1843.] PH 
E GARDENERS’ 
CHRONICLE. 
355 
H ORTICULTURAL SOCIETY OF LONDON. 
EXHIBITIONS at the GARDEN.—The next Exhibition 
will take place on Saturday the 17th of June; subjects for Exhi- 
bition must be at this o: on Friday, the 16th of June, or at the 
Garden before half-pas it o’clock, A.M., on the day of Exhi- 
iti the gates will be opened at One, p.m. Tickets are issued 
to Fellows at this office, i ‘ach; or at the Garden in the 
afternoon of the da Gi 
Orders from Feiloy 
In RE 
of ion at 7s, 6d. each; but only to 
of the Society. N.B.—No Tickers WILL BE 
ON THE DAY OF EXHIBITION. 
VO FOLLOWING WEEKS. 
+ “Botanical 20. 2. 8 Ban, 
ological 
tural 
Counray Snow, Thursday, June 8, Hoddesdon Cottagers’ 
By an error in the printing-office, we were last week 
made to say (p. 333) that “medals to the amount of 
250 were awarded” at the great Exhibition in the 
Horticultural Society’s Garden. What should have 
been printed was, “ medals to the amount of nearly 
2501. were awarded.” 
Wr have received from a very intelligent person, 
Mr. W. Sherwood, Gardener to Mr. Mills, of Stam- 
ford-hill, a letter concerning the interests of Gar- 
deners, which well expresses the opinions of all the 
best friends of Horticulture upon that very import- 
ant subject, 
After alluding to an appeal said to have been made 
to British Gardeners on behalf of some obscure and 
unworthy publication, upon the ground. that the 
Writer advocates their cause in what he calls a “bold” 
way, Mr. Sherwood proceeds thus : 
. Now although I do not expect that this appeal 
will meet with the response anticipated, still there are 
Some gardeners who entertain strange notions as to 
the manner in which a deliverance is to be wrought 
for them from the grievances under which they 
labour ; and not a few who, instead of thinking for 
them selves, prefer others to think for them, and seem 
to consider that this power is vested in the “press.” 
None can doubt but that a properly-conducted Horti- 
cultural paper subserves the interests of Gardening 
and Gardeners to an extent far surpassing any other 
channel of knowledge: but I do think, that so far | 
from Gardeners being benefited by its interference in | 
their arrangements with their employers, it is in fact 
diametrically opposed to the interests of both. And I 
believe that I speak the sentiments of the majority of 
Gardeners when I say that it is the duty of every 
well-wisher of his profession to discountenance a 
system so insulting to their employers and so degrad- 
ing to themselves. ‘The best advocate of a Gardener’s 
interests is his own full appreciation of them. In 
order to feel our true position in society, and recog. 
hise our duty, we should remember that the Progress 
of Horticulture and the increased demand Upon our 
Services consequent upon it has resulted solely from 
the intellectual refinement of society ; and the desree 
;2 which Gardeners become sensible of this fact, and 
~Y it alive to the duties they are expected to perform, 
is tthe degree in which they become solicitous for the 
mental improvement of the whole fraternity of Gar- 
deners, This is strikingly evinced in the sacrifices 
ie have ade for the formation of Mutual Instrue- 
i n. Socicties in the neighbourhood of London, and 
© ¢stablishment of libraries in connexion with them. 
ic the mass have been listening to Seurrility 
eae by one party upon respectable individuals, 
Siiees the pretence of advocating the Gardeners’ 
ee and to another expatiating on the dissipa- 
G OL men who bear (most unjustly) the name of 
»ttdeners, these have been acting. 
appealed a 
his 
bot been to 
we with him 
this or ¢ 
10 seq, Oe they are taught to think, and thereby led 
Public ye¢ 
deportme 
, Nothing 
1 which wi 
Selves that 
ike other 
ener Wages and a better position in the world i 
800d conduct and augmented knowledge, 
ary tone eens, yearly more and more neces- 
peas "1ety ; and if the sure result of that necessity 
conditio, y « egrees. the general improvement of their 
n, it will be their own;fault. They will, in 
them of their follies, and those their greatest enemies 
who teach them to be discontented with their situa- 
tion, without pointing out any practicable means of 
improving it. Asa body, Gardeners are more respect- 
able and better informed than any class of servants; 
and the gentlemen of England are generally much 
more than ever alive to their importance; Witness 
the numerous cases, daily becoming more frequent, 
where they are entrusted with the management of 
, ands and plantations, with augmented pay. This has 
arisen out of their intelligence and good conduct. 
