April  17,  1902. 
338  JOURNAL  OF  HORTICULTURE 
Hypericum  humifusum. 
In  reply  to  “  H.  R.,  Kent,”  regarding  Hypericum  huinifusum, 
I  may  state  that  I  found  the  plant  growing  on  the  slopes  of  the 
Clent  Hills  a  few  years  ago,  when  I  was  collecting  wild  flowers, 
and  I  have  no  doubt’  it  is  growing  there  still.  The  lulls  are  of  the 
Permian  foihnation.  There  is  a  great  variety  of  wild  flowers  to 
be  found  in  the  district ;  I  have  collected  over  400  varieties,  and 
can  testify  as  to  the  great  interest  and  pleasure  there  is  in  the 
pursuit. — D.  R.  Dixon,  Stourbridge. 
Railway  Rates. 
.  The  editor  did  well  to  call  special  attention  to  the  article  on 
this  important  subject  which  appeared  on  page  178,  as  it  is  of 
great  interest  tO'  the  fruit  grower  and  market  gardener.  The 
arrangement  of  railway  charges  is  one  of  the  mysteries  that  the 
writer  of  the  article  does  not  attempt  to  solve,  and  he  is  wise 
in  his  generation,  as  he  would  only  throw  himself  into  hopeless 
muddle  by  making  an  effort.  But  every  grower  of  produce  knows 
all  about  it,  though  he  may  have  no  means  of  jurisdiction.  The 
fruit  growers  and  market  gardeners  in  the  south  may  stand  by 
the  railway  side  and  watch  the  fast  trains  from  the  seaports  rush¬ 
ing  Londonwards  with  Continental  produce,  but  they  must  ivait 
patiently  for  the  evening  goods  train  to  call  later  and  take  their 
wares,  and  they  know  all  the  while  that  they  are  paying  a 
considerably  higher  tariff.  It  is  all  very  well  to  say  that  the 
laxity  of  the  home  grower  is  responsible  for  the  quantity  of 
foreign  produce  that  conies  in,  but  in  face  of  the  facts  given  on 
page  178.  he  certainly  does  not  receive  much  encouragement  to 
get  his  stuff  into  the  market  after  he  has  grown  it. — G. 
The  Bothy. 
Seeing  so  many  writing  on  the  bothy  question,  I  take  the 
opportunity  of  penning  a  few  lines.  The  bedroom  in  the  last 
bothy  I  had  the  honour  to  reside  in  was  built  over  the  Mushroom 
house,  and  anyone  who  knows  what  a  Mushroom  house  is  will 
know  that  the  conditions  were  not  healthy.  That  was  not  all,  as 
the  damp  from  the  beds  had  rotted  the  sldrting  board  round  the 
bedroom,  and  monstrous  slugs,  an  inch  and  a  half  long  came  up 
into  the  bedroom  in  dozens.  In  the  summer,  only  having  a 
cupboard  in  the  bothy  to  keep  our  eatables  in,  we  had  to  keep 
these  all  on  a  table  at  the  top  of  the  bedroom,  and  I  have  gone 
before  now  to  get  the  milk  to  make  something  for  supper  and 
.found — Avell !  I  will  not  shock  your  readers’  sensibilities.  But 
apart  from  this,  it  was  not  the  gardener’s  fault,  as  a  nicer  man 
was  hard  to  find.  He  repeatedly  told  the  gentry  about  it,  and 
they  even  came  and  looked  at  the  bedroom,  but  so  far  as  I  know, 
it  has  not  been  touched  yet,  and  now,  after  twelve  months  in  two 
or  three  different  lodgings  I  would  willingly  put  up  with  a  bothj^ 
as  good  as  my  last.  There  are  two  of  us  here,  who,  with  the 
head  gardener,  do  a  twenty  minutes’  walk  two  or  three  times  a 
day  to  a  place  where  there  are  twelve  houses,  and  yet  a  bothy 
cannot  be  erected.  Can  anyone  after  that  wonder  at  young  gar¬ 
deners  being  scarce  ?  I  am  afraid  it  won’t  be  altered  till  there 
are  no  good  gardeners  at  all  about — A  Journeyman. 
On  Fruit  Production. 
