88 
JOURNAL OF HORTICULTURE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. 
[ February 4, 1883 
result of all its trials may be an increased hold cn the people,” &c. This 
again is not the language of one who thinks his country is on its “last 
legs.” There is so much that can be said on such matters as the “gentle¬ 
man market gardener ” who sells from necessity, the same individual who 
sells from choice ; the market gardener who has to complain of unjust 
rating ; the distressed farmer who has to complain of hard bargains and 
harder landlords ; the equally distressed farmer who has in a great degree 
only his own want of skill and enterprise to blame for his want of success ; 
the generous landlords who have given all encouragement and aid to their 
tenants that they were able to afford ; the landlords who from rent reduc¬ 
tions and unlet lands are unable to draw enough from their estates to pay 
the mortgages and encumbrances on them, and who have the unsatisfactory 
and unhappy position of the appearance of wealth without the reality.” 
All these might engage our attention in the Journal, as certainly they 
demand our attention in the carrying on of the affairs of our country. 
How best to meet and mitigate all the various difficulties and hard¬ 
ships attending these several great departments iu our national economy 
should engage the thoughts of all who wish that in spite of everything 
Britain may still retain her supremacy, and her sons be able to cultivate 
her soil in the future with such a measure of success as will enable them 
to live in comfort and happiness. There can be no doubt that we are on 
the eve of great changes in regard to the land question ; let us hope that 
these changes may be so carried out that every encouragement will be 
given to those cultivators who are anxious and willing to cultivate the 
land in a thorough and liberal style, giving to it freely so that they may 
receive as freely. 
This should be encouraged in every way, and such arrangements should 
be made as would offer every inducement to cultivators to keep their land 
up to the highest pitch in regard to fertility by the assurance that when 
they gave it up at any time they would receive a due recompense for 
having cultivated highly to the end of their occupation. 
It is not necessary that I should repeat my ideas in regard to the equal 
rating of market gardeners pure and simple and gentlemen marketers. I 
differ from “ Utilitarian,” and hope that iu due time something will be 
done to place matters on another footing. Regarding “Utilitarian’s” 
remarks about the need of a higher education for farmers and gardeners— 
be especially mentions the latter, but I think boih need it—I may say 
that much might be done in that direction by many of both classes with 
very little expense and not much trouble, comparatively speaking. 
Gardening periodicals are now plentiful and cheap, books on gardening 
abound, opportunities of seeing other places are easily within reach of 
the mass of young gardeners, and if there is the will to improve there is 
little to prevent anyone from attaining to much knowledge which at 
present often lies hid, simply from want of will and the exercise of study, 
which would suffice to improve matters greatly if indulged in. As long 
as many gardeners fail to recognise that they are following a most elaborate 
and complicated profession, which requires a varied set of attain¬ 
ments if it is to be thoroughly pursued and successfully engaged in, 
then there will always be such “ gardeners” as “ Utilitarian ” refers to. 
In like manner, until farmers come as a body to recognise that farm¬ 
ing is capable with profit of being made a science, we shall have men 
attempting to farm who are utterly devoid of much that is necessary to 
continued success in farming, and wonder will continue to be expressed 
that they do not succeed. Then, again, many farmers have at the pre¬ 
sent time not been able to bring themselves down to the times ; they can¬ 
not think to deny themselves many things that they could at least want 
till on a better footing again. But they must ever bear in mind those 
virgin lands which “ Thinker ” seems to think I make too much of, also 
the ever-increasing facilities of transit, and the fact also that their 
brethren beyond the seas, one in most cases managing to get along by 
dint of hard work, and the denial of many little luxuries that our dis¬ 
tressed agriculturists think they could not dispense with. No one 
wishes that they should be deprived of these when they can pay their 
way and face all competition with success, but as long as “ distress ” is the 
cry, increased efforts must be combined with increased economy. We 
must bear ever in mind that the landed interest, the farming interest, and 
the horticultural interest, cannot be independent of one another ; the 
prosperity of the one means the prosperity of the other, they all hang 
together, and all who wish success to any one of them, must also wish 
well for the others. 
We must look for wise legislation in the immediate future, we must 
hope for better times as regards our climate, we must encourage every 
effort in the way of individual enterprise, and we must weigh all our 
difficulties and competitions aright, and show our old British pluck by 
Using superior to them all. 
May the difficulties we have to encounter only stimulate us to increased 
efforts, so that the future will disclose a time of material prosperity 
which will enable that branch of the fine arts we call horticulture to 
flourish as freely and generally as any reader of the Journal could desire. 
