426 
JOURNAL OF HORTICULTURE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. 
[ November 8, 1888 
Show will be held by the R.H.S. in the Inner Temple Gardens on the 
30th and 31st May 1889. 
It was resolved to contribute £10 to the funds of both the Auricula 
and Carnation Societies if their exhibitions are held under the auspices 
of the R.H.S. in the year 1889. 
NOTES FROM A HERTS GARDEN. 
The fruit season is over— i.e., all has been gathered and stored of 
what we had of Apples and Pears worth mentioning, for of all my 
gardening experience (and it verges on half a century), the year has 
been the most disastrous to hardy fruit. Never, perhaps, was the pro¬ 
mise of an abundant crop so completely frustrated as it has been in 
1888. There was a glorious show of Plum, Pear, and Apple blossom. 
The cast wind brought caterpillars innumerable. They ate the tender 
leaves and petals, even the embryonic fruit, the devastation being most 
complete as regards the Apple, but the Plum and Pear did not altogether 
escape the ravager; yet the former had the curved leaves indicative of 
aphides, and Pear foliage gave early symptoms of blister. Apricots were 
simply stripped of leaves by grubs. Peaches and Nectarines had the 
foliage blistered and infested with aphides. Plums against walls had 
neither grubs nor aphides to anything like the extent of those in the 
open. Cherries had a few aphides, and which came as usual on the 
points of the shoots. Figs escaped alike leaf-eating caterpillars and red 
spider. 
Bush fruits were attacked by bullfinches, and sparrows began to 
play havoc with the buds of the Gooseberry, Red and White Currants, 
though we had the bushes dusted with quicklime whilst wet, but it 
did no good or only temporarily, yet it cleared the bushes of moss with 
which they were infested, and we shot the bullfinches and strung the 
bushes with black cotton, “ best six cord, No. 20.” an effectual barrier 
against the sparrows. We had no caterpillars ; the Cuckoos kept the 
bushes free. In result we had a very full crop of Gooseberries and 
Currants, but of the latter fully half decayed through the continuous 
wet weather, and to keep any by matting or hexagon netting was 
practically excluded. Otherwise we have Currants for use with the 
October Raspberries. Black Currants swelled to an enormous size. 
Raspberries were neither good in crop nor quality. Heavy clay soil 
does not suit Raspberries, at least that is a convenient way of making 
an excuse when anything goes wrong— i.e., it is the soil or the season, 
always something other than the treatment, and the fact in this case is 
the Raspberries had been strangled by Bindweed, and they are now re¬ 
covering, have made very much stouter canes, and it is only sturdy canes 
with plump buds well ripened that afford fine fruit in quantity. I 
find mulching Raspberries with fresh manure about the time of flowering 
the best plan. Our summer Raspberries not being very good I took 
advantage of some rows of October Red, that were just as good as 
the summer were bad, to leave a 30-yards row for fruiting in summer, 
merely thinning the canes out, the other being cut down in the usual 
manner for late summer or autumn fruiting. The canes fruited well 
during the summer, and stood the wet better than the summer varieties, 
and the young canes are just as strong now (October 26th), and showing 
fruit equally free from the points of the canes as that of ‘ those that 
were cut down to the ground. In fact, there is not a particle of differ¬ 
ence ; both may fruit up to Christmas if the weather permits. As the 
October Raspberries fruit from the extremity of the cane, it is only 
necessary to cut away the fruited part, leaving the other for summer 
fruiting, and by cutting back or to the ground a portion of the canes 
we have strong canes for autumn. 
Strawberries have been good in crop, not a plague of any sort having 
infested them. The fruit was late and dreadfully spoiled by the rain. 
