522 
April 17, 1897. 
THE GARDENING WORLD. 
McLecd, upon whom rests the responsible duties of 
managing the whole of the estate, and which stamps 
him as being the very man to fill this important post 
with satisfaction to his employer and credit to 
himself.— Urbanus. 
-- 
PRIMULA SINENSIS CHELSEA ROSE. 
Now the time is with us that most cultivators are 
ordering their seeds, and no doubt there are many 
who are thinking of flower seeds, and what to grow ; 
and at this season are reminded of the value of good 
ornamental pot plants for winter blooming as they 
look on plants of Primula sinensis. Few plants have 
the value for pots and vases for amateurs as the 
Primulas have. 
At the present time there are so many good strains 
and types of this; and during the last few years I 
have made a point of growing a goodly number of 
kinds. Last year I obtained a packet of the one 
above named, as I was under the impression it would 
prove a distinct kind. The seed was sown in April, 
grown on in cold frames, and potted as they needed 
it, till they reached 6-in. pots. In the autumn the 
seedlings were placed on a shelf close to the glass, in 
a vinery, where the grapes had been cut. Here they 
soon came into bloom, and threw up strong, big 
trusses, well above the foliage. The leaves attained 
a good size, and being a Fern-leaved kind they 
almost covered the pot, which increased their value. 
When these were well in bloom we used them for 
placing in single vases in rooms in the Abbey. In 
some cases these vases are standing on high pedestals. 
Here this Primula had a fine effect as the foliage set 
off the large head of rose-coloured blooms by hanging 
over the vase. I consider this an excellent kind for 
house furnishing. It is distinct in colour from any 
I know. — -J.C., Chard. 
-- 
ENGLISH ORCHARDS. 
(Concluded from page 506). 
Remedial Measures. 
In formulating a scheme for the improvement of 
English orchards it will be convenient to divide them 
into three groups-the first to comprise those 
consisting of trees so old and exhausted that their 
restoration to vigorous health and productiveness is 
impossible ; the second, orchards in which the trees 
are in robust health but represent inferior varieties ; 
and the third, those orchards which contain 
moderately young trees of good varieties that have 
been allowed to become unproductive through 
neglect. There is but one way of dealing with the 
orchards belonging to the first category, and that is 
to sweep them wholly away and replace them with 
new orchards formed on some other part of the farm. 
To attempt to renew worn-out orchards by planting 
young trees in the positions that were occupied by 
those which have died out, as is so generally done, is 
worse than useless, for it is a rare occurence for trees 
so planted to be of any value as fruit producers. 
In dealing with orchards containing healthy trees 
of inferior varieties, the obvious remedy is to graft 
them with varieties that are well known for their 
productiveness, and the high quality and good 
appearance of their fruit. In the western counties, 
where Pears can be most successfully cultivated in 
orchards, as proved by the remarkable development 
of the trees of perry varieties, I would suggest that a 
considerable proportion of the healthy trees now 
bearing fruit only suitable for the perry press, should 
be grafted with such excellent varieties as Louise 
Bonne of Jersey, Beurre Clairgeau, Williams’ Bon 
Chretien, Pitmaston Duchess, Beurre Hardy, 
Doyenne du Comice, Marie Louise d'Uccle, and 
Josephine de Malines, care being first taken to 
ascertain by inquiries made in gardens which of the 
varieties will succeed in the district. Stewing Pears 
are not less profitable than dessert varieties, for 
Catillac, Uvedale's St Germain, and Verulam, 
which are the best of them, are good bearers, 
and the fruit is available for the market during a 
period of six months, commencing with October, and 
can be sent long distances without special difficulty. 
From the Apple orchards the hundreds of inferior 
varieties, whether belonging to the table, cooking, 
or cider sections, should be swept away and replaced 
with others that are sure bearers and produce fruit 
of good appearance and high quality, and of these 
there is an abundance. I would advise also that the 
area of many cider orchards, which, in the western 
counties form, it is computed, about four-fifths of 
the whole, be reduced by grafting the trees occupying 
many thousand acres with dessert or cooking varieties. 
