882 
JOURNAL OF HORTICULTURE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. 
[ April 27, 1893. 
cinnamon colour, with white reverses ; lip pink-rose on front, with 
a white pencil mark extending to apex, the part enfolding the 
column white, stained with yellow near the base ; column pure 
white. The name is complimentary to H. Glraves, Esq , of Orange, 
New Jersey. 
STRAWBERRIES FOR FORCING. 
Fok the information of those who have not been successful in 
growing Strawberries in pots, I will give a few hints which may 
be useful in future attempts, also to young gardeners. In the 
first place it is essential to have young beds, I mean beds made the 
previous summer of strong runners. These will have made strong 
crowns by the following spring, and wilt produce the earliest 
runners. 
Layering should commence in May as soon as good runners can 
be procured. They ought to be placed into 60-size pots, and 
secured by small pegs, which can always be obtained from old 
disused brooms. The leader and side runners must be pinched off, 
so that the whole vigour may be concentrated to the main runners 
retained. The pots should be stood on pieces of slate, so as to 
prevent worms getting in the soil. Watering at this stage must be 
well attended to, or a season’s labour will be thrown away should 
the plants be allowed to become dry and parched. It is an 
advantage to water with a moderate rose, as the foliage is thus 
thoroughly wetted, and so kept free from red spider. 
When the runners have become root-bound they should be 
shifted into larger pots ; those required for early work, such as 
Noble, Vicomtesse Hericart de Thury or Keens’ Seedling put into 
6-inch pots. This will be found to be an advantage when forcing, 
as the roots are more readily warmed than when placed into 
larger sizes. The later varieties, such as La G-rosse Sucree, James 
Veitch, President, or Sir Joseph Paxton (these I have placed in 
the order of ripening), should be placed in 7-inch pots. Use a 
compost of one-half decayed turfy loam, quarter leaf soil, and 
quarter stable manure, not too decomposed, as the strength will 
be gone, but prepared as if for a Mushroom bed. To this should 
be added a fair sprinkling of soot, bone dust, and a little lime, the 
whole being thoroughly mixed and allowed to remain in a heap 
a month previous to being used. This allows the loam to become 
impregnated with the various manures. 
After being potted the plants should, if possible, be stood in 
lines on a walk fully exposed to the sun. The runners and weeds 
must be removed, and watering duly observed. When the pots are 
full of roots liquid manure should be supplied twice a week ; the 
drainings from the stable form an excellent manure, and can be 
used mixed with water about the colour of brown brandy. There 
remains one more serious chance of failure, and this I will explain. 
When the crown has almost finished its work it will put out at the 
axil of the leaves other breaks. These should be pinched or rubbed 
out, for if allowed to remain will form into other crowns, which 
weaken and draw from the main crown. 
Another cause of failure is undue forcing ; for instance, it 
would be absurd to expect Sir Joseph Paxton or President to fruit 
satisfactorily early in the spring, these being used, as a rule, for the 
last batch. These varieties will not force as readily as Noble, 
Vicomtesse Hericart de Thury, or Keens’ Seedling. I should 
strongly recommend those who may not know the merits of each 
or any individual variety to obtain the advice of someone who is in 
a position to tell them rather than follow their own ideas.—H. P., 
The Kmll Gardens, Wimhorne. 
GARDENERS’ ROYAL BENEVOLENT INSTITUTION. 
On Friday evening last a very successful meeting was held at the 
Eedland Park Hall, Bristol, for the purpose of advocating the claims of 
the Gardeners’ Koyal Benevolent Institution, under the presidency of 
J. H. Lockley, Esq., late High Sheriff for the county. It was announced 
that Mr. Harry J. Veitch, Treasurer of the Institution, who had been 
announced to give an address, was unable to be present through pressure 
of business. 
The Chairman, in his opening remarks, said Mr. Veitch had shown 
his sympathy with the Society in a practical way, and they had his 
wishes for a successful meeting. He pointed out the advantages offered 
by the Society in its provisions for old age pensions. He said he 
admired the thrifty man who endeavoured to make provision for old age 
without assistance, although, of course, they knew there were many 
people who had not really the power to set aside sufficient to procure 
for them at an advanced stage of life an old age pension. The Gardeners’ 
Institution stepped in and did a good work. The sum of £20 a year, at 
which old age nensions were fixed, meant 8s. a week, and the majority 
of societies in Bristol, some of which had been in existence 150 years, 
rarely apportioned to a man or woman who had reached the eligible age 
a larger amount than this. If this Society could be induced to open a 
branch in Bristol and the neighbourhood, he felt quite sure of this, that 
by the gardeners themselves showing they had an interest in the Institu¬ 
tion, which was established purely for themselves, there would be no lack 
of outside interest to help them. 
