February 14,1895. 
JOUBNAL OF HORTICULTURE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. 
137 
“ Tomato Growing Craze.” But to be serious, I have to say that 
to thoroughly test the question of Tomato growing for profit, my 
employer has found the means to erect a large range of twelve houses 
specially for growing the crops, and we have some thousands of plants 
ready for planting. 
So far so good. We are trusting to succeed ; but now I want to 
give your able correspondents a nut to crack. What shall we grow from 
the end of October to the end of February in order to reap a profit from 
our Tomato houses ? Chrysanthemums seem to be overdone, if I may 
take the following paragraph from a contemporary to be correct—viz., 
“ The competition is now so severe that the ordinary price for blooms 
grown without thinning has at the holiday season (Christmas) dropped 
to about 2s, 6(1. the dozen bunches, twelve blooms to a bunch. It is 
evident there is no golden harvest to be reaped from Chrysanthemum 
growing at the present time.” Now, will some reader try to throw a 
ray of light across the path of a— Perplexed One ? 
P.S.—Arum Lilies, Freesias, Tuberoses, cool house Orchids,&c., dance 
A Wonderful Rose Garden. 
When in the neighbourhood of Bath, before the Flood—I mean the 
flood which submerged the lower parts of the city and valleys round 
about last autumn—I had the pleasure of calling on Mr. Alexander Hill 
Gray and inspecting his Rose garden. Surely this is the most wonderful 
garden of its kind in Britain, and it affords such evidence of its owner’s 
devotion to his favourite Teas, and of his determination to provide 
generously for them and to deal liberally with them, that is not else¬ 
where to be found. 
Fig. 23.-MR. HILL GRAY’S ROSE GARDEN. 
before one’s eyes ; but I leave all these, and wait to see the verdict on 
what to use our Tomato houses for in winter with a view to profit.— 
?. 0 . 
[We permit our racy correspondent to write under the heading of 
his choice, as we should not like to hurt his feelings. We shall be 
glad if readers will try their teeth in cracking the nut submitted, 
and to he who does so in the best manner and shows the most 
kernel we will give a handsome silver medal if in the opinions of 
independent examiners such an award is merited. The subject 
indicated is an important one, and those who think they can deal with 
it usefully had better in the first instance communicate with the 
Editor. In the meantime our *• perplexed ” correspondent will have 
the satisfaction of finding in the present issue something to read from 
every writer he mentions, and it may therefore be expected he will 
consider the issue a good one ; and further, as his letter suggests that he 
has not read the last and best edition (the fourth) of his favourite 
author, we advise him and others in a similar position to procure a 
copy of “ Up-to-date Directions ” on the cultivation of the Tomato ; and 
to show that the point advanced by our correspondent has not been 
overlooked we reproduce an illustration of a profitable combination— 
Tomatoes and Mushrooms in the same house (fig. 22). They need not, 
however, necessarily be both bearing together, but Tomatoes during 
the summer and Mushroom production throughout the winter, and if 
both yields are as abundant as they ought to be, and may be, both 
crops are profitable. We may add that no one on the office staff of 
any gardening journal will be eligible to receive the offered medal, but 
all outside contributors and non-contributors to our columns are free 
to do so, and we shall be ready with his sanction to publish the portrait 
of the winner. Mr. Iggulden’s “Up-to-date” Tomato Manual c%nhQ 
had post free from our office for Is. 2d.] 
Beaulieu, Mr. Gray’s residence, is situated a mile or two from Bath, 
on the Weston Road, from which we look down on the chimney tops of 
the residence, and before entrance can be had to the great traveller’s 
sanctum, ornated with the spoils of the chase in India and Africa, we 
have to descend some forty or fifty steps ; then when we go out again 
to see the Roses have to descend many more, and before we see all we 
have to go down and still down, and then we are perhaps a hundred 
feet, and perhaps more, above the far-stretching meads, with the river 
meandering through them, bounded by distant tree-clad hills. It is a 
delightful outlook, placid in character and suggestive of repose. It 
will be perceived that the home of the great rosarian is half way up a 
steep hillside. The house and the prospect pleased him, and therefore 
he purchased the property, determining to make it suit the Roses he 
intended to grow. The task must have been herculean, and it may be 
presumed the greater the difficulties the greater the zest to overcome 
them. 
Fancy a rugged and in places almost precipitous slope some half a 
mile long, or it may be more, with rocks jutting out and little soil 
among them, and an idea may be formed of the position in the concrete. 
See it now, or in the summer, when between 7000 and 8000 Teas are in 
bloom ; note the three far-stretching terrace gardens of Roses, and the 
long, strong supporting walls, and you can but marvel at what has 
been accomplished. Every man able and willing to work at stone¬ 
digging and levelling down was set on there, till a small army collected, 
working all day long month after month, and one would think year 
after year, till the whole great undertaking was completed. Many 
thousands of loads of soil must have been brought for mixing with the 
thousand loads of manure for filling these huge beds some 8 feet deep. 
In forming these terrace gardens for his Roses and building the walls 
Mr, Hill Gray built himself a monument of an enduring character, for 
