under which they grow will marvel that they can grow at all. They will repay culture in the way of larger, sweeter and better fruit. Give gooseberries plenty of room in good soil. When they begin to bear you can fertilize very freely, and there is no fertilizer so good as ordinary manure. A little shade is advisable. In field cultivation that is not always possible, but in the garden you can grow them under trees or close to a fence. Never allow weeds to grow. It is a great mistake to use a spade amongst currants or gooseberries. If you pull up a plant you will find the fibrous roots within an inch of the surface. In cultivating I use a digging fork, and unless the ground is stiff I would not even do that more than once in three years. In the fall just before freezing I put in three or four inches of good stable manure. That is ample fertilizer. It is a rare thing to see a currant bush properly pruned. I have a black currant bush here that will illustrate what I want to call your attention to.

In pruning, the first thing to do is to get rid of the old branches, the second and third year wood is where you get your best fruit from. Cut out the interfering branches. It is at the base of the young branches on the old wood where the fruit is found. so that your pruning should be directed towards that. Shorten in the new wood to within 2 or 3 inches of the old, merely allowing enough new shoots. to grow to take the place of the old ones. Always have new wood coming on and always remove the old wood after the third year. In that way you will get lots of fruit. The chief enemy of the currant and gooseberry is the currant worm, but it is as easily curtailed as anything well could be. An application of Paris green. -a teaspoonful to 10 quarts of water-in Ottawa about the 22nd May-is all that is necessary to keep it under the whole year; the treatment is effective and does not have to be repeated. Currants are very easily propagated, if you want to increase your stock take cutting of new wood about 6 inches long, plant in good soil end of August or early in spring, and over 75 per cent. of them will make young bushes ready for planting out. The best varieties are: White-Gondoin, Grape, Imperial. Red-Wilder, Pomona, Moore's Ruby, Comet, Dutch, North Star, Cherry, Fay. Black-Victoria, Boskop Giant, Success, Black Naples. The Gondoin is, I think, the best of the white currants; some of the Nurserymen have it. It is larger than the others and bears more plentifully. Imperial is also good. Wilder and Pomona are varieties that are well worth growing among the reds. Comet is good, but Moore's Ruby is the best I have come across among the red currants. It bears well, in long bunches, and is in every way satisfactory. North Star is poor; Cherry is very large but sour, and Fay has serious defects: its bunches are short, as a rule, and apt to break off; the wood sprawls all over the ground and is liable to split in the centre. The new varieties of black currants are a great improvement in quality over the old sorts. The one that suits my taste best is Success.

In gooseberries there are two distinct types, the American and English, and hybrids between these two. Among the former there are Houghton and Mountain Seedling, while the hybrids are Downing, Pearl and Red Jacket. The European varieties that have done best with me are: Reds-Victoria, London Red, Industry and Crosby. White--Whitesmith and White Swan. Green-Keepsake, Lofty and Careless. Yellow-Weatherall and Broom Girl. In the hybrids, Downing and Pearl are so much alike that there is no need to grow both. Red Jacket is much larger and a much better looking berry. There is a group of seedlings of the English varieties grown in America that are very good in quality. Among these are Triumph, Columbus and Chautauqua. In England and Germany gooseberries are

The

grown better and in greater quantities than anywhere else in the world. The culture is much the same as here. About four feet apart is enough for them. American varieties-Downing and Houghton--require five. In pruning there are a few slight differences between pruning gooseberries and currants. I have here a year's growth of Red Jacket. The first year the wood should be cut back about one-third; if you want to save trouble you can do so by using the finger and thumb at the right time. I go over them and pinch them out and that stops the growth and obviates the necessity of a great deal of pruning. The English kinds have undeniably the finest quality, but we must consider the conditions under which they grow and under which they have been evolved to their present state of perfection. There is a great difference between the climates of England and Canada, not only as to heat but also moisture and soil. Where we have had gardens for two or three years they have had them for forty. There is age to the soil over there. We must plant in soil where there is plenty of fertility and heavy enough to prevent drying out. Mildew, the great enemy of the English gooseberry in this country, results from planting in sandy soil. If you put your hand into it in summer you will find it quite hot. The roots of gooseberry bushes run close to the surface, and consequently they become scorched. You must put them in soil that won't heat-heavy clay loam. Mulch for the surface will also overcome it. I have been growing for over 20 years and have never had mildew at all. I select a part of the garden that has good heavy soil and manure and water it well. A rule that must be observed is not to dig the ground round the plants with a digging fork or anything else more than once in three years. In England and Scotland they do not have the heat we have here and that accounts for their success with gooseberries; in this country they should have a little shade.