Their first great object should be to employ their 
natural good sense in holding fast the step thus 
gained ; and one of the most efficient means of doing 
so is by encouraging the promotion of societies for 
instruction, discouraging everything which tends to 
throw a doubt upon the respectability of their profes 
sion, and holding themselves aloof from those low 
people who, Mr. Sherwood says, are miscalled Gar- 
deners, and who are not only insensible to the force 
of arguments such as those he has so judiciously 
employed, but of any arguments whatsoever, even 
although they are backed by penury, contempt, and 
the workhouse. 
We are obliged to “G. D.” for his information con- 
cerning the relative slipperiness of Elm and Fir 
planks, which we have little doubt is correct. We do 
not, however, perceive that it touches the question at 
issue in our previous remarks. The slipperiness of a 
recently-wetted (and still less of a frozen) plank, 
worn only by men’s shoes, has little resemblance to 
what we have called the unctuousness produced by 
violently beating into pulp a certain portion of woody 
fibre. Eyen in this respect we may possibly be wrong 
as regards the comparative merits of Elm and Fir, 
We cautiously said only that the one appeared to us 
less greasy than the other ; and judging as wellas we 
could from the specimen of Elm-capped paving near 
St. Giles’s Church, we thought, and still think, that 
this is the case. Meanwhile the subject is very import- 
ant, and we shall be glad if; many will imitate the 
example set by “G. D.,” of giving us actual facts, 
which cannot fail to be useful. 
As a matter of speculation, it appears to us not 
improbable that Kyanizing, or Burnettizing, or some 
of the processes which are said to render wood incom- 
bustible, might to a certain extent diminish that 
greasiness which seems to belong in a remarkable 
degree to disintegrated resinous timber. On the 
other hand it may turn out that the greasiness is 
mainly due to foreign substances lying upon the sur- 
face of the wood, and that the superiority of the 
paving at St. Giles’s is owing to the better preserva- 
tion of the grooves by the toughness of the Elm. The 
question is altogether one of experiments, to which 
we must appeal, and for the publication of which, 
when properly authenticated, our columns shall be 
freely open. 
Tux education we would recommend for the 
children of agricultural labourers is such as can be 
afforded with the smallest assistance from the wealthier 
part of the community, if not entirely without it, 
There must be school-rooms and teachers. These 
may be provided at a very small expense: an old barn is 
readily converted into a school-room, and there are 
few parishes where there is not one or more such to 
spare. Small farms have been united in most places 
because they did not singly afford a livelihood to the 
occupiers, and spare buildings remain which may be 
readily fitted up as schools; a tithe barn, rendered 
useless by the commutation of tithes, may now become 
an excellent school-house. A retired gardener or head- 
ploughman, no longer capable of much labour, may 
have sufficient learning to teach children to read and 
write; and the labour of the children in a large 
garden, with a yery small weekly payment, may be a 
sufficient remuneration for his trouble of teaching. 
This plan has been tried in Sussex with full success, 
as the following report will show. It is the school- 
master himself who makes the statement. 
REPLY OF THE MASTER TO INQUIRIES RESPECTING 
THIS SCHOOL, 
sii Willingdon, near East Bourne, Sussex. 
“J have twenty scholars, to whom I teach reading, 
writing, and accounts, the church catechism, collects, and 
psalmody, on the national plan, with the approbation of 
the vicar, without any salary, for one penny per week 
from each boy, from nine to twelve o’clock ; and from two 
till five in the afternoon, cultivating the land. I have not 
lost one from dissatisfaction, but I am glad to say that 
they willingly assist me. And the Rey. Julius Nouaille, 
of Pevensey, who recommended me, has applied to me for 
a master to take a school there of the same kind, for 
which he has obtained the bishop and viear’s consent, and 
a great farmer has willingly agreed to give up four acres 
of land for it. Tam satisfied that I can keep two cows on 
the same quantity of ground, stall-fed, where I could keep 
but one if allowed to graze. I have no grass land, and 
all the first winter my cows had only straw, turnips, and 
mangel wurzel, till green food came on in the spring, 
Ong’ run, find those theix best friends who tell 
and now my hay is the c/over I sowed with the grain crop 
last year. I have experienced a great deal of good from 
the liquid manure from the two tanks, one from the cows, 
and the other from the pigs. I have just killed a pig 
weighing 29 stone 7lbs., and one before about the same 
weight, which I have used in my family. I have a wife 
and four children, and a pupil of 13 years of age, come to 
learn the plan of séall-feeding cows and spade husbandry, 
paid for by Mrs. Parry, of the Cedars, Sunning Hill, 
Berkshire. It is allowed that my oats are the best sample 
in the parish. I tied my oats in sheaves, and set them 
up the same as wheat, which saves a geat deal of shatter- 
ing : this is the general practice in Cornwall and Scotland, 
and, I hear, in some parts of Kent, and js particularly 
useful for barley, to malt. I thrash my corn over the cow- 
house, as in Cornwall, Switzerland, &c., which keeps it 
perfectly dry, being off from the damp ground. [Tam 
entirely supplied with water by the rain which falls on the 
house preserved ina tank. The quantity of land I rent 
is five acres, on the side of the South Downs, at 32 an 
acre; this with 102 for my house, makes 25/., which T 
have paid for the year ending Michaelmas last, though T 
might have taken off my crops, and left rent free, but I 
preferred staying and teaching, though I have no salary, 
and so I think would many others. I have now three 
cows, a heifer, and calf, standing opposite to each other, 
with a road between their mangers for feeding these stall- 
fed cattle, which have never needed a farrier; and from 
skim-milk T have made cheese like the Dutch cheese, of 
which one vessel, the Ouze, last year imported so much, 
that the duty for it paid at Newhaven amounted to 4,000/. 
