236 



JOUBXAL OF HOBTICTJLTTJEE AND COTTAGE GABDENEE. 



[ October 10, 1S72. 



the children, moreoTer, spread oyer the earth, subdue nature, 

 and diffuse the English language in regions known only to the 

 savage before. 



Mr. Pooock, however, must not suppose that this crusade 

 against children is confined to his own class. At a certain 

 period of the year numerous advertisements appear in the 

 clerical journals for clergymen to take the places of those who 

 want to leave their livings for a time, and in not a few of these 

 appear the words, " children objected to." A long discussion 

 has taken place on this point in the leading clerical journal this 

 very year, and I am bound to say that I think this fact proves 

 that there is far more selfishness among the clergy, and far less 

 regard for the younger portion of the community, than there 

 ought to be. On the other hand, some blame must surely 

 attach to the parents, for their children would not be so un- 

 popular were there not some reason for their being so. How 

 many children are allowed, among the upper as well as the 

 lower classes, to injure and destroy everything they come near ! 

 How many are brought up in untidy, disrespectful, disobedient 

 habits, allowed to do just what they like for a while, and then 

 after they have become a nuisance to all around, suddenly ex- 

 pected to reform or to be reformed by the influence of the 

 teacher or of the school ! Let parents, then, learn that children, 

 like trees, require pruning and disbudding and watching from 

 iheir earliest years. Culture to be good must be gradual and 

 f regressive, not hasty and capricious ; then in due time the 

 tender plants will grow hardy, blossom, and bear fruit. — 

 A Clergyman. 



The thanks of all gardeners are due to the valued con- 

 tributor to " oar Journal," " Wiltshire Sector," for the 

 kind and able manner in which he has come forward to ad- 

 vocate the cause of those members of the profession who have 

 families depending upon them for their daily bread. I trust 

 the disinterested opinions which he bas so forcibly and truth- 

 fully expressed will induce those employers who have hitherto 

 declined to accept tbe services of a gardener with a family to 

 reconsider their objections, and when they next require a 

 servant in that capacity to give one who is so situated a trial, 

 if his professional ability and other qualifications are equal 

 to the trnst expected from him. Should they do so I feel 

 assured that they will be no worse served ; on the contrary, I 

 believe they would find that their interests would te, if any- 

 thing, more studied, owing to the natural disinclination of 

 anyone with such home ties to make any change if it can be 

 avoided, entailing, as it necessarily does, an amount of expense 

 that too frequently can be ill spared. 



Though from my boyhood until the present time I have 

 followed horticulture for a living, I am at a loss to conjec- 

 ture why this state of things in that pleasing yet arduous 

 pursuit has arisen, especially so as it does not operate to the 

 disadvantage, so far as employment is concerned, of other 

 professions and trades. A man in any other calling seeking 

 for work is not asked, " H)w many children have you?" and 

 •"the age of the youngest?" as they would be considered 

 questions not connected with the point at issue — viz., the 

 fitness of the applicant to undertake certain duties in which 

 his children would not take part, and this I submit in com- 

 mon justice ought to be the position of a gardener in a like 

 case. 



For the credit of human nature I trust that employers will 

 no longer consider a servant's family as only another name for 

 a social evil, and that the latter, by training their scions in the 

 proper direction, will insure their becoming goodly plants, and 

 no eyesore to even the best-conducted establishment. — E. M. G. 



TURBAN RANUNCULUS. 

 Bemesibering that in former days we knew of but two kinds 

 of Turban Eanunculus, and seeing that in many catalogues a 

 considerable number of varieties were announced, I determined 

 last season on going into the subject ; and through the kind- 

 ness of some of the principal bulb-importers I was enabled to 

 give the subject a fair trial. Messrs. Barr & Sugden,. Carter 

 and Co., Cutbush & Son, and Sutton & Sons were good enough 

 to send me a few roots of each of the sorts advertised by them. 

