532 
JOURNAL OF HORTICULTURE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. 
[ December 13, 188S. 
and is fertile, and much covered with orchards, and some years 
ago, more so than at this time, many of them being decayed and 
worn out, were displanted.” Now these orchards of which we 
have last spoken were, no doubt, those which were called into 
existence by the writers of the seventeenth century ; but no regular 
systematic planting and successive cultivation of fruit trees seems 
ever to have been kept up in this country ; whatever was done was 
brought about by urgency, and carried out with impetuosity, but 
no steady, continuous system of operation ; and hence the state in 
which our orchards were at the close of the last century. 
It will be perceived from the above observations that in one 
important respect the circumstances are the same now as then— 
orchard trees allowed to go to decay, and succession not provided, 
the practical result being an invitation to enterprising cultivators 
abroad to supply our markets with Apples. They have done so. 
But a reason for neglecting orchards appears to have existed 
upwards of a generation ago that is not advanced now—namely, the 
great profits attending Hop culture. Hops appear to have ousted 
Apples at one time ; but times change, and it is not unlikely that 
Apples will to a large extent oust Hops in some localities, and be 
grown more extensively in others where Hop culture has not been 
pursued. The subject will be resumed. 
CAMELLIA BUDS FALLING. 
Every season many growers are disappointed through the buds 
of their Camellias falling prematurely, but the cause is often due 
to faulty culture and mismanagement. At this period of the 
year severe weather may be expected any day, and fire heat is often 
employed liberally to insure safety. The temperature is kept even 
higher during severe weather than previously, when the nights 
have been mild, and no fire heat was employed. The sudden change 
to a warm dry atmosphere is alone sufficient to result in the plants 
casting their buds. If frost could merely be excluded, having a 
temperature of, say, 35°, it would be better for the Camellia, but 
perhaps not so well for other plants in the same structure ' there¬ 
fore it is often necessary to maintain a temperature at night 
ranging from 40° to 45°. The plants must then occupy the coolest 
end of the house, and not be stood on an open stage formed with 
wood scantlings so frequently employed in greenhouses. Through 
such stages the warm dry air as it rises extracts the moisture from 
the soil as well as from the leaves of the plants, with the result 
that the buds fall directly or a short time afterwards. If the stage 
is covered with zinc, and one or two inches of moisture-holding 
material placed over it, such as ashes, gravel, cocoa-nut fibre refuse, 
or any similar material, it will be much better for the plants. 
When strong fire heat is employed, syringe the stems and foliage 
of the plants just before dark, and again in the morning if they 
are dry. If this is done, other conditions that will be pointed out 
being properly observed, the buds will not fall. 
Failure not unfrequently occurs through attempting to force 
these plants into bloom by a given date. If the change from the 
one treatment to the other is sudden, the buds or flowers when 
half expanded are almost certain to fall prematurely. They will 
bear forcing, but the change must be gradual. Plenty of moisture 
must be applied both to the plants and the atmosphere, and in no 
stage must strong dry heat be maintained about them. More buds 
probably fall through trying to force the plants into bloom than 
from any other cause. The best and safest method of growing 
Camellias to yield their flowers early is to assist them early in the 
season to make their growth. One season’s early growth, if the 
plants are kept under glass the whole of the year, will result in 
flowers by Christmas with cool autumn treatment. By growing 
them early for several seasons they can be had in bloom two or 
three months sooner. For the majority of people Christmas is 
early enough now that Chrysanthemums can be had in abundance 
through the whole autumn. Directly growth has been made the 
plants must be gradually hardened to cool, airy, and drier treat¬ 
ment until the buds form at the extremity of the shoots. At this 
juncture amateurs often place their plants outside for the re¬ 
mainder of the summer. This can be carried out successfully by 
those who are thoroughly familiar with every detail of the plant’s 
requirements ; but my advice is, Keep the plants under glass, and 
the buds will gradually develope, and two or three risks are avoided. 
When placed outside the time comes for housing the plants, and 
fatal results often follow. They are removed from a genial 
position and moist surroundings outside to ungenial air inside ; 
perhaps stood on an open stage in a dry structure. This sudden 
change is followed by a check to the plants, which ends with the 
flower buds failing. 
