18i 
JOURNAL OF HORTICULTURE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. 
i ITarcli 2, 1893. 
Brussels Sprouts should be sown in a frame. Plants raised under glass 
never have the same hardy constitution that those have raised in the 
open ground.” Having indicated in a previous article that personal 
experience led me to adopt'the frame system of raising seedlings is no 
reason why others should invariably resort to the same practice. A good 
rule for cultivators to follow is to base their systems of procedure on 
the various conditions with which they may have to deal, more especi¬ 
ally as regards the climate and soil of their respective districts. 
No one who is usually successful in securing satisfactory crops of 
Brussels Sprouts from plants raised in the open ground will give hoed to 
anything that may be written in support of raising seedlings under 
glass ; but, on the contrary, if failures occur occasionally from climatic 
causes they might possibly do worse. I may make the remark here that 
two p’antations now occupying the same quarter, and raised under 
the different systems indicated, present a striking contrast. While 
those sown in the open, as soon as weather would permit last spring, 
have been practically a failure, those raised under glass and thoroughly 
hardened afterwards could scarcely have yielded a finer and more 
abundant crop, and their green sturdy appearance after such a rigorous 
winter is surely a sufficient guarantee of their hardiness. Similar 
results have also been noted in other gardens in the case of frame- 
raised plants. It would be interesting as well as instructive to know 
the actual temperature Brussels Sprouts should be able to withstand 
without injury before they could be said to possess what your corre¬ 
spondent considers a hardy constitution. 
Regarding the question of sowing seed of Brussels Sprouts in the 
open in February, as practised by your correspondent, the teachings of 
meteorological records in this district (Ayrshire) makes the raising of 
seedlings under glass a necessity. Plantations from which adequate 
supplies of good firm sprouts are obtained here must be finally planted 
out not later than the 15th May, but how plants sown in the open for 
this purpose can make headway with the thermometer ranging from 
12 ° to 20“ of frost for a W’eek at a time after germination should have 
been apparent, together with months of bleak east winds prevailing 
almost constantly, I have not yet proved. For this reason I adhere to 
a system by which protection is at immediate command when severe 
weather extremes have to be contended with.— Bbassiga. 
TRIUMPHS AND TROUBLES WITH PEACHES. 
A SHORT time ago, no matter how, no matter where, fate brought me 
into conflict with a Gooseberry grower on the question of pruning the 
bushes. Having comfortably demolished one another, each, doubtless, 
deriving considerable satisfaction from the manner in which he had 
wrecked the other’s arguments, we drifted into conversation, and the 
then stranger, who subsequently proved to be Mr. Heed, gardener to 
Edward Pettitt, Esq., Broadwater, Oatlands Park, near Walton, 
clinched the matter by extending, in honest English fashion, a hearty 
invitation to go and see him as soon as an opportunity arose. That is 
the way to end a controversy. No bitterness, no recriminations, but just 
a wholesome hand-shake and an invitation given in the best spirit, and 
accepted with equal readiness and pleasure. Though personally 
unknown to me until that time Mr. Reed’s name was familiar as a 
successful exhibitor of fruit at leading Shows, such as the Crystal 
Palace, and of Chrysanthemums at Kingston, Weybridge, and elsewhere. 
Moreover, information had reached me of his special success with 
Peaches. To Walton I therefore betook me. The road was a familiar 
one, for Broadwater is the next place to Duneevan, rich with the 
Rhododendron and other treasures collected by the kind-souled James 
McIntosh, now gone, ripe in years and honours, to his rest. Memories of 
bright days in the beautiful garden of this noble old English gentleman, 
and of hours beguiled by his genial and kindly wisdom when his health 
permitted him to play the part of guide and host, are inevitably recalled 
when Oatlands Park is revisited. 
It is a little too early in the year for the full beauty of the locality 
to be recognised ; but late in spring there are few among the many 
delightful districts which are to be found in Surrey by all who know 
how to set about the search to exceed Oatlands Park in attractiveness. 
Duneevan, Broadwater, and other residences near stand on the very brink 
of the steep descent into the Thames Valley, and consequently the pleasure 
grounds slope somewhat abruptly down. I should like to pause and 
speak of them ; but Peaches do not grow there, and so I must pass on. 
A brief tribute should, however, be paid to the taste and skill with 
which the garden has been managed, for shrubs and trees have been 
arranged in a manner appropriate to the configuration of the ground, 
and through cunningly contrived breaks and depressions pleasant 
glimpses of the glistening water can be obtained. Under glass the 
handiwork speaks for itself. There is a bright display of flowering and 
foliage plants, together with many Orchids, all healthy, clean, and 
happy. 
Beyond doubt it is in the fruit department that Mr. Reed excels. 
The collection of Apples, Pears, Plums, Cherries, and bush fruits is large, 
varied, and splendidly managed. At a future date I hope to say some¬ 
thing about them, but at present attention must be restricted to the 
Peaches. There are two houses, the trees in the early one now being in 
bloom. In both the condition of the trees repays the closest inspection. 
