December  6,  1900. 
JOURNAL  OF  HORTICULTURE  AND  COTTAGE  GARDENER, 
513 
Spade  V.  Fork. 
I  NOTE  on  page  490  that  Mr.  T.  Welch  seems  to  doubt  the  state¬ 
ment  I  made  cn  page  466  to  the  effect  that  it  is  impossible  to  dig 
heavy  clay  soil  with  a  fork.  I  must  nevertheless  adhere  to  that 
assertion.  I  am  fully  aware  that  where  a  fork  can  be  used  it  is 
better  for  the  land  than  a  spade,  and  some  of  my  borders  are  now  in 
condition  for  a  fork  to  be  used,  but  other  ground  is  still  so  heavy  that 
a  fork  cannot  be  used  ;  in  fact,  if  we  were  to  try  it  we  should  break 
nine  out  of  ten  folks.  My  ground  is  not  dug  flat,  but  as  straight  up  as 
possible,  and  a  great  deal  of  it  is  ridged  and  left  in  that  state  until  the 
spring.  My  land  is  not  strong  heavy  loam,  but  heavy  yellow  clay  of  the 
poorest  description  ;  at  least,  that  was  the  natural  state  of  the  soil  before 
it  was  worked,  and  if  one  has  never  seen  the  land  that  can  be  worked 
better  with  a  spade  than  a  fork  they  can  come  here  and  see  for  them- 
selves,  when  I  think  they  would  return  satisfied  that  what  I  have  stated 
is  true. — W.  Shepherd,  Capel. 
- - 
Pear  Doyenne  du  Comice. 
I  TRUST  that  most  useful  bcdy  the  Royal  Horticultural  Society’s 
Fruit  Committee  will  survive  the  possible  onslaught  upon  it  for  having, 
at  a  recent  meeting,  given  that  superb  but  hitherto,  to  the  surprise  of 
most  persons,  so  far  neglected  Pear,  Doyenne  du  Comice,  a  first-class 
certificate.  The  Journal  return  gave  an  award  of  merit;  it  was  really 
a  F.c.  c.  that  was  awarded  to  it,  although,  oddly  enough,  a  few  members 
voted  against  it.  One  cannot  protest  too  strongly  against  the  repeated 
declaration  that  the  duties  of  the  committee  in  relation  to  awards  of  an 
honourable  kind  are  limited  to  novelties.  Practically  everything 
presented  to  the  committee  for  the  first  time  for  an  award  is  a  novelty. 
It  was  naturally  a  matter  for  astonishment  to  learn  that  so  superbly 
flavoured  and  fine  a  Pear  as  Doyenne  du  Comice  had  never  previously 
been  so  presented,  and  when  Mr.  Bain  sent  up  from  the  president’s 
gardens  at  Burford  Lodge  a  really  first-rate  sample,  the  fruits  exhibiting 
that  delicious  quality  which  invariably  marks  the  variety,  no  wonder 
the  majority  of  the  committee  felt  that  long  neglect  was  no  justification 
for  a  glaring  omission.  When  will  any  raiser  produce  for  us  another 
variety  such  as  this  is,  much  less  a  better  one  ?  How  many  distinctly 
inferior  varieties  have  obtained  f.c.c.’s  whilst  the  doyen  of  all  Pears 
had  no  honours  awarded  ?  Well  may  we  hope  that  in  face  of  this  fact 
the  voice  of  harsh  biassed  judgment  will  be  hushed. — A.  D. 
Grading  Apples. 
Looking  through  a  number  of  a  Canadian  gardening  paper  I  was 
struck  with  an  illustration  of  an  orchard  in  which  whilst  men  were 
engaged  in  picking  fruit,  others  were  assorting  and  packing  them.  But 
intermediate  in  the  labour  was  the  tumbling  of  all  the  fruits  as  gathered 
from  the  baskets  into  a  large  shallow  trough,  from  which  the  graders 
picked  them  into  other  baskets  for  packing  into  the  tubs. 
