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THE CANADIAN HORTICULTURIST. 



AN ENGLISH NUESEEY 



BY THE EDITOR. 



ON Whit Monday, June ist, we took 

 a day out of the great city of Lon- 

 don to visit the nurseries belong- 

 ing to Mr. Cheal, whose visit to Maplehurst 

 last September was so welcome. 



His home is situated about two miles from 

 Crawley, where we lunched in the old 

 George Hotel, at which royalty so often 

 lunched in coaching days — a half-way house 

 between London and Brighton. 



Mr. Cheal's home is a lovely old-fash- 

 ioned house, half hidden in ivy, clematis, 

 akebia and other climbing vines, and sur- 

 rounded by beautiful hedges. On one side 

 of the beautifully cut lawn was a rockerv 

 well considered a work of art, with rambling 

 walks amid trees and rocks and pools of 

 water, approached over an artistic rustic 

 bridge. Among the rocks was planted a 

 collection of hardy plants, suitable to the 

 conditions and giving one the impression of 

 living in the midst of nature's garden. ^o 

 popular has this style of work become, said 

 Mr. Cheal, that some men are now making 

 rock gardening a specialty. 



The English methods of cultivation 

 are very different from those of our Can- 

 adian nurserymen, who cultivate their 

 whole plantation by means of horse la- 

 bor. Mr. Cheal's nursery is a succes- 

 sion of gardens, separated by lofty walls of 

 hawthorn and hornbeam hedges ; and each 

 of these gardens, with its wealth of ever- 

 greens, fruit trees, flowering shrubs, hardy 

 perennials, etc., these acres of nursery stock 

 — all are cultivated by hand ! " Such a 

 method would ruin Canadian nurserymen," 

 we said. " Our people do nearly every- 



thing by horse work, and as little as possible 

 by human labor." 



" Land with us is too valuable to plant at 

 such distances as you do, and labor is much 

 lower priced," said Mr. Cheal. '' We pay 

 only from $4 to $5 a week for labor." 



Well, of course, here is a key to the situa- 

 tion ; yet we believe the time has come when 

 English farmers and nurserymen should 

 take some lessons from us if tne^- would 

 continue to prosper. 



The greater part of Mr. Cheal's business 

 is in connection with large contracts for the 

 designing of parks, for which he supplies 

 the stock and carries out the work ; still the 

 firm does quite a business in fruit trees. 

 They make quite a specialty of growing ap- 

 ple trees on English Paradise stock, claim- 

 ing that these would be profitable if planted 

 in a wholesale way. 



The varieties of apples cultivated differ 

 wholly from those grown with us. Cox 

 Orange Pippin heads the list, and is fol- 

 lowed by such varieties as Pearmain, King 

 of the Pippins, Queen, Lord Derby, Bis- 

 marck, and many others ; while such names 

 as Baldwin, Spy, Greening, King of Tomp- 

 kins, Snow, etc., are not to be found. 



Evidently the conditions are so different 

 from ours that different varieties are needed 

 — and it would be vain to expect much satis- 

 faction in Ontario with English varieties as 

 in England with those which originate in 

 Canada. 



The hedges at Mr. Cheal's nursery are ex- 

 ceptionally fine, but so high and large that 

 the work of cutting must be enormous. "We 

 are obliged to keep them," said he, " for pro- 



