120 
THE GARDENING WORLD. 
October 20, 1888. 
space may remain without a crop, and the trees will 
benefit greatly from the use of all the land. Weeds 
must be kept down, and no Com crop must be taken. 
The plantation should be dug in December or January 
each year, and be knocked over with a prong-hoe in 
March. 
After the sixth season the orchard should he left 
with a permanent crop of dwarf Apples, and standards 
at 12 ft. apart. The dwarfs, at some future time, 
could he cut away, and the standards, which should 
then he established and strong, should be laid to Grass, 
and thus a crop of fodder for sheep keep, and a top 
crop of Apples, secured annually. 
Oxen and horses should not he allowed in young 
orchards. Shelter can he quickly obtained by planting 
Damsons or bush Plums—the latter a Kent sort—with 
Crawford or Hessel Pears as an inner line at 12 ft. 
apart, and this screen would pay its way. If desired, 
Plums could be placed between the Apple standards 
and Gooseberries and Currants, omitting the dwarf 
Apples. If the land be properly prepared, the Apples 
should need no manure for some years, as the use of 
stimulants while the trees are young is prejudicial by 
inducing a sappy unripened growth, which lays the 
trees open to damage by frost. When the trees are 
carrying a heavy crop, mulching may be carried out in 
June, or liquid manure can be used with advantage in 
the growing time. Such a plantation as described 
would commence to bring a return from the dwarfs in 
two years, and the fruit, with a little care in thinning, 
would command a ready sale, because when grown in 
this manner it is cleaner in appearance and much larger 
in size. In three or four years the standards would 
commence to fruit, and a larger return would then 
annually be made, and at the end of fourteen years, if 
properly managed, would buy the fee simple of the land 
outright. 
In order to make the highest price, all fruits should 
he “graded,” as the Americans say, and be of an even 
sample throughout, and properly named, and packed 
carefully, so that the baskets open clean and bright at 
the market. In the case of choice dessert kinds it 
would probably pay to pack them in light card boxes, 
such as those introduced by Mr. Tallerman for Cherries, 
&c., and manufactured by Johnson. In fact, we should 
take a leaf out of the French books, and put up our 
produce in an attractive form. The pruning of Apples 
in February or March is of the simplest: for the first two 
years commence to form the standard trees by taking out 
all the inner wood to attain a shape, and cut back to 
three or four eyes to a bud pointing outward ; the fourth 
or fifth year cut the trees hack to 6 ins., or 12 ins. if 
new wood, and keep the centres clear, and after that 
time let them grow as they like, merely shortening the 
tips to procure an evenly balanced head, and taking 
out any crossing pieces of growth. In the dwarfs they 
can be cut in to form pyramids or basins, as desired, 
for two years, and after that be allowed to grow freely. 
Other matters, such as securing the limbs in a heavy 
crop, and staking the standards, will have to be 
attended to, and the stakes must be removed in the 
winter from the standards as soon as the trees can do 
without support, as the ties are apt to cut into the bark 
and produce canker. 
For Apple growing, land need not he contiguous to 
a railway station, as they will travel well if carefully 
packed. Storing enables a grower to realise a high 
price at the time when good Apples are scarce ; where 
proper stores, such as the Hop oasts of Kent do not 
exist, a frost-proof shed will do, and if care be taken to 
store all sound fruit, a thick covering of straw will 
effectually keep out all danger of frost, and keep the 
fruit plump and heavy. If 1,100 trees bear half-a- 
gallon each, in three years the crop would be about 
seventy bushels per acre, which at As. would be £14 
per acre ; in five years one gallon would double the pro¬ 
duce, and so on. When the top and bottom crop come 
to pick, an average of half-a-bushel would give a return 
of about £120 per acre. The risk of loss by wind is 
small with dwarf trees, and the cost of picking is less 
than with tall kinds, while they can be more readily 
thinned and attended to. 
-- 
BRITISH FRUIT GROWERS’ 
ASSOCIATION. 
On Thursday, the 11th inst., a conference of fruit growers 
and others was held in the Garden Hall at the Crystal 
Palace to receive a report from the committee 
appointed at the previous meeting to consider the 
advisability of establishing a Fruit Growers’ Association. 
