January 4,1894. 
JOURNAL OF HORTICULTURE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. 
3 
as the Island of Saints, is not all saints now any more than the flora 
and fauna is summed up in Potatoes and pigs, of which in some 
minds a vague idea may (I think it does) prevail that it largely 
consists of ; but Potato patches do not monopolise the country, and 
as for the “ gentleman who pays the rent,’' judging by his present 
high market value, he may yet become as extinct as the dodo. 
Comparing the year just past with Jubilee Year, already passed 
into history, yet sufficiently near to bring them side by side for com¬ 
parison, at no period of it did vegetation assume the parched 
appearance of 1887, when lawns and pastures were so killed that not 
till the following spring did they resume their normal c mdition. 
Here, at the foot of the Dublin mountains, with the granite rock 
peeping through the lawns, sufficient surface sprinklings of rain have 
fallen to keep ihem fresh and green, and our meadows yielded a crop 
but slightly under the average ; yet springs all but failed, placing us 
in the anomalous position of wanting water but not rain. The supply 
to the city taken from the mountains of Wicklow has been a source 
of serious anxiety to the corporation, who have had to supplement it 
by going back to their original supply from the canals. 
Whilst mentioning our metropolis, familiarly known as “ dear 
dirty Dublin,” I would ask any visitor who finds himself in it on a 
fine day to stand on Carlisle Bridge and look seawards, the stately 
Custom House on the left, an azure sky oractically untainted by 
smoke, flocks of gulls, “ birds of the broad and sweeping wing,” 
circling in mid air, rhen make a mental comparison with any manu¬ 
facturing town of similar size he may be acquainted with, say Bristol, 
which 1 know, or Edinburgh, which I regret to say I have not seen, 
any seaport will do, to ask himself, as I have done, Is not this a lioel 
on the chief Irish city ? At low water, perhaps, some leviathan of 
the deep churns up the bed of the river with its screw, causing com¬ 
parisons to be “odorous,” but the ozone-laden breezes sweep up from 
Dublin Bay neutralising these “ancient and fishlike smells,” that in 
place of being injurious they must be actually nourishing, judging by 
the longevity of dwellers on the quays. 
In a review of the seasons in their order, spring commenced with 
the advent of March, February’s snows which had mantled us now 
disappeared, the thermometer seldom falling below freezing point, 
and maximum temperatures read high. This was the dryest month 
of the year, rain falling on five days only with a total of but 0’360. 
Never did seeds go in better, but germination was slow; previous to 
March our rainfall was 5'330. April gave on six days a rainfall of 
1T40, The Koyal Horticultural Society’s spring Show on the 20ch 
just caught the last of the Narcissi, which had Lem exceptionally 
fine. In comparison with a normal season we were now fully a 
month in advance, which position was maintained throughout. 
Spring flowers were on the wane ; in a stand of twenty-four varieties 
in which hardy flowering shrubs are admitted I was able to put the 
showy rose-coloured Tree Pseony, Khododendron Barclayanum, and 
the handsome Cytisus scoparius Andreanus. All should have this 
beautiful new Broom, which in a stand of hardy flowers helps to 
sweep clean. 
May was a delightful month, without frosts ; rainfall 2-320. 
Three weeks' absence from home and duty in making a P-mporary 
garden for a fete at the Royal Dublin Society’s premises, Ball’s 
Bridge, it is needless to say, threw me out of the routine of work and 
observation, but it was satisfaction to find amid the varied ent-rtain- 
ments and stalls represented by all Ireland, the work abroad was 
appreciated, and the garden was a prominent feature of this com¬ 
bined fete and bazaar, styled “ Kosmos,” resulting during the six 
days it was open in a nett gain of £11,000 to the City of Dublin 
Hospital, for which it was organised. But while I was busy abroad 
others were busy at home in the shape of Onion and Carr J ^rubs, and 
these gentry had each cleared otf the food they favoured. 
June came in with anxiety to complete the bedding. Calceolarias 
had been planted in April ; though many complaints of their dying 
out was common during the summer I never had them better. 
Altemantheras went away without a check. The only drawback to 
carpet bedding was the persistent manner in which blackbirds and 
thrushes tore up the Sedums, and marred the effect of what would 
have been otherwise perfect. Arenaria balearica they avoided, and 
this I am preparing to use as a substitute for Sedums. At this time 
one could never tire in admiring the rich and varied beauty in the 
foliage of the trees, dense canopies of many tints, nifiped by no 
untim-ly frosts nor torn by ruthless winds ; nor were they of less 
interest in the heavy crops of inflorescence they now carried, whilst 
the music of countless myriads of unseen things in their leafy home 
overhead fell soothingly on the ear. We started cutting grass in 
meadows on Junelflth with all appearance of a long spell of unbroken 
weather, but were sadly out in our reckoning, fur from the 21-t to 
the 29th we had more or less rain every day, but with that doubtful 
consolation of others being in the same boat, for haymiking at this 
time was general in County Dublin ; 1-960 was the measure of rain 
this month. 
