332 
JOURNAL OF HORTICULTURE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. 
r October 11, 1888. 
to those who, having mostly only inferior sorts, may wish to im¬ 
prove their collections. These selections are very similar to those 
I gave last year, but having again gone carefully through them, I 
do not well see how they can as yet be further improved. 
Hybrid Peepetuals. — Light-coloured Varieties. —Madame Ct. 
Luizet, La France, Merveille de Lyon, Captain Christy, Baroness 
Rothschild, Marguerite de St. Amand, and Marie Finger. Medium 
Reds. —Francois Michelon, Ulrich Brunner, Marquise de Castellane, 
Marie Yerdier, Comtesse d’Oxford, Heinrich Schultheis, and Dupuy 
Jamain. Reds.— Marie Baumann, A. K. Williams, Alfred Colomb, 
Prince Arthur, Le Havre, E. Y. Teas, and Ferdinand de Lesseps. 
Darli Varieties. — Charles Lefebvre, Horace Yernet, Duke of 
Wellington, and Louis Yan Houtte. 
Teas and Noisettes.— Innocente Pirola, Marie Yan Houtte, 
Souvenir d’un Ami, Caroline Kuster (n.), Madame de Watteville, 
Madame Lambard, Hon. Edith Gilford, Anna Ollivier, Rubens, and 
Perle des Jardins. 
Hybrid Tea.— Grace Darling. 
Bourbon.—S ouvenir de la Malmaison. 
Climbing Roses. —Belle Lyonnaise (t.), Gloire de Dijon (t.), 
Bouquet d’Or (n.1, William Allen Richardson (n.). Summer 
Flowering Varieties. —Blairii (h.c.), Charles Lawson (h.b.), Coupe 
d’Hebti (h.b.), Bennett’s Seedling (Ayr.) Felicite Perpetue (Ever¬ 
green), and Madame Plantier (h.n.). 
In conclusion, I have to thank Mr. H. Appleby, Mr. J. Bateman, 
Mr. J. Burrell, Mr. T. W. Girdlestone, Mr. W. J. Jefferies, and 
Mr. G. Mount for their kind assistance in helping me to take 
down the names of the Roses at this year’s exhibition.—E. M., 
Berkhamsted. 
HALE’S EARLY PEACH. 
I have frequently written in favour of this Peach, but my remarks 
have not always been well received, some growers asserting it is not a 
good one; but after another year’s experience that is not my opinion. 
We have a tree of it in a cool home, which invariably bears a good crop. 
This year we gathered the first fruits from this tree on June 20th. They 
were well formed, fleshy, highly coloured, and very agreeable in flavour. 
Another large tree in the open that grows against a wall facing the east 
supplied ripe fruit on August 10th; and like those under glass these 
were very fine Peaches. I do not hold that it is unique in flavour. It is 
second-rate in this respect, but in all others first-rate. It grows freely, 
is an abundant bearer, rarely fails to produce a full crop, and its ripening 
so early is greatly in its favour. I do not know a more certain Peach 
to bear, swell, and ripen. I have never known it fail; and in the hands 
of amateurs, or in positions not the most favourable for successful 
Peach culture, it would, I feel sure, prove invaluable. As we only 
require Peaches for home use in succession, we do not grow more of it 
than the two trees in question; but if I were growing Peaches for 
market, I would plant it by the dozen. A very larjre fruit tree nursery¬ 
man told me the other day that Hale’s is now one of their leading 
Peaches. They have a difficulty in keeping pace with the demanff. 
This has been by no means a first-rate year for open-air Peaches. We 
have scores of late fruits now that will never ripen, and our determina¬ 
tion to give up growing very late Peaches is nearer being accomplished 
now than ever it was.—J. Muir, Margam, South Wales. 
GARDENERS’ EDUCATION AND THEIR SOCIAL 
POSITION. 
The time is fast drawing nigh when the usual “ Lectures to Young 
Gardeners” will probably appear in our Journal; and perhaps the 
usual earnest advice will be given them to improve their position by 
devoting themselves sedulously to the study of most of the sciences 
having a bearing directly or indirectly upon horticulture, and including 
a knowledge of Latin, French, and shorthand. This advice in itself is 
excellent ; but the question has frequently suggested itself to me of 
why should a menial servant like a gardener be expected to know aught 
of botany, geology, chemistry, land surveying, natural phenomena, 
Latin, l 1 rench, shorthand, <fcc. I Legally the gardener possessing a 
knowledge of all or a part of the above subjects, besides being a first- 
class gardener, is no more than the equal of the scullery maid or stable 
Helper, who perhaps can only write their names in a very illegible 
manner. Politically, in some respects and under certain circumstances, 
he is the inferior of his subordinates ; and socially he is very little if at 
all superior to either scullery maid, stable helper, or garden labourer. 
Why should he be? He is the paid servant of the same master or 
mistress ; and so long as each servant performs his or her duty faithfully 
and well it is all the master or mistress desires or expects, and they treat 
each servant with equal consideration, and rightly so. Pecuniarily the 
gardener is very frequently the inferior of the coachman, the cook, or 
the butler ; and yet the coachman is not expected to be a veterinary 
surgeon, or the cook an analytical chemist, or the butler or valet a 
classical scholar ! Then why should gardeners become the learned men 
they are recommended to become ? Is it because 30s. per week is too 
extravagant a price to pay for the qualifications of an old-fashioned 
gardener ? Or is it to be preparatory to claiming a different recognition 
legally, and of elevating themselves socially ? If for either or both of 
the latter, it is time for gardeners to bestir themselves. 
