458 
JOURNAL OF HORTICULTURE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. 
[ June 5, 1899, 
growers at moderate prices, somewhat below the average here, 
except for Orchids and other choice flowers, for early Roses, and 
for white flowers at the time of church festivals. For all the 
shops in the principal thoroughfares, however, excessively high 
rents and rates have to be paid, and qualified assistants require 
substantial salaries, yet the florists of Paris appear to flourish and 
prosper in no ordinary degree, and this is due to the general 
demand existing for flowers. Just now Roses, Pseonies, and 
IMarguerites predominate, but there are scores of other flowers 
as in our own markets. 
A chapter could be written about the vegetable and salad 
supplies of Paris, for these represent an important industry. The 
crisp fresh Lettuces, Radishes, and other salads obtainable in all 
the Parisian restaurants are unequalled, and then the Asparagus is 
a trade in itself. To see the Asparagus and Watercress in the 
Halles Centrales on a market morning at 5 A.M. is amazing, it 
might be supposed to be the supplies of a nation rather than of a 
city only. Huge baskets and crates piled up in hundreds, the 
passages and alleys between crowded with sellers, buyers, and 
porters, presents a scene that Covent Garden cannot equal even in 
the Pea season. The value of vegetable food is fully recognised in 
France, and it would be well if it was more generally esteemed here. 
The salad is as essential to the dejeuner or diner of the middle and 
poorer classes in Paris as bread and cheese is here, and the demand 
has created the supply. In all directions round Paris, but especially 
towards Versailles, thousands of small cultivators are engaged in 
the production of salading, delicious Lettuces and Endive, while at 
Argenteuil we have the metropolis of Asparagus culture. There 
is plenty of poorly cultivated farm land in France, but wherever 
these small market gardens are seen entirely under spade culture, 
every inch is as well cropped and as cleanly kept as the best of our 
own gardens, and they are often turned to better account because 
such a long succession is obtained by means of low frames and 
“ cloches.” 
But these notes must be concluded for the present week, and I 
will only add as one of the characteristics to strike an English visitor 
in May that the hawkers’ barrows were loaded with Cherries and 
Strawberries, these fruits forming the items in the dessert of every 
cafe and restaurant. The Cherries are small reddish fruits, but 
juicy, of fairly good flavour, and are brought into market in neat 
boxes or baskets from the south of France. They were sold on the 
barrows and in the shops at 4d. to 6d. per lb. The Strawberries 
are the delicious little Alpine or “ Quatre Saisons,” and possess 
an aroma and flavour surpassing many of their larger and more 
showy relatives which are now commanding long prices in the 
London shops. The fruits are small, but they are firm and travel 
well, and as such large quantities are seen in Paris it is strange 
they never make their appearance on this side of the Channel.— 
Leayis Castee. 
PEACH GROWING IN FLORIDA. 
I HAVE read the remarkable letter of your correspondent, 
Mr. W. H. Divers, on the above subject in your issue of April 17th, 
pages 31G, 317, with some surprise and a good deal of amusement, 
feeling at the same time somewhat sorry for a man who after 
paying even a flying visit to Florida is not better informed on the 
subject of Peach culture there than he appears to be. His 
opportunities for observation must have been limited, and I regret 
that before he acquired a thorough knowledge of Florida fruit 
growing he should return to England and append his name to such 
a communication as that which appears in your columns. 
As I desire to make this letter as brief as possible I will at once 
proceed to state facts. My articles on Fruit Growing in Florida 
refer to the district in which I am settled, and any additional 
information given by me must be understood as also referring to 
this locality in Alachna county, latitude (about) 29° 45'. Your 
corrpesondent says he “ saw Peach trees growing, or attempting to 
grow, in Florida, and came away with the impression that Peach 
growing was not likely to be successful. I pass over his remarks 
on white sand, bottom heat, dry roots, and proceed to facts. 
