November 12, 1887. 
THE GARDENING WORLD. 
163 
BARB’S 
SELECTED BULBS, 
THE FINEST IN HOLLAND, 
DIRECT FROM THE GROWERS. 
PRICES MODERATE. QUALITY UNSURPASSED. 
Full Descriptive Catalogue free on application. 
Special Illustrated DAFFODIL Catalogue free on application. 
BARR & SON, 
12 & 13, King Street, Covent Garden. 
FWT TREES for THE NORTH 
and SCOTLANB. 
Purchasers cannot do better than consult 
GEORGE BUNYARD & Co.’s 
CATALOGUE (illustrated and descriptive—free for six 
stamps, gratis to buyers), and purchase their TREES 
from Kent—“The Garden of England.” 
G. B. <t Co. have a stock of nearly half a million 
splendidly grown, finely-rooted and well-ripened stuff 
in 800 sorts, true to name. 
The Old Nurseries, MAIDSTONE, 
ESTABLISHED 1796. 
SPECIAL CULTURE OF 
FRUIT TREES AND ROSES. 
A Large and Select Stock is now offered for Sale. 
The Illustrated and Descriptive Catalogue of Eruits 
Post Free. 
The Descriptive Catalogue of Roses Post Free. 
THOMAS RIVERS St SOR, 
NURSERIES, SAWBRIDGEWORTH, HERTS. 
SUTTON’S BULBS 
GENUINE ONLY DIRECT FROM READING. 
I MPORTED F LOWER R OOTS. 
The PICK of the DUTCH BULB FARMS. 
New Illustrated Catalogue, with special low offer of Bulbs for 
Bedding and out-door planting, free by post. 
GEO. COOLING & SONS, The Nurseries, BATH. 
FRUIT TREES, 
ORNAMENTAL TREES, SHRUBS, &C. 
Descriptive and Priced Catalogues free. 
J. CHEAL & SOHS, Crawley. 
LAINO’S LARGE COLLECTIONS 
OF 
FRUIT TREES, 
ROSES, VINES, &C. 
Are exceptionally fine this season; in¬ 
spection invited. Railway Station, 
Catford Bridge. Catalogues gratis. 
pn laikq & mmmm, 
Nurseries, FOREST HILL, LONDON, S.E. 
Very long experience enables us to offer the BEST QUALITY 
at a moderate price, as proved by hundreds of testimonials. 
ILLUSTRATED LIST, descriptive, select, and compulsing 
important NOVELTIES, on application. 
RICHARD SMITH & Go., 
NURSERYMEN & SEED MERCHANTS, 
WORCESTER. 
Liverpool Horticultural Association. 
POSTPONEMENT OF SHOW. 
T HE EIGHTH GRAND CHRYSAN¬ 
THEMUM and FRUIT SHOW will be held in St. George's 
Hall on the 29th and 30th of November. 
The following Special Prizes are offered for competition A 
Silver-plated Tea Service, presented by Messrs. J. Williams & Co., 
Manure Manufacturers, 02, Mount Pleasant, Liverpool, for forty- 
eight cut blooms of Chrysanthemums, and the Veitch Memorial 
Medal and £5 for thirty-six cut blooms. 
Entries close November 22nd. 
The Spring Show will be held on March 21st, 1SS8. 
Schedules on application to the Secretary, 
EDWARD BRIDGE. 
3, Cedar Terrace, Torboek Road, Huyton. 
Nest Week’s Engagements. 
Monday, Nov. 14th.—Ghent Chrysanthemum Show. Sheffield 
and Hallamshire Chrysanthemum Show (two days). Sales 
of Bulbs at Stevens’ and Protheroe & Morris’s Rooms. 
Tuesday, Nov. loth.—Chrysanthemum Shows at Twickenham 
(two days), Putney, Hammersmith, Clonmel, Finchley (two 
days), Watford (two days), Lincoln (two days), Winchester 
(two days). Sale of Greenhouses, &c., at the Manor House, 
Highbury, by Protheroe & Morris. Sale of Roses, Bulbs, 
&c., at the City Auction Rooms, by Protheroe & Morris. 
Wednesday, Nov. 16th.- Chrysanthemum Shows at Ealing, 
Chelmsford, York (three days), People’s Palace, Birming¬ 
ham (two days), Faversham (two days), Hampstead (two 
days), and Dartford (two days). Sale of Nursery Stock at 
Ponsford’s Nursery, Brixton ; and Sale of Lilies, &c., at 
Protheroe & Morris's Rooms. Sale of Orchids iu Flower, 
Bulbs, &c., at Stevens’ Rooms. 
Thursday, Nov. 17th.—Chrysanthemum Shows at Dublin, 
Taunton, Wimbledon, Hull, Bolton (2 days), and Bury St. 
Edmunds (2 days). Sale of Dutch Bulbs at Protheroe & 
Morris’s Rooms.Sale of Orchids at Stevens’ Rooms. 
Friday, Nov. 18th.—Chrysanthemum Shows at Wellington 
(Somerset), Reading, Waterford, Sheffield and West, Riding 
(2 days), Chorley (2 days). Sale of Established Orchids at 
Protheroe & Morris’s Rooms. Clearance Sale of Plants at 
the Acton Vale Nursery, Acton, by Protheroe & Morris. 
Saturday, Nov. 19th.—Ramsbottom Chrysanthemum Show. 
Sale of Dutch Bulbs at Protheroe & Morris’s and Stevens’ 
Rooms. 
CONTENTS. 
