April 17, l!«0. ] 
JOURXAL OF HORTICULTURE AXD COTTAGE GARDEXER. 
317 
51’ to 84°, and bright sunny weather from day to day. I need not 
tell any English horticulturist what the result would be, and I am 
sure very few of them would be inclined to start Peach growing 
under such circumstances. 
With much that “ Waldo ” says I quite agree. The fault lies 
in the fact that he has not said quite enough in some places. For 
instance, he seems to have forgotten for a moment that there are 
no roads in Florida which an Englishman would consider worthy 
of the name. In their stead there are tracks through the forest 
"which are covered 4 inches in depth with loose sand; there are 
no stones and it is quite impossible to make roads. Eiding or 
driving is a matter of necessity there, even for short distances, 
^nd it takes about twice the time it would do in England to go 
an equal distance with a load. Anyone who contemplates making 
a home in Florida should therefore get “ located ” as near to a 
railway and a town as is possible, even if the “ sand ” costs them 
twice as much for the freehold. This disposes at once of the offer 
of “ land ” twelve or fifteen miles from a railroad at 10s. to £1 per 
acre ; it would be very dear in the end if taken as a gift. 
I quite agree with “Waldo ” that there is a good opening in 
Florida for gentlemen of capital, but they must have plenty of 
ferains also, and must be very careful about “ the capital ” when 
they get there until they can see their way clear to a good invest¬ 
ment. Many have gone out and have been very much deceived by 
unprincipled persons and lost all they possessed. It is not safe to 
part with any money until one gets there and sees for himself. 
Americans and others out there have quite a different scale 
to ours when estimating the advantages of their country, the 
quality of their fruits, and many other things, which too often is 
not found out quite soon enough by would-be settlers. 
That Florida is no country for a regular farmer is quite true. 
It is impossible to grow corn or vegetables in most places, and grass 
worth the name cannot be grown in most parts. I saw some very 
good pigs, however, notably one fine fellow under a plantation of 
Bananas. What connection the two had I did not exactly deter¬ 
mine, and cannot say if the Bananas assisted the pig or vice versa. 
"Strawberries are certainly said to bear from January to June. 
The crop, however, is something very different from what they 
be.ar in our own country. It was very amusing to me to hear an 
American say he had “ shipped ” seven quarts, and to find out that 
they were grown on IJ acre. This was about the third week in 
December. I saw the beds on January 17th with some fruit ripe, 
but they were a long way apart. The owner said he made 
"24 dollars—about 10s. 6d.—per quart for the first, but I could 
■easily see a quart would take a long time to find, and although 
"they bear for nearly six months the total weight of the crop would 
be very little more than would be got in England in one month, 
and the prices soon come down until they get to 10 cents, or 5d. per 
quart, and will not pay for sending away any distance. Only very 
■firm-fleshed varieties are grown, as they have to be sent several 
hundreds of miles to market. The flavour is not so good as our 
varieties are "when well coloured, and when sent any distance they 
-are gathered before they are half coloured. 
But places where Strawberries will grow are as a rule few and 
far between, as it is necessary for them in such a climate as 
Florida to have water not more than 18 inches below the surface, 
and some soil as well as sand to grow in. The roots will then be 
supplied with water to a certain extent by capillary attraction, but 
even in such positions as these I was told irrigation was almost a 
necessity at times. Time and space forbid me saying more at 
present. The country is a most enjoyable one in some parts to 
anyone fond of natural history in any of its branches, and especially 
'to anyone interested in botany and horticulture, and I hope to say 
more on the subject at some future time.—W. H. Diveks, Ketto'n 
■Hall Gardens, Stamford. 
SPRING FLOWERS AT HOME AND ABROAD. 
Hyacinths and Tulips. 
