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1843.] 
THE GARDENERS’ CHRONICLE. 
155 
ye wey BECK invites the attention of Horticul- 
oRTON CorracE, IsLE- 
Wwonrn, upon application to the Gardener—Sundays excepted. 
reaches it but feebly ; it will be long-jointed, almost 
leafless, pallid, and watery: continue to grow it there; 
it will lose the ends of its leaves, and in course of time 
will die. Now this is only a strong illustration of the 
Che Gardeners’ Chronicte, 
‘ 
SATURDAY, MARCH 11, 1843. 
Wednesday, 
Friday, Mar, 
‘ Tuesday, Mar.2i . . 
Botanical ".". 
+ Royal Botanie 
Flo: 
Wednesday, Mar.92. [F. 
Saturday, Mar. 25 
Amone the errors not uncommonly committed by 
gardeners is one which we suspect has been produc= 
tive of as much mischief to greenhouse and hothouse 
plants as high night temperature to Vines, 
In former days gardeners were unacquainted with 
the importance of maintaining a moist at phere, 
when they cultivated plants naturally found in the hot 
and damp parts of the world. Water-plants, indeed, 
they put into water, and they had what were called 
damp-stoves, as distinguished from dry-stoves. But 
the first differed from the last in having a tan-bed in 
the middle, and in the moisture derived from it, more 
than in any other respect. At the present day, how- 
ever, he must be a very ignorant gardener indeed who 
does not avail himself of syringes, and evaporating- 
pans, and sphagnum, wherever stove-plants are to be 
managed. It is only, therefore, here and there that 
vegetation suffers from undue dryness. 
We are, however, obliged to add, that people are to 
be found who now run to the opposite extreme, and 
who, because they find tropical plants bettered by a 
certain amount of water, under certain circumstances, 
fancy they cannot have too much of it. This is the 
case with our correspondent “ Planta-Genista,” who 
has a gardener, a Londoner, from a great establish- 
ment, who, in the dark weather of winter, deluges the 
Stoves with water, and suffocates the plants with heat. 
his is “keeping up the steam” with a vengeance. 
It is of no use for his master to show him that the 
plants are poor, spindled, drawn-up things, or to point 
to their dying extremities ; the gardener is too great 
a man to regard such trifles; he has lived with 
My Lord this, and My Lady that, and, above all things, 
ie comes out of the great London establishment, and 
it was always done so there, and therefore must be 
right. As for the plants dying, they are treated 
according to rule, and if they will die under these 
circumstances, who is to help it? It is impossible 
for a plain country gentleman to resist such an appeal 
to the experience of those who kill secundum artem, 
Let us try whether we can resist it. 
Tropical plants require a moist atmosphere, that is 
Certain. So is it certain that a man requires exercise ; 
but if he is kept incessantly walking all day and all 
night, what will become of him? A man requires to 
awake sometimes ; but if you never let him close 
his eyes, what will become of him in that case? A 
Sardener must have the means of allaying his thirst ; 
ut if you attach a forcing-pump to his mouth, and 
ep it always in action, all day and all night, he will 
find the supply rather too abundant, even though the 
Pump discharged good ale. We see, then, thata man 
May haye too much of a good thing ; and why not a 
Plant? 
Again, as to heat ; tropical plants demand a high 
temperature; certainly: so do werequire warm cloth- 
ing. But a heavy blanket coat, which suits the depth 
of winter, would’ be a somewhat inconvenient article 
Of dress for a gardener in the dog-days. He would 
Son feel its effects, we apprehend, and become thin 
8nd spindled, like Planta-Genista’s unlucky shrubs. 
' should neyer be forgotten, that what is fit or unfit 
OF a gardener to do is altogether dependent upon cir- 
Mustances. That which may be indispensable in 
‘ arch may be most improper in July. With regard to 
7¢ matter now before us the fact is this. Although tro- 
a plants require a high temperature and a moist 
rm posphere, it is only when there is an abundance of 
on in addition. The effect of heat and moisture is to 
5 ce Yapid growth, and, asa necessary consequence, 
aN papel plants to feed abundantly ; but the food 
. ich they take in can only be digested under the 
li ence of light ; the more light the quicker the 
“estion, the less light the slower the digestion ; and 
Consequenn . ight the slower ‘3 Ata 
Breatee f y the brighter and longer the days, the 
Bea Ay re quantity of heat and moisture they will 
agetits he darker and shorter the days, the less of these 
te can be applied to them. 
man Us illustrate this by an extreme case. Take a 
o Sea-kale ; grow it just below the glass of a 
will } Ouse in March, freely exposed to light ; it 
be short-jointed, broad-leaved, green, and firm. 
lant ; place it in the 
e glass, where light 
q of forcing plants into rapid 
growth in the absence of bright light ; and perfectly 
explains to those who can understand, the reason 
why the operations of the great gardener “ from the 
great London establishment, who had lived with My 
Lord this and My Lady that,” are so bad. If his 
‘othouse-plants were intended to be eaten, his practice 
might be good, but as they are intended by his master 
for a somewhat different purpose, no mismanagement 
can be greater. 
