January 6, 1894. 
THE GARDENING WORLD. 
291 
required for the conservatory and room decoration 
it is impossible to give, hence the necessity for 
having a fresh supply every season for pot purposes. 
Botanical Education. 
The advantages of a botanical education to a 
gardener cannot, in my estimation, be overrated. 
Every young man commencing his career as a 
gardener should have the time and means at his 
disposal to make himself efficient, at least, in 
elementary botany. It imparts to the gardener a 
knowledge which cannot otherwise be obtained, even 
by a life of study, hard work, and experiments. By 
acquiring a knowledge of botany he learns the 
different uses Nature has assigned to the various 
parts of a plant, and is thereby enabled to assist 
instead of retarding their functions. Especially is 
this the case when, as with exotics, artificial culture 
has to be employed. He not only does this, but he 
also obtains a peep into one of the most beautiful 
and interesting of the sciences, and thereby a know¬ 
ledge of some of the most mysterious workings of his 
great Creator, and at once discovers how little he 
knows of his immediate surroundings, of the wonder¬ 
ful workings of everything in this most wonderful 
and beautiful world, gains a greater love and 
admiration for mother Nature, who otherwise might 
to him have appeared but as a vanity of vanities. 
Knowing that each plant has a living existence like 
himself, he has more interest in its well doing, and if 
he has within his breast the real stuff of a good 
gardener he will be led to look upon them as 
children and learn to appreciate them tenfold. 
A present day gardener should make himself some¬ 
thing more than a machine, he should make himself 
a want and a power in the country, and he can only 
do this by raising himself to a higher level by 
educating himself in the higher branches of his 
profession—of which botany is the highest. 
Fruit from a Salesman’s Standpoint. 
Unfortunately I did not have the pleasure of being 
present to hear Mr. Carlile, and therefore am not 
prepared to express any opinion on the merits of his 
paper. I have, however, little doubt that many of 
you learnt much that was good, and have since 
profited by it. In selecting fruit for market, 
many growers make the great mistake of 
wanting to make the same price of all 
classes and sizes, and this, of course, the best 
possible, and thus spoil their whole produce. 
In every case, fruit for market should be selected 
to size and quality, and every case, basket, or pun¬ 
net should, as near as possible, be of one average 
sample, so as to ensure the best making the highest 
possible price and the inferior being sold at its fair 
and proper value and to persons who only desired a 
second-rate article. Till English growers realise 
this most important fact they must be prepared to 
meet disappointing returns for their produce. What 
can be more despicable than to tempt a buyer, not 
only to buy, but at a high price, a basket of Straw¬ 
berries we will say for illustration, by placing all 
fine fruit at the mouth of the basket, whilst under¬ 
neath they are not only inferior in size, but pro¬ 
bably crushed and worthless. 
{To be continued.) 
--*•- 
Early Peas. 
In these days of progress, gardeners, like other 
people, are expected to be up to date with everything, 
and as peas are a vegetable that are appreciated by 
most people all strive to out-do their neighbours in 
producing the first dish. Now a great many things 
have to be taken into account, in order that all may 
be placed in the same position to start with. One 
gardener may have bestowed a great deal of pain on 
preparing a piece of land to sow the seed, while 
another only a short distance off may have taken no 
trouble at all yet is able to gather some days in 
advance of hisbiother gardener. Soil and situation 
play such an important part in the earliness of this 
crop, that those who have not experienced the differ¬ 
ence would have no idea of it, even in the space of a 
couple of miles. On some soils the seed may be 
sown soon after the middle of November, with almost 
a certainty of success if the situation be sheltered, and 
this too, without any protection whatever, and from 
such sowing good crops are usually gathered about 
the end of May. 
