HORTICULTURAL JOTTINGS.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XXXVIII, Issue 11685, 21 June 1901, Page 7

HORTICULTURAL JOTTINGS.

FRUIT FROM WEST INDIES. The first consignment of West Italian fruit, lately reached Bristol by the Fort Movant. The cargo included 20,000 bunches of bananas and itGOO boxes of oranges, which were speedily distributed to various centres. The fruits arrived in excellent condition, and it is expected that the trade will assume important dimensions. PINKS: NEW RACK. The March issue of the Revue Horlicole had a coloured piste cf one of a new race of giant Dinks, and some details about tne Sowers. The plate showed a really giant fU.wi r. well deserving the name of "ho Colore," which is applied to tho original. Although willed a pin 1 ,:, there is strong evidence of carnation blood in the flowers aim to'iage, though no details are given of the way "in which (his race originated. M. Vreherot, lloissy-Saint-Lc-ger, first ;-how-d flowers in i:ffi, and subsequently other varieties ci much merit have no-ire.:!.

IM'KKN ALEXANDRA AND THE PEAR

Some years a?o ilie Qaeen, then Frincoss (if Wales, wiieti'visitiuw! iJem-mvl;, nccepiotl-a large pear from an old v.o-nau who sold fruit on' the pier at Nyborg. The Queen, to the nirpn-T of her suite, not only accepted the pe:ir, but began calm? it, and then gave tho old woman a five-crown piece._ Recently, when the Queen ;iir».it< visited Nyb.;:-;. sac a,ken, " Bui vsliere i- the dear old lady Willi those lovely pears? I hope she i? still alive." She was found on the fringe of tin; crowd, a".d a way iioinc; made for her. she approached tho Queen, who gavo he:' another five-i-rcwn piece. TWO GOOD FINDS. As a. rule, gardeners, when tnrniiu; tip the soil, often come across inconvenient and worthless articles, and it seldom falls to their lot to turn up such a cartful of treasure as did :i prardener in the Faversham Recreation Ground :> few weeks a'.'o. liii can eon-Ijiine-.l a watch, a gold chain and locket, two sold i- 1 11-^■. upwards of £1.5 worth of postal orders, and it cheque for £04. From tho dates of (lie postal orders, the mo'd, re-et-ut b<-i it; issued in 1890. the can had evidently been buried about eleven years. One of the finest :.-ollficlions of Roman pottery in existence was lately found in Kent, by some Men employed in tho grounds adjoining V>'-d mer Castle," just alsoui the same tone as the Eaversham treasure was discovered. The pottery was boiuj? privately exhibited in sumo buildings adjoining the castle grounds. SHELTER TREES. "8.M.," i:t Agricultural Gazette, says that in places exposed to high wind", where fruit trees are to be, planted, wind-breaks and shelter fences should be provided. An ordinary field fence, trained to grow up to a good heitrht, and yet kept dense by judicious trimming, will serve for a low shelter, while a row of trees is desirable for breaking the force- of the wind at a higher altitude. To obtain such trees already of considerable height is costly, but small trees to grow up as the fruit trees become bigger are very cheap. A field fence may be high enough to shelter young trees for three or four years, and after that time the wind-break trees will bo getting up well. Austrian nines, which are among the best of wind-breaks, are to be hud when small, say from lft to ?.ft. iiign, at surprisingly low prices from Scottish nurseryman. It. is a good plan, when an intending fruitgrower can look well ahead, to plant younc trees as wind-breaks two or three year? before a held is to be planted with fruit. MUSHROOM GROWING. Among the new Scottish joint stock companies reontly registered is that entitled

