THE GARDENING WORLD. 
January 30, 1886. 
346 
ground, putting the rows for the Peas 5 yds. apart, 
thus leaving plenty of room for other vegetables to be 
grown between them. • By this means the Peas obtain 
a good supply of light and air, which greatly tends to 
improve their growth and increase the crop. A trench 
for the Peas is then made, and filled with well-rotted 
manure to a depth of 3 ins., and upon this is placed 
about 2 ins. of good turfy loam ; the seed is then sown 
and covered with wood ashes and old potting soil. By 
adopting this latter plan the seeds germinate and grow 
much better. As regards the time for sowing, his practice 
has been to put the first sowing in about the third week 
in January, and in most years they do well, though in 
others—for instance, when there have been very cold 
springs—they have not been earlier than those sown 
in March. He does not believe in sowing inside so as 
to plant out, as his experience is that you get them no 
earlier for it. 
Asparagus. 
In the planting of this vegetable he makes his beds 
in the ordinary way, and plants two-year-old roots. 
He never plants it in the winter, but towards the end 
of May, in which case the roots begin to grow soon 
after they are planted, and are not so liable to rot as 
when planted in winter. He believes salt rots the 
roots, though a solution of salt and water—say 4 oz. to 
one gallon—has more beneficial effect on the plants 
than one of nitrate of soda. He also thinks that 
mulching with manure rots them, but has found well- 
decayed leaves to be better for them. 
Celery. 
Any person who calls himself a gardener can grow 
this vegetable as long as he has ground and plenty of 
manure at his disposal, but there are one or two points 
requiring attention. In the first place, it might be 
asked, which is the best way of growing it—in single, 
double, or in more rows ? A friend of his grows it in - 
beds with eight or ten rows in each, and finds he can 
get four times as much Celery from the same ground, 
but he (Mr. Atkinson - ) questions whether it will be of 
as good a quality as that grown in single or double 
rows. He finds that Celery likes a solution of nitrate 
of soda, say 3 ozs. to one gallon of water. The second 
question arising on this subject is, what are the best 
means of removing the Celery-fly or maggot from the 
leaves ? He has tried several methods, but they have 
failed. Soot may stop them from spreading, but it 
does not destroy them. The best remedy he had found 
is to pluck off' the leaves on which they first appear, 
but then a gardener cannot always be there to do this. 
The third question is as to the best way of bleaching 
Celery. He has found nothing to answer so well as 
sand mixed with a little salt, as slugs and grubs of all 
kind do not like it. Sea-sand, when it can be pro¬ 
cured, is the best. By using two boards, the length of 
your rows and the depth of your plants, one on each 
side of the rows, filling in round the plants with sand, 
and earthing up, afterwards taking out the boards and 
filling up the smce with sand, yon will always have a 
good clear Celety. 
Cauliflower. 
They all knew what a pest maggot or club root is to 
the Cauliflower. His experience is that the best course 
is to sow all the plants required for the following year 
in autumn, say the following kinds : "Walcheren, Early 
London, Eclipse, and Autumn Giant, are the best, and 
by planting these out all at the same time, they follow 
each other in succession up to November, and even 
later. They also get well rooted before the hot weather 
sets in, and are thus able to resist the maggot or fly 
better than if sown in spring. If they are required 
later than this, sow Autumn Giant or Eclipse early in 
spring on a hot bed, and you will have Cauliflowers 
until Christmas, always taking care to remove any that 
have any heads in them, and put them in a cool shed 
away from frost, not heeling them in, but hanging them 
up by the tops, as they keep very much better by this 
method. 
Tomatos. 
These should never be grown but by the single stem 
system. By having one stem only, you will have larger 
fruit and finer crops than by growing them on more 
than one stem. If sown in pots, place the pots close 
together, and trace up a wall or trellis. He finds the 
month of January is the best time to sow for general 
crop. They should be grown in good turfy loam and 
cow manure. They don’t like water until they get well 
set. By making another sowing in March he gets 
Tomatos until near Christmas. 
Oniox.s. 
Onions like a good soil dug deep and well manured. 