—J. T. S. 
MILDEW. 
In reply to the query propounded by “ J. L. B.,” page 45, with 
reference to gypsum as a preventive of mildew, I may say that after 
a dozen years’ experience I am fully convinced that it requires both the 
constituents of that article to effect a cure, not as gypsum, however, but 
by themselves, with the addition of soft water as follows—Take at the 
rate of 5 lbs. of flowers of sulphur to 4 lbs. freshly slaked lime, add one 
quart of water to the pound, boil slowly half an hour, stirring all the 
while. Allow it to settle, then strain through a thin cloth, and when 
cold bottle and cork tightly. It will keep for months, and is always 
ready for use. For Roses I generally use one bottle to two ordinary large 
watering pots of rain water, and apply it in the evening, syringing well 
with clear water early the next morning. Under glass it is better to use 
a weak solution; for late Peas it is required stronger, and so on, but 
that is a matter easily determined by the exigencies of the case. It i3 
scarcely necessary to add that it ought to be applied at the first indica¬ 
tions of the disease.—H. C. W. 
The National Auricula and Carnation Societies’ schedules 
are now to hand, and announce that the exhibitions for the present 
year will be held respectively on April 20th and July 27th in the 
conservatory of the Royal Horticultural Society’s Gardens, South Ken¬ 
sington. It is stated that by the terms of the schedule “ the Auricula 
exhibition is for one day only, but it is hoped that many exhibitcrs will 
allow their plants to remain during the next day as the integral parts of 
the great exhibition of Primulaceous plants that will probably prove a 
bright feature of the next London season.” The accounts of both 
Societies show a small balance, and with a larger accession of members 
they will be soon placed in a fairly prosperous condition. 
- Amongst the objects of interest at the forthcoming Colonial and 
Indian Exhibition will be a rare collection of indigenous Australian 
Grasses. The specimens are named to correspond with the nomenclature 
used in the “ Flora Australiensis,” and there is in addition much practical 
information about each, derived from general sources. 
- The annual meeting of the Nursery and Seed Trade 
Association was held on the 25th of January at 25, Old Jewry, E.C- 
The chair was taken by Mr. Sherwood (of the firm Messrs. Hurst & Sons 
Houndsditchj, and the ninth annual report was read and adopted. It 
was stated that there had been a proposal to wind up the Association in 
1884, hut several energetic members being convinced of its usefulness in 
affording reliable information respecting the stability of persons in trade 
that could not be otherwise obtained, had assisted in strengthening it, and 
the result was a favourable balance of over £48. Several toasts were 
proposed and responded to by Messrs. Sherwood, H. H. Clarke, Harrison 
of Leicester, William Paul, Hooper, C. Butcher, and Harry J. Yeitch, and 
the meeting altogether proved very satisfactory. 
- Messrs. Barr & Son, King Street, Covent Garden, send us a pan 
of Galanthus Elwesi, which they state “has been out all the winter 
till the last few days, when put in a cold frame to protect the blossoms 
from the dashing rain. It was intended for the Floral Committee, but as it 
does not meet till the 9th inst., I fear the flowers may he past.” They 
were beautiful, healthy examples of this fine Snowdrop, the outer divisions 
of the perianth being pure white and nearly seven-eighths of an inch in 
diameter. We have never seen better specimens. We gave a good illus¬ 
tration of G. Elwesi in this Journal March 19th, 1885, p. 227. 
- A CORRESPONDENT remarks that in the note on page 65 of last 
week’s issue “ the imports of wine into France last year are said to 
have been over 180,000 gallons. Ought not this to read 180,000,000 
gallons 1” A reference to the context shows that the latter amount is the 
correct one. 
-We have to record the death of Mr. John Scott of Merriott, 
Somersetshire, which occurred on the 22nd ult. He had paid particular 
attention to pomology, and formed very extensive collections of fruit trees 
and Conifers in his nursery. He was in his 79th year at the time of his 
death, and was much respected in the district. 
- At the Meetings and Shows of the Royal Horticultural 
Society in the present year Messrs. James Carter & Co., High Holboru, 
London, will offer the following prizes on the dates named :—May 25th, 
Cucumbers, three prizes; June 22nd, Melons and Cucumbers, three 
prizes each. July 13th, for Peas, four prizes. July 27th, for Beans, 
Lettuces, and Cabbages, three prizes each. Sept. 7th, for Tomatoes, 
three. Oct. 12th, Onions, three ; Cauliflowers, three ; and Runner Beans, 
three prizes each ; and on October 26th, Potatoes, four prizes. 
