November 1,1894 
JOURNAL OF HORTICULTURE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. 
405 
- The Potato Cbop. — According to the official returns the 
Potato crop in Great Britain occupied this year 504,454 acres, of which 
340,557 acres belonged to England, 129,859 acres to Scotland, and 
34,038 acres to Wales. 
- Gloeiosa abyssinica.—A foreign contemporary describes 
this Gloriosa as a splendid acquisition. It is a native of Abyssinia, and 
grows to a height of about 6 feet when grown in a large pot, tub, or 
vase, and flowers in June. The flowers are large, very beautiful, and 
rosy scarlet margined with green. 
- The Horticultural Travelling Structures at Ant¬ 
werp Exhibition. —We are informed that the New Travelling Hot¬ 
houses, which run on wheels and rails, and were recently noticed in this 
journal, have been awarded the prize medal given to British Horti¬ 
cultural Buildings at the Antwerp Exhibition. 
- Messrs. Daniels Brothers.-—W e are requested to state that 
a grand amateur dramatic performance (under influential patronage), 
to consist of “ The King’s Gardener,” will be given by Messrs. Daniels 
Brothers’ Dramatic Corps, in aid of the Royal National Lifeboat 
Institution, in the Assembly Room, Agricultural Hall, Norwich, on 
Thursday, December 6th, 1894, 
- A Huge Mahogany Tree. —An American paper says a log of 
mahogany, measuring 44 feet and 4 inches long, 60 inches by 56 inches 
across at the base, and weighing 2166 tons, was cut in Guatemala and 
floated down to Laguna, Mexico, a distance of over 300 miles, from 
which port it was to have been sent to the World’s Fair. All vessels 
refused to carry it, and after lying at Laguna for more than a year t’ue 
log was sawed in two and lately brought to Nesmith Brothers’ lumber¬ 
yard at Greenpoint, New York. 
- WooLTON Show.—I am sorry to again have to refer to this 
matter. The show was extremely interesting and novel, and for a 
good purpose, but I repeat what I stated in the first instance—namely, 
that the show was non-competitive. Neither could it be so, for some 
exhibitors had two or three loads of plants, whilst others had only a 
- basket of fruit or a dish of Tomatoes. I trust it will not be thought 
that I complain on account of the position “ R. P. R.” placed me on 
the prize list. I consider I was rightly placed as to merit, and I was well 
paid in kind for what little I did. It was simply a case of those who 
showed the most coming off the best. What I have to complain of 
is being told there (and I believe in the presence of Mr. Disley, the 
Secretary), that the show was non-competitive. I see by your 
last issue (page 384) that the secretary states, without the sanction 
of one of his committee, that the show was certainly a competitive 
one. Then he further says that judges were appointed. Yes ; six good 
men and true. One of the oldest of the “judges” asked me what he 
had been invited there for. I told him I had just heard from one of 
the committee that it was to do him and his colleagues honour, also to 
award eight prizes. If competition had been the object, why was it 
not stated on the prize cards ? more especially as the show was 
intended for education for the cottagers of Woolton.—W. Tunnington. 
- Apples at Woodhatch. —Lecturing on Apples and Pears at 
Reigate on Monday in last week, I was favoured with the presence on 
tables of a fine collection of some twenty-four superb dishes of Apples 
and Pears, which through the great kindness of T. B. Haywood, Esq., 
Mr. Salter, his excellent gardener, had brought down from Woodhatch. 
It need hardly be said that not only did fruit at this time point a moral 
but they were the subjects of the deepest interest to those gardeners 
and others who attended. Of Pears Easter Beurr^, Doyenn^ du Cornice, 
Beurr4 Clairgeau, and Beurr6 Diel were very fine ; and of Apples, Lord 
Derby, Bismarck, Peasgood’s Nonesuch, Bramley’s Seedling, Blenheim 
Pippin, Warner’s King, Prince Albert, Gloria Mundi, King of the 
Pippins, Brownlee’s Russet, and Mere de Manage were all superb 
samples. Pears were chiefly from walls, and Apples from tall bush 
trees that have the branches like long single cordons, each one being 
closely spurred. That is the Woodhatch style of pruning, and it seems to 
answer well. Some trees bore as fine crops this year as I have seen any¬ 
where. Mr. Haywood has a large span fruit room, round which on 
broad trellis shelves the Apples and Pears are effectively arranged, and 
in the centre a table on which may be seen, so long as there is ripe fruit, 
dishes of some of the ripest Apples and Pears with names attached. 
