800 JOUKNAL OF THE KOYAL HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



principle of old age pension, but the tenant system is eating out the heart 

 of country life, and until there is reform it is doubtful whether Arbor Day 

 will prosper in our land as it does across the Atlantic. 



One most profitable direction for the Arbor Day movement would 

 consist in the multiplication of orchard trees, and particularly by cottagers 

 in their holdings, but uncertainty of tenure and the lack of garden ground 

 check fruit culture by labouring men. This is peculiarly unfortunate, 

 because fruit cultivation is profitable. Freeholding would of course be 

 the true remedy for this state of things, and at once stimulate the 

 cottager to plant for profit ; but nevertheless there is one means of 

 meeting the difficulty, that of cultivating fruit trees in tubs. The trees 

 would then be removable or marketable should the tenant change his 

 residence, and it may be almost taken for granted that a fruitful tree 

 would be too precious to part with. 



The Arbor movement has possibilities in many directions. Individual 

 effort might accomplish much in providing shade trees in our streets. 

 There is an example in a South Coast town of this, where a resident 

 planted a row of Limes, in 1875, on the southern side of the Chichester 

 Road, Bognor. They are now 27 feet high, with stems 44 inches in 

 circumference, materially enhancing the value of adjacent property. 

 The planter has tended them continuously for twenty-seven years, and 

 from first to last with his own hands. 



Why should not many who live in cities and possess some little 

 means follow the example of the late Sir Joseph Prestwich, who, when 

 comparatively young, bought and planted a plot of land where in 

 after years he built his house, thus exemplifying the passage " Prepare 

 thy work without, and make it fit for thyself in the field ; and afterwards 

 build thine house " (Prov. xxiv. 27) ? 



We in England owe much to our predecessors, and it is certain that 

 the planting of timber-trees is not keeping pace with the rate at which 

 our heritage is disappearing. The up-keep of our national heritage is a 

 duty devolving on all, and we can only discharge the debt we owe to our 

 forerunners by planting vigorously so as to earn the thanks of posterity. 

 We have not ourselves planted what we now enjoy. We can but say, 

 ''Other men laboured, and we have entered into their labours." 



Planting may take many forms. How noble our avenues — or 

 " advenues," as the word was formerly written, doubtless originated 

 in the clearing of an approach to a house in a wood ; but they were 

 afterwards artificially formed by planting. The Spanish Chestnut 

 Avenue at Easebourne, near Midhurst, the noble arcades at Bushey Park 

 and Hampton Court, the avenues at Windsor, at Ashridge, and at 

 Cassiobury * have conferred untold enjoyment on many generations. But 

 are we creating a similar heritage for our successors ? 



* The noble Limes in Cassiobury Park were raised at the other Hertfordshire seat 

 of the Earl of Essex, at Hadham Hall. His gardener, Moses Cook, speaking of the 

 Lime trees to be planted at Cassiobm-y, says in his book : " In November 1672 I had 

 the trees at Hadham Hall nursery taken up as carefully as I could, with good help, 

 and carried them to Cassioberry, the place of their new abode." Lord Arthur Capel, 

 Baron of Hadham, was beheaded at Colchester 1648, and buried at Little Hadham. 

 His son Arthur, born 1636, was created Earl of Essex 1661, and had his estates restored 

 to him. Moses Cook was his gardener. It was this Earl who planted the Cassiobury 

 Lime Avenue. 



