March 30, 1912.] 



THE GARDENERS' CHRONICLE. 



207 



T 



enables the diggers to avoid the limestone and 

 other foreign matter, which would cause the 

 pots to crack. The clay is then washed to re- 

 move any small stones that may be present and 

 exposed afterwards for several months to the in- 

 fluences of the weather. At that stage it is 

 brought to the pottery mills on a portable tram- 

 way and watered until of the consistency of 

 putty, being then ready for the milling. It is 

 first passed through two pairs of heavy rollers and 

 ground thoroughly. It is next passed through 

 three pug mills and churned with knives 

 until it issues as potter's clay, to be fashioned 

 on the potter's wheel. Exquisite in its sim- 

 plicity, the potter's wheel, like the Teazle comb 

 of the weaver, has no rival for its purpose. Its 

 origin is lost in antiquity, yet the inventive mind 

 of man has produced nothing better for the shap- 

 ing of ceramic ware. Centrifugal force, aided by 

 a little pressure with the finger and thumb, causes 

 the receptacle to assume whatever shape the 

 operator pleases. True, there have been plenty of 

 attempts to fashion pots more cheaply and expe- 

 ditiously by special machinery, principally by 

 stamping them in a matrix, but such pots are in- 

 ferior to those made on the wheel. We were 

 shown machines of German origin which are 

 capable of turning out pots with great rapidity ; 

 but these machine-made pots crack and break 

 very easily, as the process spoils the texture. 

 Messrs. Sankey, however, have a machine, the 

 invention of the late Mr. C. Leonard Sankey, for 

 the making of Fern and bulb bowls and pots, 

 which it produces very rapidly and at a small 

 cost. These bowls are made in red, un glazed 

 clay, such as is used for earthenware window- 

 boxes and hanging baskets. They are used in 

 large quantities by market- growers for the grow- 

 ing of bulbs and Ferns. 

 The shaping of the pots on the steam-driven 



wheel is a most interesting process; the plastic 

 clay is placed in the centre of the revolving disc, 

 and the workman dexterously fashions the recep- 

 tacles with the hand, moistening the fingers fre- 

 quently with water. Some of the larger pieces of 

 pottery, such as Rhubarb and the largest pots are 

 made in two portions, which are united at a final 

 operation. The largest pot* weigh nearly 1 cwt. 

 each, and to facilitate repotting they are made 

 with a false bottom placed over a drainage hole 

 several inches in diameter. "When it is required 

 to turn the plant out of the pot, the latter is 

 lifted on to a narrow cylinder such as a drain- 

 pipe, and the pot is easily slipped down, leaving 

 the ball of earth and roots with the plant stand- 

 ing on the disc at the top of the column. By 

 this simple device plants may be easily shifted 

 out of large pots without any danger of breaking 

 the receptacles or damaging the plant. 



After the pots are fashioned they are steam 

 dried preparatory to baking them in kilns. The 

 drying sheds are heated with steam pipes, the 



l^l POtS being St °° d 0n Steel g ratin S s through 

 which the dry air circulates. This process usually 



occupies about 48 hours, but the time varies 

 according to the size of the pot and the weather. 

 After they are dried the pots are baked in the 

 Kilns, huge furnaces measuring 20 feet by 20 feet 

 inside. The kilns are bound tot> and bottom 

 with eight or nine bands of flat steel rope, and 

 in the middle with steel bands for the pur- 

 pose of keeping the structure together when'the 

 intense heat causes expansion of the brickwork. 

 Aney are fitted with cupboards, formed of loose, 



amS. m? 1 * 1 *' each cupboard being 18 inches 

 LV' A lhe Pot* are stood in these, and a kiln 



charged ready for firing the entrances are blocked 



arouJ Uh *' -T d 10 large fires are jilted 

 the kiln ° UtSlde ' A chimne y al the attorn of 

 of air C ° nneCtS With tw ° tal1 shafts > t h e draught 

 the t * aUSmg th€ COal to burn intensely, until 

 so thar?r atU ? ° f the kiln is raised to fc 950°C., 



a iSvllf P l and aU inside the kiln bec °™ 

 Pies 72Tn ° W 5 eat ' The bakin g of the *°ts occu- 



graduallv ™*L ^ , kl1 ? ls then alk > w ^ to cool 



market. The 11 kilns in the Bulwell potteries 

 are capable of baking over half a million 

 pots at one time. There is a private rail- 

 way siding in the pottery, and the pots are 

 dispatched either loosely in trucks or in crates. 

