804 
THE GARDENING WORLD. 
January 13, 1894. 
We have had frost of unusual severity, 
aided, as it was, in its effects by the very 
strong, keen, and intensely cold wind, 
literally an icy hurricane, that penetrated 
everywhere, and found even the bones of 
the most warmly clothed. It is at such 
moments we realise what is the misery of 
those in want. Those who have commenced 
forcing in houses or pits, or have made up 
hot-beds or Mushroom ridges out of doors, 
let them be ever so well covered, must 
have found that it was ver}^ hard work to 
exclude frost, and generally to keep up the 
needful temperature. How valuable at 
such times are stout canvas screens or 
covers to hang round the ends and sides of 
glass houses, as by thus breaking the 
force of the wind very much indeed is 
saved. 
It is one of the features of our cold 
visitations that they seldom endure for long, 
whilst exceptionally severe or boisterous 
times are rare. We have to endure very 
much less of intensity than is found on the 
European continent, where climatic condi¬ 
tions have been terrible, and such as must 
bring great disaster to horticulture. If we 
get 20° or 25° of frost it is held to be intense, 
how terrible therefore must be 40° to 50®, 
and even in north-west Canada so much as 
60°, as was there experienced just before 
Christmas. From these troubles of low 
temperature ver}?- happily we are spared, 
and may we never know greater cold than 
has recently been experienced ! 
TTRUiT Packing. —This subject has of late 
■^been ventilated in the Daily Press. It 
seems a little unseasonable, but it too often 
happens that the right time is a very busy 
one for the papers and the grov/ers of fruit ; 
therefore we must be thankful for small 
mercies. It is naturally humiliating to 
learn that our home growers are in their 
packing and sorting arrangements generally 
so far behind the foreigner, who is the bHe 
noir of the home grower. It is not that the 
outsider produces better fruit or better 
produce of any kind, but his method of 
sending to market is so much better, neater, 
and convenient than ours. 
We fear it will be long ere our home 
growers take fully to heart that object 
lesson which imported [fruit so constantly 
teaches them, but that they must and will 
in time there can be no doubt. The 
consumer is now rather more refined in 
taste, and does not care to have good fruit 
sent in to him just as coals or f'potatos are. 
Let us see what our press correspondent 
says;—“Fruit and butter come across to 
Southampton, thence to Waterloo, packed 
in small crates, the various parcels in small 
boxes, ranging from 2 lbs. to 4lbs. In 
these they go to Covent Garden, thence to 
the shops, often to the hotels and other 
consumers without being opened, or the 
contents handled. How neat, clean, and 
convenient is all this ; and if it pays the 
French packer to take so much pains, surely 
it will pay our own people to do likewise.” 
Let it not be supposed, however, that 
the Gardening Press has been lacking in its 
duty in this matter. Attention has con¬ 
stantly been drawn to the necessities of the 
case, and so will our press continue to urge 
on our growers better packing conditions. 
The Daily Press, however, does reach a 
class both of growers and consumers that 
is not amenable to the influence of the 
Gardening papers, and even if the latter 
body, the fruit consumers of the kingdom, 
will themselves join in our demand for 
better methods of transit, very much will 
be gained. We are most anxious to see 
this grave reproach on our home fruit trade 
removed. Curiously enough it does not 
apply with any appreciable force to indoor 
fruits, for the handled baskets now used 
enable soft and perfect fruit to be sent 
from one end of the land to the other in 
absolute security. 
HE Poisonous Yew. —In ancient days 
there can be no doubt that the bow of 
the heavy, mournful Yew in the hands of 
English archers wrought death and destruc¬ 
tion when used against foes. To-day its 
green foliage kills cattle freely if the beasts 
partake of it. Ordinarily the Yew is not 
found growing in or near to pastures, but 
it has been planted largely in pleasure 
grounds and in churchyards, and even our 
forefathers seem to have had a notion that it 
was not good for cattle. Perhaps we may 
add that hardly any of our evergreens are, 
although the Yew seems to be rhe most 
deadly in its effects. 
It has not infrequently happened through 
gross carelessness or ignorance that trim¬ 
mings of evergreens—Yew inclusive—have 
been thrown where cattle had access to 
them, and numerous deaths have resulted. 
These have, however, been chiefly attribu¬ 
table to the changing condition of the leaf¬ 
age induced by partial decay. In the most 
recent instance reported—that of several 
heifers and two cows being poisoned by 
eating Yew on Lord Tollemache’s estate in 
Cheshire—there seems to be no doubt but 
that the Yew was eaten direct from the 
trees, and if the cattle were driven to the 
trees for shelter from the bitter weather 
and also from the snow, which prevented 
access to the pasture, it is not difficult to 
understand that they may have partaken of 
the Yew in a condition of hunger, and have 
eaten ravenously. 
We should be sorry for the sake of what 
is, if of a somewhat mournful aspect, yet a 
beautiful tree, that some slight negligence 
should yet lead to its being brought into 
disrepute. Whatever its proper place is, 
certainly it is not in pastures, and any who 
have Yews so placed should have them 
securely fenced Irom cattle, and this pro¬ 
tection is all the more needful in severe 
weather. 
HE Snowfall. —A heavy fall of snow, 
and especially several falls in suc¬ 
cession, always brings a certain amount 
of stagnation in gardens, and gardeners, 
especially where a large staff of men is 
emplo3'ed, are often much puzzled to know 
how to find labour that is useful during the 
period the snow covering may exist. 
