KOVEMBEK I", 18«8 



THE GARDENERS'' CHRONICLE. 



575 



amount of space assigned to each plant, to show it 

 off to the best advantage, but the whole of each 

 border should be planted at one time, and no vacant 

 spaces left, but all vacancies noticed each spring 

 should be at once rilled with something suitable to 

 them. The duration of each border should average 

 perhaps four years ; the borders should then be 

 replanted in turn, one each year, leaving unmoved 

 all such plants as continue in the same spot for 

 many years without deteriorating, such as Oriental 

 Poppies and Fraxinellas. This renewal of at least 

 one of the borders each year would give the oppor- 

 tunity for excluding plants of doubtful merit and 

 introducing new varieties. 



There would be no difficulty in furnishing the 

 borders. It would not, for instance, be a hard con- 

 dition to make that a specimen of every hardy plant 

 receiving a certificate from the Society should be 

 sent to the garden ; or, still better, that the plant 

 should be proved in the garden before granting the 

 certificate, which, of course, would be given to him 

 who sent it first. A further question would be — 

 what florists' flowers, if any, should be admitted to 

 these mixed borders? Such plants as florists' Irises, 

 as well as Pa:onies and Phloxes, and all the Carna- 

 tion tribe, are better when grown by themselves. 

 Perhaps an ornamental border would hardly be com- 

 plete without Delphiniums; if, however, room should 

 be found for a very limited number of the choicest 

 kinds, they should be from time to time superseded 

 as fast as improvements take place. Nearly all 

 bulbs should be excluded. If once introduced, it is 

 hardly possible to prevent their becoming mixed 

 with the soil in digging, and Crocuses, Snowdrops, 

 Daffodils, and Squills coming up from an unknown 

 depth all over the border, and defying extraction, 

 spoil its appearance. Exceptions might be might be 

 made to this rule. 



Varieties improved by cultivation from specific 

 types, other than florists's flowers, should be espe- 

 cially encouraged, and so should any hybrids of merit ; 

 but every unknown plant sent should be giown for 

 at least a year in some spare piece of ground to test 

 it before being promoted to show borders. The 

 Editor of the Gardeners' Chronicle has shown how 

 great an advantage it would be to have an oppor- 

 tunity of reducing garden plants to a uniform stan- 

 dard of nomenclature. The climate of Chiswick also 

 affords a fair standard for testing their hardiness. 



The cost of maintaining these borders would be 

 Btnall. On starting them we should want one or two 

 tons of hurdle bar-iron, of various thickness, and cut 

 into various lengths, worth about £7 a ton ; after 

 this the only material required annually would be 

 a few pounds of soft string. But besides weeding 

 and watering, a little skilled labour — that is, a 

 simultaneous use of the hands and the head, com- 

 bined with some knowledge of the habit of each 

 plant — will be required once a week through the 

 summer for tyiDg up the tall specimens. Few but 

 experts know the enormous difference in the effect 

 produced by good aud bad tying. It really takes 

 very little more time to tie well than to tie badly, 

 but it takes more rods. A clever hand can make his 

 Michaelmas Daisies in October half cover the area 

 of a border, where in August there seemed hardly 

 room for their stalks to grow up amongst the other 

 flowers. 



But perhaps I have said enough for the present. 

 I should like to have proposed the purchase of 

 50 tons of rough limestone, to construct a mound 

 like those on which the Saxifrages are grown at 

 Kew, so that a few hundred hardy dwarf alpine 

 plants might be added to our collection ; but this 

 might be thought asking for too much at once. 

