August 31, 1901. 
THE GARDENING WORLD. 
843 
HUGH DICKSON, 
IRopal IRursenes, 
BELFAST. 
ROSES, 
FRUIT TREES, 
CONIFERAE. 
Splendid Stocks in the finest 
possible health, vigorous, well=rooted, 
and thoroughly well ripened. Cata= 
logues on application. 
Grower by Special Royal Warrant 
to H.M. the King. 
As Planting Season will shortly 
be on now, Orders should be placed 
at once. 
“ Gardening is the purest of human pleasures, and the greatest 
refreshment to the spirit of man "—Bacon. 
Edited by J. FRASER, F.L.S., F.R.H.S. 
SATURDAY, AUGUST 315 1 , iqot. 
The Editorial and Publishing Offices are 
now at \ Dorset Buildings, Salisbury 
Square, Fleet St., London, E.C., where 
all communications and remittances are 
to be addressed to the Proprietors. 
NEXT WEEK'S ENGAGEMENTS. 
Tuesday, September 3rd.—Bicester Horticultural Society. 
Wednesday, September 4th.—Glasgow International Ex¬ 
hibition, Fruit and Vegetable Show (z days); Milton and 
SiUlngbournt (2 days), 
Friday, September 6th—National Dahlia Society (2 days). 
FRUITS IN SEASON. 
he Fruit of the Hour. —A few weeks 
ago Strawberries and Gooseberries, 
at first in succession to one another, 
and then contemporaneously, monopolised 
the attention of the fruit-loving public ; 
but both have given place to the 
Plum in its many forms, from the Sloe, 
Bullace and Damson to the Greengage, 
Victoria and Coe’s Golden Drop, to be 
succeeded in turn by later ripening varieties. 
Greengages in great abundance have been 
selling at 2d. to 4d. per pound, and very 
good samples at the lower price. The chief 
regret is that most of them come from 
Continental sources. Victoria Plums of 
good quality are being retailed at 3d. per 
pound, even in first-class shops. They are 
to a large extent of English growth, for the 
variety has been largely planted, and this 
year the trees, wherever we have seen 
them, have been abundantly furnished, as 
they are most seasons. There are several 
other varieties in the market, and will be 
succeeded presently by Pond’s Seedling, 
which also fruits well as a rule. The sale 
of these fruits in London alone must be 
enormous. At other periods of the year 
when fresh fruits are not obtainable, several 
of the varieties take the form of prunes, 
that is, dried Plums. Here again the 
foreigner scores, for we are practically 
dependent upon him for this article, except 
in the form of jam, till the next season’s 
crop matures. Apples and early Pears are 
also abundant and find a ready sale. The 
former are with us from January to Decem¬ 
ber, the summer season being now bridged 
over by Australian and Tasmanian sup¬ 
plies. 
THE PROSPECTS OF DRIED FRUITS. 
HE question has often been raised why 
we do not dry at least a portion of our 
own fruit as they do on the Continent, par¬ 
ticularly in France, and like wise in California. 
The answer is that we lack the sunshine en¬ 
joyed in those countries. We get heat and 
drought it must be admitted in all con¬ 
science, but when the former is analysed it 
is found that our insular skies are too much 
befogged or obscured with haze, vapour or 
mist which deprives us of the actinic and 
all powerful rays of the sun. We do not 
get the bright and continuous sunshine 
which in the course of four or five days en¬ 
ables the Californian fruit grower to convert 
his Plums into prunes. Evaporators heated 
by artificial means, have been invented to 
enable us to overcome this difficulty. One 
of these machines stood at Chiswick, in the 
gardens of the Royal Horticultural Society 
for some years, and for all we know it may 
be there still. Many trials were given it 
when first set up, but the conclusions come 
to were that the cost of drying the fruits by 
fire heat was too great to make the machine 
a successfinancially. Another machine has 
been standing idle for some time at Swanley 
Horticultural College, and similar reasons 
are given for its disuse. We have heard of 
small machines that seemed to answer 
admirably when used to dry the surplus 
fruits in private establishments. Their 
owners spoke enthusiastically of them and 
regarded them as useful adjuncts to a 
garden. If the fruits had to be purchased, 
possibly the additional expense of drying 
them would make it more economical to buy 
the dried fruits of the foreigner. We hope, 
however, that machines will yet be devised 
that will dry fruit cheaply enough to take 
their place on the market. 
