Oototw  10, 1885. 
JOURNAL  OF  HORTICULTURE  AND  COTTAGE  GARDENER. 
343 
appetite  is  satisfied  with  fruit  an  agreeable  and  pleasant  refresh¬ 
ment  is  experienced  ;  and  again,  by  eating  sound  ripe  fruit  it 
stimulates  and  invigorates  the  body,  and  we  feel  more  cheerful  in 
consequence.  I  have  noticed  stewed  fruit  of  some  kind  or  other 
is  seen  on  nearly  every  table,  and  this  is  becoming  more  general 
every  season. 
I  know  many  are  great  meat  eaters,  and  of  course  find  it 
difl&cult  to  change  or  alter  daily  diets,  yet  the  question  is,  If  we 
are  wise,  and  wish  to  keep  in  good  health  at  all  times,  whether  it 
would  not  be  advisable  to  partake  more  of  fruit  food  generally 
than  that  of  a  harder  indigestible  character,  and  live  more  in 
accordance  with  the  natural  productions  provided  for  us  ? 
I  believe  fresh,  juicy  fruit  has  rather  a  tendency  to  keep  the 
body  from  the  ills  and  diseases  it  was  formerly  said  to  cause  during 
such  seasons  as  the  one  we  have  just  passed  through,  I  rejoice  to 
see  fruit  and  even  vegetables  are  becoming  more  the  daily  diet  of 
people  every  year. — Henry  Cannell,  Swanley. 
APPLE  NOTES. 
Prices  op  Apples. 
"We  may  expect  to  hear  many  more  of  such  extraordinary  stories  as 
that  reported  in  last  week’s  Journal  respecting  a  ton  of  west  country 
Apples.  It  seems  in  some  directions  to  be  almost  as  great  a  misfortune 
to  have  too  big  a  crop  as  to  have  a  poor  one.  But  there  can  be  no  doubt 
we  have  a  heaviest  on  record  crop  of  Apples  this  year,  and  only  first- 
class  samples  can  find  a  profitable  market.  But  then  crops  up  the 
question,  What  sort  of  a  sample  was  this  Somersetshire  consignment, 
and  why  was  it  sent  to  London  ?  If  the  sample  could  not  find  a  market 
in  the  western  towns,  why  did  the  grower  expect  to  find  one  in  London  ? 
To  a  large  extent  London  is  one  of  the  worst  markets  to  which  to  send 
fruit  when  it  is  very  abundant,  but  especially  is  it  so  when  the  sample 
is  poor  or  even  moderate.  Did  this  consigner  stop  to  inquire  before 
sending  how  the  market  stood  for  Apples,  what  the  demand  and  supply  ? 
Also  did  he  send  along  a  sample  first  that  practical  advice  might  be 
taken  ere  sending  so  large  a  quantity. 
We  have  seen  from  Mr.  S.  T.  Wright’s  statement  that  he  could 
obtain  capital  returns  from  northern  markets  for  his  fruit,  but  then 
that  was  of  the  finest  and  cleanest,  and  carefully  selected  and  graded. 
Need  I  assume  but  that  it  was  carefully  picked  and  packed  also  ?  In 
ordinary  orchards,  how  much  of  the  fruit  is  fine,  clean,  picked  with  the 
greatest  care,  graded,  and  packed  ?  Not  in  one  in  fifty.  Mr.  Wright’s 
prize  paper  largely  reiterated  what  we  have  been  preaching  for  a  long 
time  in  connection  with  marketing  of  fruit. 
No  doubt  this  Somersetshire  case  will  be  quoted  all  over  the 
kingdom,  as  evidencing  the  folly  of  market  Apple  culture,  and  nothing 
will  be  said  of  the  stupidity  which  leads  to  such  results.  Still  further, 
Mr.  Wright’s  Hereford  result  will  not  be  widely  told  of.  It  will  be  a 
long  time,  I  fear,  before  those  great  and  imperative  reforms  in  our 
methods  of  marketing  fruit  come  that  are  so  needed.  Conversion  to 
better  things  is  a  difficulty  with  the  average  Britisher,  as  with  the 
Heathen  Chinee. 
Apples  at  “My  Garden.” 
Whilst  the  late  Mr.  Alfred  Smee  was  so  enthusiastic  a  lover  of 
picturesque  and  beautiful  gardening  it  is  now  very  obvious  that  he  had 
some  regard  also  for  that  which  is  utilitarian,  although  lovers  of  the 
beautiful  may  well  plead  that  exceeding  charm  is  furnished  apart  from 
the  useful  elements  in  an  Apple  or  Pear  tree  carrying  a  good  crop  of  rich 
coloured  fruit. 
