38 
THE GARDENING WORLD. 
September 18, 1886. 
good training. We noted but few varieties, but must 
not omit mention of Madame Treyve, one of tlie best 
of all the early varieties. In Petite Marguerite, the 
Messrs. Bunyard have an American variety which 
promises to make a fine market Pear for the first and 
second weeks in September. It is somewhat like the 
old Autumn Bergamot in size and shape, has very 
delicate flesh, aud a delicious flavour. 
While walking through the immense quarters of 
Apples, Pears and Plums, scattered all over the 
nursery, it is impossible to pass without comment the 
large brakes of trained Peaches and Nectarines, and 
Cherries, and the fine clean-stemmed standards of the 
latter fruit; large breadths of young Gooseberries are 
also seen. Of this fruit, the firm have had as many as 
200 varieties, but they are now reducing them to at 
least one half that number. The main market variety 
in Kent and Middlesex is Lancashire Lad. Of Currants 
the principal sorts grown are red varieties; and 
Knight’s Early Red, an upright grower which is first 
ready to pick, Raby Castle, Scotch, and Red Dutch 
command the most attention. Filberts and Cob Nuts, 
as becomes a Kentish nursery, are also very largely 
grown. The new orchard house, a substantially built 
structure, 60 ft. long and 30 ft. wide, contains fruit 
trees in pots aud planted out, most neatly trained, and 
carrying grand crops of fruit. Near at hand too, is an 
extensive and well-built new range of offices and 
packing sheds, which will greatly facilitate the dispatch 
of orders, and being near the station save a great deal 
of road carriage that formerly had to be undertaken. 
Mr. Bunyard is fortunate in having a soil in which 
most things grow kindly, and make an abundance of 
fibrous roots, while not being of too fattening a 
character, so that a well-ripened growth is assured, 
and the trees move well into better land. The clean, 
thrifty character of the stock is no doubt in a great 
measure due to the admirable system of surface stirring, 
which is constantly going on, the trees being all 
planted with the greatest precision in rows about 3 ft. 
apart, which admits of frequent horse-hoeing. 
-- 
COTTAGE GARDENING. 
The annual exhibition of the Oxford Gardeners’ 
Society was held on Saturday last at Ashton-under- 
Lyne, and in every respect was a great success. The 
exhibitors were for the most part cotton operatives who 
have plots of land in the neighbourhood of the Oxford 
Mills, and the exhibition was held in the Lecture Hall. 
In the afternoon the exhibition was opened by Mr. 
Bruce Findlay, of Manchester, who said hehad been asked 
by Mr. Rupert Mason to appear there to say a few words 
on the subject of cottage gardening and the allotment 
system. "When he came there his feelings, he confessed, 
were tinged with melancholy, inasmuch as when he last 
came there a few years ago, the late Mr. Hugh Mason 
was living, and full of health and energy, and it was 
theirs now to deplore his loss and absence. Many of 
them would know that he (Mr. Findlay) had been con¬ 
nected with the Horticultural Society of Manchester for 
thirty years, and many of them would have visited the 
grand exhibitions there at-Whitsuntide and on other 
occasions ; and he only thought it right to say that 
whenever he appealed to the late Mr. Mason for support 
in anything, it was always generously given. With 
reference to cottage gardening and allotments, they who 
lived in the neighbourhood of large towns were cut off 
very much from the beauties of nature, but there was 
a law of compensation even in that. They tried to 
bring the country into the towns as much as possible, 
and he thought those who lived in towns had a higher 
appreciation of the beauties of nature than those who 
constantly were surrounded with nature in her loveliest 
forms. When the people of towns went into the 
country they derived a pleasure from the beauty of the 
landscape, the balmy freshness of the air, and the 
brightness of the serene blue sky, which the habitual 
residents did not enjoy. 
