108 
JOURNAL OF HORTICULTURE AND COTTAGE GARDENER 
[ August 6, 1885. 
familiar name to readers of horticultural literature all over the civilised 
ivorld, for is not the “ Home of Flowers ” there ? Mr. Cannell has worked 
wonders, and a sincere hope may be expressed that he will live long to 
enjoy the fruits of his labour and enterprise. But what can be said of 
the “ Home of Fruit P ” Considering that three or four years ago the 
site was a poor and practically barren field that nobody would look at, 
it is positively astounding. As an example of trade enterprise Mr Ladds’ 
establishment has no parallel in its way, and it is not too much to assume 
that no other man living could have done what he has accomplished in 
the time. Three years ago a bed of gravel covered with Thistles and 
other weeds ; now not less than sixty-five admirably finished span- 
roofed structures 240 feet long, and not only finished, but occupied, the 
roofs of five houses covered with Grapes, or the crops cut, and some 
more with splendid rods, others planted with Mardchal Niel and Gloire 
de Dijon Roses, and the whole block having as a boundary a span- 
roofed vinery 686 long, and 25 feet wide without a division. The Vines, 
Gros Colman, are growing freely, and the borders are occupied with 
Tomatoes in fruit—a forest of them. Two thousand pounds of fruit had 
been sent off on the day of our visit, and a telegram arrived as we did 
at 2.30 for 2000 lbs. more by the three o'clock train, and the active 
foreman, Mr. Field, I think, sent it off, That is the way to do 
business. About 70,000 Tomato plants are fruiting or will fruit this 
year at Swanley, and the crop will not be less than 80 tons; and 
altogether Mr. Ladds will market at least 100 tons of Tomatoes this year, 
probably many more, and very soon he will have as many tons of Grapes. 
How does he sell such quantities ? There is only one reply, By sending 
the best produce into the market in the best condition. This commands 
a sale, and the inferior hangs on the market, and gives the producers no 
returns worth noting. Hundreds of tons of fruit are sent to London 
that the sellers do not know what to do with ; it is either badly grown or 
improperly packed, and then the owners wonder at the market prices 
they see in the papers. The time has gone by, or is departing, for send¬ 
ing second and third-rate garden produce to town in the hope of making 
a fortune by its sale. 
All the houses are built of pitch pine, painted three times, glazed with 
21-oz. glass, 17 by 13 inch squares well embedded in putty, but no top 
putty used. The hot-water pipes are jointed with cement and well 
caulked, never fail, split, nor break, but, as is proved at Bexley Heath, 
last for a generation. The boilers are also composed of similar pipes 
placed horizontally with their ends connected with terminal water ways. 
This boiler in its perfected form is termed the Rochford, and is employed 
because of its simplicity and power. 
The roofs of large houses are kept rigid by purlines supported on pillars, 
the said purlines being 1^-inch iron pipes connected with the water mains. 
On these pipes are valves at intervals, and by turning them and screwing 
on the hose, for which provision is made, the houses can be watered with 
the greatest ease and to any extent desired. This is a first-rate arrange¬ 
ment and worthy of being kept in mind. A slight error has been made 
in fixing some of these pipe purlines that is worth mentioning. They were 
fixed rather too near the ends of the houses, and the expansion of the iron 
by heat has broken the glass. In the completion of the gigantic work so 
far as it has gone that appears the only little mistake that has been 
made. With the exception of the three large vineries at Dartford, which 
are 13 feet or 14 feet high, with side lights, all the others are low, not 
above 7 feet or 8 feet high, and thus the Grapes can be easily reached for 
thinning. There are no side lights. The angle of the roofs is about 45°. 
The houses are ventilated by about 3 feet square glazed lids at intervals 
in the roof ; in fact, the width of two squares of glass, the rafter being 
shortened so that the portion removed fits exactly across the space and 
forms a bar, so that not an inch of wood is wasted. These lights are 
opened and closed by weights and pulleys, a piece of iron pipe filled with 
cement making a capital weight. The front ventilators are in the form of 
lids in the side walls. These lids hang on pivots near the top, and also in 
the centre of each board, and near the top a piece of iron hangs. It is 
about 6 inches long and the size of a pencil. When the ventilators are 
opened—that is, pushed outwards from the inside of the house with a rod 
for that purpose, this iron naturally falls and rests on what may be termed 
the floor of the embrasure, and props up the lid securely. In closing 
the man walks along, knocks away the prop, and the lids fall like the lid 
of a mousetrap, and all is safe. The plan is the very essence of simplicity 
and unerring in action. “ Opening the front ventilators all at once by 
turning a handle without going through the houses is all very well,” says 
Mr. Ladds, “ but I like a man to go through, as in attending to the 
ventilators his eye might catch something else that wants attending to, 
and that otherwise would not be seen.” Thus have all the details of form¬ 
ing and working this greatest establishment been thought out. It is not 
completed yet. Many more houses will be erected with another boundary 
structure at right angles with the present one, but longer by some 200 
feet, so that these two structures alone will exceed a quarter of a mile in 
length. The rafters of the houses are 3 inches deep and nearly inch 
wid°e, six being cut from a 9-inch deal. 
Two thousand frame lights are being made of pitch pine, probably for 
sheltering Heaths, of which a few thousands are on trial and looking well. 
