210 
JOURNAL OF HORTICULTURE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. 
[ March 13, 1884. 
I and everyone I discussed the point with prefer smaller ones without a 
hollow centre. I intend to make my drills 32 inches apart. Another 
point in favour of the Champion is that it is the driest, and therefore a 
capital Potato for a dyspeptic or acid stomach.—W. J. Murphy, Clonmel. 
SOWING SEEDS. 
The above subject is a very important one to gardeners, yet the work 
is carelessly or indifferently attended to in far too many instances. 
In the few remarks I offer for the benefit of your less experienced 
readers I shall endeavour to point out a few of the many causes of 
failures and how they may be remedied. To make my remarks more 
seasonable allusion will be made more particularly to annuals and such 
seeds as will be sown under glass during this and the next month. 
The first requisite to success is procuring genuine seeds. Purchase 
the best to be had and from a reliable source, success or failure then rests 
very much with the cultivator. First as to failures—chief amongst these 
is sowing at the wrong time and in unsuitable soils. To illustrate better 
what I mean I will give an instance how such work is sometimes per¬ 
formed. It is to be hoped the practice is not general, but the writer 
has seen it more than once. It is this : Many annuals about the end 
of February or the beginning of March are sown indiscriminately. 
Numbers of different sorts of seeds are sown together, and this is a very 
bad practice. In the first place, it is a great waste of time and room 
when both are valuable ; and secondly, with such free-growing annuals 
as Perillas, Tagetes, Tropoeolums, and Zinnias, and others too numerous 
to mention, it is very detrimental to the plants to sow so soon. Again, 
seeds of Cucumbers, Melons, Vegetable Marrows, Tomatoes, and other 
quick-growing plants are frequently sown long before they are wanted, 
and in consequence occupy unnecessary space, to say nothing of the in¬ 
jurious effect it has upon their health by the check they receive through 
being root-bound. That failures will occur all know, indeed, the best 
practitioners are liable to them, but if a little common sense were used 
in the matter they might be much reduced. 
The secret of success, if there is any secret in the matter, may be 
summed up in a few words. Sow always, if possible, at the right time 
and in properly prepared soils. To do this a thorough knowledge of the 
time the seeds to be sown will take to come to maturity is essential, as 
well as the time they are wanted at that stage.— Joseph Richardson. 
TOWN GARDENING versus CHEMICAL VAPOURS. 
Gardeners who have practised all their lives in the pure atmo¬ 
sphere of the country are fortunate. They can form no conception of 
the perplexities and difficulties that others have to contend against in 
the neighbourhood of towns. The ordinary smoke of a town is not so 
destructive to vegetation as many people imagine. For instance, vege¬ 
tation flourishes about London, even in the streets, better than in 
gardens four miles from Liverpool, and the same distance or a little 
more from the month of the river Mersey. It is not the ordinary smoke 
of the city that proves so detrimental to vegetation generally, but the 
chemical vapours that are carried to us with the north-westerly winds. 
I suppose it is the sulphuric acid from these chemical works that scorches 
and withers all with which it comes in contact. When large trees of 
Oak, Beech, Sycamore, Elm, and other forest trees, that have braved 
many a storm from the sea, but still grew and flourished, are now 
dying from the deadly influence of' this destructive acid, we need 
hardly wonder at lowlier and less hardy forms of vegetation being cut, 
disfigured, and rendered unsightly. 
Up to the middle of December I thought our lawns had never looked 
better, and congratulated myself upon their improved appearance through 
liberal top-dressings annually. But after one frost and a dense fog 
heavily charged with chemical vapours they had a scorched brown 
appearance as if burnt. 
Although the weather up to the present has been remarkably mild, 
evergreens have suffered more in the gardens here than I have seen 
them in some of our severest winters when the temperature fell below 
zero. The storm experienced a few days after the dense fog alluded to 
carried with it salt spray from the sea. Rhododendrons (hybrid varieties) 
which endure exposure to cutting winds much better than R. ponticum, 
are much browned, and their leaves are falling. The latter exposed to 
the force of the gale are little better than bare sticks. Aucubas have 
suffered worse than I ever saw them after frost, and their foliage is as 
black as if each bush had had a fire beneath it. The Silver and the 
common green Holly in exposed places are completely stripped of their 
foliage, while the wood in many instances is already dead. The bold and 
hardy I. Hodginsii has suffered equally, some of the most exposed scarcely 
having a leaf upon them, the wood fast turning yellow, and will die. 
Shortly after this storm Holly leaves fell off in large numbers in this 
neighbourhood. The fog and storm combined caused this destruction, 
but the latter, I believe, did the greatest mischief. The glass of our 
conservatory and houses was thickly covered with salt, and had the 
appearance of shading just applied and caught with a shower before 
being dry. 
This is disheartening to a gardener, but there is another side to this 
matter which is more perplexing still. These chemical vapours not only 
prove detrimental to vegetation outside, but when carried with a strong, 
or moderately strong wind, affect the inmates of our plant and fruit 
houses. This is more marked when fogs prevail at the same time. 
