March 17, 1888. 
THE GARDENING WORLD. 
CARTERS’ 
TESTED SEEDS 
FOR GARDENS OF ALL SIZES. 
CARTERS’ BOX, ? 4 °sf 2/6 
of Vegetable Seeds price Post free. 
CARTERS’ BOX, Sfgas 5 /- 
of Vegetable Seeds price Post free 
CARTERS’ BOX, sss 7/6 
of Vegetable Seeds price Post free 
CARTERS’ BOX, f 0 "”£S".f Ifl/fi 
of Vegetable Seeds and 12 varieties of ■ ^ / V 
Flower Seeds price Post free. 
CARTERS’ BOX, SA/- 
of Vegetable Seeds and 20 varieties of * ■ / 
Flower Seeds price Post free. 
CARTERS’ BOX, &7SS5 20 /- 
of Vegetable Seeds in sufficient quantities 
to produce a constant supply of the best carriage 
Vegetables all the year round price free. 
Larger Boxes, 30/, 40/, 60/, carriage free. 
Particulars of Contents on Application. 
Seedsmen by Sealed Royal Warrants, 
237 & 238, HIGH HOLBORN, LONDON. 
I 
Next Week’s Engagements. 
Tuesday, March 20th. — Sale of Imported and Established 
Orchids at Frotlieroe & Morris's Rooms. 
Wednesday, March 21st.—Spring Shows of the Royal Botanic, 
Preston <2 days), and Stoke and Guildford Horticultural 
(2 days) Societies. Sale of Imported Orchids at Stevens’ 
Rooms. Sale of Japanese Lilies, Plants, Roses, &c., at 
Protheroe & Morris’s Rooms. 
Thursday', March 22nd.—Shropshire Horticultural Society's 
Spring Show. Sale of Imported Orchids at Stevens' Rooms. 
Friday, March 23rd.—Falkirk Spring Show. Gardeners’ Orphan 
F’und : Meeting of the Executive Committee at 6 p.m. Sale 
of Imported Orchids at Protheroe & Morris’s Rooms. 
Saturday, March 24th.—Crystal Palace Spring Show. Sale of 
Plants, Bulbs, &c., at Protheroe & Morris’s Rooms. 
FOR INDEX TO CONTENTS, SEE P. 462. 
“ Gardening is the purest of human pleasures, and the greatest 
refreshment to the spirit of man.” —Bacon. 
SATURDAY, MARCH 17, 1888. 
A Minister of Horticulture.— The com¬ 
parative helplessness of the British farmer 
seems in no case to he more fully displayed 
than in the cry for a Minister of Agriculture. 
It seems to be a set idea with the farmer, that 
all his troubles come from a lack of high 
ministerial oversight, and if he could but get 
some Heaven-born politician to undertake the 
charge of the interests of agriculture, through 
a Government department—to be, in fact, a 
sort of cherub sitting aloft keeping watch 
over the life and welfare of Farmer John—all 
would be well and farming would be saved. 
It seems odd that any such notion of the 
nature of centralised and fatherly government 
should exist just now, when one of the political 
dogmas of all parties seems to be that we have 
in government far too much centralisation, 
and that localities should have legislative 
powers greatly beyond what they have pre¬ 
viously possessed. 
It is true we have a Minister of Education, 
but education is now a strictly governmental 
duty. We have also a Minister of Trade, but 
trade has its ramifications all over the world, 
and constantly demands the interference of a 
Government department. Farming, however, 
is far from being a complicated occupation ; 
it may be conducted -with all possible skill and, 
perhaps, of success without Government aid, 
beyond certain sanitary regulations which, 
however, apply more or less to the entire 
community. Indeed, agriculture is far more 
dependent upon the good feeling which exists 
between landlord, tenant and labourer, and if 
there be antagonism, especially between the 
first-named pair, then injury must follow. 
