APRIL. 
Ill 
as a fund to start with for next year, and we shall he deceived if a 
brilliant display of Hyacinths and other flowers is not the result. In 
framing the schedule for next year, it would be well to state that 
Hyacinths in glasses should be grown in water only^ as we noticed moss 
in some of the glasses, and other stimulants could easily be added to the 
moss. We would also suggest a class for early single Tulips—sorts 
such as Vermilion Brilhant, Yellow Prince, the Pottebakkers, and other 
varieties. We hope now to see an exhibition of Hyacinths become a 
familiarity in other large towns, and earnestly recommend such a step. 
A spacious room answers admirably for exhibiting them in, and a gas¬ 
light exhibition of them not only allows the working classes the oppor¬ 
tunity of seeing them, but will gratify all by its beauty. 
WHAT KIND OF FBUIT CROPS WILL THERE BE THIS 
SEASON ? 
The very general failure of the fruit crops last year will lead many 
persons to ask what kind of crops will there be this season. There 
are some persons who will say that this wiU in a great measure depend 
on the nature of the season whilst the trees are in blossom, and there 
are others who (whilst admitting the advantage of fine weather whilst 
the trees are in blossom) assert that the failure of the fruit crops 
arises very frequently from the bad management of the orchards. All 
my personal observations and experience lead me to believe the latter 
are right. 
A certain way of ascertaining the soundness of any opinion is to keep 
it before the public ; by this means, if right, it wiU ultimately triumph, 
and, if wrong, it will sooner or later be found out. For this reason, 
and also from a sense of the great importance of the subject, I am 
induced to call the attention of your readers to it just now at the 
beginning of the spring. 
What kind of fruit crop will there be the coming season ? This is a 
subject in which we are aU more or less interested, and it is one 
deserving of the greatest consideration. Let us, therefore, take a glance 
at the past, to see if we can arrive at any conclusions by which we 
may answer this question. Do not, good reader, fear that I will compel 
you to journey a long way backwards with me. No, I will not ask you 
to go back to those times ere our springs became so “precarious.” I 
shall only take a glance at the last three years ; the events of these 
will be fresh in the minds of all readers of the Florist, 
Let us begin with 1854. Your readers wiU recollect that the fruit 
crops in the south of England were that year said to be “ all but 
completely gone,” in consequence of our “ precarious seasons and late 
spring frosts.” In the Florist of that year I ventured to say that this 
failure was owing more to the neglected state of our orchards than to 
late spring frosts, &c. I also said that when trees in a full bearing 
state were allowed to carry too heavy a crop they in general required a 
season of rest to store up sufficient matter for another crop. I also said 
