250 
THE GARDENING WORLD 
December 15, 1894. 
cascades, partly precipitous and partly shelving, the 
waters of which impetuously dash over large rocks, 
foaming and fuming in their descent, or slip and slide 
about in thin sheets of silvery whiteness, until their 
troubled courses are brought to rest in a compari- 
tively level stretch of the river. 
Just above here we were compelled to cross, to 
avoid a long detour by jumping from boulder to 
boulder, a sensational not to say foolish performance; 
but as their is no enjoyment without a corresponding 
element of danger, so the full measure of success can¬ 
not be attained without some personal risk. 
In the distance loomed Moel Siabod, 2,865 feet, 
standing sentinel-like on the fringe of the great 
Snowdonian group. 
Let us, however, return to Bettws by the road, 
with a view to visit a very romantic spot entitled the 
Fairy Glen.” This is an equally noted river scene 
but it is situated on the upper reaches of the Conway, 
and is a lovely combination of rapids and ravines, 
pools and pictures, Not far off are Pandy Mill and 
Machno Falls, beloved of artists, not only of the 
brush, but of the camera too. On our way back we 
remark the brilliant colouring of the Virginian 
Creeper on the cottage walls ; the great Fuchsias in 
the forecourts, and the native Ferns in windows and 
on walls. 
Primula obconica thrives well in this Welsh para¬ 
dise, while the Flame Nasturtium (Tropaeolum 
speciosum, is a brilliant sight. So— 
"Nature through in all her works, in great degree 
Borrows a blessing from variety.” Churchill. 
C. B. Green, Acton. 
(To be continued.) 
--**- 
FRUIT RANCHING IN 
CALIFORNIA. 
The November number of the Nineteenth Century 
contains an article on this subject by Mr. A. C. 
Twist, which gives so seductive an account of the 
industry in California, that I think, in the interest 
of the many anxious eyes which in these difficult 
times are turned to the West, you will be doing your 
readers a service if you can grant a little space to a 
few words of criticism on some portions of the 
article—by way, not of warning against fruit.farm¬ 
ing in California, but of caution to look well before 
leaping. 
One of the first points which an intending emigrant 
considers is that of climate, and with regard to the 
perfection and healthiness of that of California he 
no doubt hears glowing accounts. But even in this 
respect I must take exception to Mr. Twist’s 
remarks, in that he entirely omits mention of the 
subject of malaria. It is one on which the emigrant 
requires to be warned in regard to choosing his 
locality, for the complaint is very prevalent in many 
parts of the State, and in some of the most prolific 
fruit-growing districts. It is by no means confined 
to low and damp districts. I have found it very bad 
indeed on the hills, where there is good natural 
drainage and a porous soil, and where the atmos¬ 
phere is so dry, bright, and bracing that it is difficult 
to realise that any such complaint can find place 
there. But amidst these apparently, and in other 
respects actually, healthy surroundings you meet 
people, natives equally with newcomers, young and 
old, robust and delicate, the victims of this weaken¬ 
ing and depressing complaint. But, while it is met 
with nearly all over the State, it is far more preva- 
- lent in some districts than in others. So that on 
this account, and also on account of the almost 
intolerable heat during the summer months in certain 
. districts—in the great central plain, for instance— 
the emigrant should obtain reliable, that is dis¬ 
interested, information before he decides upon his 
district. 
Then, again, I am afraid Mr. Twist's good fortune 
in meeting with a rancher who had need of services 
which he could render may induce men without 
capital, or with insufficient capital, to go out thinking 
it is easy to find remunerative employment, or, at 
all events, to obtain board and lodging in return for 
work. When in California (investigating the subject 
with a view of settling two sons) I met with many 
instances of Englishmen who had gone out with this 
idea. For various reasons it is a mistaken one, and 
- the great majority who go out, hoping to maintain 
themselves by working for ranchers, meet with dis¬ 
appointment. For the English emigrant usually 
knows nothing of the business, and there is always 
plenty of highly-skilled Chinese labour to be had. 
