820 
THE GARDENING WORLD. 
August 27, 1887. 
in heavy clay soils—and small also. These 
valuable food roots may have a less proportion 
of water in them and more of solid matter, but 
bulk will he sadly lacking. So indifferent has 
been the summer crops, on the whole, that 
growers have done poorly, and the winter 
prospect naturally creates gloom. 
Without doubt, the land interest—so far as 
the unfortunate cultivator is concerned—has to 
look upon a winter in greater doubt and mis¬ 
trust than at any preceding time. There are 
cries for fiscal changes, meaning literally a 
return to protection ; with food supplies short 
at home, protection would but intensify the 
evil. The people must be fed—that is the 
first and primary consideration—and whilst 
protection would materially shorten our food 
supply, it would render no help against the 
evils which flow from untoward seasons, 
whether excessively dry or wet. Even our 
fruit crop has not escaped the effects of the 
hot, dry summer weather, and it will be, for 
that reason, materially lessened. jSTow the 
trees—which have been laden with Apples, 
Pears and Plums—are feeling the pinch of 
the drought, and whilst fruits will be small 
and hard, the trees are suffering appreciably. 
A grand spring promise will be sadly 
falsified. 
We shall have to endure heavy losses in that 
respect; whilst all our summer fruits have 
been more or less disastrously affected. Beckon¬ 
ing up the advantages of glorious sunshine and 
fine weather, and comparing the product with 
the loss consequent upon it, in our land 
produce, we shall have to show a balance 
greatly to the bad. On the whole, we prefer 
ordinary seasons to sensational ones. 
--- 
We regret to record the death on the 14th inst. of 
Mr. Archibald Fowler, for nearly fifty years gardener 
at Castle Kennedy, Ayrshire. 
In connection with the National Co-operative Flower 
Show, at Kensington, on Tuesday, a lecture was given 
at 3 p.m., in the west quadrant of the Royal Albert 
Hall, by Mr. E. Owen Greening on the “ Possibilities 
of Co-operative Allotments and Associated 
Gardens.” There was a good attendance. 
Her Majesty’s Commissioners of Public Works have 
accepted the tender of Messrs. James Carter & Co., 
of High Holborn, London, for the supply of bulbs 
for planting in Hyde Park, Regent’s Park, Battersea 
Park, Victoria Park, Kensington Park, Kennington 
Park, Hampton Court Palace, and the Bethnal Green 
Museum. 
An old industry is stated to be receiving renewed 
attention in Aberdeenshire. Three experimental 
stations for the purpose of Flax-growing have been 
started under the auspices of the Royal Northern 
Agricultural Society, and 50 acres already put under 
crop have been favourably commented upon by a Dutch 
expert. As recently as twelve or twenty years ago, 
fields of Linum usitatissimum might have been seen in 
that county ; but it was grown chiefly for the sake of 
its seed, which was used for feeding purposes. 
A very generous act on the part of Capt. Hargreaves 
took place the other day at Bishopstoke, he kindly 
throwing open his beautiful grounds, The Mount, to 
the public ; a small charge was made, and thousands 
flocked to see the place, which was well kept. In the 
evening the grounds were magnificently illuminated 
with the electric light and hundreds of Chinese 
lanterns, the effect being most charming. The entire 
management was in the hands of Mr. Forty, the 
energetic and obliging gardener, whose abilities as a 
first-rate all-round gardener are evident from the 
excellent way everything is done. A handsome sum 
was realised, which was distributed between the South 
Hants Infirmary and County Hospital, Winchester ; 
upwards of seventy aged and infirm people of the 
village likewise received 5s. each ; the school-children, 
tradespeople and residents a medal of neat design, in 
memory of the Jubilee. Would there were more who 
would follow in the wake of the generous Captain, for 
such benevolence as the example set is well worthy the 
attention of many who might easily go and do like¬ 
wise. It is gratifying to state, that though thousands 
of persons visited these grounds, not the slightest 
damage of any description was done. 