 They are packed in straw, which is better for 

 the purpose than either m bracken Fern or 

 Heather, 30 tons of straw being u d each week. 

 As showing the extent of the business the sum of 

 £12,000 was paid last year for carriage by 

 Messrs. Sankey, who hold a Royal warrant 

 from the King. Pots are shipped" from Hull, 

 London, Liverpool, and Southampton to such 

 distant places as the Cape, Xatal, Xew 

 Zealand, Australia, Jamaica, and British 

 Columbia The warehouses contain several mil- 

 lion pots in 30 different sizes besides Fern 

 bowls, window boxes, hanging baskets, pedestals, 

 and other garden pottery. We were informed 

 that quite recently an order was received 

 by telephone for 180,000 pots of a special 

 size. Fifty employees were at once set to 

 work and the pots were made, steam- 

 dried, baked, and delivered within 10 days, a 

 record in rapid production. Some of the 

 specialities of the firm are a 6-inch, flat-rimmed 

 pot for Strawberry forcing, a 4-inch (48) pot, 

 which holds almost as much soil as an ordinary 

 48-pot but occupies half-an-inch less room on the 

 staging, a special market pot, rimle&s and deeper 

 than usual, but of very smart appearance, and 

 special pots for vines, Chrysanthemums, Roses, 

 Clematis, Sweet Peas, Tomatos, and fruit trees. 

 It is interesting to learn in these days of labour 

 unrest that Messrs. Sankey have had neither 

 strike nor disagreement with their employes dur- 

 ing the 60 years of their establishment, whilst of 

 the large staff of workmen there are very few who 

 have-not been at the Bulwell Potteries all their 

 working lives. 



HOME CORRESPONDENCE. 



{The Editors do not hold themselves responsible for 

 the opinions expressed by correspondents.) 



Helianti (see vol. xlvi., p. 347). — My 

 employer wished to try the new fodder 

 plant "Helianti" two years ago. I planted 

 tubers in good ground,- in the same way 

 as Jerusalem Artichokes. They made growths 

 6 feet high the first year, and in habit 

 they were very similar to the Artichokes. The 

 stems were offered to cattle at various times, but 

 were left untouched. Some of the tubers were 

 dug up in autumn and offered to cattle and pigs. 

 Cows would not touch them, and only an occa- 

 sional pig was found to try them. I believe that 

 highly -fed cattle are not likely to take to " Heli- 

 anti," either tubers or tops, though I am pre- 

 pared to believe that store cattle and cattle on 

 poor pasturage would welcome it. If that is 

 found to be so, " Helianti " should prove a valu- 

 able crop. For fodder the tubers may be left in 

 the ground two or more years, when, naturally, 

 the plants would grow less strong and tall in the 

 stem, and so be more valuable as fodder than 

 first-year, strong, woody stems. The plants de- 

 velop an enormous crop of tubers, not so large as 

 the Jerusalem Artichoke, but, in my opinion, of 

 better flavour as a cooked table vegetable than 

 the Artichoke. I think the small-holder is the 

 man who will find it most valuable, for pigs 

 especially, but maybe for cows where pasturage is 

 scarce. For myself I have discarded it as of no 

 use for cattle with good pasturage and high feed- 

 ing. John T . Blencowe, The Gardens, Wilmin- 

 ster Parle, Bemenham. 



"Wake Up" Manchester. — Your article on 

 the condition of horticulture in Manchester will, 

 I hope, be productive of good results; at all 

 events it should bring together all those in Man- 

 chester who are interested in horticulture to con- 

 fer as to the possibility of doing more to pro- 

 mote both horticultural practice and education. 

 In a public lecture, which I delivered at the 

 University this winter, I drew attention to the 

 absence at the present time of a good botanical 

 garden in Manchester, and advocated, as does 

 Mr. Bernard Hall in his letter, the help of the 

 municipal authorities to remedy this deficiency. 