All good growers of stove plants will diminish 
the temperature and moisture as light declines, and 
increase them again as it becomes stronger. In the 
winter they will only give them just so much as is re- 
quired to preserve thers in a state of healthy rest. 
One of the fundamental principles of this Paper is 
its avoidance of politics; and we think it must be 
conceded that we act upon that principle with perfect 
fairness. We therefore trust that what we are now 
about to say, if it should seem to savour of Anti- 
Corn-Law views, will be understood as having no 
political bearing whatsoever. We say nothing about 
the Corn-Laws: we advocate neither Sir Robert Peel 
nor Mr. Cobden; we merely express an opinion, in 
which we think all reasonable persons must concur, 
when it is plainly set before them. 
ether protecting duties are necessary to the 
farmer or not—this, we submit, is undeniable, that 
he can best claim them after he has pushed the re- 
sources of Agriculture, and all possible skill, to their 
utmost limits. Having done this, and being still 
unable to compete with the foreign markets, notwith- 
standing all his efforts, in consequence of the peculiar 
fiscal condition of his country, he would appear to 
make out a strong case for protection. But, on the 
other hand, if he does none of these things—if he 
passes his life in apathy, neither exercising his own 
talents, nor availing himself of his neighbours’ ; if he 
perseveres in standing stock-still while all the world 
around him is moving onwards, it is evident that to 
protect him under such circumstances is to offer 
him a bounty for indolence or perverseness; and, 
we may add, that no protection can save him in the 
long-run. 
It is impossible’ for the warmest friends of pro- 
tecting duties to advocate them on behalf of men who 
will do nothing for themselves. On the contrary, when 
they cry for help, they must be answered as Hercules 
replied to the countryman in the fable. 
Now we do not say that all farmers are of this de- 
scription ; we are far from insinuating that they all 
stand supinely still, refusing either to learn or to im- 
prove. On the contrary, we recognise a very consi- 
derable and important move in advance. But we do 
say, and with much regret, that this move does not 
appear to be what it surely might he. There is not 
that universal stir among the agriculturists which 
their political position and the imminency of their 
danger loudly call for; and for hundreds who are 
helping themselves, there are thousands that. trust 
to others for assistance. We are not, however, among 
those who blame them; on the contrary, their bad 
education disarms the critic, and we are convinced 
that if they do not move, it is rather because they do 
not know how, than because they are unwilling. 
We would therefore represent to country gen- 
tlemen, to the rural clergy, to the people of good edu- 
cation throughout the country, that they should all 
bestir themselves, each in his own circle, in order 
toj induce the farmers to try whether they cannot 
better their condition by bettering their husbandry, 
rather than by waiting helplessly upon Parliament. 
We are convinced that if this were generally done an 
immense deal of good would result. 
We shall probably be told that farmers are an 
impracticable race, and that it is hopeless to expect 
to influence them. We were assured, indeed, not a 
month since, when urging these arguments upon an 
excellent man, well acquainted with farmers, that it 
was useless to attempt to do anything with them ; 
and when we suggested that they might be induced 
to try experiments, which cost nothing, with a view 
to improving their crops, he asserted that a man 
might talk till he was hoarse without making the 
smallest impression upon them. Upon pointing to an 
appeal to the farmers of Suffolk, by Professor Hens- 
low, calling on fifty of them to combine for the pur- 
pose of testing the value of gypsum as an agent for 
fixing ammonia in manure, he replied, “Ah! it is 
very well ; but he will never get a dozen of them 
to join in his plan, even if he give them the gypsum 
and the manure to boot.” But what turns out to be 
the fact? why the fifty men have been found, ready 
to try the experiment fairly, at their own cost ; and 
thus we see that when sensible and zealous persons 
will set in good earnest about pushing on the occupiers 
of land, it is not so impossible to rouse them as some 
imagine. Let ~— county furnish but one Henslow 
and the science of Agriculture will move more ae 
one year than it would in half a century without such 
an impulse. We would only refer our readers to a 
communication from him in our last, in order to shew 
how this can be set about. 
