September  2,  1807. 
JOURNAL  OF  HORTICULTURE  AND  COTTAGE  GARDENER. 
213 
immediately  turm?  red.  The  power  to  turn  blue  litmus  paper  red  is 
one  of  the  characteristic  properties  of  all  acids.  But  now  wo  come  to 
the  (picstiou — namely,  What  is  a  salt  ?  A  good  illustration  of  a 
commonly  known  salt  is  nitrate  of  soda.  If  a  small  (Quantity  of  this 
sale  be  dissolved  in  water  and  red  litmus  paper  be  put  into  it  no 
change  of  colour  will  occur  ;  if  blue  paper  bo  used  instead  of  the  red 
the  solution  will  not  alter  the  colour. 
A  salt  then  has  not  the  power  to  turn  red  litmus  blue,  or  blue  red. 
Place  a  small  piece  of  caustic  soda  in  some  water,  and  after  it  has 
dissolved  put  in  a  piece  of  red  litmus  paper,  the  colour  immediately 
turns  blue ;  now  add  nitric  acid — one  spot  at  a  time — to  the  caustic 
soda  solution  until  the  blue  paper  begins  to  alter  in  colour.  If  this 
experiment  be  conducted  with  great  care  a  substance  sai<l  to  be  neutral 
will  bo  formed  in  the  water,  which  will  neither  turn  blue  paper  red, 
nor  red  blue.  What  then  has  occurred  ?  The  nitric  acid  (an  acid)  has 
chemically  combined  with  the  soda  (a  base)  to  form  nitrate  of  soda  (a 
salt).  If  sulphuric  acid  or  phosphoric  acid  had  been  used  instead  of 
the  nitric,  sulphate  or  phosphate  of  soda  would  have  been  formed  ;  or 
if  potash  or  lime  had  been  used  instead  of  the  soda,  nitrate  of  potash 
or  lime  would  have  been  formed.  If  the  presence  of  the  nitrate  of 
soda  be  doubted,  allow  the  water  to  evaporate,  when  the  crystals  of 
salt  will  be  found  in  the  bottom  of  the  vessel  used. 
Before  leaving  this  subject  we  might  quote  a  practical  case  in 
which  the  neutralising  of  acids  takes  place.  Peaty  soils,  and  those  which 
have  been  dressed  for  a  long  time  with  farmyard  manure,  get  sour. 
Why  ?  Because  owing  to  the  decomposition  of  the  decaying  vegetable 
matter  acids  are  formed.  What  do  we  do  to  make  these  soils  sweet  ? 
We  apply  lime,  which  is  a  base,  and  this  combines  with  the  acids  and 
forms  neutral  bodies  called  salts. — W.  Dyke. 
(To  be  continued.) 
THE  DECADENCE  OF  WALL  FRUIT  CULTURE. 
Amc'NO  the  numerous  readers  of  the  Journal  of  ITortimlture,  I 
trow  there  are  many  who  have  studied  closely  the  sweeping  assertions 
of  “  A  Traveller”  on  the  decay  of  gardening  (page  170),  but  few,  I 
think,  will  entirely  agree  with  the  remarks  there  made  in  so  iluent 
and  polished  a  style — a  style  that  betrays  the  “  Traveller”  to  be  also 
a  scribe,  whose  thoughts  may  often  linger  upon  the  achievements  of 
the  past,  yet  do  not  prevent  him  from  being  up  to  date  in  the 
matter  of  wielding  the  pen  of  a  ready  writer. 
I  do  not  intend  to  take  up  the  cudgels  on  behalf  of  the  “  smart  ” 
gardener  of  modern  times,  but  it  has  struck  me  that  if  the  notes  of 
“  A  Traveller”  are  productive  of  no  other  good,  they  have  already  done 
yeoman’s  service  in  bringing  out  the  instructive  leader  of  “Invicta” 
(page  185),  whose  thoughts  have  evidently  been  directed  to  the 
subject  that  heads  these  notes  by  the  forebodings  of  “  A  Traveller.” 
Fortunately  “Invicta”  goes  somewhat  deeper  into  the  matter,  for 
while  he  admits  that  good  examples  of  wall  fruit  culture  are  not  so 
numerous  as  formerly,  he  also  endeavours  to  find  some  tangible  reason 
why  such  is  the  case.  A  weighty  one  advanced  is  “  that  with  the 
great  facilities  now  at  band  in  the  way  of  glass  protection.  Peach  growing 
in  the  open  air  is  practically  unnecessary.” 
