36 THE FLORIST. 



and omnipotent Creator of all things, it is this very " variable climate " 

 of ours. To it horticulture in Great Britain is indebted for the position 

 it at the present time occupies. Had we a climate so genial as to 

 make vegetation so exuberant as to anticipate our every want, as 

 gardeners we should now be a contemptible race. Man owes his growth, 

 his energy, chiefly to that striving of the will, that conflict with difficulty, 

 which we call effort. If we look at the nations of the earth we will find 

 that it is not those who are blessed with the mildest and most genial 

 climates, that are distinguished for endurance, perseverance, steady force 

 of will, energy of purpose, character, and great, noble, exalted, and lofty 

 ideas. No business or study which does not present obstacles, tasking 

 to the full the intellect and the will, is worthy of a man. 



The variableness of our climate demands constant vigilance from us ; 

 we ought, therefore, to consider it in the light of the greatest blessing. 

 Now, I admit that sometimes crops suffer from frosts in spring ; at the 

 same time I am fully persuaded that were our fruit trees properly 

 managed, that is, in pruning, in proper selections of stocks and scions, in 

 proper selection of kinds to different soils, and in the soils also being 

 properly managed, I say I am fully convinced that were this the case 

 we should hear very little complaints of our crops being yearly destroyed 

 by frosts. 



In the annals of agriculture in this country there was never known to 

 be a better harvest than the last. Has this been owing to any improve- 

 ment in our climate ? (" Helminthion " says our seasons are yearly 

 getting colder.) No ; but to drainage, deep ploughing : in a word, to good 

 cultivation. Land, which a few years since was supposed not worth 

 cultivating, has by these means yielded extraordinary crops. I have 

 myself heard a farmer say that he had at the rate of five quarters of 

 Wheat to the acre from land which, 20 years ago, it was thought would 

 not grow corn ; and this has been effected by good cultivation. Shall 

 British gardeners, then, who have always been before farmers, put 

 their hands in their pockets and call on Jupiter to help them, whilst 

 British farmers and all the world are moving onward? 



I will now state a few facts to show that the climate is not always the 

 cause of failure of our crops. Fact one is this : in these gardens there 

 is a very old Apple tree, the sort is Sir Walter Blake's Favourite ; it 

 appears never to have anything done to it in the way of pruning, for the 

 branches are as crowded as possible. Well, this tree only bears every 

 alternate year ; one year it has not a dozen fruit on it, the following 

 season it is bent to the ground with its load of fruit ; this has been the 

 case for the last six years to my knowledge, and I am informed it has 

 been the same for 20 years before. Now, I ask " J. M." and " Hel- 

 minthion " if they really think this tree misses a crop every other year 

 in consequence of our "precarious springs." No, gentlemen, that is not 

 the cause ; it is because the crop of one season robs the tree of all the 

 organisable matter fit for the formation of fruit, so that it takes a year 

 to store up sufficient for another crop. 



Fact number two is this. In these gardens are six trees of the 

 White Calville Apple ; five of these have been regularly pruned, the 

 other one never. Their situation is similar in every respect, yet the one 



