112 
THE GARDENING WORLD 
October 24, 1891. 
column. Here, it is but fair to the firm 
to say, that although they took so much 
trouble and incurred so great an outlay, 
that the results of the experiments might 
be thoroughly well displayed to the visitors, 
teey have no interest in the Mixture, 
and only took up its application at the 
urgent request of the Agricultural Depart¬ 
ment of the Government made last spring. 
A broader, better, and more conclusive 
trial of the Mixture could hardly have been 
made anywhere, and yet in a sense one less 
conclusive. We say this advisedly, be¬ 
cause after the closest scrutiny of the 
tables of results so admirably prepared by 
the Messrs. Sutton, and of the products as 
presented to us in the field, it was imposs¬ 
ible for any one to determine whether the 
Mixture was any good or not. 
In some cases the products were dead 
against its application, in others in its 
favour; but its effects on the stronger 
growers and chief croppers were sometimes 
infinitessimal and often harmful. Whilst 
we cordially thank the firm for their public 
spirit, we regret that their efforts to ascer¬ 
tain the value or otherwise of this assumed 
Potato Disease Destructor should have 
ended in the conclusion that it was next to 
worthless. 
m.EW Varieties of Potatos. —It has 
^ often been said that we have already 
too many Potatos. No fact, has, however, 
during the last ten years been made more 
evident than this, that our present great 
wealth of sound eating tubers is more due 
to the regular production of robust, disease 
resisting varieties, than to disease pallia¬ 
tives or any other cause. But we still 
have numerous good varieties which do 
take the disease much too freely, and it is 
desirable that all of these should if possible 
be eliminated from our gardens. 
We shall, perhaps, never get a race of 
first early varieties which will have full 
disease resisting powers such as is the 
great characteristic of Magnum Bonum 
and many of its progeny. Still they are 
well worth trying for. - Still further should 
we seek to maintain and extend our exist¬ 
ing disease resisting sorts, and that can 
only be done by continuing to raise varie¬ 
ties which are robust and hardy. A few 
days since we saw lying on the ground, 
soon after being dug, at the Messrs. 
Sutton’s trial ground, some 300 seedling 
varieties, the bulk of them so good that 
the work of selecting the very best must be 
one of exceeding difficulty, and can 
only be satisfactorily accomplished after 
some four or five years of patient trial in 
several different places. 
The last thing in the world to pay 
perhaps is raising and testing seedling 
Potatos, therefore some credit is due to 
those who, like Messrs. Sutton, perform 
this work so well and bear all burthens. 
From those 300 seedling varieties—which 
includes a direct cross between Solanum 
Maglia and a cultivated variety—will come 
some half dozen specially selected sorts 
which may make a name in Potato 
history. Possibly many other seed firms 
or raisers are doing the same thing, so 
that with so much of public spirit abound¬ 
ing, we have no fear that our Potatos will 
wear out, but on the contrary rather look 
for further development of the most satis¬ 
factory kind. 
/Actober Chrysanthemums. — The collec¬ 
tions of Chrysanthemum blooms ex¬ 
hibited last week, before the Floral 
Committee of the National Chrysanthemum 
Society at the Westminster Aquarium, 
showed very conclusively that a race of 
October varieties is fast being produced, 
and that these will equal in size and quality 
the best flowers produced in November. 
That the National Society will soon have 
to consider the holding of a special October 
Exhibition is evident. We see the early 
autumn blooms well represented in 
September, and do not wish to have them 
in any way depreciated. Their value every 
year becomes more and more apparent. 
That this early blooming section will 
ever equal in size the best late sorts is 
improbable, but so far as October is 
concerned, we practically find a race of 
the winter blooming section, yet some few 
weeks earlier. To have their best blooms 
we must take them early, as late ones only 
result in the production of inferior flowers. 
Should the Exhibitions of the Royal 
Aquarium Company be continued through 
future years, nothing could be easier than 
for the National Society to devote a 
portion of its income to the encouragement 
of October flowers. That would be better 
than establishing a special show at the 
finish, but all who comprehend the real 
nature of the future of the Chrysanthemum 
must recognise the fact that in a few years 
we shall have scores of fine October 
bloomers in commerce, mostly Japanese of 
course, but none the worse for that. 
After all we think Chrysanthemums are 
much more attractive and beautiful in 
October than in December. In the former 
case we see the finest and freshest flowers ; 
in the latter we have to be content with 
the tailings. Clearly an October show of 
Chrysanthemums will soon have to be 
established. 
Mr. Alfred Dickson. —We are glad to hear that Mr. 
Alfred Dickson, of Chester, whose illness has evoked 
general sympathy and concern, is a little stronger ; 
-but his condition still gives rise to great anxiety. 
Proposed International Fruit Show in London. —We 
are requested to announce that a public meeting, 
which all horticulturists are invited to attend, will be 
held at the Cannon Street Hotel, on Friday, October 
30th, at 3 p.m., to consider the desirability of hold¬ 
ing a great International Fruit Show in London, in 
the autumn of next year. The chair will be taken 
by Alderman Sir J ames Whitehead. 
Mr. Thomas Williams, for the last five years gar¬ 
dener to the Honble. G. T. Kenyon, M.P., Llanerch 
pauna, Ellesmere, has been engaged as gardener to 
W. F. Gordon, Esq., St. Chads, Lichfield. 
The Cirencester Chrysanthemum Society has issued 
a capital schedule for its first exhibition, which is 
announced to be held on November nth and 12th. 
There are a few open classes, but the majority are 
confined to a ten mile radius of Cirencester. 