There  is,  without  doubt,  a  great  deal  of  truth  in  such  an  assertion, 
but,  in  my  opinion,  it  does  not  show  a  sufficient  reason  why  Peaches 
should  not  be  grown  on  outside  walls  as  largely  and  well  as  ever  they 
were,  not  only  with  the  object  of  prolonging  the  season,  but  of  giving 
a  more  plentiful  supply.  (Choice  fruit  is  always  in  demand,  and  there 
arc  very  few  gardeners  in  the  enviable  position  of  having  too  large 
a  supply  of  really  good  fruit.  The  bedding  craze  when  at  its  zenith 
was  doubtless  answerable  for  the  decadence  of  many  phases  of 
gardening,  as  so  much  labour  was  needed  to  raise,  plant,  and  tend  the 
enormous  quantities  of  plants  required  for  large  flower  gardens,  that 
many  details  which  help  to  promote  high  culture  in  other  directions 
were  of  necessity  neglected. 
The  old  stereotype  bedding  craze  is,  however,  rapidly  passing 
away,  and  many  hardy,  or  more  easily  raised,  yet  not  less  beautiful 
plants  are  now  used  for  the  embellishment  of  the  flower  garden.  If, 
then,  this  form  of  gardening  has  in  the  past  been  to  a  great  extent 
answerable  for  the  decadence  of  wall  fruit  culture,  matters  should  begin 
to  improve  now  that  we  have  returned  to  a  simpler  style  of  bedding  ; 
yet  I  question  very  much  if  such  will  be  the  case.  If  1  am  right  in 
this  assumption,  it  shows  clearly  that  there  must  be  some  far-reaching 
cause  which  has  brought  'about  a  state  of  affairs  so  much  to  be 
deplored.  It  is  sheer  nonsense  to  pretend,  as  some  of  the  pessimists 
do,  that  present-day  gardeners  do  not  possess  the  skill  to  grow  and 
train  wall  trees  in  the  way  that  their  forefathers  did.  The  way  in 
which  Peaches  and  other  fruit  trees  are  grown,  trained,  and  fruited 
under  glass  clearly  combats  such  arguments.  At  no  time  in  the 
history  of  gardening  were  better  crops  of  fruit  more  generally  grown 
under  glass  than  they  are  to-day.  How,  then,  our  detractors  will 
again  ask,  do  you  account  for  the  fact  that  such  a  satisfactory  state 
of  affairs  does  not  exist  in  regard  to  wall  trees?  Perhaps  you  will 
take  shelter  under  the  well-worn  argument  of  the  unsuitableness  of 
our  climate.  Assuredly  I  am  not,  for  although  our  climate  may  be 
by  no  means  perfect,  it  is  good  enough  to  enable  cultivators  in  the 
southern  and  midland  counties  to  produce  fine  crops  of  Peaches 
three  years  out  of  four  when  cultural  details  are  well  carried  out,  but 
to  do  so  a  great  amount  of  intelligent  labour  must  be  given  to  the 
work. 
On  this  the  whole  matter  hinges,  for  it  is  the  great  drawback  iu 
the  majority  of  gardens  of  to-day.  It  is  absolutely  impossible  for 
gardeners  in  many  places  to  bestow  the  necessary  amount  of  attention 
to  their  wall  trees,  and  the  inevitable  result  is  that  they  gradually 
drift  into  an  unsatisfactory  condition.  Time  was  when  in  many  well- 
conducted  gardens  a  regular  hand — who  had  been  trained  from  boy¬ 
hood  to  the  work— was  placed  in  charge  of  the  wall  trees.  Ilis  first 
consideration  was  to  give  the  trees  whatever  attention’ they  required 
at  the  right  time,  and  only  when  this  had  been  accomplished  was  he 
given  other  work.  How  do  matters  stand  in  this  respect  to-day? 
Why,  the  man  who  in  former  times  had  little  else  to  do  but  attend  to 
the  wall  trees,  is,  in  consequence  of  a  shortness  of  hands,  set  to  do 
other,  and  as  far  as  times  go,  more  pressing  work,  while  the  trees  are 
going  to  ruin  through  unavoidable  neglect. 
When  we  come  to  the  point  of  deploring  the  loss  of  the  beautifully 
trained  trees  of  olden  times,  I  think  we  may  rather  congratulate 
ourselves  that  we  have  been  able  to  adopt  practices  more  suited  to 
altered  circumstances. 