"The Scottish Mushroom Company,' whose objects are to carry on the cultivation of this popular commodity. The head office is nt Scotland-street Station, Edinburgh, whore, it. will be remembered, mushroom-growing on a largo scale has long been carried on with much success, although within tho last year or two operations have been much curtailed by tho outbreak of a " mushroom disease,'' which prevented the fungi from attaining a marketable size. Drastic measure-: were taken to cope with its ravages, and another tunnel was routed to give tho old one ' a rest." The capital of the new company is ±12500, in shares of £1 each. LORD COCKISURN AS A GARDENER. According to a contributor to Chambers' Journal, the. famous Scottish judge was very fond of gardening. The author of Urn article bad been a. gardener to Lord Coekburn at his beautiful seat of Ronally Tower, at. the foot of the I'entlaii<ls. When his lordship returned from tho sittings of the- Courts in Edinburgh, he was in th." l habit, of donning his garden suit, which consisted of "an old, battered silk hat, a long-tailed frieze coat. a pair of small-check shepherd'- plaid trousers (very short in the legs), and a pair of roulnd-toed, Selkirk-ma.de shoos." Dressed in this garb he then appeared with some garden tool in hand and occupied, himself about the garden and grounds. Gardening has been, in every age, the source of pleasure to all ranks and callings. APPLE AND PEAR CULTURE. Tinder tho auspices of the Chester Paxton Society Mr. G. I'. Milne, F.R.H.S, recently road a paper at the (Irosveuor Museum on "The Commercial Aspect of Apple and Pear Culture.'' By way of introduction Mr. Milne remarked that the imports of foreign apples alono into Great Britain last year amounted to 2,1?.8,4770wt, the value of which was estimated at about l-> millions of money. A erer.f part of these, ho contended, (.cub! have been produced at home. He gave as an example a Cheshire orchard Ii acres in extent, which was planted some eight yonrs ago, and which last year produced at the rate of 75ovvt of apples, lojewt of pears. 12£c«'fc of plums per acre, and realised a gross value of £70 per acre. Those figures wore decidedly encouraging, end went to prove that npp-10-growing could bo made a profitable industry, provided proper method; were adopts*!. In his concluding remarks,

ho commented upon the superior qualities of the besl British-grown apples over that of foreign-grown fruit, which was strictly borne out by the dishes of British and American apples stapled on tho table. INTERESTING flower, show. A happy He?., it is said, prompted Mr. Theobald, master of the Cobhohn School, Yarmouth, to start fin exhibition, (.pen to all tho elementary schools in Yarmouth, for the best grown hyacinth. Nearly 1300 childien started in (lie autumn, bulb, pot, and soil beinc supplied for a modest fourponeo. Tho "show" whs he'd'on "Tuesday, March 1?., in the Town ,11. Marshalled by their teachers the children were marched in schools to the hall, ami n pretty sight they made, with their many coloured blooms and tha merry glentm upon 'heir faces. A largo number had decorated the pots with coloured papers in many grotesque ways. The management had arranged for one prize to every 25 plan!.-, and tho four local gardeners who undertook the judging found it a somewhaS arduous task, many of the plants being cxceedingly fine specimen?. Great local inter, est was taken in the show. DIAMOND JUBILEE APPLE. At a recent mooting of the Royal ITorH. cultural Society of England Mr. A. J. Thomas exhibited specimens of the Diamond Jubilee apple, and an award of merit, was recommended. Tt, is large, upright, somewhat square-sided, and has a broad eye, sunk in a moderately-deep basin. Tho base is flattened, and tho short stalk is inserted :, t ,-i small cavity. The colour is green, with a bronze red flush on the side next the sun: on the upper portions of the point are reif illations of rtH.set, almost identical with those of Alfrist.on, to which tho newcomer bears a family likeness. Tho fruits shown were perfectly sound. I-'RTUT BLOSSOMING IN ENGLAND. The following par. is clipped from the London Agricultural Gazette of April ?>., and shows the laic season experienced in the Old Country Was there ever a later season than the present one for tho blossoming of fruit frees and bttslm-? Peru-lies and nectarines are only just fully out, in bloom, and plums have not vet opened their buds. We have frequently known all these to he fully a., month earlier. The clusters of flower buds on pear trees are only beginning to burst; through llmir enveloping sheaths, a stage reached some time before the flowers are open. In early seasons they are as for ward in th'> first week of March. Apples are optrespondinely backward, and, of course, behind pears", the fruit limb of some late .-•oris being quite dormant. lit some seasons ■':■■ full Is nits- of imiili' blossoming is past in Kent by the 'end ~| 'April, nod that- also of cherry blossoming, of which there is no sign at present. I haKcl.ir.'ries and -'anrants are only beginning to show blossom, and the former will ha ■■ to make haste if they are to provide us will- goo.'ebony tart on Whit Sum!;.,-. La-pbL-rry canes are not in leaf, .I'.t'l strawberries have made hardly any start from their cold and waterlogged beds. A sustained spell of warm and sunny weather now wotvhl briny forth such a burst of vegetation us we rarely see. Let us hope that wo shall get it.