April 7, 1906 



H ORTI CULTURE 



U3 



THE COMING OF THE DAFFODILS. 



(By Alfred Austin, Poet Laureate of Eng- 

 land.) 



"Awake, awake! for the springtime's 

 sake, 

 March daffodils, too long dreaming! 

 The lark is high in the spacious sky, 

 And the celandine stars are gleam- 

 ing. 

 The gorse is ablaze, and the woodland 

 sprays 

 Are as crimson as August heather, 

 The buds they unfurl, and mavis and 

 merle 

 Are singing duets together. 



"The rivulets run, first one by one, 

 Then meet in the swirling river, 

 And in out-peeping roots the sun-god 

 shoots 

 The shafts of his golden quiver. 

 The thrush never stops in the hazel 

 copse. 

 Till with music the world seems 

 ringing, 

 And the milkmaid hale, as she swings 

 her pail, 

 Comes out from the dairy singing. 



"The madcap lambs round their 

 steadier dams 

 Are skipping as, one time, they did; 

 And, proud of the cheat, will the 

 cuckoo repeat 

 Soon the tale of the nest invaded. 

 The swain and his sweet in the love- 

 lanes meet, 

 And fondle and face each other, 

 Till he folds her charms in his world- 

 wide arms, 

 With kisses that blind and smother." 



Then the daffodils came, aflame, 

 aflame, 

 In orchard, and garth, and cover; 

 And out April leapt, and first smiled, 

 then wept. 

 And longed for her Mayday lover. 

 — From the Independent. 



' OLD FOGIES. 



Editor HORTICULTURE: 



Dear Sir — Permit me to congratulate 

 you on having at least one live person- 

 age on your staff of contributors who 

 can discern a possible humbug when 

 he sees it, and prescribe in befitting 

 language measures calculated to undo, 

 ere they get too bold, excessive 

 enthusiasm on the part of those re- 

 sponsible for same; thus rendering 

 valuable services to the, — I trust, — fast 

 increasing numbers of the readers of 

 your journal. This gentleman is en- 

 dowed with argumentative faculties 

 of a convincing nature, that is evident- 

 ly begot from sound practical experi- 

 ence and observation. I simply wish 

 to add my humble indorsement to the 

 sentiments expressed and so well put 

 by your correspondent, R. T. McGorum, 

 in the last issue of your paper regard- 

 ing the so-called "new fangled, me- 

 chanical watering." I -honestly be- 

 lieve that this scheme is outside the 

 pale of serious consideration as far as 

 practical working is concerned under 

 glass 



Doubtless we may be consdered fit 

 subject to come under the headline 

 caption, — but time will tell. It cannot 

 be said, however, that we are cowards, 

 inasmuch as we dare to express our 

 convictions. 



I for one shall retire from the field 

 of contrary opinion, as gracefully as 

 you please, hat in hand, with unal- 

 loyed reverence for the victor, should 

 future results prove the opposite tc 

 our way of thinking. K. FINI.AYSON. 



MORE ABOUT MECHANICAL 

 WATERING. 



Answering criticism of Robert T. 

 McGorum as published in HORTI- 

 CULTURE of March 24th, page 360. 



Mr. McGorum starts his arguments 

 with a poem which probably originated 

 with one of his ancestors when the old 

 can was in its prime. Poetry may be 

 all right in its place, but I cannot see 

 what it has to do with mechanical 

 watering. Mr. Mc. says that the read- 

 ers of HORTICULTURE are no wiser 

 after reading my remarks than before. 

 I wish to say that none of us are apt 

 to grow much wiser by a few remarks 

 on paper which can only be suggestive 

 of what is possible unless we take ad- 

 vantage and make use of what is in 

 our reach. As far as Mr. Mc. getting 

 insight into mechanical watering 

 I would advise that he give it a trial, 

 but am afraid that owing to the fact 

 that he has used the watering can so 

 long his set ideas in this direction 

 would not allow his seeing its advan- 

 tages, his brain is so full of old 

 theories that it will not absorb new 

 ideas; it is like a sponge full of water 

 — you can pour water all over it and 

 none will soak in. 



Then he goes off somewhere and has 

 a dream about dry spots and red 

 spiders; these are also some of the im- 

 pressions time has printed into his 

 brain, otherwise he would not dream 

 about them. "Wake up," Grandpa Mc- 

 Gorum, rub your eyes so you may see 

 clearly that with mechanical watering 

 there is no need of dry spots or red 

 spider. 



