046 
June 9, 1900 
THE GARDENING WORLD. 
TRANSATLANTIC “ LINERS.” 
In Virginia there is an Apple tree which measures 
9 ft. 5 ins. round. The largest branches are 6 ft. in 
circumference. It is 52 ft. high and 71 ft. broad, 
and is supposed to be seventy years oil. It has pro¬ 
duced as much as no bushels in a season. 
Many other giant prolific Apples are in the 
neighbourhood. 
Circumstances alter cases, and even the humble 
String Bean can assume a high position, as is shown 
by a recent Klondyke skit, which depicts a lady 
exclaiming at the vulgar ostentation of her neighbour, 
whose Easter bonnet was festooned with dried 
String Beans, those beiog, I need hardly say, at a 
premium there. 
Flowers from a diphtheria funeral have recently 
caused another death here in Chicago. They had 
been given to a child to play with afterwards. 
Strawberries are now selling freely at 3d. a pint. 
Lately we were threatened with a famine on 
account of southern lands being flooded. One crate 
sold for 24/- then. 
The first Cherries of the year came in lately from 
California, and sold for 2/- a quart; they were black 
and red Tartarians, and yellow Ox-hearts. Some 
years ago the earliest cargo brought £i,2io for 2,200 
boxes. Florida and Louisiana fruits came later, and 
are much better. 
Acalypha Sanderii is being offered by a seed firm 
as the “ Medusa plant cf the Philippines, Dewey’s 
favourite flower”!! It has an imposing wood-cut 
in a magazine all to itself. Another firm, when 
stamps are sent for catalogue, encloses seeds worth 
more than the sd. charges, and also an envelope 
which counts as so much cash on an order. Verily, 
we are behind a stretch or so in advertising, are we 
not ? 
The lady treasurer of the Illinois Horticultural 
Society recently made an eloquent address on the 
" Healtbfulness of Horticulture for Women ” before 
the Promotion of Health Club, when the “ Woman 
with the Hoe’’ was brought vigorously to the front. 
Teachers have been endeavouring, without success, 
to induce the park authorities to set aside vegetable 
patches for the benefit of school children in order 
that they may learn something of practical 
agriculture. It was a small favour to refuse.— C. 
Marquarie, Chicago. 
--- -*« » — 
NOTES ON GRAPE THINNING. 
Why we often see (even on exhibitors’ tables) so 
many bunches of Grapes ragged in appearance, and 
mixed with small berries, is caused by careless and 
unskilful thinning. Many never get proper tuition 
at first, and to get clear of an old “ beaten rut ” is 
very difficult. To suppose that all Grapes require 
the same manipulation is untenable. Some varieties 
have la'ge berries compared with others, and some 
set very freely ; while other sorts do not in certain 
soils and positions. To attempt the thinning of all 
the berries to regular distances over the bunch, is 
against unity of siz : of berry and handsome bunches 
when the Grapes are ripe. These points when 
strongly developed (unevenness of bunch) militate 
strongly against bunches in competition, and lightly 
too. Small stoneless berries are easily known to 
those who thin carefully and observe closely. The 
berries which are largest at first are best at the 
"finish,” and all stoneless berries should be re¬ 
moved, except such as are, in a majority, often 
found in Black Morocco, Muscat Hamburgh, and 
others when badly grown. Gros Colmar and Gros 
Moroc seldom set badly, and such grapes which grow 
so large in berry (both often to i£ in. in diameter) 
may be thinned out regularly at first, and as soon as 
set; but if small berries are present they should be 
removed. Even if the large ones are somewhat 
irregular they should be left, and as they swell they 
will squeeze into proper fo _ m. I once discussed the 
methods of thinning with Mr. Kirk in his finely 
appointed vineries at Alloa, just a'ter his return 
from the Crystal Palace, where he defeated easily 
all comers by handsome bunches of the finest 
quality, and I was pleased to have one so dis¬ 
tinguished as a grower of Grapes in my way of 
thinking. Much can be done when thinning by 
tying up shoulders of bunches in a temporary form, 
at thinning time, then neatly and compactly 
fastened to hide bare stems.— M. Temple, Canon, 
N. B. 
PEOPLE WE HAVE MET. 
Mr. James Robertson. 
The subject whose portrait we have pleasure in in¬ 
troducing on this occasion is Mr. James Robertson, 
J.P., &c., the sole proprietor of the old established 
firm of Messrs. Hogg and Robertson, 22, Mary 
Street, Dublin, where he takes a considerable share 
of the public work transacted in the Irish capital. 
He is also connected with the Royal Dublin Society, 
and is a breeder and exhibitor of Kerry and Dexter 
cattle independently of his duties as seedsman and 
Mr. James Robertson, J.P. 
bulb grower. The La Maucha and Babrabam 
(Cambridge), herds of Kerry and Dexter cattle, are 
well known, not only at Irish, but even at English 
exhibitions. 
Besides being a good business man, Mr. 
Robertson is a keen observer, and full of enter¬ 
prise, as the experiments he undertook about 
seven or eight years ago amply prove. The 
village of Rush, where Mr. Robertson lives, is 
situated on a promontory on the north-east of the 
county of Dublin, and about fifteen miles north of 
the city of that name. The inhabitants are believed 
to be of Danish rather than of Celtic origin, as their 
habits and methods of cultivation are different from 
those of their neighbours a little more to landward. 
