April 11, 1889. ] 
JOURNAL OF HORTICULTURE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. 
291 
So far as foreign Apples are concerned, in 1888-89 they cannot 
have been profitable to their producers. I saw many barrels of 
120 lbs. or more sold from 3s. 6d. to 7s., and fine Newtown Pippins 
could be had for 10s, and upwards per barrel. Plenty of Apples 
are still retailing at Id. per lb. and Oranges at 3d. per dozen, all 
other fruits being proportionably cheap. 
“Topping”— i.e., selecting the finest samples and placing these 
on the top of the sample with inferior fruit beneath, is a system of 
fraud and ought not to be indulged in. In fruit-growing, as in 
other things, honest and straightforward dealing gains confidence, 
and in the end success. About twelve years ago fruit was scarce 
and sold at high prices. One day I was in the market and met with 
an Irishman who had a considerable quantity of Apples in hogs¬ 
heads ready to be knocked down to the highest bidder. Previous 
to the sale he took me into his confidence and offered me them for 
sale by weight, stating the quantity in each cask. I told him the 
smallness of the fruit was against him, and that he could not 
expect a high price. “ Oh,” replied he, “ these small ones were put 
into the bargain.” I explained to him the Glasgow merchants 
would not credit the statement, but stated that as I would help 
him all I could. As there was no longer time to talk, the salesman 
commenced business, and these Irish barrels were among the first 
offered, and bidding commenced. The poor fellow stood with bated 
breath to hear 2s. 6d. per cwt. called out. In a few seconds more 
they would have been gone, but I cried out “ They were handsome 
fruit beneath, and the trash on the top would not be charged for.” 
A turn over was made, while the auctioneer indulged in parley. A 
high price was realised, and the honest Irishman with beaming face 
poured out his gratitude to me. Had these barrels been merely 
topped with fine fruit they would have been sold for a much lower 
price. 
When it is a question of planting or renewing old trees by 
grafting let it be the former, at least to the greatest^extent. Both 
planters and nurserymen should study what are the most suitable 
stocks to graft on. Many fine varieties of fruit and good bearers 
are often destroyed by being grafted upon stocks unsuitable for the 
development of both tree and fruit. Notwithstanding every care 
and precaution seasons will occur when fruit will be a drug and 
almost unsaleable. How to make the most of fruit in such seasons 
should be studied beforehand, so as to enable cultivators to meet 
any emergency. Wine and jam making might be resorted to, and 
would absorb a considerable quantity of fruit, while if the latter 
were made from sugar without the addition of glucose it would meet 
with a ready sale ; and if the former were properly fermented it 
would be found superior to nine-tenths of many foreign wines, and 
consumers of it would have the satisfaction that what they were 
drinking was free from adulteration and pernicious drugs.— 
Wm. Thomson, Blantyre. 
GARDEN NOTES IN 18b8. 
GLADIOLI. 
The interesting papers which have appeared lately from some 
©£ your northern correspondents, advocating, as one does, the practice 
of potting the roots before planting out, suggests to me that perhaps 
my own experience as a southern grower may not be unacceptable, 
especially as one of your correspondents thinks that he has scored 
one against us in that we by the lateness of the season were deprived 
of late blooms, which he was enabled to have owing to his having 
started his in pots ; but in this I think he has not quite grasped the 
situation. It is true that I at least failed to flower my late-blooming 
buds, but not from the backwardness of the season, but from a 
terrible frost we had on October 3rd, when the late-flowering kinds 
were beginning to show colour. This so crippled them that they 
were unable to come to perfection. Had it not been for that one 
night we should have had a grand autumn bloom, as after that we 
had a long spell of sunshine and pleasant days. 
With regard to this system of potting the roots previous to 
planting and giving them a start, I have as I said before tried it 
myself, but I did not think the “ game worth the candle.” Where 
I have to plant, as I have done this year, about 800 corms, I am 
particular as to keeping them true to name. It would be a great 
labour and a puzzle indeed to label and stow away in frames such a 
number. When I tried it before I did it with a smaller number, 
and once when I endeavoured to save myself the trouble of labelling 
each, and placed all those of one kind in succession, it led to a 
great many mistakes. Of course this need not have been, but so it 
was. I therefore abandoned the practice, as it entailed a great deal 
of expense with no corresponding benefits. 
There is no doubt that the season of 1888 was not a favourable 
one for the Gladiolus. This was noticeable not merely in the 
comparatively small amount of competition —none of the northern 
growers putting in an appearance as usual at the southern shows— 
but the quality of the flowers shown was not up to the mark. 
