March 26, 188?. 
THE GARDENING WORLD. 
469 
SUTTON’S 
SUPERB 
ASTERS 
The Finest Strains 
In Cultivation* 
SUTTON’S DWARF BOUQUET. 
Sis varieties, separate, 2s. Sd., post free. 
“ The Dwarf Asters were superb and greatly admired." 
—Mr. J. LLOYD, Gardener to M. T. Culley, Esq., 
Conpland Castle. 
SUTTON’S MINIATURE. 
Four varieties, separate, Is. Sd., post free. 
11 The Miniature Asters are most successful and 
greatly admired —Lady EMILY DIG BY, Meriden. 
SUTTON’S READING BEAUTY. 
Four varieties, separate, 2s. Sd., post free. 
“ Your new Aster ' Beauty' has teen the admiration 
of all who ha ve seen it here. It ought to be grown by 
everyone who has a few feet of garden. Those who 
require a constant supply of flowers for cutting will find 
no other Aster to equal it —Mr. W. MACKIE, Gar¬ 
dener to Mrs. Ruddle, The Mythe. 
SUTTON’S LITTLE GEM. 
Sis varieties, separate, 3s. Sd., post free. 
“I have this year grown your Little Gem Aster with 
great success. I find it one of the most free-flowering 
dwarf Asters I have ever seen, and truly a 1 little gem.' ”— 
Mr. F. LONG, Gardener to Mrs. Lucy, Avonside. 
SUTTON’S “FIRE KING.” 
Per packet, 2s. Sd., post free. 
“ The most perfect bedding Aster I have ever seen is a 
brilliant scarlet-coloured variety named Sutton’s Fire 
King. It comes nearest to the dwarf Clii'ysanthemum- 
flowered type; but the flowers take on a more incurved 
character. Looking over the plantations of Asters at 
Fieading, nothing was so bright and effective as a large 
patch of this striking variety. —R. DEAN.”—GAR¬ 
DENERS’ MAGAZINE, Sept. 18, 1SS6. 
SUTTON’S SNOWBALL 
Per packet, 2s. Sd., post free. 
“ The Asters I had from you are really a grand show, 
the finest I have seen, and admired by everyone ."— 
Mr. J. J. SIMCOX, Saunderton. 
SUTTON’S GIANT FRENCH. 
Sis varieties, separate, 3s. Sd., post free. 
“ ASTERS AT READING.—There were to be seen 
two remarkably fine strains of Exhibition Asters , namely 
Sutton’s Giant French and the Victoria; the former 
represents a very fine incurved type with the petals 
folded over towards the centre like an incurved Chry- 
ranthemum.” —GARDENERS’ MAGAZINE, Sept. 18. 
POYAL BEFKS SEED ESTABLISHMENT, 
READING. 
Pontefract, Knottingdey, and Ackworth Chry¬ 
santhemum Society. 
T HE FIRST EXHIBITION will be held 
in the Town Hall, Pontefract, November 25th and 26th. 
Over £60 offered in Prizes. Schedules from the Secretary, 
Mr. T. GLOVER, Friar Wood, Pontefract. 
Next Week’s Engagements. 
Tuesday, March 2$th.—Sale of Orchids in Flower at Protheroe 
& Morris’s Rooms.—Sale of Lily and other Bulbs at Stevens’ 
Rooms.—Sale of Roses, Carnations, &c. at the City Auction 
Rooms. 
Wednesday, March 29th.—Sale of Greenhouse Plants, &c., at 
Stevens’ Rooms.—Sale of Lily and other Bulbs, &c., at 
Protheroe & Morris’s Rooms. 
Thursday, March 30th.—Sale of Imported Orchids at Stevens’ 
Rooms.—Clearance Sale at Laing’s Nursery, Teddington. 
Friday, April 1st.—Sale of Imported Orchids at Protheroe & 
Morris’s Rooms. 
Saturday, April 2nd.—Sales of Greenhouse Plants at Stevens’ 
Rooms ; and Roses, Plants, &c., at Protheroe & Morris’s 
Rooms. 
CONTENTS. 
Amateurs’ Garden 
Anemone King of Scarlets. 475 
Aspidium angulare proli- 
ferum. 472 
Calanthe culture. 470 
Crabs, ornamental. 472 
Dahlias, seedling . 473 
Deutzia gracilis . 475 
Eucharis mite . 474 
Fruit trees . 471 
Gardeners' Calendar. 476 
Gardeners’Orphan Fund.. 470 
Grapes, packing. 475 
Horticultural Societies.... 476 
Laelia anceps varieties .... 472 
PAGE 
Law notes. 477 
Lilium Harrisii . 475 
Obituary . 477 
Orchids from Bohemia.... 475 
Plants Certificated . 474 
Rating Market Gardens .. 469 
Seeds, small, how to sow.. 471 
Snowdrops, the . 472 
Soldanella alpina . 476 
Sparrows and Crocuses .. 475 
Stephanotis Soribunda.... 473 
Thyrsacanthus rutilans .. 472 
Tree Pruning . 475 
Vegetables for exhibition.. 472 
Weather, the severe . 474 
PAGE 
471 
“ Gardening is the purest of human pleasures, and the greatest 
refreshment to the spirit of man.”— Bacon. 