Now  at  The  Grange,  the  local  titular  term  of  the  famous  “  My 
Garden,”  there  is  a  large  plantation  of  Apple  and  Pear  trees,  and  the 
crop  this  year  has  been  generally  a  fine  as  well  as  a  heavy  one.  Most 
of  the  trees  are  somewhat  hard  pruned  or  repressed,  but  the  mode  of 
culture  seems  to  suit  the  Hackbridge  soil,  which  is  not  rich,  although 
water  is  near,  and  very  abundant.  Probably  here  as  in  some  other 
places  it  is  found  better  to  have  trees  on  soil  that  does  not  naturally 
conduce  to  the  making  of  coarse  growth,  because  when  the  crop  or  other 
causes  operate  it  is  so  easy  to  feed  the  soil  from  the  surface,  giving  the 
trees  just  what  they  require  and  no  more. 
Mr.  G.  W.  Cummins,  who  is  Mr.  A.  H.  Smee’s  capable  gardener, 
usually  exhibits  Apples  largely  at  the  Crystal  Palace  show,  but  this  year 
he  was  absent  because  of  a  recent  domestic  affliction.  When  I  called 
on  him  unexpectedly  the  other  day  I  found  him  still  busy  getting  in 
Apples,  for  a  storm  had  just  previously  prevailed,  and  the  necessity  for 
securing  the  fruit  for  the  storing  seemed  great.  When  I  referred  to  the 
non-appearance  of  his  fruit  at  the  Crystal  Palace,  Mr.  Cummins  remarked 
that  it  was  not  because  he  had  none  to  show,  as  I  might  see  by  a  look 
into  the  fruit-room.  There  were  found  Apples  in  exceeding  abundance, 
and  in  all  cases  wonderfully  fine.  It  was  evident  that  had  these  been 
presented  at  the  Palace  some  other  successful  exhibitors  might  have  had 
to  stand  down,  so  good,  clean,  and  finely  coloured  were  the  Hac’abridge 
specimens. 
I  am  hoping  that  there  may  be  no  obstacle  to  the  setting  up  of  some 
forty  or  fifty  dishes  at  the  special  local  fruit  and  county  Potato  show  to 
be  held  at  Carshalton  on  the  16th  and  17th  inst.,  especially  that  some  of 
our  leading  trade  growers  will  put  in  an  appearance,  and  it  will  be 
interesting  to  note  how  the  fruit  from  the  established  and  limited 
number  of  trees  in  “My  Garden”  compares  with  the  product  of 
thousands  of  trees  in  the  nursery  quartera.  .  - 
The  following  comprise  some  of  the  varieties  now  on  the  store 
shelves,  and  all  superb  samples.  Lord  Suffield,  Lord  Grosvenor,  Lord 
Derby,  Lane’s  Prince  Albert,  Burr  Knot,  Gloria  Mundi,  Beauty  of  Kent, 
Warner’s  King,  Bivmarck,  Emperor  Alexander,  Red  Betingheimer, 
Hollandbury,  Hoary  Morning,  Old  Hawthornden,  New  Hawthornden, 
The  Queen,  Schoolmaster,  Cox’s  Pomona,  Sandringham,  Peasgood’s 
Nonesuch,  Wadhurst  Pippin,  Stirling  Castle,  Mere  de  Menage,  Bem- 
borough  (recently  certificated),  Annie  Elizabeth,  Bed  Costard,  Blenheim 
Pippin,  and  Bramley’s  Seedling.  Many  more  might  have  been  added. 
These  were  of  the  cooking  section  ;  whilst  of  dessert  varieties,  very  fine 
indeed  were  Ribston,  Cox’s  Orange,  and  Sturmer  Pippins,  King  of  the 
Pippins,  Court  of  Wick,  Court  Pendn  Plat,  Adams’  Pearmain,  Scarlet 
Nonpareil,  Rosemary  Russet,  Duke  of  Devonshire,  Worcester  Pearmain, 
and  others.  Pears  were  less  abundant.  Louise  Bonne  was  giving 
wonderful  colour,  but  here  as  elsewhere  November  Pears  seem  likely  to 
be  all  over  in  a  month. — A.  D. 
Apple  Rosemary  Russet. 
This  fine  dessert  variety  appears  to  be  very  imperfectly  known,  as  I 
noticed  the  class  for  it  at  the  recent  Crystal  Palace  Fruit  Show  contained 
several  other  kinds  of  Russet,  shown  by  mistake  for  the  true  variety. 
It  is  one  of  the  very  best  for  dessert  use,  keeping  well  into  March,  and 
few  of  the  other  kinds  surpass  it  in  flavour.  A  fruit  before  me  now, 
grown  here  under  ordinary  orchard  culture  on  a  standard  tree,  measures 
3|  inches  in  diameter,  and  3  inches  in  height ;  it  is  therefore  free  from 
the  objection  of  “  small  size.”  from  which  many  dessert  varieties  suffer. 
