January 17, 1889. ] 
JOURNAL OF HORTICULTURE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. 
45 
J)lace on the 11th inst. at Anderton’s Hotel, Fleet Street, London, E.C., 
Mr. C. J. Heald, Chairman of the Board of Directors, presiding, sup¬ 
ported by Messrs. J. Cheal and J. Roberts, Directors, and a fair repre¬ 
sentation of shareholders. The notice convening the meeting having 
been read, the Chairman stated that the present meeting was a pre¬ 
liminary one, as required by the Acts of Parliament regulating limited 
liability companies. The first application by the promoters was for the 
■sum of £25,000 ; of this amount nearly £4000 worth of shares had 
been applied for by ninety-four shareholders, among whom, he was 
liappy to state, there were forty-four practical horticulturists—men who 
know what can be done with the soil. For lack of sufficient capital 
the Directors had to give up the contemplated purchase of Speed Gate 
Farm, but they were looking about, and intended to take some 100 
acres or so of suitable land as near London as possible, having the same 
-on lease with option of purchase. They had three or four available 
sites under consideration, and they were being thoroughly inspected. 
It was their intention to erect glass houses, and grow fruit and flowers 
and other subjects that will yield a quick return and command re¬ 
munerative prices. On every hand there were evidences that land 
•devoted to fruit culture could be made to pay well when properly 
•managed, and the Directors were sanguine that their venture would 
issue in equally satisfactory results. The conferences recently held on 
the interesting matter of extended fruit culture had called attention 
do the importance of the subject, and the principle laid down at these 
■meetings by practical fruit, cultivators they were seeking to apply in 
■practice. He had every reason to believe that in a very short time 
■they would have secured suitable land on advantageous terms, and be 
able to commence planting trees and erecting glass without delay. So 
far the Company had been worked on the most economical lines, and 
that end would be kept steadily in view in all their transactions, and 
the Directors would not accept fees until a dividend had been declared. 
The Board greatly regretted the resignation of their colleague, Mr. 
A. F. Barron, who had taken a very active part in promoting the 
’Company and laying down the principles upon which it should proceed, 
but who had resigned on the ground that he felt himself unable to 
give the necessary time as a Director, though he still took a warm 
•interest in its success. In conclusion, Mr. Heald assured the share¬ 
holders that nothing would be wanting on the part of the Directors to 
•give the shareholders entire confidence in the future of the Company. 
Messrs. J. Cheal and J. Roberts having spoken, also expressing them- 
•selves most sanguinely as to the prospects of the Company, it was 
■moved by Mr. J. Willard, Highgate, seconded by Mr. Fraser of Kew— 
•' Ci That Messrs. Heald, Cheal, and Roberts be and are hereby re-elected 
Directors of The English Apple and Fruit Growing Company, Limited.” 
This was carried unanimously, the Chairman announcing that proxies 
'to the amount of nearly 500 votes been sent in by forty shareholders in 
favour of the re-election of the Directors. The Chairman, Messrs. J. 
■Cheal and J. Roberts, briefly acknowledged the vote. A hearty vote of 
■thanks to the Directors and to the Chairman for presiding at that 
meeting closed the proceedings, which were thoroughly unanimous 
throughout. 
VISITS TO AURICULA GROWERS. 
I HAVE during the past summer had an opportunity of visiting those 
Auricula growers whose names are as household words amongst the 
fraternity which delights in the cultivation of that exquisite and refined 
•florists’ flower—Mr. Wm. Bolton of Warrington, Mr. Ben Simonite of 
Sheffield, and Mr. James Douglas of Great Gearies, Ilford, and a few 
general observations on their plants may not be unacceptable. I should 
have liked to have seen Mr. Horner, but it was too much out of the way, 
.and a visit I had planned to Miss Woodhead was upset by some 
horribly dense foggy weather, which made moving about the very 
reverse of pleasureable, and so I was obliged to forego it. 
As I noticed last year, Mr. W. Bolton (who is a neighbour of Mr. 
Samuel Barlow) had moved out of the soapy and glassy fumes of 
Warrington to a place about two miles off, which has a purer atmosphere, 
though even I fancy some of us who knew the sweet country would 
think he was not so well off after all, as we sometimes listen to a friend 
who dwells in some suburban villa, and assures us it is quite in the 
■country because he can on one side see a green field or two, while, like 
Nelson, he turns his blind eye on the numerous similar villas which 
cluster round him ; still it is a vast improvement on Mersey Street or 
Latchford Road, where he has been previously located, and he is pursu¬ 
ing the culture of the Auricula with increased vigour and success. He 
has not gone to the length of Mr. Horner and discarded all named 
varieties except two or three, for he keeps a very fair stock of the lead¬ 
ing varieties. He has been successful in his raising of seedlings, and 
his Samuel Barlow is one of the most promising of modem grey edges. 
