March XI, 1886. ] 
JOURNAL OF HORTICULTURE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. 
199 
Surely it is patent to everyone that fruit is easily bruised, and it requires 
no mighty intellect to see that bruising may be avoided by the exercise of 
due care. 
For ordinary purposes a single fruit room is sufficient, but for large 
fruit gardens we would always have two rooms, one for Pears and the 
other for Apples, and there should be means provided for raising the tem¬ 
perature of the Pear room at will. In most gardens this might easily be 
done by a 4-inch flow and return pipe connected with the nearest boiler 
and controlled by a valve. Many of our mid-season and late sorts of 
Pears do not ripen well in a c old fruit room, but in the temperature of a 
sitting room they soon develope sweetness, richness, and aroma, and such 
a temperature is easily imparted to a Pear room. 
FRUIT FORCING. 
Vines. — Early-forced, House .—Early Grapes that have passed the 
stoning process will be greatly benefited by having liberal supplies of 
tepid liquid manure given to the inside borders. Great advantage also 
results from syringing the paths, walls, an 1 mulching over the roots with 
clear liquid manure towards evening on fine days, or an hour or two 
before night ventilation is given before dark. After the stoning is completed 
a little ventilation at the top of the house will prevent the deposition of 
moisture on the berries during the night. The bunches should be ex¬ 
amined for the last time, and if any small stoneless berries remain remove 
them at once, as nothing detracts more from a well finished bunch of 
Grapes than these imperfectly fertilised berries. Lateral growth should 
be encouraged all over the house by pinching the points out of the 
strongest only, tying those down to the trellis, allowing the weakest to 
find their way up to the glass, when they should be stopped and tied 
down so as to prevent the foliage touching the glass. Commence venti¬ 
lating early, little and often through the early part of the day, and 
reduce upon a similar principle, and finally closing in time to run it up 
to 85° on bright afternoons. 
Succession Houses .—Attend to disbudding, tying, and stopping in 
succession houses, keeping the thinning both of bunches and berries well 
in hand, commencing with free-setting varieties, but Muscats and other 
shy-setting sorts should be left until the best berries take the lead. Keep 
up a steady circulation of air where houses contain Grapes in bloom, 
impregnating shy setters when the maximum temperature is reached, 
taking pollen from Hamburghs for fertilising Muscats. Shy setters have 
the stigmas coated with glutinous matter when in flower, and rarely set 
well unless it be removed daily with a camel’s-hair brush. 
Late Houses .—Former instructions having been attended to, the Vines 
will now be moving. Ply the syringe freely several times a day, give 
the inside borders good waterings with warm liquid manure, and 
endeavour to secure an even break and elongation of the bunches by 
closing with a humid atmosphere at a temperature of 75°. Strong young 
cares that do not always break evenly should be kept in a horizontal 
position until all the lower buds have started, but old Vines on the spur 
system do not require this attention. 
Fruiting Vines in Pots .—Keep these well supplied with good stimu¬ 
lating liquid, make additions to the top-dressing and mulching, and allow 
the laterals to spread over all the uncovered parts of the trellis ; but 
nothing is gained by crowding the foliage. It should have full exposure 
to light and air. 
Pines. —It is usual at the beginning of this month to start enough 
suckers for the prospective requirements, 5 and 7-inch pots, according to 
the size and variety, being used, and the suckers potted firmly in good 
loam in a moderately moist condition, and, without being watered, 
plunged at once in a fermenting bed previously prepared, having a 
temperature of about 95° at 9 inches beneath the surface. In ten days 
or a fortnight roots will be appearing at the sides of the pots, when water 
should be administered, and as often as occasion requires afterwards. 
Owing to the moisture arising from the fermenting material but little 
syringing will be required, but with increased light, heat, and sun, and 
growth ia the plants, it will be required more liberally. The temperature 
should be maintained at 60° at night and 70° in the daytime, a slight 
shade being applied for an hour or two at midday when sun is powerful, 
closing in good time so as to make the most of the sun heat. 
Plants Wintered in Small Pots .—Those that have been wintered in 
7 or 8-inch pots should be shifted during this month into pots 10 or 
12 inches in diameter, in which they produce fruit during next autumn 
and winter months. The rough part of fibrous loam only should be used, 
the pots being perfectly drained, scattering a small handful of wood 
ashes over the drainage to prevent the inroad of worms and a few half¬ 
inch bones, some of these being mixed with the turf in potting. In 
potting be careful to avoid having vacuous places, the compost being put 
in carefully and rammed down so as to form a compact mass with the ball. 