SATURDAY, MARCH 26, 1887. 
The Rating of Market Gardens. —A case 
which is of special interest to a large and, indeed, 
an increasing industry, came before Mr. Justice 
Day in the Queen’s Bench Division a week 
since (see p. 477), and the result has given 
much satisfaction to growers for market as being 
exceedingly favourable to those who have so 
widely invested their capital in fruit and vege¬ 
table culture under glass. Probably, because 
Parliament concludes that Local Boards of 
Health were established chiefly to provide proper 
and effective drainage in populous districts, and 
that the drainage was necessitated rather by 
houses than by open land, it was decreed that 
open land—inclusive of market gardens and 
nursery grounds—should he rated by Local 
Boards only at one-fourth of the amount paid by 
houses. That, so far, seemed fair enough ; and 
as Local Boards have also to provide highways, 
lighting, cleansing, &c., it was doubtless con¬ 
cluded that the one-fourth rating would pay 
the part from which proprietors of open land 
benefit. The case in question is no new one, 
for we have rather too frequently had to refer 
to similar actions, hut not always with like 
results. 
The appellant, Mr. Purser (who was supported 
in his action by the Market Gardeners’ and 
Farmers’ Association), residing at the fashion¬ 
able sea-side town of Worthing, had, as market 
garden, an acre and one rood of land. Seeing the 
need for some outlay of capital that he might 
keep pace with the requirements of the times, 
he erected sixteen glasshouses upon this area, 
and in these grew Tomatos, Cucumbers, 
Grapes, &c., and also flowers. When this was 
done, the Local Board assessed this small and 
originally open market garden at the full rate, 
and the occupier appealed. We are not sure 
that all even of those having sympathy with 
the appellant will yet hold the law to he good 
which asserts that the place still remained in 
the eye of the law a market garden, now that 
it was covered with glasshouses. Of course, 
there were no buildings erected which needed 
sewage draining; but there could he no doubt 
that the covering of the land with glasshouses 
enormously increased its value, and also that 
the owner’s income may have thereby been 
largely increased. Taking that view, the Local 
Board were doubtless right in assessing the 
place at its higher value. 
We may deride the Local Boards, and too 
often some merit it; hut when they rate all 
property as far as they can equably, they are 
but striving to do justice to all. The builder 
who erects shops in which his men may work— 
the tradesman of any kind, indeed, who puts up 
warehouses for business purposes—of course 
may in no way be adding to the sewage body 
of a place, hut yet will not escape the full rating 
for one moment; and if all are to he tarred 
with the same brush, it seems only right it 
should be so. The case upon which we have 
so far commented seems to hinge chiefly upon 
the introduction of the term “ market gardens ” 
into the Act, thus specially exempting all open 
ground so utilised. 
We may take it for granted that the framers 
of the Act had not at that time in their minds 
the probable growth of glass erections to the 
extent we now see, or, had such been the case, 
areas covered with glasshouses, although used 
for market-garden purposes, would hardly have 
been so leniently dealt with. The counsel for 
the Local Board contended—indeed, with 
considerable force—that this was not market¬ 
gardening as described in the Act, hut an 
entirely new industry which had grown up 
recently. As it was a fact that in some places 
houses of a similar kind were fully rated, it 
was most important to have a decision from 
the Court, and that decision was adverse to the 
Local Board. We must now await the action 
of the respondents, as it would be much more 
satisfactory were the case carried into the 
High Court of Appeal, and finally settled. 
The verdict is one of such exceeding importance 
to the market and nursery trade, that we can 
well conceive the recent case will be viewed 
all over the kingdom with exceeding interest. 
It seems evident that glass structures erected 
for nursery purposes must henceforth be 
equally exempt from the full rating with 
nursery open land, and demands for reductions 
of rating will doubtless be heard all over the 
country. Out in the rural districts, where 
there are no Local Boards, land enjoys some 
exemptions in rating ; hut we believe glass¬ 
houses, whether employed for nursery or 
market-garden purposes, are fully rated. Of 
course, there are no drainage rates, hut there 
are Poor, Higtnvay, School Board, Rural Board, 
Police, and even Sanitary rates, so far as relates 
to sanitary inspection under the control of 
local authorities—viz., the Guardians of the 
Poor. If the Worthing case is carried no 
farther, then it is very likely that some others 
will, especially where Local Boards refuse to 
accept Mr. Justice Day’s interpretation of the 
law. 
We anticipate so many demands on Local 
Boards of Health for reduction of rating on the 
part of others similarly placed to the Worthing 
appellant, that some further action in the Courts 
seems inevitable. Whilst we shall rejoice 
if the trade of gardening, whether market or 
nursery, shall be exempt from some of the local 
burthens which it has to hear, we shall also he 
anxious that through no fluke in judgment 
shall wrong he done to others. The case opens 
up in a striking manner the burthens which 
oppress all who embark their capital in efforts 
to promote their country’s wealth and pro¬ 
duction. Increased rents, tithes, taxes, and 
rates all come down upon the unfortunate 
occupier and worker like vultures, and strive 
hard to eat him up. 
