420 
THE GARDENING WORLD. 
March 8, 1890. 
best sorts by some information as to young 
tree sales. Mr. Bunyarcl lias not only, so far 
as he can, dealt with our request, but has gone 
beyond it, and given similar information with 
regard to other hardy fruits, which is of ex¬ 
ceeding interest. 
Specially did we desire to learn of the 
demand for new sorts of Apples. Possibly 
prices are yet too high and stocks too scarce 
for any correct estimate of the market grower’s 
demand to be gauged. Planters of trees by 
the hundred are naturally disposed to allow 
others to fully test the value of new kinds 
before they rush to conclusions. If they may 
be classed as new kinds—and their names are 
almost becoming old in Apple history—Lane’s 
Prince Albert, Lord Grosvenor, Lord Derby, 
and Gascoigne’s Scarlet have become popular, 
but some old favourites—notably Wellington, 
Blenheim Pippin, and Cox’s Orange Pippin—- 
still seem to be most in demand. However, it 
is evident the demand for trees is largely 
governed by the fruiting condition of certain 
kinds the preceding season. The current year 
promises, at present, to be a grand Apple 
season, and, it may be, it will be puzzling to 
intending planters to select the best out of so 
many fruiters. Still a good Apple season is 
one of the best inducements to extended 
planting, and the ensuing winter should find 
our fruit-tree nurserymen busy indeed. 
T^he Season. —The month of March has the 
^ reputation of usually coming in like a lion; 
the fittest simile for the incoming of the present 
month would be found in the Polar bear. 
We have had a wintry hug, and bitterly cold 
has- been the biting north-easterly wind, laden 
as it has been with sleet and snow. Yet we 
ought to be grateful for the cold and the 
blasts and snow, harsh and bitter as these 
have been, because they have come now 
rather than a month later. Now the cold 
keeps all vegetation in check so effectually, 
that in spite of having an open time and 
weather which has not in any way interfered 
with labour, yet all things growing seem to be 
as retarded as Avas the case at the end of 
January. 
We cannot now have an early spring, and 
that is well ; we may ev« yet have a late one, 
but that will not be well, for the reason that a 
late spring means the loss of much of our all 
too short summer; for what is wanting in 
warmth in April and May cannot be recouped 
by greater warmth later. We look hopefully 
for what may be called a satisfactory season of 
an ordinary kind. Spring in its proper time, 
summer as it should be, and autumn of a 
prosaic and satisfactory sort. Seasons of this 
kind are far more desirable than are, sensational 
ones, exhibiting violent contrasts. During the 
winter, so far, whilst it has been of an open 
kind and comparatively dry, we have had no 
severe weather, nor but little that could be 
termed mild. 
With the exception of some soft weather in 
January, the weather - has been rather of a 
restful than a deterring or exciting kind. If 
anything could give confidence to fruit growers 
this present season, it is found in the retarded 
condition of trees and bushes, whilst yet there 
are all the germs of a grand show of bloom 
•and a big crop of fruit when the proper time 
for both shall come. Cold may be hard to 
endure in its season, but it is a real, if harsh 
friend to us after all. 
ady Market Gardeners. — There is in 
existence a magazine called Woman’s 
World, and in that feminine contemporary 
recently appeared an article commending 
market gardening to the attention of ladies 
as a profitable occupation. The contributors 
to Woman's World are women writing for 
women, and, therefore, in dealing with subjects 
not exactly of a feminine nature, are apt to 
fall into considerable errors. If the writer 
on lady market gardeners had any practical 
knowledge of the true nature of the occupation 
she would have hesitated ere she urged her 
sisters to embark in what is rough enough as 
a means of living for man, much more for 
women. 
Market gardening as a vocation, from the 
purely financial aspect, needs long experience 
to render it successful. Men, to succeed, have 
almost to be born in it, and to understand 
every part of its working; and the lady 
amateur who would venture into the vocation 
would indeed be rushing into inevitable failure. 