PAGE 
Apprentice Gardeners .... 170 
Bouvardias, notes on .... 166 
Calanthe Veitchii . 171 
Chrysanthemum Amy Furze 165 
Chrysanthemum Macaulay 16S 
Chrysanthemum Shows .. 172 
Cyclamens at Isleworth .. 169 
Foods from the Vegetable 
World. 168 
Gardening Notes from 
Scotland . 167 
Great Western Nurseries.. 16S 
PAGE 
Kitchen Garden in Autumn 166 
Mushroom Growing . 170 
Onions, notes on. 170 
Orchids in the open air .. 171 
Pears, a selection of. 169 
Plants, new, certificated .. 164 
Poor’s Rates. 163 
Primulas at Forest Hill .. 170 
Ricliardia eethiopica . 171 
Strawberries, wintering .. 170 
Thuja gigantea. 166 
Window Gardening . 165 
“ Gardening is the purest of human pleasures, and the greatest 
refreshment to the spirit of man.”— Bacon. 
SATURDAY , NOVEMBER 12, 1887. 
Poor’s Rates and the Garden Trade.— The 
determination of the committee of the Nursery 
and Seed Trade Association to test the question 
as to whether nurserymen and market gardeners 
are exempt from the higher assessment of the 
Poor’s Rate, as well as the Local Board Rates, 
by carrying a case into the superior courts is 
a wise determination, let the result be what 
it may. It is exceedingly annoying to any 
body of traders ■ to find doubt hanging over 
their legal responsibilities, and whilst the 
position of glass houses employed in trade 
within Local Board areas has been clearly 
defined, it is obvious that their position in 
relation to the Poor’s Rate Assessment remains 
in grave doubt. 
It is probable that the trade consider they 
have a strong case, an opinion not so largely 
shared in on our side perhaps, and especially 
amongst that considerable body of parochial 
and union officials, who have the responsibility 
of making assessments upon their shoulders. 
That these officials are willing to perform their 
onerous duties fairly there can be no doubt; 
still they look with grave concern upon any 
attempt on the part of anyone to shift the 
burden of rating responsibilities on to the 
shoulders of others. Still, the law, whatever 
it may be, will be master, and should the Trade 
Association be enabled to substantiate their 
position a very general re-assessment of 
nursery and market garden areas for Poor’s 
Rate purposes will have to follow. 
If it lie found that the law at present gives 
no relief, we are confident that it will be 
useless to ask] Parliament to pass a special 
enactment to that end. It is so very obvious 
that any lightening of the rating burden on 
the shoulders of some must tend to make it 
fall all the heavier upon others, that the effort 
to effect a change ■would evoke the stoutest 
opposition, especially from others engaged in 
trade, and who, for other than garden purposes, 
may use land to any extent. Some day, 
when the atmosphere is cleared of the diffi¬ 
culties which surround legislation, v r e shall 
get a broadly based and constructed reform 
in our local government, with which must also 
he associated radical changes in our system 
of local taxation. In any such legislation the 
claims of nursery and market garden land may, 
in relation to local rates, he materially con¬ 
sidered; but whilst that is not certain, it is 
morally certain that Parliament will not pass 
any enactment dealing wdth the interests of one 
vocation alone. 
It may be worth while to remind our readers 
of two facts : — First, that land devoted to 
gardening and agriculture within Local Board 
areas can be charged or assessed to the Local 
Board Rates to the extent of only one-third. 
That exemption now has, through an important 
legal decision, been extended to land covered 
with glass houses, if still used for market or 
trading purposes. This exemption is due to 
the fact that Local Boards are instituted chiefly 
for sanitary duties, and that these duties grow 
chiefly out of dwelling-houses and buildings 
employed in trades, and which need drainage. 
To this drainage necessity open land, or even 
such covered with greenhouses, adds nothing; 
hence, the law has recognised the fairness of 
exempting such areas from the full assessment 
to Local Board Rates. Then, in purely Poor 
Law areas, all such land can be, at the dis¬ 
cretion of the assessment committee, exempted 
from the incidence of the Poor’s Rate to the 
extent of ten or even twenty per cent., and 
in most areas that exemption has been carried 
out. The exemption is usually regarded as 
a sop to the agricultural interest, but, of course, 
it leaves the Poor’s Rate all the heavier upon 
buildings. 
It may seem that so far the legislation 
governing these matters does really regard the 
land, howsoever employed, as entitled to some 
rating exemption, but we are far from believing 
that the considerable exemption found in 
connection with Local Board Rates will he 
granted by the courts to the Poor’s Rate. It 
is obvious that, no matter what the vocation, 
all alike, must bear their full share of the 
cost of maintaining the poor of our parishes, 
of the police, of highways, and of School 
Board burdens. These charges, with the 
exception of highways, are all collected under 
the Poor’s Rate Assessment, and to it all are 
amenable. It is obvious that the poor, police, 
education, and highways have the same claim 
upon persons engaged in gardening as in other 
vocations. Of course the various assessment 
authorities can always vary their assessments 
to meet the capacities of those who become 
ratepayers, but it must not be forgotten that 
easing one trader in this matter is hut to 
burden someone else all the heavier, and that 
it simply means “robbing Peter to pay Paul” 
—a method of dealing which cannot he too 
strongly objected to. 
At present we do not see the least room 
for any lightening of local burdens. Rather 
they are growing, and will grow. It is an 
unhappy tending on the part of officialism of 
every grade to increase its expenditure and its 
operations. That fact is not hopeful for any 
reduction in the rating assessment. Even with 
a reformed system of local government, whilst 
we may get a material re-arrangement in the 
existing incidence of local taxation, there 
is little hope that we can get any reduction 
of expenditure, but we may obtain much 
