170 
JOURNAL OF HORTICULTURE AND COTTAGE GARDENER, 
February 21,1895. 
extent public confidence are those the responsible officials of which 
strive to procure the aid of the best judges obtainable for the different 
sections of their exhibitions, and if the “ best” are secured, these being 
undeterred by any false pride or captious remarks from re-examining 
their own work if it should be thought desirable, where are appeal judges 
to come from? There can be no better than the best—judges of the first 
class, though there is no lack of others much less experienced who feel 
themselves competent to alter half the awards in one-quarter the time 
that it took their seniors to make them. 
In the case of the great and varied exhibitions of our most successful 
societies complaints about the judging are extremely rare, and if made 
are still more rarely substantiated. The procedure is based on the 
principle of securing judges of irreproachable integrity and acknow¬ 
ledged competency, their decisions being final; and we are bound to say 
that in our opinion any departure from this principle would sooner or 
later lead to disquietude, distrust, and dissatisfaction, the certain 
precursors of loss of prestige and eventual collapse,] 
The annual show of this Society will be held on Thursday 
July 4th, 1895. 
Soil for Youno Eoses in Pots. 
At this season we are more or less busy in potting our young Eoses 
from the grafting case, and having lost, or at any rate checked a good 
many at different times through using too rich a soil, a few practical 
hints may be of some service. Our chief aim until the young plants are 
in 3-inch pots is to secure a number of healthy roots. If these grow 
freely the sap is abundant, and the graft not only unites firmly but 
pushes into promising growth at once. We need healthy roots later on 
also, but then they must be fed to a greater extent than in the younger 
stages. ^ 
Beginners are often too anxious to give their plants a rich and con 
centrated soil, but it is better to wait until the plant has greater need 
of this. Turfy loam with a dash of sand, or any good garden loam and 
leaf soil in equal proportions, is best for Eoses at this stage. We find 
the new roots taking to this at once, and producing those thick and 
succulent rootlets that must result in healthy and rapid wood growth. A 
richer soil does not encourage these to the same extent, in fact rather 
the reverse. Breaking the compost up too finely is also a mistake. If 
we use it in a coarser condition the roots can pick and choose to a 
certain extent from the variety of food supplied, and a little observation 
will prove this, whether we take a pot plant or one growing in the open 
ground. On turning the former out of the pot, or carefully lifting the 
latter, we shall find the roots have thoroughly permeated one or other of 
the component portions of the compost, and, comparatively speaking, 
avoided the remainder. Much of the first strength of the latter will be 
imparted to the poorer soil, and as this is lessened, and our Eose roots 
become more eager or hungry for the richer food, they will take this in 
due course. 
If potted firmly there is no fear of too rapid percolation of water and 
its consequent washing away of any valuable soluble constituents con¬ 
tained in the soil. In pots we cannot give give our Eoses enough room 
to allow of their roots searching for and choosing their food, but we 
may approach this nearer than many do. While in the open, and also in 
borders under glass, there is no drawback to follow this plan, and I am 
certain it is a good one from the results which have been derived from 
it.— Practice, 
SMILAX. 
I AM acquainted with no plant that is more useful than this. It is 
equally well fitted for decorating dinner tables during every season of 
the year, and for lending added grace to arrangements of cut flowers in 
vases. For wreath-making it is also very useful ; indeed, I have 
constructed Wreaths of choice flowers and Smilax without using any 
other kind of foliage. 
Fortunately the cultural requirements of this plant are easy to meet. 
It grows well under a shade of foliage where few other plants would 
succeed. The present time is most suitable to sow seeds, and if a high 
temperature can be given the seedlings are not long germinating. If a 
very sandy compost is used there will be no difficulty in securing fibrous 
roots by the time the plants have grown sufficiently large to transplant. 
I have tried them on the back wall of a stove, but the temperature was 
too hot. Close to the back wall of a late vinery seems to suit them 
better than houses in which there is more heat. As to soil, they are not 
at all particular. Two years ago a lad planted 8milax in one house 
among a layer of gravel. Strange to say the largest and finest foliage 
has been produced from these. Indeed, so robust did they grow that 
they were quite unfitted for using on a table, though for other purposes 
they proved most useful. 
