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JOURNAL OF HORTICULTURE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. 
[ October 7. 18b6. 
lover of Roses. Let me say, too, that while I think the competition 
ought to be confined to the north, growers or lovers of the Rose 
from all parts might be invited to contribute.— D , Deal. 
OCCUPATION OF GARDENING. 
XAddress by Mr. E. J. Baillie before the St. Mary’s Horticultural Society, Chester, 1886.] 
Last year I was privileged to speak to yon upon the cottage garden 
and its relation to thrift and social economy. I then pointed out that 
the necessaries of life could be made to flow to us through three channels 
—the bakery, the milk house,Jand the cottage garden. Had I chosen that 
topic for my remarks this year I should have been tempted to add a fourth 
channel through which we might as fitly receive a luxury, and that channel 
quite in keeping with the rest would be the bee hive ; so that you s?e 
round the cottage home a veritable Canaan—a land flowing with milk 
and honey. 
But this year I wish to speak upon the importance of gardening as 
•an industry, not only in its bearing upon social life, but also upon the 
national economy. In these days of stern agitation in matters connected 
with the laws affecting the possession and management of the land, it is 
well for us to see that whoever has the charge of the soil should recog¬ 
nise that they are not engaged in an occupation of little moment, but from 
-every point of view their time rightly spent in the garden is of the highest 
importance to themselves and to the community at large. 
Dean Swift has said, “ Whoever can make two ears of corn, or two 
blades of grass, to grow upon a spot of ground where only one grew before, 
would deserve better of mankind and do more essential service to his country 
than the whole race of politicians put together.” Now, Dean Swift here 
may be speaking more from the heart of a poet than from the mind of a 
politician, but there is in his assertion the elements of a great pervading 
principle, of an ever abiding truth, chat right agriculture—and by agricul¬ 
ture I mean land cultivation, whether called garden or farm—is of the 
first importance, for the profit of the earth is for all—the king himself is 
served by the field. We are somehow ready to pay homage, to wave the 
plumes and chant the songs of victory when the soldiers return from the 
fields of conquest. I do not want to say a word to cool your ardour for the 
bravery of those who defend the land from the invader, but I want to put 
in a claim for those who till the land for the maintenance of its peoples. 
By all means pay your tribute to the conquests of the spear if you will, but 
rightly understood, the conquests of the spade are a greater glory. All the 
health of the world, 1 all the wealth of the world, yea, all the life—temporal 
life—of the world are due to the conquest of the spade and the plough. 
It is not needful to put the matter into such sharp contrast. We need not 
make comparison between the arts of war and of peace. Let us take another 
view. In a large city people are apt to lose sight of the sources of things 
by the complication and multiplication of detail which divides them from 
that source. The sources are lost by the infinitude of resources. I do not 
know whether I may be able briefly to make my point clear. The world is 
not fed by its factories, but by its farms and gardens. The land does not 
grow looms—there could be no mills if there were no meadows, no grand 
city offices if there were no quiet country gardens. Life is not picked up 
in the streets of the city—it may, alas ! be lost there—but is grown and 
gathered in the open, away from the smoke and the stones, and it has to 
pass through so many hands and processes that some excuse might reason¬ 
ably be urged for the ignorance of the little lady who, familiar only with 
vegetable forms as they were served at table, expressed her intense amaze¬ 
ment when she found that Cucumbers did not grow in slices. Just trace the 
maze : The gardener grows the produce—the dealer buys—the carrier con¬ 
veys to other centres—railway carters shift it about—the trader purchases 
at its destination the shopkeepers divide and bundle it up—the message 
boy delivers it—the cook prepares it—the waitress serves it—that is°a 
tolerably complicated process, and can we wonder that the important first 
agent the gardener, away in the quiet country corner, working early and 
late, is overlooked and forgotten ? yet he is the important element after all. 
But there is yet another point I wish to urge—the education of the 
garden. William Cobbett, in his <c Cottage Economy,” tried to point out 
the importance of the sphere in words somewhat as follows :— tl I have 
written to show, that while from a very small piece of ground a large part 
of the food of a considerable family may be raised, the very act of raising 
it will be the best possible foundation of education to the children of the 
labourer—that it will teach them a great number of useful things—add 
greatly to their value when they go forth from their father’s home—make 
them start in life with the best possible advantages, and give them the beet 
chance of leading happy lives.” This is high praise, but I venture to think 
that Cobbett has not one whit over-rated the advantages, whilst he has 
barely touched upon the pleasures of such an education. This subject is 
so full of charm that, approached from any side, it opens out into new 
ways where we might find fresh food for thought. Then, further, it is a 
progressive occupation: every year brings us face to face with improved 
methods, with new forms of beauty and utility, with added wealth of kind 
and quality from the luscious treasures yet hidden in that exhaustless 
cornucopia which the gardener holds aloft and shakes, that the people may 
pick up from the earth the good things which spring up in prettinees and 
plenteousn ss because they have been first given from the open Hand which 
giveth to all men liberally, and through whom life, movement, and being 
must inevitably come, whether man may so regard it or not. 
I IP have dwelt only upon the practical side of the question—that side 
which is most likely to concern us upon an occasion of this character, but 
it has the charm of the other side for those who need it. It has an occupa¬ 
tion identified with the most ancient histories. We need not here perplex 
ourselves by trying to fix the exact site of the Garden of Eden, but we 
may reflect upon the fact that the earliest history of man associates his 
existence with that of flowers and fruits, and places his home in a garden. 
