and flavour. I may- 
mention my wife begins quite early, as soon as the small fruit, 
season is over, to thin out the green Plums (on wall) for compotes, 
and they are by many preferred in that immature state to when 
they are riper and not so delicately tasted ; certainly they come in 
