January  28,  19C4 
Ordering  Fruit  Trees. 
In  reference  to  “  Planter’s  ”  remarks,  page  53  of  your  issue, 
January  21,  allow  me,  for  my  firm,  as  one  of  the  largest  growers 
of  fmit  trees,  to  say  tliat  we  do  not  catalogive  any  fruit  beyond 
those  wo  have  in  stock,  and  that,  I  believe,  is  the  custom  with 
the  best  hnns  generally.  I  venture  to  think  that  “Planter’s” 
difficulty  is  more  referable  to  the  “  form  ”  cf  tree  than  to  the 
sort  of  Apple.  In  many  Apples  we  have  to  keep  as  many  as 
ten  or  twelve  forms  of  training,  Ac.,  and  it  will  often  happen 
that,  say,  a  gridiron  tree  is  asked  for,  which  cannot  bo  sup¬ 
plied,  although  the  stock  of  horizontally  trained  trees  may  run 
to  hundreds,  and  other  forms  of  the  same  sort  to  thousands. 
But  beyond  this,  with  the  greatest  care,  varieties  will  get  sold 
out,  and  nurseiwmen  never  know  till  the  season  begins  where 
the  demand  may  fall  heaviest  ;  and,  further,  it  takes  from  three 
to  six  years  to  make  some  forms  of  trees.  Few  realise  the 
enormous  difficulty  in  keeping  up  stock.  I  could  name  many 
sorts  of  which  there  are  noi  developed  trees  to  be  had  in  the 
country.  If  purchasers  would  leave  themselves  in  the  nursery¬ 
men’s  hands  to  select  suh.stitutes  to  fill  orders,  they  would  often 
get  better  trees,  and  of  varieties  even  superior  to  their  own 
selection,  which  they  may  never  have  heard  of,  but  which  are 
well  proved  and  generally  better  “doers”  and  bearers  than  the 
sort  oi'iginally  selected. — George  Bunyard,  V.M.H.,  Maidstone 
Nurseries. 
The  Proposed  New  Fellowship  Suhscription  of  the  R.H.S. 
While  the  proposed  alteration  of  the  minimum  subscription 
for  Fellows  of  the  R.H.S.  is  not  to  affect  those  who  at  present 
pay  £1  Is.  per  annum,  it  is  doubtful  if  it  will  be  eventually  to 
the  advantage  of  the  Society,  as  it  will  tend  to  limit  the  number 
of  Fellows  to  a  considerable  extent.  x\.s  one  who  will  not  be 
affected  by  the  proposed  change,  let  me  say  that  the  alteration 
will  press  hardly  upon  one  who  resides  at  a  distance  from 
London,  but  who  desires  to  become  connected  with  the  great 
national  horticultural  society.  In  his  eyes  the  table  in  the 
Societj^’s  report  showing  the  return  a  Fellow  will  receive  for  his 
£2  2s.  subscription  will  hardly  be  convincing.  For  his  £2  2s. 
he  may  receive  what  is  put  down  at  £12  4s.  6d. ;  but  what  he 
will  receive  is  a  different  tale. 
To  ^secure  this  £12  odd  in  value  he  must  attend  the 
Temple  show  and  dispose  of  his  spare  tickets  on  all  thi'ee  days ; 
he  must  do  the  same  at  the  Holland  House  show  ;  and  he  must 
attend  twenty-five  exhibitions.  How  many  Fellows  living,  say, 
200  nriles  or  more  from  London,  are  able  to  avail  themselves  of 
anything  like  that  number  of  shows  and  exhibitions?  How 
much  would  they  recpiire  to  expend  in  railway  fares  and  ex¬ 
penses  to  attend,  say,  the  Temple  show  alone  ?  Then  the 
Journal,  splendid  though  it  is,  is  surely  put  too  high  at  £1  10s. 
per  annum!  I  suppose  we  must  take  its  value  from  its  cost  to 
the  Fellows  who  are  “partners  in  the  concern,”  although  the 
compilers  of  the  table  of  “returns”  may  look  at  it  another 
way. 
