448 
THE GARDENING WORLD. 
March 16, 1889. 
week has not hitherto kept her gardeners 
honest, we are further astonished at her 
moderation. To look after three acres of 
garden, with a hot-house, is for a man a mere 
trifle. Others would have added to look 
after two cows, a pony and trap, drive out 
occasionally, wait at table, and must have a 
good voice to sing in the church choir on 
Sundays. Young gardeners should cultivate 
their voices, should learn the flunkey’s art—but 
of course not to pocket the plate—to milk 
cows, and drive elegantly, but above all things 
to acquire the virtue of honesty, and if the 
virtue is learned but slowly, then learn how 
to act it. 
After all, what a mean, miserable prospect 
does this lady’s offer hold out to any respect¬ 
able man! Still further, who, having any 
regard for his reputation, would rush into the 
employ of a woman who, with the impulse 
of David of old, declares that all gardeners 
are rogues. If gardeners have no better 
prospects open to them than are presented 
in the above communication, it is high time 
they turned their attention into other direc¬ 
tions. 
(Crowding In. — A fter all, it must be admitted 
^ that the future prospects of gardeners 
generally is a pitiful subject for joking. Some 
of our friends, as may be seen in our columns 
from time to time, hold strongly to the belief 
that gardeners need higher education and train¬ 
ing. That may be so, but we feel assured, all 
the same, that until some limit can be put 
upon the number of young men now crowding 
into the profession, there is little hope for any 
appreciable improvement, either in the status 
or wages of gardeners. 
'We print the document above referred to, 
mainly to show young men what sort of open¬ 
ings for them gardening offers; but we would 
urgently ask, all the same, whether even such 
prospects as presented, bad as they are, 
must not become worse rather than better as 
time rolls on. Somehow, every youth thinks 
when he enters a garden, that he at least will 
secure some place worth having. Those places 
are becoming fewer every day; whilst the ranks 
of candidates for the few are increasing. But 
there may be in the market-garden trade much 
more that is hopeful than private gardening 
presents. The ordinary advertisements for 
hands show, from week to week, far more 
young men required in the market direction 
than in any other. Market work is hard, and 
has about it little that is taking. It bears no 
comparison to the sweeter associations of 
private gardening, but it seems to be the one 
section of gardening which is paying. 
Young men should get a knowledge of it in 
any case; there is very little room in it, we 
fear, for a display of intellectual culture or of 
scientific knowledge, but there is still the 
dominant fact—market-growing pays. Parents 
anxious as to their sons’ future career, should 
think twice before they thrust them into 
o-ardens. If there are no better openings in 
view for our growing youths than gardening 
offers, then have they fallen upon evil times 
indeed. 
‘Trouble Hardy Primroses.— To how remote 
or a period in history can double Primroses 
be traced 1 So far as our research has been 
successful, we have found them referred to by 
D. Eembert Dodoens, in his Herball of 1578, 
as “ Double kinds planted in gardens ” ; whilst 
in 1759 Phillip Miller, of the Chelsea Botanic 
Garden, mentions several varieties of the 
Primrose having double flowers. The chief 
point which needs elucidation, however, is 
as to the origin of the double forms. Are 
they real sports of nature’s own producing, 
or are they the outcome of the florists’ art 
in intercrossing and selecting, or are they but 
the natural products of garden cultivation 1 
There have been instances recorded of double 
Primroses being found in a wild state, but 
these are very few, are not very reliable, and 
so far little or no evidence has been afforded 
that these sports have been perpetuated. The 
general impression is that we owe the chief 
portion, if not all, of our double Primroses 
to the Flemish and German florists. The 
best and most recent introductions, Arthur 
Dumortier and Croussei, are undoubtedly 
continental forms. On the other hand, Ave 
have been growing single hardy Primroses in 
this country for many years, and during the 
past twenty years very fine strains in great- 
numbers, and yet, so far, doubles seem never 
to have responded to such cultivation. 
That we should have had some double 
Primroses with us for generations, and yet 
even now cannot count more than a dozen 
distinct forms, shows that doubling in the 
Primrose is hardly a natural tendency, as it 
seems to be with many other flowers. There 
are variations of hardiness in those few we 
have, as, whilst the white and lilac, and next 
the Early Sulphur, do ’pretty well generally, 
several others seem to be kept in existence 
only by great care. However, heat and 
drought appear to be worse enemies to these 
plants than is severe cold, because all the 
kinds do well in the north. 
© pring Flower Shows. — Are our Fyvie 
iF 5 friends endowed with some specially 
sarcastic faculty, that they should hold a 
floral exhibition at the end of February, and 
call it a spring show 1 If the Fyvie spring 
begins so early, certainly the north of Scot- 
bind is favoured far before our southern 
districts are. To follow up the pleasant 
illusion we shall hear of Scotch summer 
shows in May, and autumn shoves in August. 
Our near neighbours at Biclimond — that 
royal suburb of London, famed far and wide 
for its beautiful scenery—is to hold a spring 
show next Thursday and Friday, and even 
that date is thought to be exceedingly early. 
