'September 20, 1838. ] 
JOURNAL OF HORTICULTURE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. 
263 
■weed-growers are great stimulants towards depression. The fore¬ 
going is not an overdrawn picture, but has been witnessed in many 
places ; it is, indeed, the rule rather than the exception in some 
districts, both in private and market gardens, and is ruinous. Let 
anyone try an experiment between the foregoing and the following 
plan, and I am certain that he will never revert to the slovenly 
method again. 
Strawberry plants carefully selected from specially prepared 
plants, and planted with their roots fresh, and placed in the ground 
in their natural position in well-prepared land after a winter crop, 
or even after an early summer crop, such as early Peas or Potatoes 
'at the end of July or early in August, make more headway than 
plants inserted in spring or the autumn previous, and are often far 
larger by May and June following, and bear a much greater crop 
of superior fruit than can be had from old, exhausted, weed- 
■choked plantations—indeed thrice the value of fruit can be had by 
ihis plan from a given plot of land, and with a far less exhausted 
■soil and freer from weeds, with a tithe of the labour the other 
■system entails.—W. T. 
. NOTES ON GLOXINIAS. 
These invaluable summer flowering plants appear to revel in a sun- 
fless season, judging from the numerous well grown plants that have 
been seen at recent exhibitions. In this neighbourhood there are several 
•gardens in which Gloxinias are well grown, and the prizes offered at the 
late Frome Show brought together a highly meritorious collection, the 
plants being most vigorous and healthy, and furnished with blooms 
■•remarkable for size and variety. The best lot of these plants I have 
inspected are those in possession of E. R. Trotman, Esq., Frome, and 
■they are highly creditable to his gardener, Mr. Bridgeman. The plants 
are now flowering for the third time, and were obtained from seed 
supplied by Messrs. Cannell. They are grown in a large lofty vinery, 
;and are not subject to much heat at any time. They occupy a position 
round the front on a slate staging, and from the high elevation of the 
roof abundance of light is provided. On inquiry as to the treatment 
they received in the manner of feeding and soil, I was told various 
.artificials have been adopted, but diluted stable drainings appeared the 
most stimulating. Sulphate of ammonia is used by some, and it has 
been experimented with here, but was found to injuriously affect the 
leaves, causing them to assume a rusty appearance. The soil was com¬ 
posed of peat, loam, and sand in equal parts; but it may be well to 
■mention the fact of the loam being of so light a character and of very 
good quality, leaf mould, which is of considerable importance generally, 
is dispensed with. They occupy pots 7 inches in diameter, and forty 
blooms on a plant are sometimes expanded at one time, and on many 
plants thirty flowers could be counted at the time I saw them. The 
strain is a good one, the colours being varied and the blooms remarkably 
large. To maintain a good number of the very best a packet of seed is 
sown each season. When the plants attain a flowering size the best are 
■6elected and inferior ones thrown away, an excellent plan when high 
■quality is desired. Good strains of Gloxinias may be obtained now 
irom most seedsmen, who cannot long afford to keep inferior stocks. 
February and June are very good dates for sowing; the seeds and 
plants from either, when carefully attended to, can be flowered the 
■•same season.—W. S., Frome. 
NOTES FROM A HERTS GARDEN—REFLECTIONS. 
Soil a stiff loam, subsoil clay. Formation peculiar, baffling descrip¬ 
tion ; suffice that in this particular spot chalk exists at 80 feet beneath 
the surface, which can but remotely affect the present vegetation. The 
original soil, as seen in adjoining land under permanent pasture, is 
12 to 15 inches in depth of workable material with a clay subsoil more or 
less stony and impervious to water. Out of such land an area of about 
-4 acres had some time been selected as the site of a kitchen garden. 
Its exposure is south, inclining somewhat sharply in that direction, and 
less so westward. North the ground rises to a height of about 65 feet, 
•clothed in park-like order with majestic Oaks. The highest point of 
•the ridge is 396 feet above sea level, consequently the part used as a 
“kitchen garden has an elevation of about 330 feet at the upper part, and 
'300 at the bottom. About 2.^ acres are enclosed by walls 10 feet above 
ground, but the south and north walls are double the length of the 
others. The sun is at right angles with the north and south walls at 
■about eleven o’clock, therefore passes the assumed meridian at eleven 
■o’clock instead of twelve o’clock. Some forty years ago the garden was 
•drained, and the drains are still thoroughly efficient. Some of the clay 
was burnt to hard partieles, and these form a layer mixed with clayey 
■stuff about 6 inches thick over the undisturbed subsoil. The least 
■burnt or crumbly portion was mixed with the top 18 inches of the soil. 
•Chalk has been applied to portions, probably the Strawberry quarters, 
■and ashes to other paits, to improve the working of the soil. Lime does 
not appear to have been used, but it is present in the soil through 
^occasional dressings of gas lime as obnoxious or destructive of slugs. 
