October 17, 1880. ] 
JOURNAL OF HORTICULTURE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. 
327 
luxury than for profit, the flower heads containing the edible part. 
It can be propagated by seeds or offsets. If by seeds they should 
be sown during the month of April upon an open, sunny site, these 
to be thinned out where too thick and transplanted the following 
spring to form permanent beds, planting them in rows 3 feet apart 
-each way. 
If increased by offsets remove some of the strong side growths 
from the parent plant during April or May, transplanting them as 
advised for seedlings. The flower heads are fit for use when they 
shew symptoms of opening, so as to show the florets within. When 
the object in view is to have large flower heads, the greater part of 
the small ones which issue from the sides should be pinched off. 
It is very important that when the flower heads are cut off that 
the flower stalk should be broken close to the ground, as when these 
are left they exhaust the roots. The heads can be kept for a short 
time in a cool place. 
As winter approaches the plants should have some of the old 
leaves removed and be given a covering over the roots of manure 
litter, which must be removed the following spring. Then select 
four or five of the strongest shoots on each plant, removing all the 
others ; this can be done by cutting them out with a spade, giving 
the plants afterwards a layer of manure and turning the soil to 
its former place, using the finest to go between and around each 
shoot retained.— A. G. Frampton. 
DRESSING ROSE BLOOM3. 
AS this is a matter which has been much spoken of during the present 
season, and which is not unlikely to come on for adjudication before the 
highest Rosarian Court of Appeal, it may be well if you allow the sub¬ 
ject ventilation in your columns. 
The question at once occurs, What is “ dressing ?” What it is in the 
case of Chrysanthemums and Carnations is not unknown, and may be 
necessary, but is the queen of flowers to condescend to curl papers ? 
As the late Sir Roger de Coverley used frequently to remark, there is 
“ something to be said on both sides.” It is certainly lawful to remove 
a damaged petal from an otherwise perfect bloom. As has been wittily 
observed, this is rather undressing! If a Rose has been arrested by 
same caprice of weather, and has not the perfect arrangement of petal 
which Nature intended, if some tender touches of an ivory pencil case 
will help it to what the “ N. R. S.” calls “ the most perfect phase of its 
possible beauty,” why, let it have it. But when it comes to dragging 
Marie Baumann into a distorted imitation of the Camellia roundness of 
A K. Williams, or torturing Alfred Colomb into the solid stiffness of 
that best of travellers, Star of Waltham, it is quite another thiDg. A 
judge of high standing has told me of a box of twelve bedizened over¬ 
dressed huzzies which he and his fellows sadly passed by as partaking 
more of the demi-monde than the beau monde of the Rose parterre. Thus 
perhaps the thing will right itself. If otherwise, alas 1 for the future. 
As Jane Taylor remarks in her moral poems somewhere with a slight 
adaptation, 
I’d be the meanest thing that blows, 
Hather than that affected Rose! 
Its very scent offends my nose; 
’Tis worse Ilian any weed! 
—A. C. 
THE BRITISH FRUIT GROWERS’ ASSOCIATION. 
The above Association held a meeting and Conference in the Enter¬ 
tainment Court at the Crystal Palace on Thursday last, October 10th, 
when about 200 persons were present, including the following amongst 
others: —Mes ; rs. T. Francis Rivers, Sawbridgeworth ; J. Austen, Witley 
Gardens, Stourport ; Albert Bath, Sevenoaks ; C. F. Barker, Hereford ; 
T. W. Beach, Brentford ; G. Bunvard, Maidstone ; A. F. Barron, Chis¬ 
wick ; E Butts, Streatham ; J. Cheal, Crawley ; J. Cranston, Hereford ; 
G. W. Cummins, Carshalton ; A. Dean, Bedfont ; G. Gordon, Gunners- 
bury ; G. Hammond, Brentwood; J. Hudson, Acton; G. Merritt, 
Harpenden ; C. Orchard, Isle of Wight; W. Roupell, Roupell Park ; 
R. Smith, Yalding ; J. C. Sclater, Exeter ; J. Wright, B. Wynne, and 
the Hon. Secretaries, Mr. Lewis Castle and W. Earley. 
The President, Lord Brooke, M.P., had telegraphed regretting his 
inability to attend the meeting, and in his absence Mr. T. Francis 
Rivers, one of the Vice-Presidents, took the chair, opening the proceed¬ 
ings with an address, which is given in full at the end of these, notes. 