I  read  the  remarks  under  the  above  heading  on  pages  289  and 
290,  by  '•  Herefordshire  Incumbent,”  with  more  than  ordinary 
interest,  and  propose  to  supplement  those  by  no  means  too  opti¬ 
mistic  conclusions  wdth  a  few  of  my  owm  views  on  the  matter. 
Our  cheery  and  reverend  friend  is  all  for  progress,  and  has  been 
.so  for  many  years ;  but  is  still  dissatisfied.  What  w’ould  he  have  ? 
Surely  he  is  well  aware  that  remarkable  strides  have  been  made 
in  this  great  fruit-growdng  industry  during,  say,  the  past  twenty 
years,  and  also  that  there  are  no  signs  w^hatever  of  any  abate¬ 
ment.  Or  does  he,  in  his  patriotic  zeal,  limit  his  horizon  to 
Hereford  ?  He  has  only  to  make  a  short  trip  to-  Evesham  and 
district,  in  which  some  parts  of  Gloucestershire  as  well  as 
Worcestei'shire  must  be  included,  to  see  what  has  been  done  and 
is  .still  going  on  in  the  way  of  planting  fruit  trees.  Probably  ere 
these  notes  are  in  print  visitors  to  a  ridge  just  out  of  Evesham 
and  cottage  a  able  nee. 
will  get  a  magnificent  view  of  country,  almost  as  far  as  objects 
can  be  well  distinguished,  of  fruit  trees,  and  apparently  nothnig 
else,  all  coming  into  bloom,  the  Plums  in  particular  presenting, 
the  appearance  of  a  snow-clad  forest.  This,  it  may  be  urged,  is 
an  exceptional  case,  and  I  do  not  disjiute  the  point,  but  at  the 
same  time  assert  that  planting  has  been  going  on  with  equal 
determination  and  zeal  in  various  other  parts  of  the  country, 
only  not  being  so  concentrated  we  see  and  hear  less  of  it.  What 
has  become  of  all  the  millions  of  trees  prepared  for  sale  by 
Messrs.  Bunyard,  Rivers,  Smith,  Pearson,  Horne,  Fletcher,  Lowq 
and  others?  Is  it  not  a  fact  that  all  these  growers,  to  say 
nothing  of  numerous  less  well-knowm  firms,  annually  clear  out  all 
their  stocks  of  best  varieties,  so  early  in  the  planting  season,  too,, 
that  orders  after  midwinter  have  to  be  refused  ? 
Take,  for  instance,  Apples  Cox’s  Orange  Pippin  and  Devon¬ 
shire  Quarrenden.  How  many  two-year-old  dwarf  trees  of  the- 
former  or  three- j^ear-old  standards  of  the  latter  are  left  on  the- 
hands  of  nurserymen  at  the  present  time?  As  a  matter  of  fact, 
so  closely  are  these  and  a  few  other  popular  varieties^  imduding 
Bismarck,  Warner’s  King,  Peasgood’s  Nonesuch,  Stirling  Castle, 
Newton  Wonder,  and  the  like  bought  up,tha.t  intending  planteis- 
have  already  placed  their  orders  for  next  autumn  delivery.  Me- 
want  no  Virginian  planters  among  us,  American  methods  of 
swamping  all  little  men  not  being  good  for  this  country.  All  we- 
ask  for  is  fair  play.  Not  only  are  we  fully  capable  of  producing 
all  the  hardy  fruit  required  for  home  consumption,  but  if  the 
Continental  and  American  markets  were  thrown  open  to  us  as 
freely  as  ours  are  to.  them  we  could  also,  in  many  seasons,  supply 
them  with  iiroduce  superior  to  what  they  endeavour  to  drive  us . 
out  of  our  own  markets  with.  This  may  seem  so  much  tall  talk, 
but  it  is  only  the  truth.  The  British  agri-horticulturist  has  been 
presenting  the  “  other  cheek  ”  quite  long  enough,  and  the  time 
has  arrived  for  a  little  jilain  speaking. 
We  hear  much  about  the  very  bad  methods  of  marketing  fol¬ 
lowed  by  our  growers,  the  American  and  Colonial  growers  not 
orring  in  "tliiSi  r&sp'Bct.  It  is  trn©  tlis^t  iniinGnsB  qUciiititiGs  of 
home-grown  fruit  has  been  put  on  the  market  in  a  faulty  way, 
very  little  in  the  way  of  grading  and  good  packing  being 
attempted,  but  these  serious  mistakes  are-  mostly  traceable  to 
agriculturists  pure  and  simple,  who,  it  can  easily  be^proved,  hawe- 
let  the  fruit-growing  industry  practically  slip  out  of  their  hands. 
