April 25, 1891. 
THE GARDENING WORLD. 
537 
T HE CHINESE ARTICHOKE (Stachys 
luberifera). — JAMES CARTER & CO. have grown a very 
fine lot of this new Vegetable, and beg to otter selected tubers, 
price Is. per lb., 6s. per 7 lb,, 10s. 6/. per 14 lb. Trade price on 
application. An Illustration and full Cultural Directions are 
given in their Illustrated CATALOGUE of sterling Novelties. 
Rost free to intending customers. 
Royal Seedsmen by Sealed Warrants.- 237 and 23S, High 
Holborn, London. 
VrEW CHRYSANTHEMUMS for 1891.— 
±M JAMES CARTER Co. have one of the largest and 
most perfect stock in the country. For full particulars, see 
Carter’s beautifully Illustrated CATALOGUE, Gratis and Post 
Free to intending customers. 
Royal Seedsmen by Sealed Warrants. — 537 and 238, High 
Holborn, London, W.C. 
CCELOGYNE CRISTATA, from 9d. each. 
Ditto Chatsworth Variety, Is. 6d. 
Ditto Trentham Variety, with bloom spikes. 
TRUSTEES late J. STEVENSON, Timperley, Cheshire. 
© 
Anthracite Consumers! 
have the pleasure of announcing a reduction in price of my 
Original Horticultural Anthracite. Apply 
WILLIAM H. ESSERY, 
Anthracite Colliery Office, 
S 1ST A N S E A ._- 
Next Week’s Engagements. 
Tuesday, April 2Sth.—Spring Show in Town Hall, Manchester. 
Second Spring Exhibition at the Royal Aquarium, West- 
minster (2 days). Sale of Orchids in Flower at Protlieroe 
& Morris’s Rooms. 
Wednesday, April 29th.—Sale of Lily Bulbs, Stove ami Green¬ 
house Plants, &e. 
Friday, May 1st.—Sale of Orchids at Protheroe & Morris’s 
Rooms. 
For Index to Contents & Advertisements, see p, 547. 
“ Gardening is the purest of human pleasures, and the greatest 
refreshment to the spirit of man.”— Bacon. 
ankninnWatitb 
SATURDAY, APRIL 25th, 1891. 
* 
CURRENT TOPICS. 
TI.ady Gardeners. —Important to that class of 
J* horticultural traders known as furnishers, 
as may have been the announcement that a 
body of ladies propose to undertake the super¬ 
vision of house floral decorations in London, 
even that staggering information is tame 
compared with the later statement made that 
a Ladies’ Limited Liability Company is about 
to be formed at Derby to carry on the vocation 
of market gardening in a direct and practical way. 
Whilst we may still feel that there is that 
about women which seems specially to unfit 
them to discharge capably the work or duties 
which devolve upon gardeners, yet when we 
read of the astoundingly hard work which 
women not only perform but professedly like 
to perform in other occupations, it would seem 
as if there were few, if any, vocations in which 
women may not eventually attempt to rival 
men. 
In the particular instance referred to the 
experiment of starting a company is based on 
some previous experience obtained by the 
promoters, who are females. Each member of 
the company is to have half an acre of ground 
to cultivate and crop, hut we notice with some 
amusement that man—poor man—is to be to these 
descendants of Mother Eve, the hewers of wood 
and drawers of water, in other words, will have to 
do the manuring, the digging, the trenching, 
&c., which form of labour, having to be paid 
for, will, we fear, largely swallow up the small 
profits resulting to each member. 
There are to be in the venture no middle 
men, or middle women. All the produce is to 
go direct to the consumer, but we have rarely 
met Avith a case in Avhich the much-abused 
middleman has been eventually dispensed Avith. 
A pleasing picture is drawn of the pleasant 
nature of the Avork in the summer, and of the 
employment in houses in Avinter. Gardening, 
hoAvever, is not of the picturesque or pastoral 
order, neither has it much about it that is 
romantic. Probably our lady friends Avill soon 
find out that all is not gold that glitters in 
horticulture. 