It is said to be an attribute of the British that they never know 
'when they are beaten, but go on fighting cheerfully, oblivious of the 
fact that according to every canon of warfare they ought to have given 
in long before. There is perhaps some truth in this, but excellent as is 
fhe trait, it is often wise to admit the truth, and set about studying the 
enemy’s position in order to try and turn the tables on him at a future 
f ime. In our mimic battles of flowers this holds good the same as in 
other matters. To give familiar force to my moral let me come at once 
to the case in view. It is this. At present at representative spring 
.shows both in England and Holland this year, candour demands the 
prompt .admission that so far as Hyacinth growing is concerned we are 
"beaten right out of the field. Were it a question of one or two points 
the matter might be debateable, for the flowers have to be carried in the 
mind’.s eye from Holland to England, and from England back again to 
HollaaiL, buit with quality quite 60 per cent, inferior the possibility of 
error in judgment is precluded, and it is best to accept the fact and 
devote the time saved from argument to a consideration of the causes 
which have led up to a result so little gratifying to believers in the 
“ never beaten ’’ theory. 
It m.ay be doubted whether, so far as exhibitors are concerned, the 
Hyacinth holds the place that it did ten years ago in England. Those 
who recollect when the conservatory at South Kensington was filled 
with the magnificent groups of these flowers that used to be staged 
by Messrs. Cutbush & Son, "Veitch &; Sons, Barr, Carter & Co., B. S. 
"SVilliams, and others, can realise the best how much the old order has 
changed. But it might be thought that although the trade growers do 
not show Hyacinths on the same scale as formerly, the increasing num¬ 
ber of amateur cultivators would fill the blank, for it must be admitted 
that every year the number of these flowers grown in England largely 
increases. The growth in popularity of the Daffodil has not prevented a 
rapid advance in the cultivation of Hyacinths. It is home culture only, 
however, and so the shows are shorn of much of their former beauty. 
While from the exhibition point of view the Hyacinth has been receding 
in favour in this country, in Holland it has made a striking advance. 
When one sees it as it is grown by the Dutchmen now one discovers a 
development formerly undreamed of, and realises that there are poten¬ 
tialities in Hyacinths not evolved by English growers. 
Cultivators in this country need not go far to discover some important 
FIG. -11.—NARCISSUS PSEUDO-NARCISSUS VARIETIES 1, MINIMUS ; 
2, MINOR ; 3, NANUS (see page 321). 
points in which they are placed at a great disadvantage with their con¬ 
tinental rivals. One of these which has no small.weight is the fact that 
every Dutch "bulb grower of any standing has an almost unlimited stock 
from which to make a selection. Cultivating Hyacinths by hundreds of 
thousands, he is able to pick out the very best samples from his large 
collection ; moreover, as quantity as well as (luality is at his command, 
he may pot a thousand, or even two thousand bulbs from which to select 
fifty or a hundred plants for showing. The process is expensive, even 
though the bulbs are had for nothing; nevertheless, it can be and is 
practised. Take the other side. An English bulb grower, whether on 
a large or small scale, has his bulbs to purch.ase, and though he may, 
and no doubt will, receive examples of very high quality if he is pre¬ 
pared to pay for them, he does not receive the cream of the Dutchman’s 
stock, and the first cost precludes him from buying on so large a scale as 
to place himself, so far as regards numbers, on an equality with the 
former. Unequal conditions therefore govern the contest. The home 
grower is handicapped from the very first. But clear as this point is in 
favour of the foreigner, it is not enough to account for the great dis¬ 
parity between collections of prize plants as grown in Holland and those 
grown in England, and it would seem that in Hyacinth cultivation we 
have still something to learn before the best results can be achieved. 
Perhaps we have been content with a moderate level of excellence, and 
have adhered to an established method of treatment instead of striving 
for further improvement. 
The superiority of the Dutch-grown Hyacinths is not a thing of long 
standing. At the quinquennial Exhibition at Haarlem iu 1883 the 
Dutch were as far behind their present standard as we are behind it 
now; and as proof that culture is mainly responsible for th'j difference, it 
may be pointed out that they enjoyed the same advantages respecting 
