THE GARDENERS' MAGAZINE. 



14 



REVOLUTION IN VEGETABLE 



GROWING. 



One has only to look back into the pages 

 of history to find periods when vegetables 

 played but a minor part in the bill of fare 

 of British people ; few crops were repre- 

 sented in the patches of cultivated ground 

 that coukl hardly be called gardens, and 

 little attention was paid to matters of cul- 

 tivation. In fact, the early history of 

 Great Britain is one of war more than any- 

 thing else^ but we learn how warriors 

 brought back from the Continent and else- 

 where plants of an edible character^ and 

 we all learnt at fechool the story of Sir 

 Walter Raleigh, and the way he introduced 

 the potato into this country. Probably in 

 its early stages, vegetable culture was 

 chiefly associated with mona-steries and 

 places of religious seclusion, but as the 

 spirit of war declined, arts and education 

 advanced, men began to realise that there 

 were other objects in life besides killing 

 each other, so little by little they turned 

 their attention, amongst other things, to 

 gardening. 



Since then this utility aspect of horticul- 

 ture — i.e., the growing of vegetables, has 

 never looked back, and, though it has seen 

 its ups and downs^ there never was a time 

 when it was so important as it is to-day, 

 and its importance is likely to increase. At 

 one period of its history vegetable growing 

 was confined almost entirely to the garden^; 

 of the wealthy^ except, perhaps, ai few of 

 the most common crops, but, as industries 

 developed, and the consequent congregation 

 of people came about in towns, there arose 

 a demand for vegetables, which led to the 

 establishment of market gardens. At first 

 these market gardens were all on the out- 

 skirts of populous centres, as some are still, 

 but the builder has laid his hand on many 

 of them^ and stret^ts and houses occupy 

 many sites on which crops once grew. If 

 market gardeners liave been compelled to 

 retreat further into the country there is 

 the railway for the conveyance of their pro- 

 duce, and the result of it al! is that vege- 

 table growing has grown to be an industry 

 of great commercial impartance. 



Then there are the cottage gardeners and 

 allotment-holders, thousands and thousands 

 of them scattered all over the country. 

 Men engaged in every conceivable occupa- 

 tion^ who, in their spare time on .small 

 patches of ground, grow vegetables, partly 

 for the purpose of supplying their domestic 

 requirements, and ])artly because g'^rden- 



ing appeals to tli<Mn as a lioljhy tlrit is 



interesting, health-giving, ani.! profitable. 

 No one I think will denv that the wi>i'kino:- 

 classes have played an iin]K>rt J iit p-\rt in 

 the development of v^-^ft i ^ro^v iiig. 

 Think of it all then, how in t\\v histoi-v of 

 the nation and its peaph_* tluMc has been a 

 ■ complete revo^ition in the cultuit^ of vege- 

 tables, which in its wav, is as marked as 

 that which has taken place amono;st fruit 

 and flowers, and the march is still in an 

 onward direction. 



The Kitchen Garden. 



By right of cuNtom^ th(^ kitchen gard.^Ji 

 atta<'hcd to piavatt- rstahlishnuMits is sur- 

 rounded by a high wall, furnished with 

 trainrfl fruit tr^M's^ ])yraini(]s. and hiisiirs 

 ni:iy ski ! t t he walks. a ihI iniinotfiny is 

 avoidiMl by tlie piosfru-o of herhari'ous i)t)r- 



clers ; but it is on th<i>** higlily-<-nltivat(Hl 

 qxiarters that the rcvutntion in v(M^(^tabIe 

 culture has largely taken plac<\ for vege- 

 table growing was art in private gai^dens 

 when market gardeninci; was in its infancy 



and the cult of inttage gardtMis could 



hardly be called a cult at all. In short. 



the kitchen garden is the utility part of the 

 establishment, and the gardener, while he 

 supplies the drawing-room with flowers^ 

 must of necessity look after the needs of 

 the cook. Not infrequently the spade-work 

 in the kitchen garden is in the hands of an 

 intelligent labourer, but it is the gardener 

 wlio does the organising, and the way in 

 which private establishments have helped 

 so much in the revolution of vegetable cul- 

 ture is that gardeners have been the first to 

 grow the new and improved varieties .sent 

 out by seedsmen, and by this' means the 

 reputations of what are now known as stan- 

 dard types has been largely built. In 

 other words, the gardener is a bit of an 

 experimentalist ; he likes to try a few new 

 things each season ; if they are disappoint- 

 ing lie discards them, but if tliey turn out 

 well he makes known the fa?t, and so the 

 new variety becomes established in cultii^a- 

 tion. I fear there is a danger in these 

 days of young gardeners confining theju- 

 selves too much to glasshouse training, and 

 treating vegetables and kitchen gardens too 

 much subsidiary branches ; but, depend 

 upon it, this is a mistake, as many have 

 found out when they came to take over 

 their first charge as head, and realised that 

 they were wanting in knowledge of vege- 

 table culture and the management of the 

 kitchen garden. 



Vegetables in Commerce. 



