512 
JOURNAL OF HORTICULTURE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. 
[ December 17, 1891. 
thoroughly dry and hot with the sun. It will remain on all 
summer. The floors of the house must be kept damp in hot 
dry weather, in damp cloudy weather a little heat in the pipes 
will prevent the plants suffering from damp. They are 
always seen at their best in the early morning or just before sun¬ 
set. If the tubers are wanted to ba kept over another year they 
should be cared for after the flowers are over, and not hastily dried, 
I have heard of people drying them and starting them again the 
same autumn, but I have never found the practice satisfactory ; 
nor do I save seed, as this exhausts the tubers. I therefore prefer 
to purchase seed, and that is much better left to experts. Enough 
to furnish a fair size establishment can be had for 2s. fid.— 
C. Edwards. 
CORDON GOOSEBERRY TREES—BRAMBLES. 
These trees I find are coming more to the front every year. 
1 was pleased to see the notice and sketch given in the Journal for 
the 12th November. Some people may think the drawing exag¬ 
gerated, but with careful planting and training anyone will soon be 
satisfied with the fine crop these produce every year ; and with a 
careful selection of kinds, both of early, middle, and late, they 
could be had from Whitsuntide to September. We have a double 
trellis here about 100 yards long. This was placed over some young 
trees four years old. This trellis is about 4 feet high, opening out 
on the top 20 inches, like the letter Y. The trees were planted 
2 feet apart, and three branches each side were trained to it, which 
leave them about 8 inches apart. This I find is wide enough, 
except for a few strong growers, such as Early Sulphur, which 
require a space of 12 inches between the branches. The supports 
are made of iron, they are 10 feet apart, and four wires are stretched 
on each side from end to end. The supports are fixed to blocks of 
oak. 
We carefully watch for the first attack of the caterpillar. These 
should always be taken or picked off the leaf as soon as they are 
hatched, and never allowed to destroy the foliage before anything 
is done to prevent them. I find a good dusting of soot or lime 
under the trees is a great preventive, two or three times during the 
year, and lightly pointed in. The red spider, another enemy, 
should be kept in check by syringing with lime water or soot water 
two or three times in the early spring, just before the buds swell. 
It is desirable also to keep the ground well mulched with good 
manure, and give two or three soakings of liquid manure during 
the growing season if a dry one. 
Birds are sometimes troublesome in taking the buds, and 
also the fruit when ripe. Trees can easily be protected with the 
garden netting, which can now be bought very cheaply. I find I 
have one more enemy than I bargained for, that is the wasp. I 
find the only way to save the berries is to gather them before they 
crack, as I never find the wasps begin to take them till then. I 
often think a slight covering, such as feather-edge boards, as soon 
as they are ripe, would prevent cracking and prolong the time for 
gathering. I have gathered good fruit up to the second week in 
September. Some I have kept for a month after gathering by 
laying them out singly on a tray. 
I am pleased to see the Whinham’s Industry so highly spoken of. 
I find this a good early and free bearing handsome fruit, with a 
good bloom when ripe, but is not the earliest with me. We have a 
large smooth one that always comes in before any other. I never 
knew the name, although I have seen it for over forty years. 
We always begin to thin from the trellis a week or so before 
Whitsunday, and by leaving the best fruit about 1 inch apart on 
the branches we have plenty of fine Gooseberries for table ; and by 
planting about ten or twelve varieties we keep up a succession all 
through the season. When ripe we begin with Early Sulphur ; 
following with Whitesmith, the large white smooth ; and Crown 
Bob, Lion’s Provider, Honeydew, Dewdrop, the old Warrington, 
Whinham’s Industry, old Rough Red, and Red Champagne ; the 
two last are small but good. I have tried several of the Lancashire 
prize sorts, but am inclined to rely on the old favourites for flavour 
and good keeping qualities. I find the birds do not take either the 
buds or fruit if any of the larger kinds are near. 
White and Red Currants bear excellent crops if trained in the 
same way as the Gooseberries. 
We have had an excellent crop of Blackberries, and the 
weather being mild, they ripened well up to the end of October. 
