440 
JOURNAL OF HORTICULTURE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. 
[ November 21, 1868. 
lin’s, Yellow Impdratrice, Green Gage. The Oullins Golden Gage is some¬ 
times placed as a market Plum, and therefore a culinary fruit. Grown on 
a wall it attains a very large size, and is one of the most delicious, being 
singularly delicate in flavour. It was imported some years since from 
France, and was raised, I believe, in the district of Oullins, near Lyons, 
in France. The tree grows rapidly and vigorously, and a specimen tree 
produced some years since about 10 bushels of fruit, which were sold at 
9s. per sieve. This was about twenty years since ; the profit derived 
from one tree, multiplied by 200, seemed to promise very fairly ; they 
were planted, and in a few years the 200 trees were as large as the 
original, and are now capable of bearing the same quantity. These 
trees have never paid their expenses ; the fruit is too soft for carriage, 
and the wood in this country never appears to be capable of ripening 
enough to give the necessary vigour to the bloom, and my 200 trees 
instead of producing, as they ought, £4 10s. per tree, will have to be 
destroyed to make room for other kinds. These are some of the chances 
of fruit growing. The dessert Plums of September are numerous. The 
Green Gage will not be over, and we have the Bryanstone Gage, a 
later variety of the Green Gage; Golden Esperen; the Purple Gagej 
the Jefferson, Kirke’s, Violet de Galopin, Angelina Burdett, Decaisne, 
Heine Claude de Comte Atthems, a very fine Plum of recent intro¬ 
duction ; Guthrie’s Late Gage, Boulouf, Abricot^ de Brauneau, 
Transparent Gage. All these are fine dessert Plums, and will certainly 
suffice for the dessert table during September. In October the list of 
dessert Plums becomes attenuated, the Late Transparent, the Reine 
Claude de Bavay, Golden Transparent, Coe’s Golden Drop, the Blue 
Imp^ratrice, Ickworth Imp^ratrice, and Grand Duke will last during 
the first fortnight of this month, Late Rivers coming at the end. 
Although the Plum takes rank as a dessert fruit, I think this quality 
mainly exists in the varieties of the Green Gages, and its real importance 
lies in its economic value as a culinary and preserving fruit, and here it 
is unsurpassed. It is very hardy, enormously productive, and forms an 
important article of food, and therefore always commands a leading 
position in the fruit markets. To obtain a good price it is important to 
plant those sorts which are either early or late, but it is of course in 
evitable that these conditions cannot alwaj's be maintained. Owing 
to the good fortune of my father in raiding a very early fruit I have 
been successful in realising a good price, and the Plum which has 
done me yeoman’s service is the Early Prolific or Early Rivers. In 
some years this fruit has been gathered on the 20th July, in ordinary 
summers the gathering commences the last week of July. The next to 
ripen is a seedling of my own, [The Czar, which has become almost 
as popular as the Early Rivers. I have recently raised three early 
Plums, which I think will prove valuable for market. These are the 
Bittern, Curlew, and Heron. After The Czar I have The Sultan, a very 
large red Plum ; then the Belle de Louvain. With this Plum the glut 
sets in, and the market is amply supplied with Victoria, Diamond) 
Mitchelson’s, Belgian Purple, Prince of Wales, Prince Englebert. These., 
are the principal midseason market Plums. The later market Plums 
which generally give an increase of price are Pond’s Seedling, Autumn 
Compote, Archduke, and the Late Orleans. I find the Early Orleand 
so delicate in the skin that it is difficult to pack without injury, an; 
that noble looking fruit, Cox’s Emperor, is liable to the same defect 
this latter tears such quantities of heavy Plums that they rot on the 
tree in damp weather. The last Plum to gather from the tree is a 
variety from Yorkshire, this is the Wyedale. The fruit will hang until 
the end of November, and although very acid to the last, it is pleasant 
to be able to gather fresh Plums. 
The Monarch, a recently introduced Plum, I believe will be a very 
valuable market Plum. It is ready to gather generally about the 25th 
of September. It is a very large purple fruit, hardy, and of excellent 
quality either for preserving or cooking. The Grand Duke is another 
late seedling ; the fruit is very large, and on a wall it attains a very 
good flavour. I do not, however, think that it is desirable to plant it on 
a large scale for the orchard—the fruit is too heavy to resist the autumn 
gales. The Autumn Beauty or Belle de Septembre is a very valuable 
late Plum, and in some soils succeeds well, but I think it does not 
flourish in all districts. 