We can grow the American gooseberries here without any trouble, and they are very palatable when ripe, but to a Canadian the gooseberries of England and Scotland are a revelation; they are so large, sweet, and highly flavoured that they are used as a dessert food. In this country we have very little idea of what an important fruit it is. I would never advise anybody to grow European gooseberries on light soil; on heavy clay soil there is no difficulty.

I have grown

40 or 50 varieties of gooseberries-red, white, yellow and all the different colors, the best of which I have already enumerated to you. The Victoria is of good size, finely flavoured and very productive. London Red is still larger, but not so good. Industry is one of the best known of the red varieties. Among the white. gooseberries White Swan bears well. We had rather an off year this year, but White Swan gave just as good a crop as ever.

A MEMBER: Long before I became a commercial fruit grower I used to cultivate an abundance of fruit for myself in my garden. There is nothing more. healthful than fruit, and amateur fruit and flower growing provides a highly beneficial form of recreation. The instructions Mr. Whyte has given in regard to pruning are in line with commercial pruning. In the commercial orchard we use more vigorous means and have more varieties. We grow black and red currants, but not white, because these are unsalable. Successful methods of the commercial grower will be equally so if employed by the amateur. As a general rule green gooseberries are preferred on the market to the red, because they are larger and more vigorous growers. They will grow on lighter soil than the red kinds.

VOTES OF THANKS.

Moved by W. B. BURGOYNE, seconded by MAJOR SNELGROVE, "That the hearty thanks of this Association be tendered to the Mayor and City Council of Toronto for the use of the Court Room so generously put at the service of this Association, and that a copy of this resolution be forwarded to the Mayor and Council." Carried.

A hearty vote of thanks was tendered to the retiring President, Mr. R. B. Whyte for the valuable services rendered by him during his two-year term. The sum of $10 was donated to the Sick Children's Hospital.

THE GLADIOLUS.

JOHN CAVERS, OAKVILLE.

The Gladiolus is becoming more and more recognized as "the People's Flower." Its moderate cost, simple culture, beauty of bloom, healthy foliage, immunity from attacks of insect enemies and comparative freedom from fungous diseases, increase of planting stock, and ease of storage in winter give it a surpassing claim to be considered a popular flower.

It is one of the most important members of the Iridaceae family of plants, which includes, besides the Iris and the Gladiolus, the Ixia, the Tigridia, the Tribonia or Montbrefia, etc. About 150 species have been discovered and described by botanists, of which 90 per cent. are natives of South Africa, and the remaining 10 per cent. come from Southern Europe and Western Asia. The latter named species have been of minor importance in the production of garden varieties, and only about 10 per cent. of the total number have proved useful in this regard.

The cultivation of the gladiolus in European gardens dates as far back as 400 years. Until about 1745, however, this cultivation was confined to the European and Asiatic species, but in that year some of the African species were introduced. The garden varieties as we know them are of much later origin.

The modern gladiolus may be fairly said to date from 1841, in which year Van Houtte, a famous Belgian nurseryman, offered to the public the Gandavensis Hybrid, a cross between G. psittacinus and G. cardinalis or perhaps G. oppositiflorus. The Gandavensis class of varieties that was developed early from this hybrid is distinguished for adaptability over a wide extent of territory, flourishing in various latitudes and in different sorts of soil, for vigour and vitality, and for yielding many flowers on the stem at one time. The next important hybrid to appear was Lemoinei, originated by Lemoine, a French horticulturist, and exhibited by him for the first time at the Paris Exhibition in 1878. One of its parents was G. purpureo-auratus and the other a Gandavensis variety. The prominent features of this class are, larger size of the individual flowers, with spots or blotches of colour on the petals and a more expanded form. It is not adapted to so wide a range in cultivation as the preceding class, but its influence on the modern sub-hybrids has been markedly in the direction of a more beautiful and refined form of the individual flower. The Nanceianus class appeared in 1889, the parents being G. Saundersii and a Lemoinei variety. Its distinguishing feature is brilliancy of colour. The Childsii class appeared about the same time as the preceding one. It was originated by Leichtlin, of Baden-Baden, Germany, and came by purchase into the