December 13,1894. 
JOURNAL OF HORTICULTURE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. 
537 
soil around them, and so secure as well as encourage those suckers from 
the crown of our plant, and which are the life of dwarf Roses. Before 
planting, trim off all coarse roots, or shorten them severely, and also 
trim the jagged ends of those mutilated during lifting. Strong growers 
with much wood may be slightly shortened back to advantage, thus 
giving less strain upon the stored-up sap in the cell vessels. We had 
far better have a less amount of firm and plump wood than much in a 
partially shrivelled condition. Such wood may be cut away without 
fear, as it would be of little service during the coming season, seeing 
that all strong growers need their roots well established if they are to 
do justice to wood made the previous season. Alight mulching with 
rough stable manure upon the approach of hard weather is an excellent 
plan, but do not overdo this. 
If we neglect to make our newly planted standards firm, the swaying 
they go through during the winter is most injurious. As fast as the 
roots start into new growth a wind sways the plant, and probably 
wrenches some of them off. If this does not happen, a hole is made at 
the base of the Briar, water collects here, and, when frost with wet com¬ 
bine, few Roses can survive. More standards are killed or seriously 
crippled during the first winter through neglect in securing them than 
many of us imagine. This form of Rose must be healthy from the first, 
or there is little hope of satisfactory results. 
Early planting, if properly carried out, is an immense advantage, 
and I most strongly recommend it. If one cannot plant early in the 
winter, wait until February, when we may look for a fairly quick start 
after planting. In standards especially, do not purchase varieties 
without knowing their habit of growth, and let no one persuade you to 
have weak growers in this form. As short standards, those upon Briar 
stems of from 1 to 2 feet, a number of our moderate growers are grand, 
but above that height they are far more often than not failures. Do 
not plant such as Gabrielle Luizet and Ulrich Brunner the same distance 
apart as you would Baroness Rothschild or La France, and do not plant 
these two last so close as you would some of our moderate growing Teas, 
Hybrid Teas, or Hybrid Perpetuals. I mention this because I saw a case 
where Cleopatra, some small plants of climbing Perle des Jardins, and 
others of equally distinct habit had been set in at similar distances one 
from another. A little consideration will avoid much future disappoint¬ 
ment.— Pkactice. 
AMERICAN RIVALRY IN FRUIT GROWING. 
I HAVE noticed on several occasions letters from Colorado appearing 
in the columns of the Journal of Horticulture, which to my mind are 
apt to be misleading. The letters are, apparently, from English 
residents in Colorado, and from fruit growers, theoretical or practical, 
as the case may be. 
I enclose a clipping from the “ California Fruit Grower,” and with 
the writer I am personally well acquainted. It is to be deplored that 
such a country should be so “ boomed ” as a fruit-growing region. Some 
three weeks ago, about November Ist, Colorado was visited by a severe 
snowstorm, but the late spring frosts render crops of fruit always 
uncertain. It would seem almost that the much-lauded sections are 
those most to be avoided. I have been in the fruit-growing business 
nearly twenty years in California, and have seen the industry grow 
from a mere nothing to its present gigantic proportions. All over the 
United States it is becoming customary for dealers to label their fruit 
with the magic word “ California,” whether it had been grown here 
or not. 
This year were shipped from California to various markets east of 
the Sierra Nevada Mountains, and chiefly to Chicago and New York, as 
the great distributing centres, 7000 car-loads of fresh fruits, or 84,000 tons. 
To add canned, dried, and preserved fruits — Raisins, Nuts, Olives, 
Oranges, and Lemons, would bring the grand total for this year to over 
40,000 car-loads of 12 tons each. These are vast figures, but none the 
less true. A failure of crops is never known in California, and taking 
into consideration all the natural advantages, supplemented by the fact 
that the fruit industry here is in the hands of largely very intelligent 
men, it seems folly to attempt to compete with us. All the varieties of 
fruits from Europe and Asia have been and are being tried here, and 
many new varieties, surpassing those hitherto known, have originated in 
California. 
Orchards have been for fifteen years systematically sprayed for 
various insect and fungoid diseases, and while growers in Europe are 
just beginning similar experiments, and in a very crude way, we have 
about discarded all insecticides, and in their place have discovered 
various coccinellidse, which are the natural enemies to our worst pests. 
Take, for instance, the white or fluted scale (Icerya Purchasi), which 
five years ago threatened to destroy the Orange groves of Southern 
California. It has been cleared out by the Vedalia cardinalis, a 
beetle closely resembling the lady bird (Coccinella septempunctata). 
The Olive orchards were even in a worse plight through the black 
scale (Lecanium olese), and I know of one grower, the Hon. 
Ellwood Cooper of Santa Barbara, who annually spent 3000 to 
5000 dollars in spraying, and to little purpose. The rhizobia (another 
lady bird) has completely eradicated it. Most of the.e scale insects 
were imported from Australia, and that is where our State Board of 
Horticulture looked for the remedy, engaging an expert to hunt until he 
found the natural foes of the various scale insects. Several other 
coccidae are being bred at the rooms of the State Board of Horticulture 
in San Francisco, and which aie colonised in different portions of the 
State, and sent to individual growers in rotation as they make 
application. 