At the time of planting a piece of strong thread for each plant is 
secured to the top wire of each vinery and fastened at the bottom to a 
strong peg driven into the soil close to the plant. Further than this no 
attention to training is called for, unless it may be in cases where 
single-stemmed plants are wanted, then it is necessary to nip out any 
twin shoots that may appear. Single stems, it may be noted, are 
superior for table or for vase-furnishing. At no season is this plant 
prettier than in the spring. Wreaths 15 feet in length are then covered 
with their pretty white blossoms, excelling in beauty the plants when 
adorned with nothing but leaves. I keep a supply to provide for the 
London season, and these always flower freely and set most abundant 
crops of seeds. There is thus no difficulty in securing from the same 
set of plants others to keep up a supply year after year. Two-year-old 
plants become bushy, and are, on that account, not so valuable as one- 
year seedlings. I have tried two-year-old plants in pots for decorating, 
but did not find them of so much use as those grown as noted above. 
E. P. BROTHERSTONi 
REDUCTION OF THE VARIETIES OF APPLES 
AND PEAES. 
Can our varieties of Apples and Pears be reduced with advantage, 
and what is about the number of varieties we should grow ? If you ask 
the first part of this question of any fruit grower or horticultural autho¬ 
rity nine out of ten would answer “ Yes.” But this is a more difficult 
question than appears on the face of it. Each of these persons answers 
truthfully from his own view of the question, but there are so many 
standpoints from which you can look at it. There is the grower for 
market; there is the farmer who has various other agricultural pursuits; 
there is the grower who grows only for his own consumption ; there is 
the grower who takes a pride in his fruit and likes to exhibit it occa¬ 
sionally ; and there is also the one who makes a hobby of fruit growing. 
These growers are again subdivided into the growers of the north, the 
south, the west, and the east of Great Britain and Ireland, and to these 
I may add the nurseryman who supplies the trees, both the man 
who does a local trade chiefly and the one whose trade extends through 
all the localities. I believe if a general census was taken of the opinion 
of the growers named throughout the United Kingdom as to which are 
the best ten varieties of Apples or ten varieties of Pears a very large 
number, perhaps a hundred or more, would be named between them 
all. I propose to take each of the classes of growers I have named, 
and say a few words as to the position in which each grower stands 
in regard to number of varieties and about the quantity I think best 
cultivated by him. _ 
I will first take the grower for market, whose sole object is to make 
fruit growing profitable. I say to this grower. Do not grow too 
many varieties ; plant a good bulk of the few you select, so that it may 
pay you to pick and market each sort in bulk. Find out from your own 
or neighbours’ experience what varieties do best on your soil and in your 
locality ; find out what sorts sell best in your most convenient market, 
and plant these largely. On the other hand, you can confine your sorts 
too strictly ; it is astonishing how varieties vary as to cropping in different 
seasons. The blooming time of different varieties of Apples and Pears 
varies greatly, some varieties blooming early, others late, and we some¬ 
times have early frosts, sometimes late ; the consequence is that a 
variety which crops heavily in one season does not do so in another, and 
you are sometimes astonished to find a usually shy cropper give a heavy 
yield in a scarce year ; the crop greatly depends upon whether the 
variety is in blossom at the time the frost comes. 
I believe there is another reason for having a little admixture of 
sorts, say in adjoining rows. Some varieties are not sufficiently self- 
fertilising to grow in a large block and crop well, but are benefited by 
being grown near other varieties. The Americans, I believe, have 
found this out and act on it largely. A grower for market should have 
a good bulk of early varieties, a few midseason varieties, and a quantity 
of late varieties. I think, as a rule, early and late varieties pay 
the best. Some years the early varieties will pay the best, in others the 
late varieties, but the midseason sorts being more numerous, and 
meeting more foreign competition, usually pay the worst. A grower for 
market does not often require to exceed eight to twelve varieties to 
grow in quantity ; but he must not forget that there may be a new or 
little known variety suitable to his locality which may prove of great 
value. I say try these on a small scale first, and if you find they answer 
your requirements grow them more largely. In growing for market do- 
not be guided entirely by what looks most attractive on the exhibition 
table ; some of the best there are for one reason or another not the best 
to grow for market. _ 
There is next the farmer who has various other agricultural pursuits y 
to him I again say, “ Do not grow too many sorts,” and the remarks I 
make in reference to the grower for market to a great extent apply to 
the farmer, but it does not follow that he should grow the same 
varieties. The average farmer has seldom the skill, aptitude, or time to 
devote to the cultivation of very choice varieties of fruit; he usually 
wants hardy, good growing, and heavy cropping sorts, suitable to grow 
as standards. He should grow about the same number of varieties as 
the market grower. _ 
There is then the grower who grows for his own consumption. He 
can extend his list, because he wants both dessert and cooking varieties 
to extend over as long a season as poss’ble ; he does not care to have a 