During the three years I have been in Florida I have in the month 
of February every year planted 300 yard rows of Peach seeds out 
in the open (between my rows of Peach trees), giving them just 
such cultivation as I have given to Beans or any similar vegetable 
crop, and I get 90 per cent, of plants from my seeds. The young 
plants from seed sown in February are large enough to bud in 
June and July following, and make young nursery trees G feet 
high and 2 feet through, trained to what I call bush standard form 
with stems 4 feet high to the first branching. If allowed to bear 
in the rows they would hear two dozen or more Peaches, but being 
so closely planted the branches become interlocked, and the young 
trees are therefore replanted 15 feet apart in December, and cut 
back to a switch. The following year they make trees 7 to 8 feet 
high and 5 feet through the heads, and the spring following will 
bear sufficient to pay the cost of the trees at nursery prices and' 
cost of cultivation. The year after they will bear a full crop.. 
The stems of the trees will then be 8^ inches in circumference,, 
just above the insertion of the bud, 11 feet high and 10 feet through 
the heads. These measurements are given from trees now growing 
here, not one or two trees, but hundreds. There is no “ attempt¬ 
ing to grow” about this, I think it is actually done. Seedling 
Peach trees (not hudded) are often grown here 7 feet high and 
from 3 to 4 feet through in one season, February to November^ 
Such planted in February will make a plant of the size before- 
named if fertilised and cultivated intelligently, and will bear two 
dozen Peaches within sixteen months of the time the seed is 
planted. 
If your correspondent requires further corroboration of any of' 
my statements it can be had with pleasure. There are Peach 
trees in Waldo over twenty years of age and still bearing 
good crops of Peaches. "NVithin a radius of three miles of 
Waldo there are at least 100 acres of Peaches. Col. B. F. Living¬ 
stone, a large Orange and Peach grower of Waldo, writes in 
Florida Dispatch, May 1st, 1890 : “ Peach culture here has had a 
marked success for the last ten years,” and “ Peach growing is a 
remarkable success here.” 
I have just been out to measure some old trees in a neighbour’s, 
grove, and following are the measurements of four of them •— 
Circumference 
Total 
Spread of 
6 ins. above ground. 
height. 
branches. 
. 17 inches . 
. 16 feet .... 
. 18 feet. 
. 181 . 
. 17 . 
. 22 „ 
. 15J . 
. 16 . 
. 18 „ 
. ic‘ ;; . 
. 12 „ .... 
. 15 >1 
These trees are probably seven years old, and were planted ia 
their present position six years ago, being then one year old, and 
have up to this year borne fine crops annually. This year an- 
unusually late frost destroyed our crop, as well as that of almost 
the entire United States. 
I surmise that your correspondent, Mr. Divers, has visited 
some of the southern counties of the State of Florida where 
Peach growing is not so successful as in the northern and northern 
central counties of the State, and my object in troubling you again 
is that your readers may not run away with the idea that Mr. 
Divers’ remarks on Peach culture in Florida are applicable to the 
whole of this State. Seeing that Florida extends from Cumber¬ 
land Sound to Cape Sable (irrespective of the Keys Islands), or 
from 24° 7' to 30° 45'—over G° of latitude—I think Mr. Divers ought 
to have named the district he visited, and written more guardedly, 
instead of rushing into print to criticise a fair and truthful state¬ 
ment of what is actually being done in this county. 
As to sandy land, there is plenty of it in Florida, and also plenty 
of good fruit land. I am glad to say I have some of the latter, and 
am improving it every year. No one ought to purchase Florida 
land without seeing it, and not be in a hurry even then. A little 
inquiry is advisable of adjacent owners. I do not write to persuade 
or advise anyone to come here. My article is merely news, and I 
have no land for sale, nor fruit trees either, as I am planting all I 
raise. 
There is little fault to find with Florida roads, seeing that the 
wet weather seems to have the opposite effect in Florida to other 
States, for after a heavy rain I can go out into my fruit grove or in 
the road without getting my boots muddy, though they may get 
wet in the grass. The roads, sandy as they are, become paclced 
hard by the wet, and the wheel of a waggon will not make an 
impression over half an inch deep in the road. This is characteristic 
of the soil also, and accounts for the- necessity for getting the 
cultivator to work after every rain to bring the surface into friable 
condition again. Strawberries are shipped from Alachna and Brad¬ 
ford counties by cartloads, and many thousands of dollars are 
realised by the growers of Starky, Cawley, and Gainesville, and 
little or no irrigation is required. Strawberries in and around 
Waldo are grown for home use, and are not irrigated. No one can 