Another certain cause of failure is allowing the plants to 
become dry at their roots. In no stage of growth should the soil 
become dry ; it must not only be kept moist on the top, but 
through to the base. It is easy to err in watering by attempting 
to give just sufficient and no more. This often results in their 
getting too dry. It is safer to give a little too much than too little. 
At the same time the soil must not be rendered sour and unsuit¬ 
able for the roots to work in by saturating it with too much water,, 
or the buds are equally certain to fall. 
Overfeeding with strong stimulants in the form of liquid 
manure will end in the plants throwing their buds. Always supply 
liquid manure in a weak state, and soot water is beneficial if given 
clear, not muddy. If less liquid manures were given, and some 
reliable artificial manures applied to the surface of the soil in 
small quantities, at intervals of three weeks or a month, fewer 
failures would follow. Camellias must have fertile soil, or they 
suffer from exhaustion, and the buds will fall the same as when 
overfeeding is practised. 
Unripened wood is a cettain cause of the buds falling. The 
wood ought to be brown to the tip by the time the buds commence 
forming, then other cultural requirements being supplied, the plants 
will be certain to retain them. Wood that is green part of its 
length instead of brown will retain the buds until a certain period r 
or until they attain a certain size, when off they come. Plants 
that make their growth early always set a greater percentage of 
buds, and also produce finer flowers than those that make their 
growth late in the season. Conditions of health and the food 
supply being equal in both cases. 
Strong insecticides after the buds are formed invariably result 
in the plants casting them. One strong application might result 
in the buds falling, while two or three weaker ones might be given 
without the slightest injury. Plants that are allowed to become 
covered with insects are liable to lose their buds, however well 
they may be treated in other respects. If insects exist sponge 
them off, or brush them from the old wood, using a weak solution 
of softsoap and water, fir tree or lemon oil. After flowering they 
may be washed with a solution of petroleum and water, at the rate 
of 1 oz. of the former to each gallon of water ; this will destroy 
scale and eradicate it, if persisted in during the season of growth. 
These are some of the chief causes of Camellia buds falling, but 
any check or a combination of causes will bring about the same 
unsatisfactory results.— Wm. Bakdney. 
PLUM FUNGI. 
Up to last year I had not been seriously troubled with fungi 
attacking Plum trees. I had made acquaintance with the gum 
fungus, which I have treated of in a previous article, also with 
“ Bladder Plums,” due to the fungus named Exoascus Pruni. This 
is fatal to the young fruit, and it is prudent to cut off and burn the 
infested parts, or the spores of the fungus will be scattered far and 
wide. 
Plum trees also suffer from a form of mildew, which is also 
more or less destructive to the fruits of the Pear, Apple, Cherry, 
and Apricot. This is named Oidium fructigenum ; the fruit of the 
Plum is sometimes made quite white with the fungus. The only 
palliative measure, as no cure is known, is lifting and planting in- 
fresh loam. Application of freshly slaked lime mixed with the 
surface soil when the trees are lifted as deep as the roots allow is 
useful. Old mortar rubbish is no use, for it is essential that the 
lime act at once on the inert matter, whereby nitrate of lime is 
formed, presumably by the action of minute organisms—viz., 
bacteria. One-sixth of lime is a proper quantity, or 2 inches thick 
to mix with 10 inches depth of soil. The lime passes into the 
trees, hardens the wood and buds, which assists the fruit to repel 
the fungus. 
Plum leaves are sometimes covered with a white coating of the 
nature of an Oidium, but the fungus is named Podosphcera 
tridactyla. This, though not uncommon, is not particularly 
injurious, and yields to a sulphur and lime solution—viz., equal 
proportions of sulphur and quicklime with double the weight of 
both of water, or 1 lb. of sulphur vivum and 1 lb. of quicklime to 
five pints of water, boiled ten minutes in an earthen vessel, stirring 
all the time, allowing to settle, then pouring off the clear liquid, 
and keeping in well corked bottles. Half a gill may be added to 
three gallons of water, mixed, and applied with a syringe to the 
infested trees. Syringing with a carefully prepared sulphide of 
potassium is equally if not more efficacious. My chief object in 
writing is, however, to draw attention to a greater enemy than the 