Mr. T. Francis Rivers presided, and in opening the 
proceedings congratulated the meeting upon the 
complete success obtained at the last meeting of the 
association. The inception of the association was, he 
said, wholly due to Messrs. Gordon and Castle, and 
the results of their efforts had been to draw the 
attention of the English people to the important fact 
that a large and lucrative industry was being silently 
withdrawn from our country with great profit to 
those who had skilfully'taken advantage of our apathy 
and indifference. The association owed a great deal to 
the very generous and liberal co-operation of the 
Crystal Palace Company, who had placed a room at 
its disposal in the palace for the transaction of business 
and the meetings of members. 
Mr. G. B unyard, in moving the adoption of the 
report, which has already been published in our 
columns at p. 88, said he could not avoid referring 
to a scandalous statement which had been lately 
made in one of the daily papers, to the effect that 
nurserymen, as a rule, grew ninety-nine “rogues” 
to one good fruit tree. He had had considerable 
experience in this matter, and on his own behalf, and 
that of numerous others in the nursery trade, he stig¬ 
matised that statement as absolutely false. Mr. J. 
Cheal, seconded the motion, and after a few remarks 
from Mr. W. Roupell and Mr. R. Dean, it was carried 
unanimously. 
Mr. J. Wright read a paper on “Profitable Fruit 
Farming, mainly Gooseberries,” which will be found 
in another column ; and Mr. D. Tallerman followed 
with a paper which purported to be an inaugural 
address upon the formation of the Association. At the 
conclusion of the paper, questions were asked as to 
whether the association was pledged to adopt the 
suggestions made by Mr. Tallerman, in his “Inaugural 
Address”; whether the association had appointed 
Mr. Tallerman as Editor of its Transactions and 
Reports ; and whether the association was to be used 
for promoting the interests of the companies with which 
Mr. Tallerman was connected. Negative replies were 
given, and a vote of thanks to the chairman brought 
the business to a close. 
-->X<-- 
Gardening §1iscellany. 
Dianthus Hybridus Napoleon III. 
On several occasions that this has come under our notice 
it has always been our impression that the variety is 
of weak constitution ; but it seems that the leafless 
condition in which the plant is found is owing to its 
floriferous nature. All the shoots, with few exceptions, 
produce flowers, so that towards autumn when one 
desires to propagate it very few cuttings are available, 
and certainly none that can be layered. In this respect 
it seems more difficult to perpetuate than the older 
varieties of D. hybridus, but it is none the less hardy and 
more floriferous. This we are compelled to say after 
seeing two lines of it, in the aggregate measuring 
250 ft. in length, in the gardens at Glenbervie House, 
Kincardineshire. The plants formed good sized bushes 
about 12 ins. to 15 ins. in height, and were simply one 
blaze of crimson-red. This was in the last week of 
September, and the plants had been in grand condition 
for some time previously, and although a little past 
their best then, were really the most brilliant feature 
of the borders. Possibly a northern climate is more 
favourable to its well-being than a southern one, as in 
the case of Hesperis matronalis alba plena, which 
flowers here magnificently, and is of the purest white, 
resembling a double Stock.— F. 
The Eucharis Mite. 
In your issue for October 6th (p. 88), Mr. "W. J. Murphy 
asks what your readers think of the proposition that 
there is no such thing as the Eucharis mite ? My 
experience teaches me that what the Messrs. Dickson 
state is correct— i.e., that the mites discovered in the 
bulbs get there through some check the plants have 
received, such as too low a temperature, over-watering, 
the too free use of stimulants, or applying very cold 
water to the roots. Any of these will cause the plants 
to become unhealthy, and then, in most cases, the mite 
makes its appearance. I further believe, however, that 
if plants so affected be properly treated, they can be 
restored to a healthy condition .—Edwin Beckett, The 
Gardens, Aldenham House, Elstree. 
Hybrids of Begonia Frcebelii. 
Hitherto it has been declared that B. Frcebelii was 
not amenable to hybridisation, but that view has at 
last been dispelled. The Messrs. Veiteh, of Chelsea, 
who have done so much in the earlier stages of the im¬ 
provement of the tuberous Begonias, have succeeded in 
raising a batch of seedlings from this hitherto apparently 
unimprovable species, and when once the break has 
been obtained there is no telling to what extent it may 
he carried. B. Frmbelii, as the seed parent, has been 
crossed with a bright scarlet unnamed seedling of the 
tuberous type as now understood, and the result is a 
batch of seedlings having the dwarf compact habit of 
the seed parent, with greatly-enlarged flowers and the 
narrower leaves of the summer-flowering section of 
hybrids. The blooms are about 3 ins. in diameter, 
with the inner sepals of the male flower much smaller 
than the outer ones. In colour they range in indi¬ 
vidual seedlings from a deep scarlet, almost crimson, to 
rosy pink. - The leaves are broadly and obliquely 
cordate, crenate and hairy, with a trace of bronzy 
markings on the upper surface, and more distinctly so 
on the under-surface, with reddish petioles and stems. 