There are many English and Scotch growers of fruit in California, 
but, unfortunately, most of them, at least, whom I have met, are men 
who would make a success nowhere. I generally have occasion to be 
ashamed of my countrymen. Contrasting the climate of Colorado with 
California, I cannot refrain from picturing briefly the outlook from my 
window. 
The date is November 20th, Large bushes of Heliotrope in full 
bloom ; Roses—La France, Clare Carnot, Shirley Hibberd, Madame 
Lambard, Papa Gontier, Mabel Morrison, and scores of others, all in 
full bloom out of doors. Palms of several varieties, Oranges, Lemons, 
Guavas, and a host of beautiful plants and trees, which nowhere else 
could be seen in conjunction with magnificent orchards of all deciduous 
fruits. Where else in the world can Apples and Peaches, Olives and 
Oranges be grown to perfection in the same orchard ? And this is in 
Northern California, about fifty miles north of San Francisco. In this 
part of the State no irrigation is required. I have grown nursery stock 
as well as orchards for nearly twenty years here, and have never used 
water artificially, although we have no rain during the summer.— 
Leonaed Coates. 
CRANE FLIES AND TIPULA GRUBS. 
We generally find that when one of our native insects appears in un¬ 
usual numbers, or out of its ordinary time, so as to force itself upon the 
notice of the public, absurd and incorrect ideas are soon afloat con¬ 
cerning it; this has been the case recently in North Kent, probably in 
other districts, the result of an exceptional abundance of crane flies 
or Tipulm. Knowledge of insect transformations is yet so scantily 
diffused that some persons when told the flies emerged from the earth 
seemed to think that they issued forth as flies without having under¬ 
gone any previous life in a larval state of existence. One friend, 
whose notions of insect changes were peculiar, ashed what these insects 
“ turned to,” supposing that from such flies some other form of life 
might be developed. 
A very remarkable circumstance was the long time the flies con¬ 
tinued to be about—fully three weeks, taken in connection with the 
profusion that was observable, showing there must have been a series of 
emergences, as it seems unlikely that they live more than a few days 
in their flnal stage. Though the mouth has a sucker and lips, this 
sucker is short. Unlike their relatives the gnats, they are not feeders 
upon blood, and I doubt whether they take honey from flowers; probably 
their only nutriment is the dew or moisture from the grasses and other 
plants amongst which they thread their way dexterously by the aid of 
their long legs. Entomologists agree that the Tipulse seldom fly far 
from the place where they have been bred, and a part, if not the 
greater part, of the swarms we had in North Kent were natives of 
that county, no doubt; yet there was conclusive evidence that some of 
these flies had crossed the Thames from Essex, because they were on 
many days more numerous near the river than further inland, also at 
that time the prevailing wind was northerly. 
Another fact was that a proportion of them seemed to be enfeebled 
or exhausted, hence they would fall an easy prey to birds ; but no doubt 
many succeeded in depositing eggs to produce a new brood. The back¬ 
wardness of the season was shown by the late appearance of these 
insects, for August is the month when they are usually noticeable, one 
of our popular names indeed—that of “ harvestmen ”—associates them 
with the harvest season. This year they began to be abundant about 
the middle of September, and continued in force after that month was 
out. Crane flies is a name given to Tipulse in books, but I never heard 
it applied to them in conversation, that of “ daddy longlegs ” they share 
with a well-known spider of wandering habit. We have some thirty 
British species of this genus, but the flies recently so abundant belonged 
chiefly to the familiar T. oleracea, though there were also specimens of 
the spotted species, T. maculosa, and the marsh, T. paludosa. Un¬ 
doubtedly the weather of the past season was very favourable to the 
larvae or grubs, for they luxuriate in moist soil, and nothing short of 
actual immersion in water hurts them, while a dry spring and summer 
are prejudicial. 
Without desiring to anticipate that these insects will be troublesome 
in the winter and spring, which is quite possible, judging from past 
experience, it is as well to gather up some facts that will be helpful to 
us in the event of the grubs being numerous. They are not always 
distinguished by gardeners from other subterranean grubs that are 
mischievous ; as an instance, they are sometimes called wireworms, 
being taken for the larvre of the Elater beetles, and if not wiry, they 
are certainly remarkably tough, but the wireworms have six legs, also 
they are more flattened than the fly grubs. These pass all their changes 
within the year, but the wireworms live three, or even four, years. 
Though principally known as feeders upon the roots of grasses, corn, 
and Clover, the Tipulse attack many other plants ; Peas, Lettuces, and 
Potatoes have suffered trom them, nor do flowers escape, the Dahlia and 
other species are occasionally visited. Subterranean in habit, and avoid¬ 
ing light, at dusk they often come to the surface of the earth, feeding 
for variety upon the crowns or stercs of plants. One of our friends 
indeed, puts in a plea on their behalf, and says they may now and then 
improve lawns by clearing off superfluous roots, but this must be ciuite 
unusual. In fields and market gardens this autumn the weather has 
favoured a prolific growth of weeds, and it is amongst these the mother 
flies find securitv in depositing their eggs, which are small and numerous 
(one female will lay between 200 and 300), mostly lodging them under 
the earth by help of the very flexible ovipositor. 
There would be many more eggs laid than is now the case were it 
