December 5, 1885. 
THE GARDENING WORLD. 
211 
R oyal horticultural society, 
SOUTH KENSINGTON, S.W. 
NOTICE !—COMMITTEE MEETINGS, Fruit and Floral, at 
11 a.m., in the Conservatory; Scientitic, at 1 pan., in the Lmdley 
Library, on Tuesday next, December 8th. , TT 
N.B._Exhibitors’ Entrance, East side of Royal Albert Hall. 
CONTENTS. 
PAGE 
Asparagus Disease, &c. 
(illustrated) . 213 
Auriculas. 220 
Chrysanthemum culture 
(illustrated) . 216 
Chrysanthemums, Judging 21S 
Chrysanthemums, Mr. 
Molyneux on the . 213 
Chrysanthemum Shows .. 220 
Coelogyne Massangeana .. 210 
Dahlia, perfection in the .. 214 
Gardeners' Calendar. 219 
Horticultural Societies .. 222 
Insects injurious to Hops..217 
Lselia xanthina and L. 
grandis . 21! 
PAGU 
National Chrysanthemum 
Society . 211 
Odontoglossum elegans, 
(illustrated) . 216 
Orchards & MarketGardens 212 
Orchid Potting Materials.. 219 
Orchid Show, Birmingham 211 
Potatos, Frame . 212 
Rookery, The, Eccles .... 216 
Scottish Gardening . 214 
Scottish Horticultural As¬ 
sociation . 215 
Steplianotis floribunda, 
fruiting. 21S 
Telegraphic Code, a. 217 
Vegetables, Market ...... 211 
Zygopetalum Mackayii .. 219 
“ Gardening is the purest of human pleasures, and the greatest 
refreshment to the spirit of man.”— Bacon. 
Illpd ar WtEgllfnr&, 
SATURDAY, DECEMBER 5, 1885. 
Market A 7 egetables. —It will probably surprise 
many readers to learn that such common and 
bulky vegetables as white Turnips are being 
sent into London markets from places so remote 
as Yorkshire, and these Turnips not medium¬ 
sized Snowballs or Six Weeks, but large field 
samples. It is very doubtful whether such an 
exceptionally common and bulky vegetable has 
ever before found its way such a distance and 
realised a profit. The fact shows not only 
how dependent is the vast population found 
in the Metropolitan area upon the country 
for its simplest articles of food, but also that the 
resources of civilisation, as found in steam and 
railways, have surmounted space and distance, 
and rendered possible and profitable what half 
a century since would have been regarded as 
utterly Utopian. But the question is naturally 
asked, why send so far for Turnips 1 The 
answer is simple. It is because we have none 
within the ordinary area from which garden 
vegetables are usually raised for the London 
markets. Very probably there are few in the 
whole of the south of England, and certainly in 
all those districts in which the drought prevailed 
Turnips are very scarce. 
When such trifling articles of food as Turnips 
are thus made subjects of considerable depor¬ 
tation, we may well regard the provision of ample 
sustenance of the four millions of the Metro¬ 
politan population as a matter for grave 
consideration, and one that may become acute 
at any unexpected moment. Still farther, it is 
one so momentous that may well induce those 
who so glibly propose to tax food imports to 
pause ere they rush into acts that may be 
fraught with the gravest evil and the direst 
distress. Under ail circumstances and con¬ 
ditions, we should imagine those to be the 
greatest benefactors of humanity who placed 
the most ample supply of food, in many and 
varied forms, within easy reach of all, and 
especially of the poor ; for in the case of that 
seething portion of our population which exist 
just on the borders of poverty and starvation, 
cheap food of all useful kinds, and plenty of it, 
means almost absolute prosperity, whilst dear 
food means pauperism. 
How, it is not generally known, that in 
sending us Turnips at this exceptional season, 
and Potatos galore as a rule, that the north is 
but repaying us for favours showered down 
upon that less hospitable clime earlier in the 
year. One of the mainstays of the London 
market trade in fruits and choice vegetables 
are the “ packers,” by which designation 
is meant all those dealers in the markets who 
purchase largely of good samples, and send them 
away to the great northern towns for disposal. 
Of course, the products so forwarded are those 
which the north cannot tvell produce, or if pro¬ 
ductive of, then later in the year. Still, all 
experience shows that we can here in the south 
produce earlier and much better samples of 
garden produce than the north can. Hence, in 
thus sending of our southern products to the 
north, we are not only finding good and healthful 
food for the teeming millions of the black and 
weaving counties, but we are also very largely 
benefiting the market growers and workers of 
the south. Any fiscal attempt to check such 
internal trade, assuming such a suicidal policy 
is attempted, would but result in great injury to 
trade,and the population would immensely suffer. 
What is thus true of internal intercourse, 
seems equally true of international intercourse. 
We have but to write France, Germany or 
America for Middlesex, and England for York¬ 
shire or Lancashire, and the same thing happens. 
The good of one nation is the good of its 
neighbour when both indulge in free and 
unrestricted trade, just as two parts of a king¬ 
dom find benefit in the same course of action, 
Green vegetables present with Turnips evidences 
of the effects of seasons upon the produce of the 
soil, for not only are Turnips scarce, but all 
kinds of green stuffs are scarce too. Probably 
we have two-thirds less of green vege tables for 
the winter supply about London this year than 
is usually the case. This scarcity is not an 
unmixed evil in so far that when we have good 
crops these are usually so extensive that a glut 
with very low prices ensues. This year the 
various green products are obtaining good prices, 
but then the very materially lessened bulk 
hardly suffices to make good the loss consequent 
upon it otherwise. We shall probably find 
very soon that France, the Channel Islands, 
and our own most southern counties are sending 
into the metropolis large quantities of Broccoli; 
and the metropolitan growers are naturally 
anxious to make the best market they can of 
their produce before these importations turn up. 