Agriculture, indeed, needs a far freer hand 
than it has at present; but a Minister, to 
justify his office, would interfere so far that he 
would soon become to the farmer an intolerable 
bore. But whilst we know that farming has 
dropped so low, for a time, that its workers 
are willing to catch at any straw, even though 
it may be in the form of a special Minister, 
presently to become a chain or fetter, nothing 
can be more absurd than the proposal to 
have either a department of the Govern¬ 
ment for horticulture, or that it should be 
tacked on to any other department. Gen¬ 
erally, we have no such horticulture in the 
world as is that of the British Isles, and it 
has grown up to its present illustrious posi¬ 
tion solely by its own inherent strength. 
Except in the estimation of those poor 
people who exist upon the smiles, and under 
the baleful influence of official despotism, and 
seem thankful to Providence that they are so 
highly favoured, who wants the interference 
of a department of the Government in horti¬ 
culture 1 The thing is too absurd, and should 
be scouted to the uttermost by all who love 
horticulture. It might be pleaded that had 
we such a Minister or department some greater 
facility would be afforded for the home cul¬ 
tivation of Tobacco than the Chancellor of 
the Exchequer seems disposed to offer. Here 
we are inclined to think that the Chancellor 
of the Exchequer, in refusing to help people 
in a wild-goose chase, is likely to prove their 
best friend. 
Then it is assumed that such a Minister 
could help to obtain reduced railway rates 
for market fruit and vegetables, but it must 
be obvious that on no principle of fairness can 
rates of carriage of a specially preferential 
kind be given to one class of trade which 
another maji not have, and, therefore, any 
interference in that direction will come 
with more force from the various chambers 
of commerce than from any section of 
trade. The fettering of the foreign plant 
trade, consequent upon the prevalence of 
the Phylloxera abroad, should be a warning 
to us how we commit our loved industry to 
the care of any Government department. The 
famous Colorado Potato bug scare, as it was, 
made us look positively ridiculous, and with 
a horticultural Minister matters would have 
reached the highest point of absurd sublimity. 
Why, we now see a new scare created in the 
singular statement of Mr. C. Whitehead, that 
the Hop aphis finds a winter nest-plant in 
the Damson, the leaves of which are infested 
with aphis eggs in the autumn, and that 
wise entomological adviser of the Government 
actually urges that their foliage should be 
washed to cleanse it of the eggs! utterly 
oblivious of the fact that Damsons are decid¬ 
uous, and that as all the leaves fall in the 
winter, they can be gathered up and burned, 
or buried deep down in the soil by digging 
them in. We here assert that this is all 
nonsense, and is but the product of appointing 
someone who must make it apparent that 
something is done for the salary. 
A little while ago we had Miss Ormerod 
creating great alarm in the minds of the un- 
taught farmers—that is, those who did not 
know better—because of the assumed ravages 
of the Hessian fly. Those who did know 
better laughed ; and now we have a profes¬ 
sional declaration that this terrible fly can 
never be harmful to the wheat crops m our 
variable climate. Mr. Whitehead grandly 
assured his employers that the Turnip fly was 
injurious to Turnips in some parts of Kent ! 
Why, this fly is an enemy as old as the hills, 
and has defied the entomologists time out of 
mind ! The drought did the Turnip crop a 
thousand times more harm. Agricultural and 
453 
horticultural Ministers and advisers may make 
excellent alarmists and muddlers, but may 
Heaven save us from their infliction. 
-- 
Newcastle-under-Lyme Rose and Horticultural 
Society.—The fourth annual exhibition of this society 
will be held on July 16th. 
Pansy Shows.—The Scottish Pansy Society’s exhi¬ 
bition is announced to be held on June 15th, in Lyon & 
Turnbull’s Rooms, George Street, Edinburgh ; and the 
Waverley Pansy Society’s show on June 23rd. 
Spring Flowers.—Messrs. William Cutbush & Son’s 
annual private exhibition of Hyacinths, Tulips, and 
other spring flowers, will be held at their Highgate 
Nursery from the 27th inst. to April 7th. 
