The Orchid-house 



proposals have been laid before Government, I 

 believe, but the gardening interest is not yet 

 strong enough to command a hearing. It grows, 

 however. 



There is another system which might be intro- 

 duced without damage to the revenue. In the 

 United States, and also in France and Belgium, 

 they put down the leaf-stalk and other refuse of 

 tobacco factories in the neighbourhood of the 

 pipes, where it gives off a vapour when heated 

 and moistened, imperceptible to our nostrils but 

 deadly to insects. Happy mortals thus escape all 

 trouble whatsoever. Here again chemists would 

 certainly be able to devise an adulteration which 

 would check illegitimate use of the rubbish. The 

 British market-gardener is heavily penalized in 

 competition with foreigners, by climate, by the 

 cost of labour, and by disproportionate expenses all 

 round. Every year he finds it more difficult to 

 hold his own. But his is a great industry, of 

 national importance, which would grow at a 

 prodigious rate if it were not checked by the 

 enormous importation. Government might relieve 

 us, at least, of pedantic restrictions. 



This is somewhat of a digression, for the orchid- 

 grower has not nearly so much interest in the griev- 

 ance as the struggling tradesman who cultivates 



27 