The market growers are not as a rule selfish 
and stupid; in that respect they differ from the 
usual characters of large cultivators of the soil. 
Their market associations, and active inter¬ 
change of thoughts and opinions in the markets, 
enables them to perceive that not this or that 
man’s profits, but the feeding of the people is 
the first consideration ; hence they accept the 
inevitable, being assured that could not the 
foreigner send us such supplies, the people must 
often go short of food of such wholesome kinds 
as it is the market gardeners’ duty and vocation 
to create. 
The great need for the soil cultivator and 
food producer of this country is first found in 
more genial seasons, enabling the fruits of the 
earth to come to us freely and regularly ; but 
also some material reduction of those burthens 
which oppress the cultivator on every hand. 
He starts in the race of production heavily 
handicapped by charges for rent, too often an 
exceptionally oppressive impost, which alone 
swallows up all his profits. Then he has 
taxes, tithes, rates, all amounting to a heavy 
sum; also labour, seed, manure,. tools, and 
various other disbursements, all of which come 
to so large a sum per acre that it is marvellous 
how myriads of cultivators bear up. But when 
allied to these disadvantages the poor grower 
has to endure bad seasons, and possibly low 
prices, it is obvious that only a revolution in 
land tenure and of imposts can enable the 
middleman or tenant occupier and cultivator 
to exist. Very much is said from time to time 
as to the need for relieving land from the heavy 
charges for local rates, but these charges are for 
almost purely local objects, and relief can only 
be afforded by giving grants in aid from the 
imperial taxes. That is a sort of fiscal arrange¬ 
ment, which lightens the rates and burthens 
the taxes, or is robbing Peter to pay Paul. 
Certainly the local charges or burthens must be 
borne somehow, and unless the owners of land 
submit to larger reductions of rent, there is no 
hope of burthens in that direction being 
reduced. 
It is an undoubted fact that local rating 
burthens must rather increase than diminish. 
There does not exist the being who can hope to 
bring about such a result. The forces of civili¬ 
sation are far more powerful than man is, and 
these demand with imperative power that local 
expenditure shall increase ; but occupiers and 
cultivators may well look for relief in the matter 
of tithes as well as in rent. Certainly there are 
many districts in which these impositions do 
not exist, but where they do they prove to be a 
heavy burthen, and one to many most oppressive. 
On the other hand, it is not at all probable that 
consistent with due and profitable cultivation 
labour can be reduced or cheapened. Probably 
there is no article connected with the cultivation 
of the soil so dear as cheap labour, and we have 
no desire to see it introduced. Manure and seed 
can hardly be cheaper than now, and may at 
times be dearer ; hence we find that beyond the 
coming of better seasons, and these seem to be 
remote, the only hope of the market cultivator 
lies in the reduction of these burthensome 
charges on land that are not imperative, though 
at present legal and inexorable. The market 
garden interest is a very important one, and 
cannot be lightly esteemed. Its chief force is 
found in the most undoubted energy thrown 
into it, and its chief burthen the heavy imposts 
found in rent and some other pecuniary charges. 
-►«£<—- 
GARDENING MISCELLANY. 
Orchid Show at Birmingham. —The Birmingham 
Botanical and Horticultural Society, have decided 
to hold a grand show of Orchids in the Botanical 
Gardens at Edgbaston, on May 12th and 13th next. 
The show will be held in the new exhibition hall, 
and a schedule has just been issued which contains 
eleven classes, ten for plants and one for cut flowers. 
Prizes of £15, £10, and £5, are offered in an open class 
for a group of twenty distinct plants ; and there are 
trade and amateurs classes respectively for’groups of ten 
and six plants ; for ten distinct Odontoglossums ; for 
six Cattleyas or Loelias ; and for twelve Masdevallias. 
National Auriculaand National Carnation and Picotee 
Societies. —The annual general meeting of these socie¬ 
ties will be held, by permission of the council of the 
Royal Horticultural Society, in the Conservatory, South 
Kensington, as soon after twelve o’clock as possible, on 
Tuesday next. The business of the meeting will include 
the election of officers and committee ; receiving the 
Secretary’s and Treasurer’s pport ; the election of 
judges for the ensuing year, and any other business 
that may pertain to the annual general meeting. 
National Chrysanthemum Society. —A well-attended 
meeting of the general committee of this society was 
held at the “Four Swans,” Bishopsgate Street, on 
Wednesday evening, the president (Mr. Sanderson) in 
the chair, supported by Mr. Ballantine, Mr. Blake, 
Mr. Stevens, and other prominent members of the 
society Some discussion ensued upon the mode of 
carrying out the show of late Chrysanthemums, to be 
held at the Royal Aquarium on the 13th January, 1886, 
and it was resolved to select the judges for the exhi¬ 
bition from the floral committee, who will hold a 
meeting upon the same day. The most important 
business of the evening was the fixing of the date upon 
which the exhibition for next year should be held, and 