It cannot be too deeply impressed upon the minds of respectable 
and well educated youths who seriously think of becoming gardeners,, 
that by doing so they voluntarily become menial servants, and occupy 
the position of such, no matter what their education or previous social 
position. Probably many young men enter domestic service thinking 
they are entering a “ profession,” because gardening is so miscalled 
frequently, and it is equally probable that such young men would find 
employment quite as congenial to their tastes in directions, other than 
domestic service if they were cognisant of all the facts, but too frequently 
they only realise their true position when it is too late to retrace their 
steps. The ranks of gardeners are much too full, and respectable and 
educated jmung men would benefit themselves and gardeners in general 
by selecting other occupations. 
It is astonishing that people in good social position will occasionally 
endeavour, and sometimes succeed,to make one of their sons a gardener;, 
this is frequently because they see only the sweets of the occupation,, 
and are nearly, or quite, ignorant of the bitters, and of the price their sons 
have to pay in after life. Such parents would study their children’s best 
interests if they made curates of them instead, for though, perhaps, 
their pecuniary position for the time being would not be much better 
than that of gardeners, yet their social position would be such as not to- 
produce any after regrets on that score, and their chances of obtaining 
an average annual income of about £300 per year would be as about 
18,000 to perhaps less than eighteen. 
Then there are numbers of young men whose parents could not 
afford to give them a proper University education. Let such young 
men turn their attention to engineering, telegraphy, music, mechanics,, 
chimney-sweeping, anything rather than gardening. It is painful to 
see the numbers of educated, bright, intelligent youths in our large 
private gardens and in our nurseries who are doomed to disappointment 
and domestic servitude, but one remove from slavery in after years;. 
but it is the lot of nearly all of them. There is but one Chatswortb, one 
Trentham, one Drumlanrig, one Dalkeith ; but how many thousands of 
gardeners are there who entered the calling of gardening hoping that 
they might ultimately attain such situations or something approaching 
them ? for though they would necessarily be menial servants, yet the- 
remuneration would bring with it some compensation for their low 
social status ; but probably about 90 per cent, of gardeners in this- 
country do not receive more than £80 per annum as wages, yet we have 
writers periodically recommending young gardeners to acquire some¬ 
thing nearly approaching a University education, and I have just read' 
of a training college being established at Swanley. What does all this- 
mean ? It means that masters and mistresses are to be constantly 
supplied with an article for 30s. that as compared with other articles of 
very similar manufacture is, or should be, worth 50s. in the market; 
but these articles are supplied at such low prices because the supply is 
far in excess of the demand. And head gardeners themselves are very 
much to blame for this. Many of them, for the sake of a few pounds 
premium, keep employing these young men to do work that in some 
cases their own handy labourers would do as well or better, and infinitely 
more to the comfort of the gardener. The labourer is content to remain 
a labourer, and he will remain in the same garden year after year and 
learn to take such pride in his work that he ceases to be a trouble. For 
every labourer that is treated in this way there is one gardener less in 
the market. Frequently there are four or six young gardeners being 
manufactured when there is only requirement for two or three. I think 
head gardeners would study the best interests of themselves and their 
fellows, both at present and in future, if they would employ fewer 
apprentices and so-called journeymen and employ more labourers in, 
their immediate locality. 
By all means let gardeners receive a University or college education 
if at the same time they are going to receive corresponding remunera¬ 
tion and social status ; but will they receive either or both of the- 
latter?—A. Lighter. 
NOTES ON POTATOES. 
I WAS surprised to hear how small the Potatoes were by “ A Kitchen- 
Gardener.” On September 28th I finished lifting C| acres, and find 
them very good as to size. The sorts are Vicar of Laleham, White- 
Elephant, Schoolmaster, and Beauty of Hebron. Some were diseased of 
Vicar of Laleham, not so many of White Elephant or Beauty of Hebron., 
and very few of Schoolmaster. I have another field of 8 acres to lift: 
the sorts are Redskin Flourball, Imperator, Reading Giant, Reading 
Hero, and Magnum Bonum. When they are lifted I will send you the 
result. I have also sixty-five sorts planted side by side, one row each, 
but some of them are very bad, especially the coloured sorts. The 
white-skin sorts seem to resist the disease best with me. I grow about 
16 acres, and I always expect to get at the least f-ton good “ ware ” 
from every ton grown, taking one sort with the other, and we seldom have 
many diseased. The soil is very shallow with chalk subsoil, but the 
sixty-five sorts are grown on the only piece of damp soil I have, and 
being a wet season they have been affected more. I suffer very much 
from the rooks working the Potatoes. Thus I have to earth them very 
close on the top. They are earthed with the ridging plough and 
brought to a close ridge. That may be the reason they are not so very 
bad. I suppose that is the plan recommended by Mr. Jensen. I may 
add the sixty-five were not earthed nearly sp high, and the work was 
done by hoes in the usual way.— C. Osman. 
I think this year of 188S has been the worst for Potatoes since 
1879 both for disease and smallness of crop. > Round here they will 
