760 
THE GARDENING WORLD. 
August 1, 189i. 
will open their blooms only as Nature 
dictates, not as man desires. A Carnation 
show, even if of a National character, may 
be somewhat disappointing to many 
persons. Carnations and Picotees alike 
have beautiful intrinsic merits, but don’t 
make brilliant displays, like the Rose, 
Dahlia, or Chrysanthemum. It is,perhaps, 
largely for this latter reason that growers 
for exhibition are so few. 
On the other hand, the Carnation is 
very popular as a purely garden flower, 
and at this season for bouquets and button¬ 
hole purposes cannot be excelled for beauty 
allied to fragrance. We should regret that 
any intending Carnation growers for garden 
decoration solely should anticipate that 
their flowers would rival the pot-grown 
and artistically-dressed flowers shown in 
the competition stands next week. Out¬ 
door flowers are of course natural and, if 
well-grown, very beautiful, but they do not, 
at the best, quite rival the fine flowers 
which the leading exhibitors display. Still 
we do very heartily commend the wide 
cultivation of garden Carnations. They 
are hardy, almost always healthy, do not 
need undue care, and give in their flower¬ 
ing season a very beautiful reward. 
f OTTAGERS* FrUIT CULTURE.— Mr. 
Chaplin, M.P., at the recent Mansion 
House Meeting laid considerable stress 
upon the desire of the Agricultural depart¬ 
ment of the Government, and of the 
Fruiterers’ Company, to promote la petite 
culture of fruit. The French phrase is in 
this case hardly a happy one, because it is 
just the assured certainty of tenure which 
the French land system gives the occupier 
which renders hardy fruit culture in France 
so popular, whilst in England the conditions 
are the exact reverse. Whilst one occupier 
may be his own landlord there are fifty 
who are but the tenants of others. Spe¬ 
cially is this the case in relation to the 
small cottage or allotment holdings, and 
we strongly advise the Fruiterers’ 
Company, if the interests of that body in 
the promotion of hardy fruit culture in 
England amongst the workers be real, to 
first see that absolute certainty of tenure 
in land is obtained for occupiers before 
they urge them to plant fruit trees. 
Even if the land-owner found the trees, 
and the tenants planted them, there 
are few of the latter who would much care 
to take the trouble to do so without being 
to some extent guaranteed in their little 
holdings. They might see, so soon as the 
trees advanced in value and cropping, that 
the earlier tenants were expected to make 
way for others or themselves be compelled 
to pay more rent. It is the want of 
security for both capital and labour 
expended in planting fruit trees on other 
people’s land which so strongly hampers 
hardy fruit culture with us. 
Except Strawberries, there is perhaps 
hardly any kind of fruit which we can put 
into the same cultural category with 
ordinary vegetable, root or corn crops, 
most of which are of annual growth—soon 
grown, soon harvested. If we plant bush 
fruits we must wait at least four years for 
a crop. If we plant bush trees we need 
■wait even longer for a really paying crop ; 
and if standard trees, they seldom begin to 
repay their cost until some six to eight 
years planted. No wonder then that there 
is great hesitancy in planting on other 
people’s land. 
he Year’s Fruit Crops. —It is just as 
well we should recognize the fact that, 
after all, we have not such a big fruit crop 
for the year as the immense bloom in the 
spring promised. Still we can solace our¬ 
selves somewhat with the reflection that 
the crop is, on the whole, above the aver¬ 
age. It may be asked what is our notion 
of an average fruit crop ? That is a fair 
query,because there is in fruit productionno 
such thing as a standard average. But we 
know too well that the customary average 
in relation to home fruit production is a 
low one—hence we can honestly say this 
year that the season's yield is, or will be, 
above the average of ordinary seasons. 
If we have not an immense abundance 
of Apples we shall certainly have an un¬ 
usually good sample, and generally it 
seems probable that colour will be more 
prominent than usual. The Apple is such 
an important factor in our fruit crop that 
chief interest naturally centres on its pro¬ 
duction. Had the crop been commensurate 
to the bloom we should have had fully 
three times the bulk of Apples now to be 
seen on the trees ; but whilst the set was, 
after all, but fairly good, fully one-half the 
fruits thinned later. It is well to bear in 
mind the fact, when blatant orators talk 
nonsense about our lack of home fruit 
production, that did our existing trees 
crop as they should crop we should have 
Apples enough and to spare for fully eight 
months of the year. That we have not the 
fruit is the fault of the climate, and not of 
neglect on our part to plant trees, or to 
properly cultivate them. 
Pears are perhaps on the whole better 
than Apples, but then Pears are not a very 
important fruit as compared with Apples. 
That we shall have a very good crop, how¬ 
ever, seems certain, and a capital sample. 
Plums and Damsons are generally plenti¬ 
ful, but some varieties are thin, whilst 
others are heavily laden. On the whole, 
we shall have plenty of Plums, without 
doubt, in due season. Cherries, in most 
districts, have been very fair, and when 
thin, through no lack of trees or culture, 
but resulting entirely from an ungenial 
spring. Gooseberries have been fairly 
abundant. Red Currants especially so, 
and Black Currants moderate. Rasp¬ 
berries and Strawberries have been very 
plentiful. As to Wall Fruits, these do not 
greatly concern the nation at large, but 
they are an excellent crop all the same. 
omatos. —It is not a matter for wonder 
that with the advent of warm weather 
there should have come with it an immense 
demand for Tomatos. Rarely in the history 
of fruits—for we prefer to regard the 
Tomato as a fruit rather than as a vegetable 
—has any kind leapt as it were into such 
remarkable popularity as the Tomato has. 