 C. Wolley Sod. 



Mr. Dyer's note (p. 530), though no doubt 



unintentionally, and written with a different object, 

 hardly, I think, does justice to the work carried on 

 in Chiswick Garden. I entirely agree with what he 

 writes about the great vinery, and the astonishing, 

 successfully cultivated collection of Tomatos. There 

 is the additional interest attached to this last that 

 it is grown in the old orchard -house, built out of the 



surplus from the first country show held at Bury 

 St. Edmunds, where Mr. Eish helped so well ; but 

 my proclivities rather take me to the herbaceous 

 border, and to the long ranges of frames containing 

 plants for distribution by ballot to the Eellows, and 

 alpine and other hardy plants which Mr. Barron 

 grows so well. My Wisley garden has many inter- 

 esting plants which came from these frames, and I 

 hope that they have received an equivalent from it. 

 I also owe to them and to Mr. Barron the lesson 

 how to grow successfully one of the prettiest of the 

 early flowering Saxifragts (S. Burseriana). The 

 judging flowers, fruit and vegetables, grown for 

 comparison, has been for a long time valuable work, 

 one or two instances in past days have fixed them- 

 selves in my memory owing to not very pleasant 

 attendant circumstances. One was where the Fruit 

 Committee, of which I was then a member, had on 

 a very hot day, in a long Vine-house with a very 

 high temperature, to taste and judge Muscats, with 

 the result, if I remember rightly, of reducing the 

 number ot names from above thirty to about six. 

 On another occasion we had to taste above a hundred 

 sorts of Lancashire Gooseberries. I was one of those 

 who held out to the end, but could not bear the 

 sight of a Gooseberry for some time afterwards ! 

 Another trial, that of Peas, I mention that I may 

 answer a question which has often been put to me, 

 what I have to do with G. E. Wilson Pea ? After 

 the committee had selected this as one of the finest 

 before them Messrs. Carter's (the grower's} represen- 

 tative asked if he might name it after the chairman ? 

 Of course I was happy to have so pleasant an asso- 

 ciation. This is all I had to do with the Pea. 

 Some of the trials of annuals have been very good. 

 When I visit Chiswick the impression on my mind is 

 how much a little more money to spend, would im- 

 prove matters. As to cost of labour for the work done, 

 this is a matter in which I have had some experience, 

 and have often wondered how Mr. Barron could get 

 on as well as he did with the money allowed him, I be- 

 lieve the explanation of this to be, that his happy 

 disposition attaches young men to him, so that he 

 gets a good deal of active willing service without 

 payment. Of course we are all agreed that the 

 garden should as speedily as possible be shaped to 

 meet the altered circumstances, and that the being 

 clear of South Kensington requirements, will give 

 more power for purely horticultural work. I do not 

 fear that Chiswick will be " made a department of 

 Kew ; " these, with so great a garden on their 

 shoulders, are not likely to wish to have the work 

 and responsibilty of another. When comparing 

 any part of the work of the two gardens it should 

 be remembered that one has a good Government 

 grant and that the other has lived in a state of 

 chronic poverty,'; for, even in days when a good deal 

 of money came in from South Kensington, most of it 

 went back again in some form or other. Though not 

 thinking Chiswick a suitable place for the " fort- 

 nightly " shows, I have, in common with many others, 

 a great attachment to it, from remembering it in the 

 days of its glory, and its great exhibitions when 

 there were no great shows to be seen elsewhere — 

 when the Duke of Devonshire's grounds were opened 

 to the visitors, and when my old friend Mr. Pucker 

 used to compete with Mrs. Lawrence for the great 

 Orchid Medal, though even this memory is not 

 wholly pleasant. I mention this, as it shows the class 

 and number of the visitors. Turnham Green used 

 to be covered with waiting carriages, and as a boy I 

 had to hunt out ours and to go under the horses 

 heads, which was unpleasant. Geoiye F, Wilson. 



I have read with great interest all that has 



been said lately in the Gardeners' Chronicle about 

 the future policy of the Royal Horticultural Society, 

 and especially in respect to the development of the 

 resources of Chiswick ; and consider that the horti- 

 cultural community is very much indebted to you 

 for your advocacy of a reasonable line of procedure 

 for the Society, and for a practicable application of 

 the valuable resources which the Society commands 

 in the Chiswick Garden. I am strongly in favour of 

 making Chiswick the general place of meeting ; in 



fact, the " home of the Society," and, of course, of 

 the " fortnightly meetings." I notice in the Gar- 

 deners' Chronicle for Saturday last that you think 

 there should still be a divided " home," if I may so 

 call it, with all the consequent expense attending it, 

 for which there may be satisfactory reasons ; although, 

 in my ignorance of details, I am not aware of them. 

