March 8,1894. 
JOURNAL OF HORTICULTURE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. 
189 
I would suggest that the words “ father subscriber ” or “ father non- 
subscriber” be inserted in all the descriptions of future candidates. 
The fact that a candidate’s father was a subscriber would at once count 
as five points out of fifteen with me, and would act more strongly in 
securing my vote than any quantity of “ canvassing papers.” This, on 
the surface, may savour of selfishness and want of feeling, because in 
neither case can the children have influenced the action of the father ; 
but one cannot help recognising merit. Besides, as above shown, if 
every gardener acted up to his privilege and duty in the matter very few 
applicants need be turned away unblessed. There is no more lamentable 
sight in this world than a widowed mother struggling to support herself 
and a small family, and the society which seeks to alleviate such un¬ 
avoidable calamities is worthy of consideration and support from all 
whom it seeks to benefit.—J. H. W., Leicester Frith. 
IRIS ROSENBACHIANA. 
An excellent form of this Iris has been forwarded to us by a corre¬ 
spondent, who requests the name and a correct description, which is as 
follows:—A dwarf early flowering Iris, only a few inches high, and 
consequently well adapted for culture in pots, though it is said to be 
quite hardy. The flowers are slightly larger than I. reticulata, the 
petaloid stigmas and “ standards ” mauve, the “ falls ” each having a 
bright central orange ridge, are tipped with deep purple. The 
flowers vary greatly in colour, however, as some are very pale, and in 
others quite a dark bluish purple hue runs through the whole flower. 
Seedlings of most Irises present similar variations in colours without 
artificial crossing having been effected. 
CLEMATISES. 
These rank among the most gorgeous of trailing plants. They are 
particularly well adapted for covering archways, porch fronts, for fes¬ 
tooning house fronts, and for rambling over old tree stumps and 
rockeries. Now is a good time to plant. Strong plants well established 
in pots are usually supplied by nurserymen, and these should have a 
good depth of fairly rich loamy compost to start in, planting in poor 
soil being a great mistake. The roots would take more readily and the 
top-growth be stronger accordingly if the former are carefully loosened 
so as to spread well out into the new soil at once. Plant rather firmly 
and mulch with short manure. 
Clematises must not be neglected at this time of year, failing to 
attend to the pruning soon resulting in a confused mass of growth, 
nothing short of cutting down to near the ground restoring them to 
something like a presentable condition. 
The early summer flowering kinds, such as montana, azurea grandi- 
flora, Albert Victor, and Lady Londesborough, flower on the ripened 
wood formed of the preceding year, and these should only be thinned 
out, having all dead and weakly growth removed and reserved growths 
lightly shortened. 
The late summer and autumn flowering section, which comprises 
Jackmanni, Lady D. Nevill, lanuginosa, Robert Hanbury, velutina 
purpurea, and Gipsy Queen flower on the current year’s growth or quite 
young wool, and these, therefore, should be freely shortened. Better 
cut back to within three or four joints of last season’s starting point, 
and have a few extra strong growths which will produce large flowers 
in profusion than to be very sparing with the knife and have many more 
weakly growths accordingly.—M. H. 
THE MARKET GARDENING INDUSTRY. 
A Review. 
A COBSESPONDENT sends us the following cutting from the “Cornish 
Telegraph,” and we think many of the observations and suggestions 
therein merit the attention of growers and vendors of produce 
generally :— 
The market gardening industry a few years ago was undoubtedly one 
of the most important and profitable pursuits that the agriculturists of 
West Cornwall had ever followed. At that time the area allotted to 
this particular branch of agriculture was principally confined to the 
semicircular slope facing Mount’s Bay and its sheltered position, its 
southern aspect and its temperate climate, particularly during the 
winter season, gave many natural advantages to the locality, and 
especially fitted it for the successful cultivation of those crops—early 
Potatoes and Broccoli—which the district has produced for so many 
years in regular succession. It was not uncommon in those days for the 
gardeners to receive £3 and £4 per cwt. for their first consignments of 
early Potatoes, and 203. per crate for Broccoli, and, as the land produced 
both of these crops every year, it can be readily believed that market 
gardening was then a very remunerative occupation. The prosperity, 
however, was of short duration, for others who had eligible sites, though 
further inland, began also to cultivate the Potato and Broccoli, so that 
the area steadily increased until there is scarcely a parish in the western 
part which does not produce those vegetables in greater or less quanti¬ 
ties every year. 
The result of the increased cultivation has been what anyone might 
have natuially expected—lower prices, although it must not be supposed 
that the low prices returned for the last few years were entirely due to 
this cause. There are others, and amongst them we may mention that 
these crops have been not only more extensively cultivated of late years 
in other parts of this country, but in foreign countries as well, and tto 
growers at home and abroad have become active competitors for tue 
trade which at one time was largely confined to West Cornwall. The 
gardeners, however, have gone on year after year hoping for better prices 
“ next season,” which, unfortunately, have not been realised, nor is there 
any real ground that we can see for hoping that prices will ever again 
reach the height they did “ in the halcyon days of yore.” It is worse 
than useless for them to be always looking backward and sighing for the 
“ good old times ” of ten or twenty years ago, while the folly of con¬ 
tinually grumbling because “foreigners ” can land their produce in this 
country duty free is too apparent to be controverted. We know the 
price of market gardening produce has steadily declined for the past 
few years, although the cost of production has remained about the 
same, and we can fully sympathise with the gardeners, many of whom 
PIG. 32.— IBIS BOSENBACHIANA. 
are in circumstances not to be envied, but it is no good looking back¬ 
ward, nor is it any better for them to deceive themselves by following 
the “ Jack o’lantern ” of protection. 
It is a well known fact in these days of keen competition that the 
best and most wholesome produce, whether grown at home or abroad, 
commands the best prices, and there are few people, in spite of all their 
patriotic pretensions, who are willing to pay the best price for home 
productions of inferior quality when better foreign articles can be had 
for the same money. That being so. It should be the duty of every 
producer to see that he sends not only “ good stuff ” as represented to 
the markets, but that it should be carefully sorted and packed so as to 
arrive in a sound condition. We regret to state that, with a few 
exceptions, this has not been the rule in the past. Foreigners, 
however, are well aware of the importance of attending to these little 
details, and vegetables from France and Italy arrive in our markets in a 
better condition than those sent from Cornwall. While one sells readily 
at good prices the other is of ten a drug in the market. Experience has 
not yet taught our gardeners the importance of sending their goods to 
market in the best possible condition, and if they were so inclined they 
might take a lesson from the “ foreigner ” which would be to their 
advantage. 
In the Potato season the first consignment from Cornwall generally 
breaks the market, and it is not unusual for prices to drop nearly 
fifty per cent, in the second week. And is it any wonder 1 The 
Potatoes, which are immaturely drawn, arrive in the market ragged. 