The town lands only run to about 172 acres, and 
consist chiefly of sand, similar to that which exists 
in Holland, but lighter in colour because of the 
lesser quantity of humus it contains, owing to the 
small quantity of manure which has hitherto been 
applied to it. The natives have been in the habit of 
manuring it with seaweed, but very little if anything 
else. This form of manure tends to make the land 
lighter and relatively poorer in the long run, owing 
to the continued addition of sand with the seaweed. 
The inhabitants of the little township have been 
notable, however, for the quantity of early Potatos 
which they were able to raise upon the land and 
dispose of to advantage in the Dublin markets in 
advance of their neighbours, whote soil was more 
retentive and the crops later. 
With the eye of a business man, Mr. Robertson 
was quick to perceive that that this sandy soil was 
similar to that of Holland and might be turned to 
good account in the production of bulbs. Sunshine 
and wind are plentiful, but rain scanty ; but this 
deficiency is rectified by an abundance of moisture 
in the subsoil during the late autumn and winter 
months. Here again we recognise a similarity to 
the conditions of the soil of the Netherlands from 
whence such a large proportion of the bulbs come to 
this country. Mr. Robertson acquired some of the 
land in this district, and proceeded to plant it with 
Narcissi, Tulips, and other bulbs. From the com¬ 
mencement the experiment proved so remarkably 
successful that Mr. Robertson went on extending the 
area planted with bulbs, till at the present time 
something like sixteen acres are under bulbs of a 
very varied description. 
The Narcissi are in strong force, and excellent 
satisfaction has been given by such as N. obvallaris, 
Codlins aud Cream, N. Barrii, Dorothy E. Wemyss, 
N. poeticus, and its double forms, N. maximus, and 
N. Sulphur Phoenix. Some of the above are re¬ 
markably difficult to grow in certain soils and 
districts, but here they do well. A great many more 
of the popular and useful varieties are equally well 
grown here. 
Tulips are also grown in their thousands, includ¬ 
ing the May-flowering, the Cottage, Garden, Darwin 
and other sections, besides species and sub-species 
or garden forms. Amon st the latter we might 
mention T. macrospeila, T. billetiana, T. fulgens, 
T. lutea, many fine named varieties of T. gesneriana, 
T. spathulata, T. maculata, T. elegens alba, T. 
Picotee, T. Golden Crown, T. Golden Eagle, T. 
vitellina, T. viridiflora, and many others. Mr. 
Robertson has a sleek of something like 50,000 
bulbs of Golden Crown, and his stock of T vitellina 
is also very extensive. Amongst Parrot Tulips, such 
as Perfecta, Cramoise Brilliant, Lutea major, Mark 
Graaff, and others succeed well. 
The French strains of Anemones do remarkably 
well in the sandy soil, and amongst them The Bride is 
noteworthy. English and Spanish Irises are grown 
in quantity and so successfully that the sandy desert 
is made to blossom as the Rose in June and July. 
Hyacinths are also under trial, but the ultimate 
success of this experiment remains to be determined. 
Gladiolus Colvillei alba, otherwise known as The 
Bride, is a great success here, and is grown in quantity. 
The application of the term “ Holland in Ireland ” 
to this bulb farm is therefore not inapt, but 
appropriate. 
Mr. Robertson is also a keen exhibitor, and we 
have on more than one occasion seen his exhibits on 
this side of St. George's Channel, and have heard of 
the reputation of the same in Ireland. He was 
accorded a Cultural Certificate by the Royal 
Horticultural Society of Ireland. An exhibit at the 
Drill Hall, Westminster, on the 2nd May, 1899, 
brought him the Silver Gilt Flora Medal of the 
Royal Horticultural Society ; and this was repeated 
on the 16th of the same month. He turned up at 
the show of the Midland Daffodil Society, Birming¬ 
ham, last year, as well as at the spring show of the 
Royal Botanic Society, receiving in each case a 
Silver Medal. 
SCOLOPENDRIUM VULGARE 
CRISPUM. 
It may be of interest to some to learn that this— 
and I take it for granted that all the varieties of the 
common Hart's-tongue—may readily be increased by 
means of root cuttings. True, the process in its 
early stages may be a slow one, yet, where it seems 
desirable to largely increase the stocks, no other 
method with which I am acquainted offers similar 
advantages for doing it considering that from a well 
rooted plant in a 4-in. pot some 200 root cuttings 
may be obtained, which with a modicum of attention 
will in two or three years develop into plants almost 
or quite equal to the mother plants from which the 
root cuttings were derived. I have had no personal 
experience respecting this which I take to be a 
somewhat novel mode of Fern propagation, and 
whether any other genus of the Fern family is 
capable of being increased in the same manner I 
know not. It may occur to some that the 
Nephrolepis will; but I take it that as some of them 
naturally reproduce themselves from the creeping 
rhizomes they are not a parallel case to the Scolo- 
pendriums, which only produce true fibrous roots, 
and so far as ordinary observations go, are destitute 
of foliage buds. The method pursued is to take a 
plant shortly before growth commences in the 
spring ; to wash every particle of soil from the 
roots; to disentangle these and cut them up into 
lengths of 1 in. or thereby ; to put them into pots 
made up with suitable soil the same as you would 
root cuttings of Bouvardias ; and to place them in a 
damp, but not high temperature. If the pots aie 
covered over with a pane of glass, less attention will 
be required. Always keep them moist, because in 
the earlier stages of growth anything approaching 
real dryness would be fatal. As the young plants 
begin developing prick them off into 60-size pc ts, 
round the edges of the same*; then afterwards pot 
on as required.— W. B. G, 