Naturally the first course to take is to clear 
roads and footways in every direction, as 
locomotion not only becomes easy, but the 
roads and paths so treated are saved 
from much harm later when the thaw 
comes. It is, however, far from wise to 
remove snow from any portion of the 
garden that is cropped, or from grass, 
except where getting at produce renders it 
essential. 
Snow may be with advantage removed 
from houses or roofs, except stores of any 
kind w’here the frost may do mischief; and 
yards and open gravel or ash or asphalte 
areas may be cleared of snow, if there be 
any convenient place to which it can be 
removed, without creating greater tro.uble 
than it would if allowed to lie. Still, con¬ 
siderable as may be the work involved 
should the snow lie on the ground for some 
time, it is little relativel}^ and soon done. 
Perhaps some Conifers, Shrubs, &c., may 
be well relieved of their fleec}'^ covering. 
Still that is soon performed with the aid of 
a stout stick or pole. Then comes the need 
for providing plenty of indoor work. 
Labels may be made, pots may be washed, 
stakes trimmed and tied up into bundles 
ready for use, pegs for layering in the 
summer prepared, sheds thoroughly 
cleansed and whitewashed, floors repaired. 
tanks cleaned out, indeed very much of 
useful work may thus be found, although 
the ingenuity of every head gardener is 
very severely taxed just then to keep all 
hands usefully employed. So much less 
is practicable under a heavy snowfall 
than is the case when a severe spell 
of frost only without snow renders much 
out of door work possible. Happily the 
sudden fall in the temperature on Monday 
evening speedily cleared away the late 
snowfall. 
-- ^ - 
Chrysanthemum Show for Glasgow.—We under¬ 
stand that it has been decided by the leading horti¬ 
culturists of Glasgow to form a Chrysanthemum 
Society in that city. 
Mr. George Harris, gardener to the Duke of 
Northumberland, at Alnwick Castle, has been 
engaged by the Northumberland County Council to 
give a course of lectures on gardening. The first 
lecture at Crookham was given on Friday evening, 
the subject of Mr.Harris's discourse being the culture 
of the Strawberry. 
Primu'as and Cyclamen at Reading.—Messrs. 
Sutton & Sons' annual display of Primulas and 
Cyclamens is now in fine order for inspection, and 
is such a cheering sight at this dull season that we 
strongly recommend any of our readers who may 
find themselves within reach of Reading to look in 
and see the beautiful display. 
Forests of Apples. — The American journal, 
Meehan's Monthly, says that the Apple has become 
naturalised in the Sandwich Islands. One meets 
with forests of it of several acres in extent, from the 
sea coast to the flanks of the mountains in several 
localities. 
United Horticultural Benefit and Provident Society. 
—At the quarterly meeting of this society, held at 
the Caledonian Hotel on Monday evening last, five 
new members were elected; and there being an 
accumulated balance to the credit of the Benefit 
Fund, it was resolved that the same be added to the 
credit of members on all amounts above £1, at the 
rate of four pence in the £. This being the last 
meeting in the financial year, Messrs. Dixon, Gunner 
and Puzey were elected to audit the accounts. The 
annual meeting has been fixed to take place on Mon¬ 
day evening March 12th at 8 o’clock, when Mr. B. 
Wynne will preside. 
A sudden drop in the temperature.—A Belfast 
correspondent writes :—"On the morning of Friday 
the 5th inst., our out-door thermometer stood at 32°, 
and snow fall at intervals ; at i p.m. the sky was 
clear and the mercury stood at 28‘^. On Saturday,the 
6th, at 7 a.m. the same instrument registered 3° 
below zero, or 35° of frost, an amount not often 
experienced in this part of the country. I was never 
before in an atmosphere below zero, although I have 
seen such temperatures recorded before now, and it 
is astonishing how soon the hair on one's upper lip 
gets into a solid piece of ice.’’ 
The Kingston and Suburban Gardeners'Association. 
—The following is the programme of lectures &c., 
for the ensuing session;—January i6th, "The 
Dahlia,’’ by Mr. A. Dean; January 30th, discus¬ 
sion, to be opened by Mr. T. H. Cushon, " How to 
make our Chrysanthemum Exhibitions more Attrac¬ 
tive ’’ ; February 13th, " The Carnation,’’ by Mr. G. 
Woodgate ; February 27th, " The Culture of Mush¬ 
rooms,’’ by Mr. T. Benson ; March 13th, discussion, 
to be opened by Mr. J. Cox, “ How best to secure a 
good supply of Peas over a long season ’’; and March 
27th, " Hardy Spring Flowering Bulbs,’’ by Mr. W. 
Barr. 
The Weather in Ayrshire.—The last week of 1893 
and the first of 1894 have been in singular contrast 
to each other. From one of the pleasantest and 
mildest winter weeks on record, the advent of the 
New Year ushered us into an apparently semi-arctic 
period. Frost set in on Monday the ist inst., 
increasing in intensity till the morning of the 6th, 
when the lowest reading of the thermometer for the 
season here, viz. 17° of frost, was registered at ii 
a.m. The blooming of Wallflowers and Snowdrops 
during the last week of the old year made one appre¬ 
hensive of the weather which has so soon followed, 
but vegetation was needful of a check in its recently 
too quick march.— M. 
