June  15,  1899. 
4S7 
JOUnXAL  OF  HORTICULTURE  AXD  COTTAGE  GARDEXER. 
cases,  when  established  in  the  method  described.  They  .are  most  useful 
to  farmers,  but  the  majority  of  farmers  cannot  or  will  not  "ive  them 
proper,  if  any,  attention  in  a  young  state,  even  if  the  trees  are  bought 
and  planted  for  them,  and  the  trees,  though  good  to  begin  with,  are  in 
a  few  years  torn,  twisted,  gnarled,  miserable  wrecks.  There  are, 
however,  exceptions,  and  these  are  on  the  increase,  especi.ally  in  the 
•chief  fruit  growing  counties  and  some  districts  in  the  midlands.  Keep 
on,  Mr.  Pearson,  in  teaching  them  better  methods. 
You  are  now  '“rather”  in  favour  of- cultivated  orchard,  always 
■for  ,a  time,  and  sometimes  continuously,  hence  vou  say  space  must  be 
le  t,  that  the  “plow"’  may  not  come  too  near  them;  also  in  preparing 
land  you  point  out,  for  reasons  stated,  that  the  steam  “plow”  may 
bo  worse  th.an  useless.  Now,  from  whence  did  you  find  that  advanced 
word  ?  Not  from  school,  not  from  your  honoured  father,  not  from  the 
Journal  of  Horticulture,  not  from  a  good  old  English  dicticnarju  No, 
you  have  been  profiting  by  the  poetic  teaching  of  which  you  cite  an 
example,  and  stole  the  word  from  America,  where  the  people  are  too 
bu«v  to  put  in  all  the  letters-.  Better  stick  to  the  English  methods  of 
spelling  yet  awhile,  or  when  you  contract  a  cold  you  may  he  cowing 
insU'.ad  of  coughing,  and  to  be  cowed  is  quite  contrary  to  your 
courageous  nature. 
(dlVINO. 
Quite  the  obverse  of  stealing  is  giving,  and  you  make  ample  amends 
for  the  lapse  in  orthography  when  under  the  phonetic  spell,  in  the 
good  advice  clearly  given  on  the  various  items  th.at  cannot  be  over¬ 
looked  if  success  is  to  be  attained  in  fruit  cultivation  and  distribution. 
You  tell  about  preparing  the  land  wisely,  of  pl.anting  properly — not 
omitting  to  explain  th.at  the“  quincunx”  arrangement  of  trees  is  “like 
five  (of  spades)  on  a  pack  of  cards’’— ron  pruning  iulelligeutly, 
manuring  sensibly,  sorting  carefully,  and  marketing  prudently ;  and, 
if  what  you  give  of  your  experience  on  these  and  other  matters  is 
t.'iken  .and  turned  to  account  in  the  way  you  wish,  growers  will  not 
tad  to  succeed  in  the  production  of  what  is  ever  in  demand — superior 
fruit,  but  it  Tmifit  be  “  superior.” 
Samples. 
You  have  seen  baskets  of  Apples  or  Plums  sent  to  market  with  a 
fine  layer  of  fruit  on  the  top,  “  the  would-be  pureh.aser  turns  a  few 
over,  and  finding  a  different  sample  underneath  begins  to  thrust  in 
his  hands  and  sh.ake  up  tiie  fruit;  finally,  after  spoiling  its  appearance 
he  bids  such  a  price  as  the  smallest  is  worth,  and  ignores  the  larger 
sized.”  Of  course  he  docs  :  he  would  not  be  much  of  a  buyer  if  he 
did  otherwise.  The  marvel  is  that  he  is  afforded  so  many  opportunitie.s 
to  benefit  himself  at  the  expense  of  blunderers.  He  just  sorts  out  the 
better  fruit  and  sells  it  at  thrice  the  price  he  gave  for  the  lot,  and  has 
the  small  into  the  bargain.  Well  may  the  practice  remind  you  of 
the  old  firmer  who  said,  “  When  buying  sheep  don’t  look  at  the 
big  ones,  but  keep  j’our  eye  on  two  or  three  smallest,  and  buy,  then 
you  wid  be  all  right.” 
We  rather  like  the  idea  of  farmers  only  growing  early  Apples  to  be 
gathered  and  used,  or  sold,  before  Inarvest,  such  as  Duchess  of  Olden¬ 
burg,  Lord  Grosvenor,  Devonshire  tjuarrenden,  and  Worcester  Pear- 
main,  with  a  lew  Czar  .and  Victoria  Plums;  but  the  bulk  should  be  of 
late  v<arietie8,  the  fruit  of  which  will  hang  on  the  trees  till  harvest 
operations  .are  completed ;  or  such  Apples  as  Newton  Wonder, 
Bramley’s  Seedling,  New  Northern  Greening,  and  King  of  the 
Pippins,  with  Monarch  Plum  and  Shropshire  Damson.  Another 
<lictum  about  grass  orch.ards  is  worth  remembering,  “  Never  mow  an 
orchard,  as  nothing  will  rum  it  more  quickly.”  You  might  have 
.aided,  I3ut  graze  it,  and  get  your  friend  Mr.  Bunyard’s  three  historic 
crops  in  one  se.ason — wool,  mutton,  fruit. 
