420 
JOURNAL OF HORTICULTURE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. 
[ M»j 28, 1887. 
Garnett wrote, for Mr. Shaw, who was with me at Swanmore, says he 
distinctly remembers me saying I grew my plants under the same 
method as yours.” This I consider proves that Mr. Garnett spoke 
hurriedly when quoting without authority from Mr. Midgley.— 
E. Molyneux. 
[The object of public discussion is to elicit useful information, and 
as sufficient space has been afforded for the disputants to prove each 
other wrong “ on paper,” we think they had better each try the two 
methods fully and fairly during the j resent season, and we shall then be 
glad to hear from them again. As the “defendant” in the case, Mr. 
Molyneux has the admitted right to the last reply before the application 
of the closure, and we have reason to believe its application now is in 
accordance with the wishes of the majority of Chrysanthemum 
growers.] 
INDIAN EXPERIENCES. 
(Continued from page 373.) 
After the yield of the maiden crops of Coffee manuring was under¬ 
taken to the greatest available extent, but only in a few instances did I 
ever see this important branch of cultivation carried out systematically, 
or with any marked degree of success. A great variety of artificial 
manures were imported from England and other countries, and applied 
at considerable cost with, in the majority of cases, no profitable results 
whatever. Those manufactured in the country, and consisting of a 
compound of fish, refuse oil seeds, crushed bones, and other ingredients 
alike proving of limited utility, resulting from various causes, perhaps 
not the least formidable of which being the voracious propensities of 
the white ant, that with unerring instinct quickly discovered the pre¬ 
sence in the soil of any of the above-named foreign matters, and 
crowded in myriads to the feast, and as these substances were of neces¬ 
sity applied during the dry weather the insects had every facility 
afforded them of consuming the greater portion of the intended Coffee- 
food before the rains set in or root action began. Cattle manure, pro¬ 
duced at considerable cost, shared the same fate, the white ant being 
particularly partial to it as an article of food. Many planters, being 
fully alive to this serious hindrance to the object in view, ceased to ex¬ 
pend money on manures altogether, and in consequence were not unfre- 
quently blamed for bad and unthrifty cultivation by persons ignorant 
of the above facts. At higher elevations than 3000 feet, where the white 
ant was less numerous and not so destructive, manuring was generally 
undertaken with better results, but surface-soiling or top-dressing with 
a thick coating of fresh soil from the neighbouring jungle, was perhaps 
the best and most lasting stimulant I ever saw applied to the Coffee 
tree in Southern India on lands with an elevation of from 2000 to 3000 
feet, surface soil, of course, having always the best effect; but even 
subsoil of any kind, when applied in thick coatings, proving of great 
advantage. This plan of assisting the Coffee tree was primarily dis¬ 
covered by accident by some planter having occasion to cut new roads 
through an old and partially abandoned estate. This work was per¬ 
formed during the dry weather, and the roads cut winding along the 
steep hillsides, the excavated soil being simply thrown downhill amongst 
the trees to get rid of it, the trees to all appearance being worn out and 
of little value. This soil reached perhaps to a distance of three or four 
lines of trees, and when the rains came they at once began to feel the 
beneficial effects of the dressing of soil, and produced an abundance of 
healthy and vigorous shoots, and during the succeeding dry season belts 
of deep green and healthy trees were seen on the lower sides of all the 
new roads, whilst all the other portions of the estate looked yellow and 
unhealthy. The hint was soon taken, and surface-soiling became part 
of the yearly routine of work on most estates with the happiest results, 
in some instances planters going so far as to drive roads in all directions 
through aged estates that had almost given up bearing as the cheapest 
way of obtaining the soil, and always with good results. All this 
pointed directly to the evil effects of denudation on steep lands during 
the heavy rains of the south-west monsoon, and this act of top-dressing 
was simply one of striving to supply the place of the soil that had been 
washed from the whole surface of the land by the yearly recurrence of 
the monsoon gales. 
Large sums of money were frequently spent in the purchase and 
keep of cattle, which proved in most instances to be anything but a 
paying speculation, whole herds perishing by disease during the hot 
season, which the planter had little or no means of battling with. 
Natural fodder, too, in the dry season was scarce, which induced many 
to undertake the cultivation of several kinds of imported Grasses, and 
I have seen large areas of the Coix lacliryma or Job’s Tears, which is 
indigenous to the Wynaad, cultivated for the sake of fodder, and during 
1876 and 1877 large importations of the Prickly Comfrey, Symphytum 
asperrimum, were made from a London firm of nurserymen. The roots 
were simply packed in deal boxes in dry earth, and generally arrived in 
excellent condition, starting into growth immediately on planting and 
thriving extremely well afterwards ; but as the land under the Prickly 
Comfrey had to be kept as clear of weeds as that under Coffee its culti¬ 
vation was a matter of considerable expense and doubtful utility. 
When the plantations were beyond the hand-weeding stage, which 
was usually about the fifth or sixth year, the mamoty or large hoe was 
used in chopping over the weeds and burying them between the rows 
of trees. This work, when performed before the end of the rains, was 
always found to be of great benefit to the Coffee, not only in freeing it 
from the ill effects of growing weeds, but also in a manurial point of 
view. 