During the past two or three years we have generally experienced some 
of these fogs, and the wind in the direction for carrying these deadly 
vapours when that now popular plant the Chrysanthemum has been 
developing its blooms. When plants have been grown, watched, and 
tended carefully for months, and then the flowers are cut and spoiled in 
a few hours or a day, it is most annoying. The Chrysanthemum has 
suffered much in this neighbourhood during the past few years in this 
way. Last autumn many flowers were destroyed and did not last many 
days after the fog cleared away. Zonal Pelargoniums (single varieties) 
suffer much; the flowers will fall in a shower, and after one or two 
fogs are useless. They do not suffer so badly from the fogs when the 
wind is not in a north-westerly direction. Crotons suffer, and none 
more so than that useful variety majesticus. I have had this throw- 
off the whole of its foliage, while other varieties have not appeared 
to be affected, and on that account have had to discard it, except a 
plant or two. 
The greatest attention in admitting air to all our glass houses i3 
exercised when the wind is in the direction mentioned, but at times 
we are compelled to admit air, and have had the young tender foliage 
of Vines injured in consequence. I do not think we need wonder at 
the buds of Peach trees falling. They are falling here this year, and 
commenced about the same time as the Hollies, not only in the early 
house but throughout the range. Either chemical vapours or not lifting 
the trees is the cause ; the former is the more likely. It is certain that 
annual lifting is a sure remedy against the buds falling. Our trees have 
been lifted annually for five years until last season. 
Some years ago I was very anxious to be in the neighbourhood of a 
town, especially after practising in some quiet country district; but my 
advice to those in such places is, Be contented, for I wish this garden 
was in some rural district free from destructive chemical vapours where 
vegetation would grow and flourish.— W. Bardney. 
POINSETTIA CULTURE. 
Referring to Mr. 0. H. Stephens’ article on the above subject 
(page 60) I would like to discuss a few points in regard to his system of 
cultivating this fine autumn and winter-flowering plant. In the first 
instance I question if the plants should be removed to bottom heat as soon 
as they have flowered. Would not the cuttings come stronger by resting 
and ripening the wood ? Secondly, why not insert the cuttings singly in 
thumb pots, so that they can when struck be shifted without a check? 
Thirdly, I cannot agree with Mr. Stephens by any means when he advises 
the plants to be housed in a temperature of 48° falling to 45°, for unless 
the greatest care be taken in watering they are sure to lose their bottom 
leaves. I do not consider heads 13 inches in diameter up to the standard, 
although by growing them as he advises I daresay that would be about the 
maximum size. Does he not consider the height of the plants of any 
importance ? I think it comes next to size of head in point of excellence 
in their culture. Hoping your correspondent will pardon my criticism 
of his article, and kindly explain the details of his system of culture. I 
agree with the general substance of Mr. J. Saunderson’s letter, which seems 
to proceed from a long-experienced cultivator of this plant. My object in 
penning the foregoing is simply to gain information.—A Young Reader. 
MR. OWEN THOMAS. 
As not a few of our readers will like to see what manner of man the 
newly appointed gardener to Chatsworth is, we have pleasure in publish¬ 
ing'’ his portrait, which, we may add, is excellent and life-like. The 
selection of Mr. Thomas for the important charge on which he enters on 
Monday next, for which there were so many excellent applicants, indicates 
that he is a man of capacity—skilled as a gardener, well educated, and of 
becoming demeanour and address. Only a person possessing those 
qualities can fill satisfactorily such a responsible position in the garden¬ 
ing world as the subject of these notes will shortly occupy. 
The professional career is not an eventful one. He has simply been 
trained in good gardens under good gardeners, and has made the best use 
of his opportunities. Born in a small village (Hermon) in Anglesea in 1843, 
he eventually commenced his gardening career at Bodorgan He thu3 
had the advantage of receiving his first lessons from Mr. Ewing, the 
inventor cf glass walls, and who was well known to all readers of garden¬ 
ing journals twenty years ago as one of the most competent of British 
gardeners, and who, we are glad to say, is still hale and hearty, living in 
Chester in retirement on his well-merited success. Those who knew 
Bodorgan at that time (and they are many) need not to be told that 
every branch of gardening was well and successfully represented there. 
Orchids that were not so common then as they are now, were especially 
fine, fruit both under glass and out of doors was excellent, and the rare 
collection of Coniferous trees planted with so much care and judgment 
now rank among the rarest and best to be found in the kingdom. Mr. 
Thomas was at Bodorgan about eight years. 
In the spring of 1863 he was transferred by Messrs. F. & A. Dickson 
to the gardens of the Hon. C. Parker Jervoise, Aston Hall, near Sutton 
Coldfield, where he spent two years under Mr. Gardner, now and for 
many years gardener to Sir John Astley, Elsham Hall, Brigg, and to 
whom he states he shall always feel indebted for valuable practical 
lessons in gardening which have done him good service since, and also 
for his rare example in punctuality, straightforwardness, and gentlemanly 
conduct. 
In the spring of 1865 he was sent by Messrs. Veitch of Chelsea as 
journeyman to Drayton Manor Gardens under Mr. Ballingall. In a 
little over twelve months he was offered the general foreman’s place, 
which situation he filled for nearly four years. In the spring of 1869 ho 