I use the term promising” advisedly, for promise does not always in 
after years mean fulfilment. He has many contrivances for carrying on 
the culture of what I believe (although he grows a good many other 
things) is his favourite flower, and in many ways these northern growers 
do set an example we might very well follow in the south. He speaks 
very highly, as everyone does, of Heroine, the best of Mr. Horner’s 
seedlings, and thinks well of Sapphire, but I did not find that he was 
prepared to go into raptures over any other of the northern claimants, 
who are, we are told, to displace our long cherished favourites. We see 
many which come out with a great flourish of trumpets receive a 
first class certificate, and the fortunate raiser is congratulated ; but after 
a year or two we hear but little about them, they have not proved con¬ 
stant and have deteriorated. Still there is a great fascination in the 
pursuit, and if even one good seedling is raised, the raiser feels well 
repaid for his trouble, like the angler who has fished all day and caught 
nothing, but has had a “ glorious bite.” 
My second visit was paid to one whose name is valued wherever the 
Auricula is grown, Mr. Ben Simonite ; and no one has ever visited him 
who has come away without having gained some knowledge and without 
admiring the straightforward honesty of as good a specimen of an 
English working man as can be found in a day’s march. Mr. Douglas 
has written of his admiration of his growing Auriculas in such an 
atmosphere as Sheffield; but I confess what astonished me most, 
knowing what Sheffield is, was his growth of Dahlias. Auriculas are 
grown under glass, and consequently can be in some degree guarded 
from the “ smuts ” which fall so plentifully in and around Sheffield ; 
but to see grand blooms of Dahlias on plants healthy and well grown 
was an achievement any man might be proud of. It was done only by 
incessant care and by a thorough knowledge of the plant and its 
requirements, Washing, constant washing, was required, and I need not 
say obtained. But it is about Auriculas I went to see him, and so 
about them I must write. His collection is a good-sized one ; he has 
one side of bis house filled with named sorts, and the other with 
seedlings, of which he has brought out several ; and although of some 
one must say that they have not fulfilled the promise of their youth, 
there are others, such as the Rev. F. D. Horner, which we hope may 
continue constant to its promise. 
In talking about our favourites I asked him a question which has 
come before me several times as to the failure in constitution of kinds 
that have been for many years in cultivation, notably George Lightbody 
and Lancashire Hero. Both of these he said were more difficult to grow 
than they used to be, and were certainly not so good in constitution as 
formerly. I have asked several growers, and they have confirmed this 
statement. If this is to go on, and these kinds are lost to cultivation, 
or become like rage’s Champion or Booth’s Freedom, so difficult to grow 
that few will care to have the trouble, what is there to replace them? 
We have heard a great deal of new seedlings which were to be the joy 
of our hearts. I ask, Are there any which a grower would be satisfied 
with instead of these 1 Certainly there is none as yet in commerce. 
About woolly aphis, too, we had a “ crack,” and here he showed his 
good common sense, in which a few of us were deficient. When the pest 
was first announced we were seized with a panic, and did not first in¬ 
quire whether it were really the destructive creature that it was said to be. 
How differently “ Ben ” acted when he first got it amongst his plants 1 
He set one out in the open, did not repot it, but allowed it to have full 
play. After some weeks, when he examined it, it was full as it could 
hold of the aphis. He then took it out, shook off all the earth, washed 
their roots thoroughly, and then examined them with a microscope, and 
as he found that they were quite uninjured he concluded that there was 
no harm done, he concluded that the aphis was harmless, an opinion 
which, after many years, most of us have arrived at. Of course we 
thought such an insect must live on something, and we concluded that 
it must injure the roots. 
Another point which we discussed was the difference of taste 
between north and south, and here we were quite in accord. We see 
constantly reports of shows, and great admiration is.expressed at a truss 
of eleven, twelve, or thirteen pips, and our opinion was that it is im¬ 
possible such a truss could be a first-rate one— i.e., consist of that 
number of perfect pips. They must crush upon one another, and so 
destroy the symmetry of the whole. Seven was the number the older 
florists gave for a perfect truss, and I believe they were right. We 
have seen two flowers certificated which ought never to have been so 
honoured, and altogether our conclusion was that the northern taste 
was the correct one, and that the more it is acted upon in the south 
the better it will be for the real advancement of the Auricula. Septem¬ 
ber is not the best month to sec Auriculas, but there is always a plea¬ 
sure to a grower on looking at a collection at any stage, and the 
collection here was in capital order, some sorts of course being more 
vigorous than others. 
" My third visit was to a very different place. In the former cases it 
was the growing of Auriculas under difficultie 3 , in the collection at 
Great Gearies it was growing them under every advantage—a good 
garden, a fine situation, plenty of appliances, and in Mr. Douglas a 
thoroughly experienced gardener are all combined. It is not many years 
since Mr. Douglas began his collection, and I am not a little proud that 
it was from my small assortment the commencement of it was formed, 
and that I told Mr. Douglas then 1 was sure he would very soon 
outdistance us all, and now I suppose that he has the most extensive 
and interesting collection in the kingdom. I have never seen Mr. 
Horner’s, but as he has discarded all the named varieties with two or 
three exceptions, his collection, although 1 have no doubt deeply in¬ 
teresting to himself, is somewhat like the bunch of Grapes was to the 
fox. It takes a long while to get up a stock of any seedling sufficient 
for distribution, so that although he has been raising seedlings for many 