Exposure, too, had a great deal to do with success in Coffee planting. 
At one time it was believed that to plant Coffee on land with anything 
but a southern aspect was simply to ignore first principles of general 
cultivation ; but subsequent experience convinced everyone that this 
was altogether an erroneous opinion, at least so far as cultivation m 
Southern India was concerned. Beyond all question, Coffee grown on 
land with a northern exposure retained its vigour longer and had a 
longer existence than that grown on land with a southern exposure. 
Pruning was always a vexed question on which planters differed 
widely, some adopting what is called severe summer handling in India, 
and disbudding in England, and light knife pruning after the tree has 
yielded its crop, whilst others handled or disbudded but lightly and 
pruned heavily with the knife, and in some instances at high elevation*. 
I have known planters who discarded pruning altogether, contenting 
themselves by removing the suckers that yearly appeared at the junction 
of the branches with the stem in clusters. The general mode, however, 
of pruning was to top the tree at from 3 to 3.J feet from the ground, 
according to the nature of the soil and aspect. Then during the rains 
to remove all suckers as they appeared, and to handle or thin out the 
young wood, so as to admit light and air to the tree and fruit, and when 
crop gathering was completed to cut off all wood with the knife that 
had borne fruit, leaving a good supply of young shoots for the succeeding 
year’s crop. All this was performed by Mysore coolies carefully trained 
to the work, anil it was quite wonderful how expeditiously and neatly 
they performed their task. A gang of from twenty to thirty was usually 
employed at this work, and a man could knife prune from forty to fifty 
fully grown trees per day. On the Ghaut estates the trees suffered 
greatly during the monsoon from leaf rot, caused by excessive and long- 
continued moisture, and absence of sunlight. This had to be guarded 
against by disbudding at the right time, for any accident delaying or 
preventing this was certain to result in the destruction of nearly all the 
leaves and a large proportion of green Coffee berries also. This long- 
continued cloudy and wet weather had not unfrequently a similar effect 
on weeds and plants indigenous to the country.— Planter. 
(To be continued.) 
THE AURICULA. 
1 am pleased to note up and down the country signs of a revival of 
interest being taken in that exquisite gem, the Auricula. I myself 
commenced its culture a year and a half ago and am gradually getting 
together a decent collection. I believe there are many others like 
myself who would be glad if some veteran grower would give in your 
columns a descriptive list of the principal varieties now grown, so that 
beginners might be able to verify their purchases as they come into 
bloom. You cannot yet, as in the case of the Rose, run across the road 
and compare a doubtful Auricula with a corresponding variety in your 
neighbour’s collection, so that some such list as I have mentioned would 
prove of great service to novices like myself. For instance, I have ob¬ 
tained plants from several different sources, and possibly may have 
received one or two wrongly labelled. Smith’s Ne Plus Ultra with me 
bears a slight resemblance to Simonite’s Frank Simonite, except that 
it is not nearly so good in any point, whereas the Rev. F. D. Horner, 
in his paper read at the Primula Conference last year, mentions it 
casually in a manner which makes me think I cannot have it true. 1 
do not sec why this beautiful flower should not have a modern treatise 
all to itself, just as well as the Chrysanthemum. Carnation, Rose, kc. 
Perhaps the Rev. F. D. Horner will kindly revolve the matter in his 
mind. I understand that Mr. Molyneux’s book on the Chrysanthemum 
has reached its third edition already, and Mr. Dodwell’s on the Carna¬ 
tion and Picotee its second edition, while I do not know how many 
editions Canon Hole’s delightful book on Roses has gone through ; so 1 
think the time has arrived when a good standard work on the Auricula 
might be issued without risk on the part of the author, and would be 
gratefully received by the rising generation of growers. 
Will someone kindly say whether there is any real cure for the 
woolly aphis, and whether it is still an open question as to its being 
injurious or not? The late Mr. Robert Lord, a short time before his 
death, suggested to me that I should at potting time wash the roots in 
a strong solution of Fir tree oil. I should, however, be glad to hear of 
someone who has tried this remedy whether it has proved efficacious 
without injuring the plants. 
I have always heard George Light body described as the most perfect 
Auricula. To my mind it is very deficient in ground colour, and 1 
think this defect somewhat counterbalances its other splendid proper¬ 
ties. If it could be produced with the ground colour of Lancashire 
Hero 1 fancy it would better deserve its reputation. My premier this 
pear is Richard Headley ; last pear Acme was my best flower.—M. 
NEPHROLEPIS RUFESCENS TRIPINNATIFIDA. 
Certain species of Ferns have a greater tendency than others to 
produce crested, crisped, plumose, or even depauperated forms, and 
among these may be placed the genus Nephrolepis, which contains 
already a crested form of N. davallioides called furcans, a depauperated 
form of N. tuberosa called neglecta, a laciniate form of N. pluma, which 
is grown under the name of N. Bausei, and last of all N. Duffi, which, 
besides being very handsome, is also curious and interesting, as the 
same plant possesses, shown in each individual frond, the two distinct 
characters of depauperation and crestation. The genus Nephrolepis is 