Altogether there is a depth of 2 feet to 2 feet 6 inches of strong loam 
which does not appear to have been stirred deeper than a foot within a 
generation. 
Outside the walls are the customary slips, and there are walks of 
7 feet 6 inches in width, both inside and outside, so as to admit of a horse 
and cart for manuring, &c., and a liquid manure cart also when deemed 
expedient. The inside, is divided into four quarters by cross walks 
equally wide, and along their sides are borders planted with fruit trees 
of various kinds, both on dwarfing and on free stocks, remnants in most 
instances of renovation, though some have collapsed and been replaced. 
The walls, I may further premise, are utilised for fruit-growing, both 
under glass structures heated and unheated, and exposed, of some or 
all of which I shall have, from time to time, some observation to make 
or experience to record ; and the first is that the land generally in the 
locality is, as evidenced by the herbage and the cattle that browse 
thereon, and as described by Mr. W. F. Emptage at the recent Fruit 
Conference at St. Albans, “ some of the finest land in the whole world.” 
It grows by the aid of London “ muck ” in a dry season one and a half 
to two loads of prime hay per acre, and in a wet season two to two and 
a half loads per acre (1887 and 1883 being representative of a dry and 
wet season respectively). I shall now remark that, considering the pre¬ 
sent marketable value of beef, mutton, and hay through proximity 
to the metropolis, their production is the best possible use to which such 
land can be put in the present state of agriculture. To convert land 
sui able for permanent pasture or meadow (supplying the home markets 
directly with the primest hay, beef, and mutton at remunerative prices 
and upholding of the national prestige) into vegetable and fruit gardens 
is a misapplication of natural resources. Is it not absurd to seek to ap¬ 
portion all the best of pasture and meadow land into allotments and 
fruit farms? Surely there are gardens enough to meet every demand, 
so far as our climate admits, by the home grower of fruit and vegetables 
if cultivated up to their capability of production. What of the orchards 
that present a spectacle of stunted, weather beaten, cankered moss and 
lichen-covered specimens, lovely in blossom and picturesque, with crab¬ 
like fruit in autumn, a picture none but an artist would call sublime ? 
An orchard of suitable trees, certain of cropping and of bringing 
remunerative prices in the market, would be the means of helping the 
farmer in a season like the present, only it seems nobody this year has a 
paying crop of any description of fruit; either the trees are fruitless or 
spoiled by the wet. That is just v here the “ rub ” comes in. The crops 
of fruit in this country are not certain on account of spring frosts, 
blight, or drought; or if they hold on despite of wind and weather 
something is sure to happen to prevent the cultivator realising anything 
like the profits paraded before the world. But when failure comes we 
are told “ We have been practising on wrong lines—planting standards 
on grass when we ought to have planted half-standards and cultivated 
the ground between.” But when this plan fails we were wrong again, 
and “ought to have gone in for bushes, pyramids, espaliers’or cordons,” 
and instead of growing many have been content with few sorts suited 
to the locality, certain croppers, and excelling imported produce. Just 
the things are those everybody wants to get hold of—something that 
can be grown profitably. Fruit Conferences tell of want of fruit and 
vegetable supplies ; the thing that puzzles all is finding the goose that 
has ceased laying the golden eggs. At the St. Albans Fruit Conference 
I notice by the newspapers that Mr. Emptage characterises trenching as 
damning fruit culture in that district, and at the Crystal Palace Con¬ 
ference Mr. Bunyard looks upon deep cultivation as the salvation of the 
fruit industry. Which is right 1 Could not the Royal Horticultural 
Society solve the problem 1 Why not devote an acre, or 5 acres for that 
matter, to the cultivation of fruit for profit, an account being kept of 
the first and after cost, and have it free of access to all ? It would 
only serve its purpose for a particular locality. Then why not have 
fruit gardens in different parts of the country in connection with the 
parent Society as a guarantee of management and result ? Experimental 
gardens could not fail to give a great incentive to fruit culture. 
The influence of an exhibition of an acre of fruit trees on the old 
lines— ie. t orchard—another on the cultivated system as standards or 
half-standards, with under and between crops, and an acre of bush, 
pyramid, espalier, or cordon trees, would practically demonstrate the 
systems, and do more to guide others than all the conferences that ever 
took or will take place. What is wanted is not talk but practice. De¬ 
finite information in respect of the capabilities of the soil, the most 
desirable crops to grow, and the most approved method of cultivation, 
something tangible whereby to arrive at a solution of the problem, 
which puzzles everybody just now (and ever did by what I can gleam 
of man since Adam), what to put in the market that will return a fair 
per-centage on the capital invested, industry employed, and enterprise 