Cider is an excellent beverage when properly made, 
but we are now concerned with making the orchards as 
profitable as possible, and it is obvious that Apples 
worth from £10 to £20 per ton are more profitable 
to grow than those which will not realise more than 
from £1 to £5 per ton. It is also evident that to 
obtain a full return from their orchards farmers 
must grow both late and early varieties, and adopt 
some inexpensive method of storing the fruit of the 
former until after the early supplies have become 
exhausted. 
The most profitable of the cooking varieties are 
Bismarck, Ecklinville, Dumelow’s SeedliDg, Gas¬ 
coyne’s Scarlet, Golden Spire, Lane's Prince Albert, 
Lord Suffield, Newton Wonder, Pott's Seedling, 
Tower of Glamis and Warner's King. Then of the 
dessert varieties I would recommend Blenheim 
Pippin, which is slow in coming into bearing when 
planted as an orchard standard, but grafted on large 
trees it quickly becomes productive, and the fruit, 
by reason of its handsome appearance and high 
quality, invariably commands a good price; Cox's 
Orange Pippin, one of the most profitable of dessert 
Apples in districts favourable to it, and when the 
fruit is properly marketed ; Duchess of Oldenburg, 
an early variety which has a short season ; Devon¬ 
shire Quarrenden, useful for planting within a short 
distance of the market; King of the Pippins and 
Worcester Pearmain. These form but a small pro¬ 
portion of the Apples in the catalogues, but before 
we can make our orchards profitable we must follow 
the example of the American growers, and instead of 
planting two or three trees each of a hundred varieties 
we must plant a hundred trees each of a few 
varieties, and these of the very best. 
Better selections of Plums are also much needed, 
and owners of orchards will be wise in making an 
endeavour to extend the season as far as it is possible 
to do so by growing more early and late yarieties. 
A good selection for orchards would comprise Rivers’ 
Early Prolific, The Czar, Green Gage, Pond’s Seed¬ 
ling, Victoria, and Monarch. I do not propose 
discussing the details of grafting, but I would strongly 
advise that instead of the trees being headed back to 
the trunk or to the base of branches with a diameter 
of six or seven inches, in accordance with the 
practice that largely obtains, they should be simply 
cut back to the smaller branches not exceeding two 
or three inches in diameter, and a graft placed on 
each shoot. Not only will the union be more 
perfect when the smaller branches are grafted, but 
there will be a considerable saving in time, as 
fruitful heads will be obtained in two or three years. 
In the renovation of orchards that have become 
unproductive through bad usage, attention should 
first be directed to the restoration of the vigour of the 
trees. The heads should be thinned by the removal 
of useless spurs, and the cutting back of weakly 
branches ; and when this has been done, spray the 
trees with warm water, in which has been dissolved 
caustic soda and commercial potash at the rate of 
2\ lbs. each to twenty five gallons. This mixture, 
applied in the form of a spray during the winter 
season when the trees are dormant, will clear them 
from moss and lichen, and destroy the eggs and 
larvae of some of the insect pests. If the trees are 
infested with American blight, as unhappily many 
of them are, means must be adopted for the eradica¬ 
tion of the pest, and there is not a better method 
than to dress the infested parts with a mixture pre¬ 
pared by dissolving J lb. of carbolic soft-soap in a 
gallon of hot water, and then adding one pint of 
petroleum, and well incorporating it while hot. 
As the starved condition of the trees is necessarily 
due to the impoverished state of the soil, it follows as 
a matter of course that the soil be enriched, and that 
the admission of air to the roots be increased for the 
purpose of stimulating them into activity. There is 
no better course of procedure than to break up the 
surface of the soil to a depth of three or four inches 
in the autumn, and dress with lime; and early in the 
spring apply a liberal dresssng of natural or 
artificial manure. Farmyard or stable manure should 
be used where available, and if this is not at command 
use artifical fertilisers. An excellent mixture of 
.these would be one consisting of three parts by weight 
of muriate of potash to five parts of superphosphate 
of lime, and 8 cwt. per acre will be a good rate at 
which to use it. A liberal dressing of soot will also 
be beneficial, as would a dressing of nitrate of soda 
at the rate of t cwt. per acre, after the trees have 
commenced to make new growth. The breaking up 
of the surface soil as here advised will have a highly 
beneficial effect upon the trees ; and I would mention 
that while excellent crops may be obtained from grass 
orchards, it is only by cultivating the spaces between 
the trees that the finest fruit can be obtained. 