There seems to be no limit to what may be 
its consumption presently. The public 
have taken to it in a most interesting way, 
because, whilst it shows the cosmopolitan 
nature of the human palate, it also shows 
how ready is a better taste to favour pro¬ 
ducts which are wholesome and healthy, as 
well as those which are simply narcotic or 
useless. 
We have faith in the Tomato, and in the 
public also, that soon it will be regarded 
withthesame popularity and avidity for ordi¬ 
nary consumption as Apples and Pears. 
Those who partake of the Tomato in its 
ripe but still raw condition, know of an 
enjoyment which others are not capable of 
realising when they eat the Tomato only in 
a cooked state. To see this product uni¬ 
versally consumed as a ripe fruit would be 
a great gain indeed. Of course with the 
Tomato, as with so many other home pro¬ 
ducts, we have to meet great outside com¬ 
petition. The plant thrives best in heat, 
and here at home if the weather fails us we 
have to depend upon house culture entirely. 
But then through house culture our Tomato 
fruits are far more delicious and accepta ble 
than are those which outsiders can send us, 
hence worth fully double the price in the 
market. 
Tomato culture has become with us 
almost an industry. We now produce from 
glass-houses far more than we do of any 
other product, and its culture in that way 
is indefinitely extending. It seems hardly 
possible that we can ever produce so much 
of fruit and so cheaply that the outside 
competition can be closed, but then it is 
certain that our fruit will always command 
the best prices. It does seem possible that 
some very good fruit will be ripened out¬ 
doors here this season, but these are at the 
best not much before what foreigners send 
us, and, as our summers are of such uncer¬ 
tain nature, we shall always have chiefly to 
depend upon house-grown produce. Here 
at least we can hold our own with all the 
world. 
Mr. James Cole, recently with Messrs. Standish & 
Co., Ascot, and previously with Messrs. Ireland & 
Thomson, Edinburgh, has been engaged as manager 
to Messrs. John Laing & Sons, the Nurseries, Forest 
Hill, London, S.E. 
A Fine Maiden’s Blush Rose. —The finest Rose tree 
we (Field) have seen for years is a huge bush of this 
pretty old Rose in the garden at Bristol House, 
Roehampton. It is about 13 ft. in diameter of head, 
and bears, we should say, quite 3,000 flowers. 
Gardening Engagements. —Mr. Gleeson, late gar¬ 
dener at Clumber, Notts, as gardener and land-steward 
to Charles Keyser, Esq., Warren House, Stanmore, 
Middlesex. Mr. J. McIntosh, late gardener and 
land-steward to Sir William Ewart, Bart., Glen- 
machan, Belfast, as gardener and land-steward to G. 
Greer, Esq., J.P., Woodville, Lurgan, co. Armagh. 
Mr. G. Hart, formerly gardener at Effard Park, 
Lymington, as gardener to H. Head, Esq., Bucking¬ 
ham, Shoreham, Sussex. 
Preston and Fulwood Horticultural Society. —The 
adjourned annual general meeting of this Society 
will be held in the large room of the Old Legs of 
Man Hotel, Fishergate, Preston, this (Saturday), even¬ 
ing, to elect the President for the ensuing year, after 
which Mr. Robert MacKeller, of the Gardens, Abney 
Hall, Cheadle, will read a paper entitled " A few 
Notes on Fruit Culture.” Chair to be taken at 7.30. 
Sudden Death of a Nurseryman. —Mr. James Rad¬ 
ford, nurseryman, Stapenhill, Burton-on-Trent, was 
found dead in bed on the 20th ult., heart disease 
being the supposed cause of death. 
Death from the fall of an Elm bough.— While a 
number of children were playing under an Elm tree 
on Saturday morning last, in the Castle Green, Here¬ 
ford, a large bough snapped off, without the slightest 
warning, and, falling a height of about 50 ft., killed 
two of the children on the spot. The variety was 
the English or narrow-leaved Elm, of which there 
are a number of fine specimens about the city, and 
notably in the Castle Green. 
The Royal Visit to Birmingham —The floral decora¬ 
tions at the Council House, and the New 7 Law Courts, 
which the Prince and Princess of Wales v 7 ent to 
Birmingham to open, were on an elaborate scale, and 
being entrusted by the Mayor to Messrs. Hewitt & Co., 
of the Solihull Nurseries, were so admirably carried 
out as to call forth commendations from the highest 
quarters. The entrance hall and grand staircase of 
the Council House was superbly done, and the private 
rooms of the Prince and Princess were tastefully 
ornamented, yellow and white Roses being largely 
used. The large handsome banqueting room was 
beautifully ornamented with pale salmon-coloured 
curtains, and only white-coloured flowering plants 
were used with Palms and Ferns. The luncheon 
table was dressed with blue corn flowers and grasses, 
and the effect was both chaste and charming. 
Several thousand plants, many of them superb 
Palms, &c., were used. 
Potato Blight Remedies. —-In replying recently to 
a question in the House of Commons the 
Minister for Agriculture said that " the question 
of the best remedy for the Potato blight was 
now the subject of a series of experiments which 
were being carried on by the Board of Agriculture 
and the Royal Agricultural Society in England and 