Cottage gardening shows were increasing and multi- 
plying throughout the land. There was scarcely a 
village but had its cottage gardening show. It was a 
grand thing to have in a house anything that brought 
out the spirit of love and attention. A plant would 
do that. It was possible to get as tenderly attached 
to a plant as to a child. Six months prior to his 
death, the late Charles Kingsley evinced considerable 
emotion when he found that a magnificent Beech tree 
had been blown down by a storm : “I have,” said he, 
“looked at, loved, and admired that tree for forty 
years, and now look at it lying prostrate !” Touching 
cottage gardening and allotments, he gave a lecture 
seven or eight years ago, in Manchester, and this was 
published. Seeing that it was on the subject before 
them, he would, with their permission, read a few 
extracts :—Whatever- relates to the improvement of 
the soil, and its profitable appropriation, is of the very 
highest importance. It is well known that the 
agricultural labourers of this country' have not the 
same interest in the soil as they once had. Every village 
and district in the country readily affords examples of 
patches of land having been consolidated with a larger 
tract belonging to some wealthy person in the neigh¬ 
bourhood. Though this is a necessary consequence of 
the improved state of agriculture, the decay of the 
cottar tenantry is an evil which has been always 
insufficiently appreciated. There can be no doubt 
whatever, that where practicable, it is consistent with 
sound policy, to let the English labourer have a small 
share of the land. History speaks loudly on this 
point, and traces the melancholy fate of the most 
powerful empires and states to the cutting off of every 
particle of the soil from those who were so closely 
attached to it. 
Various schemes have been propounded, having for 
their object the improving the condition of the agri¬ 
cultural labourer, many of which seem to be incom¬ 
patible with his capacities, whose powers are altogether 
centred in the soil, and in sowing and reaping its pro¬ 
ducts. Out of this element ho is timid and helpless, 
but in it all his powers seem to be gratified. The 
desire he evinces to become possessed of a patch of land 
to cultivate on his own account is little short of a 
passion, and it seems important to retain him in that 
to which he has served so long an apprenticeship. 
Some there are, I am aware, that have condemned the 
allotment system as Utopian. Inconsiderate friends, 
again, in talking and writing about it, have pronounced 
it to be the realisation, in a great measure, of the state 
of perfect existence which poets have sighed for, and 
that which will sooner or later possess the whole land: 
but poets, as a rule, are but ill qualified judges of what 
is practically beneficial, and in the allotment system 
there is no poetry except that which springs from hard 
work. If anything will “ possess the land ” it is the 
same hard work. If aught will deepen the green hue 
of our crops, or cause them to wave more luxuriantly, 
it is the contents of the manure-tank carefully and 
judiciously applied. Those who expect to see every 
man indiscriminately enjoying himself “under his 
Vine and Fig tree ” are sadly mistaken. The allotment 
system itself would throw out thousands as unworthy 
to touch the soil which it has appropriated to its most 
useful purposes. The scheme of allotments has been 
urged as a moral and social agent, and as an excellent 
means for the relief of poverty, and as the best school 
for the rising generation belonging to country labourers ; 
and could it be adopted there can be no doubt whatever 
but that it would be a great blessing to this class of 
people. This subject has occupied the attention of 
almost every writer on rural economy, but the benefits 
to be derived will not fully appear in any case where 
spade husbandry is not strictly carried out and the 
greatest cleanliness maintained. Ireland has been often 
mentioned as a country of cottage allotments, and it 
has been asked is there anything there to induce its 
adoption elsewhere. Ireland may have its allotments, 
but certainly they are not cultivated ; and so long as it 
remains a theatre of tumult and disorder, how can the 
arts of peace be prosecuted to a degree to give us any 
indication of what is really good or bad in the under¬ 
taking ? It is scarcely fair, therefore, to form any 
opinion of the allotment system from the picture pre¬ 
sented to us by Ireland. The labouring classes in that 
country prefer idle, reckless, and exciting scenes to the 
cultivation of their crops. Fairs, funerals, weddings, 
or whatever else diverts for the hour, have always had 
charms for them which the most urgent necessities of 
their families have failed to dispel. 
With what venerable and historical associations was 
not horticulture in its study in this country connected ? 
Who could forget the words of the poet, “God the first 
garden made, and man the town. ” You will remember 
reading how, in ancient days, in the earliest times, 
there were gardens described as of great beauty and 
extent, such as that of Ahasuerus, with its splendid 
Lilies and Pomegranates ; and of the gardens of the 
King of Judah, the fragrance of whose flower and 
spices were blown about by every wind. The great 
garden of Damascus, again, existed as long ago as 3,000 
years. So, as time rolled on, we find in every age and 
amongst every people, gardens were cultivated, Every 
nation that boasted civilization, elegance, refinement, 
taste, had shown ever a love for gardens and gardening. 