Canadian  Apples  seem  to  have  capacities  to  resist  bruising  better 
than  our  English  Apples.  I  could  only  think  that  were  such  a  course 
adopted  here,  and  the  fruit  packed  into  barrels  for  transit  to  America, 
the  bulk  would  arrive  in  a  very  rotten  condition.  The  plan  also 
necessitates  the  handling  of  the  fruit  three  times,  besides  tumbling 
them  about  unduly.  It  has  always  struck  me,  in  relation  to  Apple 
culture  and  grading  the  fruit  here  for  our  own  markets,  that  bush 
tree  culture  would  be  far  better  than  standard  tree  culture,  as  with 
the  former  an  intelligent  picker  could  do  the  grading  as  he  gathered 
the  fruits,  taking  all  the  best  sized  first  and  the  second  size  later ;  then 
the  Apples  could  be  taken  direct  to  the  boxes,  baskets,  or  tubs,  and 
packed  without  further  trouble. 
Standard  trees  on  grass  are  no  doubt  best  for  orchards,  but  such  a 
method  is  not  Apple  culture.  The  finest  and  best  finished  fruits  are 
got  from  bush  trees  ;  they  are  easily  thinned  if  it  be  needed,  and  very 
readily  gathered.  The  fruits  also  are  much  less  liable  to  injury  by  wind 
storms.  I  do  not  know  whether  anyone  has  compared  the  fruit  product 
per  acre  from  standard  trees  with  that  from  bush  trees,  but  as  the 
latter  can  be  planted  at  12  feet  apart  and  the  former  need  at  least 
24  feet  between  them,  then  the  produce  of  the  lower  trees  should  not 
be  less  in  bulk,  and  be  far  finer  in  the  sample.  I  think  it  is  in  the 
matter  of  quantity  rather  than  in  quality  of  fruit  the  Canadians  yet 
excel  us. — Grower. 
Dessert  Apples. 
I  THINK  your  correspondent  “  E.  D.  S.”  in  his  otherwise 
excellent  letter  on  page  463  might  in  some  respects  have  improved  his 
list  of  dessert  bush  Apples.  Duchess  of  Oldenburg  can  hardly  be 
called  a  dessert  Apple,  but  rather  a  second  rate  cooking  one.  Lemon 
Pippin  is  an  old  variety  of  poor  quality.  Dutch  Mignonne,  though  an 
excellent  keeper  and  good  for  cooking,  is  not  a  dessert  variety.  I  would 
suggest  in  place  of  these  King  of  Pippins  and  Cox’s  Orange  Pippin. 
— E.  D’O. 
New  Grapes. 
Mr.  W.  Crump’s  kindly  offer  to  have  samples  of  the  true  Black 
Morocco  Grape  placed  before  the  Fruit  Committee  at  the  Drill  Hall  on 
Tuesday  last  was  unfortunately  not  availed  of  by  the  growers  of 
Diamond  Jubilee,  the  new  Scotch  Grape,  who  were  invited  by  Mr.  Crump 
to  send  fruit  of  that  variety  to  the  committee  at  the  same  time.  It 
will  be  remembered  that  when  the  latter  Grape  was  originally  presented 
at  the  Drill  Hall  it  was  regarded  as  so  closely  resembling  Black 
Morocco  as  to  prevent  any  award  being  made  to  it.  It  has  been  rather 
ungenerously  assumed  that  the  members  of  the  committee  do  not  know 
Black  Morocco.  But  not  very  long  ago  that  Grape  was  presented  in 
very  fine  condition  from  a  Bedfordshire  garden,  where,  in  spite  of  what 
is  said  to  the  contrary,  it  set  freely  and  produced  fine  crops  as  a  new 
variety,  the  grower  being  in  entire  ignorance  that  it  was  an  old  Grape. 
Not  only  were  berries  very  fine  and  superbly  coloured,  but  the  bunches 
were  broad  cluster-shaped  rather  than  tapering. 
But  it  is  evident  that  such  close  discernment  cannot  always  be 
practised  in  relation  to  new  Grapes,  and  for  that  reason  it  is 
important  that  some  form  of  growing  trial  should  be  established 
for  all  new  varieties.  It  is  folly  to  state  that  such  a  trial  would  be 
harmful  to  a  trader  wishing  to  put  any  new  Grape  into  commerce.  I 
have  yet  to  learn  that  the  Royal  Horticultural  Society  or  the  Fruit 
Committee  exist  for  the  pecuniary  benefit  of  the  horticultural  trade. 