Furthermore, the fruit ranches are managed with 
very little permanent hired labour ; all members of 
the family work, and since the house accommoda¬ 
tion is usually very limited, it is more convenient to 
have Chinamen, who live in a separate hovel, and 
cook and "do” for themselves. It is only during 
the busy picking season that a new hand has any 
certainty of getting work, and even then it is not 
easy to find for long together, or within reasonable 
distance of a place where board and lodging can be 
had. For these and other reasons I would strongly 
advise intending emigrants not to go out under the 
impression that they will be able to maintain them¬ 
selves by working for hire. It should always be 
borne in mind, with regard to these comparatively 
new countries, that high wages are no criterion of 
demand for labour. And, so far as regards the 
middle-class Englishman (for I am not considering 
the matter from the point of view of the artisan or 
labourer), I say that California is no place for a man 
without capital. 
Then, again, Mr. Twist's article would be more 
convincing if it were based upon results actually 
realised by him, instead of his profits being prospec¬ 
tive calculations. His ranch is not yet in bearing, 
and he is still in the sanguine period of laying out 
his capital, and anticipating future profits. And 
I note that he expects to have laid out, by the time 
his trees are in bearing, ^2,500 upon twenty acres of 
orchard—a higher rate than I think is necessary or 
desirable, at all events in some districts. It is one 
thing to show by figures that a business will pay. 
It is another to prove it by experience. There are 
many disturbing elements which in practice thrust 
their way among the glib figures of theory. The 
method of the agent’s pamphlets is simple enough. 
A tree will produce so many boxes of fruit, which 
can be sold at so much apiece. Multiply the price 
per box by the number of boxes per tree, boxes by 
the number of trees per acre, the result by the num¬ 
ber of acres of your ranch, and there you are! with 
a fortune only limited by the number of your acres. 
But, alas ! not every tree bears like the most prolific, 
not every acre like the best. There are such things 
as pests, animal, insect, and of disease; hot winds 
and frosts; one year raisins cannot be sold at a 
profit, another the prune market is overstocked; 
now grapes are unsaleable, and left to rot on the 
vines ; you perhaps find many of your trees are of 
varieties for whose fruit there is little demand, 
whilst others are not yet in bearing, or have passed 
their prime; now prices of all fruit are down, now a 
railroad strike has entirely closed the market. The 
exceptional is constantly happening. The obstruc¬ 
tive ingenuities of nature and trade are manifold. I 
know one meets with difficulties of a similar kind in 
every productive industry, and that they should not 
deter the industrious and persevering, but they 
should be taken into account, and when I say that it 
is no unusual thing for prices to vary a hundred per 
cent, between one year and another, I have said 
enough to warn the cautious that there are jother 
considerations to take into account than the multipli¬ 
cation-table anticipation of profits. 
The intending emigrant with capital will do wisely 
to leave his capital at home, taking with him 
sufficient for a year’s maintenance to fall back upon, 
and to obtain experience by getting what work he 
can for at least a year before investing his capital. 
I am aware that there are ranchers who make a 
business of taking a number of pupils to train in 
fruit culture, whose profits are made by the cultiva¬ 
tion of pupils rather than of fruit; but I cannot say 
that I have found this method of gaining experience 
work satisfactorily. Those who are acquainted with 
the difficulties of managing agricultural colleges in 
this country will understand how greatly aggravated 
those difficulties are in California. Then there are 
agents in this country who for a certain sum under¬ 
take to find a rancher who will board, lodge, and 
teach a pupil for a year. This system is open to 
great abuse. I have known a large sum paid to the 
agent, whilst he has paid a trifling sum to some 
rancher, of whom, perhaps, he knows nothing, to 
take the pupil, with the result that a very short 
experience compels the pupil to leave, sacrificing the 
sum paid to the agent, and he so finds himself 
stranded at the outset. At the same time, there can 
be no question that a year's experience on a ranch 
is of the utmost value, and in cases in which suffi¬ 
cient is known of a rancher who is willing to take a 
pupil to work along with himself, and so teach his 
pupil the business, it will be found that the money 
paid for the year's board and lodging is well spent. 
