770 THE GARDENING WORLD. August 6, 1892. 
ALLOTMENT GARDENS. 
Recently, there appeared in one of the weekly 
gardening papers an article complaining that those 
who have allotment gardens, and grow for exhibition, 
devote their attention to producing a few things in 
very fine character and neglect the rest. This may 
be a picture of the true state of things in some 
places, but as far as I have seen of the Ealing allot¬ 
ment gardens this season it is not true of them. I 
am bound to say that a good average excellence all 
round was the character of the gardens that were 
entered for competition. And I think this general 
excellence was witnessed at our annual show in 
Gunnersbury Park a few days ago. There were as 
many as eighteen and twenty entries in many of the 
classes for vegetables, and the time consumed by the 
judges in making the awards in the cottagers’ 
classes was the fittest testimony to their general 
excellence. At Ealing we have some 350 allotment 
gardens, and forty prizes are offered every year for 
the best kept ones—twenty for Ealing Dean allot¬ 
ments, and twenty for the St. Mary's allotments, 
they being some distance apart. As one of the 
judges I may perhaps be allowed to give my 
experience of some of them. 
Points in Judging Allotment Gardens. 
Our largest allotment gardens are one-eighth of an 
acre—that is twenty poles or "rods" as they are 
commonly termed. Two gardens among the Ealing 
Dean allotments ran each other very close for the 
supremacy. A searching comparison resulted in 
William Farndon being placed first, and W. Golds¬ 
worthy (P.C.) second. William Farndon grew on 
his eighth of an acre—counting one for fruit and 
another for flowers—twenty different articles. As a 
matter of course, the judges could set a value on the 
growing crops only as their appearance justified, 
and taking four points as representing the highest 
excellence. W. Farndon gained four points each for 
Potatos, Lettuce, Spring Onions and Parsnips, and 
three each for Jerusalem Artichokes, Fruit, Peas 
Celery, Carrots, Broad Beans, Cabbage, and Scarlet 
Runners; and he was awarded the same number of 
points for succession crops, such as winter stuff, so as 
to occupy the ground when the summer crops are 
over; and the same number for cleanliness and 
general culture. In one case he fell down to one 
point, and all the rest gained two points. W, Golds¬ 
worthy grew on the same sized piece of ground 
twenty-six different articles, but his crops though of 
good general excellence, presented to the view of the 
judges nothing worthy of four points. In fourteen 
cases three points were awarded to him ; three or 
four fell down to one point. The larger number of 
subjects grown upon W. Goldsworthy's allotment 
gained for him a few more points than for W. Farn¬ 
don ; but when the growing crops came to be com¬ 
pared, the balance was on the points of the latter. 
Four points were given only where the subjects were 
exceptionally good, three where they were very good ; 
and so it will be seen that no valid charges could be 
brought against either of these competitors on the 
ground that they paid attention to a few subjects only 
and neglected others. The general excellence all 
round was remarkably good, and in both cases the 
highest number of points for succession crops, for 
cleanliness and good culture, were allowed by the 
judges. 
The best garden among the St. Mary's allotments 
was that of H. Doble, but he also was run close by 
P C. W. Soper. The former had something like 
twenty-three different subjects, and the latter about 
as many. In three cases four points were given to 
H. Doble, viz., for Scarlet Runners, Peas, and Vege¬ 
table Marrows ; he also gained three points in ten 
instances, and an additional three each for succession 
and cleanliness. Altogether H. Doble gained 69 
points, and in no case was less than two awarded. 
W. Soper is a most industrious and painstaking 
worker, and though that dreaded visitant—the club 
—had attacked his Cauliflowers and Cabbages with 
great virulence, he yet stood at 60 points. W. Soper 
has come nearly to the top of the successful holders 
with a bound ; and he will no doubt make a deter¬ 
mined effort to be quite at the top next season. 