According  to  the  accounts  in  the  last  report,  the  printing 
and  postage  of  the  Journal  cost  £2,219  8s.  Another  item, 
“Commission  on  advertisements.  Journals,  t%c.,”  may  perhaps 
fall  to  be  added.  This  is  £63  5s.  7d.,  making  in  all 
£2,282  13s.  7d.  Against  this  falls  to  be  placed  the  income  from 
“‘advertisements  in  Journal,”  £689  11s.  8d.,  with  £109  3s.  4d. 
for  Journals  sold.  Possibly  some  of  the  latter  amount  may  be 
from  the  sale  of  Journals  of  former  years;  but  suppose  we  put 
the  two  at  £700 — a  low  estimate^ — the  cost  of  the  Journal  is 
brought  down  to  less  than  £1,600.  There  are  upwards  of 
7,000  Fellows,  so  that  one  cannot  count  the  money  value  (I  say 
nothing  about  the  literary  value)  at  more  than  5s.,  certainly  a 
wonderfully  cheair  i^ublication.  It  seems  a  little  ungrateful 
and  captious  to  go  into  this  matter,  but  the  report  of  the 
council  and  their  recommendation  justifies  it.  It  is  possible 
that  tlie  increase  of  the  numbers  attending  the  exhibitions 
may  make  the  exhibitions  too  crowded,  and  it  may  be  necessary 
to  check  the  increase.  Could  not  this  be  done  without  making 
the  country  member.?  at  a  distance  from  London  pay  much  more 
in  proportion  to  the  benefits  they  can  possibly  receive  ?  I  know 
the  budget  of  one  at  least  would  show  a  different  figure.  There 
is,  certainly,  a  set-off  in  the  shape  of  a  double  number  of  plants, 
but  five  more  plants  in  the  ca.se  of  a  £1  Is.  fellowship  subscrip¬ 
tion  will  not  compensate  for  the  losses  of  lorivileges  of  members 
many  mile.s  away.  Would  not  a  £1  Is.  fellowship  for  country 
Fellows  (100  or  200  miles  from  London)  be  a  fairer  proposal  and 
ASD  COTTAGE  G AUDEN ER, 
one  more  likely  to  help  the  Society  in  retaining  its  hold  upon 
horticulturists  all  over  the  kingdom  ?  This  is  said  in  no  spirit  of 
hostility  to  the  council,  who  de.serve  every  support  at  this  t  me, 
but  with  a  view  to  the  best  interests  of  in  these 
islands,  and  cf  the  Society  at  its  head.— A  Far-.aw'ay  Fellow. 
Potato  White  Eea’ity  of  Hebron. 
For  years  previous  to  1902  I  grew  regularly  two  acres  of  this 
Potato,  \uid  when  lifted  in  August  or  September  it  was  quite 
first-class  in  point  of  quality.  During  that  year  I  discarded  it, 
owino-  to  its  meagre  yield,  but  regretted  doing  so  on  account 
of  a  IO.SS  of  its  flavour,  which  is,  in  my  opinion  unequalled  by 
any  other.  In  1903  I  planted  a  ton  of  it,  and  hnd  the  quality 
when  cooked  is  quite  satisfactory,  and  will  be  next  May  if 
necessary.  Can  this  be  said  of  any  other  Potato?  If  I  get  halt 
the  crop  as  compared  to  Up-to-Date,  for  example,  1  am  .satis¬ 
fied,  as  with  me,  for  so  many  tons,  quality  is  the  first  considera¬ 
tion. — F.  Molynexjx. 
Giant  Poinsettias. 