A  properly  trained  tree  is,  I  admit,  a  beautiful  object,  and  I  yield  to 
no  one  in  my  admiration  of  a  well-balanced  fan-shaped  tree,  in  which 
every  angle  is  a  correct  one,  but  they  are  expensive  objects  of  beauty, 
which  gardeners  can  scarcely  afford  to  grow  in  these  utilitarian  days, 
for  much  labour  is  needed  to  keep  them  in  the  best  of  condition.  And 
yet  I  think  no  one  will  deny  that,  given  an  equal  amount  of  wall 
space  for  two  trees,  one  to  be  trained  and  kept  in  perfect  shape,  while 
the  other  was  being  manipulated  on  less  methodical  lines,  that  the  latter 
system  would  be  productive  of  the  best  results  in  the  shape  of  fine 
fruit  in  quantity.  If  we  must  have  some  perfectly  trained  trees  in 
our  gardens  to  show  that  the  art  of  ijroducing  them  is  not  lost,  let 
them  be  grown  in  prominent  positions  where  they  will  catch  the 
“  Traveller’s  ”  eye,  but  by  all  means  let  plenty  of  others  be  grown  on 
less  rigid  lines — to  supply  abundance  of  fruit. 
To  sum  up  the  matter,  I  for  one  cannot  admit  that  gardeners 
are  to  blame  for  the  present  condition  of  the  wall  trees  in  this  country, 
for  during  the  last  twenty  years  a  great  reduction  of  the  hands 
employed  in  gardens  has  taken  place,  barely  enough  being  left  to  keep 
places  in  presentable  condition  by  doing  what  I  term  “  surface 
gardening.”  Under  such  circumstances  some  things  must  be 
neglected,  and  the  gardener  who  in  choosing  between  two  evils  makes 
a  point  of  kee]jing  down  weeds  and  maintaining  cleanliness  and  order 
as  far  as  possible — even  at  the  expense  of  his  wall  trees — follows,  I 
think,  the  wiser  course.  The  requirements  of  employers  are  much 
greater  than  they  were  twenty  years  ago.  Let  us  take  for  example 
places  where  the  same  number  of  men  are  employed  now  as  formerly, 
and  then  compare  the  amount  of  time  taken  up  in  carrying  out  plant 
and  lloral  decorations  in  the  mansion,  and  then  wonder,  if  we  can,  why 
certain  phases  of  gardening  compare  unfavourably  with  the  achieve¬ 
ments  of  long  ago.  Nine  gardeners  out  of  every  ten  are  thoroughly 
cognisant  of  these  facts,  and  when  they  meet  in  a  body  at  some  great 
show  freely  discuss  the  “  curse  of  modern  gardening” — viz.,  reduced 
hands  and  increased  house  decorations.  Yet  they  seem  to  have  great 
temerity  in  writing  plainly  to  that  effect  in  the  horticultural  press. 
It  is  a  matter  well  worth  ventilating,  and  I  should  like  to  see  a  vote 
taken  among  the  gardeners  of  Britain  as  to  what,  in  the  opinion  of 
each,  is  the  cause  of  “  the  decadence  of  wall  fruit  culture.” — H.  D. 
H  0  lil  E  -  M  A  D  E  WINES. 
^Continued  from  page  187.) 
Elder  Wine. 
The  fruit  of  the  Elder  contains  a  considerable  ifuantity  of  ferment¬ 
able  matter,  which  is  essential  to  produce  an  active  fermentation,  and 
its  beautiful  colour  gives  wines  a  rich  tint,  but  it  is  defective  in 
saccharine  matter,  it  is  much  improved  by  adding  a  small  ([uantity 
of  argol.  Dr.  MacCulloch  recommends  1  to  4  and  even  6  per  cent, 
according  to  the  greater  or  less  sweetness  of  the  fruit;  the  sweeter 
the  fruit  the  greater  the  quantity  of  argol  required. 
To  every  gallon  of  Elder  berries  take  1  gallon  of  water;  but 
before  adding  the  water  the  berries  are  to  be  bruised  and  allowed  to 
remain  in  the  juice  till  the  following  day,  when  they  are  to  be  boiled 
in  a  copper  for  ten  or  fifteen  minutes.  They  are  then  to  be  pressed 
and  strained  through  a  sieve.  The  given  quantity  of  water  is  to  be 
poured  upon  the  pressed  fruit,  the  whole  well  stirred  and  then  pressed 
and  strained,  which  is  to  be  added  to  the  juice.  ^Measure  the  li(iuor 
and  test  its  gravity  by  the  saccharometer,  and  bring  the  gravity  up 
to  120,  which  will  require  3  to  lbs.  of  sugar  per  gallon ;  and  to 