He mentions that a mechanical 

 watering system was used in an ad- 

 joining town of his many years ago, 

 and believes that the concern is now 

 out of business. What kind of a sys- 

 tem was it? There are different ways 

 of going about things. Does he mean 

 to say, that the mechanical watering 

 put them out? I do not claim that the 

 mechanical watering is a panacea for 

 all business ills, that it will make an 

 expert grower of a ditch digger. But 

 if used aright it will soften precon- 

 ceived opinions, and make many con- 

 verts from Mr. McGorum's old-time 

 methods. 



He speaks about cement benches, 

 saying they are being discarded. Let 

 me say, as cement is superseding 

 wood in other building operations so it 

 will supersede the wooden bench and 

 many other parts of greenhouse 

 where wood is now used. I say again 

 mechanical watering will supersede the 

 can and hose for greenhouse watering 

 as sure as the hose has superseded 

 the can because it practically does 

 away with the watering labor. It will 

 do better work than a man can do 

 with the hose and will grow more uni- 

 form crops. He will probably ask 

 what has he to prove the above asser- 

 tions. In answer I will suggest as "the 

 proof of the pudding is the eating 

 thereof," that every one interested try 

 mechanical watering to prove its su- 

 periority to his own satisfaction, as I 

 have proved it to mine, and others, 

 where the system is installed have 

 proved it to theirs. 



In conclusion I might offer the fol- 

 lowing, written to another party, by 

 W. B. Davis, a leading western 

 grower: 



While all have heard of watering 

 machines, they are by most growers 



deemed an impossibility, and those 

 who have dared to experiment in that 

 direction have received little en- 

 couragement. Nevertheless, the water- 

 ing machine is now an assured suc- 

 cess. W. B. Davis & Co., of Aurora, 

 111., have taken the lead by putting the 

 system in their entire establishment 

 of 50,000 square feet, this probably 

 being the first greenhouse in the world 

 watered exclusively by machines. 

 The watering now done perfectly in 

 one hour formerly required nine hours. 

 LOUIS WITTBOLD. 



A FEW MORE WORDS ABOUT 

 MECHANICAL WATERING. 



Mr. Wittbold would have us believe 

 that the idea of mechanical watering 

 has for its origin the rising and pro- 

 gressive young men of the present day. 

 Mechanical watering, like several 

 other young ideas, has gray hairs. 



Forty years ago, at Sir W. Arm- 

 strong's place, in the hills above Roth- 

 bury, Northumberland, England, was 

 an orchard house. I cannot give the 

 dimensions, as I was young at the 

 time, but the plants under cultivation 

 were the ordinary subjects of an or- 

 chard houses — apples, pears, plums, 

 cherries, nectarines, peaches, apricots, 

 etc. They were all nice, shapely trees, 

 say 8 feet high by 5 feet through. 

 They were all established in slate 

 tubs, as near as I can recollect, about 

 2 feet square or more. They were all 

 on an arrangement of castors by which 

 they could be turned or moved with 

 the slightest effort, and a pipe ran 

 over the whole of the rows of tubs, 

 whereby they could be watered. There 

 was also an arrangement for spraying 

 the whole house. I made this trip 

 with my father and Mr. James Gray, of 

 King's Road, Chelsea, London, and re- 

 member yet lots of the conversation 

 between them on the 16-mile drive 

 home. Mr. James Gray was one of 

 the pioneers in greenhouse construc- 

 tion and hot water heating. I also 

 remember at the above place, the nat- 

 ural fernery, at that time one of the 

 finest in Britain. It was formed by 

 covering a mountain "burn" with 

 glass, and the cascades, pools, grottos, 

 etc., were the home of luxuriant speci- 

 mens of ferns that could not attain 

 such vigor under less favorable condi- 

 tions. I allude principally to the filmy 

 section, such as Todeas pellucida and 

 superba, Hymenophyllums, etc. The 

 tree ferns, too, were grand. Almost 

 everything on this place had to be 

 under glass, as it was perched away 

 up on the bleak side of the Cheviot 

 Hills, but the magnificent scenery 

 amply repaid for the inconveniences 

 of the situation. 



I ought to state, in conclusion, that 

 the "mechanical arrangement" was 

 not thought much of by the gardener 

 in charge, whose name, I am sorry to 

 sav, I have forgotten. 



CHARLES INGRAM. 



PERSONAL. 



Wm. Hagemann, New York, has 

 gone to Bermuda on a business trip. 



Julius Roehrs of Rutherford, N. J., 

 returned on March 31 per steamship 

 America from his European trip. 



Joseph A. Manda of South Orange, 

 N. .1., who has been very sick for 

 some weeks is now out of the hospital, 

 and is rapidly regaining lost strength. 