The flowers last a week and then drop, thus showing a 
greater endurance than that of the mother plant. The 
leaves of B. Frcebelii vary considerably, but are much 
broader than the seedlings, almost round, and are often 
entirely red beneath, and more or less bronzed above. 
Passiflora ccerulea Fruiting. 
At Ealing, which is five miles west of London, and 
quite on the verge of the Thames valley, this hardy 
Passion Flower fruits freely. On not a few of the 
villa residences here can be seen very fine specimens 
growing against the walls on the sunny side, and the 
plants flower and fruit with great freedom. In fine 
mild autumns the orange fruits can be seen mingling 
with the blossoms. It does remarkably well in the 
fertile loam resting upon our gravel subsoil.— B. Bean. 
Anthracite Coal. 
The use of Anthracite for heating horticultural boilers 
is most deservedly extending. Ve use it largely, and 
find it more cleanly and economical than coke. 
Instances have come to our knowledge where, owing to 
a deficiency of boiler power, the men in charge have 
had to be up half the night when coke was used, but 
who, since the use of Anthracite coal was adopted, 
have been able to go to bed comfortably at 10 o’clock, 
and yet find everything all right in the morning. I can 
cordially recommend that supplied by Mr. Essery, of 
Swansea. The quality is unsurpassable, and what is 
of great importance where expenses have to be kept 
down, we do get weight. I object to receiving a truck 
estimated to weigh so much ; and Mr. Essery’s weigh 
the amount they are represented to do.— W. B. G. 
Physiantlius grandiftorus. 
In general appearance the flowers of this species 
resemble those of P. albens, which is much better 
known and appreciated as a greenhouse or conservatory 
climber. They are, however, very much larger, and 
pure white, with five ovate somewhat revolute segments. 
The green calyx is, as usual, large, but does not over¬ 
power the corolla. They are produced in axillary 
cymes, and although not so numerous as in its better 
known rival, they are still very attractive. The 
opposite leaves are larger than those of P. albens, hairy, 
and more membraneous, elliptic in outline, and cordate 
at the base, with the auricles overlapping so as to form 
a small sinus. Many of these characters are very 
distinct, as will be seen from those of P. albens, the 
leaves of which are hastate at the base—that is, the 
auricles spread nearly at right angles from the midrib. 
One of the most interesting peculiarities of this plant is 
its odour, which may be described as smelling distinctly 
of Coco-nut, although not disagreeable. The plant may 
be seen in the Begonia house at Kew. 
Pyrethrum uliginosum. 
With the glass some 10° Fahr. below freezing point 
during the first week of October, all supplies of cut 
flowers from the open borders are at an end, unless 
perchance one has a few frost-proof plants capable of 
looking fresh after several nights’ frost. The above- 
mentioned plant is such an one ; a long row of it in 
our kitchen garden is now quite a wealth of flower, 
large white blooms that are extremely useful for indoor 
decoration, and help wonderfully where glasshouses are 
not too numerous. Only a few days since the flower 
borders were aglow with colour ; now nearly everything 
is frost-bitten and black, even the Sunflowers have 
gone in the general slaughter, consequently any flowers 
in the open are valuable, and the one under notice 
should be grown largely if only for cutting purposes. 
A damp rich border is the best situation for it to grow 
to perfection, but it can be naturalised in the wild 
garden or shrubbery with good effect.— J. TF. O. 
Perennial Asters. 
Aster lievis and its varieties, A. ericoides and A. 
Novfe-Anglice, are among the few Asters that are 
looking bright after the severe frost of last week; these 
useful North American species are as a rule very much 
neglected in English gardens, and it is only after such 
a sudden change from the glorious colours of the 
autumn flowers to the dismal aspect of blackened plants 
and leaves, that one can really appreciate the quiet 
colours of the perennial Asters.— J. W. O. 
