October 15,1891. ] 
JOURNAL OF HORTICULTURE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. 
323 
its tall stems wreathed in bloom. Stately in growth, hardy as any¬ 
thing in the garden, and beautiful in habit, yet its late flowering 
nature makes it a source of anxiety at this season. It should 
undoubtedly have a warm position well sheltered from a north 
wind. Planted in good soil and thus favoured few of our late 
flowers will claim more admiration or be more worthy of a little 
care. Then Asters are now making what is popularly called a 
“ grand show,” but methinks those of us who admire the best of 
these flowers will agree in repudiating the fitness of such an 
expression when applied to flowers which are among the most 
harmonious in colour of our tall autumn flowers. Bright as are 
many of them with shades of purple, of white, of pink, and of 
lilac, they can never make “ a grand show.” Theirs is no glaring 
contrast to the dying leaf, the shortening day, the gloomy weather, 
but a harmony of colour in which no Sunflower can share, and 
which seems to appeal to us in our melancholy moods as we think 
of the changing, shortening days, and to whisper the message of 
good cheer just as the smile or the glance of the eye of those 
around us tell without words of their affection. Nor do these 
flowers pall upon us. From the time when such species as A. linari- 
folius smother themselves with flower till the beautiful A. grandi- 
florus opens a few flowers, only to be destroyed by the sharp frost, 
there is a constant succession, and if well selected a small collection 
will cease not for months to interest and delight. Gladioli are 
still well in flower, and I for one have reason to be satisfied with 
their contribution to the decoration of tho garden thi 3 year. 
From about the 4th of August I have never been without them, 
and few flowers are more beautiful in the garden, although looking 
out as I write I see still much in flower, still many things to make 
us forget that we are now at the 8th of October, and that while 
the flowers thus bloom we should not forget the flight of time, too 
surely revealed by the tokens of which William Allingham speaks 
in his “ Autumnal Sonnet.” 
“ Now Autumn’s fire burns slowly along the woods, 
And day by day the dead leaves fall and melt, 
And night by night the monitory blast 
Wails in the key-hole, telling how it pass’d 
O’er empty fields, or upland solitudes, 
Or grim wide wave. * * * * 
—S. Arnott. 
FRUIT CULTURE IN A TOWN GARDEN. 
Last autumn I referred to Mr. F. W. Mole’s garden at 
Edgbaston, Birmingham, as an example of what can be done in the 
successful cultivation of Pears, especially in the immediate neigh¬ 
bourhood of manufacturing towns. This garden is not a 
large one, and is walled in on the north, east, and south sides, 
and the dwelling house is at the west end of the garden, and in a 
shady and somewhat sheltered corner, but facing the east. A tree 
of Doyenne du Comice is bearing a good crop of fine, well coloured 
fruit. Mr. Mole has for many years made a study of the cultiva¬ 
tion of outdoor fruits, and adopts the cordon system of training 
chiefly, with five leads to a tree in most cases. Very frequent 
syringings are resorted to and summer pruning is the rule, removing 
young growth as early as June, and continuing to do so. He 
also thins out the bunches of blossoms, cutting out a large 
proportion, leaving sufficient to ensure a fair crop of good sized 
fruits, the fruit also undergoing a thinning process whilst setting. 
The trees now are in thorough health, frequent syringings having 
kept them clean from insects, and with fruit of good size (for the 
season) and quality, and produced from the ground upwards. 
Moisture is supplied freely at the roots, and if there should be a ten¬ 
dency on the part of a tree to make too much growth judicious root- 
pruning is resorted to. Several varieties of Pears which have in 
the south borne high characters have been tried here and some 
of them discarded after a few years’ trial as being unsuited to 
the district. Sorts which do well here, and are again this year 
well cropped, are Souvenir du Congres; Fondante d’Automne, a 
rather shy cropper; Doyenne du Comice, always fine ; Pitmaston 
Duchess, very fine, one moderate sized horizontally trained 
tree with fifty fruits upon it; Bon Chretien Panache, the 
striped Bon Chretien, Durondeau, Williams’ Bon Chretien, Jar¬ 
gonelle, Marie Louise, and Beurrd Diel, ono tree of which, 8 feet 
high and 12 feet in length, has 100 fino fruits upon it, having been 
well thinned to secure large specimens. All the Pear trees are 
against walls, as the pyramidal trees are little good here. 
A few Apples are successfully grown, notably as pyramids, 
Cellini and Ecklinville. Against a wall there is a fine crop of 
the Melon Apple, Margil, and Worcester Pearmain, and a few 
fruits on the American Mother Apple, which is a shy cropper. 
