500 
JOURNAL OF HORTICULTURE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. 
June 21, 1894. 
than any other pest. Tobacco powder is chiefly employed to destroy 
these, and the only time the plants are syring^ is when the powder 
requires to be washed off the foliage and buds. For any other reason 
than that I should hesitate to apply water to the foliage. 
With respect to border Carnations, good cultivation plays a chief 
part in keeping plants in health. One of the most important points to 
be observed, at least in the North, is to layer as early in the season as 
shoots can be had in condition. When the layers are well rooted let 
them be planted in the beds in which they are to flower, and in 
comparison with those layered late in the season, wintered in frames, 
and planted out in spring, they will be much stronger and more 
healthy. When leaf disease appears, remove every portion of affected 
foliage, and if the plants are treated fairly well they will grow out of 
it, at least in most cases. 
Some varieties have gained an unhappy notoriety on account of 
special diseases which render it difiScult, if not impossible, to keep 
them in life. Of such is the old Crimson Clove, the foliage of which 
becomes so badly spotted with a blackish appearance that it is not 
possible in some gardens to grow this esteemed variety at all. Many 
other kinds are more or less affected with the same disease, but none to 
the same extent as this. Yellow grounds are troubled with a leaf 
affection which has the appearance of a brownish-yellow rust. This 
particular form is quite common, but generally does no great harm. In 
the case of Mrs. Reynolds Hole, however, I find the greatest difficulty in 
getting plants to grow. Last autumn I was favoured with healthy 
plants from nurseries 100 miles apart. Here they met a common enemy 
which has already destroyed 40 per cent, of the plants. That most 
beautiful yellow ground, R. H. Elliott, is almost, if not quite extinct, 
through this cause. I am experimenting with soil of a lighter and of a 
more open nature for yellow grounds, and I imagine I see more hope for 
their future. In any case, whoever has disease on plants cannot err in 
removing the parts affected to layer early for plants for another year, 
and to beware above all things of coddling the plants in damp or close 
frames.—R. P. Brotherston. 
AMERICAN APPLE EXPORTS. 
The Apple export trade from America to England is by no means a 
new business, for as long as fifty years ago consignments of a hundred 
barrels and upwards were sent forward in sailing vessels, that took from 
four to eight weeks to make the voyage. Ten years later slow steam¬ 
ships landed the fruit in from eighteen to twenty-five days, though not 
always in sound condition. Until 1870, 500 barrels of Apples were 
considered a large shipment, but since 1875, with swifter steamers, the 
business has greatly increased, and is now a regular department of the 
fruit trade, in which some fifteen firms in New York are engaged, besides 
half a dozen shipping brokers, who see to arranging for space on the 
steamers and attend to other details of transportation. In 1880-81, a 
season of good crops, the enormous quantity of 1,159,380 barrels went to 
Europe from United States ports alone. The carefully compiled reports 
of Mr. Mahlon Terhune, for the years since 1880, show great variation in 
the quantity of yearly shipments, the result of abundant or short crops. 
For example, in 1892-93 more than 650,000 barrels were shipped from 
New York, Boston, and Portland ; of these Apples almost 250,000 
barrels, or nearly 38 per cent., were grown in Canada. The shipments 
made direct from the Canadian ports, Montreal and Halifax, amounted 
to nearly 546,000 barrels. 
The Apple export season dates from August to May, and from 
advance sheets of Mr. Terhune’s statistics of shipments for 1893-94 it 
appears that the minimum quantity of less than 70,000 barrels went 
out from the United States this season, and but 86,000 barrels from 
Canadian ports. These figures indicate, with the single exception of 
1883-84, the dullest Apple trade in twenty-five years. Reasons for this 
unusual export market are found in a short crop, made still smaller by 
the heavy storms of last autumn, large importations to England from 
other countries, and the prevailing hard times. These exports, although 
comparatively small, were large enough to diminish appreciably the 
stock already insufficient for home use, so that prices have ruled 
unusually high in this market. 
The first Apples are shipped about August 1st, Keswick Codlins 
from New Jersey being the earliest export of last year. The Orange 
Pippin, a better fruit, follows closely, but the export of these tender 
summer Apples is always attended with risks, and as they are needed 
at home shipments are likely to continue small. During the year almost 
every variety of American Apple is exported, and Fameuse and other 
delicate Apples stand the journey well. Red Astrachan being one of the 
few kinds which rarely arrives at the destination in good condition. 
Red-skinned Apples are preferred in England by the masses, and the 
attractive King Apple is in especial request early in the autumn. But 
there are not enough of these, and in recent years Greenings, which 
come into market about the same time, have gained a place in spite 
of their inferior colour. 
But the great export Apple is the Newtown Pippin, the first American 
Apple shipped to England. Coming originally from orchards in New¬ 
town, Long Island, the best of these Apples are now grown in the 
mountain districts of Virginia, where they are locally known as 
Albemarle Pippins. Here the fruit matures early, and is ready for 
shipment by tUe 10th of November. These Pippins, grown on Long 
Island and in the Hudson River district east of that river, mature later, 
and are not fully ripened and well-coloured before January. On this 
side of the continent Newtown Pippins are grown only in the sections 
indicated. But the northern orchards are dying out, and efforts at 
propagation are not successful, and the fate of the Spitzenberg twenty 
years ago threatens this fruit. Westchester County, formerly a great 
centre for these Apples, now produces small scaly fruit, and it seems to 
be only a matter of a few years when there will be none of these Apples 
grown in the north. It has been thought by some that if the trees 
were not started from root-grafts, but were grafted high up on some 
vigorous seedlings, they might once more succeed where they are now 
failing. In the Virginia district the fruit grows large and of excellent 
quality. 
