October 19, 1893. ] 
JOURNAL OF HORTICULTURE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. 
SG3 
in such splendid stocks as Sutton’s Globe, one of the firmest, handsomest, 
and most perfect brownish yellow skinned Onions in commerce, and in 
the slightly smaller, but if possible, more even and handsomer Crimson 
Globe. To my mind these seem to be the perfection of show Onions, 
hard as bullets, keeping for many months without waste, and large 
enough for anything. A very superior Onion of a broad flatter character, 
but with a deep base that makes it weighty, is Sutton’s A1 ; and there 
are of the brown or almost reddish brown Spanish type some seedlings 
from a famous Hampshire Onion grower that bid fair to make some of 
the very finest Onions in commerce. Ailsa Craig is here from the 
original stock sent out years ago by a well known Scotch house, and 
which growers generally admit to be a remarkably pure and perfect 
stock. That result, however, is but the product of that close, keen, 
capable, and incessant [supervision which Messrs. Sutton & Sons give to 
everything they grow, and which only firms of such position can give. 
Onions are very erratic, and can be kept true to form only when the 
stocks are most rigidly selected and rogued. It is because of lacking 
this supervision that so many complaints have come to my knowledge 
of stocks sent out to customers at abnormal prices have proved to be 
so disappointing. Sutton’s Exhibition is another very fine broad 
variety, looking like a vastly improved form of the Reading, for from 
all the old and once popular Onion stocks we are now a long way 
ahead. One great gain arising from them, apart from their capacity to 
win prizes, the which is, after all, but a poor matter, is that under 
ordinary culture the weight of crop is about 30 per cent, increase over 
that of the Onions of twenty years since, and when really good stocks 
are obtained, the ground is good and free from maggot, there can be no 
doubt but that even at Ss. per bushel Onion crops may be obtained worth 
from £80 to £100 per acre, and what other crop can excel that in 
value ? There were also in this collection of Onions two that are of 
especial beauty and quality for summer bulbing—that is, of course, from 
autumn-sown seed. These are the handsome tapering Lemon Rocca 
and Sutton’s White Globe. Although in this case these have been 
grown from spring sowings, yet these, as is the case with all the Tripoli 
or Italian section, are best for autumn sowing. The White Globe, being 
80 much deeper and rounder than the Lisbon or Leviathan, should make 
a most attractive variety for summer exhibitions. 
I have dwelt thus largely upon these Reading Onions because it is 
right the public should understand that Onion stocks, and especially 
those of exceptionally fine quality, are of no one person’s or firm’s 
inheritance. Messrs. Sutton & Sons have been labouring to produce 
the very finest stocks of Onions, as, indeed, all other things, ever since 
established as a firm, and what is now being done is simply a part of 
that great work of continuity in selection and improvement to which 
there has been no break. It is, perhaps, the case that in regard to 
Onions the firm has been over-modest. In any case, their present 
splendid stocks show that if modest, there has been no slacking in 
enterprise.— Allium. 
UNITED HORTICULTURAL BENEFIT AND 
PROVIDENT SOCIETY. 
As a member of the Committee of the above Society I should like to 
be allowed to express my gratitude to those gentlemen who all spoke in 
such an admirable manner at the annual dinner last week, a report of 
which appeared in your last issue, and with your permission I will 
make a few remarks. 
The Chairman made an excellent speech, clearly demonstrating the 
advantages to be derived by gardeners joining our Society. I could 
hardly agree with him when referring to the rules of the Society. He 
suggested a graduated scale of payment similar to that adopted by other 
friendly and insurance societies, so that a member joining at an early 
age would not have to pay so large a contribution as an older one, 
because under the existing rules if a young man joins at the age of 
twenty years, and lives until he reaches the age of seventy, he can 
then draw his money with the accumulated interest, which would 
amount to considerably more than double the sum due to another 
member who joins at the age of forty. It is worthy of note that some 
of our older members are having interest added to their deposit account 
amounting to more than their annual contributions. 
Mr. Sherwood, who has done such noble work in starting and adding 
capital to the convalescent fund, made a very practical suggestion when 
he said gardeners should endeavour to get their employers to subscribe 
to this fund. I consider it would be to their advantage to support it, 
because should a gardener unfortunately have a serious illness, when 
getting better again a change of air might benefit him to such an 
extent that he would be able to resume his duties weeks sooner than 
he could without that change. 
The work of the officers and the soundness of the Society was highly 
spoken of by gentlemen competent to speak on those matters, but Mr. 
Marshall touched on the weakest point when he spoke of the manage¬ 
ment fund. The Committee does not feel justified in recommending a 
further taxon members beyond the payment of their annual subscription 
of 2s. 6d. to that fund ; but if we had 5000 members instead of 500 the 
annual income to the management fund would be £625 derived from 
the 23. 6d. payments, we should then be in a position to provide our 
excellent Secretary with paid assistance, and adopt other methods of 
making the Society known throughout the country. The work at 
present is done in a most economical manner, and the Committee have 
no power to spend a penny more than is received for the management. 