Women would soon find that trees and bushes 
bear thorns as well as fruits ; that flowers may 
be beautiful toys, but full of sadness when 
prices are low; and that vegetables, however 
nice when Avell cooked, are sources of much 
Avorry and annoyance Avhen sold at a loss. 
Hoav interesting it Avould be to see the lady 
market gardener turning out at 5.30 a.m. to 
direct her men and Avomen to their day’s 
labour! Hoav charming a figure, as Avith 
Avaterproof mackintosh, short skirts, gaitered 
legs and stout boots, she overlooked the Celery 
or Potato lifting, directed the manure carting, 
measured up Peas or Apples, bunched up 
Radishes or Turnips—indeed, underwent some 
of the Avork of a common labourer, amidst 
mud, filth, rain and snow; all of which the 
male market gardener has to endure if he 
Avould make his business pay. 
Perhaps it Avould be charitable to assume 
that the lady Avho Avrote of Market Gardening 
for Women in a Avarrn and cosy study, thought 
the paper she penned Avould fill up a page or 
tAvo at least; but to suppose that she really 
knew anything about the subject would be 
absurd. 
-- 
Mr. W. B. R. Tann, who has for some time acted as 
clerk to the Council of the Royal Horticultural Society, 
has resigned that position, having accepted an engage¬ 
ment in the office of the Royal Agricultural Society. 
Mr. H. J. Jones, lately in partnership with Mr. 
Norman Davis at Camberwell, has, we understand, taken 
the Rycroft Nursery, at Hither Green, Lewisham, S.E., 
and commenced business again on his own account. 
Gardening Engagements.—Mr. James Hamilton, for 
seventeen years gardener to Hamar Bass, Esq., Need- 
wood, Burton-on-Trent, as gardener at Mr. Bass’s new 
place at Byrkley. Mr. F. J. Debnam, formerly at 
Dissington Hall, Newcastle-on-Tyne, as gardener to 
A. Pears, Esq., Spring Grove, Isleworth, in succession 
to the late Mr. Micklewright. Mr. John Richardson, 
late of Messrs. Yeitch’s nursery, Coombe Wood, as 
gardener to R. 0. Yates, Esq., Ponfret House, Sunbury- 
on-Thames. 
“The Art of Landscape Gardening ” is the title of 
a little sixpenny brochure written by Mr. Arthur M. 
Kettlewell, and published by Mr. R. W. Satchell, of 
Knighton. It comprises three brief essays dealing with 
the main features of the subject, and in a small compass 
contains a good many useful hints to the inexperienced. 
The American Florists’ Directory.—Front the 
American Florist Publishing Company, Chicago, we 
have received a copy of their current year’s directory of 
the florists, nurserymen and seedsmen of the United 
States and Canada, and which contains more complete 
lists than any of its predecessors. It will be useful to 
all doing business with the States. 
Royal Aquarium Flower Shotvs.—We understand 
that arrangements have been made by which members 
of the National Chrysanthemum Society will he admitted 
to all the six extra flower shows to be held this season, 
on presentation of their members’ pass, and a series 
ticket which can be obtained for 3s. As the first 
of the spring shows takes place on Wednesday and 
Thursday next, application should be made to Mr. 
Holmes at once. 
Dried Apples Poisoned.—The president of the police 
at Berlin, M. le Baron von Richthofen, states for the 
public information that the sliced and dried Apples of 
American production, now widely distributed in com¬ 
merce, have shown by analysis that they include con¬ 
siderable quantities of salt of zinc, the presence of 
which is attributed to the mode of preparation. Such 
a product could, as a consequence, give rise to grave 
inconveniences to the public health. 
