336 
THE GARDENING WORLD. 
January 28, 1893. 
We do not know how far such a sugges¬ 
tion would meet with the support of the 
general body of subscribers, but in any 
case of course such a procedure should only 
apply to those who have not been subscri¬ 
bers. In time, when the new rules come into 
actual operation, it will perhaps be found 
useless for anyone who has not been a 
subscriber to make application for the 
benefits. In any case the guinea annual 
subscription becomes a capital investment. 
The ensuing week sees the closing up of 
the work of the Gardeners’ Orphan Fund for 
another year also, and very soon we shall 
be able to publish a full report of the 
annual general meeting, and the year’s 
election. Of seventeen candidates eight have 
to be elected, the voting papers issued by 
the secretary giving to subscribers full 
particulars as to the necessities and 
circumstances of each case. There are 
many subscribers who, canvassed some 
time since by energetic friends and thus 
hastily promised votes, are now 
regretting that they were so hasty, as 
some of the other cases show so much 
of greater necessity. It would be well if 
all subscribers would withhold their 
promises until the full list of applicants is 
issued. It sometimes happens that the 
most necessit us are not the most success¬ 
ful. Would that they could always head 
the lists, but the most energetic of 
canvassers usually win the elections. How¬ 
ever, we hope that there are homes that 
will be greatly cheered when the intelli¬ 
gence of the coming election is published. 
3 ^lanting. —It does look now as if we had 
come to a real soft break in the 
weather, and that once more all ordinary 
garden work could be resumed. Nursery¬ 
men, and all others who have yet much 
planting to perform, found the long spell of 
hard weather a serious interference with 
their labour, even though we did have up 
to within a week of Christmas weather so 
open that all kinds of planting was enabled 
to proceed with unusual facility. But in 
nurseries and gardens the full labour of 
planting and of transplanting seems never 
to be accomplished until the winter is over, 
and at the present moment, even at the 
end of January, the now open weather 
finds work in abundance, and everyone 
exceptionally busy. 
No doubt those who planted in the early 
winter are best off. Still there is time to 
get much of such important labour done if 
set about immediately, and performed with 
care and expedition. The soil is now much 
about in its normal condition, perhaps colder 
than in November, but that is unavoidable. 
Happily it is not necessarily colder where 
trees are to be planted than where they are 
now growing. Whilst we lay, and properly 
lay, so much stress upon the value of 
autumn planting, yet we see tens of 
thousands of trees and shrubs in nurseries 
transplanted into fresh quarters towards 
the close of the winter, and generally all 
doing well. 
It is perhaps because special care is 
taken in the transplanting, and it is done 
under good supervision, that so much of 
success attends. What the nurserymen 
can do so well the gardener can accomplish 
also; hence we see no reason why the 
present open weather should not be utilised 
to the full for compLting planting of every¬ 
thing that is of a hardy nature. 
ur Fruit Imports.— The figures given 
in a recent number of our contem¬ 
porary, the Gardeners' Chronicle, with respect 
to fruit imports during the past year, 
should set everyone thinking. Unhappily, 
whilst there is so much desire to culti¬ 
vate fruit at home, there are so very many 
difficulties in the way—especially in the 
direction of land laws, tenant agreements, 
local and imperial burthens, high rates of 
transit—to be encountered by the would-be 
fruit grower, from most, if not all, of which 
those who compete so severely with us 
elsewhere are free. It seems incredible, 
but it is true, that our raw Apple imports 
leaped up from 3,147,373 bushels in 1891 
to 4,514,700 bushels last year, an enormous 
increase. 
Most likely those who saw the splendid 
collection of Apples put up by Mr. Bun- 
yard at the Drill Hall last week would 
think that what was so possible in his 
case should be equally possible all over the 
southern part of the kingdom. That would, 
however, be jumping too hastily to con¬ 
clusions, because the fruit in question was 
nursery grown. Could we see such collec¬ 
tions,though not at all necessarily so varied, 
shown at this time of the j'ear from estab¬ 
lished fruit gardens or orchards, then we 
should be much more hopeful. One unfor¬ 
tunate feature of our home Apple growing 
trade is that the bulk of those concerned 
in it cater chiefly for the early market, 
hence comparatively little fruit noted for 
long keeping is grown, and still less of it is 
stored for late sale. 
We shall never counteract the Canadian 
trade so long as growers hold it is useless 
to grow late sorLs for such competition. 
Literally by running all the best Apples 
into the early markets, and selling almost 
regardless of price, the late market is left 
entirely at the mercy of the Canadian 
growers. As to the New Zealand fruits 
we cannot complain of those, because they 
reach us when our own stocks are fairly 
exhausted. There is an immense deal to 
be done at home ere we can in any way 
hope to meet home Apple requirements. 
Practically it means the planting of a 
million of young trees annually, and 
giving to them the best sites and soils and 
the highest cultivation. 
- •*- - 
The Glasgow Appointments.—We understand that 
the Parks Committee have decided to recommend 
the Glasgow City Council to appoint Mr. D. Dewar, 
of Kew, as curator of the Botanic Gardens, and Mr. 
Whitton, of Glamis, as superintendent of the parks. 
National Chrysanthemum Society. —The annual 
general meeting of this society will take place on 
Monday, February 20, at Anderton’s Hotel, Fleet 
Street, at 7 p.m. 
A New Public Park is about to belaid out at Wood- 
side, Aberdeen, at a cost of ^3,200. 
Edinburgh Botanic Society. —At a meeting of this 
society held last week, communications were made 
by Mr. J. Graham Kerr, on plants collected during 
the Pilcomay Expedition, and by Professor Bayley 
Balfour on roots of plants grown in tubs. 