Mr. J. Wruht next read a paper devoted to a review of the Fruit 
Question. This evoked considerable discussion, in the course of which 
Mr. C. F. Barker stated that he believed the reason that England had 
fallen so enormously in the growth of hardy fruits was the English land 
laws. He was confident from the observations he had made duriDg the 
last two or three years he had been resident in England, that were the 
land laws as free as in the Australian colonies and in America English 
fruit growing would never have occupied the position it did now. The 
tenant farmer could not afford to grow trees because the tenancy of his 
land was so uncertain. Unless some drastic measures were taken to 
alter the relations between landlord and tenant they would only carry 
on a miserable existence in competing in fruit growing with America 
and Australia. Mr. Albert Bath stated that although the s >il in Kent 
was so well adapted for fruit culture, he had found in recent travels that 
many other districts were quite as suitable, both as regards soil and 
situation. He called attention, however, to the dreadful ravages com¬ 
mitted by the caterpillars of the winter moth, and he said it was one of 
the difficulties that must be met and overcome before success could be 
expected. 
Mr. A. Dean remarked that at the present time the tenants could 
practically secure their own terms with regard to the land, and he 
believed there was not half a dozen landlords who would not let their 
land on favourable terms for the purposes of fruit culture. He sug¬ 
gested that something should be done in the way of setting up pomo- 
logical schools in various parts of the country, and conducted by pro¬ 
fessors who might take students and teach them the pomology adapted 
to the requirements of particular districts. 
Mr. G. Hammond also referred to the damage caused by caterpillars, 
as from nine acres of fruit trees this year he had only been able to gather 
about nine bushels of fruit from that cause. Trees had in some cases 
been completely stripped of the leaves, and he had seen similar instances 
elsewhere. In some subsequent discussion it was mentioned that Mr. 
Llewelyn of Penllergare employs a lamp suspended on the trees as a 
trap for moths, but it was explained that this would be useless in the 
case of that named, as the female moth does not fly. 
Mr. G. Gordon read a practical paper on Peach Culture out of Doors, 
and Mr. Hudson supported the views he there enunciated. Mr. R. Smith 
read a short paper on Apple Culture, and after some further discussion 
the Chairman moved—“ That this meeting pass a resolution than Icing 
the Lord Mayor and the Fruiterers’ Company for the prominent part 
they have taken in encouraging the fruit growers of this country in 
advocating and recommending the cultivation of fruit on small holdings, 
and that such resolution should be conveyed to the Company, with an 
expression of willingness that this Association should assist as far as lies 
in its power in that good work.” 
Mr. Wright, in seconding the resolution, said the Fruiterers’ Company 
had shown a desire to rise to the position of things, and though they 
might fairly believe that they were lacking in practical knowledge of 
fruit culture from the very necessity of their lives and their engage¬ 
ments, they had at least shown a real desire to do what they could and 
give information that would be of assistance to the small cultivators of 
fruit in the kingdom. 
The resolution was put and carried. 
On the motion of Mr. Bunyard, Maidstone, a vote of thanks was 
passed to those who had contributed papers ; and a like compliment 
having, on the motion of Mr. Cheal, been paid to Mr. Rivers for presid¬ 
ing, the Conference was brought to a close. 
AN ADDRESS BY MR. T. FRANCIS RIVERS. 
Since we last met there are indications that public attention has 
been drawn to the very great importance of the meeting here last year, 
which was held for the purpose of pointing out the absolute necessity of 
developing fruit culture in these islands for the purpose of meeting the 
threatened competition from other countries with fruit of our own grow¬ 
ing. Although we succeeded almost beyond our hopes in arousing 
the attention of cultivators and owners of land to the knowledge 
that we were not sufficiently awake to the fact of the enormous and 
increasing consumption of fruit, and that we were not making due 
preparation to meet this, either in the present or the future, as we are 
not content to rest satisfied with the success of that meeting, we have 
assembled again to-day to discuss the same subject, and to impress upon 
fruitgrowers the importance of the subject by repetition, and to elicit 
greater and more extended knowledge by discussion. 
Fruit-growing has, I am glad to say, received very great assistance 
from the powerful advocacy of the Lord Mayor for the present year. 
For the first time I think in the civic history of London the chief 
magistrate has consented to depart from the traditions of commerce 
only, and has encouraged the cultivators of land in the United Kingdom 
to hope that they may derive some part of the profit which has been 
enjoyed to a very great extent by foreign cultivators, subject, of 
course, to the considerable deductions which they have to make over to 
English importers. London alone, with its millions of inhabitants, is 
an immense consumer, and it is difficult to say where it will stop, as 
there are no apparent signs of any cessation of building, turn to which 
side you will. With greater or more diffused wealth the demand for 
fruit will increase ; it is a business which cannot fail except for physical 
reasons, such as the divergence of the Gulf Stream, which would pro¬ 
bably have the effect of locking up our land in perpetual ice and snow, 
or the encroachment of ice from the North Pole, neither of which 
catastrophes seem at all likely to occur in our time. Foreign invasion 