Probably  not  in  the  whole  of  Che.shire  is  to  be  seen  so 
magnificent  a  floral  sight  as  at  present  exi.sts  iu  tu^  stove  be  ong- 
ino-  to  Herbert  IMarsland,  Esq.,  Woodbank,  Stockport.  Under 
one  roof  there  are  twelve  plants  of  the  Poinsettia  pulchei  i iina 
now^  in  full  resplendencv,  having  over  200  of  the  magnificent 
.scarlet  bracts  gracefully  hanging  from  the  stems,  and  when  it 
is  mentioned  that  many  of  the  “  heads  ”  measure  lOin  acios.> 
and  number  as  many  as  forty-eight,  .some  idea  may  be  gatheied 
of  the  mass  of  colour  which  fills  one  half  of  the  stove,  mea.5iii- 
ing'31ft  by  28ft.  Some  of  the  leaves  measure  7Du  m  length, 
4in  width,  and  the  main  stems  of  some  of  the  plants  are  biiu 
in  circnmference.  They  were  originally  placed  in  pots  on  a 
bed  of  soil,  but  their  roots  have  demanded,  and  gained,  a  larger 
space  than  the  limitation  a  flow'erpot  gave,  for  they  are  now 
firmly  fixed  in  the  bed  of  soil  26ft  by  2ft,  and  the  depth  of  sod 
18in.  Mr.  Johnson  Mayhew,  the  gardener  under  wdiose  wmtcfi- 
fnl  care  those  plants  have  so  wonderfully  thrived,  has  produced 
something  of  which  he  may  be  justly  proud.  Point^ettia  pul- 
cherrima  is  a  Mexican  evergreen  shrub,  allied  to  the  Euphorbia, 
[indeed  now^  included  in  the  latter  genus.] — M.  M. 
Happy-Go-Lucky  Fruit  Culture. 
•ludgiiio'  from  the  communications  which  have  appeared  over 
the  pen  names  of  “Briton”  and  “Patriot,”  there  would  appear 
to  be  still  scope  for  the  spreading  of  plain,  rudimentary  know¬ 
ledge  in  the  planting  and  tending  of  fruit  trees.  Havmg  occa¬ 
sion  to  remove  a  large  standard  Pear  a  year  ago  which  was 
manifestly  in  poor  health,  it  was  found,  on  digging  down  below 
the  surface  soil,  to  be  planted  in  a  highly  fertile  mixture  ot 
sand,  mortar  rubbish  (great  blocks  of  this),  and  glass  bottles. 
The  tree  (of  th.e  Beurre  Superfin  varietj^)  was  carefully  trans¬ 
ferred  to  good  soil,  and  has  made  a  little  clean,  healthy  growth, 
and  is  literally  covered  with  iilump  fruit  buds.  This  is  but  a 
small  illustration  of  careless  planting  as  compared  with  tliose 
furnished  by  your  correspondents,  and  it  is  perhaps  doubtful 
if  a  multiplicity  of  these  instances  can  do  much  good ;  but  yet 
they  may  serve  as  a  warning  to  would-be  planters. 
I  have  in  my  mind  at  the  moment  a  noted  Cherry  orchid, 
w'hich  has  borne  heavy  crops  of  fruit  for  a  number  of  years.  Ihe 
trees  are  only  too  surely  on  the  down  grade,  and  there  are  now 
annual  losses  amongst  them.  Where  an  old  tree  dies  a  young 
one  is  “  stuck  ”  in  exactly  upon  the  old  site,  without  any 
manure  being  addecl  to  the  soil,  and  with  as  little  disturbancie 
of  the  latter  as  .suffices  toi  cover  the  roots.  There  are  now  a  fair 
number  of  young  trees  in  this  orchard  that  have  been  planted 
from  time  to  time,  and  they  ought  to  be  in  varying  stages  of 
development ;  but  all  might  have  been  planted  in  the  same 
season,  so  small  is  the  progress  made  by  the  earlier  planted 
ones.  Writers  and  horticultural  instructors  are  continuously 
hammering  away  at  the  lax  methods  of  so-called  cultivators; 
yet,  in  spite  of  the  encouraging  .signs  of  enlightenment  to  be 
seen  in  some  localities,  the  old  loo.se  ways  prevail,  and  many 
of  the  growers  in  what  are  known  as  the  fruit  growing  districts 
are  amongst  the  worst  offenders. — Couxtra'MAN. 
Tie  Weather  ot  1879  and  1903 :  Erratum. 
The  ingenuity  of  “the  xirinters’  devil  ”  (whoever  he  may  be) 
in  making  a  man  say  exactly  what  he  did  not  mean,  by  the 
smallest  possible  ■  mistake,  is,  I  believe,  well  known;  but  a 
good  example  may  be  found  on  page  53,  last  paragraph,  whore 
the  sentence  in  brackets,  “Not  being  70deg  or  over  in  shade,” 
should,  of  course,  be  “‘hot,’  being  70deg  or  over  in  shade.”— 
W.  R.  Raillem. 
A  number  of  letters  have  had  to  be  held  over. 
