272 
THE GARDENING WORLD 
January 2, 1892. 
Perhaps one of the most interesting 
events of the year in relation to gardening, 
is that which we referred to last week — the 
promotion of Technical Horticultural Edu¬ 
cation in Counties. The year has seen the 
usual round of Exhibitions, too many of 
which were adversely affected by bad 
weather, and have now to suffer under 
much reduced cash balances. We have 
seen even a larger number of Auction Sales 
of Orchids than usual, showing very 
forcibly how widely the cultivation of those 
beautiful flowers has extended. We have 
seen the same in relation to bulbs, roots, 
trees, and shrubs, and trust that this form 
of business signifies prosperity. The chief 
of our horticultural institutions seem to 
have conducted their operations with con¬ 
tinued energy and usefulness, and there is 
little to find fault with in that respect. 
The two great charitable organisations 
of gardening have kept abreast of the 
necessities of the times very well, but the 
wet summer, or some other cause, seems 
to have made the necessities of the incom¬ 
ing year greater than usual. Wet or un- 
genial summers, however, serve some good 
purposes in that they help us better to 
understand what are the capabilities net 
only of gardeners but also of the large 
family of subjects they have to deal with, 
and if the experiences thus gained are often 
disappointing, they are sometimes success¬ 
ful and therefore are invaluable. 
5JTiik New Year. —We speak of the new 
^ year and yet the }'ear never dies. The 
moment of time when one year quietly 
changes into another we all know, but the 
beautiful imperceptibility of the process is 
less evident. We go to our rest in 1891, 
and wake up in 1892, only to find the day 
as was yesterday, and that there has been 
in Nature no convulsion, no apparent 
change. We hail the ninety-second year 
of the eventful nineteenth century, and 
somehow do not look back on the old year 
with any deep sense of regret. It may 
nave been to some not a bad time—a sea¬ 
son of prosperity perhaps—but on the 
whole it has not been a good time for 
horticulture, and 1891 will long be remem¬ 
bered for its unusual rainfall and its 
comparative ungeniality. 
Perhaps because the passing year has 
not been so kind it is that we are looking 
with some particular expectation to the 
new year that is upon us. So seldom are 
two successive years alike, that we have 
little fear the coming year will be a 
duplicate of that which has just passed 
out of time. Well may we hope to see a 
genial spring. What a treat to all who 
love gardening would be a realty soft, mild, 
pleasant springtime in which April showers, 
mild and gentle, should bring us forth May 
flowers in abundance, and, followed by a 
warm summer, give to us in the autumn a 
harvest of great plenty and of happiness. 
We have got too far advanced, apparently, 
in almost every phase of horticulture, for 
anything specialty sensational to arise, but 
without doubt we shall continue to make 
steady progress. 
We are looking forward to yet further 
development in all branches of gardening, 
and especially in fruit culture, for every year 
does the demand for good fruit increase, 
and there is yet ample room for more of 
the best quality. We look for a yet further 
impetus being given in this direction to the 
great Exhibition of Fruit which it is pro¬ 
posed to hold in London next autumn, and 
we are sure that scores'of exhibitions held 
throughout the country will help to the 
same end. Cordially therefore do we wish 
all our readers a Happy and Prosperous 
New Year. 
^.rchid Hunting.— If we are to accept 
as exact all that is stated in relation 
to Orchid fields in the yet comparatively 
unexplored regions of South America, as 
described by Mr. Mellican in the book 
about Orchid collecting which the Messrs. 
Cassell have recently published, we need 
have little fear for some time as to the 
possible drying up of Orchid importations. 
Literally, it would seem as if there were 
yet interminable areas of forests producing 
millions of Orchids, and which open up 
illimitable opportunities for what has been 
so harshly, yet, perhaps, truly, described 
as “ Orchid Plunder." Two things in this 
Orchid hunting seem specialty deplorable : 
one is literal warfare with the natives 
anxious to keep out collectors, or their 
demoralization through corruption by 
spirits ; and the other the wholesale cutting 
down of trees on which the beautiful 
Orchids cluster, and the enormous waste 
incidental to imperfect means of transport 
to Europe. 
Possibly most collectors who thus brave 
toil, climate, and danger care only for 
themselves so far that if they can only get a 
few good hauls they are content, and care 
nothing for those who may follow. Men¬ 
tion is made in Mr. Mellican’s book of an 
extensive plain, a portion of which is very 
precipitous, and collectors daring danger, 
having been let down the sides by the aid 
of ropes, have stripped and torn away most 
of the beautiful Orchids which grew there. 
Nature in her mest glorious aspects away 
in equatorial regions has been yielding up 
her treasures to the collector’s greed in 
much the same way that we at home have 
seen our woods and hedge-rows denuded 
of ferns and hardy flowers to gratify the 
baser natures of the tramping plunderer. 
The great redeeming feature of all this 
Orchid hunting is that once the plants 
reach Europe they are well cared for, and 
do under the great skill of our own growers 
develop into specimens beautiful almost 
beyond description. Our British collec¬ 
tions of Orchids are second to none in the 
world under cultivation, and they are 
indeed cherished by us, so that the dangers 
and toils of Orchid hunting are not abso¬ 
lute!}' wasted or encountered in vain. 