An American Agave in flower. —We learn from a 
Yorkshire correspondent that there is now in bloom 
a fine specimen of the variegated American Agave 
in the gardens at Heslington Hall, the seat of the 
Hon. R. Bateson Yarborough. The roof of the 
conservatory has had to be made higher to accom¬ 
modate it, the great spike having attained the height 
of 19 ft. There are some twenty side growths carry¬ 
ing large bunches of its greenish-yellow flowers, 
which number about 1,500 in all. It has a fine, 
majestic appearance. 
Bignonia radicans grandiflora. —In some nurseries 
there is a great demand for this plant. We were in 
one a short time since where some one thousand 
plants are propagated yearly, and a considerable 
number more could be disposed of could they be ob¬ 
tained. It is propagated by eyes in the same way 
as vines, and one year ripened wood furnishes capital 
eyes for propagating purposes. They are placed in 
bottom heat and soon break into growth, and when 
only 12 in. to 15 in. in height they set for blossom. 
The plants are generally sold in pots after they have 
had one shift, and become well established. This 
climber is nearly hardy, and well deserves a place in 
every greenhouse. 
Royal Horticultural Society. —The next meeting of 
the Fruit, Floral and Orchid Committees will beheld 
in the Drill Hall, on Tuesday, October 27th, when 
there will be the usual display of new and rare plants, 
&c., besides which special prizes are offered in the 
Schedule for cooking and dessert Apples and Pears, 
as well as for varieties of Grapes. Intending com¬ 
petitors should at once communicate as to the nature 
of their exhibits with Mr. Barron, Superintendent 
R.H.S. Gardens, Chiswick. In the afternoon at 
three o’clock Mr. Harry J. Veitch will read a paper on 
" Autumn Tints," and specimens of trees, shrubs, or 
other plants indicating the season will be welcome as 
illustrations. 
New Market for Kew. —For some years past it has 
been obvious that a market place for the sale of fruits, 
flowers and vegetables, was necessary in the neigh¬ 
bourhood of Kew Bridge. Tuesday, Thursday and 
Saturday are the market mornings for Covent 
Garden, and on those occasions not a vehicle with 
market produce would be seen in the vicinity of Kew 
Bridge ; but on the other three week days the large 
available area of the roadway is simply crowded with 
carts, vans and vehicles of all descriptions loaded 
with market produce. To meet this public demand 
the committee of the Brentford Local Board, ever 
since June, 1890, have been assiduously engaged in 
negotiating with the Messrs, de Rothschild, who own 
the land at Kew Bridge, to purchase a portion fcr 
establishing a market opposite Stile Hall. Until 
recently no satisfactory arrangement had been pos¬ 
sible, owing to the conditions imposed by the vendors 
to safeguard their own interests, and who had no 
desire to sell the land. Those conditions having at 
last been withdrawn, with the sole object of benefit¬ 
ing the surrounding district, a piece of land, close 
upon 2J acres, had been purchased for the sum of 
^3,359 7s. 6d. Upon this piece of ground therefore 
a public market will be established, with suitable 
shops, stalls, &c.—the only condition imposed being 
that the market shall so be conducted as not to 
become a nuisance to the vendors or their adjoining 
property. 
Late Raspberries.—It is seldom we hear of benefi¬ 
cial effects to plants or their owners through the 
results of frost. Something of that nature has, how¬ 
ever, happened at Milgate Park Gardens, Maidstone, 
where the Raspberry canes were killed by frost last 
winter. Mr. C. Marchant, the gardener, sent us 
some fruiting sprays the other day bearing perfectly 
ripe fruits of moderate size, but in good condition. 
There is, of course, nothing absolutely new in the 
production of Raspberries in October, but it is 
another illustration besides that systematically 
practised by gardeners, of how they may be obtained. 
Gardeners cut down the canes within a foot of the 
ground in spring, and the shoots produced ripen and 
then push the flower buds, which would otherwise 
have remained dormant, during the winter. The 
canes in the case under notice were cut down by 
frost, and the after results were similar to that arti¬ 
ficially produced. 
The French Horticultural Society of London. —About 
three years ago a society was founded, under the 
above title, for the benefit of French and other con¬ 
tinental gardeners in London. The first bulletin of 
the Society, for 1889 and 1890, is now before us in 
French, and from it we learn the objects of the In¬ 
stitution. We may compare the same to a mutual 
improvement association as understood amongst us, 
seeing that the members meet at 27, Gerrard Street, 
W.C., on fixed dates, to increase their knowledge by 
reciprocal communications on technical subjects by 
the reading and discussion of papers, &c. But the 
Society does more, in assisting young gardeners who 
come over to England to increase their knowledge 
on horticultural subjects, by finding temporary situ¬ 
ations as far as possible for them, and also to procure 
for English gardeners similar situations in French 
nurseries. Another object is to furnish to its mem¬ 
bers, as well as to horticultural societies correspond¬ 
ing with them, all information they want upon 
horticultural topics in England. A fourth object is 
to affirm and increase, by more and more frequent 
reports, the excellent relations already existing in the 
horticultural world both in France and in England. 
The Society, further, includes four classes of mem¬ 
bers, namely, honorary, honorary life, titulary, and 
corresponding. Amongst other papers which have 
been read at the meetings we notice Hybridisation 
and fertilisation of Ferns, Culture of Freesias, Report 
upon the Nepenthes, Hippiastrums : their hybridisa¬ 
tion and fertilisation, Nitrogen, Stove. Aquatics, &c. 