The Apple trees are also closely summer pruned, are full 
of fruiting spurs and in excellent health. Mr. Mole’s experience of 
fruit growing is conclusive that in the suburban gardens of large 
manufacturing towns Pears and Apples can be successfully 
grown, provided always that proper sorts are selected and due 
attention is paid to their culture.—W. D. 
TULIPS. 
The Tulip is one of the most useful bulbous plants that we 
possess, for it can be had in bloom over a period of six m mths. 
For early flowering the scarlet Due Van Thol must be placed in 
the foremost position ; the white, yellow, and red-and-yellow forms 
of Due Van Thol are not worth growing. After the season has 
slightly advanced Vermillion Brilliant should supplant the scarlet 
Due Van Thol. It has a larger flower with considerably more 
substance ; in fact, it is one of the most handsome single Tulips 
that can be grown. White Pottebakker is the best white Tulip 
for early forcing ; in fact, it is questionable if it is surpassed by 
any other white, as it is only a few days later than the scarlet 
Due Van Thol. The flowers are sweet-scented, and are admirably 
adapted for wreaths, crosses, and bouquets. For such purposes its 
pointed flowers, when young, resemble in a very marked degree 
the buds of that popular Rore, Niphetos. Canary Bird and 
Chrysolora are the two earliest yellows, and I have never been able 
to give a definite preference to the one or the other. Some 
seasons I have had to decide in favour of the former, and at others 
in favour of the latter. 
For early forcing these are best placed thickly together in pans 
and boxes. One of the secrets of success lies in having the bulbs 
in boxes as early as possible, and plunged under ashes in the usual 
way. They should be thoroughly rooted before they are removed 
from the plunging material ; they can then be gradually exposed 
to light, and by the time the growth is green they can have a tem¬ 
perature of 50° where the atmosphere is moist. They will soon 
show signs of movement, and when this is visible they may be 
plunged in brisk bottom heat in the propagating fi’ame, for they 
will bear without injury more forcing than Dutch Hyacinths. As 
soon as the colour of the flower is visible they can be lifted out 
and placed into pots or small pans, according to requirements. 
Early in the season Tulips flower very irregularly, and it is next 
to impossible to have even pots or small pans really satisfactory by 
placing the bulbs in the pots in which they are to flower. If the 
plants are gradually hardened before removal to rooms or the con¬ 
servatory they will last, if the soil is kept moist, equally as long 
as if the plants had been established in their pots instead of being 
divested of large quantities of roots, as must be the case when 
planted thickly in boxes and subjected to lifting. 
For late flowering La Candeur and Rex Rubrorum are invaluable. 
Both are double. The first is white and the last bright red, a large 
showy flower. These, if placed in pots or boxes early in November, 
and covered with ashes in a north aspect, or potted, will yield 
flowers at the end of May, when they will be found exceedingly 
useful for cutting by those who have large quantities of flowers to 
supply at that season of the year. They travel well, and last a 
long time after they are cut.—W m. Baroney. 
SOME POTATOES. 
In a season when in many gardens disease has played havoc 
with the Potato crop, I am glad to say we have fared very well. 
Thanks for that is, I believe, almost solely duo to the varieties 
cultivated. Flavour and good cooking qualities are with us so 
much a desideratum that I have been very slow to supplant well- 
flavoured varieties possessed of constitutions unable to resist 
disease by others less liable to disease, but lacking the very 
important qualification of good flavour. As I have worked 
cautiously into a stock of tho Potatoes undernoted, having learned 
by years of experience the exceeding uncertainty of new 
varieties, I think the results I have obtained may pretty safely be 
relied upon as being generally applicable. 
For a good early—very early—Puritan has steadily made way 
with me. When well sprung before planting, it may be planted as 
late as the end of March or the beginning of April—I refer to a 
northern county—and be ready to lift a good crop of floury-boiling 
tubers in ten weeks thereafter. It is altogether ahead of Early 
Rose, Beauty of Hebron, and the others of this class. Duke of 
Albany I have tried against Puritan, but the former is decidedly 
inferior in flavour. A Potato of even better flavour, coming in 
along with Myatt’s Kidney, is Sutton’s Early Regent. This 
variety is so early as to be quite out of the way before disease sets 
in. The flavour is of the Nutty “Regent” stamp, and it is 
altogether recommcndable. I still grow a large quantity of Snow¬ 
drop, but two more of the Reading breed—Matcblessand Nonesuch 
—bid fair to occupy the place of the above. Then for an early 
