SUPPLEMENT  TO 
March  9,  1899.  JOURNAL  OF  HORTICULTURE  AND  COTTAGE  GARDENER,  189 
beautifully  coloured  flowers,  the  Meadow  Saffrons,  the  autumnal 
'-Crocuses  and  Snowdrops,  which  complete  the  cycle  of  the  year. 
As  we  think  of  them  we  think,  too,  of  their  colours  and  hues; 
purest  white  passing  from  creamy  Avhite  through  light  yellow  to  deep 
yellow  and  orange ;  palest  flesh  passing  through  pink  to  scarlets  and 
crimsons  of  deepest  dye ;  faintest  tinge  of  blue  ranging  through  the 
gamut  of  shades  of  colour  to  deep  blue  and  black  purple.  We  cannot 
tell  of  the  shades,  the  tints,  the  markings  which  complete  the  glory  of 
the  flower.  Leaves  also  give  us  their  share  of  fascinating  grace  and 
interest.  Greens  and  greys,  silvers  and  glaucous  blues,  bright  or  deep 
red  brown,  are  there  with  forms  innumerable.  Entire,  arrow-shaped, 
lobed,  pinnate,  lance- shaped ;  smooth  and  rough,  hairless  or  spiny, 
many  are  the  peculirrities  and  beauties  they  show. 
Nor  are  we  less  pleased  with  the  habit  of  the  plants  or  the  form  of 
their  flowers.  Towering  aloft  and  stately  some  are,  while  there  are 
all  sizes  until  we  reach  the  creeping  plant,  which  scarcely  rises  above 
the  soil.  Bells  and  aups,  (juaint  hoods,  tube-like  blooms,  cup  within 
cup,  bell  within  bell,  hood  within  hood,  creamy  plumes,  sprays  of 
foam-like  bloom. 
If  we  add  to  the  thought  of  the  charms  of  the  hardy  flowers  that 
of  the  little  care  they  ask  at  our  hands ;  their  perennial  reappearance ; 
their  fitness  for  entwining  themselves  into  our  fondest  memories  ;  their 
innate  beauties  of  form  and  colour  are  enhanced  to  our  minds,  and  wo 
prize  them  more  and  more  as  time  rolls  on. — S.  Arnott. 
FAULTS,  FALLACIES,  FAILURES. 
Why  is  it  that  in  the  Midlands  one  so  frequently  hears  the  advice, 
Do  not  procure  fruit  trees  from  the  South  ?  This  is  a  question  to 
which  I  have  never  had  a  satisfactory  answer,  and  I  always  press 
home  the  adviser  for  his  reason.  The  invariable  reply  is  that  southern 
trees  are  “soft”  and  do  not  answer  when  sent  north,  and  that  trees 
from  the  north  are  so  hardy  that  when  sent  south  they  are  bound  to 
thrive. 
Now,  there  is  nothing  like  the  logic  of  facts  to  “  floor  a  fallacy,” 
and  my  bit  of  logic  is  the  condition  of  the  trees  in  the  Derbyshire 
County  Council  fruit  plots.  The  whole  of  the  trees  and  bushes  were 
procured  from  southern  nurseries.  Many  of  those  planted  in  1893  at 
Duffield  are  now  pyramids,  upwards  of  12  feet  in  height ;  grand 
examples  are  they  of  healthy  growth,  symmetrical  development,  early 
and  persistent  cropping,  exemplifying  the  beneficent  influence  of  the 
broad-leaved  Paradise  Stock  in  affording  robust  growth  in  conjunction 
with  the  early  development  of  plenty  of  blossom  buds.  Equally  remark¬ 
able  are  the  standards,  all  of  them  being  in  a  satisfactory  condition  of 
development,  some  having  heads  12  to  14  feet  in  diameter.  Quite  as 
satisfactory  are  the  frees  planted  in  1895  in  the  fruit  plot  at  Matlock 
Brid re.  Fortunately,  they  are  before  the  public,  and  tend,  better  than 
anything  I  can  say,  to  refute  the  fallacy. 
