452 
JOURNAL  OF  HORTICULTURE  AND  COTTAGE  GARDENER. 
November  14, 1895. 
The  new  Saperintendent  of  Chiswick  is  a  genuine  gardener 
beyond  all  doubt.  His  work  speaks  more  eloquently  and  forcibly 
than  any  mere  words  can  do  in  that  respect.  No  one  who  has  seen 
the  change  that  has  been  brought  about  at  Glewston  in  less  than  a 
dozen  years  can  question  Mr.  Wright’s  cultural  ability.  He  has 
established,  in  not  inherently  fertile  soil,  fruit  plantations  than 
which  it  would  be  hard  to  find  any  better  managed  and  more 
profitable  in  the  kingdom.  He  has  no  doubt  had  wise  guidance 
based  on  the  scientific  knowledge  possessed  by  his  enterprising 
employer,  Mr.  C.  Lee  Campbell,  and  like  a  prudent  man  profited 
by  it.  For  the  attainment  of  such  results  as  have  been  achieved 
at  Glewston,  the  best  methods,  and  only  the  best,  are  essential. 
There  can  have  been  few,  if  any,  mistakes  there,  and  the  man  by 
whom  the  success  has  been  achieved  must  of  necessity  be  a  skilful 
cultivator,  who  has  worked  perseveringly  on  sound  lines,  scientific 
lines,  in  fact,  and  which  have  also  formed  the  basis  of  action  in 
the  distribution  of  fruit.  It  is  no  ordinary  feat  in  these  keen 
competitive  days  to  obtain  the  highest  possible  prices  for  fruit 
in  bulk,  but  this,  according  to  the  evidence  of  a  leading  market 
salesman,  has  been  done  with  the  pioduce  grown  at  and  dispatched 
from  Glewston.  It  is  not  suggested  that  the  grower  of  it  could  do 
the  same,  or  be  expected  to  do  anything  of  the  kind  at  Chiswick, 
but  the  experience  affords  tangible  proof  of  capacity  all  the  same, 
and  a  second-rate  cultivator  at  Chiswick  would  be  an  incongruity. 
Nor  is  it  with  hardy  fruits  alone  that  the  Glewston  gardener 
has  excelled  both  as  a  commercial  man  and  as  an  exhibitor.  In 
the  production  of  Grapes  he  has  been  as  successful  as  in  the 
cultivation  of  Apples  and  Plums,  and  no  competent  person  who 
has  inspected  Mr.  Lee  Campbell’s  Vines  could  be  otherwise  than 
satisfied  that  they  were  in  charge  of  a  masterly  cultivator.  Then, 
too,  it  may  be  said  without  fear  of  contradiction  that  few,  if  any, 
gardeners  have  studied  more  closely  the  question  of  insect  pests, 
and  have  striven  more  persistently  to  conquer  them  than  has  Mr. 
S.  T.  Wright  ;  and  further,  it  may  be  safely  averred  that  if  he  had 
failed  in  that  phase  of  his  duties  he  could  not  have  the  excellent 
record  of  accomplished  facts,  which  have,  presumably,  been  his 
chief  recommendation  to  the  responsible  and  by  no  means  easy 
position  that  he  has  been  chosen  to  fill.  It  cannot  have  been  won 
easily,  and  if  we  are  not  mistaken  it  was  only  after  a  critical 
examination  of  his  work  by  a  deputation  appointed  to  visit 
Glewston  that  the  question  was  determined. 
The  Superintendent  of  Chiswick  must,  moreover,  be  a  man  of 
intelligence  and  not  without  literary  capacity,  as  the  preparation  of 
reports  of  experiments  must  of  necessity  devolve  upon  him  for 
the  purpose  of  publication  from  time  to  time  in  the  Society’s 
Journal,  fie  was  fortunate  in  being  able  to  give  evidence  of 
capacity  in  this  reference  by  the  high  position  he  occupied  in  the 
recent  Fruit  Essay  competition  ;  and  his  distinctly  creditable 
production  can  scarcely  fail  to  have  been  considered  by  the  Council 
of  the  Royal  Horticultural  Society  in  arriving  at  their  decision  on 
the  appointment  in  question. 