‘*T remain, your obedient servant, 
“ April, 1842. Georce CrorrenpEn.” 
This statement may appear too favourable to be 
quite correct, but the fact is no less certain, that this 
man, paying a high rent, is enabled to raise from five 
acres of land sufficient produce for his comfortable 
maintenance, entirely by the labour of twenty boys, 
working three hours in the afternoon, while he teaches 
them three hours in the forenoon. The age of the 
boys is not stated ; but supposing it to be from 8 to 
14 years, or an average of 11, they would easily culti- 
vate five acres of land by trenching, forking, hoeing, 
&c., on the system of the small Flemish farms. 
Whether Mr. ‘Cruttenden’s cheese, made from skim 
milk, be equal to the Dutch cheese usually imported, 
we will not stop to inquire; it is sufficient to have 
shown that a school may be supported without any 
external assistance. Anditisevident, that, if thechildren 
made no progress, or were over-worked, their parents 
would soon take them away, and the master would 
lose-his labourers, and consequently his means of living. 
Auch of the success of the Willingdon school must be 
ascribed to the industry and judgment of the master, 
and also to the superintendence of the lady on whose 
property it is situated, and who takes a lively interest 
in its welfare. The children are early impressed 
with the importance of a minute attention to ever 
operation in which they are engaged. They are the 
hands, while the master is the head; they see what 
the land can be made to produce, the profit which can 
made on stock economically fed and properly 
attended to; and the lessons they learn at that early 
age they are not likely to forget. 
Compare these children who may have worked two 
or three years under Cruttenden with an equal number 
taken from any national school—which are most 
advanced in those things which are practically useful ? 
If some clever boy has outstepped his contemporaries, 
and can answer questions in arithmetic or geography 
which would puzzle our industrious scholars, how 
many will be found who, when placed with a gardener 
or a farmer, are of immediate use.to their master, and 
can be entrusted with any kind of work? But this is 
not the question. What has it cost to teach # boy for 
four years at a national school, or one supported by 
subscriptions and benefactions? The smallest expense 
required for the maintenance of a school for 50 
children, after a school-room and master’s house have 
been erected, is at least 70/. per annum, or I/. 8s. for 
each child ; whereas if Cruttenden had 50 scholars he 
would only receive 4s. 4d. for each in the course of the 
year, supposing no holidays, and think himself amply 
paid. He could then cultivate 12 acres instead of 5, 
and his profits would be in proportion, 
There may be some citcumstances which favour 
this plan at Willingdon; but if Cruttenden pays a 
rent of 25/., there are many situations in the countr 
where a cottage and school-room could be obtained 
from the proprietors without any rent, or a very small 
one, and it must be very rich land which would be 
worth 3/. an acre rent; so that if any proprietor of 
land should be desirous of making the experiment, 
and find another Cruttenden, he might confer a great 
benefit on the labourer’s children by merely Jetting 
the master have a cottage and a few acres of land, and, 
if necessary,“ recting a plain school-room. Jd. 
oi oe a, ee 
. THE ROSE-GARDEN.—No. V. 
THE remaining group of Bourbon Roses comprises 
Some fine varieties, remarkable for their dwarf and rigid 
habits. Of these, Augustine Lelieur is one of the oldest, and 
in its way, perhaps one of the most beautiful ; its 
flowers are only semidouble, but they are so erect and 
80 brilliant in colour, more particularly im autumn, , that 