Gardeners’ Orphan Fund.—At the usual monthly 
meeting of the committee held on February 28th, it 
was unanimously decided to hold the annual general 
meeting on July 18th, and that an election of ten 
children for the benefits of the fund shall take place on 
the same day. It was also resolved that the stand- 
holders in the flower market, Covent Garden, should be 
approached with a view to holding a floral fete in aid 
of the fund, in the market, in May next; and that a 
meeting of the growers to consider the matter should 
he held at the Hummums Hotel, on Friday, March 
14th, at 9 p.m. The addition of ten children to the 
roll of recipients of the benefits of the fund will bring 
the number up to twenty-nine, and we sincerely hope 
that a strong effort will be made by the supporters of 
the fund to bring in such a number of new subscribers 
as will enable the committee to make it thirty. 
A Noble Elm.—At Pelvesy, a township of St. Genies, 
in the Dordogne, there stands an Elm with a circum¬ 
ference of 42f ft. at the ground, while about 1 yard 
above that it is 29j ft. in girth. The four principal 
branches rise vertically, and girth 18 ft. 7§ ins., 18 ft., 
16 ft. 4 ins., and 12 ft. 5 ins. respectively. The cir¬ 
cumference of the branches, it will be seen, is great 
enough for that of large trees. The approximate height 
of the tree would be about 163 ft. At the same place 
there was another and even larger tree, which fell 
some years ago, and in falling destroyed one of the 
aisles of a mansion. Its branches have furnished over 
100 cubic yards of wood. The circumference of the 
tree at the base was 49 ft. 
A Commendable Example.—Last spring an insti¬ 
tution or society named Floralia, in the little town of 
Purmerende, in Holland, remitted consignments of six 
plants in pots to each of 150 families belonging to that 
place, and consisting of the working classes. On the 
31st of August last an exhibition Avas held, when 130 
out of the 150 lots Avere brought before the judges, whilst 
other lots have been partially reproduced. The jury 
awarded fifteen prizes, which were distributed Avith 
some ceremony at a concert the following day, in 
presence of the town authorities. This is the ninth 
time that the exhibition of Floralia has taken place in 
that township. 
A Nerv Alpine Botanic Garden.—A garden of this 
nature is about to be established under the name of 
Linncea, upon a hill in the valley of Yalais, at an 
altitude of 5,527 ft. above sea level, not far from the 
village of Bourg St. Pierre, near the route which leads 
to St. Bernard, Switzerland. That altitude will permit 
of cultivating there not only the plants of the Alps, but 
also a great number of the representatives of the flora of 
the Pyrenees, of the Caucasus, and also of the Himalayas. 
The new garden is placed under the skilful direction of 
M. H. Correvon, whose predilection for alpine plants 
is well known. 
Heating by Hot Water.—From Messrs. Crosby, 
Lockwood & Co. we have received a copy of a most 
useful and instructive little work on this subject by 
Mr. Walter Jones, of Stourbridge. It consists of a 
series of articles treating on the best methods of heating 
public, private and horticultural buildings, which were 
originally published in the Ironmonger, and now col¬ 
lected and issued in the more handy form of a book. 
It is profusely illustrated, and will be found a useful 
addition to any practical gardener’s book-shelf. Mr. 
Jones treats his subject in a concise, pithy manner, and 
in pointing out causes of failures and how to avoid 
them, gives hints which will be quite as valuable to 
those Avho have charge of heating apparatuses, as the 
constructive details will be to those who manufacture 
them. 
The Edinburgh International Electrical Exhibition. 
—The work in connection Avith this exhibition, which 
is to be opened in May, is being fast pushed forward. 
The main buildings are now approaching completion, 
and present a rather imposing appearance, AA'hich will 
be enhanced when the decorations are complete. The 
grounds, which only a few short months ago were 
cropped with Potatos and Turnips, are in the skilful 
hands of the landscape gardener, being rapidly trans¬ 
formed into a vast pleasure ground and flower garden. 
Towards the southern end of the main building an 
extensive flower garden, with terraces intersected in 
four parts by broad pathways, has been laid out ; and 
on the opposite side (the grounds are divided by the 
Edinburgh Suburban Railway) a number of beds of 
various forms and shapes haA r e been laid out and 
trenched preparatory to the planting of shrubs, with 
which this part is to be adorned. During the past 