The  new  Superintendent  is,  like  the  present  respected  official, 
43  modest  as  he  is  able,  and,  also  like  him,  conveys  the  impression 
that  he  is  one  of  those  men  who  can  look  after  his  own  business 
and  let  other  people’s  alone.  He  will  in  all  likelihood  be  content 
to  let  his  work  speak  for  itself.  What  that  particular  work  will  be 
is  only  known  in  part — the  usual  routine.  We  know  nothing  of 
the  nature  of  the  changes  that  may  be  in  view,  and  possibly  they 
may  not  be  so  great  as  seems  to  be  imagined.  New  regulations 
may  perhaps  be  issue!  of  some  kind  or  other.  It  is  usually  so 
when  old  officials  are  “  retired  ”  and  new  instituted.  For  their 
nature  we  must  wait.  For  the  present  Superintendent  we  have 
only  one  wish — a  long  and  happy  retirement.  For  his  successor 
we  also  wish  a  long  career  of  usefulness  in  a  famous  old  garden, 
but  becoming  more  and  more  a  town  garden,  became  of  the  great 
and  growing  surrounding  population. 
Mr.  S.  T.  Wright,  whose  portrait  we  give  on  page  453,  is,  we 
understand,  a  Derbyshire  man,  who  commenced  his  gardening 
career  at  Snelston  Hall,  then  served  at  Woodseat,  passing  eventually 
to  Glewston  Court,  the  residence  of  the  brother  of  the  late 
proprietor  of  Woodseat,  Colin  Minton  Campbell,  Esq.  We  think 
Mr.  S.  T.  Wright  enters  on  his  duties  at  Chiswick  at  the 
commencement  of  the  new  year. 
ASPARAGUS  DISEASE. 
Although  the  disease  prevalent  on  Asparagus  during  this  year 
in  Cambridgeshire,  Southern  Lincolnshire,  St.  Ives  district  of 
Huntingdonshire,  about  Yarmouth,  in  the  county  of  Norfolk,  on 
the  sandy  alluvial  soils  of  the  Dee  Valley  in  Cheshire,  the  light 
soils  of  Worcestershire,  especially  the  alluvials  of  the  Severn  and 
Upper  Avon,  particularly  in  the  vale  of  Evesham,  is  not  new  to 
this  country,  it  has  been  far  more  widespread  and  disastrous  to  the 
“  grass  ”  than  in  any  season  during  the  last  half  century.  This 
may  be  accounted  for  partly  from  the  great  extension  of  Asparagus 
cultivation  during  the  last  decade,  •  there  being  now  as  many  fields 
or  parts  of  fields  devoted  to  Asparagus  growing  as  there  were 
twenty-five  years  ago  plots  in  private  and  market  gardens,  which 
implies  a  larger  amount  of  food — closer  connection  between  parasite 
and  host,  but  the  chief  cause  of  the  increase  of  the  malady  ia  the 
slovenly  practices  of  field  as  compared  with  garden  culture.  In 
the  latter  the  grass  is  out  as  soon  as  the  leaves  have  fallen  from  the 
i  haulm,  or  stems  and  branches  of  the  Asparagus  plants,  and  the 
i  whole  of  the  yellow  or  dead  “  straw  ”  burned.  This  makes  an  end 
I  of  the  resting  (teleuto)  spores  of  the  fungus,  which  are  then  present 
I  on  the  diseased  stems  and  branches  in  incalculable  myriads.  Then 
the  beds  are  covered  with  manure  and  soil  from  the  alleys  placed 
on  it,  so  that  the  teleutospores  that  obtain  in  the  pustules  on  the 
,  leaves  are  practically  put  out  of  power  for  injuring  the  “  grass  ”  in 
I  the  following  season  by  producing  sporidia,  which  give  rise  to  the 
uredo  condition  of  the  fungus  on  the  growing  Asparagus  plants, 
;  and  the  disease  then  spreads  “fast  and  furious, ”  so  that  by 
September  the  “  grass  ”  has  a  conspicuously  black  appearance,  as  if 
infested  by  vast  hordes  of  Asparagus  beetle  (Crioceris  asparagi) 
larvae.  Indeed,  some  cultivators  consider  that  the  grubs  of  the  beetle 
favour  the  fungus  by  gnawing  the  stems,  and  thus  facilitate  the 
entry  of  the  parasite  into  the  Asparagus. 