Mr. George J. Ingram, Secretary, followed with an exhaustive 
address on the principles, objects, and needs of the Institution, after 
which, on the motion of T. Walls, Esq., Town Councillor, seconded by 
Dr. Shaw, it was unanimously resolved that “ An auxiliary of the 
Gardeners’ Royal Benevolent Institution for Bristol, Bath, and neigh¬ 
bourhood be formed, and is hereby inaugurated at this meeting.” 
Messrs. Webley, Garaway, Vallance, and Parsons also addressed the 
meeting, and the Chairman consented to become President of the local 
auxiliary, and announced his intention of becoming a life member and 
an annual subscriber to its funds. Many other annual subscribers were 
also announced. 
Hearty votes of thanks to Mr. George J. Ingram for his address, and 
to the Chairman for presiding, brought the meeting to a close. 
SUMMER PRUNING VINES—AN OBJECT LESSON. 
Me. Stephen Castle’s practical and interesting remarks on the 
above subject in the Journal of Horticulture for April 6th (page 281) 
come at a very opportune time. There can be no two opinions as to 
the advantage and ultimate good results traceable to the practice of the 
early disbudding of Vines, removal of superfluous bunches, and the 
prompt thinning of the berries in those retained for the crop. It is 
obviously a great mistake to allow superfluous shoots to make inches of 
growth before being removed from the Vines, or for that matter, from 
fruit trees of any description, especially Peaches and Nectarines, 
thereby wasting the forces of the trees, which should from the beginning 
be directed to the development of the necessary number of growths and 
leaves, and the building up of strong, healthy, fruitful Vines and trees. 
Mr. Castle says that “ undoubtedly practice combined with thought 
leads to success.” I may be allowed to supplement this assertion by 
saying that the sound, thoughtful, and energetic practitioner who is 
given fairly good accommodation and the means wherewith to carry out 
his work is sure to succeed in producing results of the best description 
under ordinary good climatic conditions. The practice that leads to 
success must be sound, and be thoughtfully and energetically carried 
out. 
Leaving laterals 1 foot apart on each side of rods of the Black 
Hamburgh Vine, and each lateral having six leaves, as recommended 
and apparently practised by Mr. Castle, appears to me to be at the 
least 3 inches too close to allow of due leaf development. Mr. Castle’s 
contention that “ a large leaf is far more value than any amount of 
small foliage or elongated wild growths ” is so far good, but I am not at 
all sure that his method of attaining the end in view is so satisfactory 
as it should be, seeing that it tends to a crowding of growth and foliage. 
Would not the individual leaves and the buds in the axils of same be 
larger and of better texture, and more thoroughly ripened, were the sub¬ 
laterals pushing from the base of the said leaves along the main laterals 
pinched clean out of all Vines as soon as they appear, the same as Mr. 
Castle serves his Muscats ? 
In the case of young Vines intended for fruiting the year after they 
are raised from eyes and planted out, I always pinch the laterals as soon 
as they appear, stopping the individual Vines when about 3 feet high, 
pinching out the lateral growth resulting from this stopping in the axil of 
the top leaf later on. This, after an interval of about ten days, will 
cause the bud in the axil of the leaf, and which would otherwise have 
remained dormant until the following year, to push into growth. 
Meanwhile, the check thus given to top growth, the flow of sap is 
directed to thickening of the Vine below, and the plumping of the eyes 
or buds located in the axils of the leaves, as well as the enlargement of 
the latter, the operation being repeated after a fresh growth of 2 feet in 
length is made, and so on until the desired length of rod is attained. 
Thus treated a uniform thickness of rod and plumpness of buds are 
secured, and speaking from experience of this and other methods of 
procedure I give a decided preference to the system described above for 
permanent as well as supernumerary Vines. Our aim should always be 
to avoid as much as possible wasting the forces of Vines, or fruit trees 
in general, by allowing them to produce and mature wood which we 
know very well must be removed with the pruning knife at the fall of 
the leaf—that is allowing a Vine or tree to produce and ripen more 
wood and foliage than is absolutely necessary for the permanent welfare 
of the same. 
It is generally assumed that the restriction of top growth favours 
the production of fibrous roots—that is, that the slight check given to 
top growth by stopping and pinching of the shoots is communicated to 
the roots, and that following this slight check fresh and additional roots 
are emitted from the side of those whose growth had been slightly 
interrupted. But is this really so? Much good may be done by raising 
the question.—H. W. Wabd. 
Anything in connection with Vines is always interesting to me, and 
I have read all that has been written on summer pruning or pinching 
Vines. In my first lesson on pinching Vines I was told to pinch 
the lateral when it made two leaves beyond the first bunch, and stop the 
sub-laterals at the first leaf ; and as I was anxious to keep forward 
with my work, I stopped the laterals as soon as I could perceive the 
second leaf when in a very small state, but that was too soon for my 
