198 



Garden and Forest. 



[Number 218. 



deeper color, while the three lines on the crest are of a 

 reddish brown. We have grown this plant at the warm end 

 of our Odontoglossum-house, near the glass, and close to 

 where we grow plants of Miltonia vexillaria, and it receives 

 the same treatment as regards potting material, tempera- 

 ture, etc., which is given to Miltonia vexillaria. The plants 

 should never be allowed to get dry, and yet care should 

 be taken not to give them too much water while they are 

 resting. The temperature should be kept at about sixty 

 degrees night and day, or fifty-five degrees in extreme cold 

 weather, .with free ventilation. They should be moist con- 

 tinually, and the plants kept well up to the light, but not in 

 direct sunshine. ^.^ _ , . 



North Easton, Mass. W- RoblllSOn. 



Garden Market in the months of April and May are for the 

 most part produced at Ham, where only the finest types are 

 planted. Under the special methods of cultivation adopted 

 these flowers attain a much greater size and finish than in or- 

 dinary gardens. Of course, there are numbers of enthusiastic 

 private growers. Mr. Peter Barr is now searching the Pj^renees 

 for new types, and such amateurs as the Rev. G. H. Engle- 

 heart are making interesting e.xperiments in hybridizing. But 

 at Ham, on the rich level ground of Mr.- Walker, the IDaffodil 

 is grown purely for the market, and therefore perfection in the 

 individual flowers is aimed at rather than the acquirement of 

 a varied collection. Here the bulbs are now approaching full 

 bloom. The spring is late this year in England, and thousands 

 of flowers, representing all the leading sections, but a few va- 

 rieties only in each section, are dancing in the wind. 



Fig. 30. — Miltonopsis Bleui splendens, in the collection of Mr. F. L. Ames. The plant reduced. — See page 197. 



Cultural Department. 



An English Daffodil Farm. 



"TpHE Daffodil is to England what the Hyacinth is to Holland, 

 ■*- and during recent years the golden chaliced flowers have 

 become more in request for all forms of floral decoration. We 

 hear much of the great bulb-farms of the Low Countries, but 

 quite as instructive and more pleasing as a picture is a Daffo- 

 dil farm, where upon true market scale the principal flower of 

 an English spring is grown as it is by Mr. Walker, whose 

 broad acres adjoin the picturesque common of Ham, almost 

 under Richmond Hill, in Surrey, about ten miles from London. 

 The flowers that surprise and delight the visitor to the Covent 



In 1884 the great Daffodil Conference gave an impetus to 

 the cultivation of this flower, which amounted to a fashionable 

 craze, but the effect of competition was to reduce the price 

 fifty per cent., and while in 1884 it was computed that ten mil- 

 lion bulbs were grown in England, the number is now over 

 two hundred millions. In 1890 the' flowers were sold at the 

 rate of twelve bunches for ninepence, this reduction being due 

 to the large and early consignments of good flowers from the 

 Scilly Islands, Channel Islands and the south of France. 



It is only when the produce is inferior that Daffodil-growing 

 ceases to pay. Mr. Walker believes in the best cultivation, 

 and therefore he always secures good prices. The soil is deeply 

 dug, and before planting it is plowed, harrowed and rolled, to 

 afford every encouragement to a vigorous healthy growth. 