 I notice your reference to the excellent accommoda- 

 tion for the Lindley Library and the ordinary 

 business of the Council in the present offices in 

 Victoria Street ; and as they have been so recently 

 acquired, and are found to suit the purpose so well, 

 that undoubtedly forms a strong argument in favour 

 of allowing them to remain where they are, at least 

 for a time ; but I may point out that a very little outlay 

 would convert the office at Chiswick into a capital 

 Council-room, and a small addition to the buildino- 

 would furnish all the needful accommodation for the 

 whole management of the Society. The exhibits 

 could be displayed to great advantage in the con- 

 servatory, or when it was not available, in one of 

 the other large glass-houses : or, failing them, in a 

 tent erected on the lawn adjoining the Council- 

 room. Indeed, few places of the kind have 

 so many facilities for accommodating a show 

 of fruit, plants, flowers, or vegetables, either big 

 or small. In respect to the locality, I am 

 not aware of a better in or near London, and 

 most certainly there is not one so generally popular 

 among horticulturists. To all of us outside of 

 London it is quite as accessible and as easily found 

 as the present offices iu Westminster and the Drill 

 Hall, while there is nothing to attract us at West- 

 minster at all comparable to what Chiswick offers, 

 and the near chance of getting a sight of Kew, not 

 to mention the notable private gardens, market 

 gardens, and nurseries with which the locality is so 

 thickly strewn. Mr. Dyer's article gives a fairly 

 good sketch of what we should like to see done at 

 Chiswick, but of course entirely free from all Kew 

 interference. -V. [See also letter on p. 577. Ed.] 



FRUIT-FARMING. 



Read Gladstone's advice about fruit-farming, jam, 

 Cherries, Apples, and all the rest of it, with great 

 interest. Why do the poor congregate in big towns, 

 instead of doing this sort of thing in the country ? 

 So improvident ! Believe there's a fortune to be 

 made out of growing fruit and vegetables for London 

 market, and mean to try. 



Have bought a small farm. Nice light soil. 

 Owner (who seems very anxious to get away), 

 describes it as a " pebbly loam." More pebbles than 

 loam, apparently. " Scratch your loam, and you 

 find pebbles." Owner shows me orchard, paddock, 

 cart-shed, &c, and induces me to take over his live 

 and dead stock at valuation. 



Settle at farm. Twenty miles outof town. Nearest 

 rail '2i miles ; cartage to railway costs more than I 

 expected. Have to pay gardener, too ; pay him more 

 (I fancy) than either of us expected, Buy some books 

 on fruit-farming, and feel rather proud of my position. 

 Shall talk (to friends who don't know much about 

 me), of " my place in the country." Hope they 

 won't come down and find me hoeing Mangel Wurzels. 

 Rather disappointed with perusal of the books. 

 Find Apples don't like a " pebbly loam." Also only 

 a few kinds of Apples have any sale nowadays, Call 

 in a horticultural expert, and ask him to inspect my 

 orchard. 



Expert comes. Condemns orchard root and branch. 

 Says, " only thing to be done is to grub up these 'ere 

 trees, and plant noo ones." Well, then, what ad- 

 vantage do I get out of the old trees ? " None 

 whatever," he replies ; " might just as well have 

 bought a bit of meadow." Depressed. 1 think of 

 riddle — " What's the good of Acres when you can't 

 get a Bob out of them ? " Riddle depresses me still 

 further. 



Give up Apples. Plant no end of Cherries and 

 Gooseberries. Gardener says, " important for fruit 

 to go off directly it's ripe." Mine goes off before it's 