UT Late Season.— Whilst there seems to be a 
general feeling of hopefulness for the 
fruit crop of the coming summer, because the 
spring is so kite, and all tree bloom is being 
held in check, so that it is fully a fortnight 
later than is ordinarily the case, the satisfaction 
so felt is not so Avidely experienced in relation 
to vegetable and corn crops. The fact is a 
A r ery late season to farmers and gardeners 
means a month in the spring practically lost. 
We have not the least reason to hope that 
because the spring is late, therefore the autumn 
will be late. So far from that being so, it now 
seems almost certain to happen that the later 
the spring, the shorter the summer, and the 
earlier the incoming of the ensuing Avinter. If 
therefore our summer is to be a short one, it 
had need to be a bright and merry one. 
Those Avho have ground crops are just noAV 
lamenting the poor progress made in groAvtli, 
and others have ample reason for such lament. 
Their dread is that ere the ground gets Avell 
covered and crops are but half developed, the 
summer heat may set in, and the soil Avill burn 
and dry because the crops furnish so little of 
shade. There is further the fear that all early 
crops will turn in so much at once that growers 
will derive no benefit Avhatever from specially 
early sowings. 
It is idle to contend that this universal 
lateness is desirable. It is not so, and all 
experience sIioavs that the longer the continued 
cold keeps vegetation in check the worse will 
it be for the crops in general. We may noAV 
Avith all our anticipated fruit bloom find its 
expansion deferred until Ave haA'e a hot burst 
of sunshine, when the beauty so much antici¬ 
pated will be all too brief. 
f|JoosEBERRiEs.— We haA r e to thank the breadths 
of Gooseberry bushes for giving to us the 
earliest and richest burst of deciduous green 
foliage. Hoav very refreshing, and, indeed, 
beautiful is this greenery can only be realised 
by those Avho reside in districts Avhere the 
Gooseberry is groAvn by the acre, as it is only 
in bulk that the rich effect is thoroughly 
realised. Gooseberry leafage in a young state 
is of a real emerald-green. That of the Currant 
is of a bronzy green, and in no respect is 
comparable for beauty Avith the former. We 
shall have, barring accidents, a wonderful 
Gooseberry crop no doubt this year. 
There is a perfect wealth of fruit uoav in 
bloom, and in a feAv Aveeks the bushes Avill be 
heavily laden Avith fruit. Still, eveninthe earliest 
districts Ave cannot hope to see furnished many 
green Gooseberries for use at Whitsuntide. It 
is but little more than three weeks to that 
moveable feast, Avhich comes absurdly early 
this year, just as the season is unhappily late. 
The Whitsuntide demand, when it can be 
satisfied, is an useful one to the growers in a 
plentiful season, even if the best fruits he 
small; there are so many that they are glad to 
get rid of some, not only to thin the crop, but 
to relieve the bushes. It is an enormous 
advantage to the Gooseberry that probably one 
half, if not more, of the entire crop is consumed 
in a green state. That it is equally beneficial to 
the human consumers seems very doubtful. 
Still, even green Gooseberries, Avhen properly 
cooked, have the reputation of being Avhole- 
some. 
In any case the bushes benefit greatly from 
the early thinning thus given bj r the gathering 
of such a quantity of the green fruit, and that 
Avhich is left to ripen benefits also. There is 
no fruit which holds so high a place in general 
estimation for productiveness as does the Goose¬ 
berry ; as evidence of that we find it planted in 
increasing quantities every year — indeed, of 
late it has been found very difficult to keep 
pace Avitli the demand for young bushes. 
-- 
Gardeners’ Royal Benevolent Institution.— We 
understand that Mr. George J. Ingrain, secretary of 
the “ Homes for "Working Boys in London,” has been 
appointed by the committee to succeed the late Mr. 
