154 



THJii GARDENER'S MONTHLY 



IMay, 



twenty-three acres of asparagus at Mortlake. 

 T'he Practical Gardener, Charles Mcliitcxh, reig^ned 

 at Chireiuont, as locum tenens for rrince Leo- 

 pold, (promoted in 1S3'2 to the throne of Bel- 

 pium,) himself to be 80on after transferred to 

 the Duke of Buccleni-h's gardens at Dalkeitli 

 Tark. Mearns was coiling his vines in pots at 

 Welbeck, and stirring the hearts of the garden- 

 ing world by the results which he professed to 

 have achieved ; Ferguson ruled over the Ducal 

 gardens at Stowe, once the jinest place in Eng- 

 land ; Forrest held rule under another Duke (of 

 the <S/n///Kso?j family) at Syon ; Paxton was the 

 little duke and adviser in all things at Chats- 

 worth; Sinclair had quitted the l^ed ford con- 

 nection with his Gramineum, Salictum and 

 Ericetum,(WoburMcnse respectively,) to become 

 partner in the New Cross Nurseries, and been 

 succeeded by James Forbes, of whom little can 

 be said, excepting that he was a good practical 

 gardener, and " boss " for a time, over your re- 

 spected townsman, the late Chas. E. Sutherland. 

 It is time, however, that my discursive gossip 

 ended. Allow me, in closing, to make one re- 

 mark. Forty years is only a short step in the 

 world's history, and a short time to look back 

 upon, but the last forty years have brought won- 

 derful changes, especially in the advancement 

 of science and its application to the useful arts. 

 Gardening was the first of these in point of time, 

 and having been closely associated with the 

 wants, the habits and the tastes of mankind in 

 all generations, has perhaps advanced more 

 steadily than any other, but it does not appear to 

 me (and those aside can best mark the speed of 

 what is passing) that she has not of late years 

 progressed so rapidly as some others, especially 

 as her sister, Agriculture, and that gardeners are 

 scarcely, if at all, better acquainted with botany, 

 physiology, chemistry, and other matters of sci- 

 ence connected with their calling, than they 

 were half a century ago. How olten do we meet 

 with men fairly schooled in " the three R's," in- 

 telligent as regards every-day matters and cur- 

 rent events, by dint of training, observation and 

 experience, passing muster as good gardenere, 

 and often achieving wonderful results; familiar 

 with the name of almost every plant which 

 passes under their eyes or through their hands, 

 yet spelling and pronouncing the names of those 

 plants most barbarously, and are utterly unac- 

 quainted with the first principles of growth and 

 development, the structure, terminology, and 

 affinities or classification of plants or any of the 



scientilic aids to intelligent and succescful culti- 

 vation. Lindley used to say, "As well call the 

 man a carpcntir who knows the names of the 

 tools in a curpciiter's chest, as the num who 

 knows tiie names only of plants, a botanist. Gar- 

 deners to be successful must be thoughtful, stu- 

 dious, observant men, and as a class, are much 

 respected; but even a small amount of culture 

 and scientific knowledge would increase their 

 interest in, and simplify the operations they too 

 often perforin meehanically, while it tended 

 to their social elevation and their being recog- 

 nized as men of education and refinement. 



EDITORIAL NOTES. 



TiiK Centknnial Pomological Judges.— We 

 find the following in the i)roceedings of the Wor- 

 cester Co. (Mass.) Horticultural Society: — 



" Upon one feature of this Pomological Exhi- 

 bition, however, it would be impossible to en- 

 large in too strong terms of censure. Massachu- 

 setts, Ohio and New York were wholly 

 unrepresented upon the Committee of Judges. 

 The exclusion of their statues from funeral 

 processions in the decadence of ancient Rome, 

 but served to recall to mind even more vividly 

 the patriots Brutus and Cassius. And who of us, in 

 looking through the roll of those who had been 

 selected to adjudicate upon " Northern Pomo- 

 logical Products," could fail to note with amaze- 

 ment the absence of such names as John A. 

 Warder, Patrick Barry, Charles Downing, John 

 J. Thomas, and, — clarm et venerabile nomen ! — 

 Marshall V. Wilder. Honesty is an indispen- 

 sable qualification for a just judge, butshould not 

 capacity also be deemed essential?" 



It is a remarkable commentary on this para- 

 graph that the utter ignoring of horticulture and 

 agriculture in the programme of judges, and 

 through which no judges for these departments 

 were ajipointed, was the work of a New England 

 man. The judges who did serve, did so without 

 any recognition from the Centennial Commis- 

 sion, and without any arrangement for pay, 

 while the regular judges had both. They worked 

 steadily at this for from two to four days a week 

 for six months, and then were told that as there 

 was no provision made for Pomological judges, 

 their services were expected to be gratuitous. 

 If Downing, Warder, Thomas, Barry, Wilder, or 

 that other gentleman Clarm E. V. Nomen, of 

 whom we never heard before, were willing to 

 undertake this long and weary service out of 