A  Story  on  Deei>  Planting. 
Apropos  of  deep  planting,  the  “  funniest  ”  story,  you  know,  is  that 
told  you  by  a  nurseryman  who  supplied  a  number  of  Cherry  trees  for 
a  large  orchard.  Other  trees  were  at  the  same  time  obtained  from 
another  source.  These  latter  flourished,  while  the  former  dwindled. 
On  the  jrerplexed  nurseryman  visiting  the  trees  he  at  the  first  glance 
failed  to  recognise  his  own,  and  said  they  could  not  have  come  from 
his  nurj^ery,  as  his  trees  had  G  feet  stems,  whereas  none  of  those 
inspected  had  stems  of  more  than  Sj  feet.  Investigation  elicited  the 
fact  th.at  “  the  planter  had  dug  the  holes  for  the  taller  trees  half  a 
foot  deeper  than  for  the  others  to  make  them  all  levelT 
To  this  “funniest”  story  on  the  ^^subject  we  will  add  a  funnier. 
A  gentleman  made  a  fine  new  kitchen  garden,  and  h<ad  planted  in  it 
a  number  of  fruit  trees.  Two  or  three  years  subsequently  he  engaged 
a  new  gardener — a  thoroughly  competent  all-round  man.  All  the 
trees  flourished  except  a  long  row  of  bush  or  pyramid  Apples  along 
the  side  of  the  main  walk.  We  were  invited  to  inspect  them.  The 
owner  described  his  gardener  as  “  a  capital  man  in  everything  else, 
but  he  could  not  grow  Apples.”  Certainly  the  gardens  were  in 
splendid  condition  under  glass’and  everywhere,  but  these  particular 
Apple  trees,  large  when  purchased  at  an  extra  price,  wmre  in  a 
miserable  plight,  with  cankered  stems  and  yellow  leaves.  The  gar¬ 
dener  said  they  were  planted  too  deeply,  but  the  owner  averred  they 
were  not,  ho  had  superintended  the  work  himself,  and  would  not  have 
them  lilted.  He  was  told,  however,  rather  firmly,  there  could  be  n<' 
inspection  without  seeing  the  roots,  and  he  marched  aw.ay.  Digging 
commenced.  No  roots  at  1  foot,  2  feet,  3  feet,  but  they  were  readied 
at  last,  such  as  they  were.  A  searching  investigation  revealed  the 
fact  that  the  trees  were  standards,  but  the  owner  would  have  ihem 
made  into  dwarfs,  “  as  they  would  look  better  and  save  stakes.”  He 
insisted  on  them  being  sunk  to  the  outrageous  depth  necessary,  and 
saw  the  work  done.  He  was  told  he  had  done  his  present  gardener  an 
injustice.  “  Oh,  then  you  have  found  me  out,  have  you?  ^  cry  well, 
my  gardener  shall  not  be  bothered  any  longer,  and  I  will  raise  his 
avages.”  His  garden  was  a  pleasure  to  him,  and  his  gardener  a 
trusted  and  valued  servant  to  the  end.  rnfortunately  the  master  is 
dead,  and  if  -Mr.  Pearson  can  find  a  situation  for  one  of  the  best  of 
men,  where  gardening  is  cherished,  and  reasonable  meafis  provided  for 
its  prosecution,  he  will  do  better  than  entering  an  action  for  libel 
against  the  Editor  for  saying  a  “  word  ”  about  his  lecture  on  fruits. 
ONIONS  AND  MAGGOTS. 
Most  of  us  enjoy  seeing  well-grown  Onions,  as  they  are  shown  at 
our  leading  exhibitions,  and  for  this  purpose  the  system  of  sowing 
seeds  early  in  gentle  heat  and,  after  hardening,  transplanting  to  the 
open  ground,  is  to  be  commended.  To  that  I  do  not  object,  d  he 
method  is,  however,  often  put  forward  as  the  only  sure  remedy  against 
the  Onion  fly,  as  by  this  means  it  is  contended  the  resulting  plants 
are  so  strong  at  planting  lime  that  they  are  in  themselv'es  able  to 
withstand  attacks  of  this  old  foe  of  gardeners.  Can  the  disci nles  of 
this  doctrine  explain  away  the  fact  th.at  row  after  rovv  of  iri]iolis 
have  become  simply  lumps  of  corruption  and  nastiness  Ihey  w^ere 
strong  enough  previous  to  infection. 
