November 21, 1878. } 
JOURNAL OF HORTICULTURE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. 383 
WEEKLY CALENDAR. 
Day | Day Average Clock | Day 
of |_ of NOVEMBER 21—97, 1878. re Sun | Sun | Moon | Moon | Moon’s 
Month) Week 2 ener ath ye) near | Rises. | Sets. | Rises. | Sets Age. petore on 
> Day. ;Night. Mean | h. m.| h. m.} bh. m.| h. Days m, S. 
21 | TH | Kingston Show. Royal Society at 8.30 P.M. | 49.6 | 36.2 | 42.9 | 7 30] 4 2] 3 36 1 59 27 13 58 | 325 
22 F . 49.2 | 34.7 | 41.9 7 32 4 0 5 6 2 20 28 13 42 | 526 
23 |S Royal Botanic Society at 3.45 P.M. | 47.6 | 34.2 | 40.9 7 34 3 59 6 38 2 48 29 13 26 | 327 
24 | SUN | 23 SUNDAY AFTER TRINITY. 49.4 | 31.7 | 39.5 7 35) 3 568) 8 6] 3 27 @ 13 8 | 328 
25 |M Royal Geographical Society at 8.30 P.M. 46.4 | 33.7 | 40.0 Uf RYE Bf Se 24 ao 1 12 50 | 329 
26 TU ‘ | 47.2 | 32.0 | 40.0 (fet) 3 56 ]10 23 5 29 2 12 31 | 330 
27 WwW Society of Arts at 8 P.M. 47.0 | 33.6 | 40.3 7 40 3 55/11 6 6 47 3 12 11 | 331 
From observations taken near London during forty-three years, the average day temperature of the week is 46.59; 
33,.8°, 
; and its night temperature 
THE SEASON AND WORK. 
c 
ip) to the labour required for producing them. 
The labour, however, expended in gardens is 
not by any means limited to producing crops 
of flowers, fruit, and vegetables, for much 
time is necessarily occupied in keeping a | 
garden neat, without which it cannot be en- 
joyable. 
‘, Usually the labour provided for the cultivation and 
if keeping of private gardens is fixed in character: that 
is, a certain number of men are allowed, and to these 
no addition can be made let the season be what it may. 
Even in a favourable season it is not often that the labour 
staf— is in excess of the requirements, and generally it is 
only by some scheming and diligent application that dif- 
ferent kinds of work can be done at the right time ; and I 
may add that it is only by doing work at the right time 
that a garden can be rendered to the fullest extent pro- 
fitable and pleasurable. If, for example, plants cannot be 
potted when they require it, seeds sown, crops planted, 
lawns mown, and weeds destroyed, the gardener works at 
a great disadvantage, and the condition of the garden 
under his charge can no more satisfy him than it can the 
owner of it. But while a gardener knows well the reason 
of the shortcomings it cannot be expected that an owner 
can at all times so fully appreciate them : hence as a matter 
of simple justice to all, to employer as well as employed, I 
venture to allude to the subject now. 
The summer which has just terminated has been em- 
phatically a season of hard work for all engaged in the 
management of gardens. Where adequate assistance has 
been afforded it has been a summer of plenty as regards 
vegetables—plenty, I mean, combined with neatness ; but 
where no extra labour has been provided it has been utterly 
impossible to keep gardens as clean as usual and at the 
same time maintaining the necessary supply of floral and 
culinary products. 
Under these circumstances it is not surprising that some 
dissatisfaction has been expressed by employers, and which 
in more than one instance, to my knowledge, has resulted 
in changes of gardeners. Possibly if a clear temperate 
explanation of the extraordinary nature of the season had 
been rendered the position would have been so far under- 
stood to have reduced the differences considerably, even to 
the extent of preventing the separation of a generally good 
man from a generally good master. But gardeners are not 
always capable of making an intelligible explanation of 
their position when surrounded by untoward circumstances ; 
and employers, it must also be suggested, are not always in 
a listening mood. It becomes therefore necessary to dis- 
cuss the subject in your columns where, as is fully admitted, 
the disposition is in many ways manifest that the govern- 
ing principle is justice to all—a desire that masters should 
be satisfied and men contented. 
Iam not certain that I am capable of dealing with a 
subject that is in some degree delicate and complex in a 
NO. 921.—VOL. XXXV., NEW SERIES. 
2nCyF> REQUENTLY we-find reference made to the | 
7 =, season and the crops, but not so frequently | 
| satisfactory manner ; but I can at least approach it without 
| prejudice, seeing that I have not been a sufferer by this 
work-producing season because extra assistance has been 
afforded to meet the extra work. I have further endeavoured 
| to procure evidence that the season has really been what is 
| termed an unusually heavy one, for gardeners especially, 
| and cultivators of the soil generally. In order to obtain 
the best information possible I wrote to two nurserymen, 
two market gardeners, and two managers of public parks, 
inquiring if they had found it necessary to incur additional 
expenditure by increasing their labour staff in accordance 
| with the incidences of the season. In every case the 
replies were in the affirmative. One of the nurserymen 
wrote that he had found it imperative to employ twenty- 
five men in addition to the usual staff to “keep the place 
in anything like order.” A market gardener replied that 
two extra men per acre were barely sufficient to ‘ prevent 
the weeds eating the manure that was purchased for the 
crops ;” and both the park managers assured me that it 
was only by encouraging all the men to work overtime to 
the extent of three hours a day that the lawns could be 
kept decent, grass edges clipped, and walks clean. In the 
matter of mowing, one of the managers stated that quite 
double the amount of labour had been necessary that was 
requisite in an ordinary season, “ for,” he observed, ‘‘ while 
in some seasons we had only to cut the grass once in ten 
days or a fortnight, this year we have frequently had to 
mow the lawns twice a week; the labour account, there- 
fore, must be increased.” 
An unusually fine autumn followed the extraordinary 
work-producing summer, and arrears have in many instances 
been brought up, but the year will long be remembered by 
gardeners on account of the extra amount of labour it in- 
volved, and even then gardens and grounds could not be 
kept so neat as desired. It is fair to all, I think, that the 
evidence I have adduced of the real nature of the season be 
recorded.—A NORTHERN GARDENER. 
HOW I GROW THE CYCLAMEN. 
Tue Cyclamen has so recently come to the front as an 
indispensable decorative plant that must be grown in quan- 
tity, that many who commence its cultivation are very 
often unsuccessful, with it though most desirous to suc- 
ceed. JI grow as many as I can find space for, and find it 
one of the most accommodating plants we have. Seedlings 
from seed sown in February of the present year are many 
of them coming freely into flower, some of the most pre- 
cocious throwing flowers up as early as September. I find 
it necessary to raise a fresh supply of plants at least every 
second year, as those more than three years old are of no 
use for my purposes. 
In February at latest we sow our seed. [I find one of 
our Geranium boxes better than pots or small pans for 
sowing the seed in. The boxes are drained with coal ashes 
covered with a layer of moss, and then filled with a light 
but rich compost. The seeds are sprinkled evenly over the 
surface and merely pressed into the soil; a sheet of brown 
paper is laid over the surface of the soil for the double 
No. 1573,—VOL. LX., OLD SERIES. 
