48 
JOURNAL OF HORTICULTURE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. 
[ January 19, 1893. 
cent, and the Apple 2-65 per cent, whilst the Pear is content with 
1.96 per cent, of iron in its fruit. 
We, therefore, understand why and how a rusty sword (Leeds soil) 
will only grow Plums, Gooseberries, Black and Red Currants profitably, 
and the Bittingbourne soil—the bright, sharp, tempered iron—produce 
Apples, Cherries, Currants, Gooseberries, Pears, and Plums with Hops 
into the bargain. Plums, Gooseberries, and Currants are shallow rooters, 
therefore they will thrive on calcareous, aluminous, irony soil, where 
the pan is only at a moderate depth from the surface ; also better than 
Apples, Cherries, and Pears where there is a plough pan, or there is 
lesser depth of ameliorated soil. Consequently Mr. Kruse must look to 
the mechanical condition of the soil as well as to its chemical 
constituents. 
I would observe further that the best Apple soils of this country are 
“ red ”—due to the presence of a considerable amount or percentage of 
oxide of iron. The old red sandstone soils are the best for the production 
of heavy rich fruit. Apples making the best cider and Pears giving the 
finest perry, as in Herefordshire and elsewhere, (See a geological map 
of Great Britain). Red soils that have resulted from the commingling 
of old red sandstones and marls, carboniferous shales, and limestone, 
fragments of igneous rocks, and glacial detritus, as in the central valley 
of Scotland, are Apple soils. The red soils of the new red sandstone and 
so by reason of the iron they contain, and being friable and incumbent 
on a marly sandstone, produce healthy Apple trees and abundant crops. 
This is seen on the trias in Devonshire, Somersetshire, Gloucestershire, 
Worcestershire, and Warwickshire; in Staffordshire, Cheshire, Lanca¬ 
shire, in the Trent Valley in Nottinghamshire, with a strip only in 
Yorkshire, and patch in the Tees Valley. 
Apples are addicted to these red soils, Devon and Gloucester cider 
rivals that of Hereford. Irony Sussex soils grow more solid and richer 
Apples than less ferrous Kent, and make cider of superior quality ; even 
the Hastings sands give Apples more colour than the richer soil of the 
Medway Valley imparts. The vales of Berkeley, Evesham, and 
Gloucester are a rich brown soil of the lias formation, and are 
renowned for Apples, fruit, and cheese, the middle lias marlstone (a 
mixture of clay and sand with a considerable quantity of limestone) 
provides the rich soil that Apple trees thrive in in Somerset. Those are 
irony soils, so is Rutland (red land), famous for its healthy trees. 
Sussex, the iron land of the south, may be poisoned with iron silicates, 
barren where there is only a few inches of soil over an impenetrable 
pan, or where a siliceous soil is mingled with iron nodules grow Heath 
and Fir, but where the lower greensand fringes the Weald clay on the 
north, west, and south, and is calcareous and dry, it forms one of the 
most fertile soils—the series known as the Hythe beds—and will grow 
anything, fruit and Hops, The large, bright, matchless Kent Apples 
are due to Kentish rag (beds of limestone), “ hassock ” (soft sandstone), 
and an admixture of brick-earth—Nature’s blending, not too much nor 
’too little iron, but the nearer 4 per cent, than under 3 50 per cent, the 
/brighter, heavier, and richer the Apples, always provided the drainage is 
^thorough and the soil a good depth. Cherries grow free from gum in 
the Woburn sands, and send their roots down no one knows where; 
but in the extraordinary productive vegetable farms of Sandy (Bedford¬ 
shire) Apple trees are “ eaten up ” by canker. 
Alluvium and drift are heterogenous accumulations of mineral 
m vtter—a little of almost every substance, and good or bad according 
to those components, the depth of the ameliorated soil, its staple and 
-the subsoil, with freedom from stagnant water. Alluvial soils—the 
" haughs ” of Northumberland, banks or lands near the Ouse, Derwent, 
Trent, and Humber, draining the great Vale of York and Trent valley; 
■ithe Thames, Avon (Bristol), Wye (Monmouth), Usk and Severn valleys 
■—are irony, good Apple soils above the line of floods, and free from 
stagnant water. At Tadcaster, on the river Wharfe, above or below 
that place are some orchards on alluvial or warp soil, sandy or deep, 
that produce better Apples than good loam on magnesian limestone 
because more irony, and that iron ammoniated through the greater 
amount of organic matter manufacturing ammonia. The alluvial deposits 
of the Derwent near Malton, resting on kimmeridge clay, the subsoil 
clay, but not waterlogged, produce abundant crop of Apples—Keswick 
Codlin, Ecklinville Seedling, Adam’s Pearmain, Large Cockpit, Ribston 
Pippin (where the soil is well drained), Baumann’s Red Reinette, Golden 
Reinette, and Golden Russet. Alluvial soils are rich in iron and 
.organic matter, but very poor in lime, yet they seem to get some—that 
-is, in the case just mentioned by the Ouse from the oolitic and chalk 
hill; and warp lands receive enough in the water to make the grass 
•“jump,” and lands not actually flooded may in flood time obtain the 
lime that causes the Apple trees grown thereon to produce 40 pecks per 
specimen in full bearing.—G. Abbey. 
(To be continued.) 
