JOURNAL OF HORTICULTURE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. 



[ Jauairj 4, 1877. 



ments always at hand, and odd minutes that cannot be better 

 tamed to account than in making ho'me boautifnl ; ha need 

 play second fiddle to no one a« a horticulturist. A garden 

 adds immensely both to the charm and the value of a country 

 place. 'A love of a oottaije' eoibowered in trees and en- 

 compassed with fruits, Uowers, ivid vegetables, i3 the i'3eal 

 home about which merchant prinues immured ia the city are 

 evermore dreaming. This dream evtry farmer can convert 

 into a reality. Taking the purely utilitarian view of the sub- 

 ject, a well-kept garden ia tlie most remunerativo part of an 

 estate. Leaving the flowers out of account — though the ladies 

 will not fail to appreciate theee — the fruits and vegetables will 

 be a rich source of family supply, comfort, and health." Now 

 all this, true no doubt of America, is true also of England. 

 I believe it is customary to say " farmers are bad gardeners," 

 and there ia a prejudice ou this subject, just aa there used 

 to be in the old-fashioned farmer against the use of ma- 

 chinery. For some years every ordinary farmer espectcd and 

 prophesied that he who used machinery would ba certain to 

 become a bankrupt. The prejudice against gardening neat- 

 ness and goodness at a farm will also soon pass away, and then 

 we may expect the farmers of England to be proud of and 

 show gardens superior to any other class in the country. Pro- 

 fessional men delight in their gardens, so do tradesmen, so do 

 artisans and the higher class of cottagers. 



The subject of hardy fruits is occupying much attention in 

 England. Cue writer suggests that all railway cuttings should 

 be planted with Apple trees, and calls attention to the subject 

 in a pamphlet entitled " Ten thousand Miles of Apple Trees." 

 The title is sensational, but the plan might be carried out, 

 and vast quantities of land be utilised ; and I should hardly 

 think traffic would be iulerfered with, unless a train full 

 of schoolboys overpowered the guard, held a pistol to tho 

 head of the eogiue-driver and bribed the stoker, and then 

 made a raid upon the trees on their way to school after their 

 summer holidays. We are told by trav^^ilers that in Java the 

 birth of every child is celebrated by planting a fruit tree, 

 which is carefully tended as the record of the age of the child 

 whose birth it registers. This wise regard for the future 

 deserves imitation. There is another plan I should like to sse 

 adopted — that is, that landlords of cottage property ia the 

 country should plant a couple at least of good Apple trees ia 

 each cottage garden. These would como in useful to a family, 

 and a well-stocked garden helps to keep the tenants iu the 

 country, much to their true interests and the benefit of the 

 farmer. It is a curso to a country when its peasantry rush 

 into the iargo towns. Emigration of tho labouring class has 

 been carried far enough, and when a shipload of poor creatures 

 arrives in Australia, instead of being welcomed they are re- 

 ceived with hisses and groans and told to go back to England. 

 How discouraging such a reception must be to poor English 

 husbands with their wives and children, who, having escaped 

 the perils of a three-months voyage, are looking forward to a 

 plentiful and comfortable home in a foreign land. 



A good bint is given by Mr. Holgate which I would recom- 

 mend to the attention of workhouse masters in rural districts. 

 He says, " I think a good opening for boys might be found if 

 the master would take an elder boy under his charge and 

 teach him some of the more advanced points of garden work, 

 such as taking cuttings, budding Rosea, planting and potting, 

 &a. This has been done in one school with such good effect 

 " that boys," says Mr. Holgate, " so taught are snapped up 

 immediately by the neighbouring families. School gardens 

 for vegetables and flowers might also be arranged. All this 

 has been done in a union workhouse in which I have been 

 interested for many years, and in addition tho boys have 

 gardens of their own ; and the master, himself a very success- 

 ful prizataker both in flowers and vegetables, gives prizes to 

 the boys for the best-kept garden, an example which might be 

 followed with advantage. Iu tho same workhouse the aged 

 people's wards are full of flowers, and thoy have charge of 

 some bedding plants in the winter, while thoir court is bright 

 during summer with Geraniums, Hollyhocks, Dihlias, &a. 

 AU this adds an interest to their live?, and, liko the bright 

 piotnres pat by the matron on their walls, mukes them a great 

 deal happier. The monotonous regularity of a workhouse lite 

 ia to all strangely depressing, and nothing tends so much to 

 remove this weariuess as a plentiful supply of flowers." 



Before leaving horticultural subjects one word about our 

 Apple and Pear elections. These will, I hops, go forward, and 

 will be a means to a very desirable end — viz., clearing from 

 our gardens and orchards bad and half-bad varieties. 