In the meantime several lights are employed for sheltering Strawberries 
for forcing, of which 200,000 are grown in 5-inch pots. A crock is placed 
in each pot, then half an inch of soot, and the soil is next hammered in by 
hoys. The runners are cut off before rooting, but with rootlets visible, 
with an inch or two of each below the node. These are inserted quickly and 
firmly, like putting in cuttings, and not one in a hundred fails to make a 
good plant. That is the quickest way of all, and is practised all through 
e early part of the season, only the late runners being pegged into pots 
before being detached from the plants. The gardener’s method of layer¬ 
ing into small pots and shifting into larger is laughed at, as involving a 
needless waste of time and labour. 
It is surprising to see how well Strawberries grow in what resembles 
a bed of gravel, and the growth of the vines is remarkable by its excel¬ 
lence. Deep trenching and heavy manuring, with free drainage and 
abundance of water, is the secret of it all. Digging a “ spade deep,’’ no 
matter how much manure were used, would be playing at cultivation in a 
soil like this. It would rimply end in failure in comparison with the 
magnificent success achieved. The land is trenched from 2 feet to 3 feet 
deep, according to the subsoil, and from 60 tons to 100 tons of manure 
are buried in a 240-feet-long house. “ Such free open soil as this,” 
observes the owner, “ never sours, and I like land that will stand manure.” 
Mr. Ladds having risen from the ranks, and become a king among culti¬ 
vators, can show the soundness of his judgment and practice by its fruits. 
He is still in the prime of life. He is a shrewd, clear-headed, closely 
observant, and deep-thinking man, quick to act when he sees his way, but 
until then he does not move ; he is, in fact, the very embodiment of the 
valuable.axiom, “ First see your way, then go ahead.” Some persons go 
ahead before seeing their way clearly; they are “ too fast,” hence fail. 
Others see their way and dare not go ahead; they are too slow or timid, 
and so miss their chance and lag behind. But how are all the GrapeB to 
be thinned when the Vines in Mr. Ladds’ four establishments are in full 
bearing P If he lives, and all goes well, he will in a few years have 
a length of five miles of span-roofed vineries in bearing. The thin¬ 
ning will be a formidable task, but it has all been thought out. He can 
“see his way” to solve the problem, and when the time comes he will 
“go ahead.” The Grapes are sure to be thinned, and if Hive I will see 
his plan in operation, and report the further progress in this extraordinary 
enterprise. The worst of it is, Phillip Ladds’ great work makes me, at 
least, feel small, and if I express my feelings in a signature it must be— 
A Slow-coach. 
DEATH OF MR. JAMES CUTBUSH. 
It is with great regret that we have to announce the death of Mr. 
James Cutbush, which took place early on Sunday morning, August 2nd. 
The deceased gentleman, who was well known as the head of the firm of 
W. Cutbush k Son, Highgate, was universally respected, and the news of 
his death will be heard with sorrow and surprise by numbers of friends 
who had seen him apparently in his usual health but a short time, pre¬ 
viously. Though Mr. Cutbush’s health has not recently given his friends 
serious cause for alarm, yet he had, we hear, felt somewhat unwell for 
some time past. He conducted his business in the usual way, however, 
and until a few hours before his death was in his nursery. Subsequently 
he attended a presentation of prizes by the Baroness Burdett Coutts at a 
local flower show, and it was while speaking there that he was seized with 
an apoplectic fit. Medical aid was at once summoned and he was removed 
to his home. On his arrival there he rallied somewhat, and was able to 
walk into his house with assistance, but he was afterwards seized with 
another fit and expired soon after midnight. Mr. James Cutbush was 
fifty-seven years of age ; he was in business at Highgate about thirty-five 
years, but the firm has been established upwards of 150 years. The 
business of this firm will be conducted in future by Mr. Herbert Cutbush, 
eldest Bon of the deceased, who was absent in Scotland when the sad event 
occurred. The remains of Mr. James Cutbush will be interred in High¬ 
gate Cemetery to-day (Thursday) at three o’clock in the afternoon. 
Grand National Dahlia Show. —We are requested to announce 
that “ at a recent meeting of the subscribers to the prize fund for the Show 
to be held in September next at the Crystal Palace it was decided to offer 
a prize to be called the Turner Memorial Prize as a memento of the late 
Mr. Charles Turner of Slough, who laboured so assiduously towards the es¬ 
tablishment of these exhibitions. Several subscriptions varying in amount 
from 2s. 6d. to 21s. have been received for this object. Those who desire 
to contribute either to this or the general fund are requested to send their 
subscriptions within the next few days to the Hon. Treasurer, Mr. Thomas 
Moore, Botanic Gardens, Chelsea, S.W., in order that the conditions of the 
prize may be settled at the next meeting of the Committee, which will 
take place shortly.” It will be seen that a proposition of wider scope is 
made in another column by Mr. J. Douglas. 
-Writing from Northenden, a correspondent obsirves :—“Straw¬ 
berries are not doing well here this year, as through there is an enormous 
crop the berries are rotting and moulding off in thousands, the result of 
unfavourable weather. Roses just now are here in their full beauty, so 
you see what little chance we northerners had of competing at the 
National Show. No mildew as yet, but [raen fly galore.” 