We have tried nearly everything for keeping the fruit off the ground, 
and find nothing better than stable litter put between the rows and 
plants at flowering, or soon after. There is nearly sure to be a good rain 
to wash the virtue of the litter down to the roots and cleanse it suffi¬ 
ciently for the fruit to lie on. It answers its purpose as far as the fruit 
is concerned, and it is nearly all gone by autumn, and where it has gone 
the plants show by the plumpness of their crowns. It certainly has 
not been evaporated, or only by the Strawberry leaves, which have 
taken good care to store the assimilated matter or essence of the manure 
in the plants for the opening of another season’s campaign of fruitful¬ 
ness. We have several sorts—Black Prince, King of the Earlies, La 
Grosse Sucree, Yicomtesse Hericart de Thurv, Keen’s Seedling, Sir 
Harry, Noble, Eureka, Mr. Radclyffe, James Yeitch, President, Sir 
Charles Napier, and Dr. Hogg. Black Prince, King of the Earlies, and 
La Grosse Sucree must be cut out, also Keen’s Seedling, Sir Harry, 
Noble, Eureka, Mr. Radclyffe, James Yeitch, and Sir Charles 
Napier, which will leave Vicomtesse Hericart de Thury, President, and 
Dr. Hogg, which last I would also exclude, only I cannot do so cn 
account of its British Queen flavour, and have instead Sir Joseph Paxton 
Those—viz., Yicomtesse Hericart de Thury, President, and Sir Joseph 
Paxton are the best three croppers with quality as well, and Sir 
Joseph Paxton is very much the best in every way of the three, both 
outdoors and forced. If confined to one Strawberry I should select Sir 
Joseph Paxton, and the reason it was not mentioned in the first place is 
because it deserves particular note for its freedom of growth, cropping, 
and usefulness. By having it on a south border in the open, and on a 
north border it can be had as long as most persons care to have Straw¬ 
berries, and I put it forward as a crucial test whereby to get rid of so 
many varieties, which not only perplex the cultivator, but are from a 
profitable point of view cumberers of the ground. For forcing La 
Grosse Sucree, Vicomtesse Hericart de Thury, President, Noble, Sir 
Joseph Paxton, Sir Charles Napier, and Dr. Hogg ; of all those Sir 
Joseph Paxton, except for early work, is a long way the best. 
Peaches and Nectarines outdoors are unprofitable so far as I can see. 
The trees on a south wall are not healthy ; indeed, they are gummed ; 
were blistered, aphis laden. On a west wall the trees are very much 
healthier, but the fruit has not near the size nor anything of the quality 
of that grown in a wall case with the same aspect. There was not a 
Peach worth the name this year outside. 
Apricots do fairly well on a south aspect, Royal and Hemskerk 
being best ; Kaisha and St. Ambroise are also good. Moorpark is very 
much gummed, very considerably more so than Peach, which is 
certainly one of the finest, if not the choicest, of Apricots. The blossom 
of Apricots were puny, and it set very badly. Then the “ leaf-roller ” 
came in force and denuded the trees of foliage. Picking and squeezing 
is very well to talk and write about, but it is quite another affair when 
you have to manage to get through two men’s work with one pair of 
hands, and the labour question is really the “ burning ” one in gardens ; 
besides it was no use last spring contending with the caterpillars, which 
not only stripped the fruit trees, but the majestic Oak and lightsome Ash 
were practically denuded of their first foliage. It is truly astounding to 
witness the might of numbers, and not less so the recuperative power of 
trees. Caterpillars do not live for ever—the trees rid of them per force 
of Nature—put forth foliage anew, so that there is some prospect of 
fruit another season, the Michaelmas summer clenching the argument in 
favour of the development of fruit buds and the maturity of the wood. 
As regards the Apricots, they are none the worse ; indeed, they were 
over-luxuriant, and that the grub infection has counteracted, but I have 
no faith in Apricots ever being grown profitably in this country without 
means of entrapping the sun and retaining its heat inside a glass house. 
To grow fruit on the old lines— i.e., without regard to cost of production 
is obsolete.— Utilitarian. 
The demand for novelties still continues as briskly as ever, and the 
nurserymen make corresponding efforts to obtain what the public 
require. It is well known that the continental growers are alive to this, 
but unfortunately, to say the least, they do not exercise the care in 
selection, naming, that purchasers have a right to expect. The conse¬ 
quence is that every season novelties received in this country necessitate 
a thorough trial before they can be recommended. This year we have 
already noted in one establishment several instances of this kind, and 
in both we believe the plants were received from M. D61aux. One of 
these was the variety Lincoln’s Inn, recently certificated, which, as 
received here, is identical with Lalcm6, sent out several years since. The 
other case was that of a so-called new Anemone, M. Castex, which is 
indistinguishable from Nouvelle Alvdole. We are not wholly free from 
such accidents in this country, for Marquis of Downshire, shown and 
certificated last year, seems to be simply the earlier dark stage of 
W. Robinson. 
With regard to the Japanese varieties sent here from Japan and the 
United States, there appears to be a most lamentable confusion, and 
little doubt exists that some of these have received two, or even three, 
names. It is evident that the American introductions must be closely 
watched if our own nurserymen are introducing direct from Japan also, 
but the transatlantic importers have a great advantage. A gentleman 
who has had ample opportunity of ascertaining the accuracy of the 
statement, informs us that a large number of the American Japanese 
novelties are obtained from a lady in San Francisco. It is said that the 
