iamiiuj 25, 18^2. ] 



JOUBNAL OF HOETICULTURE AND COTTAGE GAEDENEE. 



85 



these respects, the Dorkmg is too tender in constitution, the 

 Game requii'es a h^rge run, and does not do well in confine- 

 ment ; but if instead of chickens for the table, eggs are reijuired 

 for saie, the Hambm-gh, Spanish, or Houdau wUl be found 

 the most profitable breeds. 



But is there any profit in keeping poultry ? From my own 

 experience I can say that there is ; not a large one, but still a 

 fair profit after paying all expenses of food, and charging the 

 chickens thi-oughout the year at 4s. a-couple, and the eggs at 

 fourteen for Is. 



Ducks are a more questionable Idudof stock for profit ; they 

 ought to be sold otf when young at dd. or Is. each. They 

 wiU then pay well to the grower ; but if he keeps them on and 

 feeds them for the table the profit will soon disappear, for a 

 batch of young ducklings wUl eat as much as a pig. Nor should 

 I recommend either Turkeys or Geese, unless there arc special 

 facilities for keeping them. 



There is one kind of stock for a fruit farm which I have not 

 yet mentioned, because I have no fancy for it myself and have 

 never tried it. I mean a hive of bees. They cost nothing to 

 feed, for like Pigeons they live upon your neighbours, and 

 bring then- produce home ; but I expect that bee-keeping is a 

 specialite which is only to be attempted where there is a mutual 

 attraction, and this does not always exist ; for bees, I am told, 

 have then' likes and dislikes to particular persons just as theu' 

 betters have. There is generally a good demand for honey, 

 and if this should not be the case it is an article which may bo 

 profitablj' consumed at home, and will be very popular wherever 

 there are children. I have heard that in a good year the 

 profit on a hive of bees is reckoned to be as higli as 15s. or £1. 



I am conscious that one serious objection may be raised 

 against what has been hitherto said in these papers : " You 

 have gone in entirely for what is profitable, and neglected the 

 beautiful, umniudful of the French ilictum ' that the beauti- 

 ful is often quite as useful as the profitable, and sometimes 

 more so,' " and as I fully acknowledge the truth of these last 

 words, I win make what amends I can, mindful of the old 

 adage : — 



" Omue tulit punctum qui miscuit utile dulci." 

 I will go so far as to say that the fruit farm will not be perfect 

 unless it is enlivened by flowers, among which their queen, 

 the Rose, should hold a prominent place. The gable wall of 

 the cottage will probably be covered by an Apricot tree, which 

 in good seasons will furnish no inconsiderable item towards 

 the rent, but the front and other parts may well be given up 

 to climbing Roses, such as Marechal Niel with his golden 

 blossoms, which he will give forth in abundance against a wall, 

 however coy he may be of displaying them unless provided 

 with this protection, and the Gloire de Dijon, the most pro- 

 lific of all Roses. But in speaking of the Rose, I have a 

 shrewd suspicion that by growing it the fruit-farmer may 

 vmite the utile dulci very mirch to his own advantage, and 

 may turn it into a profitable crop. I once gave a basket of 

 Roses to a Manchester salesman as a present to his mfe, and 

 the next time he paid a visit to my farm he confided to my 

 man the fact, that his wife, being of a practical turn of mind, 

 sold my Roses to a lady for the sum of 7s. iid. I have also 

 discovered that another who sometimes visits the black country, 

 and comes before he starts to beg a Rose for his button-hole, 

 generally selecting a full-blown specimen, has an eye to 

 business as well as to personal adornment, for he never brings 

 the Rose back with him, as he can sell it readily to some of 

 his customers for (id. These facts lead me to imagine that 

 the fruit-farmer may do worse than put in a few dozen Briars 

 to be budded with Roses ; and if he has a road or path tlu'ough 

 liis plantation, he may make it much more '• eyeable," as they 

 say in these parts, by erecting some rough rustic arches across 

 it with oak poles, and covering them with the Gloire de Dijon 

 Rose. In addition to the Gloire, which will seldom be with- 

 out a blossom from the middle of June till the frosts set in, 

 he should grow as standards Senateur Vaisse for a dark Rose, 

 and John Hopper for a pink Rose. I mention these varieties 

 as being good croppers and having compact blossoms, which 

 will bear the transit well ; and if the fruit-farmer will follow 

 my directions, I think he will find that a pot of Eoses will not 

 be the least profitable or the least appreciated produce which 

 he can send to the mai'kets of the great smoky towns of the 

 north. 