It will be saved many times over when the pupil 
comes to choose and buy, plant, and manage his own 
ranch. 
As I have said at the beginning of these necessarily 
incomplete remarks, I do not warn against California. 
On the contrary, I think fruit-farming there is a 
healthy, to many agreeable, and, on the whole, fairly 
paying occupation. But there are many things to 
learn before deciding upon locality, upon the method 
of gaining experience, upon the kind of ranch to 
buy ; and for one’s knowledge of these one cannot 
rely with safety upon the rose-coloured views so 
liberally disseminated by the agents’ pamphlets, or 
the calculations of those whose sanguine expecta¬ 
tions have not yet undergone the cooling process of 
experience.— Arthur H. Jackson, Holly Lodge, 
Tiverton, in Land and Water. 
PLANTS RECENTLY CERTIFICATED, 
The undermentioned subjects received First-class 
Certificates from the Floral Committee of the 
National Chrysanthemum Society on the 4th inst. 
Chrysanthemum Mrs. R. C. Kingston. —On 
the show card this was described as a Japanese 
variety, but we have no hesitation in speaking of 
it as incurved The blooms measured 4§ in. in 
diameter, and were well up in the centre, but slightly 
open there because past their best. The florets 
were moderately broad, obtuse, regularly arranged 
and of a soft lilac pink, more or less distinctly 
striped or lined with white on the back. Mr. 
Lawton, Welton House Gardens, Brough, East 
Yorks. 
Chrysanthemum La Neige. —This is of the true 
Japanese type, and as the name implies, is white as 
snow. The blooms measure 6 in. to 6J in. across, 
and the florets are moderately broad and recurved 
but variously interlaced with one another. Mr. W. 
H. Lees, The Gardens, Trent Park, Barnet. 
Chrysanthemum Madame Rosaine. —The 
average width of this incurved Japanese variety 
would be 7 in., but many of the outer florets are 
whorled and spread more widely making the bloom 
about 8 in. in diameter. All are quilled, and of 
moderate width so that the uniformly glossy pink 
reverse only is shown. The centre is very full 
owing to the compact arrangement of the greater 
number of the florets. The variety is of the same 
type as Viscountess Hambleden, but very distinct 
in colour and choice. Mr. Robert Owen, Castle 
Hill, Maidenhead. 
Hippeastrum Lady Esther Smith.— This hand¬ 
some variety has a very short tube and a widely- 
spreading lamina, with imbricate segments of a bright 
crimson-red, and the broad, white rays of the central 
star extending about half-way down them. The 
bloom itself is of large size and handsome. Mr. H. 
Perkins, gardener to the Hon. W. F. D. Smith, 
M.P., Greenlands, Henley-on-Thames. 
Hippeastrum Lord Sudeley.— Here again the 
tube is very short, and the lamina well expanded, 
and bright crimson-scarlet, intensified to deep 
crimson round the short, white rays of the central 
star. There were two scapes on the plant shown, 
each 2 ft. high, one bearing two fully expanded 
blooms, and the other two buds. Mr. H. Perkins. 
Hippeastrum Lady Edith Ashley —The flower 
of this variety is crimson-scarlet, fading to white 
towards the base, from whence radiate the broad 
white rays which run down for two-thirds the length 
of the segments. The tube is of moderate length. 
Mr. H. Perkins 
Hippeastrum Earl of Arran. —The scapes of 
this variety rise to a height of 3 ft., and bear two 
flowers of large size with a very short tube, and well 
imbricated, widely spreading segments which are 
of a brilliant crimson, shaded with maroon towards 
the centre, and around the short rays of the star. 
Like the three previous varieties, it was shown by 
Mr. H. Perkins. 
The following two Chrysanthemums received 
Awards of Merit from the Royal Horticultural 
Society, on the nth inst.:— 
Bellum. —This belongs to the incurved Japanese 
type, and the blooms measure 5 in. to 5J in. in 
diameter. The florets are broad, closely incurved 
with the tips curled, interlaced, and often twisted 
in various directions; they are white more or less 
tinted with primrose in the centre, and with pink 
