November  28,  189^. 
JOURNAL  OF  HORTICULTURE  AND  COTTAGE  GARDENER. 
501 
firm,  and  more  so  if  of  a  porous  character.  When  the  hole  is  about 
half  full  the  addition  of  a  little  well-decayed  manure  will  prove 
beneficial,  and  on  the  surface  a  mulching  of  leaf  mould  or  half- 
decayed  litter  will  protect  from  frost  and  drought.  To  complete 
the  operation  a  suitable  stake  should  be  driven  in,  to  which  the 
tree  is  tied  firmly,  any  soft  material  being  wrapped  round  the 
stem  to  prevent  friction. — P.  W.,  Nantwich. 
FRUIT  IN  RELATION  TO  HEALTH. 
Year  by  year  the  importance  of  fresh  fruits  in  connection 
with  the  maintenance  of  good  health  is  becoming  more  fully 
recognised,  and  the  more  the  free  use  of  good  sound  fruit  is 
indulged  in  the  better — in  my  opinion,  at  least— will  be  the  state  of 
national  health. 
As  one  more  especially  interested  in  Grape  culture,  I  would  of 
course  wish  to  impress  on  the  public  in  general  the  immense  value 
of  good,  fresh,  well-ripened  Grapes  as  articles  well  calculated  to 
maintain  the  human  frame  in  a  sound  and  healthful  condition.  As 
a  matter  of  fact,  I  may  state  that  if  a  sufficient  quantity  of  well- 
ripened  Grapes  be  consumed  no  one  need  to  apply  to  any  aperient 
medicine.  Tonics  will  not  be  needed,  and  a  general  good  condition 
of  health  will  be  maintained,  such  as  no  doctor's  drugs  would  ever 
insure. 
Many  other  fruits  as  well  as  Grapes  are  calculated  to  assist  in 
maintaining  a  healthful  condition  of  the  human  frame,  always 
provided  that  they  be  brought  before  the  public  in  a  sound  and 
well  ripened  condition.  Too  much  importance  can  hardly  be 
attached  to  the  value  of  fresh  fruits,  and  also,  let  it  be  said,  of 
fresh  vegetables,  in  connection  with  the  national  welfare. 
It  is  to  be  hoped  that  our  horticultural  societies,  and  also  our 
Government,  will  do  all  in  their  power  to  foster  and  encourage  the 
production  of  home-grown  fruits  and  vegetables  in  such  a  condition 
that  they  will  prove  most  thoroughly  beneficial  to  the  nation  at 
large,  and  produce  a  better  state  of  matters  in  connection  with 
daily  national  life  and  health  than  has  ever  existed  before. — John 
Thomson,  Clovenfords. 
FLOWERS,  PLANTS,  FRUITS  IN  THE  HOME  AND 
IN  THE  LIFE. 
[Abridged  from  a  paper  by  Mr.  D.  T.  Pish,  read  at  a  recent  meeting  of  the 
Horticultural  Club.] 
Gentlemen, — It  may  strike  many  of  you  that  I  have  chosen  the 
wrong  season  for  my  theme.  It  would  have  seemed  so  easy  to  discourse 
on  such  themes  in  the  early  springtime — of  buds  bursting  into  tenderness 
or  blushing  into  beauty.  ...  To  get  the  most  and  the  best  out  ot  the 
different  seasons  and  products  of  the  year  we  should  ever  be  ready  to 
welcome  them  all,  and  especially  the  spring  as  come  at  last,  come  for 
good,  come  to  stay  with  us  till  its  work  is  done.  Thus  shall  the  joy 
of  spring  flame  into  the  splendours  of  summer  and  mellow  into  the 
glow  of  autumnal  loveliness  more  beautiful  than  the  tender  green  of  the 
early  month  or  the  blushing  glow  of  summer  Roses.  Then  follow  signs 
and  symptoms  of  harvest.  The  Apples  so  plentiful  this  year  are  at  once 
the  promise  and  the  consummation  of  our  joy  of  harvest.  The  trees 
and  branches  are  often  broken  down  by  the  sheer  weight  of  mellow 
fruits.  Great  heaps  of  Apples,  green  and  gold,  red  and  crimson, 
shine  in  the  long  grass,  and  all  the  air  is  laden  with  their  rich  perfume. 
The  wind  just  stirs  the  burdened  branches,  and  sway  they  ever  so  lightly 
the  ripe  fruits  fall  in  showers. 