I must now turn to that other department of " our Journal " 

 which takes in birds of all kind^, but chiefly tho fowl and the 

 pigeon, and excludes uot the rabbit, while it gives great pro- 

 minence to the houey bee. Prize poultry seems to be esteemed 

 more than ever. Where tea men wished to keep them tea 

 years ago a hundred men do now. Tho-ie who prophesied 

 that the love of keeping these birds would cease, and who 

 called it a mania — a rage, hive proved to be false prophets. 

 A spelling bee may be a mania, but not poultry. Then when 

 a man moves near Londoa or into a town, and has to give up 

 fowls, he only goes iuto the kiadred fancy, that of pigaons. H9 

 only transfers his pets to the other part of the show. Where 

 people cannot keep living things of value, how they will take 

 up with living things of no value I A pet they must -have. 

 This is well illustrated by an extract which follows, from the 

 visit recently paid of an Euglishmau to a Spanish prison. 

 "As I passed," says he, " into the last court of the prison I 

 had a view of ths prison pets. Hern a poor lad from his lone 

 charcoal-cutting hut in the wild sierra, a child of ten years old, 

 had brought his father a mountain fox, which strained at the 

 leash and darted about in all directions. Here a tearful-faced 

 dark-eyed girl had brought a tiny cageful of birds; others had 

 brought other psts. A little cluster of the men were kneeling 

 dowD, I observed, iu a corner of the courtyard ; and" when I 

 peered over their shoulders to see what was the attraction, to 

 my surprise thoy were feeding two tiny sparrows, which, they 

 told me, had fallen out of their uest into tho courtyard and 

 were now the pets of the prison." So have I seen iu anEaglish 

 hospital a poor consumptive lad whose greatest delight was 

 rearing a nest of young liuuet8,aud he was as proud of them as 

 possible, pointing out to me which he considered the best, and 

 how this or thst delicate one had improved under his care. 



I think tho advantage of a hobby for the artisan class, now 

 that their hours of Ubour are shorter, is even greater than 

 ia former days, and ivould prove a counter-attraction to the 

 public house and the skittle alley ; and the more energetic a 

 man is, the more he needs some outlet for his energy which 

 will occupy time and thought. An engine wants a safety-valve, 

 and without a resource of some kind a man is apt to become 

 the victim of too much tobacco, or of something mora hurtful. 

 Heuco I am very glad to see prizes offarad at our large showa 

 for the less expscsive classes of pigooua, as, for instaucs, for 

 flyiug tumblers. This class at Bristol was well filled. So also 

 I advocate everywhere a class for mo-ily pouters ; their price 

 is within the means of artisans. The mealy, well barred and 

 coloured, is a handsome bird and is a true pouter, and existed 

 years before the whites were made. I want hours of relaxa- 

 tion to be harmless hours, and not, as they often are, harmful 

 hours. 



But there are not only artisans with more time to enjoy or 

 waste, but there are men whose lives are very dreary at times. 

 For instance, there is the bachelor curate in a big out-of-the- 

 way straggling village, where his duties are spread over a large 

 tract of country ; where he has no neighbours, no society, no 

 amusements but what he can make for himself; where he leads 

 the life of a veritable hermit, and looks upon a face from the out- 

 side world as a perfect blesaiag. The poor mau oaunot always 

 read, what is ha to do? Wby, if he had only a pet or two he 

 woald ha much hippier. Garden iu his lodgings he cannot 

 have; but if ho could only have, say a pair of fancy pigeons, 

 or even a pair of canaries, he would be the happier ; or experi- 

 mented upon breodiog goldfinch or linnet mules. He would 

 be sure iu his parish to find some man or boy who was a 

 fancier, and who would listen to a brother fancier in the pulpit 

 with mora respect than to one who only knew " parson talk." 



Bstura we iu thought to the new year. Let us welcome the 

 new comer with a warm grasp. May he prove a happv one to 

 all. A welooine, too,l sen J oat in ttiese lines to all. Welcome 

 new correspondents who send us their observations ; welcome 

 old and tried correspondents. Welcome new readers, and may 

 you enjoy and profit by our pages; nor let us forget our old 

 readers, who have stood by us so many yoars. Welcome one, 

 welcome all. — Wiltshire Reotoh. 



SELECT VEGETABLES FOR SMALL 



GARDENS. 



Readers of the Journal should now have little diCioully in 



ordering tho best Roses, as the lata eloctiou and all its bearings, 



every line of which I have read with profit, has made us all 



nmiiiar with the cream of the "queen of flowers" and the 



