’ THE JOURNAL OF HORTICULTURE AND COTTAGE GARDENER, Jane 27, 1895, ] 
0 
TO OUR READERS. 
When we penned our few words of greeting to readers and writers on the completion ot our half-yearly 
volume last June, we had to deplore many and great losses to Strawberries and other crops by a memorable 
frost which had recently occurred; but we had also to record, as if in compensation, fields and gardens 
full of verdure and Roses unfolding for the shows. Generous showers had followed the frost, and the 
wounds it caused healed more quickly than at one time was thought possible. 
We have not, at the close of another year from then, to note a case of history repeating itself. We 
had, it is true, a wave of cold in the early part of May; but though it did some damage, it did still more 
good by holding in check advancing vegetation, as well as in preventing the increase of insect enemies just 
emerging for their work of destruction. 
Let one instance of the “value” of the keen easterly gale be recorded. The summer-like days 
preceding it brought out a horde of caterpillars in a plantation of Gooseberries. In forty-eight hours— 
estimating the amount expended in labour in combating the enemy, and the destruction it wrought—the loss 
incurred was computed at JBIOO. At ihe critical juncture came the rushing arctic wave, and in another 
forty-eight hours not a caterpillar could be found. The gain to the cultivator was not less than .^500, and 
probably very much more, for he was enabled to sell 2000 bushels of fruit that bid fair to cease swelling, 
and to shrivel on the branches. That was his compensation, afforded in a natural way by the bitter frost 
wind which he at first deplored as such an unfortunate visitation. This one case is large enough, and 
definite enough, to show that out of what may be regarded at the time as a great misfortune good may 
come. Let no one, then, be disheartened at the moment by a temporary check, as impediments may in 
reality be “blessings in disguise.” 
After the “ rest ” that vegetation received, first in February and then in May, followed by unclouded 
sun, the advance of the Roses was rapid—too rapid for many southern growers to exhibit the most 
magnificent blooms at the shows where they have been hoping to win high honours, and this year they 
would almost seem to stand at a disadvantage against growers in the cooler north, where fields and gardens 
are so full of verdure. Still, it is little short of marvellous to note how well in past years men of 
ability and resource have triumphed under adverse conditions; and we will hope that all who strive with 
a zeal that is admirable will have a full share of the honours in the campaign which has already 
commenced—the absorbing and delightful tournaments of the Rose. 
Equally strong is our desire that success will attend the efforts of all—gardeners and amateurs—who 
are seeking to obtain it in other departments of gardening; and if we can be helpful by the help of others 
who are so able ;ind willing to aid, we shall be thankful, for to be useful in the wide and important 
domain embodied in its title has ever been the object of the Journal of Rcriiculture. 