After I had planted mine last year we had snow upon the ground 
for three weeks or more to the depth of some inches, and I felt 
that this could not be any help to the roots. I was agreeably sur¬ 
prised, however, to find them coming up regularly and strongly all 
over the beds, and I do not think I had more than one or two gaps 
in the whole of my collection, nor did the dry weather that 
followed seem to affect them, although I noticed that they were 
likely to be late. During the month of July, when we had such 
continuous wet, the plants grew fast enough, and the whole bed 
was “ green as grass,” but still no appearance of bloom. Shake¬ 
speare, the earliest with me to bloom, and of which I have always 
managed to cut a spike about July 26th, did not bloom until quite 
a month later, and it was with difficulty that I was enabled to cut 
eighteen blooms for the Crystal Palace, while in 1887 there was an 
equal difficulty owing to their being so early. Of course, there 
were spikes of bloom to be had in both cases, but not such as I 
desired to cut. I had very little disease amongst my corms. 
When I lifted them they appeared sound and heavy, although not 
so large as the previous year. They have kept well, although perhaps 
they have shrunk somewhat more than usual. I gather from my 
friends at Fontainebleau that they have had much the same sort of 
season, and that the harvesting of the corms was a matter of greater 
difficulty than usual, but I confess to some anxiety about them, as 
to whether they have got sufficient vigour to give good blooms this 
year. Unquestionably all growers of Hyacinths have found out 
what the Dutch growers so confidently affirmed, that the acknow¬ 
ledged inferiority of the Hyacinth bloom this year must be 
attributed to the cold and sunless summer of last year, which did 
not allow the corms to mature sufficiently. Is not the same likely 
to happen with the Gladiolus ? The weight of the corms is no 
guarantee, for it was remarked that the Hyacinths this year were 
unusually heavy ; but the weight was occasioned by water, not by 
the tissue of the corm, and consequently went for very little. 
Time will alone solve this question. 
I have lately advocated the cutting c f the corms and closer plant¬ 
ing, and the past season has only strengthened my views in these 
two respects, so much so that while formerly I only cut the larger 
corms, I now cut small corms also when I cm obtain two good eyes, 
leaving one to each half. Some of the varieties have the eyes so 
close together that it is a matter of some considerable difficulty to 
divide the corms without injuring one or other of the eyes, while 
in some cases I have not been able to detect a second one ; but a 
very large proportion of mine have been this year divided, in some 
cases into three, and I found last year that these did equally well 
with those cut in two. Of course, the same care must be taken 
that an eye is secured, and so again with regard to closer planting 
than that which one used to recommend. The roots go so straight 
down, not spreading out as in the case of many plants, that they 
cannot possibly interfere with one another. In comparing, then, 
the two seasons of 1887 and 1888 with each other, seasons which 
afforded the greatest possible contrast—the one hot and dry, the 
other cold and wet—the conclusion forced upon me is that the 
former is more suitable for the Gladiolus than the latter. This 
might have been expected for a plant whose home is Natal, and 
indicates how it is that the Fontainebleau growers succeed so well. 
One would imagine, too, that in some parts of the United States 
territory, where “ the fall ” is spoken of so eloquently and its 
glories celebrated, there must be many a place where the Gladiolus 
must flourish to perfection. They have gone in for raising seedlings, 
and I hope to be able to see some which have been sent me by Mr. 
Allen of New York this season. He spoke very enthusiastically of 
them at the Crystal Palace, even in the presence of the fine stands 
of Messrs. Kelway & Son and Mr. John Burrell. 
Having mentioned the Crystal Palace and its exhibitions, I 
may say how much Gladiolus growers are indebted to them for 
encouraging our autumnal beauty, while at the same time we may 
ask what is the correct way of judging Gladioli ? There are so very 
few persons who know the flower that it is necessary there should 
be some definite rule. There is a tendency, especially in the north, 
to consider only or mainly the number of flowers in bloom at one 
time, and to give the award to the stand which has the largest 
number of long expanded spikes, and that thus a spike of Amalthee, 
with twelve expanded blooms, would have a higher place given to it 
than one of Enchanteresse with six ; but I very much question 
whether this is the correct way to look at it. Moreover, these long 
spikes are very often obtained by close shading, and this shading 
takes away a great deal of the character of the flowers, the colour 
being bleached out of them. I have seen some of our most beauti¬ 
fully marked flowers with hardly a stain of colour in them, owing 
to the bleaching process. Now, I cannot but think that if anyone 
was judging who knew the flowers he would consider this as a point 
against them, but it requires a judge who knows how to determine 
