370 
JOURNAL OF HORTICULTURE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. 
October 18,1894. 
the exception. No ordinary letter can pourtray the beauty of a drive 
along wide, straight roads lined with these ideal homes, which are best 
described in the words of Mrs. Hemans :— 
“Through glowing orchards forth they peep, 
Each from its nook of leaves.” 
Eat there are no such orchards (for luxuriance, quantity, and colour 
of fruit) in England, where the climatic conditions are infinitely inferior 
to those of Canon. The moral and social benefit on the community of 
these small freeholds is most marked, and five acres of fruit at Canon 
pay better than many a 160 acre farm in America. Here are a few 
instances taken at random, with the amounts in English money, and for 
the information of sceptical readers the names of the growers are also 
given. Mr, W. B. Felton, postmaster of Canon, has a fruit farm of nine 
acres planted in the spring of 1881, consisting of five acres of keeping 
Apples and four acres of early Apples, Pears, Grapes, Peaches, and other 
fruits. In 1889 over £1200 worth of fruit was sold from it. Prom the 
five acres of winter Apples his receipts in 1893 (when there was a failure 
of the Apple crop in the East) were £1156 ; from the four acres in other 
fruits, £153, making his total receipts £1309. His total expenses for 
labour and marketing were £307, leaving a net profit of over £1000. 
His prospects this year are similarly encouraging. In 1893 Mr. J. H. 
Harrison sold from seven acres £970, and from a single acre of his 
orchard over £200 was realised. 
Mr. John Gravestock, the man at whose house we stayed, is a native 
of the Munden Estate, near Watford, Herts, Prior to coming to 
Colorado he was a jobbing gardener and a helper in Pickford’s stables, 
London. He arrived in Canon years ago with a wife, five little 
children, and £2 of borrowed money, which naturally was expended in 
a few days. He subsequently had four other children, has raised the 
entire family of nine, has now sixteen grandchildren. Two years ago 
built his present home, a two-storey, ten-roomed brick house, costing 
£800, and has 10 acres of orchard, vineyard, and garden all paid for. 
This has been done out of fruit-growing. His sons have adjoining 
orchards. He says that had he remained in England he would by this 
time have been disabled with rheumatism, and possibly in the poor- 
house. The writer, however, by no means advises anyone else to arrive 
here with a wife and little children and without money. 
Mr. W. J. Davis arrived in Canon City in 1887 with £140, and pur¬ 
chased 8 acres of bare land for £400, paying £100 down, leaving him 
with £40 as working capital. He has since built a beautiful £700 home 
on the land, an outbuilding costing £40, and this season has bought 
another 5 acres of unimproved land for £300. He does not now owe a 
dollar, and all this has come out of the products of his 8 acres, except 
that in 1891 he sold two acres of it for £250. On the remaining 6 acres 
of his original place he has 800 standard Apple, Pear, Plum, Cherry, and 
Peach trees, old and young, and by the close of this season will have sold 
£400 worth of fruit oS it. Between and under the standards he 
grows small fruits, utilising every foot of space, and in this way has 
this season sold over £80 worth of Strawberries from half an acre, 
£40 worth of Blackberries. Some of his Apple trees (Willow Twig 
and Ben Davis) have this season five barrels of Apples each, worth from 
12s. to 163. per barrel. The whole place is as near perfection as possible. 
So other cases might be cited, where persistent industry, good manage¬ 
ment, and practical knowledge have achieved wonderful results. It 
may be mentioned also that one of the oldest fruit growers in the 
district, Mr. W. C. Catlin, who has a magnificent orchard of 14 acres, 
is from near Boston. Lincolnshire ; Mr. Thomas Prescott, one of the 
leading Plum growers, is from Staleybridge, Cheshire ; Mr. T. F. Wells, 
who has a 10-acre orchard, mostly Pears, is from Bedford ; Mr. Thomas 
Pennington, the proprietor of one of the leading hotels, is from Hol- 
beach, Lincolnshire ; Mr. Curtis, who has the leading dairy farm, is 
from Nottingham, and so on. 
To show that Canon, though only thirty years old, is not in the 
wilderness, it may be stated that it has churches, schools, friendly 
societies, local newspapers, telephones, telegraph, electric lights, water 
works, a sewage system, manufacturing enterprises, two railroads (the 
Denver and Eio Grande, and the Atchison, Topeka and Santa F4), with 
other institutions. There are several mineral springs (hot and cold), 
bearing a marked resemblance to those of Vichy, in France, and in con¬ 
nection with the hot spring fine bath houses and good hotel. A few 
miles south of Canon are vast fields of semi-anthracite coal, and the 
colliery villages of Coal Creek and Rock Vale contain many Britishers. 
The coal of this district is so excellent in quality that it finds a ready 
market as far East as the Missouri River 600 miles distant. A few 
miles east of Canon is Florence, with its quota of British people, the 
centre of an important petroleum district, which yields 2000 barrels per 
day. About twenty-five miles north of Canon is the celebrated new 
gold-mining district of Cripple Creek, only three years old but having 
already a population of over 10,000, and up the river is Leadville, 
formerly a great silver producer, but now rapidly attaining equal 
celebrity for gold. With such surroundings and the rapidly growing 
cities of Denver and Pueblo the market for Colorado fruit seems likely 
to keep well ahead of the local supply.— Thomas Tonge, Denver, 
Colorado, U.S.A. 
