August 20,1898. 
THE GARDENING WORLD. 
803 
NEW HINTS 
— FOR — 
FRUIT GROWERS. 
“ i Year's Work on a Kent Fruit Farm." 
II- Post Free from the Publishers, 
GEO. BUNYARD & CO., Maidstone, 
SEEDLING STRAWBERRIES. 
1. QUEEN OF DENMARK .—Prolific bearer, 
medium size, unsurpassed in flavour. 
2. RICHARD GILBERT.— Large in size, fine 
flavour, unsurpassed ior market purposes ; 
awarded a Firt-class Certificate R H Society, 
August 3rd. 
3. BRITANNIA.— To be sent out for the first 
time, fruit medium size, delicious flavour, and 
the latest of all my seedlings; a great acquisition. 
The above three kinds are all standard kinds. 
Queen of Denmark, £1 per 100 ; Richard Gilbert, 
per 100; Britannia (new), £3 per 100. 
Cheaper to the Trade. 
William Carmichael, 14, Pitt Street, Edinburgh. 
orchids! 
Clean Healthy Plants at Low Prices. 
Always worth a visit of inspection. Kindly send for Catalogue , 
Exotic Korseries, CHELTENHAM. 
GLOXINIAS 
JOHN PEED & SONS, 
FINEST MEDAL COLLECTION 
^ IN THE WORLD. $ 
Send for CATALOGUE to 
West Norwood, London 
The Royal Nurseries, Maidstone, Kent. 
GEORGE BUNYARD & CO., 
Are now booking orders for early delivery of the very best 
NEW AND OLD STRAWBERRIES. 
For crop 1899, or for forcing. 
They offer the largest stock and the best plants in the trade. 
Change of stock pays. 
Catalogue of Strawberries and Summer Fruits now ready. 
FINEST COLLECTION 
in the World. We make 
a speciality of CALA- 
DIUMS. Gold Medals 
Manchester& Leicester. 
——-— Silver Cup, R.H.S., &c. 
Satisfaction guaranteed. JOHN PEED AND SONS, 
. West Norwood. London. 
Caladiums 
BRITISH ORCHIDS 
BY A. D. WEBSTER. 
Author of 11 Hardy Ornamental Flowering Trees, and Shrubs.” 
“ Hardy Conifers.” 
An exhaustive description of every species and variety, 
with Chapters on Cultivation, Fertilization, &o., together with 
an ILLUSTRATION of each species. 
Second and enlarged edition. Demy 8vo„ cloth gilt, 5/-. 
EDEN TENT. 
6 ft. square. 
A WORK OF ART ! 
For gardens, lawns, tennis 
and cricket grounds. Made 
from artistic striped tent 
•sg canvas. No Centre 
j£S Pole, allowing whole of 
tgag’ interior to be used. 
Complete with frame- 
3 work, lines, pegs, mallet 
j and bag, 
*3 
£1 17s. 6d. each. 
If made with awning 10s. 
extra. 
Carriage paid to pur¬ 
chaser’s residence. 
Lists, testimonials, and 
samples free. 
4. POTTO, Tent Works, WOLVERHAMPTOH 
Makre to the Queen and Prince of Wales. 
“ Gardening is the purest of human pleasures, and the greatest 
refreshment to the spirit of man.”—B acon. 
f It 
Edited by J. FRASER. F.L.S. 
SATURDAY , AUGUST 20th, 
1898. 
London—J. S, VIRTUE & Co., Ltd., 26, Ivy Lane, E.C. 
RETARDED LILY OF THE VALLEY CROWNS. 
Headquarters at Dersingham. 
For prices &-c., apply to — 
T- JANNOCH, 
Lily Nursery, Dersingham, King’s Lynn, Norfolk. 
NEXT WEEK’S ENGAGEMENTS. 
Tuesday, August 23rd.—R.H.S. Show and committees at Drill 
Hall, Westminster, S.W. 
Thursday, August 25th.—Shows at Wickersley and Boston. 
Friday, August 26th.—Show by R.H.S. of Ireland. 
Forfar Show (2 days). 
Saturday. August 27th.—Falkirk Show. 
ardens and the Drought. —We are 
passing through a season of great sur¬ 
prises in the matter of climate ; and no 
industry is sooner or more extensively 
affected by it than gardening. Early in the 
year and up to the end of February the 
weather was abnormally mild, with the 
result that many things in the open ground, 
both trees and soft wooded subjects, were 
much further advanced than desirable. 
Then followed a succession of cold and 
ungenial weather that continued more or 
less intermittently till well into June. 
Many things suffered in March and April to 
an extent from which they never fully re¬ 
covered, including such things as Carna¬ 
tions and Roses, the latter suffering most of 
all in May. During the latter month and 
June, Strawberries were considerably in¬ 
jured by frosty nights, and cold ungenial 
winds, particularly the latter. The summer 
bedding plants suffered so much from the 
check, that many of them lost their best 
leaves, and besides being late in making 
display, such things as Coleus remained in 
a naked and unattractive condition for 
weeks together, or never made a decent 
display at all. 