J^ogs.—W e last week experienced, though 
” anything but enjoyed, one of the 
severest visitations of fog which London 
in particular, and the greater part of the 
country has suffered for several years. 
Wherever the population is dense, and 
coal is largely consumed, there has the fog 
been of the blackest—the vapour field has 
been felt at its worst. We have apparently 
done all that is humanly possible in the 
matter of fog ellucidation and of fog 
amelioration under existing conditions. 
But that we have had just now such ex¬ 
cessively dense and long continued fogs is 
doubtless due to the exceedingly heavy 
rainfall of the autumn and early winter. 
The recent floods have been notorious, 
and, whilst they have largely passed away, 
they have left behind a legacy of vapourous 
exhalations which we have so distressingly 
felt, as well as seen, in the form of fog. 
Thus it is that fogs have been so general, 
especially in those districts where soils are 
retentive of moisture. In London, and 
indeed everywhere where houses and popu¬ 
lations are dense, the pure vaporous fog 
has not been denser than in purely rural 
districts, but it has been associated with 
smoke and soot, hence at once its apparent 
greater density and its poisonous nature. 
How it is possible that even comparatively 
delicate life can exist in several days and 
nights of dense continuous fog is indeed 
marvellous, and shows perhaps more 
forcibly than does anything else in Nature 
how possible it is for humanity to become 
acclimatised to the most unnatural sur¬ 
roundings. 
Plants are less capable of existence under 
such atmospheric conditions, for we all 
know too well how much those of a com¬ 
paratively tender nature suffer both from 
fog ingredients and absence of sunlight. 
If we were to cease consuming coals 
entirely still we should not get rid of fog, 
but it would, at least, be purer. We must 
go further afield and get rid of intensely 
cold atmospheric depressions, and that is 
a problem it is feared we shall never solve. 
It seems hard to have to say we must 
bear these visitations, but the genius is not 
yet born, apparently, who can help us to 
get rid of one of the most noxious of 
natural phenomena. 
The Fruit Conference at Manchester.— We have 
received from Mr. Bruce Findlay a report of the 
proceedings at the successful Fruit Conference held 
in Manchester in October last, which he has had 
printed in a convenient form for future reference. 
Mr. Fletcher Rogers, who for some years past had 
been honorary treasurer of the Liverpool Horticul¬ 
tural Association, and one of its most ardent 
supporters, died somewhat suddenly on December 
19th. 
Trade Notice.—Weunderstand that on the 1st inst. 
the following change took place in the constitution 
of the firm of Dickson & Robinson, seed merchants, 
12, Old Millgate, Manchester. Mr. Francis Robin¬ 
son, up till now the sole proprietor, admitted as 
partners Mr. A. W. Whale, who has spent the last 
twenty two years in the famous Prussian Seed 
House of Mr. Ernest Denary, Erfurt, and Mr. Henry 
Hicks, a gentleman well-known to most members 
of the horticultural trade, as well as to many agri¬ 
culturists, his connecti m with the Manchester firm 
extending over a period of twenty years. 
Preston ai.d Fulwood Floral and Horticultural 
Society. —The usual monthly meeting of the members 
of this society will be held in the large room of the 
Legs of Man Hotel, Fishergate, Preston, this (Satur¬ 
day) evening, January 2nd, 7892, when Air. John 
Williams, of the Priory Gardens, Penwortham, will 
read a paper on “ Our homes ; and climbing plants 
to beautify them.” 
A Palm House for Battersea Park. —We are pleased 
to learn that at the last meeting of the London 
County Council for 1891, it was decided by a con¬ 
siderable majority to erect a new Palm house in 
Battersea Park, not only for the accommodation of 
the Palms which had outgrown the existing green¬ 
houses, but also to be used as a winter garden, and 
for the exhibition of Chrysanthemums and other 
flowers. The Parks Committee recommended that 
the house be erected at a cost of /i,5oo, 
The Potato Crop of the World has been the subject 
of a special investigation by the A ntcrican Agriculturist, 
and, although the figures given cannot be accepted 
as entirely accurate, the facts given are interesting. 
The British Isles have the largest production per 
acre, the crops of 1891 being stated as follows:—• 
acres, 1,285,854 ; total yield, 225,000,000 ; yield per 
acre, 175 bushels. The next highest yield per acre 
is obtained in Canada, viz., 129 bushels; and the 
lowest the United States, with 93 bushels only. The 
highest average price per bushel was 2s. id. in 
Germany'; and the lowest is. old. in Canada; the 
average for the British Isles being given as is. Sd. 
Capture of a Red Deer in an Edinburgh Nursery.— 
Laud and I Voter states that on the morning of the 
iSth ult., a large female red deer was seen in Messrs. 
Dickson & Co.'s nurseries, near Craigmillar. 
Immediately it was discovered all the employes left 
their work and gave chase. The deer ran into 
Craigmillar Quarry, where it was surrounded, and, 
being hemmed in, took to one of the pools of water 
for refuge. While it was swimming about, Mr. 
Troupe, quarry master, waded in and succeeded in 
putting a woman's apron over the animal's head. 
Ultimately it was secured and conveyed to The Inch, 
where it is comfortably housed in a loose box. It 
had doubtless escaped from some park. 