GARDENING METHODS—“ THEORY AND PRACTICE.” 
The whole working organisation of this great universe can be briefly 
summed up in two words—namely, “ theory and practice,” and it is by 
these two powers working in unity with each other that all inventions 
have been wrought and great schemes accomplished. Theory teaches us 
how a certain work must be done, or problem solved, and by way of proof 
why it should be done so. Practice is actually the carrying of theoriea 
into ettect. The theories of Euclid tell the schoolboy that certain lines 
and angles will form a given figure ; the practical part—namely, drawing 
the lines and forming the proper angles, proves that such is the case. 
One is totally indispensable to the other. Many theories have been 
placed before the world which practice has failed to carry into effect, 
therefore the thing has become useless, while many attempts have been 
made without the proper methods or theories to work on, and the result 
has been the same. It would be useless for a builder to commence 
erecting a structure without having the proper plans by which he has 
to work, because the whole thing would soon become a mass of confusion ; 
at the same time it would be absurd for an architect to prepare elaborate 
plans and designs of a structure if he had not practical workmen at 
his command to carry the same into effect. 
The same rule applies itself to both the agricultural and horti¬ 
cultural world, and a gardener should endeavour to thoroughly grasp 
the theories and methods connected with his profession, and at the same 
time be able to turn these to good account by making himself competent 
in the practical part of his business. Natural theory will tell him what 
compost a certain plant will grow and thrive in, and what temperature 
it requires, and other particulars connected with it, then practice has 
its part to perform—viz., careful mixing of the soil, properly potting, 
discretion in watering and ventilating. All this thoroughly carried out 
will not fail to produce good results. 
Great credit is due to the County Councils for their commendable 
efforts in placing within the reach of all lectures and classes for 
teehnical instruetion, by which all may receive the benefit of many 
scientific researches which have taken place during recent years. 
1 regret to say that in some districts these efforts have not received the 
support and appreciation which they deserve. I remember some little 
time ago attending a C.C. lecture on butter-making and farming gene¬ 
rally on methodieal and scientific principles. Seated next to myself 
was a farmer, apparently of the old school, so 1 ventured to ask his 
opinion of the lecturer’s arguments. He turned on me with a look of 
infinite scorn and disgust as he replied, “ What is t’ne use of this chap 
coming here and trying to teach us old hands how to farm ? why, I 
farmed before he was born 1 ” “ Undoubtedly, my friend,” I replied ; 
“ but you have not proved that your method of farming is as good as 
his.” “ Oh ! ” replies he ; “ he must not think that I am going to start 
with his new-fangled ideas ; I shall do as my father did before me.” 
Doubtless it is owing to this tenacity of sticking to old methods and 
ideas that County Council efforts in some districts have not been 
thoroughly appreciated, and it is for the young and rising generation 
specially to take advantage of the facilities that are now available. 
Young gardeners will do well to pay attention to the many theories 
connected with the different branches of their calling, as they never 
know how soon it may be of service to them. For instance a man may 
have, say, a flower garden to design and lay out ; he may be an expert 
hand with a spade and be able to do the manual labour, but if he has 
not learnt the theory or method by which he must lay out the ground 
and form the curves and angles required for his beds, it is extremely 
likely he will make a hash of it. Or again a gardener may be going ta 
plant an orehard, but before doing so, natural theory tells him that he 
must first drain the land, and plant a block of trees on such a side 
to break the force of the east wind, then carefully choose the varieties 
of fruit trees that will be most serviceable to him. Then comes the 
actual planting, and supposing all points receive attention, success is 
sure to follow. The question of chemical manures too, for different 
crops and to suit the various kinds of land, is one that is well worthy of 
study. How many a good crop, too, might have been saved if its 
cultivator had only had some knowledge of the disease with which it 
was attacked and been acquainted with the best method of getting rid 
of it. 
These instances are only a very few in the vast number that go to 
prove that to ensure success in horticulture as in everything else, all our 
work should be accomplished on theory and method, and at the same 
time to bear in mind that it is only by sound practice that our theories 
can be brought into good effect. When these two powers work together 
in perfect harmony, and each receives the attention due to it, many 
difficulties will soon be overcome, and good results are sure to follow.— 
G. Hollingwoeth. 
PROGRESS IN FRUIT AT MAIDSTONE. 
After reading what “ The Senior ” had to say (page 277) about our 
visit to Bunyard’s famous nurseries, the thought occurred to me that 
it needed a little of my enthusiasm added to Grant’s Morello Cherry 
brandy to galvanise the “ old ’un ” into action. His memory has left 
but few openings for me. First let me ask if he is sure of his ground 
when he attributes the wonderful colour of the Apples in those nurseries 
to the action of “phosphatic and potassic elements in the soil, traees of 
sulphur and certainly of iron? ” A rich colour adds considerably to the 
value of Apples, whether these be grown for home consumption or 
market, and if want of colour is largely due to a deficiency in the soil 
of one or more of the elements named we ought to be instructed how to 
make good these deficiencies. I am not prepared to dispute the point 
with such an old campaigner, and I will only add that it is my 
belief that the colouring of fruits is largely determined early in the 
season, 
Bismarck Apple is undoubtedly an acquisition, and surely it is 