A rumour is current that a salesman and 
others in connection with Covent Garden 
Market are presently to start work with a 
new patent evaporator that will stone as 
well as dry the fruit. Hitherto what stoning 
was done has been accomplished by hand, 
making the finished article rather expensive. 
Prunes have for many years, however, been 
dried with the stones in them. Our opinion 
is that fruit drying to become a financial 
and commercial success must be done on a 
large scale, so as to reduce the labour 
necesssitated in attending small machines 
that dry relatively a few fruits at a time. 
This has been found so in the case of jam¬ 
making and similar industries. With the 
growth of the fruit industry in this country 
it will become almost imperative that-we 
should discover some means of preserving 
all surplus and perishable fruit, for London 
requires not merely a supply during the 
short harvesting season, but to be fed all 
the year round. 
The Neglected Mulberry.— In many private 
gardens we have at different times come 
across a Mulberry tree, some of them of 
great age and generally remarkably produc¬ 
tive. They seem to be a remnant of former 
days when Mulberries were more in vogue. 
A dish of them, when perfectly ripe, black 
as jet and shining with a lustrous glitter, is 
not unattractive when set on the table as a 
dessert fruit. When perfectly mature the 
fruits greatly lose the acidity, peculiar to 
them for some time after they become red 
and relatively soft, so that when black we 
think they might enjoy greater popularity 
for dessert purposes. We see no reason 
why surplus fruits should not be converted 
into preserves, in various ways that might 
suggest themselves to those who are experts 
in this particular art. Even their wonted 
acidity would commend itself to many who 
enjoy a somewhat acidulated tart or pie, 
whichever name may be given the same. 
Many would no doubt enjoy Mulberries 
immensely in a preserved form, if some new 
fangled name were given it so as to obscure 
the original. One old tree at Syon House 
existed for over 300 years. More vigorous 
and younger trees fruit heavily in the garden 
of Sir Trevor Lawrence, Bart., also at 
Falkland Park, in Kew Gardens and else¬ 
where, yet most of the fruits are allowed to 
fall to the ground or to be eaten by birds. 
The tree itself seems perfectly adapted to 
town life, as there are not a few even in the 
more populous parts of London, such as 
Westminster, Walworth and Vauxhall. 
The fact that the tree is deciduous is greatly 
in its favour. 
A Plea for the British Bramble. —The wild 
Raspberry if introduced to cultivation would 
produce fruits of a relatively superior charac¬ 
ter, at least on individuals selected from 
those that are known to fruit well in a 
state of nature. The improved varieties 
already in cultivation preclude the necessity 
of resorting to the wild one, It is altogether 
different with the Bramble of which there 
are a hundred or over, more or less well 
marked forms. Some, like the Dewberry 
and its allies, produce fruits consisting of a 
few large grains, and ofler little temptation 
to the fruit grower. There are many species 
and varieties, however, that produce berries 
of really handsome size even on crowded 
bushes which have to compete with all 
other forms of vegetation. Would-be 
cultivators could not do better than inspect 
the Brambles growing upon their employers’ 
estates, and either lift them or, what is 
better, layer the tips of the long canes of 
the current year. When rooted, these could 
be transferred to the garden, and planted 
in well prepared ground in sunny or 
fully exposed positions. After these get 
thoroughly established they will fruit 
abundantly and very profitably occupy the 
space allotted to them, If two or more 
species or varieties have been transferred to 
the garden they might be crossed with the 
view of improving them. There is no tell¬ 
ing what could be effected in this way. The 
flavour of well matured British Brambles is 
greatly superior to some of the greatly 
boomed American Brambles imported to 
this country. Ordinarily the bushes might 
be trained to trellises of various forms; but 
with the view of hastening the ripening of 
the fruits a plantation might be made on 
a sunny slope facing the south where such 
exist. 
Is it True?—Many of our readers have doubtless 
been enthusiastic over the works of Florence 
Marryat, and if they had known what her impres¬ 
sions of a gardener were they would appreciate her 
works much more. Here is an extract from her 
writings—" A love of flowers indicates a refined and 
elevated mind. One seldom, if ever, meets a coarse 
and brutal gardener. We look from Nature up to 
Nature's God." 