I might speak at length on grading, packing, and 
marketing, for the owners of orchards have much to 
learn before they can achieve success in carrying out 
these important details, but I am anxious to avoid 
unduly taxing your time. The question of storage 
is also of pressing importance, and I would strongly 
advise that in connection with all orchards of any 
considerable extent there should be a spacious store 
room. This need not be elaborate in detail nor costly 
in construction, but it should be substantial and so 
designed that a low and uniform temperature can be 
maintained throughout the winter. It ought, in fact, 
to be heat-proof and frost-proof. A span-roof 
structure about 12 ft. in width and 10 ft. or so in 
height, and fitted with open shelves on either side 
will perhaps be the best form of structure, and if it 
be provided with double walls, double windows, and 
double doors, and a thick roof of thatch, the fruit will 
have the advantage of a cool and equable temperature. 
It is not without considerable regret that I have to 
dismiss the question of storage thus briefly, for it has 
an important bearing upon the profitableness of our 
orchards. In conclusion, then, the owners of 
orchards have, generally speaking, not only to learn 
how to restore their orchards to fruitfulness and 
maintain them in that condition, but they must learn 
also to store the produce until such times as they can 
place it upon the market with most profit to them¬ 
selves. The owners of English orchards have 
certainly much to learn and much to accomplish 
before the 212,000 acres devoted to fruit can be 
brought into so fertile a condition as to enable them 
to compete successfully in their own market with 
foreign and colonial produce, as they should assuredly 
be able to do, for in no other part of the world do 
growers of similar kinds of fruit to those discussed, 
viz., Apples, Pears, and Plums, enjoy greater 
natural advantages .—George Gordon. 
-- 9 *- 
CINERARIAS AT READING. 
For many weeks past the' fine and varied strain of 
Cinerarias to be seen in the Portland Road Nurseries 
of Messrs. Sutton & Sons, Reading, have been 
flowering freely. The range of colour is bright and 
varied, supplying tints and hues that no other class 
of greenhouse subjects can furnish at this, or 
practically any other season of the year. The broad 
rays of the flowers of the modern strain are certainly 
seen to best advantage in the single varieties. No 
special names are given to the latter beyond those 
indicative of the colours. 
The seifs are highly refined types and when coupled 
with broad, overlapping rays, must be regarded as a 
triumph of horticultural skill. The violet disk of 
Sutton's white affords a marked contrast in the 
matter of colour. The pink, purple, red, crimson 
and blue seifs in a variety of shades produce a display 
from a single packet of mixed seed, that is truly 
marvellous. The bicoloured flowers in our opinion 
produce a sparkling and brightening effect in a 
collection, and their absence would be a distinct loss 
to gardens, whatever the taste and opinions of cul¬ 
tivators might be regarding the value of self colours. 
We might justly speak of them as tricoloured 
varieties ; for the outer zone may be of some dark 
colour, surrounding a white zone, in the centre of 
which the disk usually shows a third colour. Several 
of the more distinct colours have their seeds harvested 
separatedly, but the mixed packets are pregnant 
with the greater number of surprises. All the plants 
are dwarf in habit, broad-topped and in every way 
up-to-date in that respect. 
While the most highly evolved strain of Cinerarias 
is kept up to high water mark in the Portland Road 
Nurseries, yet Messrs. Sutton & Sons have not, we 
think gone out of their way in crossing or shall we 
say hybridising the modern strain with the wild type, 
Cineraria cruenta from the Canary Islands. The 
progeny represents the first remove from the wild 
type, but while we say this, we also remember that 
when the first improvements were effected in what 
we now look upon as the garden Cineraria, there 
were no advanced forms with which to cross tfce 