Horse manure is the best when well rotted ; other kinds 
encourage the maggot, one of the greatest pests they 
can have. He has tried to destroy them by fresh soil, 
soot, lime, and a solution of nitrate of soda, which latter 
is certainly one of the best things to give to Onions, and 
best enables them to resist the depredations of the 
maggot. When outside, those sown in autumn resist 
the maggot better than the spring-sown ones. The 
autumn-sown Onions should be transplanted in the 
spring to make fine bulbs, and by planting in rows you 
are able to feed them in dry weather with liquid manure. 
Vegetable Marrows. 
For the last three years he has had good crops by 
growing them in the following way :—From mounds 
of earth or rubbish, about 8 ft. wide, and 12 ft. to 14 
ft. long, 2 ft. deep at the front, and 4 ft. deep at the 
back, sloping towards the south. Cut a square hole in 
the centre, place manure—not too rotten, as you want 
a little bottom heat to start them—about 1 ft. deep. 
Make the hole deep enough to allow sufficient soil to 
plant them in. Make the square large enough to fit 
any old lights you may have to spare, and by putting 
in good strong plants you will be able to cut Marrows 
early in July. He has been able to supply his em¬ 
ployers with Marrows up to Christmas by cutting them 
before they get too old, and hanging them up in a dry 
shed where the frost cannot reach them. 
Parsley. 
He has been told that anyone could grow Parsley, 
and that it only requires to be sown in some corner of 
the garden to flourish, but this is not the case. He has 
tried several methods to overcome the Parsley canker 
or disease, but has onty found one successful. This is, 
to sow the seed about the middle of February in boxes or 
pans in a gentle bottom heat, and when large enough, 
to prick them out in a warm frame or in boxes, and 
when the weather is fit, to plant them out. He has 
lost all his Parsley this year by not sowing in the way 
here described. He would like to ask what is Parsley 
disease ? Is it a fungus or due to maggots ? 
Discussion. 
Mr. Hudson said the disease amongst Parsley had 
always been a trouble to him, but he believed it was 
due to a maggot. He was of Mr. Atkinson’s opinion, 
that early sowing of Parsley is the best, and he thought, 
also, that new soil was preferable to old. Mr. Iiogers 
said he had now and then spoken in this society in 
support of a little scientific knowledge being possessed 
by gardeners, and the necessity for such knowledge was 
shown by what had just transpired. For instance, Mr. 
Atkinson asked whether the disease in Parsley was due 
to a maggot or fungus ; then a gentleman got up and 
said it was a maggot. He thought if gardeners would 
carry with them a pocket-lens they could soon discover 
whether a disease was the result of a maggot or a fungus. 
Mr. Upjohn (the hon sec.) said he was one of the un¬ 
fortunate minority who stood up in defence of practical 
gardening, for whilst he did not despise scientific 
knowledge, he considered it was a little over-rated 
sometimes. He had been for years past convinced that 
the disease in Parsley is attributable to a maggot, but 
his difficulty of dealing with it still remained. The 
only way he could produce Parsley satisfactorily was 
by sowing it amongst Onions. On several occasions 
when he had followed out that plan he had found that 
whilst the Parsley that was planted amongst Onions 
was good, that which was sown in other parts of the 
garden was bad. There were many points in the paper 
well worthy of discussion ; it was eminently practical, 
and did Mr. Atkinson great credit. As to Peas, he 
entirely agreed with Mr. Atkinson’s plan ; and with 
regard to Celery, his own experience was that double 
rows are better than others. He also strongly approved 
of the single stem of Tomatos. Mr. Hadfield said he 
had had some of the finest Parsley ever produced, and 
that was grown amongst Onions. He thought heavy 
clay soil was the best for Parsley, as the maggot has 
the greatest power in the light soil. Mr. Nield said he 
always sowed Onions on wood ashes, and covered them 
with the same material, which he generally found to be 
successful, and this year he had treated Parsley in the 
same way. He suggested the application of soda and 
paraffin, mixed with sand, as an antidote to the grub 
in Parsley. 
Air. Butterworth did not believe in vegetables being 
grown by anybody except good gardeners, who have 
plenty of ground at their disposal, and, therefore, he 
confined his amateur gardening to fruit and flowers. 
