48 
JOURNAL OF HORTICULTURE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. 
I July 16 , 1891. 
year’s crop in the other. “Now tell me which sample is the best, 
old or new ? ” was the invitation. No one at the table could decide 
the point, and “ both good alike, first rate,” was the general 
verdict. “ One of the earliest Potatoes, one of the latest, and one 
of the best,” was the response of the raiser. “ The Reading people 
are sending it out, and who the ‘ Reading people ’ are all the world 
knows.” The Cabbage was also a home-raised variety, no other 
having stood the winter, medium in size, early and delicious ; the 
bacon was from an animal quite different in colour from its master, 
who is only a white settler, the pig a black native. Thus ends the 
dinner. 
We have next to see the orchards, memorial trees, and farm. 
Mr. Fenn bought the property, I think fifteen or sixteen acres, 
about as many years ago. It is beautifully situated, with grand 
views all around and gentlemen’s seats in the distance. His new 
orchard is just coming into useful bearing, the older having been 
renovated, and the whole well fed with sewage conducted by 
gravitation from the farmstead on higher ground. The liquid 
is conducted in trenches dug in the gras3 to where the support 
is required, and there is no mistaking the tracks of the fertiliser. 
It is here that Mr. Fenn found what he calls his Pay-the-Rent 
Apple, because he calculates that the produce of the tree has paid 
what would be a fair rent for the orchard for several years. It is 
a splendid tree laden with fruit, and young trees of the variety 
are growing and bearing better than any others in his new culti¬ 
vated orchard. He tells how he sent samples to the R.H.S. Fruit 
Committee, but the savants discovered some spots in them, and 
that was enough. However, he says, if there had been no spots 
the fruit would no doubt have been “ passed ” as lacking in size 
and colour; but all the same it is first favourite at Sulhamstead, 
because it is good for cooking, eating, and paying the rent. Golden 
Spire, Lane’s Prince Albert, Wellington, and Bramley’s Seedling 
find favour in the collection. 
Along the hank of the ditch that divides two fields a row of 
trees of the Wellington (Dumelow’s Seedling) ought to be in their 
prime, but they are cankering seriously—at least, all those which 
are exposed, and were pitted with a driving storm of hail are, the 
trees at the other end of the row and sheltered being healthy, an 
object lesson for Mr. Hiam,who still appears to believe that insects 
are the originators of canker in trees. Mr. Fenn is inserting grafts 
in the injured trees, the best thing he can do ; but he should add 
more of hardy strong-growing sorts, like his favourite. The 
Wellington is a short-lived tree, especially in exposed positions. 
Mr. Gladstone, Cox’s Orange Pippin, and Wheeler’s Russet are 
his approved dessert sorts. The little Early Doyenne d’Ete Pear 
is much liked ; but the birds ate the buds, so he shifted the tree 
near the kitchen door, where they feed the cats, and it now bears 
fruit for the family, not of cats, but Fenn’s. 
Most of the farm is under grass, the crops of hay and herbage 
being splendid, and the cows look as happy as their owners. The 
fertility of the land is sustained and increased mainly with 
dressings of burnt refuse and clay. A good body of fire is made, 
then clay dug, carted, scorched, crushed, sifted, and used. This 
has more than doubled the produce, as could be seen by part of 
the field to which the dressing had not been applied. Pots, pans, 
and all sorts of hard refuse are buried in the trench from which 
the clay is dug, and the head digger supposes that when they are 
found in some far remote future learned archaeologists will rejoice 
over the discovery of an ancient Roman station. Victorian coins 
are kept out of the trench. 
Mr. and Mrs. Fenn show what can be done with a small farm, 
including a good garden and orchard. If all the land in the king¬ 
dom were as well managed as this picturesque and productive home¬ 
stead the wealth of the nation would at a low estimate be trebled. 
The memorial trees referred to are the gifts of friends and called by 
their names, and are thus an interesting feature of the cottage 
farm. Mr. Fenn is also a sort of village factotum—guardian, road 
surveyor, churchwarden, tax gatherer, and I know not what besides, 
nor does it matter ; it is sufficient to see him happy in bis 
embowered home, trusted and respected by the community. The 
visit was too short but very enjoyable, and on arriving at Read¬ 
ing Cabbages and flowers, eggs and bacon were espied snugly 
packed among rugs and baggage* in the box of the trap. Oh, vou 
Fennians !— An Old Pupil. 
FLOWERS FOR CUTTING. 
Dahlias. 
These are quite a host in themselves, the several sections 
into which they are divided providing a great range of variation in 
form and colouring. The best for cut work are doubtless to be 
found with in the Cactus section. Juarezi is probably still the 
best, taking colour and form into consideration. It is occasionally 
condemned on account of its tendency to flower late when propa¬ 
gated from cuttings. This tendency is so very much overcome by 
the simple method of planting the old tubers each with one or two 
started growths that it is surprising this method is not more gene¬ 
rally employed than it appears to be. 