People take fright at the very name of experiment- 
ing ; and yet, that there is nothing so very awful in 
the word, maybe gathered from the following ex- 
tract from one of the very useful letters, published 
by the gentleman whose name we have been com- 
pelled to take the liberty of introducing into these 
remarks : « ‘‘In | those preliminary experiments,” 
says Professor Henslow, “which Chemists or Botanists 
may attempt for the purpose of interrogating nature, 
there cannot be too minute or laborious attention paid 
to all ‘the details ; but when the results of such expe- 
riments appear to have ascertained some natural law 
of vegetation, which may be considered as bearing 
directly on the pursuits of Agriculture, then the fur 
ther experiments which the Agriculturist himself is 
called upon to make are of a much coarser and less 
elaborate character, and none of them need be made 
a tax upon his time, patience, or pocket, to any very 
formidable extent. An ordinary degree of attention 
to weights and measures is generally all that will be 
called for—little more, in fact, than the practice of 
the market itself requires. But success is mainly to 
be looked for in the multitude of co-operators accumu- 
lating a sufficient number of positive facts. All 
England might be converted into one great experi- 
mental farm, if our different Agricultural Societies 
would prepare accounts of the exact mode in which 
some hundred farmers might perform a set of easy 
comparative experiments at the same time, and send 
in the results of them. This is what is most needed 
for accelerating the present jog-trot progress of Agri- 
culture into something like a railroad pace of ad- 
vancing.” 
In the latter part of this paragraph, as well as the 
first, we entirely concur, and we would most strongly 
urge upon the many Agricultural Societies now form- 
ing in this country, the propriety of directing their 
resources to so great a purpose. We entertain no 
doubt that if they would but call into their councils 
judicious men, who do not ask for too much at a time, 
and who are capable of distinguishing theoretical 
facts having a direct bearing upon possible practice, 
from speculations of a less valuable description, and if 
they would plainly set the same experiment, in exactly 
the same form, before a large number of farmers, the 
very first year of such an operation would give birth 
to results of the most valuable description. All 
men of science would readily assist them, even those 
whose time seems already so over-occupied as to be 
hardly susceptible of any further application, as will 
appear from a liberal offer to the Suffolk farmers 
made by Mr. Potter in another column. But we have 
much more to say on this subject next week. 
A DESCRIPTIVE LIST OF CARNATIONS AND 
PICOTEES. 
(Continued from page 135.) 
SCARLET FLAKES, 
Beauty of Cradley (Wallis’s).—Fine pod, rather thin; 
petals finely shaped, ribboned with intense scarlet; 
white not very pure. 
Ringleader (Toone’s).—A vigorous and strong grower ; 
flowers large, colours bright, and petal good. This 
variety is excellent as the male parent in cross-breed- 
ing, the anthers affording abundance of farina for fer- 
tilization. ence 
Bright Venus (Ely’s).—Anything but bright. 
Promise CCIE the white sometimes flushed, 
but occasionally a first-rate flower. ns 
Lord Morpeth (Ely’s).—This variety, I am sorry raed? 
is nearly lost. I believe it is one of the atin : a 
early seedlings ; it is a first-rate flower, sae y ful 
of petals, without being crowded ; form excellent, and 
colour well distributed ; a weak grower. a 
Captain Ross (Ely’s).—This flower has a bad pod, other- 
wise it is beautifully marked, with a good petal. 
Mary Anne (Greasley’s)-— Has a good pod, and isa most 
excellent flower ; form fine and white pure ; the scarlet 
being rich and well distributed. 
Ann Page (Lovegrove 8).— Large and coarse. 
Marquess of Granby (Simpson s)-—Scarlet very fine; 
petals good ; rather thin swhite often impure, 
Earl of Errol (Wilmer’s).—Rather loose; the white not 
very pure, but the scarlet fine and well laid on. 
Wellington (Foster’s).—A variety of strong habit; pod 
and colour good; the flower large and well formed ; 
rather late. 
Earl of Leicester (Wigg’s),—A’ large and fine fiower; 
scarlet rather dull; the white, however, is pure, and the 
colours are well balanced 3 the form also is good, but it 
is a rather late variety. 
Rob Roy (Orson’s).—A high-coloured and showy flower, 
winning often in this part of the country. : 
Madame Mara (Pearson’s). — An old and universal 
favourite ; beautifully ribboned, and the white pure 5 it 
has been the leading sort at most exh itions in this 
part of the country for many years, but is headed this 
eason by ot 
William the IVth (Wilson’s), wh'ch is 2s well marked as 
