JOURNAL OF HORTICULTURE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. 
December 7, 1882. ] 
7 th 
Tn 
Roval Society at 4.30 P.M. I.innean Society at 8 P.M. 
8th 
F 
Quekett Club at 8 P.M. 
9th 
S 
Ro?al Botanic Society, 3.45 P.M. 
10th 
Sun 
2ND SUNDAY IN ADVENT. 
11th 
M 
l-2th 
TU 
Royal Horticultural Society, Fruit and Floral Committees at 
13 th 
W 
[11 A.M. 
GARDENING PAST, PRESENT, AND FUTURE. 
N these days, 
compelled t 
Hi' 
when so many landlords have been 
to forego a great amount of their 
rents, and consequently are finding their in¬ 
comes very much curtailed ; when many are 
reducing their gardening establishments as 
much as they can, and when others are turn¬ 
ing them into market gardens, it is not unnatural 
that the question of the decline of gardening 
should occur to anyone who considers the matter. 
Some there are who assure us that gardening has de¬ 
clined very much indeed both in regard to the comforts and 
pecuniary rewards of many who follow the profession, and also 
in the amount of professional knowledge brought to bear on the 
numerous subjects that claim the attention of those who have 
made gardening their pursuit. 
Now, I think it must be conceded that in many places the 
comforts and salaries of gardeners have suffered. Anyone 
who is at all acquainted with the gardening world must know 
of some place that has for years been a model in regard to the 
unstinted support and general encouragement held out to the 
gardener to enable him to command success in all branches of 
horticulture ; but, alas ! evil times have come, and we see 
curtailment in every direction, and the place becomes a worry 
and vexation. Any gardener who has been accustomed to 
receive encouragement and support must, of course, feel the 
change when it does come, and this constitutes one of the 
elements that go to form what we term “ the decline of gar¬ 
dening.” What a heartbreak it must be to many a man who 
has for years been in the habit of getting everything he re¬ 
quired to enable him to keep a large garden in perfect order, 
to have to scheme as to how much work can be accomplished 
with the diminished number of his assistants ! Seeing many 
things that he had previously taken pleasure in having in the 
best possible condition becoming eyesores from want of the 
attention requisite to keep them right! 
Such is the case in not a few of the largest places in the 
kingdom, and it is much to be regretted. The number of 
smaller places owned by wealthy merchants, but who in many 
cases, after having laid out a considerable sum on a garden 
at first, grudge the annual amount required to maintain it as 
it should be, is considerable, and that such is the case is also 
to be regretted. Still, we can point to some of our large 
landed proprietors who are able and willing to afford what 
is necessary to enable a gardener to have everything as it 
should be ; also to many other liberal-minded gentlemen who 
do not grudge the annual expense, and who take a rational 
517 
interest in their garden, and think it is not mis-spent money 
that is employed to maintain it. 
As regards the question of the decline of the present race of 
gardeners in the matter of professional skill something can be 
said on both sides. In the cultivation of some particular 
plant or vegetable there may be a falling-off from what used 
to be ; but, taken all in all, there is not much to justify the 
charge that the present generation is behind the last in pro¬ 
fessional skill. It is too much the fashion of some to be 
always reminding others of the “ good old times,” but I feel 
sure that very few of those who sing the piaises of those times 
would care to revert to them. 
The improvements in horticultural structures and heating 
arrangements have been very great within the last thirty years, 
and have been much in favour of gardeners of the present day. 
Compare the simple and effectual means of ventilating now-a- 
days with the innumerable sashes and pulleys that used to be 
required in the old-style ranges of glass, and which are still 
seen in remaining old houses in various gardens. Compare the 
old flues with the grand boilers and pipes we have now. These 
and similar improvements go far to make gardening in these 
days easier, and therefore honour is due to many in past times 
for the successful way in which they pursued their calling and 
overcame many difficulties that are now almost unknown. 
It cannot be denied, however, that in not a few cases men 
claim to be considered first-rate gardeners who in reality have 
never thoroughly mastered their profession ; and here there is 
ground for an appeal to all who earnestly desire to rise in their 
profession to remember that gardening is an art that requires 
a steady and devoted study, an attention to details that many 
fail to give, and at the same time a power of grasping scien¬ 
tific principles, which, when understood, are invaluable. Those 
who by intelligent study of books bearing on the subject ; by 
continual attention to everything in any way connected with 
gardening ; by practising the best known methods of culti¬ 
vation ; and by noting personal experience and comparing 
results with others ; adopting others' plans when such are 
proved superior—those who do all this deserve to be, and in 
many cases are, eminently successful. 
No man need take to gardening, if he has the slightest wish 
to succeed, unless ho is prepared to throw himself with great 
earnestness into the profession. When a man does so he is on 
the road to success, and may some day become a recognised 
leader in horticulture. In spite of temporary clouds obscuring 
the horticultural outlook in some quarters, I feel sure that a 
brilliant future is in store for what should always be the most 
ennobling and elevating pursuit in life. —Excelsior. 
PLANTING ROSES IN WET AND HEAVY SOIL^. 
Our soil here (Bedfordshire) is locally known as “ gault,” 
but, more properly speaking, it is, I believe, boulder clay. It 
is of a pale yellow colour and full of small white chalk stones, 
which on being burnt become lime, and is very tenacious and 
retentive of moisture. 
I have often been asked, “How do you manage to plant 
Roses in such soil in wet seasons like the present.” My plan 
is a very simple one, but it is rather laborious, especially as I 
plani about five hundred every autumn. This is how I do it. 
First of all I stretch a line across the bed (which has been 
No. 1784 .—Yol. LXV1I1., Old Series. 
No. 128.— Yol. V., Third Series. 