The attention of the earlier ages appears to have been directed chiefly to 
the cultivation of fruits—I mean rather than to that of vegetables and 
minor matters. In Jacob s time the \ine, the Fig, and the Almond we. e 
objects of garden cultivation, and when man became less of a wanderer h 
enclosed lands and cultivated trees j and in these early days of the 
world’s history we find the Patriarchs set ne an example which has been 
often urged, and which has often caused me to wonder why it could not 
now be followed—Tamely, that of planting fruit trees in the hedgerows. 
I anticipate your fir st objection, I think, in the thought that the boys or 
the beggars would pluck the fruits and appropriate them. I do not want 
to defend such obviously wrong action, but I would just point out that 
they would at least have the benefit of the fruits, and they might as well 
have the nourishment and pleasure of health-giving fruit as the nausea of 
Crabs or the poison of Nightshade. But that by the way. Coming on 
down the ages of time we are reminded of the vineyards and orchards of 
Solomon—the hanging gardens of Babylon, associated with the name of 
Semiramis—the gardens of the Hesperides and of Adonis ; and so the 
history of the past is full of the aroma of the garden and the grove. 
We dare not, perhaps, take a still higher flight in the regions of myths 
and poetry. How in the mind of the ancients the Oak was consecrated 
to Jupiter—the Poppy to Ceres—the Rose, the Myrtle, and the Apple to 
Yenus ; and how to them the favourites of the gods were changed into 
trees or flowers. 
That we will leave for some other time when we are not so busy with 
shows and show prizes. Let us, in conclusion, come down from the 
heights and take our stand again upon the more sober level of the platform 
of the earth about us to-day. We do not wish to sit in the lap of luxury, 
but we would rather be active in the courts of health, for the Sybarite is a 
stranger to either pleasure or peace. Give us the food convenient for us— 
the home bright and cheerful, with wife and children clean and kind and 
happy—simplicity of life and tastes—that is the key which alone may 
unlock the door to the secret chamber where peace dwells—and in that 
spirit one of our poets has beautifully said the truth— 
“ Oh, Luxury I thou cursed by Heaven’s decree, 
How ill exchanged are things line these for thee; 
How do thy potions, with insidious joy. 
Diffuse their pleasure only to destroy 1” 
If I have said one word to encourage anyone here here in the occupation 
he has taken up in his leisure, I shall be pleased. An old proverb says, 
“ Whatever is worth doing, is worth doing well.” I have tried to prove to 
you that gardening is decidedly worth doing. I hope there is evidence 
enough before you to-day to show that it is worth doing well. Any man 
who bolds land and grows but weeds is doing an injustice to the earth, to 
himself and to the community. Careful cultivation, a selection of best kinds, 
patient care, and watchfulness, that, I think, is the order in which the 
gardener may reap his double profit of pence and pleasure. 
In encouraging effort of this kind the energy and enthusiasm of our 
indefatigable Secretary, the inspiring encouragement of the Rector and his 
helpers, so well exerted, will be amply rewarded, when in the morning and 
the evening the footsteps of the people are directed, not to the door of the 
public house, but to the gate of the cottage garden. 
CHRYSANTHEMUM LA VIERGE. 
The accompanying flower of this excellent variety was exhibited at 
the Leeds Paxton Society’s meeting on the 25 th ult. by Mr. Townshend, 
gardener to the Hon. Parsons, Birr House, Gledhow, Leeds. I observe 
in your remarks about the National Chrysanthemum Society’s September 
Show, held at the Westminster Aquarium, you say : “ There are very few 
large early flowering Chrysanthemums that can be properly placed in 
comparison with Madame Desgrange and G. Wermig.” As you did not 
mention La Vierge, I presume it was not exhibited there ; otherwise, f 
think it would have been found worthy of notice. Its chief points of 
merits are pure white colour, dwarf and compact habit, and most pro¬ 
fuse flowerer ; but of course to obtain flowers equal to this specimen 
would require well growing and liberal disbudding. I may mention that 
I have now several hundreds of plants in flower, which I find most useful, 
either in plants for decorative purposes or for producing abundance of 
white cut flowers.—R. Featherstone, St. Ann's Nursery , Kirk tall, 
Leeds. 
| La Vierge was exhibited at the National Chrysanthemum Show, but 
none of the blooms was equal to the specimen before us, which is 
3J inches wide and 3 inches deep ; nor is this equal to many examples of 
Madame Desgrange at the Show in question, some of which were 5 inches 
in diameter.] 
CHRYSANTHEMUM NOTES. 
The fast-swelling plump flvwer buds, and I might add the equinoctial 
gales that are periodically such a source of danger to them, tell us plainly 
that the Chrysanthemum season is once more approaching, and I have 
every reason to believe that it will be a most successful one. The weather 
throughout the season have been very favourable for the growth of the 
plants, and although there is a sign in some quarters of the flowers being 
a little earlier than usual, there is abundant evidence that there will be n> 
lack of quality throughout the exhibitioi s. This is as it should be : the extra 
experience and the introduction of newer and improved varieties all tend 
to that end. 
The series of practical articles on the cultivation of our autumn 
favourite, contributed to your pages by Mr. Molyneux, have been well 
timed, and no doubt have been a great assistance to many cultivators. 
Young beginners now have eveiy advantage over the past generation, 
who had, in a great measure, to find their way, and to whom secrets 
were divulged only as the greatest favour, or as compensation for premiums 
paid. Thanks to the free and open spirit of the horticultural press, and 
the more general and applaudable inclination on the part of its increasing 
number of contributors to impart knowledge, practical information is now 
spiead abroad for the general benefit. 
Without detracting from any of the others, the last two or three of the 
, seiies will prove doubly valuable to cultivators, exhibitors, and all wLo 
