244 
JOURNAL OF HORTICULTURE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. 
[ September 17, 1885. 
Mr. Gilmour is a most enthusiastic and thoroughly practical 
cultivator, who commenced Rose culture under many drawbacks 
and difficulties. The natural soil of his grounds was first sub¬ 
mitted to a competent analyist, who pronounced it sterile. To 
grow Roses with any degree of success it was therefore necessary 
to alter its character, and by the addition of suitable materials 
to make it rich and fertile. To do this the soil in the beds was 
dug out 2 feet deep and the bottom filled up about 9 inches with 
clay, upon which a layer of good manure was placed, and then 
filled up with loam, decayed stable manure, and a little clay, 
well incorporated together. In due time the Roses were planted 
and have continued to grow and bloom successfully. 
About the first week in April pruning is commenced; if done 
earlier the late spring frosts, which are sometimes very severe in 
this neighbourhood, would cut down the new growths. Well- 
decayed stable manure is freely applied, and in addition Beeson’s 
bone manure, nitrate of soda and night soil (from an earth closet) 
are also judiciously used. When the flower buds are set liquid 
food is supplied, prepared from stable droppings and night soil, 
&c. When the season is over and the wood sufficiently matured, 
ad weak growths and strong sappy shoots are cut out and the 
beds heavily mulched with stable litter as a protection from the 
frosts, which sometimes destroy all the exposed wood. The 
plants devoted to exhibition purposes have all growths but three 
of the strongest removed iu September, and these are cut down 
in spring to three or four buds. 
Briars are the best stocks for this locality. The Manetti has 
been tried, but is not so suitable as the briar. The Briar stocks 
are raised from seed and budded as soon as they are of sufficient 
strength. The grounds are sloping with a southern aspect, but 
are exposed to the S.W. and N.E. winds that frequently sweep 
down from the moorlands a few miles distant with sufficient 
force to make Highbury (a strong well-built stone residence) 
rock perceptibly. The Roses have on such occasions a rough 
time of it and fare badly. 
A “Rose Bazaar” was held in Sheffield last July in aid of 
the Children’s Hospital, on which occasion Mr. Gilmour contri¬ 
buted 2000 blooms, many of exhibition quality—a large number 
to be cut from one collection in a single day, and furnishes an 
example of the abundant supply that is yearly produced. On 
the occasion of the visit (late in August) previously alluded to 
there was no lack of Roses, many very good specimens, but the 
litter made by the falling petals was not nearly so great as it had 
been earlier in the season. 
Tea Roses in pots are also well grown, and in early spring the 
greenhouses are stocked with a choice collection in excellent 
health, bearing a profusion of delicately perfumed blooms. Mr. 
Gilmour’s love of the Rose is shared by his gardener, Mr. E. 
Holland, who is equally desirous to excel in its culture, and ably 
carries out the wishes and instructions of his employer, and in 
four years he has carried off thirty-one first and nine second 
prizes for Roses, obtained chiefly in open class competition. At 
many of our local flower shows cut Roses, not for competition, 
from Mr. Gilmour’s collection have been greatly admired for their 
size and beauty. 
Although the Rose reign3 supreme she does not (and never 
should) exclude all other plants. Liliums occupy a position both 
in the greenhouse and the open border. A batch of the noble 
L. auratum is producing a number of fine blooms of varied tints 
and markings. A fine pot of L. rubrum has just bloomed, the 
colour of the petals being very dark and heavily marked. L. longi- 
florum, L. Harrisi, L. tigrinum (double and single), and others 
make up a good collection. 
After a fair trial the following Roses have all done well and 
can be recommended for cultivation in similar localities and 
under similar conditions, and may serve as a guide to those who 
have neither the time nor convenience to experiment on so large 
a scale. Ho Rose should be hastily condemned because it does 
not succeed in a certain locality; what fails in one district may 
be very successful in another. In reading these notes it is there¬ 
fore necessary that the circumstances and conditions under 
which the Roses are grown should be borne in mind. Baroness 
de Rothschild, Charles Darwin, Charles Lefebvre, Baron 
Nathaniel de Rothschild, Countess of Rosebery, Dr. Andry, 
Duchess of Bedford, Duke of Teck, Dupuy Jamain, Etienne Levet, 
Mons. E. Y. Teas, Fisher Holmes, Francois Levet, Harrison 
Weir, La France, Louis Van Houtte, Madame Eugene Verdier, 
Madame Homan, Mdlle. Annie Wood, Marquise de Castellane, 
Marie. Baumann, Merveille de Lyon, Mrs. Jowitt, Princess 
Beatrice, Pierre Hotting, Horace Vernet, Senateur Vaisse, Sir 
Garnet Wolseley, Xavier Olibo, and Madame Alphonse Lavallee. 