In New York State three heavy storms last autumn cut prospective 
orchard harvests of 1500 to 2000 barrels down to a few hundred barrels, 
but in Virginia the damage was slight and the crop was large, and of 
the good quality which attends a full-bearing season. Quite as many 
Newtown Pippins went abroad, all Virginia fruit, as in other recent 
years, and at paying rates, prices in England ranging from 25s. to 40s. 
a barrel for No. 1 fruit. They are largely used for table decoration 
there, and their rich flavour commends them highly, while they have 
also the crisp and sour qualities demanded in the English market. 
Their firm flesh and tough skin especially adapt them for packing and 
shipment, whereas many kinds, such as the Northern Spy, are easily 
bruised and discoloured. The Newtown Pippin is much better known 
in England than it is in New York, since nearly the entire crop is 
exported. Christmas presents of these Apples have long been fashion¬ 
able, and banking firms in New York send abroad sometimes as many as 
fifty barrels to their business friends.—M.B. C. (“ Garden and Forest ”). 
ST. MARY’S, TALLAGHT, CO. DUBLIN. 
GreA-T is the power of the Press, keeping us figuratively in touch 
with fellow workers, and on occasions literally bringing us in contact 
with them also. Through the medium of these pages I lately had a 
flying visit from a gentleman whose conversation soon revealed that 
fellow feeling which draws man to man. Later still the return visit to 
him, whilst affording me pleasure, prompts the giving of these few notes 
on an historical place and its gardens. 
The day was fixed and proved propitious when we two (another of 
the craft) set forth along the country roads en route for Tallaght. 
Many acres of Furze in bloom give a golden glow to the hill sides, and 
our method of travelling gives ample time for observation. My friend 
lures me, in passing his grounds, to look in, and I do not regret it. The 
herbaceous borders are a feast of flowers in great variety. Parrot Tulips 
in gorgeous plumage hover over lesser things and flutter their wings in 
the warm sunshine. We probe for the name of a very beautiful 
Aubrietia and find it is Leicbtlini, but we must leave this galaxy of 
beauty, for the main object is yet before us. 
So'on for the steam tram, which gained lands us at the Priory gates 
of the Dominicans at Tallaght, and this is our rendezvous. On entering, 
rich music pealing from the church, with the villagers assembling at the 
doors, gives rise to the thought as to whether the visit is opportune, but 
a warm welcome from the lay brother (my gardening visitor), now clad 
in the picturesque robes of his order, dispels all doubt. A procession 
is being formed which we follow to the long green glade down which 
it passes, resting here till Brother J. is at liberty, in the peaceful 
solemnity of this sylvan retreat, shut in from the turmoil of the busy 
world without. The return of the procession down the long vista of 
greenery, with the rich tenor voices of the Dominicans chanting, 
brings a sense of repose, and obliterates the intervening centuries, 
when the same grounds witnessed many a similar scene, for from the 
seventh century this has been occupied as it is now by a religious 
community. 
From a gardening point of view the site has been happily chosen ; 
that is, if the secret of success lays in the soil. Fruit trees, Roses, 
bulbs are of clean growth and exceptional vigour. Hitherto observa¬ 
tion has led to the thought that Ireland is not an Apple country, but 
the hundreds of healthy young trees here seen goes far to disabuse my 
mind of that idea. A long walk arrayed on each side with pillars of 
Gloire de Dijon Roses induces me to ask how many there are, but the 
courteous guide does not know, and there are more than I care to count; 
they are bristling with buds amidst the bronzy vigorous foliage. Yet it 
is a Rose which adapts itself to any locality, hence does not yield the 
surprise that other things noted here do. 
That remarkable vigour noticed leads to the question, “ Is the soil 
fresh to its business 1 ” “No, it has been a garden for a thousand years,’’ 
though the old order of things has given place to the new. This fine 
row of Narcissus Sir Watkin is presumably of the latter ; yet who can 
tell 1 I had it from an authority on the genus that we are indebted to 
the religious communities who centuries ago brought with them bits of 
home from sunnier climes, in the form of roots ; consequently distinct 
varieties of Daffodils have been met with in the vicinity of ruined 
abbeys and monasteries. Any way, they are now very much at home 
though but recently purchased. Just a of covetousness crosses 
one’s mind as we look on the long line of broad sturdy foliage yet 
here of all places that might have been left outside the gates “ as one 
leaves their slippers in Persia.” 
For inquisitiveness an apology is made, but not needed, so the 
questioning goes on apace. Brother J. is a born gardener, though he 
disclaims all knowledge of the art till within the last eight years! 
But “ Tempus fugit.” A bed of Anemone coronaria “ The Bride ” 
strikes one by the purity of that white seldom met with in the mixed 