Rummer was marked by no boundary line of dates. Some time 
back in the spring it had imperceptibly stolen upon us. Our Rose 
Exhibition on July 6th showed at a glance how matters stood. 
Amateurs in County Dublin were fairly out of it, but the Messrs. 
Dickson saved the reputation of the Show, and added to their own by 
staging exceptionally fine stands, bearing witness that with them in 
the north matters were not so far advanced. Expectations of a good 
autumn display were not realised—aftergrowth was wretched. 
Strawberries were practically over and only represented by Waterloa, 
shown in good form, but to my thinking the colour is objectionable. 
By July many Chrysanthemums had given their second crown bud, 
which removed, resulted in a third crown rightly timed for exhibi¬ 
tion. Princess family were the exception, forming second crowns at 
the usual time ; Mrs. A. Hardy was as usual “uncertain, coy, and hard 
to please ”—with thirty plants sue refused me a show flower for the 
battlefield. Give her up, you say. Oh, no, I am in for fifty this 
year. The lady may, as she has before, prove a ministering angel in 
the hour of trial. July registered 2*290 in the rain gauge, with 78® 
maximum shade temperature on the 24th, the hottest day we had 
here except August 17th, which gave the record for the summer 
with 79°. 
Bush fruits were abundant. Gooseberries phenomenally so. 
Every flower must have set and swelled. Pendent varieties hung to- 
the ground in competi.ion with blackbirds to see which could get the 
most. They beat us, but both parties were satisfied, for we had other 
fish to fry—so had they in attacking hard Pears and making inroads 
for the wasps, which were here as elsewhere unusually abundant. 
August gave the record for rainfall with 3-400. On the 9lh a 
tempest, tropical in its grandeur, visited us, coming up at 9 30 p.m. 
from the south, also eastwards from the sea. Vivid and continuous 
sheet lightning lasted till 11 o’clock. Cattle on the mountain sides 
two miles distant stood out distinct in the electric glare against the 
black pall overhead. In this locality storms of such intensity are 
rare. The autumn Show on the 25th was an unusually good one, 
September, October, and November gave cfilectively 4-230 inches 
of rain, completing our total supply for the eleven months of 21 030' 
inches, being about two-thirds of the usual average of other years. 
Autumn afforded every facility for lifting Potatoes, and disease was 
rarely noticeable. The Scotch Champion is for Ireland the champion 
still, being grown to the extent of 79 per cent. Present price for 
picked qualities in Dublin Market is £3 per ton. Kemps and 
Flounders are the principal mioseason varieties. 
The panic at midsummer in the hay and straw markets was of but 
short duration, though we were then threatened that hay would now 
be £10 per ton. Present prices for best qualities are less than half 
that, while straw, wheaten and oat, fluctuates from 30s. to 50s. per 
ton. The shiftless way in which both are put on the market detracts 
much from its appearance, and cannot fail to lessen its value. 
Trussing and binding hay seems unknown here, being loaded loose on 
the carts, and straw, if bundled, is tumbled together in the loosest 
manner. Agricultural statistics will probably show an all-round 
under average, but no such failures as reported in the south of 
England. We may not have had so much sunshine as in England, 
but sufficient, and I trust a balance over, to carry forward in our 
hearts to meet those rainy days which may come to us in the yet 
unrevealed present year. 
A retrospect of a year just gone, but gone for ever, brings solemn 
thoughts ; other things crop up besides those mentioned. We miss 
“ The touch of some vanished hand, 
The sound of a voice that’s still.” 
But, sustained by that “hope which springs eternal in the human 
breast,” we look forward to a Happy New Year. Such may it be to 
you, brothers of the craft in England.—E. K., Dublin. 
TULIP TROUBLES. 
Are Tulips really so troublesome that they may justly be put 
aside ? Surely not. Many growers of them will dissent strongly 
from the implication that the beauty and interest of these splendid 
flowers are overbalanced by the necessity for an elaborate cnltural 
rigime. There are few florists’ flowers which will flourish under 
such simple treatment as Tulips, and still fewer which give their 
grower so rich a reward for his care and attention. 
I do not think it could be said that the decline in favour which 
Tulips experienced some years ago is attributable to their entail¬ 
ing a great amount of trouble in cultivation. Even when they 
are managed on the old plan, arranging bizarres, bybloemens, and 
roses on the orthodox lines of the old growers, it merely means 
working on a well-ordered system, and that, as every business man 
knows, saves trouble instead of causing it. Anyone who has had 
opportunities of practising it, or seeing it practised, will recognise 
that an ordinary routine of Tulip growing is a constant guide 
to the worker. He knows where to look for every sort, and 