At a meeting of the Fruit and Vegetable Com¬ 
mittee of the Royal Horticultural Society, Chiswick, 
on the 12th inst.—present : Mr. Peter Barr in the 
chair, Messrs. Roberts, Saltmarsh, and the Secretary— 
the Committee examined the collections of Onions, 
Potatos, and Tomatos growing in the garden. Amongst 
Onions, Rousham Park Hero and Anglo White Spanish 
from Mr. Deverill, and Sandy Prize from Mr. Laxton, 
were selected as excellent stocks of the White Spanish 
Onion that should be tried again next year, and White 
Queen (Carter) was commended as a very true stock. 
Potatos—fourteen sorts were selected and cooked; none 
of them were considered equal in quality to existing 
kinds. Of Tomatos, of which eighty-seven samples 
were grown in pots, the following were considered 
worthy of three marks each, viz., Horsford’s Prelude 
(Horsford & Pringle), medium-sized smooth red, a very 
free bearer; Livingston’s Perfection (Farquhar, Veitch), 
large, smooth, round, red, very free ; President Cleve¬ 
land (Farquhar), large, round, smooth, handsome; 
Ham Green Favourite (Crocker), very large, smooth, 
round, early, and prolific; No. 1 (Watkins & Simpson), 
large, round, smooth, very free ; No. 3 (Watkins & 
Simpson), medium-sized, roundish, sometimes oblong, 
smooth red, producing large clusters, a remarkably free 
cropper. ___->*<-_ 
WASPS. 
As the above-named pests are now in the midst of 
their depredations in gardens and orchards, and are 
apparently unusually numerous this dry season, I ven¬ 
ture to call the attention of your readers to a mixture 
called “Death to Wasps,” and specially prepared for 
the wholesale destruction of wasps, ants, earwigs, &c., 
&c. It is in the form of a fine powder, and half a tea¬ 
spoonful placed in the mouth of the hole leading to the 
nest will, in the course of an hour or two, annihilate 
the whole colony. I have, in this way, destroyed 
upwards of thirty nests without a single failure, much 
to my gardener’s satisfaction, and to the delight of the 
village boys, who are rewarded with a penny for each 
nest discovered. 
I trust by these means to rid the neighbourhood 
entirely of wasps, which last year got into my vineries 
and did very serious damage. In certain cases, where 
the nests are in trees and in the “open,” I make a 
solution of the mixture (say a tea-spoonful with half a 
pint of water) and find it equally efficacious. The 
‘ ‘ Death ” can be obtained through any respectable 
chemist from Barclays’, the well-known druggists of 
London. 
I had almost forgotten to add that it is expedient to 
dig out the nest after all signs of life has disappeared, 
and so destroy all grubs, which might otherwise be 
hatched.— Wasp Killer. 
--- 
TOMATOS. 
Your article on Tomatos at Chiswick is an apt 
illustration of the value of the gardening press ; for by 
its means the knowledge arrived at by these com¬ 
parative trials is disseminated far and wide, conferring 
benefits on a large constituency who otherwise would 
be entirely precluded from the advantages resulting 
from the labours and observations of others. Your 
remarks respecting the flooding of the market with 
almost numberless so-called varieties are quite to the 
point, and these trials, carried on with so much pains¬ 
taking at Chiswick, are calculated to be of great service 
to many who are so circumstanced that they have few 
opportunities of making comparisons, to enable them to 
judge for themselves respecting the merits of the many 
varieties that are brought to their notice. 
It occurs to me that among the many readers of 
The Gardening World there must be a goodly 
number who are growing a selection of varieties, and 
that if before the season closes they would give us their 
estimate of them under the heads of earliness, beauty, 
flavour, and productiveness, they would be rendering a 
service to many who from circumstances are necessarily 
confined to the culture of a few kinds. In such cases 
it is highly desirable that the best only should be 
grown, as then the supply is simply for home use 
and not for any ornamental purpose, when flavour, 
productiveness, and, last but not least precocity are 
three points of the most consequence —three particulars 
in which there is a wider margin of difference than one 
would imagine. I think, where there is no accom¬ 
modation to grow Tomatos under glass, that precocity 
should be a leading recommendation, not only because 
the earlier a variety is we have reason to expect a 
larger period of bearing than in the case of later- 
ripening kinds, but also from a melancholy fact that 
for the last ten or eleven years the Tomato has fallen a 
victim to disease, which is often very destructive, 
especially towards autumn ; so, in order to secure a fair 
crop, it is of the first importance that it be matured as 
early in the season as possible. 