Knives and forks are also at hand, and when visitors are at Woodhatch 
they are taken into the fruit room to have a tasting experience, and with 
such first-rate fruit that is naturally a most enjoyable one.—A. D. 
-Sunderland Gardeners’ Society. — A meeting of this 
Society was held at the Caf6 on the 25th ult., when, Mr. Bolam presid¬ 
ing, Mr. Watson, Sea View, read an instructive and practical paper on 
the “ Cultivation of the Euphorbia and Poinsettia.” The essayist 
treated his subject in a clear and lucid manner, and was listened to 
attentively. 
- The Camphor Tree in Japan. —It is stated that the Japanese 
Government owns large forests of Camphor trees that are sufficient to 
keep up the average supply of the gum for twenty-five years ; and 
young plantations are growing up. These are under the Japanese 
Forestry Department. Hitherto the gum has only been taken from 
trees seventy or eighty years old, but it is proposed to operate on 
younger ones in future. The gum is taken from chips out of the root or 
base, which yield 5 per cent, of it. 
- Tomato Growing near Birmingham.—A correspondent 
writes to a daily paper :—"I was not aware until a few days ago that 
Tomato growing had developed tremendously in the district of Birming¬ 
ham. At Aston there is something like a mile of Tomato beds holding 
about 3000 plants. Each plant yields about 5 lbs. of Tomatoes during 
the season, so that it may well be understood that the undertaking has 
increased rapidly during recent years. I believe that it is the largest 
place of the kind in the Midlands, The season is said to have been 
highly productive, but the weather has greatly retarded the process of 
ripening. Nevertheless, I am told that a ton of Tomatoes was gathered 
in one day and sent to the Birmingham market,” 
- The Californian Redwood Tree.—T here may be seen at 
the Polytechnic Institution, Regent’s Street, a dozen heavy planks of 
Californian Redwood. They are not remarkable in appearance, says a 
daily contemporary, but a little explanation makes them so. The tree 
has sometimes been found 80 feet round, and 300 feet high, with enough 
wood in it to build a house, barns, and fences for a whole farm. It is 
said that the timber shrinks and swells less than any other, that as 
railway sleepers it will last twelve years, where Oak would only last 
six and Pine four, and that it is practically uninflammable—a quality 
recognised and allowed for by insurance companies in the United States, 
where fireproof warehouses are sometimes built of it. 
-Flowers and Fruit in Central Africa.—I t is reported 
that Mr. Scott Elliot, who at the beginning of the year was engaged by 
the Royal Society to make a botanical exploration in Central Africa, 
reached his destination a few weeks ago. His first report shows that 
the flora over the whole of this region up to an altitude of 6000 feet 
remains unchanged, and points to the probability that it extends simi¬ 
larly down to the Zambesi. The Euphorbia and Erythrina are the most 
common trees, and the variety of plants is likewise somewhat limited, 
the principal being 'an Acanthus, a plant richly ornamented with red 
spikes of flowers and large prickly leaves. The Banana supplies the 
wants of the people, but Coffee and Tobacco, and all other tropical 
plants could be grown if properly cultivated. 
- Colour of Peaches. —"While there has been so much com¬ 
ment on badly coloured fruits at northern exhibitions this season— 
Apples, Peaches, and Plums especially—the weather from the last week 
of August has done much to retrieve the character of hardy fruit, and 
prepare keeping sorts for giving late supplies. What one sort may lack 
in crop may have made up for that by fine quality. The lightness of 
the Apple crop, accompanied by five weeks of the finest autumnal 
weather ever known, has given fine colour, solidity, and size. Stone 
fruit has not to the same extent profited by the fine weather; Peaches 
have in comparatively few places been up to par for fine colour. At 
Glasgow some fine fruits of Royal George (a favourite in the 
north) were highly coloured. Mr. Lunt, as usual at Edinburgh, was 
well to the front with finely coloured Royal Georges, though justly 
placed second to the fine Gladstones tabled by Messrs. Buchanan of 
Kippen. These enthusiastic growers have had some trees heavily laden, 
and the quality all that could be wished. They sprinkle Thomson’s 
manure over the surface of the soil and fork it in slightly, then water 
freely, withholding manurial supplies when the ripening period is 
attained. It is a mistake to supply rank manure to Peaches (or other 
fruits) when the growth is dormant. The soil becomes sour and root 
action is rendered feeble. Giving liberal supplies judiciously when the 
roots are active and the impost on the vitality of trees is great gives 
size and colour to Peaches ; but it is a mistake to suppose light coloured 
fruits lack flavour—Noblesse Peach is unsurpassed. — M. Temple, 
Carr 011 ^ N.B, 