The best here is the old Parsley-leaf Bramble. The one secret 
about them was taken from the Journal—namely, to treat them 
the same as Raspberry canes in cutting out the old wood, and the 
young wood will come stronger every year. We have a few 
Brambles collected from the hedgerows. These have done well, 
but the Parsley-leaved is the finest and best flavoured, but not so 
early as the common English one. These I think if planted on a 
ridge of ground about 10 feet apart in the rows and trained on a 
wire about 3 to 4 feet from the ground in rows about 6 feet apart, 
when once established would produce a good paying crop, and one 
to be depended upon every year.— Georoe Clements, Gardener , 
Ilaseley Manor, Warwick. 
HORTICULTURAL LECTURES. 
The above subject is one of the many good works that is being 
placed by the County Councils before the public, and the thought 
which immediately strikes one is, Do the public in general appre¬ 
ciate their usefulness ? At one place that I have attended in 
Surrey the lectures are arranged to be held on Saturday mornings 
for the convenience of school teachers, as a knowledge of horti¬ 
culture is to form one of the future teachings in our national schools, 
but anyone has the privilege to attend by paying 2d., and I can 
assure all who can do so that the time will be profitably spent. The 
great drawback in this particular instance is that the lectures are 
given at midday, a very busy time with th9 amateur gardener, who 
is often a man of business, and an awkward time for the under 
gardener to be spared. For such, and many others, the evening 
arrangement is a great boon. No doubt there are some young 
gardeners, and some, perhaps, not young, who would not trouble 
to enter the doors were they close at hand. That class of man, 
as the old saying goes, “ will not be worth his salt.” With no 
determination to excel, and no love for his calling, he is not worthy 
the ancient and honourable name of gardener. The anxious and 
persevering man has nothing to fear from such a neighbour, only 
that in a few instances the easy-going one will, by some family 
influence or other cause, get placed in position that he is unable 
to fill with credit to our craft into which he has found his way. 
Then, again, let any observant man look through either the 
cottagers’ or gardeners’ exhibits at our Shows and see for himself 
which of the two have the better exhibits. Without doubt the 
man who is eager to gain all the information possible, and who looks 
for his gardening periodical as regularly as he looks for his meals. 
Another point that I venture to think worth recommending, 
and which I feel sure would be encouraged by the lecturer as well 
as giving the audience faithful ideas of what good culture will 
produce, that is honorary exhibits, and good specimens of either 
hardy fruits or vegetables grown in the locality. Though the 
lecturer may be well provided with good charts and faithful repre¬ 
sentations of various objects, showing the effect of good and bad 
management, yet I believe living specimens would be both 
helpful to the lecturer and stimulating to the audience, and it 
might be the means of inducing some at least to try and do likewise. 
—J. Friend. 
[The lectures referred to at Red Hill are held on Saturday 
mornings, bscause at no other time could schoolmasters and 
teachers attend. Some of them travel long distances for gaining 
knowledge, in order that they may be better able to teach horti¬ 
culture in schools, and we believe in some the teaching has already 
commenced. Mr. J. Wright has been fortunate in securing Mr. 
Edward Luckhurst for delivering these morning lectures, which 
cannot fail to have good and far-reaching results. Mr. Friend’s 
suggestion is an admirable one. He has brought produce to the 
meetings of first-class quality—Onions to one, Endive to another, 
Seakale to a third, and so on ; while Mr. Green, schoolmaster, 
Horley, has exhibited excellent Apples of his own growing. If 
owners and managers of gardens in localities in which meetings are 
held could see their way to send hardy fruit and vegetables, or 
examples of anything else that would be instructive, they would 
usefully share in carrying out the laudable object the County 
Council has in view. The whole of the Surrey meetings are held 
at night with the special exception referred to, ar.d on the termina¬ 
tion of the series at Red Hill a similar series will be held on 
Saturday mornings in another centre, and possibly night meetings 
as well for the general public, therefore in this respect Mr. Friend’s 
desire will be realised.] 
LARGE PEARS. 
It is not often that such examples of Pears as those staged and 
which gained the first prize in the single dish class at the late 
Bath Show are seen, and they accordingly proved a source of 
considerable interest among exhibitors and visitors alike. The 
variety was the now popular one at November shows, Pitmaston 
Duchess. Happening to know the exhibitor of the fruit under 
notice I was curious enough to inquire the extent of the crop, and 
I learn that, although the tree is only a comparatively young one, 
it carried quite four dozen fruits, none of which was less than a 
pound in weight. The dish of eight fruits staged at Bath weighed 
