72 JOURNAL OF HORTICULTURE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. [ January 27, issi. 
the present time was on the 21st inst., when at 8.45 P.M. a thermo¬ 
meter 4 feet from the ground registered 4 9 . Norfolk. —Mr. J. Batters, 
The Gardens, Gillingham Hall, states that the recent]storm was excep¬ 
tionally severe in that locality!; the lowest temperature was 3° Fahr. on 
the 25th inst. Bedfordshire. —Mr. Allis, Old Warden Gardens, states 
that the gale was very severe on the 18th inst., much damage having 
been done to the fine trees in the park, Scotch Firs 70 feet high having 
been completely uprooted. On the 21st inst. the minimum tempe¬ 
rature registered was 4°. Warwickshire. —At Yardley Wood Vicar¬ 
age near Birmingham temperatures of 5° and 2° have been registered, 
and our correspondent is anxious about its effects on his Tea Roses. 
Northamptonshire. —From Broughton House Gardens, Kettering, Mr. 
F. Jones writes, stating the lowest temperatures were observed on the 
14th, 19th, and 21st insts. 3° registered on the first, and 2° on each of the 
other dates. Herefordshire. —A correspondent writes that the lowest 
temperature in the neighbourhood of Hereford was on the 22nd inst., 
when the minimum was 3°, but on the following day it rose to 29°, 
with the appearance of a thaw. Lincolnshire. —“ A. M. B.” writes :— 
“ The domestic inconvenience from the frost has been considerable 
everywhere ; all provisions requiring to be kept as near the fire as 
possible. Eggs freezing and cracking in the nest, new milk is frozen 
in transit; and although the thermometer may not have registered so 
many degrees of frost as last winter, the cold would appear to have 
been more generally unbearable.” Cheshire. —Mr. C. J. Day of Rawton, 
Chester, informs us that on the 15th inst. the temperature fell to 1°, 
but that in less elevated positions the temperature has fallen below 
zero. Lancashire. —Mr. W. Bardney, Norris Green, Liverpool, writes 
that the weather in that neighbourhood has been intensely cold, 
the temperature having fallen to zero, with a keen wind drifting 
the snow 6 and 8 feet deep. Yorkshire. —Mr. G. Abbey, Grinkle 
Park Gardens, states that in his position, 540 feet above sea level, 
the cold has not been so severe as in lower districts, ,but a 
temperature of 3° has been recorded on one occasion recently. 
Durham. —From Mr. B. Cowan, South Shields, we learn the lowest 
temperature since our last issue has been 22°, with a north-east wind. 
Glamorganshire. —Mr. J. Muir, at Margam Park, records 12 9 as the 
lowest in his locality, with a cold wind, which will, he thinks, “ keep 
the fruit buds in their proper season.” 
In Scotland the frost has been very severe. Mr. R. W. Brotherston 
states that the snow is an average depth of 16£ inches, the following 
remarkably low temperatures having been registered—namely, 3°, 9°, 
and even 22 Q below zero, the latter recorded at Blackadder House. 
Mr. David Thomson, Drumlanrig, Dumfriesshire, writes :—“ From 
January the 8th to the 17th inst. inclusive we have had a mean of 
24J° of frost each day. The lowest temperature here was 2° below 
zero on the 17tb inst, but on Tweedside 2° and 14° below zero have 
been registered.” Mr. James Dickson, Arkleton, the same county as 
the above, gives 17° below zero on the 16th inst. as the lowest tem¬ 
perature ; while Mr. J. Forbes of the Buccleuch Nurseries, Hawick, 
states 4° below zero was registered there on the 17th inst. 
In Ireland the weather has also been severe in some districts, the 
lowest recorded in Tipperary being 10 Q Fahr., the ice on the lakes 
being upwards of 14 inches in thickness. 
GARDEN CROPS IN WEST CORNWALL. 
In the first number of the Journal for the present year “Wilt¬ 
shire Rector” gives some very good suggestions on the “The 
Future of Gardening - ” and its crops, although he advocates the 
culture of Onions more extensively, which is not gaining favour 
with growers, especially our Cornish market growers. The area 
devoted to them is rapidly decreasing every year, and this year 
the price of seed is so high it is obvious that still less will be 
sown. 
Broccoli and early Potatoes are the principal crops in Cornwall. 
Broccolis are at the time of my writing (January 21st) the 
greater part buried in snow. Parsley has been a profitable crop 
for the past two years, especially at Scilly, where one man made 
£20 of the produce from 2 ozs. of seed. Asparagus is also re¬ 
munerative when well grown and in a sandy soil, and sent to the 
markets tied in neat bundles. Connover’s Colossal Asparagus is 
the best. Radishes are somewhat extensively grown, principally 
the Long Scarlet. The seed is sown in autumn, and the price 
will no doubt be good this severe weather. The encouraging 
remarks to gardeners and farmers generally on page 1 were, I 
am sure, read by many with great interest, and no less hearty 
good wishes to “ Wiltshire Rector.”—W. Roberts, Penzance. 
SCIENCE IN HORTICULTURE. 