It  will  be  a  bad  day  for  both  when  such  becomes  the  case.  The  com¬ 
mittee  should  insist  on  all  doubtful  varieties  being  tried  by  growth  at 
Chiswick  or  elsewhere  before  any  award  is  made,  and  thus  be  able  to 
assure  the  world  that  the  plant  in  question  is  distinct. — A.  D. 
Women  as  Gardeners. 
It  is  very  interesting  to  note  the  little  comments  on  the  work  of 
women  gaideners,  and  I  admire  the  delicate  manner  in  which  this 
subject  is  touched  upon,  but  to  me  they  seem  to  stop  short  of  the  true 
aspect  of  these  doings.  I,  for  one,  do  not  doubt  a  woman’s  capacity 
for  mastering  the  lighter  branches  of  gardening,  such  as  bouquet  and 
wreath  making,  dinner  table  and  house  decoration,  botany  and  vegetable 
physiology  ;  but  digging,  and  the  turning  of  manure  for  Mushroom 
growing ;  I  pity  the  poor  woman  that  is  obliged  to  do  it !  Not  one 
woman  in  a  hundred  is  physically  fit  for  such  work,  and  I  do  not  wonder 
at  “  A.  D.  C.”  (page  421)  being  struck  with  the  way  they  handle  the  spade 
and  do  the  work.  My  experience,  like  that  of  “  A.  D.  C.,”  is  that  not 
10  per  cent,  of  the  men  we  employ  are  good  diggers,  either  from 
laziness  or  for  want  of  early  training.  It  takes  a  really  good  man  to 
stand  up  to  the  spade,  send  it  down  to  the  tread  with  a  strong  pressure 
of  the  foot,  and  turn  the  spit  clean  over,  bottom  upwards,  aud  then  to 
dig  10  poles  a  day  of  moderately  light  garden  soil.  I  learnt  to  dig  at 
fifteen  years  of  age,  and  am  now  getting  on  for  threescore,  and  am  still 
able  to  give  most  men  a  tying  up.  I  have  had,  many  a  time,  to  give  my 
men  an  example,  and  have  convinced  more  than  one  that  10  poles  a  day 
is  a  fair  day’s  work,  but  I  should  be  sorry  to  put  such  a  task  upon  a 
woman. 
Now  the  point  to  consider  above  all  others  is.  What  are  these  women 
gardeners  to  do  after  their  two  years’  training  ?  Does  anyone  suppose 
that  with  the  best  ability  in  the  world  any  man  or  woman  can  become 
skilled  gardeners  in  two  years  ?  Why  encourage  women  to  enter  an 
employment  that  is  already  overdone,  and  that  is  so  full  of  first-class, 
well-educated,  skilled  men  that  are  struggling  hard  for  a  living,  and 
some  of  them — aye,  many  of  them — earning  such  poor  wages  as  to  make 
it  utterly  impossible  to  make  any  provision  for  old  age  ?  And  what, 
again,  is  the  business  of  a  florist  or  Grape  grower  with  the  late  price 
of  coal  and  the  continual  downward  prices  of  produce  ?  Why  not 
encourage  the  women  who  have  to  work  into  an  opening  that  is 
hungering  for  the  services  of  good,  industrious,  and  intelligent  persons — ■ 
viz.,  domestic  servants  ?  What  better  life  can  there  be  for  women  ? 
Work  they  can  do,  good  food,  comfortable  homes,  and  remunerative 
wages — only  let  mistresses  remember  they  are  women  like  themselves, 
and  should  be  treated  as  such,  and  not  like  a  household  chattel,  to  be 
dealt  with  as  though  they  were  the  mistress’s  property,  but  always 
remembering  the  mutual  obligation,  that  a  good  servant’s  services  are 
equal  to  the  employer’s  wages,  and  then  we  should  soon  hear  no  more  of 
the  difficulty  of  getting  good  servants.  One  word  more  about  gardening 
for  women.  If  it  is  to  do  any  good  it  should  be  young  girls  of  fifteen 
that  should  start  on  such  a  career,  and  not  elderly  maidens  who  have 
for  some  reason  or  other  abandoned  all  hope  of  wedlock. — John  Kitley. 
