Muy 4 , 1893. ] 
JOURNAL OF HORTICULTURE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. 
357 
- ORANOrE Culture in California. — According to an 
American contemporary Orange growing in California has developed 
■by leaps and bounds, and the demand for trees has been so great that 
numbers of people were induced to start nurseries. There are over 100 
Orange tree nurseries in California, with more than 400 acres devoted 
to the business. These nurseries contain in the aggregate considerably 
more than 3^ millions of trees, sufficient in all to plant 40,000 acres of 
groves. 
- Instruction in Ornithology. — With reference to this 
subject on page 316, it is no new idea with me, as I have included it in 
my syllabus of lectures under the Agricultural sub-Committee of 
Technical Instruction of the Worcestershire County Council, and have 
given six illustrated lectures in various centres, and have mentioned about 
sixty species in connection with agriculture and horticulture. Every 
twitter and every species is quite familiar to me. I have divided them 
under three heads—viz., destructive birds, partially destructive, and 
purely innocent and useful birds. I have also shown how to bring them 
under control either for use or to destroy by giving suitable homes to 
build in. Thirteen species have availed themselves of such accommoda¬ 
tion. I believe all “ W. K. Kaillem ” (page 341) says of the sparrow, 
and more too.—J. Hi AM. 
- The Weather in Hertfordshire During April. — The 
weather during the past month in this district has been exceptionally 
dry, with continuous bright sunshine. The sun has put in an appear¬ 
ance every day, and owing to the very bright weather everything is in 
an advanced state of growth. Caterpillars and insects of all the leaf¬ 
eating kind are multiplying very freely. Some exceptional sharp frosts 
have been registered, and the Plum crop in low-lying districts totally 
destroyed. On the morning of the 14th I registered 13° of frost. Rain 
has fallen on three days during the past month. Maximum in any 
twenty-four hours was 0 07 on the 16th ; minimum in any twenty-four 
hours was 0 01 on the 20th. Total for the whole month. O il ; against 
0’88 of 1892.— E. Wallis, The Gardens, Hamels Parh, Buntingford, 
Herts. 
- Hours of Labour in Gardens. —Noting the correspondence 
in the Journal about the hours of labour in gardens in Scotland, and 
the alarm such an innovation seems to have caused some of your readers, 
I think it may not be out of place if I mention the way we manage 
the Saturday half-holiday in Rothesay. From the middle of October to 
the middle of March we commence at 7 A.M., breakfast half hou’’, 
dinner half hour, leave at 6 p.m. ; Saturday, cease work at 2 P.M. and 
no dinner time. From the middle of March to the middle of October 
we commence at 6 A.M., three-quarter hour to breakfast and came for 
dinner, cease work at 6 p.m., and 2 p.m. on Saturday. From April to 
September one man in each department takes a turn from 2 o’clock on 
Saturday till 5 p.m. to attend to customers, for which they are paid over¬ 
time at the usual rate. During the winter half year the one whose turn it 
is to be on duty at the fires does what is required in other ways. This 
arrangement works smoothly. Although the firm (Dobbie & Co.) lose 
an hour a week during the winter on each hand, during the summer 
there is no loss.— Anglo-Scot. 
- Saturday Half-Holiday.—Y our correspondent “J. L. B.” 
(page 336) asks, “ What do the young men intend to do with the houses 
when they leave off at dinner time ? ” I desire to inform him that they 
intend to do their duty. No young gardener who takes any pride in 
his work would entertain even the slightest idea of leaving his houses 
either open or shut from Saturday noon till Monday morning. It would 
be interesting to know whether such a thing as Sunday duty is in vogue 
in the locality in which “ J. L. B.” resides, or does he leave his houses 
to take care of themselves from four o’clock on Saturday afternoon 
till the men resume their duties on Monday morning ? I thoroughly 
agree with Mr. Thorne (page 316) that the young men should take 
their turn to do duty on Saturday afternoon the same as on Sunday. 
Where the glass houses are extensive I would suggest that two men 
should take duty during the summer months. Your correspondent then 
goes on to say, “ If they are to have a holiday, why not have it in 
the middle of the week or once a fortnight.” It is well known that 
Saturday is the day universally set apart for a general cleaning for 
Sunday, therefore this argument alone should be sufficient to commend 
the end of the week as the most suitable. Then, again, by leaving work 
at noon on Saturday the men have an opportunity of visiting their 
friends and returning on Sunday. I venture to assume that a half¬ 
holiday in the middle of the week would be practically useless to the 
young men in the country and outlying districts.—P. A. L. 