“  On  the  grass  laid  on  the  fallow 
Drop  the  Apples  red  and  yellow  ; 
Drop  the  russet  Pears  and  mellow, 
Drop  the  red  leaves  all  the  day ; 
And  away,  soft  awaj% 
Sun  and  cloud  o’er  hill  and  hollow 
Chasing  weave  their  web  of  play. 
*  The  sun  is  down,  and  soft  blue  mist  is  gathering 
In  the  red  heart  of  the  Pines.  And  now 
The  shadows  veil  the  meadows, 
And  the  sunset’s  golden  ladders 
Sink  from  twilight  walls  of  glory.” 
Such  is  the  poetry  of  Apple  harvest  home  from  thousands  of  gardens 
and  orchards  throughout  rural  England  ;  and  the  harvesting  or  housing 
of  the  flowers  is  equally  or  more  romantic,  and  full  of  poetry  and 
pleasure. 
Our  love  of  flowers  is  different  to  that  of  most  other  things,  and 
happily  for  our  higher  evolution  and  more  perfect  civilisation  it  is  well- 
nigh  universal.  It  is  as  strongly  marked  in  the  streets  of  London  as  in 
the  most  ideal  lane  or  charming  rural  district.  Daily  it  is  becoming  a 
greater  power  in  our  homes  and  in  our  lives.  Tbc  Moss  Rose,  bought, 
for  Id.  in  the  streets,  becomes  the  centre  of  sweetness  and  light  in 
many  a  dingy  counting  house  throughout  the  business  day.  The  bunch 
of  Violets,  Primroses,  Valley  Lilies,  or  a  Gardenia  in  the  buttonhole,  are 
more  and  better  than  pleasure,  they  become  positive  inspirations  to 
thousands.  It  has  been  finely  said.  We  praise  art,  we  commune  with 
Nature,  but  we  love  the  flower.  Why  ?  They  are  always  kind,  ever 
softly  beneficent.  They  never  lose  their  tempers  ;  we  can  tend  them 
without  fear,  fondle  them  without  a  shade  of  mistrust.  The  closer  and 
the  longer  our  comradeship,  the  more  gentle  and  benignant  we  become 
in  life  and  character. 
It  has  been  said  that  the  flowers  of  the  desert  may  bloom  to  please 
the  brighter  eyes  of  passing  angels  or  their  Maker.  Be  that  as  it  may, 
they  give  of  their  service  in  sweetening  our  surroundings,  yet  ail  the 
while  keeping  themselves  unspotted  from  the  world.  It  may  be  said  of 
each  of  these  myriad  workers  as  of  the  stars,  Not  one  faileth  to  do  its 
special  work.  Flowers,  plants,  fruits,  vegetables,  might  have  done  this 
sanitary  work  in  plain  garb  and  in  offensive  ways  ;  but  here  instead  wc 
have  an  infinite  variety  of  loveliness,  and  endless  fascination  of  beaisty, 
fragrance,  gentleness,  and  goodness. 
One  of  the  most  potent  results  of  what  has  been  called  not  very 
happily  decorative  gardening  (as  if  there  could  be  any  gardening  that 
was  not  decorative)  has  been  the  turning  of  winter  into  summer,  or 
rather  the  creation  of  a  brighter,  longer  summer  to  crown  the  year  from 
January  to  December  with  higher  beauty  and  greater  plenty.  Thus  partly 
has  it  come  about  that  Covent  Garden  has  become  far  and  away  the  first 
and  most  important  garden  in  the  world.  Here  none  of  the  best  flowers, 
plants,  nor  fruit  ever  seem  out  of  season.  It  would  be  quite  bewildering 
were  one  to  attempt  to  pile  up  the  quantities  or  value  of  home  and 
foreign  flowers,  fruit,  and  vegetables  that  pass  through  this  one  market 
in  the  course  of  a  year.  As  to  home-grown  Apples,  Pears,  Plums, 
Grapes,  Melons,  Peaches,  Nectarines,  probably  Mr.  George  Munro  sells 
more  in  a  day  than  the  whole  market  did  thirty  years  ago.  Commercial 
horticulture  has  in  all  its  branches  of  home  and  foreign  produce 
advanced  with  leaps  and  bounds.  Thousands  of  families  in  France, 
Germany,  Belgium,  and  Holland  are  supported  through  the  growth  of 
bulbs,  seeds.  Azaleas,  Camellias,  Heaths,  and  Tomatoes  for  our  English  and 
other  markets.  A  look  into  our  auction  marts  in  London  and  other  large 
towns  gives  glimpses  of  the  enormous  business  done  in  India  and  South 
American  Orchids,  Japanese  Lilies,  seeds,  and  fruits.  And  thus  largely 
it  has  come  to  pass  that  few  or  none  of  the  best  and  sweetest  plants  and 
flowers,  the  luscious  fruits  and  the  freshest  vegetables,  may  not  be  bad 
in  and  out  of  season  in  Covent  Garden  Market. 