Those not fully acquainted with the above varieties may readily 
obtain a full description by consulting the catalogue of any 
grower who advertises in the Journal.—J. H. S. 
SOME THOUGHTS AND SUGGESTIONS ON 
FRUIT AND FRUIT-GROWING. 
[A. Lecture delivered at 'Wrexham, Friday, September 11th, 1885, before the North 
Wales and Border Counties Pomological Society, by Mr. E. J. Bailie, F,L.S.] 
Pomology is a wide subject—quite wide enough at any 
rate to afford ample scope for much more than an evening’s 
talk, and yet I may ask to be permitted to travel even beyond 
the lines which might fairly be regarded as its limits. My excuse 
for this would be found in the fact that your society is young, 
and that before we go into matters of more minute detail which 
can be rightly introduced if we treated Pomology as a science, 
it is necessary to look at the question of fruits and fruit-growing 
in its aspects, varied and interesting, before cutting up our work 
into sections. 
The word “fruit” deserves at least moretban passing attention. 
It is a word often narrowed in its meaning and misunderstood in 
application The very derivation of the word is most interesting 
and suggestive. It is from the word fructus, meaning “ enjoy¬ 
ment.” There is surely a text for moralising here. Rightly 
appreciated there is here a wide field for suggestiveness. There 
is in the occupation of fruit-growing all the elements for a life 
of enjoyment. It is not my intention to refer to poets or 
moralists to enforce the fact that gardening is among the purest 
of human pleasures and the most healthful of occupations. 
The voice of Scripture, of philosophy, of every form of literature 
in all periods of this earth’s history, proclaims the praise of 
gardens. Fruit has been defined as “ whatever is produced for 
the enjoyment of man or animals by the process of vegetable 
growth.” It is that part of plants which contains the seed. 
Every seed vessel is a fruit in the language of science. But we 
have to consider to-night those products of the vegetable kingdom 
more popularly associated with the everyday idea of fruit, and 
yet I want to bring under your notice some items which have 
hitherto been neglected, and have as yet had no place assigned 
to them in the catalogue of cultivated produce. 
From a purely commercial point of view the question of fruit 
cultivation is one of serious national importance. I need not 
remind you in what high quarters the subject has found favour. 
The Ex-Prime Minister, our neighbour, Mr. Gladstone, has more 
than once discoursed upon the toothsome compound, British 
jam, and the question is rapidly pressing to the immediate fore¬ 
front of political, scientific, and commercial economy. In 1883, 
according to the statistical sheet of agricultural returns, 190,710 
acres were under fruit cultivation in the United Kingdom. In 
1884 the acreage had increased to 194,723 acres, or an increase, 
in a single year, or over 4000 acres. We may presume that the 
returns, when made up for the present year, may reveal the fact 
that we have about 200,000 acres covered with fruit trees and 
fr ait-bearing plants. So much for its bearing upon the land and 
labour question. Let us see how the question of finance is 
affected. Jn 1882 we paid over two millions of money for the 
importation of foreign fruit. Just think for a moment what that 
means. What an enormous saving could be effected if much or 
most of this could be distributed amongst the home growers, to 
be expended in home industries. The absolute money value i8 
enormous, but think what it represents in healthful occupation, 
in useful labour, and in happy life. Then if the habit of fruit¬ 
eating could be induced—that is, the habit of regarding fruit as a 
staple article of diet for the people, these figures would be enor¬ 
mously increased at the expense of the importation of foreign 
meats, and to the benefit of all concerned both in mind, body, 
and estate. Do not think there is any danger of the thing being 
overdone. There is practically unlimited room for development 
now, to say nothing of "the ever-widening area which will open 
out as the dietetic errors of the people are exposed, and the rising 
generation are educated to the advantages secured by a life 
made very much worth living by regarding the rules of health, 
and by the cultivation of simplicity of tastes, frugality, and 
thrift. 
Dr. Robertson of Errol in Perthshire read a paper some 
months ago before the Perthshire Society of Natural Science, in 
which he dealt with some facts presented in the fruit-growing 
district of the Carse of Gowrie. Dr. Robertson is an enthusiast 
in the matter, and it is not surprising that his neighbours have 
been fired by the force of his example. Enthusiasm is happily 
contagious, but it is seldom epidemic. The Doctor explains how 
the district was a noted one at one time, but its glory had de¬ 
parted, and it is only within comparatively recent times that a 
new era seems to show evidence of approach. One gentleman in 
the district netted £200 in one year from 7000 Gooseberry 