The Clay Cross Horticultural Society’s thirty-first 
annual exhibition is announced to be held on August 
14th, and a schedule of prizes amounting to upwards 
of £237 has just been issued. The premier class is 
still the one for a group of plants, in which six prizes 
are offered ranging from £15 to £5. 
Peat and Loam.—From Messrs. Wood & Sons, 
Wood Green, we have received samples of the peat and 
loam they are now offering, and of which no more need 
be said than that both are of the best quality. 
Mr. Paul, of Paisley, the well-known florist, being 
about to remove from the Crossflat Nursery to a new 
place at Bridge of Weir, between Paisley and Greenock, 
his friends propose to give him a testimonial in 
recognition of his services to floriculture, and Mr. 
Duncan Keir, gardener, Sherwood, Paisley, has the 
matter in hand. 
Gardening- Changes.—Mr. J. F. Raggett has been 
engaged as gardener to Lord Hylton, at Merstham 
House, Red Hill, Surrey ; Mr. R. E. Filkins, for four 
years gardener to P. J. Slanger, Esq., St. Mary Cray, 
Kent, is engaged as gardener to G. Buchanan, Esq., 
Tower Fields, Keston, near Beckenham ; Mr. Arthur 
Smith, for five years foreman at Hewell Gardens, 
Bromsgrove, has been engaged as gardener to Lieut.- 
Colonel Bruce, Testwood Park, Southampton ; and Mr. 
T. Croxford, late foreman at Weston Park, Shifnal, 
has become gardener to T. D. Hale, Esq., Farnham 
Chase, Slough. 
Hybrid Dendrobes.—At the meeting of the Scientific 
Committee, on Tuesday, some cut flowers were for¬ 
warded by Mr. Yeitch, with the following observations:— 
“ The two flowers of Dendrobium mieans (hyb.) were 
each raised from a different cross—one from D. litui- 
florum and the Assam form of D. Wardianum, and the 
other from D. lituiflorum and the Burmese form of 
D. Wardianum. The Assam D. Wardianum, as is 
well known among the cultivators of Orchids, has 
shorter and more slender stems, but more highly- 
coloured flowers than the Burmese form, and it will be 
noticed that the last-named peculiarity is perpetuated 
in the hybrid. We may also add that the seedling 
from the Assam form has more slender stems than that 
from the Burmese form, which, like its parent, has the 
more robust stems and paler-coloured flowers.” 
A New Stropliantlius.—Strophanthus madagascar- 
iensis, a new species, named and sent by Dr. Daruty, 
of Maheburg, Mauritius, was brought under the notice 
of the Scientific Committee on Tuesday. The genus is 
African, of the order Apocynacese, or “Dogbanes,” the 
name being derived from the cord-like appendages to 
the corolla. It is remarkable for the structure and 
poisonous properties of the seed. The latter somewhat 
resembles that of the Dandelion, but is larger, and has 
the silky hairs distributed down the greater part of the 
shaft. The natives crush the seeds, from which a red 
oily mass is obtained, with which they smear their arrow 
points. Several varieties or species are known, but 
more material is required for an accurate discrimination 
of them. As a drug, the active principle Stroplianthin 
is found in all parts of the pod as well as the seed, and 
is very powerfully toxic, one-fiftieth of a grain killing 
a large dog. 
National Horticultural Society of France.—The 
catalogue of the general exhibition of the Products of 
Horticulture, to be held by this society from the 25th 
to the 31st of May is now before us. There are prizes 
offered for exhibits in 229 classes, including the products 
of horticulture proper grown under glass and in the open 
air, plants and cut flowers. Arboriculture and fruits, 
market garden products or subjects for culture, col¬ 
lections of artificial specimens, serving for the teaching 
of horticulture, besides implements and works of use 
or ornament in parks and gardens. The catalogue also 
contains a list of plants and objects to be exhibited, 
arranged in alphabetical order. A horticultural 
congress is also to be held at the same time, and some 
sheets accompanying the catalogue give the rules to be 
observed, and also the questions to be read and discussed 
at the congress. 