As summer advanced great and sudden 
fluctuations of temperature continued at 
intervals, thus militating against the success 
of many things, by no means tender. It 
may afford some consolation to those con¬ 
cerned to know that similarly ungenial con¬ 
ditions have prevailed not merely in the 
south, but all over Britain. The early part 
of the season was more particularly notable 
for cold days and nights, and latterly for 
heat and drought, so much so that the crops 
which were late in June now promise to be 
considerably earlier than was anticipated. 
Italy and some other parts of the Continent, 
notwithstanding their supposed sunny skies 
and balmy nights, have had their share of 
climatic vicissitudes. The heat about the 
lakes of Como, Italy, has been excessive, 
but accompanied by violent thunderstorms 
and hail. Heat and storms have been 
equally excessive and violent at Naples, 
doing untold damage to the crops. Over 
the southern counties of England there has 
been a culmination of extremes, all within 
the space of a week or eight days. On the 
7th inst., farmers and gardeners alike were 
rejoiced at the beneficial rainfall, which con¬ 
tinued from 8 a.m. or a little later till nearly 
5 o’clock in the afternoon. There was an 
absence of wind, and rain fell steadily and 
perpendicularly all day, but it was accom¬ 
panied by a densely overcast sky and low 
temperature, so that the rainfall was the 
only blessing upon which we could count. 
On the following day (8th inst.) the lowest 
temperature in the shade was 45 0 and the 
highest 54 0 , so that those not engaged in 
active work felt the need of a great coat, 
while fires were lighted in many dwelling 
houses, as well as the House of Commons. 
From that day till the 15th inst. the tempera¬ 
ture keptrising rapidly, till it culminated in 
85° in the shade, the minimum in the shade 
during the same day being 65°. Thus in the 
course of eight days there was a jump of 
20 0 betweenthe two minimum temperatures, 
and 31° between the two highest. In 
London itself the extremes are more severely 
felt than in the country, where a more or 
less perceptible breeze makes itself felt. 
All the same the breeze is more conducive 
to the welfare of the people, gardeners in¬ 
cluded, than it is to plants in the open ground 
exposed to the full blaze of the sun all day, 
and to a high temperature at night. Even 
a heavy downfall would have been an ad¬ 
vantage, but that has not been general for 
many days past. As far as Strawberries 
and bush fruits were concerned neither 
market nor private gardeners required rain; 
and such green crops as are already 
harvested give gardeners no concern; but 
the winter crops have yet to be established. 
Late sowings of Peas and French Beans, as 
well as other late summer crops, have yet to 
give an account of themselves. The flower 
garden on many dry soils, such as gravelly 
sandy, and chalky formations, require con¬ 
stant attention in the matter of watering; 
and in many establishments this has already 
become a problem. Apart from the labour 
attached to it all, there is the difficulty in 
getting water; for many of the wells and 
ponds or pools upon which gardeners have 
hitherto depended have dried up, or are almost 
drained of the last drop of their contents. 
This, of course, is due as much to the short¬ 
age of the annual rainfall as to the severity 
of the recent spell of drought. Even the 
steady rainfall of the 7th inst. did not pene¬ 
trate the thirsty soil very deeply ; while 
thunderstorms are often as productive of 
damage as of advantage, because the mois¬ 
ture runs away by the surface into the 
nearest drain or ditch, often washing away 
much of the soil with it. 
The frequent recurrence of drought during 
the past decade might well impress upon 
owners of estates and gardeners the necessity 
of making more adequate provision against 
a deficiency in the rainfall, if they desire to 
have their gardens up to the standard of 
efficiency, or even capable of giving a satis¬ 
factory return for the labour and money 
otherwise expended upon them. Besides 
having sufficient work upon their hands in 
all ordinary seasons, gardeners have all this 
watering in addition ; but when the pond or 
the pump fails it is impossible for many of 
them either to keep the flower garden gay, 
or the kitchen garden well stocked with 
vegetables. Means should be taken to en¬ 
sure an adequate supply of water for all the 
more important garden crops at least, from 
an unfailing source. It would be possible 
in many establishments to make provision 
for irrigating certain parts of the garden, 
where the natural fall of the ground makes 
it possible to bring the water purely by 
gravitation or otherwise. A more recent 
innovation from America, and which has 
even been successfully conducted in this 
country, is the irrigation of important crops, 
such as Strawberries, by means of perforated 
pipes laid beneath the surface of the soil and 
between the rows of plants. Water applied 
on the surface has the ill effect afterwards 
of causing the surface to become baked and 
thus lose almost [ as much as it gains. 
Underground irrigation does not produce 
this result, and the water applied does not 
readily escape by the surface, because that 
is or should be covered by a non-conductive 
layer of dry soil. Gardeners might try this 
with advantage for various crops. 
