1S70.] HORTICULTURE FOR COTTAGERS. 339 



and if to this lesson they can add that of a thorough practical know- 

 ledge themselves, they will find that progress and improvement in the 

 cottage-gardens about them will be made just in proportion as they put 

 these powerful instructive influences into operation. In the ' Gar- 

 dener's Annual' for 1863, an unique little volume, edited by the Rev. 

 S. Reynolds Hole, is to be found a most admirably-written chapter on 

 cottage-gardening, that is ten times more worthy of circulation amongst 

 rich and poor alike than are the heavy, cumbrous, and dry details of 

 even the prize essay spoken of in your last number. Here a little 

 story is told of how, by example and precept, a persevering clergyman 

 succeeded in reforming the morals and quickening the horticultural life 

 of the poor of his parish, not by the prescribed formulas of church and 

 school, but through the power of that love of beauty and order dwelling 

 so strongly within himself. I give one short extract : — " I am sure 

 that ours would be a happier world if we had more such assemblies of 

 rich and poor [the cottagers' show], if we would allow ourselves to be 

 convinced that our neighbours (our neighbours are those who live near- 

 est to us) bring, like all other duties, the surest and purest recom- 

 pense, if the members of a parish would try to act, as the members of 

 a family, more in unison ; and if, making our friendships where we see 

 more of our friends, and weighing men's merits rather than their 

 spoons, we would enjoy the Primroses and Violets under our feet, 

 instead of breaking our hearts about a blue Dahlia." How many of 

 our provincial clergy or gentry are willing to emulate the example this 

 little story sets forth, and thus, by the power of horticultural teach- 

 ing, strive to aid the material welfare of their neighbours ? Especially 

 can they prove useful in getting for distribution amongst them vege- 

 table and flower seeds of an improved character, newer and more pro- 

 lific varieties of Potatoes, cheap and useful fruit-trees, and furnishing 

 them with advice and help in a hundred ways, without trespassing over 

 those bounds of charity that are at all times so dangerous to cross when 

 dealing with the working-classes. 



The gratuitous advice, freely given to cottagers of late, about the 

 best sorts of fruit-trees for their gardens, should rather be addressed 

 to landowners and others who are constituted the cottage landlords. 

 How many of this class of persons are there who make the pro- 

 visioning of their cottage - gardens with a proper supply of fruit- 

 trees a matter of grave interest or even of inquiry? Yet that it 

 is a part of their duty as owners there can be no doubt, as fruit- 

 trees are not the creatures of a day, but for many succeeding years. 

 Is it wise or just to expect that cottagers, whose tenancy of their 

 gardens is limited by uncertainty, and whose means are equally so, 

 will expend money upon the purchase of trees that can only yield 