But on cold, heavy land, and in exposed situations, 
there would be much risk in sowing so early, so that 
in such places other means have to be resorted to if 
we would have peas ready to gather as early as our 
neighbours who are more favourably situated. It is 
not all places where cold frames or glass structures 
are at the command of the gardener for bringing 
such things forward, so that some more primitive 
mode of producing growth has to be adopted. Some 
have recourse to hand lights made three or four feet 
long, which are put over the seed as soon as sown; 
others use boards for placing along the sides of the 
rows ; while a third way is to make a ridge on either 
side and cover the space between with glass. All 
these methods are good as they ward off the rain, snow 
and frosty winds, thus advancing growth by two or 
three weeks, but they all cause much extra labour 
and require great care in hardening the plants off, 
otherwise they would suffer. Those who have to 
resort to any of these out-door modes of assisting 
growth should lose no time in getting the first lot 
of seed sown, and covered, for as germination takes 
place very slowly at this time of the year, there 
would be but little chance of them competing with 
those raised under glass and planted out at the end 
of March or beginning of April. It is always better 
to dig the ground at this time of the year as the 
sowing is done, as this prevents the necessity of 
getting on to it afterwards. 
For early sowings there are none so hardy as the 
round seeded kinds, but there is a great deficiency 
in their flavour ; as however they are more hardy 
than the marrow kinds, those who have to resort to 
sowing in the open, especially on cold ground, would 
do well to use them as a first crop. Chelsea Gem 
and Exonian are both good wrinkled early kinds, and 
to succeed these we have tried none to equal Sutton’s 
Early Marrow. This is comparatively a new variety, 
and for those who are able to sow under glass and 
transplant we would strongly recommend it. On 
good ground the haulm is about three feet high, of 
robust habit ; producing an abundant crop of large 
well filled pods containing eight or ten large peas of 
delicate flavour. In sowing peas it should be borne 
in mind that some varieties grow much stronger than 
others, even though they do not grow so tall, and for 
that reason the most robust growing kinds should 
be sown thinner, so that their foliage may have room 
to develop. 
All peas usually grow better on rather heavy soil, 
they require a liberal amount of potash, and 
phosphoric acid for the ash contains about 
40 per cent, of the latter. As the roots run deep in 
the ground good cultivation is necessary, otherwise 
they suffer considerably should dry weather set in 
about the time the peas are swelling. To avoid a 
too quick evaporation at that time the sides of the 
rows should be mulched with half-decayed stable 
manure. The distance the rows should be apart 
greatly depends on the height of the plants, but 
where there is room it is well to sow the dwarf kinds 
four feet and then plant a couple of rows of lettuce 
or a row of early dwarf Cauliflower between each, as 
by so doing there would be a greater amount of light 
and air circulating amongst them. The sticks used 
even for the dwarf kinds should have a tendency to 
lean outwards, as this will allow the plants more 
room as they grow, so that the blossoms in the middle 
of the rows may have the same chance of setting as 
those on the outsides.— Kitchen Gardener. 
-- 
®l^antnas fwtn fh^ DurlEi 
uf Sctenc^. 
The Artificial Colouring of Fruits.—After 
flowers, we can turn to fruits ; perhaps even here 
the artificial colouring of fruits preceded that of 
flowers. ''Simpervirens”reportsan article of a political 
journal, Utrechtsche Cow ant, in which one passes in 
review the falsifications of which fruits are the actual 
object. For a long time acetate of copper and 
sulphate of copper were resorted to for the colouring 
of too green Plums. Citrons are tinted yellow with 
citronine and yellow naphtol; the green spots are 
imitated by means of green diamond. An agreeable 
colour is given to Strawberries by sprinkling them 
with sulpho-fuchsine or with rhodamine, or a 
mixture of rhodame and red azo is employed. 
Nothing is more easy than to give a beautiful colour 
to Peaches; for that a mixture of rhodamine, red 
azo and citronine is employed, and which is applied 
by means of a brush, making use of a plate of zinc 
furnished with holes. The Melon itself is not 
spared. By means of a tube, atropeoline or orange 
azo is introduced to the interior ; care is taken to 
add a little essence of Melon. Apples and Pears 
coihe in their turn. By means of aniline pretty 
varieties are created, and the artificial colouring 
attaches itself as well to the flesh as to the skin. 