Although  the  above  fruit  was  an  exceptional  one  ;  the  variety  is  thus 
described  in  “  The  Fruit  Manual.”  “  Fruit  below  medium  size,  ovate, 
broadest  at  the  base,  and  narrowing  obtusely  towards  the  apex,  a  good 
deal  of  the  shape  of  a  Scarlet  Nonpareil ;  skin  yellow,  tinged  with  green 
on  the  shaded  side,  but  flushed  with  faint  red  on  the  side  exposed  to  the 
sun  and  covered  with  thin  pale  brown  russet,  particularly  round  the  eye 
and  the  stalk.  Eye  small  and  closed,  or  half  open,  with  erect  segments, 
set  in  a  narrow,  round,  and  even  basin.  Stamens  marginal  or  median  ; 
tube  conical  or  funnel  shaped.  Stalk  very  long,  inserted  in  a  round 
and  wide  cavity.  Flesh  yellowish,  crisp,  tender,  very  juicy,  brisk  and 
sugary,  and  charged  with  a  peculiarly  rich  and  highly  aromatic  flavour  ; 
cells  obovate,  axile.  A  most  delicious  and  valuable  dessert  Apple  of 
the  very  first  quality  ;  it  is  in  use  from  December  till  February.” — 
W.  H.  Divers,  Belvoir  Castle  Gardens^  Grantham. 
i 
GLADIOLUS  COLVILLI  ALBA. 
Where  choice  flowers  are  in  constant  demand  for  cutting  during 
the  spring  and  early  summer  months  the  above  should  be  grown  in 
large  quantities  and  brought  into  flower  in  succession  as  required.  The 
flowers  being  pure  white,  they  are  most  useful  in  a  cut  state  when  wired 
for  bouquets,  or  the  whole  spikes  are  admirably  adapted  for  associating 
with  other  flowers.  Independent  of  its  use  and  beauty  in  a  cut  state, 
it  is  invaluable  when  grown  in  5-inch  pots  for  the  embellishment  of 
the  conservatory  or  greenhouse.  When  in  flower  and  freely  associated 
with  other  dwarf  plants  they  have  a  choice  and  conspicuous  appearance. 
The  bulbs  of  this  variety  can  be  obtained  any  time  next  month, 
and  should  then  for  early  flowering  be  potted  without  delay.  In 
places  where  bulbs  which  were  forced  into  flower  last  spring  have 
been  judiciously  treated  since,  and  are  strong,  potting  should  be  done  at 
once.  This  will  secure  a  month  at  the  start,  which  is  a  great  advantage 
when  these  flowers  are  required  as  early  as  possible.  Drain  the  pots 
liberally,  and  place  four  or  five  bulbs  in  each,  and  if  strong  they 
will  produce  at  least  seven  or  eight  spikes  of  bloom.  If  the  flowers  are 
grown  solely  for  catting,  pots  of  any  size  can  be  used.  The  bulbs 
should  be  covered  with  from  half  to  one  inch  of  soil.  If  the  soil 
at  potting  time  is  moderately  moist  do  not  supply  water  until  they 
commence  rooting.  Almost  any  soil  will  grow  them  providing  it  is  rich. 
We  have  found  good  loam,  a  seventh  of  decayed  manure,  and  coarse 
sand  to  suit  them  well.  -r,. 
After  potting  place  them  in  a  temperature  of  50°  to  55°,  and  if  pos¬ 
sible  plunge  the  pots  in  cocoa-nut  fibre  refuse  or  other  material,  merely 
covering  the  rims.  Where  this  can  be  done  no  water  will  be  needed 
until  the  growths  make  their  appearance^  through  the  material  in  which 
they  are  plunged.  A  good  plan  is  to  plunge  them  until  they  commence 
growing  in  slight  bottom  heat  derived  from  leaves  or  other  fermenting 
material.  A  bed  can  be  made  in  a  cold  frame  and  the  plants  placed 
into  it,  and  the  frame  kept  close  until  their  shoots  can  be  observed,  when 
they  should  be  taken  out  and  given  the  temperature  mentioned  above. 
When  allowed  to  start  under  cool  conditions  time  is  lost,  and  forcing  is 
needed  during  their  latter  stages  of  development.  This  is  a  great  mistake, 
as  they  should  be  allowed  time  when  fairly  well  developed,  and  allowed 
to  expand  under  as  natural  conditions  as  possible. 
After  growth  has  well  advanced  they  must  have  a  light  position,  and 
should  be  kept  as  near  the  glass  as  possible.  While  growing  abundance 
of  water  should  be  given  ;  in  fact,  they  should  never  be  allowed  to  suffer 
by  the  want  of  it.  As  soon  as  they  commence  showing  their  flower 
spikes  weak  stimulants  should  be  given  every  time  water  is  needed. 
After  the  plants  have  flowered  they  must  be  gradually  hardened  and 
then  plunged  outside,  well  supplying  them  with  water  and  stimulants 
until  they  ripen  naturally.  Bulbs  treated  as  described  will  be  in  grand, 
condition  for  forcing  the  following  season. 
It  is  only  necessary  to  make  two  pottings  of  bulbs,  as  some  can  be 
pushed  forward  and  others  brought  on  under  cool  treatment  and  retarded 
t)  suit  the  requirements  of  different  cultivators. — S.  ' 
