Ftbruary 28, 188 . J 
JOURNAL OF HORTICULTURE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. 
171 
There are broad p’atforms at intervals, and flights of steps leading to 
the summit, or nearly so, for the structure terminates in a wt orl of sails 
of peculiar construction. “ What in the world have you got there?” is a 
question that any stranger would naturally ask, as I did. “ Oh, that is 
our Eiffel Tower” was the r°ply of Mr. George Truscott, or in other 
words a Toronto pump. It is for raising water, with wind as the motive 
power, for supplying the garden, lakes, stables, and mansion if needed ; 
and if the power is sufficient, and force regular, no one need be surprised 
if Sir Francis has not the requisite machinery attached for generating 
electricity and lighting the cottages of the head gardener, kitchen 
gardener, lawn man, and others that may be near. These dwellings are 
all that can be desired for the comfort of families, and finished in a 
manner of which the occupants should be, and doubtless are, proud. I 
had almost forgotten the gardener, Mr. F. Dunn. Having been trained 
under such men as Messrs. T. Record, T. Sanders, W. Bardney, and W. 
Iggulden, he ought to be, and is proving, equal to the undertaking. He 
took charge of the pleasure ground and plant department last year, set 
to work with a will, and in a very short time gave such satisfactory proof 
of his competency that on the death of the “ old gardener ” Mr. J. 
Johnson, a few months ago was raised to his present position of trust 
and responsibility—the charge of the entire estate. 
IN THE CITY. 
Sir Francis Truscott, as all Londoners know, is one of the most 
prominent men in the city. He has filled with great distinction the 
highest position he could attain there. I have looked down on the crowd 
at several Lord Mayor’s processions through Fleet Street, a sight of which 
there is no equal, but at none was greater enthusiasm manifested than 
when Sir Francis Truscott was the prominent figure. He was honoured 
by the Sovereign, and is associated with Royalty in an historical landmark 
—the Temple Bar Memorial, on which is carved his portrait, the 
principal figures represented being statues of Her Majesty and the 
Prince of Wales, with the portrait of Prince Albert Victor on the West¬ 
minster side. ■ Sir Francis Truscott was one of Ireland’s best friends 
during his.-mayoralty, a friend in deeds not words ; and when a Potato 
famine was looming in the near future through the ruin of the crops by 
the murrain, he gave the great order to Messrs. Carter & Co. for a thousand 
tons of the Scotch Champion for distribution among the peasantry for 
planting. This order was given and executed in the autumn of 1879, 
and I remember seeing an official letter from Dublin Castle, written, I 
think, towards the close of the following year, stating that in no single 
instance had a complaint been received of the quality of the Potatoes, 
and in all cases they had proved disease-resisting and prolific. Unques¬ 
tionably this consignment was of substantial benefit to thousands of 
families, while it had a stimulating effect on others who interested 
themselves in supplying reliable and profitable varieties, for rendering 
more certain than heretofore, and more abundant, the staple crop of the 
sister isle.—W. 
ROSE SHOWS IN 1889. 
June 24th. Ryde. 
,, 26th. Richmond (Surrey). 
„ 27th. Farningham, Winchester. 
July 2nd. National Rose Conference at Chiswick ; Sutton. 
„ 3rd. National Rose Conference at Chiswick ; 3agshot, Croydon, 
Maidstone. 
„ 4th. Bath, Brockham, Canterbury, Norwich. 
„ 6th. Crystal Palace (National Rose Society). 
„ 9th. Diss, Hereford, Hitchin. 
„ 10th. Dursley, Ipswich, Tunbridge Wells. 
„ 11th. Gloucester. 
„ 16th. Birkenhead. 
,, 18th. Sheffield (National Rose Society), Helensburgh. 
„ 20th. Manchester. 
„ 23rd. Tibshelf. 
This preliminary list gives the dates of all the Rose Shows that I 
have up to the present time been able to ascertain as having been 
definitely decided upon. I have also included in it the dates on which 
a National Rose Conference will be held by the Royal Horticultural 
Society in their Gardens at Chiswick, as this Conference, although dif¬ 
fering in many respects from an ordinary Rose show, will no doubt be 
the leading event of the coming Rose season. For insertion in future 
lists I shall be glad to receive any Rose show fixtures not appearing 
above as soon as they are finally settled.— Edwabd Mawley, lloscbanlt, 
Bcrlihamsted, Herts. 
THE WINTER. 
The present winter, up to the middle of February, has been as 
notable for its extreme mildness as last summer was for its want of 
geniality. On February 1st a Pelargonium was still alive in my garden, 
and a Verbena in strong growing health. I began to think the feat of 
cutting Roses out of doors every month during the year might be 
accomplished again this winter, for I succeeded in doing this once, in 
the winter of 1881-2, and as the locality is considerably no. th of the 
latitude of London, it may perhaps be considered noteworthy. 