- Koelreuteria paniculata. —This, says Mr. John Wilson, 
Leazes Park, Newcastle, is rather a singular looking, small tree. It 
comes from the North of China, and was introduced into British gardens 
in 1763. It is of deciduous habit ; the leaves are imperi-pinnate, with 
leaflets ovate and coarsely toothed. It is quite hardy. From July to 
September it produces in considerable abundance small yellow blossoms 
arranged in terminal, spreading, conspicuous racemes. In October the 
flowers are succeeded by large, lightish brown, bladdery capsules. The 
young wood is also brown, and the leaves ripen to a fine deep yellow 
in the autumn before they fall. The plant thrives best in a light 
warm soil, where there is shelter from the blasts, and is particularly 
useful where the subsoil is chalk. The handsome foliage, yellow 
flowers, and general manner of growth, renders the Koelreuteria a 
picturesquely conspicuous object in the pleasure ground when it has 
been judiciously placed. It is a plant easily propagated, either from 
cuttings of the roots and branches, or from seeds, and can be rendered 
very serviceable in sub-tropical gardening. It is seldom met with 
having tree-like dimensions, but not unfrequently as a shrub 8 or 
10 feet high. It requires a little special attention when young. The 
name is in honour of J. G. Koelreuter, a distinguished German 
botanist. 
- The Great Rainfall in Queensland,—I f we have been 
short of rain on our side of the world lately it does not appear to 
have been the same “down under.” Mr. Clement L. Wragge, the 
Government Meteorologist of Queensland, writes to the “ Daily 
News : ”—“ I send a few particulars of the recent remarkable rainfall 
at Crohamhurst, situated on the western slope of Mount Blanc, a peak 
on a spur of the D’Aguilar Range, an offset from the Blackall Ranges, 
South Eastern Queensland. The whole of this district is watered by 
the Stanley River, a tributary of the Brisbane River, and hence the 
values given below were prominent factors in producing the terrible 
floods from which we have suffered. I may mention that the observer 
at Crohamhurst is Mr. Inigo Owen Jones, one of my specially trained 
assistants, and that implicit reliance can be placed on his figures. The 
following are the more remarkable falls of the flood period at Croham¬ 
hurst : For twenty-four hours ending 9 A.M. Feb. 1st, 10'775 inches; 
ditto, Feb. 2nd, 20 056 inches ; ditto, Feb. 3rd, 35-714 inches ; ditto, 
Feb. 4th, 10-760 inches. The gauge is a standard of the ‘8-inch 
pattern, standing 1 foot above the ground, at an altitude of abou^ 
1400 feet above mean sea level. The approximate latitude and longi¬ 
tude of Crohamhurst are 26-o0° S., 152-55° E. The gauge was emptied 
every three hours, night and day, on the occasion of the greatest fall. 
I think meteorologists will agree that for a twenty-four hours’ fall we 
have beaten the world’s record.” 
- A Remarkable April. —Had the weather been more cloudy 
than it was, the month would probably have been quite cold, but the 
abnormal presence of bright sunshine served to keep temperature 
unusually high, more especially in the daytime. Taking the mean of 
all the minimum, or night, readings observed in London, equally high, 
or even higher, temperatures have been recorded in seven out of the past 
twenty-two years. The day readings give, however, a very different 
result, the mean of all the maximum temperatures being 2° higher than 
in any April of the past two decades, while the absolute maximum of 
82°, recorded on the 20th, was undoubtedly the highest April reading 
on record. The most remarkable feature of all in the weather of last 
month was, however, the great deficiency of rainfall. As regards the 
London district it appears that last month was by far the driest April 
experienced for at least eighty years past, the total rainfall being only 
one-tenth of an inch. The nearest approach to this was in the year 
1855, when April showers yielded just double the quantity of rain 
experienced this year. The effects of the April drought have been so 
seriously aggravated by the dry weather of March that a brief review of 
the conditions prevailing during the whole two months may be of 
interest. It appears then that over nearly the whole of the eastern, 
central, and southern parts of England, and also in the south of Ireland, 
the aggregate rainfall for March and April amounted to less than one- 
quarter of the average, and over a considerable portion of the English 
districts to less than one-fifth. In London and at Cambridge there was 
only 15 per cent, of the normal quantity, and in the Scilly Islands only 
9 per cent., while at Oxford and Dungeness the proportion was as low 
as 7 per cent. The remark has of late been heard that after so unusually 
fine and dry a spring the summer months are nearly sure to be wet and 
inclement, and it is therefore consoling to find from an examination of 
the records that gloomy forebodings of this kind have no warrant in 
actual fact. 
