Aogiat 11, 1837. ] 
JOURNAL OF HORTICULTURE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. 
107 
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10th Sunday after Trinity. 
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Shrewsbury Show (two dsys). 
NOTES IN JERSEY. 
NY visitors to Jersey, be they gardeners or 
others, will meet with a courteous reception 
at the High View Nurseries by the proprietor, 
M. J. Le Cornu, and his son, M. Philip 
Le Cornu; and will find many things both 
instructive and interesting. High culture 
and cleanliness are the order of the day in 
this compact little nursery. Land in Jersey is 
too valuable for growing weeds upon, and every square 
foot of ground is profitably cropped. Men who pay ,=£ .CO 
or T300 per acre for their land consider it is far too 
valuable for weed-growing purposes, and consequently 
keep it thoroughly clean, so that every atom of plant food 
the land contains may be utilised by those things which 
are likely to realise the most money. Wnat must strike 
the most casual observer is the fact that every accessible 
yard of land that is not, or cannot, be cropped with any¬ 
thing else, is almost sure to be planted with Potatoes. 
Given a strip of land 1 yard wide and 10 or more yards 
long, on a steep hillside where it is impossible to get a 
cart or wheelbarrow, thei e you will find Potatoes planted. 
So in the High View Nurseries we find Potatoes growing 
between the rows of young fruit trees in the nursery 
quarters. Nor are the fruit trees impoverished by this 
process; clean, strong, healthy wood is to be seen in all 
the quarters, be they Peaches, Apricots, Plums, Pears, or 
Roses. The ground is highly manured before being 
planted with the trees, and a liberal dressing is given 
between the rows afterwards as occasion requires. The 
Potatoes quickly grow into money, give immediate returns 
for outlay, and keep the land free from weeds with little 
trouble. Were it not for the Potatoes weeds would be 
constantly extracting moisture and nourishment from the 
soil, and the same labour spent in planting, hoeing, and 
lifting the Potatoes would be required in keeping the 
land free from weeds, for which there would be no returns, 
but a direct, or indirect, loss. Fruit trees are the 
speciality at High View Nurseries, and M. Le Cornu is 
justly famed for the excellent quality of those he 
distributes, chiefly in Jersey, but also in England—some 
at Sandringham. Roses are also grown in great quantity, 
and each variety is planted in separate beds, so that when 
in flower the difference of the respective varieties in 
size, form, colour, and habit of growth is readily dis¬ 
tinguishable. 
The rare and very striking Taxus japonica is quite 
at home, and it is very strange that such a decidedly 
distinct and beautiful shrub is not to be seen in nearly 
every garden in this country ; perhaps it is not sufficiently 
hardy, if not, it is a great pity. Thuja Lobbi, Thuja 
dolabrata, strikingly handsome, and Picea Pinsapo are 
magnificent specimens; and Prunus Pisardi will, ere long, 
No. 372. — Yol. XV., Third Series. 
when better known, be more frequently seen in shrub¬ 
beries and landscapes. M. Le Cornu, jun., takes an 
especial interest in Gooseberries, and in his collection 
we noted the following six kinds, all large, and very 
free bearing : — Beauty, Duke of Sutherland, Major 
Ilibbert, Clayton, Drill, and Shiner. In discussing with 
this gentleman the question of stocks for Hoses, he is of 
opinion that the best stock for Mareckal Niel is the 
La Grifferaie, and for other kinds he prefers the Manetti. 
He, in order to effectually overcome the suckers that 
are so apt to arise from that stock—to the no small 
bewilderment and ultimate disgust of the inexperienced— 
makes two incisions at right angles to each other, from 
beneath to right and left of the bud, and with one 
scoop with the point of the knife clears out the principal 
bud and the incipient buds on either side of it. This 
method, Mr. Philip Le Cornu assures me, is quite suc¬ 
cessful in disposing of a'l possible future suckers from 
the stein of the Manetti. To this young gentleman I 
am indebted for a close inspection of the nursery, and 
for an hour of very pleasant and profitable conversation, 
combined with great civility and courtesy. 
Morley House, St. Heliers, is the residence of Mr. 
Bashford, a gentleman who, perhaps, grows more Grapes 
and Tomatoes under glass for Covent Garden Market 
than any other individual. An artist by profession, 
some seventeen years ago he commenced growing Grapes 
as a pastime, and from a mere pastime has arisen a gigan¬ 
tic wholesale fruit trade. The faculties required and 
developed in. a true artist have most appropriately and 
successfully been brought to bear upon the production in 
immense quantities—and without a single failure, ap¬ 
parently—of highly finished Grapes and Tomatoes. The 
total area of ground occupied by the houses, borders, and 
walks is about fifteen acres, and t le area of ground actually 
covered by the immense glass structures is supposed to be 
eight acres. Your readers will not be able to form a very 
correct idea of the vast number of Vines and Tomatoes 
planted underneath these eight acres of glass, nor is it 
possible for me to give them a correct idea of the same by 
any word-painting; and far less is it in my power to do 
justice to the absolute health, cleanliness, vigour, and fer¬ 
tility of Vines and Tomatoes alike. I believe that during 
the past twenty-three years I have seen the best examples 
—1 oth in quantity and quality—that are produced in this 
country, and truth and justice compel me to say that I 
have seen no Vines or Tomatoes that have surpassed in 
health, vigour, and productiveness the Vines and Tomatoes 
at Morley House. “ Ah! ” someone will perhaps say, 
“ very likely Mr. Bashford has a park or some meadows of 
old pasture that he can cut up as he likes; and he will 
have stacks of turf, with all the best of the manures 
intermixed, and so there’s no wonder at his having good 
Grapes and Tomatoes.” Mr. Bashford has nothing of the 
kind—not one stack of soil; furthermore, he told me he 
used nothing but the alluvial soil in the neighbourhood, 
combined with such artificial manure as he found most 
suitable for Vines and Tomatoes, and which had cost him 
a considerable amount of time and money in analysis and 
experiments. It is also very apparent to the most super¬ 
ficial observer that there has not been any specially made 
borders in the majority of cases, if not in all cases. This 
alluvial soil is a red and stiff loam, neither too friable nor 
too tenacious, but exactly of the mechanical nature the 
Vine and the Tomato delight in ; and the appearance of 
both of them testify' unmistakeably that the chemical nature 
of it is right, either naturally or artificially. 
No. 2028.— Voi.. LXXVIL, Oim Serie?. 