Order  a  hundred,  a  thousand,  ten  thousand  Tea  Roses,  Gardenias, 
Eucharis,  Tuberoses,  Tulips,  Narcissuses,  Lilies,  Stephanotis,  and  Bou- 
vardias  for  Christmas  decoration,  with  any  amount  of  green  garniture  to 
match  in  the  form  of  Maidenhair  and  other  Ferns,  filmy  Asparagus, 
delicate  Mosses,  Grasses,  glossy  Myrsiphyllum,  or  other  elegant  foliage  or 
variegated-leaved  plants,  Holly,  Mistletoe,  Ivy,  and  you  shall  have  them. 
Or  should  anyone  wish  to  try  the  solvent  power  of  5000  flaming  crimson 
Poinsettia  pulcheirima  on  our  frost  or  snow-bound  winters,  one 
notable  firm  alone  would  be  able  to  execute  the  order  ;  and  so  with  all 
other  popular  flowers  which  follow  in  crowding  succession.  This  mere 
bird’s-Gye  view  of  national  horticultural  resources  is  given  here,  and 
now  to  prove,  if  proof  were  needed,  that  should  any  lack  flowers  or 
fruit  in  their  homes  and  their  lives,  the  fault  is  neither  in  our  climate 
nor  their  stars — but  in  themselves.  We  have  only  to  open  our  doors  and 
let  the  new  beauty  and  richer  and  more  luscious  fruits  come  in. 
Of  late  years,  too,  the  homes  may  be  said  to  have  captured  the 
gardens,  as  the  gardens  overflowed  and  largely  possessed  the  homes. 
Practically,  the  result  being  very  much  the  same,  the  charms  of  Natni^ 
the  allurements  of  Art  becoming  more  pronounced  in  both  through  the 
closer  union  between  dwelling  house  and  garden.  The  rapid  advance 
in  elementary  education,  the  establishment  and  development  of  technics 
instruction,  the  growth  of  continuation  schools  are  among  the  best  and 
first  fruits,  bringing  more  of  Nature  and  of  life  into  the  hearts  and 
homes  of  the  industrious,  as  well  as  into  the  learned  and  leisured  classes. 
Allow  me  to  parody  the  refrain  of  the  Jingo  days,  “  We’ve  got  the  men, 
we’ve  got  the  ships,  and  we’ve  got  the  money  too,”  into.  We  ve  got  the 
land,  we’ve  got  the  plants,  we’ve  got  the  flowers,  we’ve  got  the  fruit, 
we’ve  got  the  corn,  and  the  roots  too,  and  we’re  fast  learning  the  art  of 
disposing  them  to  the  best  effect  and  using  them  with  a  minimam  of 
waste  and  a  maximum  of  force  in  the  generation  and  conservation  cl 
physical,  intellectual,  and  moral  energy. 
The  place  and  power  of  my  late  friend  Mr.  John  Wills  as  a  home 
decorator  and  floral  artist  was  never  sufficiently  recognised  in  his  Isf^ 
time.  It  is  easy  to  smile  at  some  of  his  dissolving  views  in  his 
attempts  to  place  icebergs  on  our  dinner-tables  and  environ  our  f^ 
and  drink  with  rockeries  of  dripping  crystal  or  half  hide  them  under 
artificial  snowdrifti.  But  he  was  the  great  pioneer  in  the  artistic 
decoration  of  our  dinner-tables,  drawing-rooms,  entrance-hal.s,  staircase^ 
windows,  corridors  with  the  choicest  Orchids,  Sne-foliaged,  variegated 
and  flowering  plants,  bulbs.  Palms,  Mosses,  and  other  greenery ,  thug 
raising  the  decoration  of  our  homes  to  the  dignity  of  a  fine  art.  borne 
have  said  as  a  man  eateth  BO  is  he.  Encompass  the  child  in  his  home 
with  beauty,  the  probability  is  he  will  grow  up  gentle  and  good. 
