January 13, 1894. 
THE GARDENING WORLD. 
309 
FliOI^ICUliTURE. 
Pinks. 
I AM very pleased to see " R.D.’s " remarks on the 
garden Pink in your last week’s issue, because I am 
sure the Pink is coming more to the front as a popular 
garden flower, and I fancy that one reason why it 
fell off in popular favour was in the difficulty 
experienced in obtaining strong plants of the finer 
laced kinds. I discontinued their cultivation on this 
account, finding that, as a rule, plants obtained 
from Lancashire, Scotland, and other similar dis¬ 
tricts, were generally so small that I could do but 
little good with them, and grew disheartened. Un¬ 
less pipings are put in early in the summer and from 
strong plants, only weak plants are obtained. In the 
southern and Western districts of England they can 
manage better from pipings and get strong plants 
early. 
When the fruit is quite ripe, it is of large size and 
therefore suitable for exhibition purposes, especially 
at it takes on a dark dusky red colour; therefore as far 
as exhibition is concerned, it combines size, colour, 
and good quality. 
The Newcastle Daily Chronicle recently published a 
very interesting article on the origin of this Goose¬ 
berry, and it is instructive as illustrating the 
curious way in which some of our leading fruits have 
their origin. 
" The man who raised the Gooseberry, to which 
he gave his own name, and was the first to propa¬ 
gate it, was Mr. Robert Whinham, a Morpethian. 
Whinham lived in the early decades of the present 
century. He was a market gardener, and for a 
number of years held as tenant the gardens belonging 
the Corporation, at the Allery Banks, Morpeth. 
From a young man he showed that he was possessed 
of an original turn of mind. He was ambitious and 
even venturesome. About the year 1830, he went 
among gardeners and others. He knew he had 
locally the best variety of Gooseberry in the market, 
but he found it very hard to persuade others to 
believe so. Time passed on, he saw his Gooseberry 
making headway slowly, he was buoyed up with the 
belief that it would in time be largely cultivated. 
Anxiety, advancing years, and the infirmities 
attendant on old age, told sadly upon him. About 
1858 he gave up his business, and sold his plants to 
Mr. Matheson, of the Nurseries, Oldgate Street, 
Morpeth, who has distributed it extensively during 
the past thirty years. Shortly after this he died, a 
noted example of a man who has benefited those of 
his calling, while he, himself, so far as his own 
interests were concerned, wasted his time, talents, 
and energy, and lost his little all in what has proved 
a source of wealth to not a few already. He lies 
buried in Morpeth Churchyard, but there is no 
stone to mark the spot, and few, if any, know where 
it is. He has been a benefactor to the gardening 
Autocrat. 
Main Crop. 
Now that some of the Midland cultivators adopt 
layering early instead of pipings, and strong plants 
are favourable, others are about taking up the Pink, 
and in a year or two Pinks will be much more culti¬ 
vated. The next Wolverhampton Floral Fete will 
no doubt bring out a good display should it be a 
favourable season .—An Old Grower. 
WHINHAM’S INDUSTRY GOOSEBERRY. 
It is perhaps not surprising that this Gooseberry 
has become popular, and is being so largely planted 
for market purposes. In 1892 when at Boston, 
Lincolnshire, I went over the fruit farm of Messrs. 
W. W. Johnson & Son, in that town, where I saw 
lines of well established trees of this variety, bearing 
heavy crops of fine fruit, and Mr. Alfred Johnson 
expressed the opinion that he considered it superior 
to the Warrington, good as the latter is in many 
respects. Whinham’s Industry is of a robust habit of 
growth, and is remarkably free-cropping, and as the 
fruit swells rapidly, it is fit for culinary purposes in 
a green state quicker than some other varieties. 
over to New Orleans, U.S., to take possession of 
some land on behalf of his elder brother. A near 
relative had had possession of the land ; but he, his 
wife, and daughter had been shot. Whinham stayed 
four and a half years, during which time he only 
succeeded in selling two acres of the ground. The 
country was at that time very unsettled, and he 
returned home. Prior to this, however, he had 
developed a strong fancy, which in time became an 
ardent hobby with him, for raising seedlings of 
various kinds. Gardeners, as a rule, pay little atten¬ 
tion to this branch of their calling. It requires 
patience, watchfulness, care, and some skill; more¬ 
over, it is, considering everything, decidedly 
unremunerative; at least it proved so in the case 
now before us. Whinham, beyond doubt, possessed 
some of these capabilities. 
■' He produced his Gooseberry after many fruitless 
attempts. When he did come by it, he tended it, 
and soon had the extreme satisfaction of knowing 
that he had an excellent variety. He propagated it, 
and calling it by his own name, distributed it locally 
industry of Morpeth and elsewhere, and gardeners, 
at least, should see that he is not forgotten among 
his own. 
"His work lives after him. The Gooseberry 
began to make its way among growers. They saw 
in it a vigorous plant; its upright growth gave it a 
decided advantage over other sorts; and its large 
foliage securely and efficiently protecting the 
blossoms from the early frosts of spring, was another 
feature in its favour. So it was that it gradually 
ousted all other varieties out, and became the 
favourite preserving berry in place of the Ashton or 
Warrington Red, and other well-known sorts. The 
large size of the berry itself is also in its favour. 
The berries are used in their green state; pulled 
thus they can be conveyed conveniently any distance 
in sacks. 
" The berry is largely used green, as at that stage 
the skins are soft and succulent, and dissolve in the 
boiling. The great demand for them comes from 
the large fruit preserving firms here and in Scotland. 
Thirty years ago, all the fruit preserving, so far as the 