If you turn to your Dickens you will find 

 how the great author described the 

 rumbling of market carts over the cobbled 

 streets of London in the early morning, 

 bringing in amongst other things vege- 

 tabV^s, and passing on their way the early 

 stage coaches departing on their various 

 journeys. Doubtless the vegetable traffic 

 in those days was considered great, but, 

 shades of Dickens, compare it with the pre- 

 sent tinie^ and realise the revolution in 

 comnuMcial vegetable growing. Market 

 carts still rumble, but they are parsed on 

 the road by the motor lorry, the railway 

 competes with the road traffic* and Covent 

 Garden is the centi-e of gravity for vege- 

 table produce from all parts of the coun- 

 try. While this gre^it industry has been 

 growing men have found out that certain 

 soils and localities are stiited particularly 

 to the growth of certain crops, and conse- 

 quently, as illustrations, we get early pota- 

 toes from the Channel .Islands^ cauliflower 

 from Cornwall, asparagus from Worcester^ 

 spring cabbage from the favoured va^-C of 

 Evesham, and so on, and so on. Speaking 

 of the men, it would be difficult to find a 

 more liard-headed set of individuals than 

 the fraternity of market gardeners, who 

 are not to a great extent experimentalists, 

 but in the wav of sttu-ks and varieties thev 

 stick to thoM' w hich have proved in experi- 

 <mce to ^crve thi^ir commercial purposes. 

 Xevei-theh--. ihi' revolution in commercial 

 vegetable gr(>wing is due more to- good cul- 

 tivation than anything, for the market gar- 

 dener willingly invests his capital on 

 manure to the tune of fifty tons to the 

 acre, and knows that by doing so he wi'l 

 get a better return for his money than if 

 he appliwl one quarter as much. \i is said 

 of the market gardener that he is wanting 

 in matters of co-operation as regards the 

 disposal of his produce, but be that as it 

 may, as an individual Jie meets the de- 

 inan<N of tht^ tiines. It is not many years 

 ago sinei' th*' man in the street first <lis- 

 <'Overe(l that ht^ liked toniatoes and now, 

 apait from tho acres of lan<l that are 

 covcM-ed with glass to supply the demand, 

 th(^ tomato is an important outdoor crop, 

 and 1 know tvne grower this yeai" who has 

 had twenty-five acres of land devotev] to 

 tomatoes, and each plant had to be raised 



January 6, 1912. 



from seed, potted, planted, a.nd ^staked. 

 Surely this is revolution and enterprise, for 

 the tomato was ever a. fickle plant out- 

 doors, but the illustration shows the typo 

 of man that market gardeners are, and they 

 have played no little part in bringing tho 

 culture of vegetables up to its present 

 standard. 



Allotments and Cottag^e 



Gardens. 



Xo matter what ymall town, villa2;e or 

 hamlet you go into you will meet with in- 

 dividuals who were endowed by. Nature 

 with a taste for gardening and vegetable 

 growing in particular, and for downright 

 keenness the enthusiastic cottager or allot- 

 ment-holder is hard to beat. Fond of 

 his garden!" said a labourer's wife to me 

 one day^ in reference to- her husband. " I 

 should think he is; in fact, I hardly see 

 him, for he is up as soon as it is light, puts 

 in an hour or two before he goes to work, 

 and when he gets home at night it is gar- 

 den again till bed time." A man would not 

 do this if he did not love his garden, and it 

 is this type of individual whose j^lot is the 

 pride of the village, and puts to shame that 

 of his less industrious neighbour. This is 

 the man, too, who supports his village 

 show^ wins his share of the prizes, and it 

 may be said of him that he has no connec- 

 tion with the community who lounge rouu:l 

 public-house doors and air their superior 

 knowledge at street corners. The keen 

 cottager is ako a learner ; he is the most 

 apt pupil of the County Council Instructor, 

 and he demonstrates a truth wdiich runs all 

 throughout horticulture^ that the man who 

 really knows something about gardening is 

 the man who always wants to know more. 

 Local gai dening societies and village shows 

 are a great impetus to the keen cottager, 

 who has learnt that, in order to get his 

 scarlet runner beans a bit istraighter and a 

 trifle longer than those of his neighbour he 

 must have a good variety. This may be ii 

 strain on his slender means, but he does not 

 begrudge the money, and one day a seeds- 

 man showed me a letter that lie had re- 

 ceived from a labourer^ accompanied by an 

 illustration of a variety of scarlet runner 

 cut from the iseednian'ls oata^ogue. It 

 ran as follows: ^^Dear Sir,- — ^If you can 

 guarantee those beans to be as good as this 

 picture of them, send me half a pint." 

 Comment is needless, except to ;&ay that the 

 cottager is keen on getting the best stocks, 

 and in one way or another he has played 

 his little part in the revolution of vegetable 

 <-ulture. It is likely that he will do more 

 in the future, foi' education authorities 

 have now begun at the right end by teach- 

 ing gardening in the elementary schools- 

 An important part of tlii^s gardeniug is 

 vegetable gi-owing, and it is not too much 

 to sav that hundreds of lads — the cottagers 

 and allotnu^nt-holders of the future-^ 

 are being turned out with a better 

 knowledge of the principles of horticulture 

 of which successful cultivation is based, 

 than their fathers ever had the chance of , 

 obtaining. 



(To be continued.) 



Acacia ovata. — Of the immense 

 number of acacia^^ that ar? nativc-s of tli^ 

 Aucstralian continent, those that can he suc- 

 cessfully flowered in a small state are com- 

 iiarativelv few in number. This, however, 

 is one of them, and a charming subject it is 

 for tlie emH?]lishment of the greenliouse early 

 in tlu^ uew year. It formt^ a freely-branched 

 busily specimen, the isbootn clothed with 

 small, roundish, ovate li^aves of a deep green 

 tint. Th?. small globular flower heads are of 

 a rich yellow colour. It is not at all exact- 

 ing in its requirements, and may be stood 

 out of doors during the summer. — S. W. 