E. R. Cutler. 
Death of 3Ir. Thomas Dickson.—We regret to hear 
of the death, on the 17th inst., at Arundel House, Acre 
Lane, Brixton, of that veteran florist, Mr. Thomas 
Dickson. Mr. Dickson, who was in his 86th year, was 
the father of Mr. T. A. Dickson, of the Central Avenue, 
Covent Garden, and some fifty or sixty years ago was a 
leading member of the South London School of Elorists. 
Fruit Farming for Profit. —This was the title of a 
very sensible paper read at a meeting of the North of 
Scotland Horticultural Association at Aberdeen, last 
Saturday, by Mr. A. McKinnon, of Scone Palace 
Gardens. Those, said the author, who took a sanguine 
view of the future of fruit farming for profit in this 
country, estimated the average annual returns at from 
£40 to £50 per acre, and at that rate the annual value 
of the produce of 200,000 acres would be about 
£10,000,000. The writer contended that every effort 
made towards increasing the cultivation of fruit in this 
country to the extent advocated by many practical men, 
would, iu good and fruitful years, only lead to over- 
production and diminished prices, ivhile to those who 
had invested a large amount of capital, a series of bad 
fruit seasons would prove disastrous. The judicious 
capitalist before embarking in the enterprise of fruit 
farming had many other conditions to consider apart 
from foreign competition, such as the climate, soil, 
and locality. In Scotland, owing to the uncertain 
nature of the climate, and the inferior quality of the 
fruit when compared with the foreign article, the 
cultivation of their orchards, notwithstanding all that 
had been said in their favour by many practical men, 
would never, in the essayist’s opinion, extend beyond 
their present limits even in the best districts. If the 
business of horticulture in Britain were to be successful 
and hold its own with that of foreign countries, it would 
have to be conducted by men of capital, scientific 
knowledge, energy, and enterprise—men who, by a 
thorough training to the business, could recognise the 
Avants of the soil, and would cultivate it iu such a way 
as to produce crops of a kind and quality best suited to 
the markets of the country. 
Flower Shows of the Year was the text taken by 
Mr. James Cocker, of Aberdeen, for a paper read at the 
same meeting. Mr. Cocker said that a comparison of 
the show held at York last June with that of the Royal 
Horticultural Society of Aberdeen, in which the former 
had only 110 classes, with £576 in prize money, and 
the latter 232 classes, with £150 in prize money, 
suggested the following queiies :—Was the Aberdeen 
Society doing right in offering so many prizes for so 
many different subjects ? Was it doing good ? Would 
it not be better to give larger prizes and reduce the 
number of classes ? Did we lose or gain by trying so 
many subjects individually? If our attention Avere 
directed to fewer articles would we not improve the 
quality of all the exhibits ? 
The Kew Man.—The following cutting from the 
Daily News of Wednesday has a sad as well as a comic 
side :—All over the world where botanical science is 
held in esteem, the “ Kew Men ” are known ; and not 
a few who go forth from that advanced technical school 
leave their bones in distant lands a mute witness of 
their zeal for scientific labours. Among the latest of 
these humble martyrs of science are Mr. H. E. Bartlett 
and Mr. G. Woodruff, particulars of whose deaths in 
the unwholesome region of the Niger territories are 
given in the last Kew Bulletin. It is scarcely two 
years ago since the Royal Niger Company applied to 
the Kew authorities for “two picked men” to take 
charge of its botanical stations in the interior of the 
country. The choice fell upon these two young men, 
whose letters describing their travels and experiences 
exhibit a quiet enthusiasm and a contempt for toil and 
danger Avhich are eminently characteristic of the 
“Kew Man.” On the 16th of March of last year 
Bartlett writes home giving an account of his daily life 
in the N’Kisi Creek plantation. “Iam living (he says) 
in my own house, built by myself; two rooms and a 
verandah running all round. The walls are of mud, 
the floor ditto, the roof of Palm trees, Raphia vinifera.” 
He adds, “the Coffee plants are very promising, Cocoa 