 I found the following names included — Black, Carmine, Her- 

 cules, Grandiflora, Merveilleuse, Scarlet, Souci d'Or, Sera- 

 pliiqne, Turban d'Or, Mufti, Orange, New-spotted, and Varie- 

 gated. After all, the fact still remains that there are really 

 only two varieties truly Turban worth cultivating — the scarlet 

 and the yellow — not that the other varieties mentioned above 



are not pretty, but they are not true Turbans ; they are, in 

 fact, large and early-flowering varieties of Persian Eanunculus, 

 having to some extent tbe beautiful form of that type. Her- 

 cules, for example, is a fine large white, and whether in the 

 bed or cut is very taking. The Carmine, Crimson, or Grandi- 

 flora is also a handsome flower ; so is Sonci d'Or, or New- 

 spotted, a light-coloured flower with small dark spots, like 

 some of the later-blooming kinds. There is another which I 

 see in some lists is included among the Persian, but which if 

 planted in November will bloom at the same time as the 

 Turbans, I mean Prince Galitzin, or Prince Eugene as it is 

 sometimes called. The colour is a very bright orange yellow 

 spotted with brown ; it is a most effective flower, and, in 

 fact, a very pretty stand may be made up of Hercules, Prince 

 Galitzin, Souci d'Or, and Jasmine. 



It is a pity that the Eoyal Horticultural Society does not 

 include these flowers in the very varied lists of subjects for 

 which prizes are offered. Nothing can be more simple than 

 their cultivation ; only let the ground be manured with well- 

 rotted cow dung in the autumn, the tubers planted in Novem- 

 ber, and the beds kept clear of weeds, and they will amply 

 repay the little trouble expended on them, for nothing can 

 be more brilliant than a well-filled bed of the scarlet Turban, 

 and they can be easily removed before the beds are required 

 for their summer occupants. — D., Deal. 



VARIETIES OF POTATOES DISEASED AND 

 UXDISEASED. 



I can fully endorse the experience of " T. S. C, Bristol," as 

 to the soundness of Sutton's Flourball Potato. I have grown 

 seven kinds of Potatoes this year, and find it the only one free 

 from disease, and also the only one eaten by the grub ; Ameri- 

 can Early Eose next best ; Paterson's Victoria two-thirds 

 diseased. — S. B. 



Ox my Potato crop in a light loam and gravelly subsoil I 

 have Myatt's Prolific Ashleaf free from disease ; York Eegent 

 but little affected, one or two tubers to a root diseased ; Dun- 

 bar Eegent, half the crop lost, some roots without a sound 

 tuber. Sutton's Bed-skinned Flourball is entirely free from 

 disease and a good crop. — F. TV, Hertford. 



None of my early Potatoes were affected by the disease. I 

 grew Prince of Wales Kidney as a second early, had a very 

 heavy crop, but nearly three-fourths of the fibers were diseased. 

 Early American Bose produced a good crop, and very few 

 tubers were affected. Sutton's Bed-skinned Flourball gave me 

 the finest crop of all; the tubers numerous, no small ones, 

 and not one diseased. I had a few sets of Climax, which have 

 turned-up with but few diseased. — St. Edmund, Bury St. 

 Edmunds. 



The state of the Potato crop mentioned by " T. S. C." is 

 almost identical with that of my garden here (Boss). I had 

 the bulk of my Potatoes taken up last week. Paterson's Vic- 

 toria were half bad, Bacehorse and Ebrington the same, Flour- 

 ball nearly all good ; the yield from half a bushel of seed cut 

 into sets with only one or two eyes, was four bushels of fine 

 Potatoes, none being too small to plant, and the majority the 

 size of a man's fist. Worcester Silks were about two-thirds 

 good. I found the same kind of grub in many of my Potatoes, 

 leaving little but the skin. The crop generally in this neigh- 

 bourhood is very bad. — M., Boss, Herefordshire. 



I beg to inform you that this year the Early Fortyfold was 

 far worse than any other kind, and the Dalmahoys also were 

 more or less affected ; the other varieties planted were scarcely 

 touched — viz., King of Kidneys, Giant Kings, Bocks, and Late 

 Fortyfolds. Buck's-eyes were quite free from disease. — 

 J. Bazely, Pulhorough, Sussex. 



Ix compliance with your wish for information respecting 

 varieties of Potatoes which have escaped the disease, I beg to 

 say that in a large quarter where some six or eight varieties 

 were all but annihilated, a single row of the American Bose 

 had scarcely a diseased tuber. It is, however, waxy in quality ; 

 but in such seasons of disease as this, it is not so much a 

 question of qualityas of a crop at all. Jackson's Bed in another 

 quarter, with several varieties that scarcely yielded a sound 

 tuber, was next to entirely free from disease. It is singular that 