Look at the Greek nation, for instance, with its garden 
of Adonis, still a household word in the nineteenth 
century. To come down to our own times. Not a 
year passes away but every country in the world is 
searched and ransacked, in order that new plants, 
flowers, and seeds, may be brought to this country. 
The warm shores of the Mediterranean sent us their 
productions ; our colonies were laid under loyal con¬ 
tribution to supply us. The Indies and Himalayas 
sent many a rare and valuable specimen. California, 
China, and Japan, and innumerable other countries 
had sent us their rich treasures, and thus it was that 
we were able to congratulate ourselves on the advanced 
state of our gardening in these days. We ought then, 
I think, to feel grateful for the science, the skill, the 
enterprise, and the knowledge which has been brought 
to bear, in order to produce these splendid effects, and 
to arrive at the present high position, which horti¬ 
culture enjoyed. It is highly esteemed amongst a 
large number of gentlemen engaged in cities and towns 
all the day as a delightful recreation. The lessons 
learned among the works of nature, are of peculiar 
value in the present age. The restlessness and din of 
the railway, principles which pervade its operations, 
and the spirit of accumulation, which threatens to 
corrode every generous sensibility, are modified by the 
friendship of the quiet plants. ” 
-- 
POT ROSES FOR MARKET. 
In a capital paper on this subject read at the recent 
meeting of American Florists at Philadelphia (of which 
a notice will be found in another column from the pen 
of an old friend now resident in the States), Mr. Robert 
Craig says :—A very important question to consider is, 
“What varieties should be grown?” There are many 
grand Roses which are not suitable for market. The 
requisite qualities in a Rose for the purpose are, good 
habit and freedom of bloom, with good constitution 
and vigorous growth, so that it may not take too long 
to get a good sized plant; the addition of fragrance, is, 
of course, always desirable. Among the very best 
hybrids to grow arc General Jacqueminot, Magna 
Charta, Paul Neyrou, Merveille de Lyons, Baroness de 
Rothschild, John Hopper, Anna de Diesbach, Madame 
Masson, Queen of Queens, Psonia, and Duchesse de 
Moray ; the latter two varieties do not produce par¬ 
ticularly fine flowers, but they are of such good habit 
and freedom of bloom as to merit growing in large 
quantities. Of the hybrid Teas none are superior to 
La France, Pierre Guillott, Lady Mary Fitzwilliam, 
Antoine Yerdier, and Countess of Pembroke. In the 
Teas, none are better than Perle des Jardins, Madame 
Welch, Marie Van Houtte, Etoile de Lyons, Madame 
de Yatry, Madame Cusin, Coquette de Lyon and Marie 
Guillott. The latter variety is one of the most profit¬ 
able ; its flowers are pure white, and of good substance; 
it pays to grow it for flowers in summer alone, and it 
is the best white Tea for pots in spring ; it requires a 
stony, clayey soil. Coquette de Lyon also deserves 
special mention ; it has been called the “Yellow 
Hermosa,” and the name is appropriate for it flowers 
as constantly and abundantly as that well known sort. 
In the Bourbon and Chinese classes, we may grow 
Hermosa, Agrippina, Archduke Charles, Souvenir de 
Malmaison, Bourbon Queen, and Queen of Bedders ; 
and in the climbers, Tennessee Belle, Gem of the 
Prairies, Baltimore Belle, Reine Marie Henrietta, Gloire 
de Dijon, and Marechal Niel. With the exception of 
the three last named, they should be planted out-door 
in summer. V ery strong plants make a fine appearance 
when trained on trellises in oval form. 
The Polyantha Roses are dainty little beauties and 
well worth growing. The best are Mignonette, Madame 
Cecil Bruner, Little Pet, and Perle ’Oro. A few of the 
Moss Roses are desirable ; the best for pot culture are 
Countess Murinais, Glory of Mosses, Cristata, Princess 
Adelaide, and Henry Martin. The latter, although 
not producing first-class flowers, blooms so easily and 
freely as to well merit a place on the list. If grown 
under glass in pots, they will bloom well the first 
spring, which is not the case (excepting Henry Martin) 
if they have been planted outdoors ; under the latter 
treatment they are likely to produce only blind shoots. 