The plants after potting should be placed in a brisk heat about the pots of 
90° to 95°, growth being encouraged under favourable external conditions 
in a temperature of 65° to 70° at night, and 75° to 80° during the day, 
with a rise of 5° to 10° from sun. Sunny weather should be taken 
advantage of in every department to close early under the sun’s invigor¬ 
ating influence, being liberal in syringing or sprinkling lightly overhead 
all the plants excepting such as may be in flower at the time. 
Stbawbebries in Pots. —First dishes are much later than usual, 
the season not having been propitious for early produce. Keep constant 
supplies in readiness to take the place of forward crops. All the late 
varieties will be the better of being surface-dressed, and arranged in pits 
well up to the glass so as to prevent the foliage drawing, and in these 
with free ventilation they will develope strongly. Henceforward fine 
fruits are expected, and to insure well-set evenly shaped berries fertilisa¬ 
tion should be carefully performed in the middle of fine days. Remove 
all the upper flowers from the flower scapes, leaving from eight to a dozen 
of the finest formed fruit on a plant, and in the case of the large-growing 
kinds a further reduction may be made. A little artificial manure (of 
which there is now so many valuable preparations that for obvious 
reasons no one can especially be named) may be scattered over the 
surface of the pot and watered with a fine rose when the soil is in a fairly 
moist condition. Liquid manure from soot and cow manure made fresh 
is a capital invigorator. Be careful not to over-water, especially in dull 
weather, guarding equally against dryness, though a supply of water 
ought always to be needed before it is given, and then thoroughly. Assist 
plants swelling off their fruits by closing early so as to raise the tempera¬ 
ture to 85° or 90°, and syringe overhead on bright days. Avoid giving a 
check to fruits developing towards maturity by lowering the temperature 
suddenly ; but moisture should be gradually withheld with a view to 
insure flavour. 
MABKETING HONEY. 
The question is often asked, Wliat is the most profitable 
form to produce honey for sale, comb honey or honey out of 
the comb ? 
The answer depends in each particular case on the market 
the seller wishes to supply. Some customers will only buy 
comb honey, others prefer run or extracted honey, and the 
adage holds true in this as in every other case, that we must 
cut our coat to suit our cloth, and that where there is a ready 
market for comb honey we must manage to produce, or, to 
speak more accurately, get our bees to produce honey in the 
most convenient form—sections. Honey may be divided into 
two classes, comb honey and liquid honey, and these again 
will be split up into two divisions, sections and super honey, 
extracted and run honey. 
Within the last few years there has been a considerable 
fall in the price of all kinds of English honey, and in a former 
article we endeavoured to account for this, and so we shall 
take for granted the fact, that though in some places there 
has not been so great a fall in price as in others, still, how¬ 
ever much disagreement there may be as to the causes, there 
can be none as to the effect. 
In the report of the Lancashire and Cheshire Association 
for 1884, the statement is made that one member sold 
8 cwts. of extracted honey at lOJd. per lb., and that another 
member sold 400 lbs. at Is. 2d. to Is. 6 d. per lb., and 
Mr. Carr goes on to say that, “ The idea of selling honey at 
the very low prices talked of in some quarters appears to 
only cause amusement among members as far as I could 
gather.” 
During last year several tons of English honey changed 
hands at £60 per ton, which is not quite 6 ld. per lb., and 
some hundreds of 1 lb. sections were sold at prices ranging 
from 63 . to 9s. per dozen. Supers of honey fetched rather 
less, owing to the difficulty of breaking bulk, and the loss 
from waste, &c., while the old-fashioned run honey taken 
from skeps, and not extracted, was sold for about 5^d. per lb.; 
so that in discussing the question of marketable honey we 
may confine ourselves to section honey and extracted, and on 
the whole we should say that the latter is the more profitable 
to the bee-keeper, though there is perhaps less trouble in 
getting section honey. 
If he can sell his sections as soon as they are filled, or 
at least has only to keep them for a short time, the bee¬ 
keeper will not have the trouble of extracting; but when 
sections become granulated there is a difficulty of disposing 
of them, and even if they are melted and the wax strained off, 
the honey is not as good in quality or appearance as if the 
honey had been extracted. 
To keep sections from granulating is no easy task, as the 
temperature has to be kept up to about 70°, and even then a 
slight draught from an opened door will cause them to granu- 
| late in a few minutes. 
