496 
THE GARDENING WORLD. 
April 6, 1889. 
the more likely to escape frosts; hut on 
the other hand, bloom development too long 
restricted may act adversely on fertilisation, 
whilst it is certain that our summers are all 
too short to enable fruits to swell and mature 
effectually; and it is needful that an early 
start in mulching should he made, if the 
short summer is to be fully utilised. Of 
course Nature is waiting the development of 
her meteorological moods. They are erratic, 
but so far are also cold, and anything but 
helpful to vegetable growth. Ere the month 
is out we trust to see a great change in 
vegetable development, but of late, time seems 
to have flown fast, and the expected move¬ 
ment has been left all behind. 
J Depper-box Gardening.— Our contemporary, 
1 the Gardeners’ Chronicle, gave its readers 
last week an admirable illustration of a lovely 
scene in America defiled with a wretched 
piece of Dutch or Italian gardening. A series 
of grassy terraces, rising from the margin of a 
grand lake, are dotted in the most deplorable 
fashion with Yews, Spruces, Pinus, &c., clipped 
into numerous pepper-box, extinguisher, doll’s- 
house, and other distorted shapes and outlines. 
The garden thus presented affords an admirable 
illustration of what to avoid in horticulture. 
Happily, in England, we have got a long way 
beyond that sort of thing. Some old places— 
Hatfield, Elvaston, and Levens, for instance— 
still show their Dutch origin; but all modern 
gardens exhibit a more refined taste—a higher 
appreciation for that which is graceful and 
natural. 
Apart from the great amount of labour thus 
worse than wasted on the annual pruning or 
clipping of these trees, which could be so much 
better utilised, it is not possible to do other 
than dejflore the existence of a taste that 
exhibits itself in deforming rather than in as¬ 
sisting the natural development of trees. With 
the exception of clipping hedges, which are 
planted specially to produce shelters or screens, 
there seems to be no more improper use to put 
the shears than to use them in destroying that 
graceful beauty in form and growth that Nature 
lavishes upon trees and shrubs. 
If in any natural water scene, whether of 
lake or river, the product of Nature herself be 
studied, not only do we find neither stone 
balustrade, however handsome, nor regular turf 
terraces rising one above the other with 
painful precison, still less trees and shrubs 
dotted and individualised in any way, but 
rather we sec bold masses of vegetation sweep¬ 
ing down to the water’s edge, rich variety of 
form and habit in tree and undergrowth, and 
aquatic and terrestrial flowers in varied pro¬ 
fusion and intermingling. To improve upon 
what Nature does so charmingly should be the 
aim of the true landscape gardener. 
he Sugar Bounties. — No one interested 
in hardy fruit culture can view the 
grave politico-economical question involved in 
our trade in sugar with other than apprehen¬ 
sion. As most of our readers are aware, a 
convention has recently been entered into 
between our own and certain foreign Govern¬ 
ments with respect to bounty-aided sugar, 
and it is anticipated that should the con¬ 
vention be ratified by Parliament, the price 
of sugar may be considerably enhanced. That 
matter is not one of party politics, it is one 
of international trade, and very serious con¬ 
sequences may ensue to those trades which, 
using sugar largely, convert hardy fruits into 
wholesome and cheap preserves, if sugar be 
made dearer cnving to the convention. Jams 
and similar fruit compounds depend for ready 
sale to the public on their cheapness, and 
even if the price be enhanced owing to any 
restriction on our sugar imports by but 
20 per cent., very serious consequences both 
to the jam trade and hardy fruit growers 
will ensue. 
The convention has grown out of com¬ 
plaints made by a few thousand of home 
refiners that so large a sum as ,£9,000,000 
is paid by foreign Governments as bounties 
to their own growers and refiners, hence the 
bounty system has made sugar so exception¬ 
ally cheap, that it does not pay to refine it 
here. On the other hand, it is hold that 
with improved methods of refining here, there 
is still good trade to be done, also that cheap 
sugar has encouraged the growth of other 
trades which employ double the number of 
persons injuriously affected by the bounties. 
That we get the full benefit of these foreign 
bounties, which none the less are very foolish, 
is undoubted; as sugar is so cheap that the 
consuming nation is literally saving millions 
yearly, whilst valuable trades have been 
encouraged. To refuse to accept bounty-aided 
sugar, whilst it can do refiners at home little 
good, must inflict a serious pecuniary loss 
upon the nation. Fruit growers ought to he 
alive to the importance of the matter. What 
do our Fruit Growers’ Associations say, for 
this is worthy of deep consideration 1 
he Hyacinth Papers. —Had the Council 
of the Royal Horticultural Society adopted 
our recent suggestion as to having but one 
paper only read at their Drill Hall meetings, 
an almost veritable fiasco would have been 
saved them. At the recent meeting three 
long and very elaborate papers on Hyacinths 
were read, all covering the same ground, a 
result absolutely unavoidable unless some 
special understanding between the readers is 
arrived at beforehand. The first paper, that 
by Mr. Kersten, was, for a Dutchman, read in 
excellent style, and was also written in 
admirable English. It seemed to say all that 
was needful. It was clear and very well 
enunciated. Mr. Barnaart’s delivery was 
unhappily deplorable, and not one word in 
twenty could be heard ten feet from the reader. 