Certainly we shall see a spring show, so-called, 
with hardly a plant in bloom lifted from the 
open air. Hot that early plants have not 
bloomed, but the unfortunate flowers have 
suffered so much from rain, frosts, winds, 
snow, and all the delightful meteorological 
concomitants which go to make up that genial 
season called spring. 
However, the Lancashire people of Preston 
are not less audacious in their estimate of 
spring, for they hold their annual early 
show on Wednesday and Thursday next; 
and to come closer home again, the Crystal 
Palace follows suit on the 23rd. Of course, 
all these shows must be made up chiefly if 
not exclusively of forced plants. It may be 
that, in relation to weather and seasons, glass¬ 
houses have made us practically independent, 
and with their aid we can produce flowers as 
we need them, just as the old wizard could 
call spirits from the vasty deep. All the 
same, we should like to see a spring show, 
which offers a real representation of hardy 
garden flowers as they are in the garden, and 
not as they are supposed to be. If we could 
only secure spring weather with the spring 
shows, our appreciation of them would be all 
the greater. Hone the less we trust all our 
friends will reap rich rewards from their 
enterprises. 
C T|Jruit Prospects. —-We hear from some 
diverse sources that the appearance of 
the hardy fruit trees and bushes is of a much 
more hopeful nature than earlier anticipations 
warranted. The buds or fruit spurs swell 
slowly, but where that swelling has taken 
place, there is now ample evidence that if fruit 
is lacking this season, it will not be for want of 
bloom. Perhaps we may add also, that it will 
not be for want of check. There will be no 
precocious blooming of anything outdoors this 
year; indeed, at the present rate of progress, 
there should be nothing early, but all rather 
late. The mild open weather of January has 
not been sustained since; indeed, the later 
weather has been of the most deterring kind, 
and hardly a fruit tree or bush but seems 
almost as left at the end of January, except 
that the bloom buds have become plumper. 
All our prospects of a fruit crop now centre 
upon the securing of a truly genial spring-like 
April month. 
'T^russels Sprouts. — The winter has shown 
uy once more to all who grow green stuffs for 
market, the value of the Brussels Sprouts for 
profitable cropping. Whilst profitable, it is 
very hardy and early, carrying its productive¬ 
ness over a long season ; in fact, for fully five 
months. How what winter green vegetable 
have we from which such delicious material 
can be obtained, or such as meets a readier 
sale 1 The sprouts, gathered with some neat¬ 
ness and firmly packed into baskets, are carried 
here and there with ease, facility, and without 
inflicting upon them injury so commonly seen 
in the larger forms of green stuff sent to 
market. Beginning to crop quite early in the 
autumn, breadths of the stumps may be cleared 
off at the beginning of March in ample time 
for spring cropping. It is difficult to get 
plants out too early to secure strong stems 
and fine sprouts in the autumn; and it is 
Avise to make a couple of plantings at a month’s 
interval, to ensure a supply of sprouts late 
in the winter also. 
“Sf reland as a Bulb Cohntry. — That ex- 
<& cellent grower of Harcissi, Mr. Baylor 
Hartland, seems to hold that Ireland 
could groAv excellent bulbs. In that opinion 
Ave share. Ireland seems to possess in her 
climate some delightful characteristics, Avhilst 
her soil is exceptionally fertile in the best 
districts, and is Avell Avatered. It may be but 
a question of enterprise and capital, but very 
much has to be done in destroying the pre¬ 
judice against the Emerald Isle, Avhich even 
yet too largely exists. Some Irishmen— 
although hardly Avorthy of the name—have 
done their best to vilify their native country 
in the estimation of Englishmen, by striving 
to exhibit her people as of the Avorst. Happily 
nothing can be wider from the truth, and we 
are sure that Avere capital embarked in bulb- 
culture in Ireland it Avould be eagerly 
welcomed. Of course, our connection Avitli 
Holland is iioav a close one, but it seems diffi¬ 
cult to understand why some of that trade 
esteem should not be exhibited nearer home. 
he Floods.—T hose Avliose lot has been cast 
in watery localities have recently had 
some sad experiences in particular districts, 
the sudden access of water arising from the 
thawing of large masses of snow and the 
unusual downpour of rain having produced 
floods of an unprecedented character. Gardens 
suddenly placed under water, and, as it Avere, 
converted into the bed of floAving rivers are 
bad cases indeed, and must present, after 
the floods have abated, very distressing aspects. 
Our hearty sympathies are with all those avIio 
have so suffered. It is not easy to advise 
that gardens should be made on higher land, 
for the alluvial soils of our valleys comprise 
that which is most fertile, and if thus subjected 
to occasional floodings, yet have in their pro¬ 
ductiveness seme compensations. Happily mis¬ 
fortunes of the kind referred to are rare, and 
come only in limited areas. The chief 
misfortune to gardening generally, just now, 
is found in Avet, cold soil, Avith absence of 
sunshine. 
-- 
Proposed Horticultural Show at Wolverhampton. 
_At a public meeting convened last week by the Mayor 
of Wolverhampton, it was decided to hold a horticul¬ 
tural exhibition, on the lines of those held at Shrews¬ 
bury, York, and Southampton, in the Public Park in 
that town about the second week in July, with the 
object of devoting any profits that may accrue to 
increasing the attractions of the Park. 
