130 JOURNAL OF THE ROYAL HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



responding well to deep cultivation and liberal manuring. Necessarily 

 distance from the worker's home has much to do with the working. It 

 frequently happens that the worker resides fully a mile from his plot, and 

 is thus materially handicapped. But if he be a real gardener distance 

 rarely serves to damp his enthusiasm, and his work will elicit the warmest 

 admiration. In Surrey, where allotment culture has, in those districts 

 where local societies have been active, been brought by the best workers 

 up to a high degree of perfection, the best 20-rod plot, including fine 

 vegetables, good fruit, and flowers, has for several years been the work of 

 an ex-policeman. This plot is at Carshalton. A remarkably small plot 

 is usually furnished at Merton, Wimbledon. So also is there a fine one 

 situate on a steep slope at Milford, Godalming. Other first-rate 20-rod 

 plots may be seen at Brockham, Dorking, of which place that fine old 

 rosarian the Rev. Alan Cheales was formerly rector. There a splendid 

 plot, finely cropped and cultivated and beautifully kept, was presented for 

 competition last year by a railway signalman. 



Of cottage gardens the finest cropped and kept large one in Surrey 

 was that of a carter at Birtley, between Witley and Haslemere. This 

 man, who has been a soldier, rises in the summer months at 8 o'clock and 

 works for an hour in his garden, then goes to his work till 8 p.m., has his 

 dinner, works in his garden, and in that way presents for competition a 

 splendid garden that commands the warmest praise and secures for him 

 the highest number of marks when seen early in July. There are about 

 the county many gardens that run him close, worked by other farm hands, 

 gamekeepers, signalmen, carpenters, garden labourers, artisans, and police- 

 men, all of whom work with a zest in their gardens and with a degree of 

 love and devotion to which even myriads of professional gardeners may 

 be strangers. 



Cropping a Cottage Garden. — Vegetables of course occupy by far the 

 greater portion of a garden. These comprise Potatos, Cabbages, Peas, and 

 Beans of diverse kinds (especially Scarlet Runners), Cauliflowers, Vege- 

 table Marrows, Ridge Cucumbers, Tomatos, Parsnips, Onions (spring- and 

 autumn-sown), Carrots (both short and long), Beets (round and tapering), 

 Broccoli and various winter greens, Spinach, Celery, Lettuce, Turnips, 

 Shallots — always a crop, and others in lesser bulk, to which there is 

 invariably added a nice selection of seasoning herbs, and sometimes even 

 of medicinal herbs. As a rule, the various crops named are in bulk 

 proportioned to their value for domestic consumption. In the Surrey 

 judging, every encouragement is given to cropping which shall cover a 

 wide period of time —indeed literally all the year round. It is important 

 that there shall be shown on the part of the cultivator as much considera- 

 tion for winter products, growing or stored, as for the more attractive 

 summer vegetables. Fruit is always found in any good garden in vary- 

 ing representation. The most favoured are the bush fruits, Gooseberries 

 and Currants, sometimes planted as bushes on either side of a garden 

 walk, but much better when planted in rows across the garden at about 

 5 feet apart, Gooseberries and Currants being alternated in rows. Some 

 space is usually devoted to a row or two of Raspberries, as these are among 

 the most reliable of fruits, and oftentimes there are a few rows of one or 

 more varieties of Strawberries. Apples, Pears, and Plums are commonly 