 In Glasgow, the Corporation own and maintain 

 an excellent botanic garden, and we in Man- 

 chester acknowledge with gratitude the beginning 

 made in that direction by the Parks Committee 

 in providing excellent accommodation for, and 

 keeping open to the public, the unrivalled 



collection of Cacti and other succulent plants 

 bequeathed by the late Mr. Charles Darrah. 

 Undoubtedly this collection alone is worth 

 a visit to Manchester, and the 

 Cactus houses in the Alexandra 

 proved a great attraction to all 



range 



botanical 



, of 



Park has 

 interested 



this 



in botanical studies. Without doubt 

 praiseworthy development of one of the parks 

 might be continued, either in the same or 

 some other of our public gardens. A suitable 

 house for Water Lilies and other aquatic plants, 

 and a good fernery, might be made the special 

 features of one or other of our parks, and hardy 

 examples of both classes of plant 



" the 



mnrht be 



the 



Committee 



reen- 



grown in the open in proximin to 

 houses. I feel sure that the Parks 

 would be quite prepared thus to render the parks 

 even more attractive and instructive, provided 

 the necessary funds were forthcoming. Could not 

 a joint conference be arranged between the 

 authorities of the Old Trafford Gardens and the 

 Parks Committee with tli€ addition of other 

 citizens interested in horticulture to formulate 



some scheme by which Manchester might again 



come into possession of a good botanical garden? 

 As regards the educational aspect of the subject. 

 Mr. Bernard Hall's suggestion of a special estab- 

 lishment for horticultural training and research 

 is well worth consideration. But in this con- 

 nection existing facilities and institutions will 

 have to be considered. The Cheshire College of 

 Agriculture and Horticulture, at Holmes Chapel, 

 is already doing good work in this direction, 

 and the Manchester University also has grounds 

 and greenhouses for experimental work in plant- 

 breeding and for investigation on plant diseases. 

 This does not cover all that might be done, 

 and there is room for a more comprehensive 

 scheme. Most willingly would I assist in 

 helping forward such an* undertaking. F. E. 

 Weiss, The University, Manchester. 



•Every lover of horticulture will wel- 

 come the leader in your issue of the 16th inst., 

 and the correspondence last week in reference to 

 this subject. If, as one would judge from some 

 of your correspondents, there is such good 

 material in and around Manchester for the 

 foundation of a strong and vigorous horticultural 

 society, how is it that the Botanical Society has 

 been allowed to go down? A society that pos- 

 sessed an extensive, well-equipped, and well- 

 stocked garden, with all the advantages that an 

 established position gives, all the glory of great 

 traditions and worthy achievements to give it 

 prestige, why has it' failed? Different people 

 assign different causes. In a general way it is 

 usually considered to be due to one of two reasons 

 — mismanagement or a failure to adapt itself to 

 altered conditions, though either of these reasons 

 more or less involves the other. No one can deny 

 that gardening has changed very considerably 

 since the palmy days of the great shows that 

 were held at Old Trafford. Where do we find 

 to-day the magnificent specimens of stove and 

 greenhouse plants, particularly the hard-wooded 

 section of the latter, that less than 20 years ago 

 were the glory of our shows? They are gone. 

 Any nurseryman will tell you that private 

 gardens where collections of these plants are 

 maintained are very few. The great develop- 

 ment of gardening during the * past two 

 decades has been not on ancestral estates, 

 but with those who occupy a lowlier sphere ; in 

 other words, gardening has been and is still 

 being popularised. One of your correspondents 

 mentions that several large seed and nursery 

 firms have headquarters in Manchester, and do 

 an extensive business. No doubt this is quite 

 true; of one thing I am certain, if they were 

 asked they would admit at once that their busi- 

 ness was not maintained by a few large accounts, 

 but by a large volume of small ones. This goes 

 to prove what I have already said concerning 

 the recent development of gardening. Botanic 

 gardens as such do not now in these days of 

 hurry and bustle appeal to people as they 

 formerly did : there are too many other com- 

 peting attractions designed to catch the public 

 patronage. Apart from State maintenance or 

 large grants from scholastic institutions, they 

 cannot now exist unless they cater for popular 

 entertainment, a purpose quite apart from that 

 for which they were originally founded. Neither, 

 in my opinion, would the suggestion of your cor- 

 respondent, the Rev. Bernard Hall, of a 

 " Northern Wisley," be a success. It would be 

 an expensive scheme, and at the same time would 