There are some who assert that these gardens are 
brought up to a high stage of good culture at one 
particular time simply to win prizes, and neglected 
afterwards. I do not think this is quite true. I am 
of opinion that our allotment gardens are, on the 
whole, well cultured all the year round, regard being 
had to the time of the year. As autumn draws on, 
the evenings become very short, and there is little 
time for work on the allotment. The Saturday 
afternoon is ofien very wet, and when that is so the 
week sometimes has to pass with little or nothing 
done, unless there be moonlight. The gardens are 
generally well furnished with green stuff—Kales, 
Brussels Sprouts, Broccolis, and Turnips especially 
—during the winter months. The allotment holders 
plant out their winter stuff between their early 
Potatos, at the end of June. The result is they get 
a good start, and quickly cover the ground when the 
Potato crops are lifted. 
The Need of Other Allotment Gardens. 
Ealing Dean requires a considerable extension of 
allotments, because this is the district in which the 
working class element in the community is rapidly 
extending. If a portion of the market garden land 
by the side of Lee’s Nursery could be had for the 
purpose it would be a great boon. A good depth of 
frontage might be reserved for building land, and 
behind this reserved line ten acres should be formed 
into allotments. Failing this, a movement would 
have to be made north of Drayton Green, where 
there is suitable land, if available. North of Haven 
Lane allotments are also needed ; and within that 
extensive parallelogram bounded by the Uxbridge 
Road on the north and by the Grove on the south, 
by High Street on the west and Oxford Road on the 
east, there must reside a large number of workers 
who would gladly hire and work allotment gardens. 
All the land north of the District Railway, and up 
to the Warwick Road, with the exception of a 
building frontage, might probably be had for allot¬ 
ments, if the necessary steps were taken to secure 
it. Allotment gardens are ten times better than a 
ridiculous ornamental lake which is sometimes advo¬ 
cated, which would never be anything better than a 
duck-pond, and a death-trap for the young. And 
we want a real, and not a sham Allotment Act—an 
Act framed to answer to a want, and not merely to 
catch votes ; and with it a public-spirited local body 
who will compassionate the poor—given these, and 
a substantial addition to our allotment gardens 
might be looked for at no distant date.— R. D. 
NOTES FROM PENNSYLVANIA. 
F'rom the first day I set foot on American soil, it has 
been my ambition to experience the various changes 
from the temperate to the tropical climes. My 
desire is now half consummated, and I ask myself, 
what is the result? Well, I am more discontented 
and uncomfortable than I was when the foolish idea 
struck me some years ago that the old country was 
too slow. A gardener's life here, in the majority of 
cases, is one continual round of drudgery, a combina¬ 
tion of farmer, coachmr.n, and houseman, etc. Well, 
it takes the conceit out of us, and we often wonder 
where the " dignity of labour" is that schoolboys 
rhyme of and men shout about who never know 
what it is to fight Rose bugs and kill weeds with old 
Sol right overhead, and the temperature ioo° in the 
shade. 
I afn now temporarily located in one of the wealthy 
suburbs of Philadelphia, the Quaker city, the city of 
William Penn, the most regularly built, and most 
charitable city in the United States. From a horti¬ 
cultural point of view it ranks behind New York and 
Boston, and to the gardener who determines to cross 
the ocean, I would recommend these latter cities. 
The month of June was hot and scorching, with the 
usual accompaniment of insect pests, the most 
determined and destructive of which is the Rose bug. 
They appear about the first of June in appalling 
numbers, just when the Roses are in their glory, and 
they seem to blight every Rosebud they touch. 
They prefer pink and white to other shades, and they 
eat holes and blacken the petals, and ruin them for 
any purpose whatever. The best remedy is persistent 
hand picking every moment you can spare. I have 
experimented with the whole catalogue of insecticides, 
and the most satisfactory was Hughes’ Fir Tree Oil, 
an imported product. A continuous application 
strong enough to cause death to the insects, also 
meant death to the Roses. By spraying them 
to-night you have ten thousand deaths to your 
account, by to-morrow night half a million will be 
awaiting destruction. 
