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February  7,  1901.  JOURNAL  OF  HORTICULTURE  AND  COTTAGE  GARDENER. 
Royal  Gardeners'  Orphan  Fund. 
I  see  by  the  voting  papers  now  sent  out  to  the  subscribers  to  the 
above  fund  that  on  Friday,  the  15th  inst.,  twelve  children  out  of 
fourteen  candidates  are  to  be  elected  to  share  in  its  great  benefits.  May 
I,  as  one  who  has  ever  taken  the  deepest  interest  in  this  fund,  suggest, 
through  your  cjlumns,  that  the  whole  fourteen  canditates  be  elected,  in 
honour  of  the  accession  of  our  royal  patroness,  Queen  Alexandra?  I 
feel  sure  that  every  subscriber  will  gladly  see  this  done  at  the  next 
annual  meeting. — John  Miles,  8 outharn2)ton. 
- »  . 
Apples  in  India. 
I  am  very  much  obliged  to  you  for  all  the  trouble  you  took  over 
the  Apple  I  sent  you,  and  which  you  remarked  on  at  page  454  of 
15th  November.  The  original  trees  were  got  out  by  the  Government  of 
India  for  the  Rainkhet  Nursery,  and  from  this  nursery  I  got  my  plants. 
I  do  not  know  from  what  firm  at  home  they  were  procured,  but  I  have 
heard  that  it  was  a  first-class  one.  I  enclose  a  list  of  the  varieties,  as 
it  limits  the  range  in  looking  for  a  name,  and  as  the  names  you  suggest 
are  not  in  this  list  you  may  be  enabled  to  spot  the  Apple  from  it.  I 
find  that  in  almost  every  one  of  which  I  have  the  name  there  are 
differences  from  the  description  in  Dr.  Hogg’s  Manual,  due  no  doubt 
to  the  great  difference  in  climate  and  the  elevation.  We  cannot 
get  the  artificial  manures  you  mention  here  at  any  reasonable  price; 
there  is  only  one  blast  furnace  in  India,  and  it  is  over  1000  miles 
distant.  They  do  not  grind  up  their  slag,  and  if  they  did  I  do  not  think 
that  they  would  get  a  market  for  it.  I  might  get  bones  and  pound 
them  up,  but  this  is  laborious,  and  sulphuric  acid  is  too  expensive  to 
use.  The  only  manure  except  farmyard  manure  is  wood  ashes.  I 
employed  a  sweeper  once  thinking  to  try  manure  from  the  latrines. 
This  man  had  no  objection  to  deal  with  any  kind  of  filth,  but  carry 
earth  he  would  not  do,  and  as  there  was  not  full  work  for  him  dealing 
with  manure  I  had  to  dismiss  him. 
List  oe 
Adam’s  Pearmain 
Alfriston 
American  Mother 
Annie  Elizabeth 
Ashmead’s  Kernel 
Beachamwell 
Bedfordshire  Foundling 
Bess  Pool 
Blenheim  Pippin 
Brabant  Bellefleur 
Bramley’s  Seedling 
Brickley’s  Seedling 
Cellini 
Claygate  Pearmain 
Coe’s  Golden  Drop 
Court  of  Wick 
Cox’s  Orange  Pippin 
D’Arcy  Spice 
Devonshire  Quarrenden 
Duke  of  Beaufort 
Dumelow’s  Seedling 
Dutch  Mignonne 
Early  Harvest 
Early  Julyan 
Early  Strawberry 
Fall  Pippin 
Fearn’s  Pippin 
Gloria  Mundi 
Golden  Harvey 
Golden  Russet 
Gravenstein 
Hambledon  Deux  Ans 
Harvey’s  Wiltshire  Defiance 
Hawthornden 
Herefordshire  Pearmain 
Irish  Peach 
John  Gidley’s  Pearmain 
*  Kerry  Pippin 
King  of  the  Pippins 
King  of  Tompkin’s  County 
Varieties. 
Lady  Henniker 
Lady  Sudeley 
Lord  Burghley 
Manks  Codlin 
Margaret 
Margil 
Nonpareil 
Norfolk  Beefing 
Northern  Greening 
Northern  Spy 
Ord’s  Apple 
Old 
Oslin 
Pearson’s  Plate 
Peasgood’s  Nonesuch 
Peck’s  Pleasant 
Prince  Bismarck 
Red  Astrachan 
Redleaf  Russet 
Red  Ingestrie 
Reinette  du  Canada 
Ribston  Pippin 
Rosemary  Russet 
Roundway  Magnum  Bonum 
Russian  Transparent 
Rymer 
Sam  Young 
Scarlet  Nonpareil 
Stirling  Castle 
Sturmer  Pippin 
Sandringham 
Tyler’s  Kernel 
Warner’s  King 
White  Astrachan 
Winter  Peach 
Winter  Pearmain 
Winter  Quoining 
W orcester  Pearmain 
Yellow  Ingestrie 
A.  Campbell,  Dehra  Dun,  N.  W.  Prov.  India. 
The  Elusive  Pear. 
Quite  irrespective  of  the  absolute  failure  of  Pears  this  season  we 
read  so  much  of,  as  to  their  desirable  keeping  qualities  being  in 
abeyance,  we  are  apparently  “  not  in  it,”  if  records  may  be  trusted, 
for  we  read  in  the  “  Athenaeum  ”  of  December  5th,  1860,  “  A  Pear  is 
in  its  perfection  for  only  three  hours.  Whenever  I  see  one  coming  to 
its  delicious  maturity  I  watch  it ;  I  can  feel  it  ripening  and  flavouring 
up,  and  at  the  very  nick  of  time  I  take  it  off  and  eat  it.  The  man  who  gets 
that  Pear  in  the  middle  hour  is  a  fortunate  man,  a  very  fortunate  man.” 
