December re, 1889.1 
JOURNAL OF HORTICULTURE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. 
523 
T)ROM time to time letters reach me, and accumulate, on a 
Jj variety of subjects, and though they are attended to and 
briefly answered either publicly or privately, as each case demands, 
some of them are too suggestive to be cast aside, notably, I think, 
•one from a traveller in search of what he did not find. This letter 
is dated Charlotte Town, Prince Edward’s Island, Canada, 
November 5th, 1889, and may prove interesting to gardeners and 
others who may be contemplating a fortune-hunting trip to 
California. The letter was written after a sojourn of several 
months in the State referred to by a gentleman whose sound 
judgment, diligence, and skill as a physician enabled him to win 
a good position in the keen competition of London and to acquire 
means that justified him in leaving the Old World for the New in 
the hope of indulging in the pursuit which he loved of “grow¬ 
ing something ” better than he could grow at home ; and his whole 
past life of enterprise on land and sea is a guarantee that he would 
not yield to trifling obstacles, hence the experience he relates is the 
more significant. Here is the Doctor’s letter. 
“ I have not been able to write before as, being thoroughly 
disappointed with the barren desert of California, so unhesitatingly 
* lied up ’ by my informants, I have been engaged for some months 
trying to find a place where I could cultivate a few vegetables, 
flowers, &c. As there is not an accessible acre of land on the 
American Pacific coast for which I would give five cents an acre, I 
have yielded to the entreaties of my family, and am on my way 
back to England, and shall call on you before Christmas. We have 
had a most wretched experience, and I am just recovering from 
fever and ague, caught in the Sacramento Yalley, the people con¬ 
soling me by saying that everyone has it; but I shall give you a 
true and unvarnished account of the whole country when I see you, 
and which I venture to hope you will be kind enough to insert in 
the Journal, with the view of deterring any more Englishmen 
ruining themselves and enriching the railroads by going to a country 
where nothing will grow except under from four to eight hours a 
day artificial irrigation. There is not a blade of grass in the State 
growing naturally, no hay therefore ; abominable meat, no vege¬ 
tables worth eating, and a temperature in the Yalley of 115° during 
the day, falling to 54° and 58° at night. I have written down a few 
facts which I have seen myself, and had verified by old timer 
Californians, Texans, &c., and which are all literally true. All of us 
are now well. This climate (Prince Edward’s Island) is grand ; 
the fresh sea air mixed with the smell of the Fir and Pine 
trees is life-giving and most exhilirating. Charlotte Town is 
progressing not very rapidly, but surely. The farmers are, how¬ 
ever, rapidly improving their farms, drive handsome traps, have 
good horses, and most of them roomy new houses and barns, and 
Mrs. B. says the country reminds her of England. The Island 
has always been called the G-arden of Canada. It will do my 
heart good to see the old English faces and friends.” 
As is apparent, the home-sick M.D. very decidedly prefers the 
Canadian town, in which he regained health, to the dry and thirsty 
land in California, to which he seems to have been allured, and in 
which, instead of finding the flowers and fruits he longed fo^ 
caught the fever. California is a vast territory, and some parts are 
probably more favourable for emigrants to settle in than others. 
Fruit, notably Peaches, are grown in the open, the same as Apples 
and Pears are grown in England. There are also extensive Plum 
orchards, the fruit being chiefly dried and sold as prunes, while 
Grapes are produced on a large scale for wine-making purposes. 
That there is land worth much more than “ five cents an acre ” is 
undoubted, but my exploring correspondent failed to find it, though 
No. 495.—Vo . XIX., Third Series. 
others have succeeded. During the past summer Mr. Leonard 
Coates, who is engaged in growing fruit in California, spent several 
weeks in England, and I had the pleasure of conversing with him 
on the work in which he is extensively engaged ; and if he did not 
find it profitable he would scarcely have been so anxious to return* 
seeing he has a good home in England, his father being the mayor 
of a provincial town. My correspondent, however, as I have said, 
evidently prefers the Canadian district from which he wrote, but 
the “old country” to either, the shores of which he is probably 
now approaching. 
The experience of the gentlemen mentioned naturally leads to 
the important subject of emigration. From letters that reach me 
every week there is no doubt whatever, I am sorry to say, that the 
home market, to use a commercial term, is greatly overstocked with 
gardeners. Men of high character and unquestionable ability have 
been for a long time wearily waiting for appointments, and failing 
to find them at home, it is only natural they should direct their 
thoughts to the newer nationalities and more thinly populated 
territories beyond the seas. Men in ever increasing numbers are 
seeking advice on this most important subject, and as I am com¬ 
pelled to decline the responsibility of choosing for them a territory 
for a new home, I direct them to the best sources of information 
known to me. The first of these is the “ Emigrants’ Information 
Office,” 31, Broadway, Westminster, S.W. This is referred to 
as follows in that mine of useful information, “ Hazell’s Annual 
for 1890 
“ This office has been established under the supervision of the 
Colonial Office for the purpose of supplying intending emigrants 
with useful and trustworthy information respecting the British 
colonies. The classes chiefly required in the colonies at present 
are labourers and others connected with the land, female domestic 
servants, and farmers with a little capital. Hardly any assisted 
passages are now granted, Queensland, the Cape, and Natal giving 
the most encouragement. The importance of the subject is shown 
by the fact that the exodus from Great Britain has averaged during 
the last decade about 200,000 persons annually, of whom about 
three-fourths now go to the United States.” 
It may be added that the number of British and Irish emigrants 
in 1888 was nearly 280,000. Letters from persons desiring infor¬ 
mation and advice directed to the chief clerk at the address above 
given will be attended to without any cost to applicants. This is 
not a shipping office or agency established for obtaining passengers, 
but is a Government department, the officials gaining and dis¬ 
seminating the best information in the interests of persons who 
need it the most—intending emigrants. There is also a “Self-help 
Emigration Society ” in London, established “ for the underpaid 
and unemployed in Great Britain.” 
“ This Society assists applicants whose character and fitness are 
assured to emigrate to Canada. The Society supplements the funds 
of the intending emigrant, and assists him to obtain his passage. 
Introductions are furnished to the Society’s correspondents, who 
are men of position, forty-one in number, resident in various 
centres of Canada, and work is provided for the emigrant on his 
’arrival out. The cost to the Society averages £2 10s. per head 
and during the past year some 900 persons have been thus located 
at a cost of about £4500, £3000 of which was contributed by the 
emigrants and their friends. Employment was found for all who 
were willing to work. Application from intending emigrants 
should be made to Rev. R. Mackay, Secretary, 50, Fleet Lane, 
Farringdon Street, E.C.” 
I have no reason to doubt the genuine nature of this Society 
and mention it because I have of late received letters from persons 
whose capital is not sufficient, in my opinion, to justify their going 
on a prospecting expedition across the Atlantic. Too many have 
done this, and their small and hardly earned savings have been soon 
exhausted, and they have found themselves friendless, longing to 
return home, but w ithout the means of doing so. It appears to^ me 
highly desirable that before leaving the Old World for the New, 
men with little or no capital should have introductions to residents 
there, whose willingness to aid them in obtaining employment has 
No. 2151 .—Vol. LXXXL, Old Series. 