I hope that I have carried my readers so far with me as to 

 convince them that a working man may make a very good 

 living from a small fruit farm, planted and managed as I have 

 described. If a man has a small freehold of liis own in a 



suitable situation, I do not think he can turn it to better 

 account (to say nothing of the pleasure and interest derived 

 from this kind of cultivation), than by planting it with fruit ; 

 or if a man has laid by sufficient capital, say £100 or more, I 

 do not think that he can make a better investment of it than 

 by taking a lease of four or five acres of suitable laud for 

 fourteen or twenty-one years, and planting it with fruit at his 

 own expense. But my principal object in writing my experi- 

 ences on this subject is the hope that they may induce large 

 landowners to take the matter into their consideration, and 

 establish a few such farms ou their properties as inducements 

 to thrift and industry, and as steps in the ladder to enable the 

 deserving labourer to rise in his own profession in life. In 

 this case the landlord should plant, at any rate, a portion of 

 the ground with the best varieties of fruit, and those most 

 suitable to the district, leaving the tenant to till up the rest in 

 time with grafts or cuttings taken on the spot. The rent for 

 the first two or three years should not be above the agricultural 

 value of the land, but it may be raised as the fiiiit trees come 

 into bearing, till ou a good soU it reaches £o per acre or more. 

 In such a case, where the landlord is at the expense of plant- 

 ing, I do not think that a lease should be given, as if the 

 trees are neglected the occupier should have iuimei.liate notice 

 to qirit. The laud selected should be of a fair quality, 

 suitable for the growth of fruit, and within reach of a good 

 market, or of a raUway station, to which tho produce may be 

 sent. If these conditions are observed, I think a few such 

 farms held out as rewards to deserving labourers would help 

 to raise the tone of the whole district, and be a benefit to the 

 community at large. I have a strong feelhig that iu tho 

 present day we want every means that can be devised to pro- 

 mote the growth of that self-rehant independent spirit which 

 is tho cause of a country's greatness, and to ai'rest the spread 

 of pauperism. This last evil must be cut-at at both ends if 

 the quality of a population is to be maintained — at the lower 

 end by checking the indiscriminate system of out-door relief, 

 which is simply a premium on improvidence ; and at the 

 higher end by offering every aid to thrift and industry, and 

 every inducement to hardiness and independence, for wherever 

 these qualities are dying out among the bulk of a people, that 

 country, whatever its wealth may be, is not far from a fall. I 

 believe that the estabUshment of such farms as I have de- 

 scribed would have some influence for good, and if these papers 

 should have the effect of iuducmg anyone who has it in his 

 power to make the experiment, their purpose will have b3:;u 

 sufficiently answered. 



GOOD PEAS. 



I USE Ringleader, Little Gem, Advancer, and end with 

 Veitch's Perfection. The three sorts first named do not re- 

 quhe sticks ; the last requires a stick hero and there. I do 

 not Uke Peas that require sticks. The birds make more 

 havoc with staked Peas than with those uustaked. Moreover, 

 you can net uustickcd Peas better than sticked ones. 



A dish of King of the Mai'rows was sent to me by our clergy- 

 man ; they were large and of admirable flavour. I believe the 

 stems grow 5 or 6 feet in height. 



If Peas are not sticked or netted, the birds can only make 

 havoc on the exposed side.— W. F. R-idclytfe. 



EEMONTANT HYBRID EOSES. 

 De Pokquet's French dictiouaiy is by no means a first-rate 

 authority to consult for terms not iu frequent use iu ordinary 

 conversation. Being a compilation made in and for tho pre- 

 ceding generation, it is at the present time an imperfect one 

 also. Remontant is a French word with every probability of 

 becoming an English one too. It is purely and simply the 

 present participle, answering to the English participle in in;/ 

 of " remouter," which in Spiers' dictionary, now the standard 

 work for literary and other reference, is given with some twenty 

 different shades of meaning, besides idiomatic phrases iu 

 which it is used ; its general meaning is to re-ascend, to rise, 

 or ascend again. " Hybride" will also be found twice in the 

 same complete work, first as adjective, hybrid ; second, noun mas. 

 or fern., also hybrid. Peduncle is a botanical tei-m in frequent 

 use, explained by Dr. Lindley (" School Botany," p. 11) thus, 

 " The stalk of the flower is its peduncle, and if the latter is 

 divided into many smaller stalks its divisions are called pedi- 

 cels," sometimes written pedicles. One of the greatest of 

 living scholars, Archlsishop Trench, deprecates strongly the 