Our  iiower  race  of  land  cultivators  and  fruit  growers  may  be 
trusted  to  market  their  produce  to  the-  best  adiantage,  and  I 
sincerely  trust  will  also  prove  to  be  sufficiently  energetic  and 
clamorous  to  get  fair  play  from  botli  the  Government  and  rail¬ 
way  companies.  Because  our  Colonial,  Continental,  and  Ameri¬ 
can  rivals  started  grading  and  packing  well,  it  does  not  follow 
that  they  are  scrupulously  observant  of  the  rules  they  originally 
laid  down.  It  is  a  pity  those  who  give  tliese  packers  frequent 
gratuitous  advertisements  do  not  more  often  see  some  of  the 
packages  of  imported  fruit  opened.  Wrapping  Apples  in  paper  ■ 
and  packing  (Closely  in  boxes  is  essential  to  good  travelling,  oi 
otherwise  I  doubt  if  it  would  be  done,  unless  it  is  thought  that 
the  undersized  Apple  Scarlet  Nonpareil  and  the  grub-eaten 
Stunner  Pippins  from  Tasmania  are  less  conspicuously  poor  in 
quality  out  of  paper  than,  as  with  us,  packed  in  the  loose.  Take, 
again  the  boxes  of  Pear  William.s’  Bon  Chretien  from  France. 
The  top  layer  of  these  is  nearly  always  much  superior  to  the  under  • 
layer,  and  large  numbers  of  maggoty  fruit  are  frequent^ included. 
The  only  really  good  Apples  from  America  (United  States)  are 
tlie'  Newtown  Pippins.  TIigv  rest  3.v©  poorj  tbongli  sbowy,  mes^ly 
things.  I  repeat  we  can,  and  eventually  will,  more  than  hold  our  • 
own  with  our  at  present  more  favoured  rivals.  “  Herefordshire 
Incumbent  ”  does  well  to  inveigh  against  the  tyrannous 
ruinous  system  under  which  a  vast  proportion  of  the  land  ni  this 
country  is  held,”  and  those  who  would  restore  prosperity  to  < 
country  districts  generally  ought  to  be  equally  outspoken  on  the 
subject. 
I  cannot  help  thinking,  though,  he  is  a  little  in  error  as  to  the 
suitability  or  unsuitability  of  land  for  the  purpose  of  producing 
hardy  fruit.  Undoubtedly  some  land  is  much  better  than  other  ■ 
classes  of  soil  for  fruit  culture,  and  if  there  could  be  no  variation 
of  treatment,  then  he  would  be  altogether  in  the  right.  Accord¬ 
ing  to  my  experience,  it  is  largely  a  question  of  treatment.  I  he  ■ 
typical  English  farmer  has  been  content  to  stick  a  few  or  many 
trees  into  ground  either  long  since  sick  of  fruit  trees,  or  else  into  ■ 
fresh  soil  supposed  to  be  of  the  best  description  for  fruit  culture, 
needing  presumably,  no  .special  preparation,  and  as  a  consequence 
a  very  bad  start  is  made,  a  comparative  failure  resulting.  So 
careless  and  indifferent  have  landlords,  agents,  and  farmers  been 
that  what  should  have  been  a  valuable  adjunct  to  a  farm  viz., 
from  five  to  twelve  acres  of  fruit  trees,  has  been  allowed  gradually 
to  deteriorate,  and  the  letting  value  of  the  farm  lowered  con¬ 
siderably  accordingly.  I  blame  the  landlords  and  their  agents 
more  than  the  tenants  for  these  serious  oversights,  as  the  last- 
named  ought  not  to  be  expected  to  improve  other  people  s  pro-  - 
perty  with  the  prospect  of  increased  rent  for  their  pains.  . 
Rosebery  is  wiser  in  his  generation.  In  the  neighbourhood  of 
Mentmore  Damson  growing  is  a  most  prominent  industry,  but 
Lord  Rosebery’s  talented  gardener,  Mr.’  Smith,  has  been  niainlv 
instrumental  in  establishing  these  profitable  orchards,  not  hand- 