We find in looking through our note book that 
Sutton’s Earliest of All sown with others on the 21st 
of March ripened its first fruit on the 27th of July. 
This, and eight other varieties were planted out on the 
10th of June; Dwarf Orangefield is a few days later, 
and extra early ; Advance, later still, the first fruit 
ripening on the 9th of August. We think the 
latter unfortunate in its name, for without exception 
this is the most beautiful Tomato we have ever seen. 
Sutton’s Earliest of All is very prolific—one plant 
carrying sixty-three fruits—twenty-five of which are 
on one raceme. We think it the most prolific variety 
we have, although a plant of Hackwood Park in the 
same row is bearing thirty-six fruits on one raceme. 
We have not yet obtained ripe fruit of all the varieties 
on trial, so cannot compare them for flavour, but find 
that Laxton’s Outdoor has much to recommend it, 
being fairly productive, and of the most exquisite 
flavour. If solidity is a point for recommendation, 
Turner’s Hybrid would, we think, carry the palm ; it 
is so sparsely seeded, and is almost as solid as a 
Turnip. 
We are sorry to say that the disease has commenced 
its ravages with us, and contrary to our preconceived 
notions respecting the point of attack, our observations 
lead us to think that it originates on the flowers, in 
some instances causing them to drop ; in other cases it 
seems to affect the style, turning it black. We intend 
dusting them with flowers of sulphur to see if that 
will check the ravages of the disease, but have small 
hope of any beneficial result. Can any of your readers 
say which is the best flavoured yellow Tomato ? We 
grew Green Gage, but thought it so deficient in flavour 
compared with the red kinds that we discarded it.— 
W. B. G. 
-»>$<*- 
THE CHALCEDONIAN CAMPION. 
As an all-round border plant there are few to equal, 
certainly none to excel, Lychnis chalcedonica, evidence 
of which is not wanting wherever we turn our eyes in 
the gardens of rich and poor alike. It has been an 
inhabitant of British gardens since 1593, and during that 
time has proved its excellence by the lasting possession 
it has taken of the minds of hardy plant lovers. 
Various things must be taken into consideration to 
account for this—namely, its accommodating character 
in a wide variety of soils, its intrinsic beauty, and the 
comparative slow compact growth made by its root- 
stock, which, consequently, never becomes weedy nor 
encroaches upon its neighbours. 
The stems generally vary from 1£ ft. to 3 ft. in 
height, and are not materially affected by dry weather 
if planted in moderately deep rich soil. They are 
straight, and seldom, if ever, branched, unless the top 
is accidently or otherwise broken off. One peculiarity, 
however, is noticeable, the economy of which for 
garden purposes will he mentioned presently. The 
leaves are opposite, but only one of them developes a 
cluster of leaves or short branch in its axil ; and this 
takes place on alternate sides of the stem throughout 
its length. The flowers are terminal and arranged in a 
densely fasciated or corymbose cyme, and in the typical 
form are of a bright scarlet. There are white-flowered 
and other varieties, both single and double, but the 
best of all are the scarlet forms, both single and double, 
while those that depart from the primary colour are 
inferior in point of beauty and need only be grown 
where a collection is desirable to show the variation in 
that respect. The double scarlet remains in perfection 
for the longest period of time, as happens with most 
other double flowers. 
In the case of the single kinds, propagation is easily 
effected by means of seeds, which they ripen in abund¬ 
ance and scatter about the mother plant, where they 
germinate spontaneously if undisturbed. The double- 
flowered varieties are sterile, and can only be propaga¬ 
ted by dividing the plant early in spring, or by cutting 
off the young stems furnished with axillary buds as 
mentioned above.— B. B. 
