JOURNAL OF HORTICULTURE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. 
January 27, 1881. ] 
63 
27th 
Th 
Royal Society at 4.30 P.M. 
28 th 
F 
Quekett Microscopical Club at 8 P.M. 
29th 
S 
30th 
SDN 
4th Sunday after Epipiiany. 
31st 
M 
1st 
TU 
2nd 
W 
Society of Arts at 8 r.M. 
THE FUTURE OF GARDENING. 
T is now many years since I occupied your 
pages with any of my remarks on horticulture, 
although the old love of holding communiea- 
. „,.|y tion with your readers has oftenj been strong 
u P on me. 
My time, as many of your readers well know, 
- — has been so fully occupied during the past ten 
years, that it has left very few opportunities of in¬ 
dulging in what long ago was a constant source of 
pleasurable and recreative enjoyment to me. Although I 
have not been able to write in your pages for some years, 1 
have derived a large amount of information from many of 
your correspondents who have so ably conveyed, through the 
medium of the Journal of Hoi'ticullure, their thoughts and prac¬ 
tical experiences on the various topics connected with floricul¬ 
ture and horticulture generally. 
I have always rea with much interest the new year’s 
addresses so ably written by your respected correspondent 
“Wiltshire Rector.” The excellent article from his pen 
which appeared on the 6th inst. has naturally aroused my 
dormant scribbling propensities. The spirit of “Wiltshire 
Rector’s ” theme is so much in unison with my own thoughts, 
and so congenial to my feelings, that I am impelled to fully 
indorse all he has said in respect to the future of gardening. 
Like your correspondent, I am fully convinced there is a 
great and noble future in store for horticulture, and the greater 
the amount of energy thrown into it by horticulturists of the 
present day so much the greater will be the benefits conferred 
on this and future generations. 
I hope and believe I shall live to see the day when a flower 
show will be held in every village in the United Kingdom ; and 
“Wiltshire Rector” will pardon me for saying that I 
believe this would do as much good as all the sermons he could 
preach, even were he more eloquent in the preaching of the 
Gospel than he is in discoursing horticultural matters. We 
want to educate the taste of the people, and by that means 
reach their better nature, which would speedily become ame¬ 
nable to the influences which surround them. A well-cultivated 
cottage garden is a pleasant sight, and a sure sign that its 
nmates are happy and contented. The child born in many 
such an humble English cottage has become in after years a 
benefactor, not only to the generation in which he lived, but 
revered for ages after. 
If the many acres of waste land we see in various parts of 
the country outside the cottage gardens could be added to 
these gardens, a vast amount of benefit would be conferred 
on many thousands of honest cottage tenants ; they would thus 
be enabled to cultivate large quantities of fruits and vegetables, 
which could be sent to the nearest markets and he the means 
of placing within their reach an additional means of happiness 
and contentment. 
“ Wiltshire Rector ” has very ably dealt with the farmer’s 
altered position. He is quite right in saying that other means 
should be tried when it is found that the old style of farming 
no longer pays, and when by reason of our uncertain climate 
the old stereotyped crops grown from generation to generation 
can no longer be depended on as a source of income. This 
being so, other things should be tried. I quite agree with 
“Wiltshire Rector” in thinking that fruit trees should be 
planted in considerable quantities in our fields, and also that 
vegetable culture should be more generally introduced by the 
agriculturists of England. There is, and ever will be, a wide¬ 
spread demand for all kinds of fruit and vegetable pi’oduce, 
and the facilities now offered by our railway system for con¬ 
veying the products to the various centres where they are most 
in request lends additional security for the cultivation of 
fruits and vegetables. 
Reverting again to the future of gardening, I think many 
will give me credit for the part I have taken in trying to help 
the advancement of an art which is part and parcel of my 
nature. My writings, I think, will also show that I have 
devoted a considerable amount of care and time to its ad¬ 
vancement, and that I have tried to do so at no trifling cost ; 
and I solemnly affirm that in the change recently made in the 
style of my undertaking I have been actuated solely by the 
wish to benefit my fellow men, and not in any way to injure 
others. The impression indissolubly impressed upon my mind 
is, that anyone who can benefit horticulture by increasing its 
sphere of influence and prosperity must be the means of in¬ 
creasing the trade and considerably enhancing the pecuniary 
position of those who are engaged in it. 
The world is wide, and in this little England of ours theie 
is plenty of room for many lovers of horticulture to succeed 
in making a name, and in advancing that highly humanising 
art, which will, I hope, clear away the cloud of prejudice, and 
cause the future workers in the wide field of horticulture to 
grasp the right hand of fellowship tightly, and to banish from 
their thoughts every invidious feeling.— John Wills. 
THE VEGETABLE SUPPLY. 
In reply to your correspondent, “ W. P. B.” (page 44) who 
impugnes the correctness o£ my article entitled “ The Future of 
Gardening,” not “ Future Gardening,” as he writes, I will first 
say that I never had London in my thoughts while writing, or 
referred to London in anyway, as my critic will see if he reads 
it correctly, as I know well that London has an over-supply in 
many articles of diet ; thus 1 have often watched the catching 
of fish close to a house I stayed in, which I could not buy, all 
being bought up for the London market. Further, if 
“ W. P. B.” takes pains to read my article correctly he will see 
I referred chiefly to poor tradesmen’s families ; for as yet the 
very poor—the labouring class in tovns aie so ignoiant of 
cooking that they cannot ciok a tasty dish. My hope lies in 
the class above them. I aver that the supply of vegetables in 
country towns, or in towns in the provinces, some very large, 
is not adequate to their population, but I believe that a due 
No. 31.— Yol. II., third Series. 
No. 1687.—Ton. LXY., Old Series. 
