34 
THE FLORIST AND POMOLOGIST. 
[ Maecii, 
size and profit do not always run in couples ; 
while most florists are well aware that Eoses 
the size of cabbages, are about as useless for 
decorative purposes. 
It may be answered that the rage for size 
has at least succeeded, and that with certain 
classes the biggest fruits, and even the largest 
flowers, always command the highest prices. 
No doubt, but even then size in the long-run 
does not pay, for in pursuit of it thousands 
of plants are killed that might have remained 
alive, and yielded a profitable return. 
Of course, these remarks only or chiefly 
refer to plants in the open air. Under glass, 
with most of the more essential elements of 
climate under control, every one may follow 
his tastes without endangering his plants. 
But out-of-doors, all excessive feeding, any¬ 
thing like pampering culture, lessens our 
chances of maturing our plants before the 
frost is down upon them; and the touch of 
Zero on unripened wood is death. 
Cultivators have a twofold object to 
accomplish in the all too brief months of 
sunshine vouchsafed to them. One is the 
gathering of the largest and best possible har¬ 
vest of fruit and flowers that is produced ; and 
the other, and even more important, is the 
thorough maturation—that is, the hardening 
of their plants. For it cannot be too often 
repeated that maturation does not merely mean 
hardness, but hardiness, and that immaturity 
means tenderness,—the risk of destruction 
being in the exact ratio of the degree of im¬ 
maturity. What may be called medium culture, 
that is, moderate feeding and care, are favour¬ 
able to maturity, and, therefore, among the 
wisest means to adopt to enable plants to en¬ 
dure even cold Zero’s grip with comparative 
impunity. 
As regards fruit trees, slight root-pruning in 
August is useful, as a ready mode of cutting 
off part of the surplus food of such fruit-trees as 
peaches and pears. The fruit may not be quite 
so large, but it will prove better flavoured, and 
the wood will be more ripe. Strong-growing 
Eoses will winter better if subjected to similar 
treatment. I have observed again and again that 
Eoses transplanted early in the autumn winter 
better than those not removed. They are less 
full of sap, which is the secret of their greater 
safety. 
Such means are simple, and within reach of 
all cultivators. Much might also be done by 
the raisers of new fruits and flowers, such as 
Eoses, making constitution a main point in all 
new varieties. What many of our Eoses have 
gained in size and quality, not a few of them 
seem to have lost in constitution. Varieties 
and species have been mixed, till not a few of 
our favourites seem to have more Indian than 
English blood in their veins,—I beg pardon, 
buds. The more high the quality, the better 
the flower — too often the more tender; 
but the first quality for our rigorous climate 
should be hardiness of constitution, and the 
ability to survive contact with something near 
to zero temperature. 
The same remarks are equally apposite to 
our superior fruits, such as peaches, nectarines, 
pears, plums, &c. Let these be as large and. 
luscious as possible, by all means, but it is 
equally or even more essential, if they are to 
bear up against the occasional severities of 
our climate, that their character should be 
hardy, their constitution robust and vigorous. 
—D. T. Fish, Hcirdwicke. 
NEW FRUITS & VEGETABLES * 
(^''jOT is not a very lengthy task to pass in 
review the New Fruits of 1880 ; but 
although few in number, they are not the 
less important. The Fruit Crop of 1880 may 
be best described as a partial one—immense 
crops of some particular varieties, against total 
failure with others : a most abundant crop in 
one district, against a blank in others. The past 
has been moreover a year of specimen fruit; 
for the crop being light and the season favour¬ 
able, the produce was in general remarkably 
fine. 
Amongst Vegetables, we do not look for 
novelty, so much as for selection, since it is by 
careful selection that the purity and high 
standard of our vegetables are chiefly main¬ 
tained, There are practically no new introduc¬ 
tions, as in the case of plants, and but few that 
are the result of hybridisation, so that for any 
advance we must look to the selector almost 
entirely. Even in cases where the hybridiser 
is the means of introducing fresh blood or novel 
features, it is the selector upon whom falls the 
chief share of the work of fixing and main¬ 
taining the points of merit which have been 
arrived at. 
* Abridged, witli Additions and Variations, from tbe 
Gardeners' Chronicle. 