He believed the principal reason why vegetables are 
not more generally appreciated in this country as food, 
is because, to our shame be it said, we don’t know how 
to cook them properly. Air. E. Griffiths Hughes said 
there were three essentials to the growth of vegetables, 
which all gardeners should remember, viz., climate, 
manure, and good seed. They could none of them 
alter the climate, but they could materially alter the 
manure, and they could make a choice of the seed to be 
used. One thing he would point out, that if they would 
•always use fresh soil, they would never have grabs ; 
and another important matter was that they should 
never allow the soil to be too much impregnated with 
manure or decayed vegetables. The chairman said he 
was exceedingly pleased with the paper, and also with 
the discussion. To his mind it was one of the most 
satisfactory discussions the society had ever had, as it 
had elicited a considerable amount of information from 
practical gardeners, which was the primary object for 
which the society was formed. On the motion of Air. 
Butterworth, seconded by Air. Hughes, a cordial vote 
of thanks was given to the reader of the p?per. Air. 
Atkinson, in reply, observed in answer to a sug¬ 
gestion of one speaker that it would be well for 
gardeners to know something of chemistry, that 
practical gardeners, as a rule, had no time for studying 
chemistty or botany either. 
ENGLISH SEEDLING GRAPES. 
It is often remarked that cultivators of the Vine have 
been somewhat neglectful, and that they have done very 
little to increase the numbers of the varieties by raising 
seedlings ; yet this does not seem to be deserved when 
attention is given to the matter. Some of our standard 
varieties have been obtained in this way, and the .list 
of all that have been recognized as distinct by the 
authorities is considerably larger than might at first 
thought be supposed. Of the black varieties fox- 
example we have at least eight English raised Grapes, 
and a good proportion of these are very meritorious. 
Lady Downes Seedling, Aladresfield Court, Airs. Pinee’s 
Black Aluscat, "West’s St. Petei-s, and Alnwick Seedling, 
may be cited as instances, and ranking nearly in the 
order named. 
Then of other black varieties less generally useful, 
we have Ascot Frontignan, Aluscat Champion (reddish), 
and Royal Ascot. Menus Seedling and Abercairny 
Seedling are also of English origin, but Air. Barron and 
Dr. Hogg do not consider them sufficiently distinct, 
though the former has the reputation with some Bristol 
growers, of being stronger and more reliable than its as¬ 
sumed parent Aluscat Hamburgh, with which the pomo- 
logists named consider it is identical. Abercairny Seed¬ 
ling, too, at the establishment where it was raised, is 
still considered a distinct and superior Gi'ape, though 
now usually regarded as the same as "West’s St. Peters, 
at least that is Air. Barron’s firm opinion, and I am not 
prepared to dispute the point with him. It is quite 
possible that when such seedlings are first fruited they 
show well mai'ked characters, and then after a few 3 -ears 
cultivation they revert to the parent form. 
Similar results are seen in other plants, and when a 
break from a particular variety is secured by seed, the 
best course is to again cross the seedling with other 
varieties, for it is a well-known fact in hybridising or 
crossing that when once a tendency to changing is 
induced, it can often be increased, and the varieties 
caused to depart still farther from their original types 
by crossing with other forms. In a few instances the 
seedlings mentioned have resulted from s} 7 stcmatic 
crosses, as with Aladresfield Court (Aluscat of Alex¬ 
andra + Black Alorocco) and Aluscat Champion (Alill 
Hill Hamburgh + Canon Hall Aluscat) ; but in other 
cases the } 7 have been either raised from seed produced 
without artificial crossing, or no particulars of the 
parents emplo} 7 ed have been preserved. 
The white seedling Grapes are more numerous than 
the blacks, fourteen having been accepted as distinct, 
of these Forster’s Seedling and Buckland’s Sweetwater 
are two of the best known and most generally culti¬ 
vated Grapes ; Duchess of Buccleuch stands at the top 
of the list for flavour, while Doctor Hogg is of similar 
flavoui', but of much better constitution, and more 
fitted for most gardens. Duke of Buccleuch has caused 
much dispute, but is unquestionably a grand Grape 
where well grown, as it is in several northern gardens. 
Canon Hall is the only seedling usually considered 
