1880 . ] 
CHRISTMAS ROSES ON CHRISTMAS DAY.-DUBREUIE ON PEACH-PRUNING. 
O 
difficulty in keeping them, for three or four 
days after they have been gathered, in prime 
eating condition. It is, in my opinion, to im¬ 
proved modes of packing and transit that we 
must look for retaining British fruit-culture as 
a remunerative industry, and not to the system 
of gathering the fruit to pack, instead of 
gathering it to eat. 
D O 
Horticultural Societies might add very much 
to their usefulness, by offering prizes—to be 
competed for whenever a fruit show is held — 
for the best and most successful system of 
packing the various classes of fruit for transit 
to market. The system should be judged upon 
trade principles, viz., so as to bring out clearly 
the plan of packing for long railway journeys, 
which shall combine the greatest security 
against damage in transit, with the most expe¬ 
ditious mode of operation, and the least cost 
in material and carriage.—Z. Stevens, Trent- 
ham Gardens , Stoke-upon-Trent. 
CHRISTMAS ROSES ON 
CHRISTMAS DAY. 
^=^-S)HERE is something about the purity of 
tone of a forced flower of a Christmas 
Bose that makes it peculiarly acceptable 
at the Christmas season. I think we see the 
refinement of the Christmas Bose only when 
some steps are taken to assist it in opening its 
flowers sooner than it otherwise would, and to 
do this well, not only is protection necessary, 
but some warmth also. It is only in the case 
of a peculiarly mild and pleasant autumn, that 
Christmas Boses can be looked for in flower in 
the open air at that festive season. During the 
past month of December, the plants were locked 
up firmly in the soil by the severe frost, that 
lasted long, and the flowers, which, when the 
frost came upon us, were sending up their half- 
formed buds through the soil, were held fast, 
and could make no progress. Then is the time 
to step in and assist the imprisoned ones. The 
most forward of the clumps should be lifted, 
even though it is necessary to bring the pickaxe 
into requisition, and the plants with the frozen 
soil about them should be put into a temperate 
house, and left to thaw. As soon as this is 
accomplished, any unnecessary coating of soil 
should be crumbled away, and the clumps put 
into pots only just large enough to take them, 
and placed in a brisk heat. On a shelf in a low 
span-roofed stove, near the glass, which is a 
good position for the plants, they soon com¬ 
mence to throw up their blossoms, and in 
such a position they take on a snowy whiteness, 
unusual to them in the open air. There 
are such things as strains of Christmas 
Boses, I mean by this that I have met with 
what I consider an early and singularly free- 
flowering variety which, when obtained, is best 
adapted for forcing into flower at Christmas. 
This particular strain also appears to have 
flowers whiter than others, the blossoms from 
which are ofttimes tinted with blush and 
salmon. 
It is the old Christmas Bose (Jlellehorus 
niger ) that must lie used for this purpose. A 
few days since, I saw some flowers taken from a 
plant forced into bloom in this manner that 
were of the purest white, and they had under¬ 
gone a refinement unusual to the Christmas 
Bose. The eye is the most cunning of painters, 
and, as Wordsworth says, brings to land or sea 
a light that never was upon them. But there 
is no optical deception in the snowy whiteness 
found in a blossom of a forced Christmas Bose. 
We cannot transfigure it, for its purity is as 
patent as its great usefulness in mid-winter. 
Let us, then, have Christmas Boses at Christ¬ 
mas, as emblems of Nature’s bounty to man at 
the darkest season of the year, and of that 
hallowed serenity and pure goodness, centring 
round the historical figure, which gives to the 
Christmas season its greatest significance.—B. 
Dean, Ealing , W. 
PEACH-PRUNING—DUBREUIL. 
f HEBE are two excellent works on the 
pruning and training of fruit-trees, 
Mr. Brehaut’s and M. Dubreuil’s, and 
were horticulturists to read and study these 
excellent works, there, would not be so much ig¬ 
norance abroad. I will summarise a portion of 
Mr. Dubreuil’s advice on pruning and training. 
Some of his hints are beyond my experience ; 
but I will only quote such as I have found by 
experience to be true :— 
1. The wood of the trees ought to be 
symmetrically trained, which promotes equality 
of vegetation. 
2. The permanency of form in trained trees 
is dependent on equal diffusion of sap. 
3. The strong branches should be pruned 