Surely  it  behoves  us  to  bestir  ourselves  about  the  Btudy  of  our  home¬ 
made  classics  of  fruit  growing  if  we  would  not  be  left  behind  in  the 
race  with  other  nations.  I  wonder  whether  there  is  at  present  among 
the  mortals  a  contemporary  of  our  classic  age  to  “  spot  ”  the  man  and 
to  tell  us  who  was  the  Aristotle  of  Pear  philosophy;  or  was  he  a 
mean  and  miserly  epicure,  whose  secret  was  left  unrevealed  and  buried 
with  him  ? — H.  H.  Raschen. 
The  Cl|airmai|ship  of  the  R.H.S.  Fruit  Committee. 
As  you  have  given  publicity  to  a  letter  from  a  writer  who  assumes 
the  anonymous  signature  of  “Nurseryman,”  but  who,  instead  of  fairly 
contesting  the  views  I  have  in  one  or  two  cases  put  forward  in  your 
columns,  in  reference  to  the  above  subjeot,  prefers  to  make  a  personal 
attack  upon  me,  I  feel  entirely  justified,  on  the  principle  of  fair 
play,  in  requesting  from  you  the  fullest  right  to  reply  to  him.  But 
I  am  sensible  of  the  fact  that  as  your  long  time  contributor  over 
the  signature  of  “A.  D.,”  that  there  is  not  the  least  need  I  should 
defend  myself  from  the  aspersions  of  one  who  rather  than  sign  himself 
boldly,  prefers  to  hope  to  remain  hidden  under  an  anonym.  Since 
that  attack  appeared,  however,  I  have  received  a  letter  from  an  eminent 
nurseryman  and  friend  who,  wondering  what  this  attack  was  all  about, 
not  only  expressed  his  desire  to  be  dissociated  from  it,  but  also  holds 
that  on  the  part  of  the  writer  it  was  a  grossly  unjust  act  to  sign  himself 
as  “  Nurseryman,”  on  the  ground  that  he  left  the  entire  nursery  trade 
under  the  imputation  of  being  libellers.  “  Surely,”  my  correspondent 
adds,  “this  anonymous  writer  will,  in  justice  to  all  nurserymen,  declare 
himself.”  As  I  know  who  the  writer  is,  I  have  told  my  kind  corre¬ 
spondent,  but  I  cannot  tell  all  the  trade  in  a  private  way.  It  remains 
therefore  for  the  writer  to  do  so,  and  then  all  the  world  can  judge 
between  me  and  he. — Alexander  Dean. 
Book  Gardeners. 
Though  I  take  a  great  interest  in  the  Royal  Horticultural  Society’s 
examination  I  have  not  yet  entered ;  I  may,  however,  do  so,  and  I 
should  not  think,  if  I  gained  a  certificate,  that  it  would  enable  me  to 
obtain  a  better  position  than  those  with  none.  Nor  does  the  young 
man  who  spends  hours  at  hard  study,  as  “  A  Working  Gardener  ”  put 
it,  find  this  irksome;  it  is  pleasure.  The  knowledge  gained  by  the 
study,  not  the  certificate,  will  eventually  prove  to  be  so  helpful  to  the 
student  that  he  will  never  regret  the  hours  so  spent ;  the  botany  will 
make  him  more  intimate  with  the  "plants  he  comes  in  contact  with, 
increase  his  power  of  observation  in  the  garden  and  outside ;  the 
chemistry  will  help  him  to  understand  what  plants  need  in  the  way  of 
food  ;  the  geology  will  teach  all  about  the  soils  it  will  be  his  lot  to  have 
to  manipulate.  Your  correspondent  will  say,  But  what  good  practically 
are  these  sciences  to  the  gardener  ?  Why,  I  reply,  should  not  a  gardener 
include  the  science  as  well  as  the  praotice  ? 
Take  now  “  A  Working  Gardener’s  ”  three  R’s.  The  young  gardeners 
of  the  day  are  educated  principally  in  village  schools,  and  the  knowledge 
there  gained  wants  finishing.  The  boy  leaves  school  at  the  age  of 
fourteen,  and  perhaps  in  a  few  years  forgets  what  he  was  taught. 
Almost  50  per  cent,  of  our  present  young  gardeners’  writing  is  bad. 
Why  is  it  ?  Ask  a  few  of  the  young  men  you  meet  in  “  the  bothy  ”  to 
read  aloud,  and  your  correspondent  would,  I  am  sure,  be  surprised. 
They  read  with  their  eyes,  and  the  theme  is  often  lost  to  them.  With 
regard  to  arithmetic,  it  is  probable  that  they  have  not  done  a  sum  since 
they  left  school.  One  of  these  young  gardeners  just  described  becomes 
aware  that  he  is  getting  behind  the  times.  He  reads  more  diligently ; 
perhaps  buys  a  pronouncing  dictionary  to  further  his  studies.  Presently 
he  will  buy  an  exercise  book,  firstly  to  write  out  “  practical  hints  ”  that 
he  thinks  are  good,  ana  secondly  to  improve  his  handwriting.  Soon  he 
will  want  some  popular  work  on  “  Gardening,”  and  if  he  buys 
“  Nicholson’s  Encyclopaedia’*'  he  finds  botanioal  phrases  and  words 
whose  definition  is  not  so  explicit  as  found  in  books  on  botany,  so  an 
elementary  botany  is  added  to  his  growing  library.  Gradually  our 
young  gardener  is  launched  into  the  scientific  side  of  gardening.  Not 
only  does  he  .enjoy  it,  but  he  is  made  the  better  gardener  thereby. 
—  Kent. 