I am what my nom de plume indicates, a gardener in a single- 
handed situation, and I want to say something about what 
appeared on page 24 of the Journal of Horticulture under the 
above heading. As I am only a recent reader of the Journal I 
do not know who “ D., Deal," is, and as I live presumably 
hundreds of miles distant from him, it does not much matter ; but 
if I may be allowed to guess, I guess that he is a clergyman, for I 
have heard some clergymen speak about science in the way 
“ D., Deal," does. I have thought it necessary to say that I am a 
gardener to prevent “ D., Deal," from supposing that I am some 
scientist who has taken up his pen to defend science ; and yet the 
statement is hardly necessary either, for no scientific man would 
do more, after reading such a paper, than pray for the enlighten¬ 
ment of all who hold such views as are there expressed. 
Now, although I do not think that scientific men would do more 
than pass such an article as the one referred to with a smile, 
practical men, like your humble servant, who have derived no 
small benefit from the teachings of scientific men, are somewhat 
concerned about the influence of such writings, for young men 
who may desire to add a little science to their other attainments 
may think scientific knowledge of little value after reading such 
an article. To such we would say, “ Get wisdom, get understand¬ 
ing ; ” in other words, learn as much science as possible, and be 
sure you will reap benefit therefrom, besides being able to laugh 
heartily when anybody talks about science a la “ D., Deal." 
Having said so much by way of introduction, allow me to say 
something about (lean scarcely say in reply to) what “ D., Deal, 
says. First, the Potatoes. What scientific man is to bear the 
odium of what he says, or implies, about change of soil in Potato 
cultivation ? Scientific men have pointed out, and practice has 
proved them right, that on ordinary soil under ordinary cul¬ 
tivation a rotation of crops is a good practice, because no two 
crops require the same matters out of the soil or out of the manure. 
Wheat or Cabbages may leave the soil too poor to grow another 
crop of Wheat or Cabbage, but good enough to grow a crop of 
Potatoes, because Potatoes do not require the same kind of nourish¬ 
ment as Wheat or Cabbage : therefore a rotation of crops is 
sound in principle, hence good in practice. Again, scientific men 
have proved that Potatoes, or anything else—Gladioli for instance 
—will thrive on the same soil as long as the cultivator gives 
(ignorantly or knowingly) to the soil what the crop removes, 
or, if naturally the soil possesses an inexhaustible, supply, of 
what is needed. Few soils are fertile enough for this, but very 
many cottagers’ manure possesses just the required fertilising 
qualities which are needed. The ash heap of those cottagers whose 
fuel is wood chiefly, along with a very little ordinary manure, 
contain all that Potatoes want. Again, it is a scientific—that is to 
say proved—fact that some varieties of Potatoes withstand disease 
even on unfavourable soils better than other varieties on favourable 
ones. This one fact is of itself quite enough to account for the 
state of matters chronicled by “ D., Deal." 
I will say nothing on the zinc and copper affair, and think it 
would have been as well if your correspondent had not said any¬ 
thing about it either. Then it seems that “ science ” is to be 
blamed because “ D., Deal," like hundreds more, has been led 
astray by the popular but unscientific delusion that porous pots 
were better for plant-cultivation than non-porous pots; indeed, 
facts are just the opposite of what “ D., Deal," implies them to 
be, for for years scientific (in the strictest sense of the term) 
gardeners have proved that the old idea, although popular, was 
only a delusion; and although “ D., Deal," may justly blame 
those who “ impressed the unscientific delusion on him from 
his earliest days of horticulture,” he may as reasonably blame 
the man in the moon for it as science. Science has proved for us 
that the only difference between ordinary pots and glazed ones is 
that the ordinary pots get very dirty in a short time, while the 
glazed pots remain clean. The dirt renders the most porous pot 
as non-porous as the glazed ones, and we must in justice thank 
science for substituting clean pots in the room of dirty ones. A 
dirty pot is worse every way than a clean although glazed one. 
Again, “ D., Deal," advertises the fact that Mr. Bull’s Sarracenias 
are dead, and that “blue-bottle and other flies ” are (or were) in 
the dead pitchers. “ D., Deal," evidently knows nothing of the 
cultivation of these plants, otherwise he would have known that 
the mere presence of flies could not account for their state ; and if 
he considers that such a want of knowledge, not only of science, 
but of ordinary practical gardening, is a sufficient answer to the 
teachings of young Mr. Darwin and others on the carnivorousness 
of some plants, we fear he will stand alone. If your correspondent 
wishes to prove by respectable evidence that no plants whatever 
are capable of catching and feeding on insects, he will have to do 
(not write) a great deal more than merely state that So-and-so’s 
Sarracenias are dead and yet flies are in their pitchers. Such 
statements will not count for anything even with ordinary people, 
far less with men of science. 
I really do not know what to say about flies being “diet ” for 
Ericas. The only unfortunate thing likely to happen is that some 
other anti-science party will carry the words in his mind and 
some day preach a sermon on the text, and say lhat the assertion 
was made by some noted scientific man 1 Thus Tyndall was 
blamed for asserting that the first of living forms were shot to 