They are models of health, vigour, and skilful training. The rule 
followed is to remove all fruiting wood immed.ately the Peaches have 
been gathered, and in the case of only twm trees was it departed from 
last season. The difference between these and the remainder is very 
marked. The summer pruned trees are furnished with as fine a frame¬ 
work of fruiting wood as it has ever been my fortune to see. Many of 
the shoots are 18 inches and 2 feet long. “• Gross ! ” someone may 
ejaculate. Not at all. The wood is stout, firm, with the deep brownish 
tint denoting perfect maturity and studded with huge plump buds, or, 
in the case of the early house, wreathed in fine, substantial, perfectly 
developed blossoms. True it is that long shoots do not always mean fine 
fruits, but when as stiff and well ripened as those at Broadwater they 
bespeak no mediocre crop. The late house is 87 feet long, the front 
border 5 feet wide, and the back 2 feet. Last year 1600 fruits were 
gathered from the structure. The knife has been used with so much 
judgment and boldness that the trees, save for the mere skeleton of the 
framework, are entirely furnished with fruitful w.od, and by adherence 
to the summer pruning of the fruiting shoots a succession of magnificent 
wood is secured. In the two trees not so treated the wood is distinctly 
stunted as compared with the others, and a lesson is afforded of the 
results accruing when Peaches are intelligently managed. 
In feeding his trees Mr. Reed follows lines not generally adopted. 
As soon as the fruit is gathered three barrowloads of dried fowl manure 
are spread on the borders in each house. The material is spread to dry 
when collected, and pointed very lightly into the borders. If wet the 
amount of ammonia arising would probably injure the leaves. This 
application lasts them until spring, when a dressing of wood ashes is 
applied to the borders, also to the vineries. The potash helps the fruit 
wonderfully at and after stoning time, and aids materially in the pro¬ 
duction of fine examples. The use of fowl manure offers a useful hint 
to other cultivators of Peaches. Few recognise the value of this fertiliser, 
which analysis shows to be far superior to animal manure. A ton of 
fowl manure yields 21 lbs. of potash, 41 lbs. of phosphoric acid, 87 lbs. 
of nitrogen, and 47 lbs. of lime, a total of 199 lbs., as against 66 lbs., the 
product of pig manure, which is in its turn richer than the excrements 
of horses and cows. Theoretically we learn from these figures that the 
gatherings of the fowl houses compose one of the gardener’s best 
assistants, and the Broadwater Peaches drive home the theory in as 
practical a manner as could be done anyv,'here in the kingdom. It is to 
be hoped that cultivators may learn to appreciate the manure at its true 
worth, and make better use of it than is now often done. 
I turn from the triumphs with Peaches at Broadwater—and a 
triumph their culture undoubtedly is—to a word as to the trials, or rather 
to a trial which for a time played sad havoc with the worthy gardener's 
peace of mind. He loves his trees, and devotes close personal attention 
to them. They are his delight and his pride. Conceive then of the 
blow that befel him when an unhappy error on the part of a junior 
while he was away for a holiday destroyed nearly a whole houseful. 
They were thoughtlessly dressed with undiluted oil, and when Mr. Reed 
returned home the sight when he entered the house nearly broke his 
heart. Like a wise man he went home to talk over the catastrophe 
with his wife, but her consolations did not suffice to bring peace to his 
troubled mind. “I hadn’t a wink of sleep that night,”said Mr. Reed 
to me, with the look of a man whose thoughts revive some sad experience. 
“ I tossed and turned trying to think out what to do.” Something was 
done, and done promptly. He hied him to Chelsea, and told his story 
to the head of the great firm there, whose sympathies, ever quick to act 
when gardeners or gardening are concerned, were at once aroused. 
Some of the finest trees from the Southfields stock were sent off. They 
were planted on the llth of March, and from eight of them sixteen 
dozen fruits were gathered the same season, so after all the trial was 
turned into another triumph. Then Mr. Reed went on to tell what 
happened when the bill—and he speaks gratefully of the consideration 
for the untoward circumstances which its dimensions bespoke—came in. 
He was anxious to take the responsibility upon himself, not liking the 
idea of a good employer suffering for such a mishap, but the latter 
generously refused to allow it. So the trial was met, the gardener’s 
serenity restored, and his respect for an appreciative master increased. 
Once more the Broadwater houses are full of healthy trees, a source of 
gratification and pleasure to Mr. Pettitt, of pardonable pride to his 
gardener, and of instruction to visitors.— W, P. WEIGHT. 
AN ELEYATED GARDEN. 
Relative to the surrounding ground level there are perhaps few 
gardens in the kingdom that are more up in the clouds than is the 
parterre garden that is found on the summit of the castle keep at 
Farnham, when that elevation is reached. The entire keep, enclosed by 
a stone wall of some 7 or 8 feet in thickness, seems to stand on an 
acre of ground. The wall reaches to a height from the lawn beneath 
it of some 50 feet, and is scaled on the north side by a series of stone 
steps, somewhat zig-zag in form. The walls up which this ascent is 
made are covered with wonderful masses of Ivy and Clematis flammula, 
and on one side of the steps is a perfect wall of Cotoneaster. The 
whole of the external wall is thus picturesquely dressed or draped with 
hardy foliage and climbers, whilst on the top are many trees of con¬ 
siderable size, which it is needful to prune occasionally as the wind 
force ’So high up is very great. 
On the top what was, in the days of the previous Bishop of 
Winchester, a vegetable garden, has been converted into a sunken 
flower garden, nearly half an acre in extent. Inside the wall at the top 
runs a raised gravel walk, and the flower garden lies some 3 feet lower. 
It has a turf floor with two broad cross walks. Beds of Roses, herbaceous 
perennials, and annuals beautify it in the summer. Every piece of turf 
and particle of gravel as well as manure has to be hauled up by a rope to 
the great height from below, and it is no wonder if the work of 