ANGIOPTERIS EVECTA. 
To those about erecting a fernery where roof room is no object this 
handsome greenhouse Fern forms one of the noblest one could possibly 
find, and I know of no Fern which produces such a tropical appearance. 
To see it grown in tubs is no criterion of the proportions it assumes when 
planted out, as the fronds in the first case are stunted and often of a 
sickly green colour, whilst in the latter they will with proper attention 
reach a length of from 16 to 20 feet and carry a deep green colour. 
To anyone not acquainted with it I would advise planting in a mix¬ 
ture of good lumpy loam and peat, adding coarse sand and broken 
sandstone, and in close proximity to a pond, where the roots will soon 
find their way and simply revel in the position assigned to them. 
Another important point is that wherever it is planted the rockwork 
should be built in such a position as to allow copious supplies of water 
to be given to those roots which do not reach the pond. If this is borne 
in mind and the Fern receives frequent syringings there is little fear of 
thrips—the only enemy to which this Fern is subject—making their 
appearance. 
Anyone having plants languishing in a sickly condition in tubs 
would greatly enhance their beauty by planting them in the rockery, 
where with moderate roof room they will steadily improve, for it takes 
many years for it to get thoroughly established and assume such gigantic 
proportions as I have mentioned.—R. P. R. 
Madame Falcot. 
I QUITE agree with “J. C.’s” remarks (page 554) as to the great 
beauty and usefulness of this charming variety. It was quite an over¬ 
sight on my part not to have included it in my list; but among so 
many good things it is not always easy to remember all the “ gems ” at 
one time. Madame Falcot is one of those delightful Roses which seem 
to awaken instinctive admiration on account of the soft yellow colour 
of its finely formed buds.—H. Dunkin. 
Comment?. 
I HAVE read “W. R. Raillem’s” letter in the Journal of 5th January 
(page 5) with deep interest, and will venture to make a few remarks 
upon it. Having been unable to attend the annual general meeting of 
the N.R.S. I cannot comment on it much, nor do I think it necessary for 
such a novice as myself (as compared to “ W. R. R.”) to do so. I only 
hope his remarks will be a warning to us all whenever provincial shows 
of the N.R.S. are held in our localities. The next provincial will be in 
my own district, and I hope there will be plenty of room for all exhibits 
including “ W. R. R.’s.” We shall be sorry to see or hear of such an 
enthusiastic rosarian as he is “dropping out ” on the plea of “ old age ” 
or single-handedness. I am pleased to read “ that the financial statement 
of the N.R.S. showed a balance on the right side at any rate, although 
perhaps not a very large one.” Let us hope to see that balance con¬ 
siderably increased and in a “ flourishing condition ” when the number 
of northern exhibitors and those from “ late land” increase to such an 
extent that they will compose a good 50 per cent, of the members of t’ne 
N.R.S. “ W. R. R.’s ” suggestion about punctuality in paying subscrip¬ 
tions is a very good one, and if such a course could be adopted by 
members of many societies it would be a great saving of labour to 
treasurers and others who are good enough to undertake the unenviable 
duty of collecting subscriptions. 
Let us hope to see a provincial exhibition in East Anglia before 
many seasons have passed by, and a financial statement there very 
flourishing. We who live in the more northern and midland counties 
know what agricultural depression is, and although we cannot afford 
to contribute our mites indiscreetly, at the same time we shall give the 
provincial Show a welcome, and do our little best to make it a success, 
trusting we shall have all possible support and assistance from Rose 
exhibitors and others, and then we shall only need that most important 
factor, fine weather, to enable us to realise our hoped for result. I am 
sure “ W. R. R.” will agree that we want more Rose growers from the 
midland and north to take an interest in and belong to our National 
Society, but to enable us to enlist many enthusiastic exhibiting members 
we must have provincial shows held in our midst from time to time, and 
this is not all. The N.R.S. would do well to hold the metropolitan 
Exhibition upon some date suitable, as far as possible, to all Rose 
districts and growers of all families of Roses. It will never be a truly 
popular and united National Society so long as the greatest exhibition 
is held for the benefit of any one district, be it north or south, or any one 
family of Roses, though it is very difficult to fix upon such a date owing 
to the variable seasons we experience from year to year. 
I was strongly in favour of the resolution proposed by Mr. Pemberton 
at the general meeting above mentioned (I refer to the resolution, 
“ That the metropolitan Exhibition be held on the Saturday nearest 
6 th July”), not because I thought “my Roses would be at anything 
like their best ” on that date in an average season, for I fear that would 
only be the case once in every six or seven years, and my maidens 
would not be in bloom even then. I may be wrong, but I do not, think 
Roses, H.P.’s, at any rate, in the south, and on early land, would be 
much, if at all, past their prime six seasons out of seven on July 6th. 
Small growers ought to have all due consideration, and no doubt there 
are many of them amongst members of the N.R.S.; many, perhaps, who 
only grow cut-backs, too, and who have not the maiden plants that others 
have to prolong the time of blooming with. All classes of exhibitiug 
members deserve consideration, large growers included, for they cannot 
grow plants by the thousand and produce first-rate blooms without a 
good deal of expense in cultivating and exhibiting the Rose. Northern 
growers, and growers on late land, also deserve a share of consideration, 
for it is evident that they cannot exhibit from their gardens with any 