It  is  precisely  this  taking  care  of  the  trees  that  I  had  in  my  mind 
wh'-n  I  sat  dowm  to  write  this  note.  Can  anything  be  more  tantalising, 
or  more  ansaiisfactory,  than  the  condition  of  many  a  collection  of  young 
fruit  trees  during  the  first  year  or  two  after  they  have  been  procured 
from  a  nursery  and  planted  in  flieir  permanent  quarters  ?  Many  a 
time  and  oft  have  1  been  called  in  to  advise  the  disconsolate  owners 
of  such  trees.  There  stand  the  trees,  alive,  it  is  true,  but  only  putting 
forth  leaves;  there  is  nothing  like  free  growth  upon  any  of  them,  and, 
yet,  how  well  they  looked  at  the  nursery  !  There  the  growth  was 
positively  rampant.  Why  should  mere  transplantation  induce  so  great 
a  change  ?  This  is  precisely  the  point.  Let  us  look  into  it  a  bit.  It 
is  the  nurseryman’s  business,  as  it  tends  to  his  profit,  to  have  his 
young  tree  stock  in  perfect  health  and  vigour — vigour,  especially,  he 
must  have.  He  knows  full  well  that  to  this  end  his  soil  must  be 
abnormally  rich  in  fertility;  he  makes  it  so,  and  keeps  it,  either  by 
liberal  dressings  of  natural  or  chemical  manures,  or  both.  In  this 
matter  his  ideas  of  liberalit}^  are  far  and  away  beyond  those  of  the 
ordinary  practitioner.  Gardeners  are  not  bafl  hands  at  cramming  the 
land  with  manure,  but  where  the  gardener  uses  50  tons  to  the  acre  the 
nurseryman  will  use  100.  The  gardener,  perforce  of  circumstances,  often 
falln  short  of  his  fifty,  but  the  nurseryman  is  bound  to  keep  the  land  up 
to  his  standard,  or  his  stock  would  deteriorate.  Surely,  the  sight  of  the 
magnificent  growth  of  nursery  stock  should  make  one  thoughtful  and 
cautious — but  thoughtful,  especiall}’.  An  intelligent  man  would  not 
only  endeavour  to  grasp  the  reason  why  the  trees  had  such  clean, 
healthy,  vigorous  growth  in  the  nursery,  but  also  to  see  how  he  could 
induce  the  trees  to  grow  with  sufficient  vigour  for  his  purpose  after  he 
has  them  in  his  hands. 
To  take  a  very  common  case — that  of  the  planter  of  little  experi¬ 
ence.  Partial  or  total  failure  is  often  the  result  of  his  attempt  to 
■establish  such  trees  in  his  garden.  He  has  been  advised  that  he 
should  not  use  manure  in  preparing  the  soil  for  the  trees.  Acting 
on  the  advice  which  it  may  be  he  has  seen  over  the  name  of  .a 
well-known  fruit  grower,  he  plants  the  trees  with  all  due  care,  but 
without  manure,  in  soil  which,  if  not  absolutely  poverty  stricken, 
is  low  in  fertility.  Can  it  be  matter  for  surprise  that  feeble  growth 
is  the  result,  or  that  the  gardener  is  disheartened,  his  cnqfioycr 
disgusted  ?  Not  a  pleasant  thing  is  it  to  be  asked  to  advise  in  such 
a  case.  How  much  rather  in  the  interest  of  both  master  and  man 
— aye  !  and  of  the  nurser3^man  too,  would  one  jtrefer  to  be  consulted 
beforehand  ! 
It  may  be  as  well  to  remind  beginners  that  abnormal  fruit  bud 
development  is  not  always  owing  to  poverty  of  soil.  It  is  frc<|ueiitly  a 
result  of  transplanting  both  in  Pears  on  the  tjuince  stock,  anil  Apples 
on  the  Paradise.  In  the  autumn  of  1894  I  had  a  young  pyramid  cf 
Cox’s  Orange  Pippin  practcnlly  without  a  Avood  bud,  but  Avith  a 
Fk;.  -12. — Mr.  E.  Luck  hurst. 
profusion  of  blossom  buds.  The  tree  aatis  then  cut  hard  b.ack  behind 
the  blossom  buds;  nothing  Avas  done  to  the  roots,  as  I  knew  the 
soil  was  rich  enough.  The  result  Avas  vigorous  growth,  and  the  tree 
is  now  a  fine  specimen. — Edavarp  LucivIIurst. 
-  CoA^ERiNG  Outside  Vixe  Borders. — There  is  a  variable 
practice  appertaining  to  Vine  borders  in  the  matter  of  winter  protection, 
some  believing  in  a  heaA'y  coat  of  manure,  others  of  leaves,  and  some 
nothing  at  all.  So  long  as  mild  weather  occurs  the  latter  course  may  not 
bring  about  any  serious  consequence  ;  but  deeply  penetrating  frosts 
undoubtedly  are  not  beneficial  to  the  fleshy  and  fibrous  Vine  roots  situated 
near  the  surface.  The  residue,  too,  from  decaying  manure  has  a  tendency 
to  encourage  and  foster  the  increase  of  surface  roots,  which  is  so  pleasing 
to  the  grower.  I  have  noticed  that  unprotected  borders  present  few 
surface  roots,  no  matter  how  otherwise  treated.  A  heavy  coat  of  farm 
manure  is  not  desirable,  though  ot  the  two  evils  the  latter  is  the  less 
one.  To  ray  mind  freshly  gathered  tree  leaves  form  an  ideal  winter 
covering  placed  fairly  thickly  over  the  border  surfaces,  and  these  covered 
with  sufficient  strawy  material  to  prevent  their  being  disturbed  or  carried 
away  by  the  wind.  These  become  wet  during  the  winter,  and  in  this 
state  are  cold  in  spring,  and  houses  started  fairly  early  are  benefited  by 
having  the  covering  removed  during  the  prevalence  of  sunshine,  and 
replaced  again  at  night.  During  a  winter’s  use  decay  will  provide  a  fair 
amount  of  broken  leaf,  which,  with  the  presence  of  surface  roots,  will  tend 
very  much  to  their  increase  ;  and  if,  when  these  are  finally  removed,  a 
layer  of  horse  or  cow  manure  is  spread  on  the  border  these  roots  will 
benefit  the  Vines  materially. — K.  A. 