Reverting to sorts which should he grown Mr. Tait for a long 
time held the first place as a good white ; but Henry Patrick is so 
great an improvement that the above and other white kinds can be 
very well dispensed with. Henry Patrick is of neat spreading 
habit, not so free flowering as to necessitate the thinning of the 
buds (white, very pure). William Pearce is a deep yellow shade, 
the shape of flower very good. These are a capital trio. Of other 
shades, Asia, Panthea, General Gordon, and Miss Jekyll are very 
good. Mrs. Hawkins may also be grown, but the place of this sort 
has now been filled with better. The Show and Fancy varieties are 
useful where large vases require constant refilling. Miss Browning 
is one of the best, Mrs. Gladstone a beautiful flower. Spitfire, 
Julia Wyatt, and Charles Leicester are a few of the best kinds for 
cutting purposes. Pompons are in much request, but these I do 
not favour so much. White Aster is an old and good sort. Of 
single varieties a few sorts only are growD, the great bulk being 
cultivated from seed. Chilwell Beauty is so distinct and attractive, 
and withal so well adapted for vase furnishing, that of this at 
least a supply should be annually growD. Paragon is also good. 
The value of Dahlias as decorative flowers has been greatly 
enhanced during the past dozen years. The Cactus forms are 
the most valuable, and are alike useful for furnishing medium 
vases, specimen glasses, dinner-table decorations, church and altar 
decorations, and the white varieties for wreaths. Single forms 
are most useful for furnishing medium-sized vases or mixing with 
other flowers. The Show sorts, as already pointed out, are capital 
for large vases. Long stalks should invariably be cut with these, 
along with a fair proportion of foliage and buds in various stages 
of development. They associate very well with good Gladiolus, 
Hyacinthus candicans, the taller Michaelmas Daisies, and hardy 
Chrysanthemums. Iris Pseud-acorus and the common Rush are 
valuable as good foliage adjuncts.—B. . 
THE ECONOMIC PLANTS OF AUSTRALIA. 
(Continued from page 370, last Vol.') 
We now turn to the timbers, by far the most important of Australian 
economic plants in number, variety, and actual value. 
Our timbers are principally hardwoods, which chiefly, though by no 
means exclusively, belong to the Natural Order Myrtacese. Most of 
these belong to the genus Eucalyptus, and are generally known as 
“ Gum Trees,” with sub-divisions based on the texture or colour of the 
bark, wood, and so on, such as Ironbarks, Stringybarks, Box, White 
Gum, Red Gum, &c. The Ironbarks, of which there are some half 
dozen, yield timber proverbial for durability and strength, and do not 
present important differences ; the StriDgybarks, which are equally 
numerous, have very fissile timbers, chiefly utilised for palings. Having 
noticed these two groups we will speak of a few other timbers a trifle 
more in detail. The West Australian Jarrah (Eucalyptus marginata) is 
a timber of great strength and power of resistance to insect pests and 
marine borers. It is one of the best known of all timbers of this class, 
and a most valuable ad-round wood. From the same colony we have 
two other valuable timbers—viz., the Karri (E.diversicolor) andtheTuart 
(E. gomphocephala), both obtainable of very large size, durable, strong, 
and suitable for engineering and architectural works where great 
strength is required. E. botryoides, E. robusta, and E. resinifera 
are called Mahoganies of one sort or another, owing to their fancied 
resemblance to the West Indian wood. They are dark coloured, strong, 
very durable timbers. The Spotted Gum (E. maculata) is a pale 
coloured timber, not so durable for outside work, but useful for wheel¬ 
wrights’ work and many other purposes. E. microcorys is a strong, 
durable, useful wood, known as Tallow-wood, on account of its greasy 
nature; E. tereticornis and E. rostrata, Red Gum, are closely allied 
timbers of inlocked grain, most durable, very strong, and also excellent 
fuel woods. E. saligna, the Sydney Blue Gum, is a very free working 
timber, much valued on this account, and also because of its durability. 
The Mountain Ash, or rather one of them (E. Sieberiana), yields a 
fissile and particularly tough wood, which is used for wheelwrights’ 
work, and generally as a substitute for American Ash. Another 
Mountain Ash, the Gippsland and Southern New South Wales one 
(E. amygdalina), is very fissile and also an excellent stave wood.' These 
notes on our Eucalyptus timbers, brief as they are, must include the 
names of the excellent timbers—Box (E. hemiphloia), Bhre Gum 
(E. globulus), and Bloodwood (E. corymbosa), resistant to white ant, 
while there are a large number of other Eucalypts of great merit. 
Besides the Eucalypts, a number of Myrtaceous trees yield hard 
wood timbers of more or less excellence. Perhaps the first place may 
be given to the Turpentine Tree (Syncarpia laurifolia), a fine timber 
tree, yielding a very durable timber for posts, rails, sleepers, &c., and 
one of the best for withstanding marine borers. 