Could not the Gardeners’ Mutual Improvement Societies do some¬ 
thing to help by discussing the objects at their meetings ? It is for 
mutual benefit. The editors of the gardening papers do all they 
possibly can to make the Society known. No doubt every good gardener 
reads one or more of those papers week by week, and yet some men say 
they have never heard of the existence of such a Society. When 
gardeners join in large numbers and contribute voluntary Is. per year to 
the convalescent fund there should then be no cause to make any 
further appeal either for that or the management fund, and we could 
look at our motto, “ Unity is strength,” with much more pride. At 
present \ye have in round figures 500 members, and a capital of £8000 
invested, or an average of £16 per member.—G. W. Cummins, Ike 
Grange Gardens, Wallington. 
A WALK THROUGH A DUTCH FLOWER GARDEN. 
You dreamt of flower-bells sending clouds of incense up into the 
sky and over the misty dunes to the turquoise blue ocean. And now 
the cathedral bells drop their music from mid-air down upon you as you 
enter the old town. The flower bells fade and vanish when spring and 
summer are gone ; the cathedral bells remain, chanting their hymns 
summer and winter, day and night. As once again you come to the old 
town of Northern Holland, it is the song of the bells that greets you 
first. And listening to it you feel at home. 
Dear old Haarlem 1 not sufficiently fashionable to be oppressive in 
the autumnal tourist days, but brimful of healthy still-life—what a boon 
it is to come, in one’s manifold wanderings, upon this soothing.spot I So 
easy, too, to reach it from the world’s highways in England, and, above 
all, in London. Truly, it is far more troublesome to go from one side of 
greater London to the other than it is to go from Liverpool Street to 
Holland. 
From your breakfast-room on board your ship into your drawing¬ 
room again, in a train, and look, as you glide along, at pictures of the 
Dutch school. Ancient and modern they are, at the same time ; 
Rembrandt, the Cuyps and Hals themselves could not have 
given you them in such perfection as you see them through your 
carriage windows. Presently, almost too soon you think, you are 
at the Hague, the delightful Hague with its white streets and 
palaces, its clear waters, its heroic past, and its unique suburb, sweet 
old-world Schveningen. Next comes Haarlem, the old town whose 
history was made 300 years ago. You mean to listen to the voices of 
the past, as told by the very stones of the Groote Kirk, and by the 
singing of the bells. But first you must go and see the flower gardens 
in the midst of which the town is planted. 
The Hyacinths have been in their graves these five long months ; 
the vast tracts of flat sandy soil which they, blooming, caused to look 
as if the sunset sky had fallen upon the earth, know them no more. 
The Tulips followed, with their tints of fire; the Pmonies have come and 
gone ; the Amaryllis and all its proud relations are of the past, and 
now the last of the Lilies are in bloom. The end is near. The stork, 
the guardian of the bulb field, is on the wing; you look upon it all, 
and scarce suppress a sigh. Clear water in straight, long canals ; grey 
sand beds, and wafts of pure sun-warmed sea air seem all, at first, in 
this flower garden at Overveen, just outside Haarlem, owned by Messrs. 
Ant. Roozen & Son, one of the largest firms of bulb growers in the 
district. The bulbs are housed during the short period of summer when 
the Hyacinth and Tulip have been unearthed and shelved in a store¬ 
house which, in its way, is a palace. And when the autumn comes, and 
the burial of the bulb must be undertaken, the graves in which they 
sleep are in the loveliest gardens of the Dutch bulb district. 
A boat is moored on the canal in Messrs, Roozen’s gardens. It is 
filled with large baskets of bulbs, purple and red and white. Not far 
off on the sandy beds, the sunburnt gardeners are at work. So, after 
all, the gardens are not dead. The bulbs are being buried ; their most 
active time begins, for they have to prepare, as soon as the soil covers 
them, for the great resurrection morning in early April, when their 
blossoms transform the sandy fiats into one of earth’s loveliest sights. 
“ There is a special art in bulb planting, Mr. Roozen, will you tell 
me how to grow Hyacinths successfully?” “Certainly,! will. It is 
not difficult nor a long process. Get good bulbs, even though they 
are a little more expensive than inferior ones. It pays best in the 
end, and twenty first-rate flower spikes on a garden bed make a better 
show than twice that number of second or third-rate flowers. Plant 
your bulbs in good ordinary garden soil, dug up with some inches of 
well-decayed manure. Then put your bulbs 3 inches under ground, 
leaving a distance of 5 or 6 inches between them. Put a little sand 
round each bulb, and cover with soil. That is all, and if you cover 
your Hyacinth bed during the winter with leaves, straw, or pulverised 
manure, you will find in March that you have Hyacinths which, for 
beauty ai^d fragrance, are superior to any other spring flowers.” 
“ Are there any special Hyacinths which are better than others for 
outdoor cultivation ? ” “ No ; we put all the different kinds into one 
parcel of mixed bulbs, and they are all equally good. But of course 
some of our customers prefer special kinds. There are a few leading 
varieties. For instance, if you want a bed of blue Hyacinths in various 
shades, I should suggest the King of the Blues, Czar Peter, Grand Maitre, 
Lord Derby and Prince of Wales. In red and rose colours, Lord Macaulay, 
Von Schiller, Gertrude, Norma, Fabiola, and General Pelissier, are great 
favourites ; and the best white varieties are La Grandessc, I’Innocence, 
Madame Van der Hoop, Mont Blanc, and La Candeur. Then there 
are a few very fine yellow Hyacinths, such as Ida, Obelisque, and King 
of the Yellows.” 