His paper occupied some thirty minutes, and 
thoroughly Avearied the audience. Mr. Douglas, 
avIio folloAved, necessarily did so under disad¬ 
vantages, and the Avearied audience, hoav 
Avonderfully reduced, Avere all heartily glad 
Avhen all Avas over. These are not quite the 
sort of reminiscences Ave wish to have of the 
gatherings, which should not be prolonged, 
and should be made as bright and lively, as 
Avell as instructive, as possible. 
ondon Fog. —The Scientific Committee have 
a hard nut to crack in undertaking to 
inquire into the composition of London fog, 
and its effects upon tender floAvers, especially 
Orchids, during the Avinter months. We hope 
that one of the products of this inquiry, 
Avhich is of a most practical and valuable kind, 
will be a chemical analysis of metropolitan 
fog. We know that, to a certain extent, it 
consists of moisture, or a state of vapour, of 
smoke, and of solids held in suspension, though 
in a remarkably finite state, until settled upon 
the earth, on vegetation, or upon structures. 
Plants of many kinds out of doors exhibit 
the effects of fog constituents most adversely. 
Glasshouses also exhibit the effects of fog 
deposits deplorably ; indeed, the glass becomes 
literally coated Avith a greasy sooty deposit 
Avhich it is very difficult to remove. Unless 
some check be given to this fog development, 
Ave shall have to remove our glasshouses out 
of its injurious area. 
awn Grass Seeding. —We met, a day or 
tAvo since, Avith an advertisement in a 
provincial paper, in Avhich a noted seed firm in 
the south of England specified the quantity of 
2 lbs. of seed as solving five square yards of 
ground. That seems a trifling quantity of seed, 
of course; and the fact may pass Avithout 
question until it is tested at the rate per acre. 
Now an eminent London firm specifies three 
bushels of seed, in round figures about 70 lbs., 
Ave believe, as the required quantity of seed per 
acre to form a good larvn, and they Avould 
hardly err on the side of restriction. Thus the 
cost of seed per acre Avould be, at that rate, for 
a relatively good selection, about 70s. In the 
provincial case, the disproportion is so great as 
to lead to the inference that a grave mistake 
has been made. Five square yards is a little 
less than a single rod of ground, and as there 
are 160 rods to the acre, some 320 lbs. of seed 
Avould be required, at a cost of at least £15. 
As just noAv is the very best time for sowing 
Grass seeds for larvns, it would be interesting 
to have this matter made straight for the satis¬ 
faction of those Avho may purpose employing 
seed in lawn-making. 
'TSulbs on Lawns. —The practice of planting 
clumps of bulbs on, or rather beneath 
laAvns is still favoured in some gardens, and 
Avhen done in a legitimate Avay leaves little to 
find fault with. We term it legitimate, plainly, 
Avhen the clumps of bulbs are on the margins 
of laAvns, or beneath or close to the over¬ 
hanging branches of trees, or margins of large 
beds of shrubs, &c. But Avhen these groups of 
Snowdrops, Crocuses, Daffodils, Scillas or what 
not are stuck in here and there all over a laAvn 
like the spots in a carpet, we think the effect 
tarvdry and the floAvers out of place. "When 
grass is left unmoAvn, floAvers of any kind look 
very charming in it, and the more irregularly 
disposed the better. A clump of bulbs on a 
Avell-kept laAvn, however, is not only out of 
place, but gives to the verdure an untidy look. 
Still, our chief objection lies in the fact, that 
bulb groups are better placed near dense back¬ 
grounds than they are on an open expanse of 
moAvn grass. 
-- 
Chrysanthemum Shows.—The Borough of Croydon 
Chrysanthemum Society’s annual show will be held on 
November 13th and 14th. 
The Highgate Horticultural Society’s Summer 
Show will be held in the grounds of Caen Wood Towers 
on Thursday, July 11th. 
Fruit Growing for Profit in the open air in England 
Avas the subject of a paper read at the ordinary meeting 
of the Society of Arts, on Wednesday evening, by Mr. 
William Paul, Waltham Cross. 
The Trentham and Hanford Horticultural Society’s 
second exhibition Avill be held in Trentham Gardens, 
by permission of the Duke of Sutherland, on July 
25th. 
Gardening Engagements.— Mr. Woolford, late gar- 
denpr to W. Lee, Esq., Downside, has been engaged by 
the Right Hon. J. Chamberlain, M.P., to take charge 
of his Orchid collection at Highbury ; Mr. Cooper 
still having charge of all other departments, the 
farm, &e. Mr. C. Davis, foreman at Hall Place, 
Tonbridge, as gardener to S. Hope Morley, Esq., in 
succession to the late Mr. John Berry. 
The Tomato, its Culture and Uses, a cheap, 
thoroughly practical and valuable guide to the successful 
cultivation of this much-esteemed esculent, by Mr. 
W. Iggulden, Marston House Gardens, Frome, has, we 
are pleased to see, reached a second edition, which the 
author has enlarged. 
Rose Culture.—We understand that Mr. James 
Harkness, of Bedale, who has proved his ability to 
grow Roses and win prizes, has in the press a book of 
some seventy to eighty pages on Rose culture, which 
promises to be a cheap and useful practical guide to 
amateurs. 
The Whitsuntide Show at Manchester.—For the 
GrandNational Horticultural Exhibition, to be openedat 
Old Trafford on June 7th, the Council of the Manchester 
Botanical and Horticultural Society have just issued a 
schedule of prizes on the usual liberal scale. There are 
eighty-two classes in all, the leading ones in the 
amateurs’ and nurserymen’s sections being for col¬ 
lections of Orchids, &c., arranged for effect, in which 
the prizes offered are £25, £20 and £15. 
Honour to a Ghent Nurseryman. — By a Royal 
order of the 11th of March last, the Belgian Agricul¬ 
tural Decoration of the First Class has been conferred 
on Mr. F. Burvenich, Senior, one of the editors of the 
Bulletin d'Arboriculture, and a much-respected member 
of the small band of earnest workers who take the lead 
in all horticultural movements in Ghent. 