When the Roses gave out the)' attacked the 
Grapes, settling on the bunches just while in flower, 
destroying the crop completely. In desperation I 
syringed them with white Hellebore with the desired 
result. They decamped to plague some one else, 
and I slept the better for it. Next year I shall apply 
Hellebore to the Roses early in the season. But 
my advice to owners of gardens here is, never to 
attempt to grow Roses in the open air on a large 
scale, there is neither satisfaction nor profit in it. 
They become unsightly from the ravages of insects 
and the application of antidotes. A glass structure 
amply repays itself, with one-third the attendant 
worry and labour curtailed by outside cuhure. 
Another vicious pest is the squash bug. He eats 
the leaves and flowers of the Squash, Melons and 
Cucumbers with amazing rapidity, especially those 
sown in the open air in May. This year I placed a 
few seeds in inverted sods in April in hot-bed, and 
hardened them off and set them out in May. The 
weather was warm and they started to grow at once. 
Result, I had plants with vines two feet long, strong 
and healthy before the dreadful bug made his 
appearance. I planted seeds near by to serve as 
decoys, and I dusted the permanent crop with a 
mixture of dry plaster and a little London Purple, a 
sure protector from their attacks. 
The same remedy means death also to the Potato 
bug, another inveterate enemy of the gardener and 
farmer. If not applied as soon as washed off by 
rains the crop stands a chance of being ruined. 
They hatch three times a year. The Cherry crop 
was a failure throughout the county, owing to the 
spring rains, which were unusually heavy, causing 
the fruit to rot. Peaches, Plums, Apricots, etc., 
promise a fair crop. Grapes are showing a heavy 
crop, but much will depend on the season holding 
out as it promises.— Jas. S. Reid, Ashbourne, Pa., 
U.S.A. 
ROTATED N^CROPPING. 
A few remarks on this subject may prove useful to 
some of your younger readers, as one of the most 
important of a gardener's duties is that ofsupplying his 
employer’s table constantly with good and well-grown 
vegetables ; and closely connected with this subject is 
the regular cropping of the garden in proper rota¬ 
tion. The requirements of different families are so 
varied that what would apply in one case would be 
unsuited in another, so that it is impossible to lay 
down any set of rules that would be applicable under 
all circumstances. 
1 o a practised eye nothing gives more satisfaction 
than to see a kitchen garden well and judiciously 
cropped, and apart from that when it is indifferently 
done it is a disgrace to the gardener and a direct loss 
to the employer. One acre of kitchen garden well 
and skilfully managed will in some instances yield as 
much produce as two where it is only indifferently 
done, as is too often the case where land is plentiful 
and there is not sufficient strength to keep it up. 
I do not advocate small gardens in which the gar¬ 
dener may be so cramped up for room that he has 
not sufficient ground for his crops ; but I do advo¬ 
cate a reasonable extent according to the wants of 
the house, because it will afford more pleasure and 
as much profit as a larger one, and there can be no 
real pleasure in inspecting a garden in which the 
crops are partially hidden with weeds and is other¬ 
wise in an untidy state, or, to be still plainer, where 
two men have to do the work of four. No such 
garden can satisfy either the eye or the mind of the 
owner, but give the same two men two men’s work 
to do and we shall find, whether we look at it in a 
commercial light or in any other light, that the 
results are more satisfactory. 
Spring is the time when the real work of the 
kitchen gardener begins ; the mind must be carried 
somewhat in advance of the work, for with only a 
moderate amount of forethought the gardener can 
see one whole season before him, and with only a 
little preparation can select the sites for his crops 
another year. A plan of the garden should be kept, 
and the ground divided into portions, and a careful 
record kept of all crops, trenchings, and manurings. 
One portion of the garden will be required for the 
season’s supply of Peas, commencing at one side with 
the first and continuing them so throughout. 
Between the rows of Peas may be sown a row of 
summer Spinach, Radishes, or Lettuces, and as the 
early Peas are ready to come away the ground would 
come in for Brussels Sprouts or winter Broccoli. As 
the later Peas are removed the ground may be filled 
with spring Broccoli up to the middle of August, and 
the following summer this piece would only want 