Lectures on Ferns. —On January 26th, and Febru¬ 
ary 9th, Mr. J. Birkenhead will deliver lectures on 
“ Ferns, their life-history, beautiful characteristics, 
peculiarities, habits, utility and cultivation,” in the 
Lecture Hall of the Free Library, Sale. 
Mr. William Thomson, Clovenfords, contributed 
last week to the Scotsman a most interesting letter on 
the subject of “ Fattening of Chickens ” by the system 
popularly known as “ cramming,” and this week he 
has another letter on “ Poultry Rearing." 
Proposed Presentation to Mr. W. Young. —A move¬ 
ment is on foot in Edinburgh to make a presentation 
to Mr. W. Young, the popular assistant secretary of 
the Royal Caledonian Horticultural Society. Mr. 
Young has served the society loyally and well for 
many years, and we are glad to hear that the move¬ 
ment is meeting with hearty support. 
Public Park for Ramsgate. —Two firms having 
received instructions to prepare plans for laying out 
the grounds of Ellington House, Ramsgate, as a 
public park, the design of Messrs. J. Cheal & Sons, 
Crawley, has been accepted by the council, and the 
contract for carrying out the work has been entrusted 
to them. The grounds comprise about thirteen 
acres. 
Shrewsbury Summer Show. —The Shropshire Hor¬ 
ticultural Society’s schedule for the summer show to 
be held on August 23 and 24 has just been issued and 
comprises 180 classes, with prizes to the value of 
nearly £j2o. For plants the principal prizes are 
£20, £16, and /14, and £12 for a group of 300 square 
feet; £20, £15, and £10 for sixteen stove and green¬ 
house plants, and "Williams’ Memorial Medals and 
£2 ’’will be given for the best specimen stove and 
greenhouse plant in flower; and for the best speci¬ 
men Orchid in the show. £10, £6, and £1 for a 
collection of twelve dishes of fruit; and similar 
amoun ts for six bunches of Black Grapes ; £5, -£3, 
and £2 for a collection of twelve dishes of Vege¬ 
tables. In this section Messrs. Webb, Sutton, 
Carter, Taylor and Thomson, Thomson & Co., 
Sydenham, and Laxtcn, offer special prizes. 
Gardeners’ Orphan Fund.— At a meeting of the 
Executive Committee held on the 20th inst., the 
Honorary Secretary announced the following special 
receipts since the previous meeting:—H.R.K. the 
Princess of Wales, £\o 10s., Scottish Horticultural 
Association, £^\ Mr. Herbst, £1 is.; Ware Horti¬ 
cultural Mutual Improvement Association, £1 ns.6d.; 
Mr. W. Whittaker, Stocklands, Bridgewater, 10s. ; 
Mr. H. J. Jones, Lewisham, (collecting box) 
£2 10s. 6d. ; Mr. G. Fennell, Fairlawn, Tonbridge, 
(collecting box), tos. 6d. Letters were read from 
Col. Stanley Clarke, private secretary to H.R.H. 
the Princess of Wales, and Mr. John Wills, with 
reference to the recent announcement of Her Royal 
Highness’s patronage of the Fund, and the following 
resolution was unanimously agreed to:—“ That the 
best thanks of the Committee be accorded to Mr. 
Wills for the invaluable service he has rendered to 
the Gardeners' Orphan Fund in securing the in¬ 
fluential support of H.R.H. the Princess of Wales 
as Patroness." The annual meeting will be held at 
the Cannon Street Hotel, on February 3rd at 2 p.m. 
The Aberdeenshire Gardeners and Fruiterers held 
their annual assembly on the 20th inst. in the Royal 
Albert Hall. Mr. A. R. Gray presided at the social 
meeting, and in the course of an interesting address 
said that it was hardly possible to understand or to 
credit the great and rapid advancement made in the 
fruit business during the last twenty years. Twenty 
years ago they were almost entirely dependent upon 
fruits grown in this country, with small supplies 
from abroad; but of late j'ears all the countries of 
the world had been opened up, and from almost 
every country and clime fruits now found their way 
into our markets. An excellent musical programme 
was contributed during the evening, and at ten 
o’clock the floor was cleared for dancing, which was 
kept up until an early hour on Saturday morning. 
Technical Education in Horticulture. —In continua¬ 
tion of the weekly lectures under the auspices of the 
Scottish Horticultural Association, Dr. John H. 
Wilson delivered his first lecture on the “ Hybridi¬ 
sation and Improvement of Plants,” in Dowell’s 
Rooms, Edinburgh, on the 18th inst. After glancing 
at the early history of the art of hybridisation, 
reference was made by the lecturer to the great 
advances of recent times in the improvement of 
flowers and fruits by its aid. Undeniably there had 
been much success by haphazard work; it were 
better, however, to pursue surer and more scientific 
methods. By a hybrid was ordinarily meant the 
plant resulting from the fertilisation of the flower of 
one species by that of another. In a few cases a 
result essentially comparable had been attained by 
grafting one species on another, but this method was 
not reliable. On the other hand, the nature of the 
hybrid, resulting from the crossing of flowers, could 
in most cases be approximately anticipated. It 
therefore lay within the power of the operator to 
attain a certain ideal of form and colour by skilfully 
blending certain parental characters. The lecturer 
having fully described a simple flower, and the 
means whereby seed could be procured, discussed 
the precautions necessary to the successful fertilisa¬ 
tion and hybridisation of w’ell-known garden plants. 
The extremely intimate union of the characters of 
the parents in hybrid offspring was shown by lantern 
transparencies of microscopic preparations of new 
hybrids raised by the lecturer. 