The Mirabelle Plums are not at present grown in England for 
preserving, but I believe that a considerable industry exists in the 
neighbourhood of Metz for the preparation of the delicious preserve 
known as the Mirabelle de Metz. There is no reason why this industry 
should not be carried on in England, as the Mirabelle ripens and bears 
freely in this country. The fruit makes a singularly delicate preserve. 
During the last year or two my trees, which bear very freely, have been 
attacked by blackbirds, which appear to have only recently discovered 
their excellence. Seedlings which I have raised from this Plum vary in 
a singular manner. One of the seedlings has produced a Plum resem¬ 
bling the Green Gage in size and flavour, rendering the original 
parentage of the Green Gage less obscure. Another seedling bears a 
small rose fruit, very pretty and ornamental. 
There is, I think, a very considerable field open for drying Plums> 
We already possess the Impuratrice, but they ripen rather too late, as I 
believe that for drying Plums sun heat is required as well as stove heat. 
Amongst my numerous seedling Plums I have discovered some which 
appear to me to fulfil the conditions required for drying, and as they 
ripen in August there will be time for the sun to assist in the process. 
One of these seedlings resembles exactly the Guimaraens Plum, sn 
popular in Portugal for preserving, so that I hope some day to rival 
the delicious preparations of the convents. There will, I am sure, be 
ample room for us, and 1 shall not take away their business. 
I may say that my soil consists of clay and strong loam lying upon a 
subsoil of drift clay and cretaceous gravel and sand, and that it has 
been trenched 2 feet deep on an average, and that previous heavy 
dressings of farmyard manure were applied, which has not yet been, 
exhausted by the trees. 
The abundant crops produced by the Plum and the energy required! 
to produce the hard shells protecting the seed affect the vitality of 
the tree, if crop3 of fruit are frequently produced. It is not necessary 
to plant at any great distance, my own plantations are, as a rule, 
9 feet row from row, and are dwarf standards. The tree is impatient of 
pruning, and when fruit is produced in quantity it is hardly necessary to- 
prune at all. I, however, suppress the gross shoots, which are occasion¬ 
ally produced, apparently in sheer wantonness. These are dangerous, as- 
they disturb the balance of the tree. All pruning should be done in 
summer or early autumn. In the severe winter of 1870, having nothing 
for some of my men to do, I set them to prune some of the lower 
branches of my trees, with the most disastrous results. Nearly every 
wound resulted in canker. It is a lesson which I have never forgotten. 
The Kelsey Plum, which seems to be attracting some curiosity, is a 
Japanese variety, which has been planted to some extent in California. 
A correspondent to whom I wrote some time since, and who happened' 
to be a Devonshire man, informed me that he thought it might succeed 
in the south and west of England, but he thought it too tender for 
general cultivation. It is the size of an ordinary Elruge Nectarine, 
with very solid flesh and indifferent flavour. It may possibly succeed 
as an orchard house fruit, but it remains to be seen whether it will 
prove a desirable acquisition. The dessert Plums attain a very high 
flavour when grown in pots, and they may be placed out of doors to- 
ripen, and an annual crop can be insured. They form a very pleasant 
addition to the fruit garden under glass. An orchard house full of 
Plums alone is very ornamental, as the colours may be alternated, 
and fruit gathered from the beginning of July to the middle of 
October. 
Espalier and wall trees produce remarkably fine fruit, but on some 
walls the tradition has arisen that the old-fashioned Green Gage is extinct. 
This is a mistake, arising from the fact that on old trees a few 
fruits have been produced which have developed to a very large and 
luxurious condition. The Purple Gage is also a curiously rich Plum, 
but is generally shy in bearing. 
WINTER CUCUMBERS. 
Cucumbers, like many other garden products, appear to be- 
valued just in proportion to their scarcity. If by some slip of the) 
tongue of an assistant an idea becomes settled in the kitchen that 
Cucumbers are scarce in the garden the kitchen people will become 
especially alive to their importance, and every order sent to the 
gardener will begin with Cucumbers. If there is one season more 
than another when Cucumbers are really scarce, and at times 
especially valued, it is during the months of December, January, 
and February. I have generally passed through these months 
tolerably comfortably by commencing preparations in good time, 
and thus mostly avoided any serious scarcity ; and, if scarcity at 
times has occurred, by keeping as much as possible the knowledge 
of that circumstance to myself. 
Cucumbers for fruiting during the winter should be planted at 
once, and the plants should be strong to begin with. I sow the 
seeds during the last week in July, and grow the plants under tho 
influence of all the light and air they will endure, with the object 
of producing woody stems and medium-sized thick leaves—not 
large flabby foliage. 
It is no use attempting the growth of winter Cucumbers unless, 
well-heated houses are provided (I mean houses containing a suffi- 
