1877.] 
TWO NEW PEACHES. 
277 
only in quantities enough to grow a few plants of the rarer kinds. The policy of 
compelling gardeners to take what soil they can get, and prohibiting them from 
taking a supply of that which is proper, is not at all profitable to their employers. 
They will not allow the gardener to take a few cartloads of turfy soil from a 
field, for fear the land will be permanently deteriorated, even though he says he 
will replace it with a richer and better grass-producing soil. 
A method of getting some good fibry soil from a meadow containing it is to 
mow the grass off very close, and then skin the turf off as thin as to bear 
handling; then to take about 3 in. of the maiden loam beneath, and fill up the 
space wdth rich garden soil, relaying the skin of turf on the surface, and rolling 
all well down. In the next summer this patch in the field will grow richer and 
earlier grass than the rest, if it is well solidified by rolling, and by sowing the 
seeds of some permanent grasses thickly on it. 
In thus pointing out the groundlessness of the notion that gardeners 
deteriorate the value of grass land by skimming off the turf on the surface, it is 
yet but right on their part to be as sparing as possible in regard to the supply. 
A great deal more use might be made of charred refuse, and of the soil shook 
out of the pots and consigned to the rubbish-heap from the potting benches. If 
this was sifted out and stored into a heap, it would be found very useful for 
mixing with fresh soils. 
As peat-soil is only found good for potting purposes in a few localities, it is 
requisite to be as sparing of it as possible, and only to get a supply to supplement 
any sandy or leafy soil that can be procured on the place.— William Tillery, 
Welbeck. 
TWO CHOICE NEW PEACHES. 
WITH AN ILLUSTRATION. 
[LHEADY several of the valuable new stone fruits, for which we are 
immensely indebted to the late Mr. Thomas Elvers, have been figured in 
our pages; and we now add representations of two others, from specimens 
communicated, with high commendation, by the Eev. W. F. Eadcliffe, by 
whom most of Mr. Elvers’ novelties were specially grown with a view to ascertain 
their comparative merits. The samples were sent to us during the second week 
of September. 
Early Alfred (fig. 1) is a roundish, depressed fruit, rather exceeding 
average size, of a pale greenish straw-yellow with a dash of crimson, and 
deepening to a brownish crimson on the most exposed parts; the suture is well 
marked. The flesh is white, melting, richly flavoured, and with a remarkable 
piquancy of flavour. It was raised from Hunt’s Tawny Nectarine. The leaves 
are sen-ated, and no glands were apparent on the specimens sent, but they are 
described as round in Hogy's Fruit Manual, , 
Magdala (fig. 2) is also a medium-sized fruit, roundish, inclining to ovate in 
