April 19, 1883. ] JOURNAL OF HORTICULTURE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. 311 
19 th 
Tn 
Chiswick and Turnham Green Spring Show. 
20th 
F 
21st 
S 
22nd 
SUN 
4th Sunday after Easter. 
23 rd 
M 
[11 A.M. National Auricula Show. 
24th 
TU 
Royal Horticultural Society, Fruit and Floral Committees at 
26th 
W 
Royal Botanic Society’s Second Spring Show. 
A GOOD TIME COMING. 
0 persons in a hypochondriacal frame of 
mind the words of our heading may have 
a mocking sound, hut to those of san¬ 
guine temperament they will be inspiring. 
We do not claim to belong to either 
section, being neither predisposed to de¬ 
pression nor undue elation, but endeavour 
to survey calmly the circumstances that 
bear on the matters in which we with our readers 
are interested. Dark days have been experi¬ 
enced by many. Seven years of leanness of the 
land must in the very nature of things have exercised 
an untoward influence on the industry of horticulture ; 
but have we not hope that we are on the dawn of a 
brighter future, and that the “ good time ” that so 
many have waited for so long and as yet so hopelessly 
is nearer than it was a year ago ? 
The past winter has been less unfavourable to the 
cultivators of the soil than several of those immediately 
preceding it; and the present spring, though it has 
been marked by cold wave of pronounced intensity, 
may yet have happy results. The dry keen winds have 
purified the soil and rendered it amenable to working, 
while the low temperatures may prove the salvation of 
the fruit crops, and we may yet have a golden harvest. 
So it may be in the more important products of the field. 
With a bountiful yield of grain—and we think there 
have never been recorded nine bad harvests in succes¬ 
sion—the whole aspect of things would be altered and 
marvellously improved. 
Horticulturally speaking there are not wanting signs 
of increased prosperity, though they may not be per¬ 
ceived alike by all. There may be, and we fear it is a 
necessity of the case that there must be, some who feel 
the pressure of the past too keenly ; but taking a wide 
view of the subject, there is undeniable evidence of a 
better, firmer, brisker tone prevailing. The past plant¬ 
ing season has been one of the best on record : it is, 
indeed, questionable if there has ever been a period 
during which the planting of trees useful and orna¬ 
mental, including deciduous and flowering shrubs, has 
been so extensive as the one just closing. In the seed 
trade, which is of greater magnitude than many sup¬ 
pose, we have evidence that business has never been 
so brisk before as during the present season, while the 
sale of plants and flowers is certainly increasing. Indi¬ 
vidual purchases may possibly not be so large as of old, 
but the number of cultivators is becoming greater every 
year, and plants and flowers appear to be more and 
more appreciated as necessary adornments of homes 
and individuals. 
The foreign trade in cut flowers and popular decora¬ 
tive plants is now immense and growing, a greater 
aggregate amount being invested in the wares of 
the horticulturist than was ever invested before. The 
demand for large plants because they are large is less 
marked than formerly ; but for anything of special 
merit and rarity purchasers are readily found, and 
sums given that were unheard of in the “ good old 
times.” When we find two plants realising nearly £400 
at a public auction, as was the case a short time ago 
in the sale rooms of Messrs. Stevens—namely, Cattleya 
Trianae Osmani 215 guineas, and C. T. Dodsoni 185 
guineas, and a piece of a plant, as a piece of the former 
did, realising 107 guineas, we can hardly think we are 
living in the dark days of horticulture. 
We are compelled to add, and we do so with regret, 
that the prospects of trade are better than those of 
gardeners. We could tell of five hundred worthy and 
competent men now either out of employment or wait¬ 
ing in nurseries for engagements. It is well that this 
fact, for a fact it unquestionably is, should be widely 
known, as it may possibly be the means of preventing 
hasty action in relinquishing a charge lightly. A safe 
course is to move slowly in this matter, as it is better 
to endure now than to suffer afterwards. 
We know of only one remedy for this great excess 
of gardeners, and that is the employment of more bond 
fide labourers in gardens instead of encouraging and 
training so many young men to make cuttings and 
water plants. This would be better for all—for the 
young men themselves, who would find more lucrative 
employment,,; for employers, who by encouraging local 
labour would improve their districts; while the bone and 
sinew would be kept at home instead of migrating to 
towns, too often to find worse homes than in their native 
villages. This, the plethora of gardeners, is the one 
defect in the otherwise good promise of horticulture in 
the future, for the industry, we are constrained to think, 
is entering on an era of prosperity at home and abroad. 
BEDDING-OUT. 
The season for bedding-out will soon arrive, and it 
is well to have things in order before commencing. 
Some gardeners do not decide what they are going to 
have in the beds until the plants are in the flower 
garden, and then they find they have less than was 
anticipated. A gardener ought to know in the previous 
autumn what the beds will contain for the following 
summer, with the number of plants required for each bed, 
and then inconvenience will be reduced to a minimum. 
A few hints on the planting of beds may be of use 
to young gardeners. I daresay that nineteen out of 
twenty, if set to plant a round bed, would go to the 
middle of the bed first, which is wrong, and it is very 
seldom a perfect bed is produced if commenced in that 
way. If a bed is planted properly it will keep a good 
shape. It must be always remembered that sufficient 
plants should be placed in the bed to cover it entirely, so 
that no bare earth is seen from the centre to the edge. 
I know many young men think that bedding plants 
will do anyhow; or if they see a good flower garden 
the expression is, “We have not time to bother 
after the beds as you do;” but it really takes no more 
time (only forethought) to plant a bed well than 
improperly. Many flower gardens look unsatisfactory 
through he season owing to their being planted too 
No 147 .—vol. VI, Third Series. 
No. 1803. —Vol. LXIX, Old Series. 