The varieties cut each month were as follows, no protection what¬ 
ever beyond the shelter of a wall having been given in any case. I 
made no note of November, 1881 ; one can always cut a Rose or two 
during the first week of this month. On December 16th I had a hand¬ 
some Duke of Edinburgh; on January 10th, 1882, three expanded 
Dupuy Jamains, a Devoniensis, and a Mrs. Bosanquet ; on February 
16th a good Rubens ; on March 20th a Souvenir d’un Ami, and a Rcve 
d’Or, but I cannot say they were good ; on April 21st a splendid Rubens ; 
and in May, of course, there were Marechal Niels, &c., galore, for I had 
at that time a quantity of very strong Tea Roses on south walls, and 
on May 30th I cut upwards of 300 grand Tea Rose blooms of all sorts 
to send to the wedding of a friend in the north. 
I have not got the walls or the plants now, and if I had last week 
would have been a severe trial to them unless they had been carefully 
covered up. Mid-February proved a most unexpected interlude in this 
extraordinary winter. My registering thermometer is hung under 
shelter on a north wall. On the morning of February 12th it had 
registered during the night 11° Fahr., or 21° of frost, and on the follow¬ 
ing morning it had gone down to 5°, 6° more. The first morning I 
thought it must have been tampered with, as it was so sudden, and 
the morning was cloudy ; but on the second day carefully covered pipes 
frozen inside the house, protected cream in the dairy meeting the same 
fate, and ice pudding, not on the menu, appearing at dinner, all testified 
to its correctness. Similar low readings were obtained in the immediate 
neighbourhood, but the extremity of this sudden “ cold snap ” seems to 
have been confined to this locality. 
Experience warns me that a considerable time must elapse before 
all the evil results of such a frost can be summed up. The character 
of the weather during last summer and the previous part of the winter 
renders such a visitation doubly dangerous. Fortunately we had about 
10 inches of snow, or the consequences might have been very serious. 
I am more than ever convinced that to make Tea Roses safe here they 
must be grown as dwarfs, and earthed up during the winter. The frost 
was preceded by furious gales from all quarters, but the strongest wind 
that ever blew can have no effect upon the protection afforded by ridges 
of earth lightly frozen. The snow, too, is a much greater protection to 
dwarfs than to standards, and, altogether, I have been obliged to give 
up standard Teas entirely, though, 1 believe, there is something in the 
assertion that they produce the best exhibition blooms. In this low 
locality 1 find I cannot protect them sufficiently from the frost. 
1 have been informed that professional Rose growers on the Con¬ 
tinent bend down and bury with earth the heads of their standard Tea 
Roses during the winter, but I should have thought that this would 
cause a great strain on the stem or on the roots, and that it would only 
be practicable with quite young plants. Viewed in any light, frost is 
a serious enemy to the grower of Tea Roses, for the earthed up dwarf 
plants, which are killed to the snow or earth line, cannot be said to have 
suffered no harm, since now, if warm weather ensues, the only live buds 
remaining will begin to grow, whereas it is desirable that they should 
remain dormant for another two months. 
Let me remind those who strike their own Briar cuttings that they 
should now go over those which were inserted last October, and push, 
them down to the bottom of their holes. I found most of mine loose this 
week, having been raised by the frost half an inch or more.— 
W. R. Raillem. 
GARDENERS AND THEIR SOCIAL POSITION. 
I have been expecting to see someone take up the subject of the 
exclusion of gardeners as voters for members of County Councils. As 
matters stand at present there is no doubt we are classed as menials. 
Why, it would be hard to say, but probably because to the general 
public a gardener is a gardener, let him be a man with an important 
charge or let him groom a horse or turn a mangle. It will show a 
culpable amount of apathy on the part of gardeners if they do not 
begin to stir themselves on this important subject. I, for one, think it 
is high time to “ band ourselves together for the purpose of weeding out 
the comparatively worthless, and sometimes spurious, from our ranks, 
and make and conform to a code of rules establishing who are and wi o 
are not entitled to be called gardeners as distinguished from labourers, 
or grooms and gardeners,” and also to have a representative of hort'- 
culture in Parliament. It will be a work entailing a good deal if 
labour, time, and difficulty, and ought not to be postponed ; but the 
question is, Who is to do it? or how is this “weeding” to be accom¬ 
plished ? We are not only an isolated class, but a busy class, and our 
minds are taken up to a greater extent with our manifold duties than at 
least any other menial department, and on those—and to many of us 
rare—occasions when we visit, or are visited by a brother blue apron, 
we are too apt to talk “shop,” to the exclusion of such subjects as voting 
for County Councillors. Albeit we cannot but deplore our exclusion from 
the qualified list when we see our labourers exercising the right, and 
with Mr. Bighter I think the time has arrived when we ought to com¬ 
bine for the advancement of our own interests.—H. C. W. 
In your issue of the 7th inst., at page 108, Mr. II. Dale in his 