Unfortunately,  this  is  mere  guesswork,  and  is  totally  opposed  to 
the  necessities  of  the  fungus,  which  requires  an  uninjured 
epidermis,  beneath  which  it  can  develop  its  mycelial  hypbae,  and 
from  this  push  the  bodies  (uredospores),  which  burst  through  the 
:  cuticle,  and,  breaking  off,  are  dispersed  by  wind  to  set  up  disease  in 
I  any  Asparagus  plants  they  may  alight  on,  they  growing  best  on 
“grass”  that  is  soft,  strong,  and  long  from  a  large  amount  of 
contained  nitrogen. 
Such  is  a  practical-cultural  diagnosis  of  the  Asparagus  disease, 
which  as  a  rule  ia  first  observable  in  August.  Small  dark  brown 
spots,  which  in  the  course  of  a  few  days  attain  the  length  of  one- 
tenth  to  one-fifth  of  an  inch,  which  appear  on  the  stalks,  branches, 
and  leaves,  but  much  more  abundantly  on  the  main  stems  and  aide 
branches,  and  gradually  assume  a  much  darker  shade.  These  spots 
have  the  cuticle  ultimately  ruptured  by  the  outgrowing  uredospores, 
which  are  borne  on  short  stalks,  and  then  the  spots  are  surrounded 
by  the  ruptured  epidermis  of  the  stalk,  and  are  somewhat  infiated. 
On  close  examination  the  layers  of  small  powdery  spots  are  dis¬ 
tinctly  seen,  and  it  is  these  accumulations  here  and  there  which 
cause  the  epidermis  to  burst.  Thus  the  fungus  has  no  connection 
with  the  beetle  larvm,  neither  aiding  nor  abetting  the  other. 
The  Asparagus  disease  fungus  belongs  to  the  order  of  fungi 
called  Uredineas  (rust  fungi)  and  to  the  large  genus  named  Puccinia, 
this  peculiar  species  living  parasitically  on  Asparagus,  and  that 
submitted  by  a  correspondent  of  the  Journal  of  Horticulture^ 
“  Y.  Z.”  (page  448),  being  Puccinia  asparagi,  D.C.,  may  be  briefly 
described  ;  but  be  it  known  that  of  the  ^cidium  or  cluster  cup 
condition  of  this  particular  species  we  know  as  yet  little  or  prac¬ 
tically  nothing.  Indeed,  in  neither  it  nor  in  Hollyhock  disease 
fungus  (Puccinia  malvacearum)  have  I  found  the  ^cidium  stage 
of  the  fungus  ;  nor  can  I  make  either  “  head  or  tail  ”  of  the  affinity 
or  connection  of  fiilcidium  berberidis  with  Uredo  linearis  and 
Puci  inia  graminis — the  cluster  cup  of  the  Berberry,  rust  and  mildew 
of  Wheat  respectively,  but  have  traced  the  two  latter  repeatedly 
from  year  to  year,  and  found  there  can  be  and  is  the  latter  (to  the 
depreciation  of  Wheat  crops  in  this  country  of  not  less  than  £1  18s. 
per  acre  on  an  average  as  compared  with  clean  crops)  without  any 
.^cidium  stage  whatever.  This  has  special  reference  to  the  sub¬ 
ject  in  hand,  for  it  is  imperative  that  the  cultivator  be  not  mystified 
by  the  mysteries  that  are  often  put  forth  as  surrounding  fungi  and 
other  parasites,  and  have  a  clear  understanding  of  what  they  have 
to  contend  with  in  their  culture. 
Asparagus  fungus  (Puccinia  asparagi)  commences  its  existence 