Recently at a dinner. Dr. Villon offered his guests 
some Pears whose exterior appeared intact, and 
which in the interior presented the national colours 
of France 1 The blue was obtained by means of 
blue Victoria, the red by a mixture of rhodamine 
and red carnot. Conclusion : Distrust more than 
ever too beautiful colours. Distrust falsifications. 
— Em. R., in Bulletin d’Arboriculture, etc. 
Fertilizers for Raspberries,—In the United 
States no other fertilizer is nearly so popular as 
stable manure. The same might be said of Britain. 
It is the best all-round manure in spite of the great 
waste and loss which it everywhere suffers more or less 
through bad management. A most important factor 
in the case is that such manure is the cheapest and 
always the most easily obtainable on establishments 
where horses or cattle are kept. In reply to 
inquiries made by the authorities of the Cornell 
University Agricultural Experiment Station, to 
growers concerning the manure which they found 
gave the most satisfaction in Raspberry culture, 
stable manure was mentioned forty-four times, and 
wood ashes twenty-four times, taking the second 
rank for commercial fertilizer ; ground bone or bone 
meal were only indicated by four growers. Four 
cultivators stated that they used no fertilisers at all; 
those live in the west. Various other manures or 
top dressings were mentioned in a few cases, and 
one cultivator expressed great belief in good cultiva¬ 
tion by means of a certain machine. This is being 
more and more fully recognised wherever thorough 
cultivation is attempted. But there can be no 
question that good manure given in conjunction with 
it must give rise to more excellent and more 
remunerative results. Well-made stable manure is 
richest in nitrogen proportionately to the other 
necessary elements, and cjuld therefore be improved 
by means of potash and phosphoric acid as obtain¬ 
able in commerce. By adding wood ashes to stable 
manure—the two principal fertilizers mentioned by 
the Raspberry growers—the value of the same 
should be greatly increased. Both are readily 
obtainable on all private establishments of any size. 
Prunings and old uprooted trees are always accumu¬ 
lating, and when burnt constitute a valuable 
fertilizer. 
Forcing Raspberries and Blackberries.—In 
Bulletin 57 of the Cornell University Experiment 
Station the following account of forcing is given : — 
When the ground began to freeze in the autumn of 
1892, several strong Raspberry and Blackberry 
plants of bearing age were dug about, and, when 
frozen, the ball of earth, with the plant, was lifted 
and transferred to boxes about 20 in. square in the 
forcing houses. They were placed in a cool or 
Lettuce house, and came on vei-y slowly, the 
temperature evidently being too low for them, and 
no fruit ripened before April. One plant placed in 
a warmer house came on much more rapidly. As 
spring approached, bringing higher temperature and 
more sunshine, the plants began to blossom freely. 
At first no hand pollinating was done, but it did not 
take long to prove that no perfect fruit would be 
formed without it, and afterwards the flowers were 
pollinated as they appeared, with good and perfectly 
normal fruit as the result. This can be quickly done 
by knocking off the pollen and catching it in a small 
watch glass set in a convenient handle of wood. 
The pistils are then dipped in this pollen, in the 
same way in which Tomatos are pollinated. With 
young plants, started in boxes or large pots in spring 
so as to be well established when transferred to the 
forcing house in the fall or winter, there seems to be 
no reason why good crops of Raspberries and Black¬ 
berries cannot be grown under glass. They appear 
to require a comparatively high temperature, how¬ 
ever, and demand artificial pollination. 
Vines and Vine Culture. The best book on Grapes. By 
Archibald F. Barron, Superintendent of the Royal Horticul¬ 
tural Society's Garden, Chiswick. Secretary of the Fruit 
Committee—A New and Cheaper Edition, Revised and 
Enlarged ’ Demy 8vo, Handsomely Bound in cloth. Price, 
5s.; post free, 5s. 3d. Publisher, Gardening World, i, 
Clement’s Inn, Strand, London. W.C. 