Passing  from  this  view  of  the  subject,  let  us  look  at  it  from 
another  standpoint.  I  demur  to  the  universal  recommendation  of  this 
policy  of  “boxing  ”  on  the  score  of  economy.  Think  of  the  thousands 
of  pounds  which  annually  find  their  way  “  over  the  water”  for  Onions, 
and  it  is  the  market  grower  ave  look  to  tor  a  solution  of  the 
difficulty.  Will  the  latter  be  found  in  the  wholesale  sowing  ol  seed 
yearly  under  glass  ?  I  say  no ;  those  who  grow  Onions  to  sell  at  a 
profit  will  not  be  led  astray  by  the  tenets  of  “Onionism. 
For  some  years  we  have  been  able  to  grow  the  ]iungent  bulb  free 
from  its  great  pest,  in  a  garden  which  h.ad  previously  been  subject  to 
serious  infection,  and  I  propose  to  give  a  short  account  of  the  manner 
in  which  this  has  been  done.  I  claim  to  expound  no  startling  theory, 
no  new  points  of  jiractice,  but  will  give  just  a  plain  statement  of  facts. 
It  is  not  for  me  to  str.ain  the  credulity  of  readers  as  to  the  weight 
of  crop  annually  gained  from  a  given  number  of  perches.  It  suffices 
that  we  usually  have  a  small  surplus,  of  which  there  is  no  difficulty  in 
disposing  at  a  fair  price.  A  ith  us  Onions  usually  follow^  la* e  leas, 
and  as  soon  as  possible  after  the  latter  are  gathered  w'e  bastard  trench 
the  piece  of  ground  it  is  proposed  to  use.  Witn  the  bottom  spit  is 
incorporated  all  kinds  of  garden  refuse,  from  which  deep-rooting  wmeds 
are  rigidly  excluded,  while  a  heavy  dressing  of  farmyard  manure  is 
added°to  the  upper  portion  of  the  land  ;  the  whole  is  well  stirred,  and 
then  left  for  the  winter. 
As  early  in  February,  or  March  as  it  is  possible  to  obtain  a  good 
tilth,  which  all  sound  cultivators  know  is  essential  in  sowing  small 
seeds,  these  are  sown.  The  ground  is  first  well  trodden,  and 
afterwards  ashes,  hot  from  refuse  fires,  are  spread  over  the  surface, 
which  is  then  well  raked.  The  seeds  are  sown  in  shallow  drills 
10  inches  apart,  the  rake  being  again  brought  into  requisition  in  a 
light  manner,  and  there  is  nothing  more  needed  until  the  seedlings 
appear.  As  soon  as  these  can  be  plainly  discerned  the  Dutch  hoe  is 
run  down  the  rows,  and  a  light  application  of  soot  given.  Ten  days 
or  a  fortnight  from  this  time  an  ounce  of  nitrate  of  soda,  rather  under 
than  over  that  amount,  is  applied  to  the  si|uare  yard.  ^  These  two 
stimulants  are  used  alternately  until  the  Onions  attain  a  fair  size. 
Some  of  the  adherents  of' the  “boxing”  system  may  be  tempted 
to  exclaim,  “  Well !  but  this  is  the  way  to  induce  soft  succulent 
oTowth,  which  is  just  the  condition  of  affairs  the  Onion  maggot 
delDhts  in.”  I  quite  agree  if  the  applications  of  nitrate  are  too 
heavy,  but  used  in  striall  quantities  it  will  help  the  young  plants  to 
pass  quickly  out  of  dcanger,  whilst  the  soot  wards  off  the  parent  flies, 
and  so  prevents  the  deposition  of  eggs. 
A  word  or  two  about  varieties  should  be  added.  1  have  tried 
numerous  sorts,  and  am  bound  to  admit  we  have  nowadays  many 
<^ood  ones  to  select  from:  Ailsa  Craig,  Al,  The  Reading,  Excelsior, 
and  James’  Keeping,  not  forgetting  old  Giant  Zittau.  But  what  will 
be  said  of  my  favourite  bv  the  admirers  of  the  great,  the  massive,  and 
the  colossal  in  Onions,  when  I  tell  them  its  name?  Wmld  that  it 
c  mid  be  written  in  a  whisper,  but  it  must  out  Bedfordshire 
Champion  !  Let  the  onionists,  if  I  may  call  them  so,  say  what  thev 
will,  I  have  a  staunch  supporter  in  our  west  country  “  kitchen  genius, 
who  declares  them  to  be  “  splendid  oongyuns.”  No  gardener  need 
